The House of the Open Door: From Ibn Arabi to Al Bosnevi. The Mediterranean That Took Root in the Balkans

Esma Kucukalic. Journalist and director of the Mediterranean Citizens’ Assembly Foundation

Sufi influence is a cohesive element of Islam in the Balkans, a living tradition and a conscious practice in accordance with rules that are inseparable from the behaviour of the . The Sufi tradition of the Balkans dates back to the 15th century, when several orders settled in the territory that would directly influence the transmission of Islam, as well as the socio-cultural, economic and architectural fabric of the region. Despite the various difficulties and prohibitions they have endured over the centuries, the survival of the Sufi communities has been possible thanks to their open and inspiring, Mediterranean and universal character, which today, when the wounds of war are not yet healed, is more necessary than ever.

In central Bosnia, among green and moun- the vast layers of history of the region have tainous landscapes, just where the Mediter- gradually settled, the Sufi influence remains ranean and continental climate touch, and a cohesive element of Islam in the Balkans where the post-war political and economic from a way of experiencing tradition (adet) situation has left the small rural municipali- towards a conscious way of life and practice ties dedicated to growing raspberries to their in accordance with rules that are inseparable fate, there is a lamp that, in the middle of from the behaviour (adab) of the dervishes the night, lights a house that is always open. (Hadzimejlic, 2008). Sufism in the Balkans has You can enter and delight in the beauty of been present for over six centuries, even before the paintings and calligraphies that adorn its the expansion of Islam through the Ottomans. walls, in the canvases painted by its rugs and In the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is the poetry heard, or explore the transcenden- fused into the landscape and, until recently, tal rhythms of the measured exhalations of it was almost invisible due to its complete the zikr, because “there are as many paths to assimilation into the cultural and historical God as there are breaths in human beings” tradition. Today it is more noticeable but has (Ibn Arabi). Among forgotten necropolises not lost an iota of that open spirit that makes of medieval monuments (stecak) on which it so local, Mediterranean and universal.

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The Mediterranean Span of Sufism During the Ottoman administration in the That Reached the Balkans 15th and 16th centuries, several Sufi orders also took root in the Balkans, and directly influenced A century before the expansion of the Ottoman the spiritual transmission of Islam, as well as Empire, two great spiritual centres developed the socio-cultural, economic and architectural and spread almost in parallel, and the Balkans fabric of the region. Through collective par- were no exception. The teachings of Ibn Arabi ticipation in vernacular architecture (Tatlic, of Murcia (d. 1240), also known as al-Shayj al- 2019), and the charitable institution of the Akbar and today the greatest master within the Vakuf, which the richest members of society sciences of Sufism, were expressed in Arabic supported in order to contribute to the con- and continued by others such as his disciple struction of hospitals, mosques or markets in Sadruddin Qunawi (d. 1274) or the mystic exchange for a tax reduction, the first tekiyas Mevlana Rumi (d. 1273), a close friend of Sad- or zawias (lodges of the orders) were built, as ruddin in the city of Konya, whose wisdom he well as several lodgings or schools (madrasas), cultivated in Persian (Beneito, 2017). centres from which Islam spread among the Following them we find figures such as local population (Hadzimejlic, 2008). However, Hajji Bektash (d. 1271), founder of the tariqa or the Sufi orders were also economic drivers and Sufi order of the Bektashi, and the poet Yunus contributed to the development of the guilds Emre (d. 1320), who would provide the Turkish (esnaf) of artisans and merchants, where their language’s contribution (Hirtenstein, 2014) to code of honour (futuwwa) permeated social the consolidation of the “transmission of living relations (Asceric-Todd, 2015). Sufism to our days, making it a spirituality of universal scope” (Beneito, 2017). Thus, love of Coinciding with this period of formation Ibn Arabi and Qunawi led the Bosnian Abdul- of the pioneering Sufi brotherhoods or lah Bosnevi (d. 1644) to write one of the great tariqas, one of the first Sufis to reach the commentaries in Turkish on the work of Ibn Balkan Peninsula was the 13th century Arabi, Fusus Al Hikam or The Bezels of Wis- Bektashi Sari Saltuk, decades before the dom, firmly contributing to the dissemination first Ottoman military units of Sufism. His remains lie next to the tomb of Sadruddin in Konya, near the great Rumi. The most widespread tariqas during Otto- Coinciding with this period of formation of man rule were the Halveti and the Bektashi, the pioneering Sufi brotherhoods or tariqas, one followed by the Nakshibendi, the Kadiri, and of the first Sufis to reach the Balkan Peninsula the Rifai, in terms of number of adherents was the 13th century Bektashi Sari Saltuk, and territorial distribution. All have managed decades before the first Ottoman military to survive to this day, while others, such as the units. The traveller wrote about Mevlevi, Bayrami, Melami, Sa’adi, Yalveti, him because his life was always engulfed in an Shazili and Bedevi, appeared at different stages aura of legend (Hadzimejlic, 2008). His tomb and became increasingly scarce (Hadzimejlic, is in at least seven places in the region, such as 2008). The Nakshibendi was a pioneering Blagaj, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Babadag, brotherhood that settled in the region between in Romania, and even the vicinity of Ohrid, the 15th and 17th centuries, and its areas of in Macedonia, and Kruya, in Albania, among influence were in Bosnia and Herzegovina others, all places of visit and prayer not only and Macedonia. The Bektashi, a majority in for Muslims. Albania today, had more than a hundred teki-

