Women in the Ottoman Balkans: Gender, Culture and History

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by Amila Buturovic


  e.g. Jennings 1975; Tucker 1998; Peirce 2003.

  10. Opširni popis, 499–500.

  11. In

  Ottoman: mahalle-i mescid-i zevce-i Gazi Hüsrev Beg. ( Opširni popis, I/2:

  5, No. 16.)

  12. Gazi

  Husrev Beg was the governor of the Bosnian Sancak—with short

  interruptions—from 1521 until his death in 1541. He founded a large

  endowment within which he commissioned several buildings. For centuries,

  those buildings served sacred, cultural-educational, social, and economic

  functions. Still today the name of this great benefactor is mentioned on a daily

  basis in the names of his endowment buildings. In Sarajevo, the Gazi Husrev

  Beg Library still stands, with a rich collection of manuscript materials from

  the Ottoman period. That library will often be referred to in this paper. It

  was founded next to the Gazi Husrev Beg medrese, whose building has been

  preserved to the present day. Next to it is the Gazi Husrev Beg mosque, and by

  the mosque is an imaret (public charitable kitchen) and a bezistan (a shopping

  centre); a short distance away is the Gazi Husrev Beg hamam (public bath).

  Some of these buildings still serve their original functions, while others are

  used for different purposes. The medrese building is used as an exhibition

  hall, and today the hamam building constitutes part of the Bosnian Institute

  complex. The vakuf founded by Gazi Husrev Beg is registered in the 1604

  Defter. ( Opširni popis, 492–95.)

  13. Gadžo-Kasumović

  2003: 41–83. This paper gives a description of a total of 87

  sicil s, which is the number in the possession of the Gazi Husrev Beg Library

  in Sarajevo, with short descriptions of their contents. As the author notes, the

  majority of these sicil s record cases referring to Sarajevo.

  14. Spaho 1985: 47–60.

  15. The

  Arabic text is from Sicil No. 1 at the Gazi Husrev Beg Library in Sarajevo.

  The page and line numbers are given in parantheses; here, page 38, line 17.

  Other parts of the text of this vakufnama are similarly identified. Note that all

  the pages in this sicil are numbered.

  16. The

  dating of the vakufnama copied in Sicil No. 1 is aided by the fact that

  these court records refer to the years 1551–52, which corresponds to 959

  in the Muslim calendar. (See Gadžo-Kasumović 2003: 46.) This provides a

  terminus ante quem for the vakufnama.

  17. Interestingly

  , the key piece of information that helped Spaho establish the

  identity of the benefactress of the nameless vakufnama was contained in the

  1604 Defter. At the time Spaho was translating the vakufnama, a photocopy

  of the Defter was present in the archives of the Institute for Oriental Studies

  under number fo 203/8, copied from the original at the Tapu ve Kadastro,

  Ankara, TD No. 477. (Spaho 1985: 75). The translation of the 1604 Defter

  into Bosnian was based upon that photocopy.

  Filan, Women Founders oF Pious endoWments

  121

  18. Mujezinović 1974: 291.

  19. Čar

  -Drnda 2004: 275.

  20. One

  of the sources is Ljetopis [Chronicle], written by Mula Mustafa Bašeskija

  in the second half of the eighteenth century. Dudi Bula’s mosque is mentioned

  there on page 96a, entry No. 7. (Our reading.) Another source is Court Record

  No. 40. These records refer to the years 1800–1801, and a record of Dudi

  Bula’s mosque is on page 143 therein. (Mujezinović 1974: 291.)

  21. Ibid., 291.

  22. The

  mescid was torn down in 1879. (Ibid., 333.) Unfortunately, we have not

  come across any data on the school built by Shahdidar.

  23. In 1927, it was transformed into a housing unit. (Ibid., 291.)

  24. Kemura 1910: 357.

  25. W

  e have reliable information that in 1814, a benefactor from the quarter

  around this mescid endowed assets for the purpose of repairing it. (Ibid., 357–

  58.) Kemura provides the information that the vakufnama testifying to this

  endowment is recorded on page 170 in Sicil No. 55. This sicil is preserved in

  the Gazi Husrev Beg Library archive material collection.

