FIRST FORMS OF NIŠANS IN THE VILLAGE OF OSOVO NEAR ROGATICA

One does not have to be an expert to notice that our forests and meadows hide many traces from the past, which clearly indicated a fairly long continuity of life in these regions. Time has hidden many tangible remains with layers of earth and diverse vegetation. One of these interesting sites can be found at Osovo near Rogatica, where on the area of less than a hundred meters long we have discovered at least about eight hundred years of our history recorded in stone.

A very small area in the forest conceals a necropolis of medieval stećaks (monumental tombstones) and nišans (Islamic tombstones) of the 15th, 18th and 20th centuries. Ones next to others, they constitute a combined necropolis, which best indicates both many processes and the ways in which these processes proceeded in our regions. The value of our culture and history is also reflected in the existence of such unique mixed necropolises, where relatives of different religions are buried next to each other, i.e. ancestors under stećaks and their descendants under the first forms of nišans found in our regions. In the past, this topic was not attached a great significance and therefore a large number of such necropolises have remained unstudied and unrecorded up till now.

It suffices to read the content of several official publications, which record only the presence of stećaks at some sites in our country while conditions in the field also indicate the presence of the first forms of nišans beside the same stećaks. The first Bosnian nišans were made after the model of medieval stećaks and therefore they exhibit a strong influence of medieval stonemasonry tradition. It is the reason why they have the same ornaments and decorations as stećaks, in the forms of a spiral, a sword, bow and arrow, spirally-twisted ribbon, representations of hunt, living beings resembling the man, hand, birds, deer, horses, snakes etc. Taking over this decorative inventory of form from medieval stonemasonry decorations on the first nišans also implied taking over Bosnian language and medieval script in our first Islamic epigraphy.

Over the centuries-long practice, inscriptions on our nišans were written in several scripts, from the early stage when medieval Bosančica (Bosnian Cyrillic) was used, through the period when Arabic script prevailed, to the present day when we use Latin alphabet. All this reveals the centuries-long literacy in these regions, since nobody makes inscriptions which nobody else can read. This kind of nišans from the 15th century is also found at Osovo near Rogatica, which have inscriptions in Bosančica the structure of which is identical to inscriptions on stećaks.

On one nišan, we can clearly read the inscription: ASE POČIVA POČTENI HAMZA ZMAILOVIĆ (here rests the honest Hamza Zmailović), while the inscription on another nišan says: ASIE PIŠE KASUN NA BRATA DURUTA ZMAILOVIĆA (this is written by Kasun for his brother Durut Zmailović). The names reveal that it is local population, while last name Zmailović mostly corresponds to the present last name Smailović. The pattern of these texts on the nišans has all the elements of inscriptions on stećaks. The text is composed in the same way as on stećaks, in a long sentence without separating words. On many stećaks, same as on these nišans, we find the initial words: ase leži (here lies), ase počiva (here rests), ase bileg (here is found) etc.

Nišans made in the early stage are also recognizable by their more monumental structure after the model of monumentality of medieval stećaks. Thus, the dimension of the headstone of Hamza Zmailović are as follows: it is 94 cm high, the circumference of the turban is 118 cm, the circumference of the neck is 104 cm while the slightly conical dimensions of the body range from 35 cm x 40 cm at the bottom and up to 35 cm near the top. The headstone of Durut Zmailović is 90 cm high, with the circumference of the turban of 135 cm, the circumference of the neck 110 cm, while the dimensions of the body are 38 cm x 36 cm.  

Nišans in Bosnia were made after this medieval pattern until the mid-17th century. If we analyze the first Islamic tombstones with medieval non-Islamic decorations carved in stone, which often stećaks include representations of living beings, it is clearly seen that there was no strictness or pressures on local population to stop the practice of decorating and making tombstones. Besides these data, it should be noted that geographic orientation of the first nišans was the same as the orientation of, which considerably differs from the present orientation, toward Qibla. The first forms of nišans from the late Middle Ages, with signs and forms resembling stećaks of their great-grandfathers send a clear message about the continuity of life and continuation of the Bosnian tradition which did not fade upon the arrival of a new culture from the East.

Before the discovery of nišans at Osovo, the existence of nine preserved Islamic tombstones with inscriptions in medieval Bosančica had been recorded; the two newly discovered nišans increased the number to eleven. The necropolis of stećaks and nišans at Osovo was not recorded before nor has it been put under any form of protection. I would therefore like to use this opportunity to appeal to relevant institutions to take all measures to properly record and protect this precious site as soon as possible.

It is because of these data that we can find the basis for a new approach to our past and the beginning of new field research, when we will certainly encounter many surprises in which our oldest nišans are waiting for us in solitude, like scattered jewels.