DOVIŠTE – THE RESERVOIR OF SPIRITUAL HISTORY OF BOSNIAKS

A characteristic tone to the ritual practice of Bosniaks is provided by the tradition of visits to dovištes (pilgrimage sites). Dovištes are sites outside religious institutions, typically in the countryside next to shaheeds' (martyrs') tombs, old cemeteries from the Turkish period, springs of mountain tops. Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina, led by their religious authorities, visit them according to accurately determined dates from late spring to mid-fall and pray to God for their and other people's needs. Upon converting to Islam, Bosniaks began to use the noun dovište, a Turkish loanword of Arabic origin, instead of the previous term molitvište (prayer site), which referred to a site in the countryside where they used to gather and pray to God before converting to Islam.  In the toponymy of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the proper noun Molitvište preserves the memory of the ritual practice which used to be performed at that site in a certain period of history.

The religious custom of visiting dovištes reconciles traditions of different religions from the spiritual history of Muslim Bosniaks. Dovištes situated on mountaintops, in caves or beside springs mostly have Slavic origin, and methodology for their identification was developed by Czech historian Jan Peisker. His thesis is the following: the old Slavic shrine situated on tops of hills and mountains above rivers, seas or lakes. The mountaintop on the right side, which was turned downstream, was dedicated to the God of darkness and evil while the top on the left side was dedicated to the God of light and good. Between them there was always a body of water; a river, a sea, a lake or a gully. Peisker's thesis was enthusiastically adopted by Ivo Pilar, PhD, who applied his methodology to South Slavic regions. On the soil of Bosnia and Herzegovina he recognized several former shrines such as the hill of Iličnica near Tuzla, which used to be visited by Bosniaks from Tuzla on Saint  elijah's Day and on St. George's Day, or the mountain of Konjuh, which was also called Dovište because of many dovas (prayers) which used to be performed there. Pilar's research was partly continued by Muhamed Hadžijahić, PhD, who offered several new examples of possible Old Slavic shrines in our country: the peak of the mountain Visočica, which is called Džamija (Mosque), dovište Šehovac at Vida near Gradačac and a site called Džamija (Mosque) at Brestovsko near Žepa. Old Slavic shrines which can still be recognized in the topography of Bosnia and Herzegovina include: St.  elijah's Day picnic on the mountain of Vranica, Ćabenske Stijene (Kaaba Rocks) on the mountain of Treskavica, a site called Dova (Prayer) between Kakanj and Gračanica, the mountain Perun (highest God in Slavic mythology) near Vareš etc. This group of praying sites also include Musala (praying space), the highest mountaintop in the Balkans.

Although pagan Slavs demolished and burned down all Catholic churches and basilicas which they found in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Catholic church began the process of christening its idolatrous neighbors immediately upon settling in the Balkan peninsula. The results were mixed. Some Bosnian dukes, such as duke Ratimir, strongly opposed the new religion while others, such as Bladin, were considerably milder, more indulgent and more tolerant toward Christians. It seems that the first Bosnian duke who definitely adopted Christianity was Budimir, and his son Svetolik, while retaining his folk name, also took the Christian name Stjepan, which formally showed that he was a Christian. Population followed the example of their dukes and nominally adopted Christianity while continuing to nourish customs, rites and rituals which they had brought from their ancestral land. In this way Christianity formally entered the lives of the newly christened inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina, enriching their inner world with new ideas of God. However, the deep roots of folk religion in the daily lives and customs of pre-Christian population of our country forced church teachers to make a compromise by recognizing some pre-Christian traditions and dressing them in the Christian attire.

Springtime customs and rituals, previously dedicated to Jaril, Perun's son, became a constituent part of marking St. George's Day, while summertime rituals, previously organized as the honor to Old Slavic deity Perun Gromovnik (Perun the Thunderer) were replaced by feasts in the honor of Saint Elijah the Thunderer. Praying sites in Bosnia and Herzegovina dedicated to St. George and St.  Elijah, as well as dovištes the dates of which are determined based on these two saints, preserve memories of their pre-Christian, Old Slavic origin.

Besides, the practice of visiting Christian shrines such as the Church of St. John in Jajce, Marian shrine in Olovo, church of St. Anthony here in Sarajevo, as well as performing prayers for rain by medieval necropolises – stećaks, all these are Christian elements woven into the religious tradition of Bosniaks. Besides the choice of site for a Christian or Muslim prayers, Christian traces can be observed in the function of some dovištes and the structure of ritual processions. One cannot help observing similarities between previous organized visits to various sacred spots on the ritual road of dovištes for rain, typically situated around the settlement itself, and the ritual of litija among Orthodox Christians, or the similarity between performing dovas for rain beside martyrs' tombs and old Ottoman cemeteries and the ritual of blagoslov polja (blessing for the fields) in the Catholic church which is, it seems, now nourished only by Catholics in Bosnia and Herzegovina  

Besides, sites of important events of the history of Islam in Bosnia and Herzegovina which folk tradition mostly associates to sultan Mehmed el-Fatih and his army, have eventually become sites of gathering, Christian and Muslim prayers. Some of them are related to sultan Mehmed el-Fatih personally. They are: Musala in Donji Kamengrad, Municipality of Sanski Most, where, according to a folk legend, sultan Mehmed el-Fatih and his army performed the first džuma-namaz (Friday prayer) in Bosnia; Mehmed el-Fatih Mosque in Kraljeva Sutjeska, which was built at the spot where the sultan rested during his conquest of Bobovac; Kurban-kamen (Qurban Stone) near Olovo, the site where sultan Mehmed el-Fatih sacrificed the first qurban in Bosnia.

Folk tradition relates other dovištes of this type with the army of sultan Mehmed el-Fatih, and they are situated next to the tombs of shaheeds of this army. Some of them are:  two turbes (tombs) of two brothers from El-Fatih's army in Solun, Municipality of Olovo; turbe in Jelina near Vranduk; dovište at the Šehitluci cemetery below Bobovac; Ajvaz-dedo's turbe; the mosque at Karići, since folk tradition associates its head, Hajder-dedo Karić to sultan Fatih, etc.

Thus, by visiting dovištes situated at the described sites Bosniaks continuously remember crucial events from their rich spiritual history.