  26. Mujezinović 1974: 291.

  27. W

  ith each endowment, the Defter records the name of its benefactor, the amount

  of funds the founder endowed, the purpose of the funds, and an itemized list of

  expenses as stipulated by the founder. If the benefactor founded a vakuf with

  the intention of joining it to another—larger— vakuf, that was recorded in the

  Defter as an addition to the larger vakuf. For smaller vakuf s too, the name of

  the benefactor, the amount of the funds bequeathed, and their purpose were

  recorded. According to the Defter, all the vakuf s to which smaller ones were

  joined contained a mescid, and many of them a school as well.

  28. Opširni popis, 500–501.

  29. W

  e do not know with certainty when Havadže Kemal’s mescid was built. It is

  first mentioned in a source dating from 1515. This source describes it as one

  of the most beautiful buildings of the kind in Sarajevo. (Mujezinović 1974:

  183.)

  30. Opširni popis, 501.

  31. It

  is worth noting that all three benefactors are mentioned in an even older

  defter, this one referring to the year 1565. (Čar-Drnda 2004: 273.)

  32. See

  Opširni popis, 496.

  33. A

  mescid—and later a mosque—named after Havadže Kemal existed in

  Sarajevo until the twentieth century. Some information about this benefactor’s

  endowment is in Kemura 1910: 337–51. Kemura presents facsimiles and

  a translation into Bosnian of several documents referring to it. One of the

  documents is the sultan’s berat (decree), written in Istanbul in 1772, concerning

  the reconstruction of Havadže Kemal’s mescid after a fire. Another document

  is a financial report from 1794 on the management of the affairs of Havadže

  Kemal’s endowment submitted by its administrator [ mütevelli/ mutawalli].

  Finally, Kemura gives a number of vakufnama s from later centuries—the

  122

  Women in the ottoman Balkans

  eighteenth and the nineteenth—about endowments that were joined to this

  one. Kemura’s book also contains a newspaper article pointing to the need

  “to restore Kemaludin’s mosque [i.e. Havadže Kemal’s mescid—K.F.] as one

  of the oldest in Sarajevo.” The article, which was published on 21 September

  1933 in Jugoslavenski list was cut out and pasted onto a white sheet following

  page 351 in Kemura’s book. Havadže Kemal’s mosque was torn down in July

  1940. (See Mujezinović 1974: 185.)

  34. Opširni popis, 490.

  35. Havadže

  Durak founded a vakuf to build a mescid in Sarajevo. Sources testify

  that the mescid was built prior to 1528. (Mujezinović 1974: 277.) Havadže

  Durak’s mosque still stands in the centre of old Sarajevo.

  36. Opširni popis, 490; also Mujezinović 1974: 277.

  37. Opširni popis, 490. The literature provides various details as to when Keke

  Sinan’s mescid was built. The more reliable information appears to be that “a

  man known by
the nickname of Keke Sinan” founded an endowment and had

  a mescid built in Sarajevo in 1515. (See Mujezinović 1974: 204.)

  38. A

  benefactress named Fatma is mentioned in a document—a promissory

  note—as follows: “The debtor Halil, son of Mehmed from the Keke Sinan

  quarter, borrowed from Fatma’s fund 3,600 akçe in 1565, for a period of one

  year. The guarantor for the loan is Abdija, son of Mehmed from the Keke Sinan

  quarter. This loan was arranged through Hodža Sinan, imam.” (Kemura 1910:

  138.) As this document quotes the year 1565, the Keke Sinan quarter, and

  the benefactress Fatma, it probably refers to the aforementioned endowment

  recorded in the 1604 Defter.

  39. Opširni popis, 487. Hajji Eynehan’s vakuf comprised a mescid that was built

  prior to 1528 and was located in the Vratnik quarter of Sarajevo. (Čar-Drnda

  2004: 267–94.)

  40. Gazić 1985: 131–33.

  41. Ibid.

  42. Ibid., 133.

  43. Opširni popis, 496.

  44. Ibid.

  45. Ibid., 487–88.

  46. Ibid., 499.

  47. Ibid., 484.

  48. Kemura

  1910: 118. Yakub Pasha excelled as an army leader, and is therefore

  mentioned as an important personality in the Ottoman Empire. He was

  Bosnian-born, and served for a time as grand vezir. (See Mujezinović 1974:

  89.)

  49. Opširni popis, 484. Despite the cruel fate that struck Yakub Pasha’s mescid

  back in the sixteenth century, the building survived until the twentieth; it was

  torn down in 1936. (Mujezinović 1974: 89.)

