The End of a ‘Mixed’ Pilgrimage

Circulation 8,000 J u l y 1 9 9 9 4 8 p a g e s N e w s l e t t e r 3 postal address telephone e-mail P.O. Box 11089 +31-(0)71-527 79 05 i s i m @ r u l l e t . l e i d e n u n i v . n l 2301 EB Leiden telefax www The Netherlands +31-(0)71-527 79 06 h t t p : / / i s i m . l e i d e n u n i v . n l 3 9 25 3 7 New ISIM Academic Director Sharifa Zaleha Ahmad Moussalli Richard Brent Turner Muhammad Khalid Masud Surau and Mosques in Malaysia Political Islam in Sunni Communities Mainstream Islam in the USA C i r c u m a m- bulatory The war in Kosovo and the accompanying ethnic procession at cleansing has catapulted this region to the centre t h e m o n a s t e r y stage of Western attention after so many years of rel- o f Z ocùisˇt e ative silence and indifference. Already in the 1980s, many analysts pointed out that tensions between Al- banian and Serbian nationalism and divisions between the Christian Serbs and the (mainly) Muslim Albanians were growing, and were turning the province into a dangerous Balkan hotspot. Compar- isons were drawn, especially by Serbian nationalists, with the famous Battle of Kosovo fought between the Ottoman Turks and Balkan Christian forces in 1389 Ð a ‘clash of civilizations’ between two deeply antago- nistic and incompatible nations. In light of the recent developments, it is logical that the rift between Alba- nians and Serbs is now perceived as a hard and fast line of division. Yet Kosovo has had a history of coex- istence, with considerable movement across this ethnic and religious frontier, through economic ties, cul- tural diffusion, religious exchange and conversion. Throughout history, the ethnic and religious barriers have been anything but watertight. K O S O V O The End of a ‘Mixed’ Pilgrimage In July 1991, I went to visit Zocùisˇte, a mixed symbiotic before, due to processes of mutu- substantial numbers. These were mostly Or- Serb-Albanian village three miles from the al assimilation and absorption. One of the thodox or ‘Serbian’ Gypsies (Srpski cigani) GER DUIJZINGS town of Rahovec, in the southwest of the most interesting features of life in this small from Suva Reka and Rahovec who seemed province. Just outside the village on a hill- town was that old urban Albanian families to be quite well assimilated into the Serbian top, there is an old medieval Serbian Ortho- were Slavophone, that is to say, they did not community. During the holiday, Serbs and dox monastery (dating from the 14t h c e n t u r y speak Albanian at home, but rather a Slavic Gypsies closely intermingled, apparently Since 1991, I have conducted research on or even earlier). Its shrine has a reputation dialect (n asˇ g o v o r Ð our tongue). During the knowing each other quite well. While I was ethnically and religiously ‘mixed’ pilgrim- for being particularly helpful in cases of dis- 1921 census, the majority of urban Albani- present, there was also a smaller but quite ages (in such places as the Serbian Ortho- eases of the eyes and mental and psychoso- ans in Rahovec had therefore been regis- conspicuous presence of Muslim Gypsy dox monasteries of Gracùanica and the matic disorders. The church is called Sveti tered under the category ‘Serbs or Croats’. women, wearing the characteristic wide Roman Catholic shrine of Letnica), which V r acùi (the Holy Medics) after the saints Kuz- During my own research, some asserted that baggy trousers and speaking Albanian, who offer clear examples of this contact across man and Damnjan, patron saints of the their language was similar to Macedonian, hardly joined in with Serbs and Orthodox religious and ethnic boundaries. At present monastery. My reason for visiting this shrine apparently trying to dissociate from any Gypsies; obviously they were not part of the this seems unimaginable, but until very re- was that, until the late 1980s, many Muslim connection with Serbian. Since most Albani- Orthodox c o m m u n i t a s developing within cently, Muslims and Christians of different Albanians from Zocùisˇte and nearby Rahovec ans had been sacked from their jobs in 1990, the walls of the monastery. ethnic backgrounds visited one another’s would come to the monastery to join the fes- there was now a great deal of ‘bad blood’ be- Although this was meant to be a feast, the sanctuaries, worshipped one another’s tivities. The story holds that before the Al- tween local Serbs and Albanians. atmosphere was quite tense during my visit: saints and ignored the evident theological banian protests of 1989, which were violent- During the pilgrimage, the entrance of the the war had just