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Tekiya Mesudijja in Kacuni, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

yas throughout the Balkan Peninsula in 1912. syncretism towards “old practices.” This is the In the 17th century the Kaderi and Mevlevi case of the Hemzevi, located in the Drina river brotherhoods arrived, followers of the Rumi valley, whose heterodoxy, even after its prohibi- transmissions, which in a short period of time tion as an order by the Ottomans, survived in had lodges in Plodliv, Thessalonica, Skopje, the form of practices among other tariqas and Belgrade, Pecs and Sarajevo. also among the local population. The establishment of these brotherhoods In the 19th century, with the decline of the among the cultural elites was relatively fast, Ottoman Empire, in the recently recognised since most of their masters or sujuj had been new Balkan nation states there were hardly trained in the great centres of knowledge of any pockets of Islam outside of Bosnia and the time: Istanbul, , Damascus, Cairo Herzegovina. The Austro-Hungarian annexa- or Medina, whose followers included great tion did not involve the disappearance of the writers, interpreters and translators of local Sufis, who, albeit to a lesser extent, continued languages. In rural regions, the brotherhoods to maintain ties with their brotherhoods in the also played an important role in the process Islamic world. In the interwar period, with the of Islamisation, demonstrating flexibility and Muslim population of Bosnia and Herzegovina

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destined to become a minority within the king- than ever before, the freedom to choose what dom of Yugoslavia, the activity of the tariqas kind of embodied faith one wants to nurture. was further reduced if possible and, after the This is important for ethical self-formation,” as Second World War, within Tito’s Yugoslavia, it explained for this article by Zora Kostadinova, was totally prohibited. This was due to the ac- doctoral candidate at the University College of tion of the institutionalised modernist ulemas, London (UCL), where she is researching the who considered the brotherhoods archaic and ethical subjectivities and everyday practices of heretical strongholds. All the tekiyas in Bosnia the Sufis in Sarajevo. and Herzegovina were closed, although in Ko- sovo and Macedonia their activities continued, In 1974 a more “open” Yugoslavian it seems, because the masters’ houses were used constitution gave rise to the creation as lodges. The ban was maintained until the of the Association of Islamic mid-1970s and they became legal again in 1974, Orders (ZIDRA) to promote the study and when a more “open” Yugoslavian constitution practice of Sufism gave rise to the creation of the Association of Islamic Dervish Orders (ZIDRA) to promote The continuity of the Sufi chains of succes- the study and practice of Sufism. sion or bezels would probably have suffered a greater disruption if the transmission had not been so deeply rooted. For example, in the 17th Bezels and Creativity century and after a century of acting in the shadow of the Halveti, the tariqa Nakshibendi The two decades of prohibition and semi- in Bosnia and Herzegovina experienced an clandestinity of the activity of the tariqas awakening thanks to the figures of Hajj Mejli- caused significant damage to the Sufi tradition, baba and Abd al-Rahman Sirri-baba Sikirić, especially to the continuity of their chains of who established the core of the brotherhood succession (silsiah). However, these remained in central Bosnia. More than three centuries active and, in the post-socialism period, gained of continuity followed through Husayn-baba acceptance from both the religious establish- from Fojnica, educated in Kursumlija, in the ment and secularism, even after the break-up school of Sarajevo, and then in Constantinople, of Yugoslavia (1991-1995), with its terrible toll Konya, Bukhara and Samarkand. Husayn-baba, of civilian victims, forced displacements and after decades of training in the Nakshibandi migration. In the case of Bosnia and Herze- brotherhood, returned to Bosnia by order of his govina, immersed in a post-war period, there master and established the lodge in Vukeljici was a reformulation of spirituality, as noted by with a single disciple, Sirri-baba Sikirić. He Henig (2014). It was, in effect, a kind of Sufi re- became the main master of the Nakshibendi birth characterised by what the author defines order, in Bosnia, and appointed Muhammad as “creative moments” leading to a new sacred Mejli (Hajji Mejli-baba) as his successor in the topography “that unfolds by cutting across state tekiya of Vukeljici, from where the Hadzimejlic borders and ethnic identities and transcending family came, today the cradle of Sufi masters. national intimacy, while creating new bonds of Cazim Hadzimejlic, Professor of Conservation translocal amity.” “The fall of socialism also and Restoration at the Sarajevo Academy of opened the field for ‘embodying’ a new Muslim Fine Arts, and of History of Art and Archaeol- subjectivity through ritual practice such as zikr. ogy at the University of Sarajevo, is one of its This is now more available to Bosnian Muslims members. Furthermore, he is one of the great

