KariA‡i

KariA‡i mosque from inside the central Bosnian highlands, the spot that the annual three-day pilgrimage commemorating Hajdar-dedo KariA‡a€”an ahead of time messenger of Islam in Bosnia, a dervish sheikh, and somebody of Lord (evlija)a€”takes place. Photograph by David Henig, 2009.

Although the Yugoslav communist regime oppressed and used common control of various religious symptoms and parties, they would not ban the KariA‡i pilgrimage, that is probably great since the pilgrimage offers over the years come well-attended ( MulahaliloviA‡ 1989 :192a€“196). In 1993, during Bosnian warfare (1992a€“95) a Yugoslav nationwide Army aquarium went through the age-old wood mosque. The terrain was at the full time barely obtainable, as there comprise several landmines scattered in the earth throughout the pilgrimage webpages, therefore neighborhood Muslims quickly arranged the yearly acquiring in a close-by provincial area mosque. Bash warfare, the scenery got gradually de-mined. The wooden mosque am reconstructed in 2002 together with the pilgrimage fully restored.

Although its renovation was started by a gaggle of regional interested Muslims, the mosque together with the area it rests on include technically held and the means to access all of them happens to be controlled by the state-approved Islamic area (Islamska Zajednica). The Islamic neighborhood can be the cause of arranging the yearly KariA‡i pilgrimage. The pilgrimage happens following July. The time try counted according to research by the outdated Julian diary because 11th Tuesday after Jurjevdan (for example., St. George’s Day, May 6). The pilgrimage begins by Friday’s noon prayer and continues until the Sunday midday prayer. Merely male Muslims are permitted to sign up for at KariA‡i.

The pilgrimage party normally need reciting belonging to the complete Qua€™ran (hatma dove), performing records revering Allah (ilahija), as well as other shows for example the recital of mevlud passages in Turkish and Bosnian, tevhid for footstool along with Bosnian martyrs (A?ehide), and collective devotional and happy prayer, kijam zikr (Arabic, qiyam dhikr). 2 The kijam zikr is performed by dervishes and brought by a dervish sheikh. Other pilgrims normally observe other than be a part of this kind of prayer, as dervishes posses over the years started conceptualized of ambiguously and had been seen as the Islamic a€?other withina€? through the previous Yugoslavia ( Bringa 1995 :221; Duijzings 2000 :107). But the devotional prayer throughout pilgrimage was practiced during socialist times. This is possibly significant, because, inside the 1950s, the Islamic society, on your Yugoslav say’s services, prohibited all dervish assignments in Bosnia-Herzegovina for being a€?devoid of educational valuea€? ( Algar 1971 :196). 3

Unlike the truth regarding the standard cradles of Bosnian Sufism their old dervish lodges from inside the american parts of crucial Bosnia (cf. Algar 1971 ; A?ehajiA‡ 1986 ; MiA?ijeviA‡ 1997 ), the continuity of dervish instructions was cut during the northern products. Thus, KariA‡i has-been publicly provided and perceived for a long period exclusively as a spot of Muslim yearly pilgrimage. But into the latter 1980s, a dervish set of the Rifaa€™i order, that we in addition have learnt, had been developed in the region. 4 In its locate credibility and recovery of Sufi schooling (tesavuf) in your community, the group entwined its identity making use of the old number of Hajdar-dedo KariA‡. Although the dervish collection right traces their identification through the sheikh’s a€?spiritual lineagea€?(silsila) to Kosovo, the dervishes see KariA‡i his or her religious cradle, and they consider of Hajdar-dedo KariA‡ since the messenger of Sufism in the area as well as their religious forefather.

Ajvatovica

The Ajvatovica pilgrimage performs a large role when you look at the ways community Muslims from central Bosnian highlands think on the shift of hallowed landscapes a€?after socialism.a€? Within narratives and casual shows, my community partners often juxtaposed KariA‡i in addition to the Ajvatovica pilgrimages. However, the great majority of these have never pilgrimed to Ajvatovica.

The Ajvatovica pilgrimage, close community of Prusac, carries legends alike those of the KariA‡i internet site, dating back to the 17th century and affecting another popular messenger of Islam, effendi (and possibly dervish sheikh) Ajvaz-dedo. The figures claim that Ajvaz-dedo got partner of Lord (evlija). When he hit Prusac, there had been no correct water system in the town. There clearly was merely a spring nearby the town, however it is plugged by a rock. Ajvaz-dedo put 40 days praying to Allah, and on the 40th week the guy wished for two light rams colliding. As he woke upwards, the stone have broken in half. Nearby villagers saw this as a miracle (keramet) and advantage (bereket), and, since then, have actually pilgrimed within the place in which the rock divide.

Unlike the KariA‡i pilgrimage, the Ajvatovica is technically banished via socialist time, in 1947 (cf. MulahaliloviA‡ 1989 :192a€“196), and is renewed only inside 1990, mainly through engagement from the Islamic Community; various media, for instance the Islamic weekly publication Preporod; together with the Stranka Demokratske Akcije (SDA; Party of Democratic Action), led back then by Alija IzetbegoviA‡. The region where in fact the Ajvatovica pilgrimage internet site can be found was operated and defended throughout combat by your Bosnian army, and, for this reason, through open public rhetoric, garnered the type of a holy area, expressing the continuity of a threatened Muslim neighborhood and its own educational legacy (cf. Rujanac in newspapers ).

It rapidly turned into evident in my experience which form the Ajvatovica pilgrimage is actually orchestrated currently work a tremendous function in Bosnian Muslim nationwide public government, as reigned over from Islamic neighborhood, including calculating plainly in local conversations. Ajvatovica is given with the Islamic society because big yearly Muslim gathering in European countries, one with very long continuity, in spite of the certified bar enforced in 1947. As it is orchestrated and choreographed, a€?The Days of Ajvatovicaa€? (Dani Ajvatovice) uncover as an assemblage of spiritual pilgrimage, governmental event, and societal parade composed of various parties, concerts, and classes which happen to be widely presented and offered from Islamic society through several billboards. The Ajvatovica pilgrimage are offered, to paraphrase a variety of hometown methods, as a a€?manifestation of heritage and long lasting continuity of Bosniak [Muslim] recognition and culturea€? so that the a€?largest Muslim getting in Europea€? (e.g., view Ajvatovica.org.ba 2010 ). In addition, within my fieldwork, I was continually informed that Ajvatovica used to be an all-male meeting, although after 1990 it https://besthookupwebsites.org/caffmos-review had been widely presented during the nationalized rhetoric as a gathering for all those Muslims. Put differently, the Ajvatovica pilgrimage ended up being reorchestrated and instrumentalized in Bosniak political discourse as a fertile character in post-Yugoslav public discussions on cumulative Bosnian Muslim identification as well as Bosniaksa€™ find genuineness as a completely independent post-Yugoslav us (nacija).