started and (as a Dutch- objections of religious orthodoxies. Particu- ly suppressed in Rahovec (Orahovac in Ser- monastery is animated by booths, mainly man) I sensed a great deal of suspicion (at a larly in the field of popular religion, which bian), Albanian pilgrims were even more nu- manned by Gypsies selling snacks and vari- time when the Dutch Minister of Foreign Af- religious authorities traditionally control merous here than Serbs. ous toys and trinkets; whereas within the fairs, Hans van den Broek, was heading the the least, boundaries were most often disre- Yet in the last few years the growing dis- confines of the monastery there is an out- European Community efforts to stop the garded. There are numerous examples in trust between Albanians and Serbs put an door café run by Serbian youth from the vil- war in former Yugoslavia). At dawn shots Kosovo (and beyond) where Muslim and end to this ‘mixed’ pilgrimage: Albanians lage. There are also other simple, improvised were fired, probably by some drunken Serbs, Christian forms of pilgrimage and saint ven- had begun to boycott. As I heard from a local fairground attractions run by Gypsies. Dur- and later that morning army jets flew over, eration have amalgamated and formal reli- Albanian taxi-driver, only a handful of old ing my visit, a Serbian tradesman was selling as a reminder to everyone that the situation gious divisions have become blurred. Most and very ill Albanians would still make the posters and badges containing images of was far from normal. Suspicion was, howev- interestingly, in Kosovo, Serbian Orthodox effort to go to Zocùisˇte, and perhaps some leading Serbian nationalists like Vuk Drasˇ- er, not only directed against foreigners: I shrines have often demonstrated a propen- Muslim Gypsies, as well as Slav Muslims and k o v ic«, Slobodan Milosˇe v ic«, and Vojislav sˇesˇe l j , witnessed a Serb pilgrim from Prizren accus- sity to attract Muslim pilgrims of various Turks from Prizren. In the village itself, rela- as well as small Serbian flags and other Chet- ing a local peasant of being an Albanian ethnic backgrounds. The following account tions seemed to have deteriorated, also due nik paraphernalia. From the café I could hear ‘spy’, because of his local dialect, which deals with one such Serbian shrine, Zocùisˇt e , to the fact that Albanians had begun to out- old Chetnik songs, and later in the after- sounded to him like an Albanian speaking which I visited in 1991. Its recent fate some- number the Serbian inhabitants. Local Serbs noon, down in the village, I saw an Albanian Serbian. After the poor peasant showed his how symbolizes the breakdown of a shared said that they felt they were being pressured café with Albanian music blaring from the ID to his fellow Serb from Prizren he was existence once enjoyed by Serbs and Alba- into leaving, especially by the strong Alban- speakers. This was just opposite a Serb mar- told jokingly, but not without serious over- nians. It shows that religious c o m m u n i t a s ian clans of the village. The small town of Ra- quee emitting even more deafening decibel tones, ‘You had better change your lan- (Victor Turner), always a precarious matter, hovec was now ethnically segregated, al- levels of Serbian songs. guage if you want us to become friends’. can turn into precisely the contrary under though relations between Serbs and Albani- While in 1991 Albanians boycotted the Deep distrust is characteristic of the Serb certain conditions. ans had been quite harmonious or even pilgrimage, Gypsies were present in quite Continued on page 20 2 ISIM I S I M NEWSLETTER 3 / 9 9 Europe has witnessed yet another round of religion-related vio- ly concern; although they constitute a minority, radicals often pro- lence; again a Muslim population has suffered dramatically from vide leadership to those who would normally be considered to be ‘ethnic cleansing’. The violent replacement of ethnic groups in areas moderates. Serb politics of the 1990s may be a case in point. Marc that once were part of the Ottoman polity has left few communities Gaborieau (p.21) while being careful not to speculate about the ulti- untouched, and the dismantling of mixed societies which date back mate goals of the movement, questions the non-political nature of to pre- and early modernity continues. Again, the rationale of na- the Tablighi Jama’at – an icon of moderation – suggesting that teli- tionalism exposes the dark side of the modern condition. In the gious politics are not only a matter of purpose, but also of style.

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