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Sufi Ensamble Mesudijja performance, Trobada de Música del Festival Internacional Mostra Viva del Mediterrani, Valencia (Laura Pérez).

restorers of the monumental and architectural noted when speaking of the importance of heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the the neighbourhood (komsiluk). According to region, as well as a famous calligrapher. From Kostadinova (2018): “Perhaps one of the great the tekiya Mesudijja, the house whose doors postwar tragedies is exactly the disappearance are always open and whose foundations were of the forms of sociality that glued multiconfes- laid by his father, the sheik Mesud Hadzimejlic sional local communities together. The tradi- (d. 2009), affirms: “There was a disruption not tion of Sufism is important in this regard. If only because of the ban but also the confiscation you go to a Sufi lodge, you will find that at the of the lodges, foundations, property, and there- entrance of lodges there stands written: Adab fore tradition. The period of persecution lasted Ya Hu, or what the local translate as ‘Odgoji for more than one hundred and fifty years. Boze’, or ‘Oh, God render us with decency’. Today Sufism is enjoying a period of freedom For my interlocutors, to have adab was the in which the tekiyas are places where people most important achievement of their religious meet in search of spiritual cognition of God practice. Adab is an internal transformation of that is achieved through deep contemplation. character which demands a profound level of It is also essential to educate your character self-reflection in the process of transforming in order to get closer to God and reduce your oneself, which is what essentially Sufism is ego by being pleasant to others (adab), serving about. The idiom adab is very polyvalent, but others (hizmet) and following a method (usul). in the context of Sarajevo where I stayed, to ‘Come, come, whoever you are!’ said Rumi, have adab or edep (they use the Turkish form) which is no more than a divine mandate of means to show ethical standards towards every­ behaviour towards others.” one you meet. Thus, what is prioritised with Kostadinova points out that the Islam tra- adab is not the ethnic or religious affiliation of dition in Bosnia and Herzegovina has always our ‘neighbour’ but the fact that our neighbour meant honouring the “neighbour”, something is human, and also part of the larger Divine that the anthropologist Tone Bringa already manifestation.”

