Marko Marulić established the traditional metaphor of Turks as invaders from
the East in his Molitva suprotiva Turkom [Prayer against Turks] and in Judita
(1501), his versified Biblical story of Judith, the two cultures mutually co-existed
at the level of everyday life.26 Setting the story of inter-religious love (based on
a historical document) at a time when the negative representation of Ottoman
civilization had been established, Botić’s poetical revision of the sixteenth-
century text becomes a revision of the dichotomous structure established by the
Croatian literary canon.
Ašikovanje is probably also inspired by the real courting that the author witnessed
on his journey through Bosnia. Ašikovanje was still sung in Bosnia even at the
beginning of the twentieth century, when the Croatian writer Antun Hangi vividly
described it. He considered it one of the most important social rituals of Bosnian
Muslims. The scenes he portrayed and songs he recorded were performed under a
girl’s window. All have similar dialogic, stylistic, and semantic structures, using a
characteristic vocabulary, puns, metaphors, and comparisons. In his romanticized
descriptions, the absence of any physical touch is also remarkable, because love
is experienced through seeing or a longing to see.27 Botić uses a similar pattern:
Mara is shy and embarrassed at the sight of Adel, whereas for Adel the song is the
only way of expressing his feelings:
U Turčina đulvodica
A Turk’s rose-water
Slatko miriše;
Smells sweet;
Al’ je ljepša djevojčica,
But a girl is nicer,
Ljepša od ruže;
Nicer than a rose;
A ja Turčin ginem za djevojkom, And I, a Turk, am pining for a girl,
Za djevojkom krotkom golubicom! For a girl, a gentle dove!28
The concept of longing, waiting, and seeing serves as an initiation to the actions
of all of Botić’s characters. Melka, a Muslim girl who represents Mara’s rival, is
also in love with Adel, although she has not seen him. Being the daughter of an
Ottoman aristocrat, Melka at first sight represents a woman isolated from the
world outside of her room. The portrayal of Ottoman girls and their surroundings
is a typical example of romantic exoticism—while the Christian environment is
depicted through stylistic forms drawn from the history of literature. The room is
described as a private feminine space, with the typical and traditional figures of
exotic Oriental beauty:
Al’ u sobi i jest teke čudo:
Oh, there is just a miracle in the room:
Svi gospodski sazi i nakiti
Only luxury carpets and ornaments
Naokolo sobu zaodjeli,
Clothe the room on all sides
Pram prozoru suncu pritvorenom Towards the window left ajar for the sun,
Na mekijem dušecim kadife,
On soft velvet mattresses,
Na visokim svilnijem blazinjam,
On lofty silk blankets,
316
Women in the ottoman Balkans
Srebrom, zlatom sitno izvezenim
Embroidered with fine silver and gold,
Leži sama sumorna djevojka.
Lies a somber girl alone.29
The setting in which Melka appears for the first time resembles what is a very
frequent opening scene in the ballads of Bosnian Muslims: a girl sitting alone on
the window sill, doing her handywork, and longing for her loved one:
Vezak vezla Melka na pendžeru
Melka sat by the window knitting
Vezak vezla, sjetno uzdisala.
Knitting her knitting, sighing wistfully.30
The one for whom Melka longs is Adel. She has learned of his beauty and heroism
from her brother Omer’s stories. Omer, however, tries to explain to her the
uselessness of her pain and longing for one whom she has not seen—in a word,
the entire paradoxical notion at the heart of sevdah:
Al’ odavna sad ne viđam Adu,
Oh, how long I’ve not seen Ado,
Nit je momak tebe kad vidjeo.
Nor has the lad ever seen you.31
Omer therefore tries to convince her to stop longing for him. He stresses shyness
as a virtue, and the impossibility of love for the unseen one as the essence of
sevdalinka.
The concept of shyness as a feminine virtue in a patriarchal society is,
as Hatidža Krnjević has pointed out, one of the main motifs in the ballads of
Bosnian Muslims, and thus of Ottoman Bosnian Muslim women. She considers
it the crucial tragic psychological element in Hasanaginica, the most famous of
all such ballads.32 Hasanaginica’s bashfulness destroys her life, but in Melka’s
case shyness disappears as soon as she finds salvation from her current state—the
poet-healer comes to her room and tells her that Mara, her rival, has entered a
monastery.
Melka overcomes her shyness very easily and proves capable of using her
entire patriarchal, social, and family network to lure Adel into marrying her. First,
there is her brother Omer who decides to help her because he is outraged by
her sorrow. His anger at seeing his sister’s pain opens the gate of the patriarchal
household. The subordinate role of the sisters in comparison with their brothers
did not mean that they could not count on the latter’s absolute love and protection;
on the contrary, compared with the role of the husband, for instance, the role
of the brother had the importance of “a born [blood] relationship.”33 In many
instances, a brother also served as a replacement for the patriarchal role of the
father. The affectionate relationship between brothers and sisters is not only
typical for Ottoman Bosnia, but also for other regions of the Ottoman Empire.
