The Donji Vakuf Mejmua

Abstract

The paper presents a manuscript notebook – the mejmua from the Oriental Collection in the Archives of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb No. 1470, written in Donji Vakuf in the first half of the 19th century.

The owner and copyist of the major part of the text was, most likely, Salih Poričanin. The paper emphasises the importance of the mejmua for the overall cultural history, particularly the regional and local history both on micro- and macro-levels. In this context, Bosnian mejmuas abound in information of various contents.

The presented notebook was written in a number of variants of the Arabic script, containing prose and rhymed texts in the Arabic, Turkish and Bosnian languages.

Besides the text content, the paper especially highlights: notes on customs of giving presents to newborn children and writing down the dates of birth in the family, the content of the private library is identified, a will by a Donji Vakuf woman Zejneba, daughter of Muhamed effendi.

At the end of the notebook are translations of three turkiya: of Banja Luka, Buda, and Zvornik. All the three poems were inspired by historical events. The Banja Luka and Buda poems do not mention the name of the author(s), while the author of the Zvornik poem is a little known poet Beg-zade.

The approach in presenting this cultural monument was guided by a primary need to stress the themes of the content in order to make easier the access to information and thematic approach for researchers into specific areas. This is the first presented medžmua written in Donji Vakuf.