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The mystic Ibn Arabi called this inner as open art galleries, in which different forms contemplation “silence of the heart”. “It is of cultural transmission can be found, from an inner stillness that involves developing a works of art or calligraphy to highlighting the gaze beyond material and sensitive percep- ethnographic tradition with textiles, carpets, tion,” argues Pablo Beneito, Professor at the utensils or wrought copper works.” Department of Translation and Interpreta- tion at the University of Murcia, President of MIAS-Latina and one of the most renowned The Virtue of Observation experts in the study of the work of Ibn Arabi. Within Sufi thought and following Ibn Arabi’s Contemplation would not be possible without terminology, imagination is, as Beneito (2017) reflection and a skill or an “ear” for obser- notes, “on the one hand, the soul, understood vation. Anthropologist Larisa Jasarevic, a as the intermediate human self, subtle and professor at the University of Chicago, has dense, one and multiple, visible and invisible, spent years studying ethnography through corporeal and spiritual; and, on the other, the medicinal beekeeping in contemporary Bosnia imaginative faculty that enables opposites to and Herzegovina, often framed in Islamic and be integrated.” Interviewed for this article, Sufi understanding of the environment. Thus, Beneito explains that “the world of underlying Jasarevic explores oral transmissions concern- ideas opens a multipurpose plane of knowledge ing bees, nature and the being in correlation with open and integrating epistemological ele- with it. Today, “in rural areas of the country ments that make it, today, extremely relevant there are lands deeply marked by the recent and capable of connecting with contemporary bloodshed, and a priori useless for industrial currents of thought in which unity is perceived agriculture, where the bees and their keepers from the diversity of the singularities of the value the biological diversity of the new wild- senses. This conception arouses among Sufis a ness (divljina)” (Jasarevic, 2018) where the particular experience of the arts as mediations products (honey, pollen, propolis or royal jelly) receptive to the creative inspiration of reality.” have a medicinal value (Ibid, 2018). Natural disasters, climate change or what could be Today, “in rural areas of the country called end of the world signs have a clearly there are lands deeply marked by the ecological transmission character in Bosnian- recent bloodshed, and a priori useless for Sufi tradition, argued the author during the industrial agriculture, where the bees and interview for this article. their keepers value the biological diversity Throughout her years of research, Jasarevic of the new wildness has found permanent elements of proximity between the Sufi footprint and acceptance Meanwhile, Professor Hadzimejlic points and coexistence beyond the faith. During the out: “All of this makes tekiyas extremely inspir- interview, she highlighted two historically ing spaces. Among the Sufis there were always documented legends that, today, are a point poets, musicians, artists and scholars participat- of social communion. The first is that of Sejh ing in the life of their brotherhoods. All artists Sinan-baba, a Sufi who arrived in Bosnia in yearn to breathe soul into their works; the the 16th century either from or from practice of tesawuf allows us to reflect our souls today’s Hungary. On his long journey, he was in our works. The transmission of the historical helped and fed by a Christian peasant called legacy goes one step further. I define tekiyas Pobro, and they became like brothers in that

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meeting. Near the end of his days, Sinan-baba overcoming, a synergy that connects and does ordered that they be buried near each other not divide. A conscious effort to liberate the and that, whenever anyone visited his tomb, soul from shackles and external pressures and, they should say a prayer at the tomb of his in this sense, of improving the psyche and the “brother”. Hence the tomb (turbe) of Sinan- body,” explains Hadzimejlic. baba, near the old city of Srebrenica, place of pilgrimage and supplication, leads along a peb- In post-war Bosnian society, severely bled path to the tomb of Pobro. “A mystic and punished by the losses of loved ones and poor man united their souls,” notes Jasarevic, social ties, the Sufi practice still provides and adds that in Bosnia, throughout history, spaces of coexistence and the search for Sufism or thetariqa and sharia (Islamic law) cures for wounds beyond the war always went hand in hand because many Sufis were also imams “who brought the two paths “Sufis in particular are sensitised to forms together, like a couple holding hands.” The of interactions with jamaat members in the second legend takes us a short distance from process of terbijet or upbringing or the purifi- the place: in Canici, on the road to Tuzla, is the cation of the soul. This process is led by their tomb or turbe of the Sufi Hasan baba, which sheikh, but at times in certain encounters is difficult to reach and whose closest village they see an opportunity for self-reflection has a predominantly Catholic population. In and, through that, for character building. All its garden, the roses are cared for and candles of these things, if you will, are in one way lit. “Many of these holy places for Muslims are or another addressing some confluences of also visited by other faiths,” explains Jasarevic, the existential quest and religion, which are because “Sufism has been completely inte- not always war related, though the war is an grated into the cultural landscape of the regions important reference point for many Bosnian where these historical figures are seen among Muslims, including for many of my interlocu- the whole population, above all, as good people tors,” explains Kostadinova. “The important (evliyas).” Kostadinova recalls the Sufi saying thing to note is, they are not Sufis or Muslims, Ko u ovaj saraj svrati, hljeb mu dajte za vjeru because they suffered war. This would be a ga ne pitajte (To those who come to this city, very reductionist approach, and not reflecting give them bread and don’t ask them about their reality. They love their faith. But it is true to faith). Another example she mentions is the say that in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina a zikr (the ritual) when the salawat (blessings) community gathered around a Sufi lodge does are recited, which mention Jesus in their chain indeed have a very positive social function,” she of prophetic succession: “On 31 December, the adds. Beneito comments: “On my visits to the Sufis have a whole evening programme devoted country I see a living Sufi community, full of to Jesus’ birth (Isaiah) often attended by non- young people, with a certain traditionalist char- Muslim visitors.” acter, but integrationist and open to dialogue, In post-war Bosnian society, severely pun- that foresees the monolithic interpretation of ished by the losses of loved ones and social religion.” Hadzimejlic, meanwhile, notes: “The ties, the Sufi practice still provides spaces of tekiya contemplates the human being, but for a coexistence and the search for cures for wounds complete understanding an approach through beyond the war. “The tekiya provides a form spirituality is necessary. Only then is it possible of enlightenment, hope and willingness, to establish the earthly dialogue that nourishes strength, encouragement of work and personal the soul and, in this way, helps the body.”

