The Peculiarities of Language and Contents of the Waqufnama of Mostar

Abstract

Among the rare, well-preserved original manuscripts of waqufnamas from the earlier period of the Ottoman rule in the Yugoslavlands, a collection of the waqufnamas from Mostar which are kept in Ghazi Husref-bey's library in Sarajevo, has a very special place.

The present author pointed out certain peculiarities in the contents of the waqufnamas written in the second half of the XVIth century, in comparison with other waqufnamas from other parts of the Yugoslav lands from the same period.

The author, primarily, emphasized the fact that those waqufnamas were written in a fine, correct Arabic, in a natural, in a concise manner, without any unnecessary additions, at the time when the Arabic language had long since been going through the stage of decadence on its original territory. It has especially been pointed out, that both, introductory parts of the waqufnama, which by its nature had been written in carefully picked words and in a pompous style, and all other parts, in which it was difficult to achieve the same style since the subject-matter which consisted of the object of the waquf required the vocabulary for common, everyday use and the simple style of writing, were written in the same style. There is no monotony or dryness of the style, but they keep the attention of the reader b their simple but forceful sentences, as if a literary work and not a waqufnama were in question! All the above has been illustrated by the author's reviews of some parts of those waqufnamas in his own translation into Serbo-Croatian. Pointing out those parts of the waqufnamas in which the reminiscences of the waqif on the life in this world, its transistorizes and worthlessness, about man's place in it, and the eternity of the other world, all of which were an introduction for the very act of the creation of the waquf, which was to make the memory of the waqif eternal the present author believes that such meditations, interwoven with the quotations from the Koran and the sayings of Muhammed, as well as the sayings taken from the wealth of Oriental-Islamic treasury, give the mentioned waqufnamas the character of the specific literary texts. At this point, the author, in order to corroborate his statements, has given the certain parts of the texts of the waqufnamas in his own translation into Serbo-Croatian.

The collection of these waquf-namas, with their specific institutions, greatly enlarged our knowledge on the role and place of the waquf in the communities in which they had been founded.

The characteristic attitudes and the institutions that give special features to these waqufnamas, had, mostly, caritative, educational and social, legal and cultural character.

In order to illustrate certain attitudes the author indicated that the waqufnama of Ćejvan-ćehaja from 961 after Hijrah, besides the usual requirements about the professional training of the teacher (mualim) in Ćejvan-ćehaja's elementary religious school (mekteb) in Mostar, it is said that the teacher must “always smile, be kind and gentle”, and as for the mualim of his mekteb in Gabela, among

other things, there was a requirement, that during the teaching of his pupils how to read the Koran, he should “treat all his pupils as father treats his children, without discriminating in any way”. Ćejvan-ćehaja also planned to have two dirhems put aside from the waquf funds daily, and with that money buy fruit every week for the pupils. In theses on in which no fruit could be obtained, sweets were to be bought and distributed to the pupils of his mekteb in Mostar, on Thursdays afternoon, i. e., on the eve of the weekly holiday.

Another caritative institution regulated by Ćejvan-ćehaja's waqufnamas was the slaughtering of ten fat rams, every year for Kurban-bayram, and the meat was to be distributed exclusively to the poor, after the Bayram prayer in the courtyard of the waqif's mosque in Mostar.

It is of special interest to notice the regulation of Ćejvan-ćehaja's waqufnama, that his waquf was to contribute towards the state Ottoman tax - “avariz”, which was supposed to be paid by the Moslem households in town regardless of the part of town in which they lived.

Probably the unique instance in the history of the waqufs in general, was the regulation, which was also the part of Ćejvan-ćehaja's waqufnama, that every five years, the sum of 3.000 akchas from his funds would be given to a person so that he could go for pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, under the condition that such a person had previously performed the pilgrimage as his religious obligation. The heart of the matter lied in the fact that the religious obligation of the waqif, which was exclusively private in character, as well as the fact that huge waquf-funds were being given for that purpose for decades, had been regulated by the text of the waqufnama, and not by the text of his last will.

The waqufnama of Derviš-Pasha Bajezidagić occupies a very special place among the waqufnamas from Mostar. Among the works he had given to his waquf: manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and Turkish (1010 by Hijrah), one work had been the well-known tesawuf-work Matnawi, in Persian, written in 25.700 verses by

Gelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), as well as the comment on the work in Persian in six volumes, by Muslihuddin Mustafa, known by the name of Sururi (U:91-1562). lt should be pointed out that the volumes III, IV, V and VI of the comment were written by the hand of the author, while volumes I and II were written in someone else's hand, with the remark that both those volumes were corrected and· authorised by Sururi himself. The appearance of Matnawi and its comment was at that time an important event for the cultured circles of Mostar, and the present author tried to offer some observations of his own in connection with the mentioned event.