Women in the Ottoman Balkans: Gender, Culture and History
Page 60
the centuries in Croatian literature, especially in the context of the “anti-
Turkish obsession which nurtured the older Croatian literatures.” (Prosperov
Novak 1996: 186.) However, this traditional notion was also often challenged,
for instance in the epic poem Smrt Smail-age Čengića [The death of Smail-
aga Čengić] (1846), written by the Illyrian writer Ivan Mažuranić, where the
figure of the Turkish aristocrat is modified in favor of his moral qualities. That
the “anti-Turkish obsession” remains an undercurrent resurfacing in times of
historical upheaval—in both Croatia and Bosnia—is evidenced by the fact
that, during the recent war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–95), it emerged
in the works of some Croatian authors as ignorance of the Muslim culture of
Bosnia—for example in the collection of essays Što sam rekao o Bosni [What
did I say about Bosnia] (1995) by Ivan Aralica.
27. Hangi 1906: 151.
28. Botić 1949: 1
16.
29. Ibid., 1
10.
30. Ibid., 100.
Šolić, Women in ottoman Bosnia
331
31. Ibid., 101.
32. Krnjević 1973: 271.
33. Erlich 1966: 123.
34. T
ucker 1991: 248.
35. Ibid., 250.
36. Kandiyoti 1991: 33.
37. Krnjević 1973: 174.
38. Ibid., 195.
39. Botić 1949: 273.
40. Peirce 1993: 27.
41. Botić 1949: 1
19.
42. Ibid., 172.
43. Ibid., 177.
44. For
instance, Jakša Ravlić sees Adel’s decision to marry a Muslim girl as an
ideological, aesthetic, and psychological disharmony in relation to the main
idea of Bijedna Mara. (Ravlić 1949: 19.)
45. Botić 1949: 134.
46. Maglajlić 1977: 20.
47. Ravlić
notes that foreign influences came implicitly through other works of
Croatian literature. Among important influences, Ravlić mentions Torquato
Tasso, Tommaso Grossi, and especially Alessandro Manzoni and his views
on the historical novel in Del romanzo storico e in generale dei componimenti
misti di storia e di poesia (1845). (Ravlić 1949: 20.)
48. Botić 1949: 158.
49. The
feminization of land and landscape is discussed in the works of several
literary theorists; see for instance Smith 1970; Kolodny 1975: 84; Heyne
1992.
50. Botić 1949: 138.
51. Bošković-Stulli 1999: 89.
52. Zoranić 1988: 192.
53. Botić, 1949: 139.
54. Hangi 1906: 164–66.
55. Botić 1949: 61.
56. Ibid., 377.
57. Ibid., 375.
58. Ibid.,
389. The “Arab servant” mentioned by Botić is probably a black
African. Just as Bosnian Muslims were known as “Turks” in the South-
Slavic literary tradition and ethnic definitions, in Turkish “Arap” is often used
to denote blacks. The presence of blacks in the Balkans may be explained
from both a historical and a folkloric point-of-view. Historically, Africans
were one of ethnicities present among Ottoman troops, and that is how they
came into contact with inhabitants of the Balkans. In folklore, the motif of
blackness, and the conflict between black and white, occur very frequently
in the Mediterranean and thus in the Dalmatian tradition, symbolizing the
332
Women in the ottoman Balkans
fight between good and evil, and, by extension, between Christianity and
Islam. One of its variations is Moreška, a traditional war-dance which was
performed all over the Mediterranean. In Dalmatia, it has been preserved on
the Dalmatian island of Korčula. The dance came to Korčula in the sixteenth
century when the island was a Venetian colony, probably from Italy or—
through Venetian mediation and trade—from Spain. Etymologically, the word
Moreška comes from “Moorish,” and the dance was originally inspired by
the fight of Christian Spain against the Moorish “infidels” and the victory
of Christianity that resulted in the expulsion of the Moors from Spain. The
version of this folk drama performed on Korčula departs somewhat from
the original principle of inter-religious conflict; rather, it features a conflict
between two ethnic identities. Instead of Christian and Islamic knights
fighting over a captured maiden, Osman—a white king and a metaphor for the
traditional local inhabitants—tries to liberate Bula, a young Muslim maiden,
from Moro—a black king who, judging by his name, is a folkloric intruder (a
Moor), and thus an ethnic “Other” on the Dalmatian coast.