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As to whether Sufism in the region is going tity and Community in a Central Bosnian Vil- through a golden age or its manifest practice lage, Princeton University Press, 1995. risks losing its authenticity, these are open Hadzimejlic, C., “Tesavuuf u Bošnjaka, tradicija questions. It is partly what has happened to i kontinuitet”, Zbornik radova naucnog skupa certain manifestations, today listed as intan- Islamska tradicija bosnjaka: izvori, razvoj i insti- gible cultural heritage of humanity, such as tucije, perspektive, Sarajevo, 2008, http://iitb. ba/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/zbornik_ra- the dance of the whirling dervishes of Konya dova_sa_simpozijuma_xlt.pdf called Semáa. “Expectations are high, as are the Henig, D., “Tracing creative moments. The emer- assessments because of Sufi’s visibility today,” gence of translocal dervish cults in Bosnia-Herze- notes Jasarevic. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, in govina”, Focaal. Journal of Global and Historical the house of the open door, the Semáa is also Anthropology, 69, 2014, pp. 97-110. practised. Sometimes manifestly, and even Hirtenstein, S., “Hajji Bayram and the Early Ot- participating in events such as the Mostra Viva toman Tradition”, University of Oxford, Depart- del Mediterrani held in Valencia in 2019, and ment for Continuing Education, https://open. sometimes in the gloom of an intimate liturgi- conted.ox.ac.uk/resources/documents/week- cal ceremony that fades into the Bosnian night 2-hajji-bayram-and-early-ottoman-tradition when the voices are silenced. When only the Jasarevic, L., Can Honeybees Teach Us How to Live? A flicker of the lamp remains, showing the way different way of thinking and working with bees may help us survive on a damaged planet, https://www. to the door. sapiens.org/culture/apiaries-beekeeping-bosnia/ Kostadinova, Z., “An Education of the Heart: Reviv- al of Sufism in Bosnia-Herzegovina”, Maydan, an Bibliography online publication of Vural Ak Center for Glob- al Islamic Studies at George Mason University, Asceric-Todd, I., Dervishes and Islam in Bosnia: 2018, https://www.themaydan.com/2018/01/ Sufi Dimensions to the Formation of Bosnian education-heart-revival-sufism-bosnia-... Muslim Society, Leiden, Brill, 2015. Schimmel, A., Las dimensiones místicas del islam, Beneito, P., Jayal. La imaginación creadora. El Madrid, Trotta, 2002. sufismo como fuente de inspiración, catalogue of Tatlic, I., “Islamska arhitektura i siromastvo. Koris- the exhibition at Casa Árabe, Madrid, 1 December tenje socijalnih resursa kao arhitektonske strategije 2016 to 5 March 2017. za ruralno i urbano siromastvo”, Kelamu’l Sifa’ Br, Bringa, T., Being Muslim the Bosnian Way: Iden- 52-53-54, 2019.

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