Giving the example of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Nablus, at the time part
of the Ottoman Empire, Judith Tucker has argued that in the absence of a father,
there was the brother on whom women could count in case of divorce or the death
of their husband.34
New insights into family relations during the period in question call into
question the direct applicability of western notions of patriarchy to Islamic culture,
Šolić, Women in ottoman Bosnia
317
without taking into account local, historical, social, and economic circumstances.
Although the mother’s role was not equal to the father’s in the public sphere
of the patriarchal system, recent theories argue that the family structure was
established on the principle of hidden matriarchy within the marital relationship,
since women had powerful positions within the household, dealing with marriage
arrangements and even legal issues, traditionally considered part of the public—
and thus masculine—domain. As Tucker has noted, instead of “a crude patriarchy
in which an all-powerful male head of family imposed absolute submission on
women, be they wives or daughters, [court material] suggests that women’s
lives encompassed a number of affective family relationships.”35 Not only did
mothers occupy the central position of protectress in the emotional life of their
children, but upon reaching the age of seniority and thus becoming experienced,
they gained power over new female family members, su
ch as daughters-in-law,
to the extent that they became female “patriarchs”; in many cases they would
serve as replacement for a daughter-in-law’s own mother, and would assume the
traditional kinship responsibility of protecting her honor.36
In Bijedna Mara, we find this role shouldered by Adel’s mother, whose
influence and social position work in Melka’s favour. As Hatidža Krnjević has
argued, Bosnian Muslim ballads developed the theme of the mother in myriad
ways, frequently featuring a “bad” mother who, because of an excessively
passionate nature, wants to harm or even kill her children; there was also the
mother who falls victim to unfavorable external circumstances.37 A very common
motif in these kinds of ballads is that of the mother who warns her son that her
milk, the symbol of his blood and existence as well as of their relationship, will
be cursed if he disobeys her wishes. Furthermore, in relation to the potential bride
or wife, the mother acts as the “mother of the son” or “mother of the husband of a
young woman,” a privileged position in the hierarchical structure of the family.38
An example of a young girl who tries to use the mother to attract the son is
explicitly given in Petar Bačić. Mejra, a young Muslim girl, flatters and entertains
Petar’s mother who awaits her son and hopes that he will return alive from battle.
Mejra uses the mother’s weakness and anxiety, and tells her about spells that she
cast the previous night in order to protect her son from swords and guns. She
offers the mother sweets and other gifts, and runs away at the sight of the Ottoman
army coming back, begging her not to forget her good deeds:
Pa da vidiš ljepote djevojke!
And if you see a beautiful girl!
Ona s’ maši u svileno krilo,
She reaches into her silk lap,
Iz krila mi vadi đakonije
From which she takes out delicacies
Od samog meda i šećera,
Of pure honey and sugar,
Pa mi nudi Bačićevu majku,
And offers them to Bačić’s mother,
Svojom rukom nudi i zalaže.
With her hand she offers and feeds her
Starica se brani i otima
The old woman defends herself and
pulls away
U nevolji, u žalosti svojoj;
In her misery, in her sorrow,
318
Women in the ottoman Balkans
Djevojci se otet ne mogaše,
She cannot say no to the girl,
Niti njenom silnom silovanju,
Neither to her powerful violence,
Niti njenom milom milovanju.
Nor to her kind tenderness.
…
…
Zavikali umoreni Turci
The tired Turks yelled
Dogoneći plijen ispred sebe;
Driving booty before them as they went;
A Mejra mi lagana djevojka
And Mejra, a slight girl,
Skočila je od zemlje na noge:
Leapt up from the ground on her legs:
‘Pozdravi mi svog sina Bačića,
Greet your son Bačić,
I nemoj me, majko, ostaviti,
And don’t leave me, mother,
Nemoj mi se iznevjerit majko!
Don’t betray me mother!39
Finally, a mother was actively involved in the search for a potential bride and
in negotiations and arrangements for the marriage. As a woman, she was involved
in communication with the bride and with other female members of the family,
and her approval was sometimes crucial for stability within the family. Just as
“the connection between mother and son was a vital political bond throughout
Ottoman history” in imperial and ruling families,40 so was it decisive for the well-
being of all the members of an “average” family as well.