59. McBratney 2002: 63.
60. Ibid., 68.
61. Greene 2000: 78–1
10.
62. Ibid., 105.
63. Lord 1991: 194.
64. Botić 1949: 250.
65. Kuba 1953: 643.
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12
Missing Husbands, Waiting Wives,
Bosnian Mufti s: Fatwa Texts and the
Interpretation of Gendered Presences and
Absences in Late Ottoman Bosnia
Selma Zečević
On the 19th day of the month of Safer in the year 1187/1773, a clerk of the Imperial
Chancery in stanbul copied the text of an imperial decree into the Ahkâm- Bosna
[the book of imperial orders regarding Bosnia]. As indicated in the heading of this
imperial order, the decree had been sent to two cities and two dignitaries of the
Ottoman province of Bosnia ( Eyalet-i Bosna). One copy had gone to Topal-olu
Gazi Osman Pasha, the province governor1 whose seat at the time was in the city
of Travnik,2 and the other to the judge of Sarajevo, zmirli Mehmed Emin Efendi,
a problematic judge who was dismissed from his post shortly thereafter.3
The decree concerned a Muslim woman named Nizama from the city of Sarajevo
in the province of Bosnia, who had earlier that year undertaken a journey to stanbul
to present a grievance to the Imperial Council. According to the short transcript
of the case recorded in the copy of the imperial decree, Nizama was a married
woman whose husband Bektaş Alemdar had left their hometown of Sarajevo
without providing his wife with alimony [ nafaka/ nafaqa] that would enable her
to support herself during his absence. Although the decree does not describe the
circumstances of Bektaş’s trip, the fact that he had not left alimony for his wife
may imply that he had not planned to extend his absence from Sarajevo for more
than a few days. As time passed, however, Nizama got no news of her husband’s
whereabouts and hence did not know whether he was dead or alive. In the meantime,
Bektaş’s father and brother had turned to the local judge demanding that Bektaş
be pronounced missing [ mefkud/ mafqūd], and consequently that his property be
placed in their care. Their demand was in accordance with a rule provided by
Islamic law, stipulating that all property belonging to a missing Muslim man was
to be entrusted to a reliable guardian (or guardians) so that it could be preserved
until the circumstances surrounding his life became clear.4 The local judge clearly
felt that such action was necessary in the prevailing uncertain circumstances, and
entrusted Bektaş’s property for safeguard in the hands of his father and brother,
his closest living male relatives.
336
Women in the ottoman Balkans
These men were not the only ones to enjoy a legal claim to Bektaş’s estate,
however. According to the same law of personal status, if a missing Muslim man
was married, his wife had certain rights in regard to her husband’s property.5 As
long as she did not hear that he was dead, or that he had divorced her in absentia,
or that he had converted to another religion, she was still considered his wife.
Consequently, her legal right to be provided with alimony did not cease with her
husband’s disappearance.
After some time had elapsed, Nizama was left without money and with no
source of income. Hence, she requested from her in-laws (as the guarantors of
her husband’s estate) the alimony that her husband was legally obliged to provide
for her during his absence. When her in-laws refused to give her any portion of
her husband’s property, she brought the case to the attention of a shari‘a court in
Sarajevo. Although the details of the dispute between Nizama and her i
n-laws are
not described in great detail, the short extract in the text of the imperial decree
indicates that Nizama had repeatedly visited the courts of both Sarajevo and the
provincial seat of Travnik to claim her rights. This may imply that either her in-
laws lived in Travnik and not in Sarajevo, as she did, or that she had traveled to a
higher court in order to obtain a ruling in her favor.
Despite going back and forth between to two towns and two courts, Nizama failed
to obtain her alimon
6—was not insignificant under any circumstances, but
it would have been all the more daunting for a Muslim woman: travel was only
possible by horse, and the only rest stops along the way were travelers’ inns of
questionable repute that often offered neither proper accommodation nor protection
against possible malefactors.7 Furthermore, a Muslim woman would have needed
a male chaperone to accompany her during her trip, implying that she would have
had to ask one of her male relatives to act in that capacity.
Despite the absence of a detailed account regarding Nizama’s st