  50. Opširni popis, 483.

  51. Ibid.

  Filan, Women Founders oF Pious endoWments

  123

  52. Ibid., 498.

  53. Ibid.

  54. Kemura 1910: 264–65; Mujezinović 1974: 331.

  55. Ibid., 497.

  56. Mujezinović 1974: 331.

  57. Ibid., 332.

  58. Gazić 1985: 130.

  59. Ibid., 133.

  60. Ibid.

  61. The

  vakufnama containing information on Šemse Kaduna’s endowment

  mentions that she was the sister of Mehmed Pasha, grand vezir to three great

  rulers—Sultans Süleyman I, Selim II, and Murad III. (Trako 1985: 211.)

  62. This

  long vakufnama was translated from Ottoman Turkish into Bosnian by

  Salih Trako (Trako 1985: 193–215.)

  63. Sanjakbeg

  Sinan Beg was one of the greatest benefactors in Bosnia. He

  established a large endowment comprising several mescid s, schools, and

  charitable facilities throughout the land.

  64. Sicil No.1, f. 40, line 20.

  65. The

  date of construction of this mescid has not been reliably established, but it

  is assumed it was after 1540 and prior to 1556. (Mujezinović 1974: 333.)

  66. Spaho 1985: 80.

  67. Ibid., n. 23.

  68. Ibid., 78.

  69. Ibid., 50.

  70. Fajić

  1978: 245–302. The vakufnama s were preserved by being copied

  between 1884 and 1945 in three separate books, kept today in the Gazi Husrev

  Beg Library under the common name Sidžil Vakufnama.

  71. As

  might be expected, the largest number of vakufnama s copied here belong

  to recent times, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Only 3 vakufnama s

  from the fifteenth century have been preserved, 26 from each of the sixteenth

  and seventeenth, and 87 from the eighteenth.

  72. Nametak

  1996: 363–66. This vakufnama was translated into Bosnian according

  to the transcript found in the Sidžil Vakufnama, Book 1, page 233, as recorded

  in Fajić 1978: 265.

  73. The

  vakufnama of Fatima Ašida, daughter of Vejsel Aga, was copied in

  Book 1 of Sidžil Vakufnama, page 386. (Fajić 1978: 279.) Fajić notes that the

  vakufnama’s original copy was also preserved, but he does not say where.

  Through a combination of circumstances, I saw the original when a family

  asked that the document be translated into Bosnian. In this paper, I therefore

  quote the text from the original manuscript of the vakufnama, presenting it to

  the scholarly public for the first time.

  74. Gazić 1985: 131.

  75. Opširni popis, 498.

  76. Ibid., 484.

  124

  Women in the ottoman Balkans

  77. Ibid., 496.

  78. The

  document on Seyda’s vakuf was copied in Sicil No. 2 in the Gazi Husrev

  Beg Library, and published in facsimile and Bosnian translation in Kemura

  1910: 220.

  79. Opširni popis, 501.

  80. Elsewhere

  in the Defter it is written that Sheykh Yunus Efendi was the chief

  official at the Havadže Kemal mescid ( Opširni popis, 500), to which Hanifa

  joined her vakuf. Here we must mention that the benefactress did not stipulate

  a salary for the position of imam, but rather for a particular man who did indeed

  perform that duty. The fact that she put a condition that the salary and duties be

  transferred to that man’s children, without mentioning their possible service,

  shows that her stipulation was intended to benefit a particular person.

  81. Vakufnama of Fatime Ašide, lines 29–31. (Our reading from the original

  manuscript.)

  82. Balagija 1933: 12.

  83. Kemura 1910: 199.

  84. Gazić 1985: 132, 133.

  85. T

  rako 1985: 208.

  86. Ibid., 200.

  87. Nametak 1996: 364.

  88. Opširni popis, 490.

  89. Mujić 1985: 141–43.

  90. Opširni popis, 497.

  91. Vakufnama of Fatime Ašide, line 38. (Our reading from the original

  manuscript.)

  92. Opširni popis, 498.

  93. Sicil No. 1, f. 40, line 20.

  94. Ibid., lines 18–21.

  95. Kemura

  1910: 263–64. As the author notes, this is the text of a document

  entered into Sicil No. 2.

  References

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