In Bijedna Mara, Adel’s mother is concerned about the state of her son, seeing
that he enjoys the poetic isolation implicit in playing the saz (a string instrument
traditionally used for performing sevdalinka) and the melancholic mood created
by sevdah. She knows that he suffers from love, but she also carefully reminds
him of his responsibilities, and says she expects him to care about his family
and to get married. The importance of his marriage is further stressed by the fact
that his father has died, and that there is no male member to lead and protect the
family. His mother wisely offers him her mediation in finding the proper bride
from the wealthy families among their friends and acquaintances:
Mnogo puta smislih da ti kažem
Many times have I thought to tell you
Pa sve srcu odoljeh do danas,
And until today I have resisted my heart
Zašto mi se ne ženiš, sinko?
Why don’t you get married, my son?
Po tvojoj mi ćudi djevu kaži
Choose a girl according to your likes,
Prijatelja glavnijeh imamo,
We have important friends,
Nadaleko dosta jih imamo,
Enough of them we have all around,
A imamo božjeg blagoslova,
And we have god’s blessing,
Mnogijeh se stiditi ne moraš,
You need not be ashamed before them,
Pa da t’ majka isprosi djevojku!
Your mother can ask for a girl for you!41
At long last Adel’s mother finds out that the source of his pain is his dead beloved;
but knowing that there is also another one waiting for him, she decides to arrange
a meeting. Pretending to be full of compassion, she wisely supports him in his
sorrow, patiently waiting for the moment when he will be ready to think about the
girl she has secretly chosen for him:
Šolić, Women in ottoman Bosnia
319
S njom se mlađan slatko naplakao, The lad cried sweetly to her,
Njoj je tužan rane pootkrivo.
Sadly he revealed his wounds to her.
Al majka mudra bješe glava,
But the mother was a wise woman,
Ne će ništa prigovorit sinu,
She addressed no reproaches to her son,
No sve žali za mrtvom djevojkom, But still he mourned for a dead girl,
Dok je svoga osvojila sina.
While she had won over her son.42
When the moment comes, Adel’s mother invents a story that Melka is their
relative, and that she had been left alone after her mother, Adel’s maternal aunt,
supposedly died. She praises her beauty, and considers her socially suitable for
her son. She tells Adel that she is going to visit her and help her choose a future
husband. Adel decides to marry her right then and begs his mother to help him get
her only for himself. The melancholy and longing of sevdah disappears as Adel
submissively obeys the will of his mother and bows to tradition:
Idem sine, da ja vidim Melke,
I am going, my son, to see Melka,
Evo meni glasi učestali,
Frequently do I hear the voices,
Navalili prosci njenom ocu,
The suitors hasten to her father,
Mnogi prosci iz mnogijeh strana, Many suitors from the four winds,
Kažu, dizdar hoće ćer udati;
Saying the captain wants to
marry his daughter;
A ja ti se bojim za siroče,
But I am afraid for the poor orphan,
Udat će se i prevarit će se,
She will marry and will bewail,
Bit će ljuba, srećna ne će biti.
She will be a mistress, but not be happy.43
Adel’s decision also signifies a sudden discontinuity with the melancholic
mode of a tragic love ballad. However, it is not true that the unexpected decision
means an artistically inappropriate and weak choice of ending, as some critics
have suggested.44 Although events surrounding Mara’s and Adel’s love form the
ideological centre of the plot, the ballad begins with a description of Melka’s pain
and love for Adel, and ends with their marriage. In this context, Adel’s love for
Mara and her tragic destiny is the central part of the story. But it is also the main
obstacle (as the love between a Muslim and a Christian) to the fulfillment of the
traditional customs and the social environment typical of the sixteenth-century
Dalmatian-Ottoman hinterland.
If Melka is a representation of an Ottoman-Bosnian woman, Mara, whose
tragedy and death are the real sources of the ballad, is portrayed as a typical
pious Christian. Although involved in the courting game of sevdah, she belongs
to the “Christian” framework of narration. In contrast to Melka, Mara is a passive
suffering character, without developed psychological features. Mara’s pain ranges
from the suffering typical of the sevdalinka to the religious suffering that she
endures in the monastery because of her betrayal of family and tradition. The
influence of Christian moral principles is evident in the fact that the poet absolves
Mara of sin before her father, stating that her purity had been preserved because
320
Women in the ottoman Balkans
Adel did not touch her. Moreover, he tries to explain that Mara did not even talk
to Adel, that the only communication between them had been visual:
Djevojka je vidjela Turčina,
The girl saw the Turk,
Ma da š njime govorila nije,
Though she never spoke to him
I to može da grijehu vodi;
That could also lead to sin;
Al’ nije l’ ga jadna iskajala,
But hasn’t the poor girl atoned for it,
Što je srcem svojim ratovala,
In battling with her heart,
I na volju silnom što ne dade?
And not surrendering to
its powerful will?45
The Christian cultural model and the principle of suffering (caused by passion
Women in the Ottoman Balkans: Gender, Culture and History Page 57