Great Bosnian mystics

In stories about mystics from the past of Bosnia and Herzegovina, stories about saints (evlija) are especially interesting, the people regarded the stories to be dedicated to people and they made up legends about their powers.  Allegedly, they possessed the ability of astral travel through time, as well as the ability to dematerialise.

When we talk about this, the most interesting characters are yellow Hafiz and Muslihudin Čakrkčija.

If a man would find himself in captivity or exile, saints would help them with their mystical powers to go back to their country. According to legends, yellow Hafiz would suddenly appear at the place where the certain person dwelt and would simply ask of the person to stand on his feet and close his eyes. When he would be allowed to look again, he would see that he is home.

Čakrčija demonstrated his abilities in a similar fashion, but his goal wasn't returning imprisoned or lost persons, but something completely different.

Namely, he wouldn't go to the mosque during the afternoon prayer, instead he receded in his chambers and he would lock himself away. When he would be asked for the reason, he explained that he would transfer himself to Mecca with his powers and he would pray there.

Parts of the legend which speak of their powers of clairvoyance and divination are also interesting. By the way, in the texts which speak of saints, little is written about the kind of attitude the religious followers had, when it came to the saints and their activities, i.e. when the starting point are the principles of Islamic religion.

A certain Ibrahim Bistrigija, from the dervish ranks, is one of those which were known by their prophetic gift. Among other things, he predicted his death. He was once invited to a feast, he promised that he will come but that he will not eat. And so it was. Namely, his dead body was brought before the emperors mosque in Sarajevo, where the guests of the feast had to move because of the rain.

In the records the book called Ilmidžifl is often mentioned, with whose help one can predict, down to a minute, someone's death.

The familiar yellow Hafiz, also, possessed a prophetic gift. There is an interesting event, which somehow represents an anecdote, during which this ability manifested. Once a few jokesters called him to perform a funeral prayer. But, instead of a deceased, they planted a live man. Hafiz tried to reject the call since he knew no good would come out of it. But, he didn't succeed in turning it down. Considering that the Hafiz prayer, like the saints, had special power, the man that they planted in the grave actually died during the prayer.

A similar story exists about a certain Mustafa Ejubović, known as sheikh Jujo. This man was known in Mostar of that time as someone who precisely predicts future events. One day, a wanton young men which didn't believe that sheikh Jujo possesses supernatural abilities, conspired to test him and ridicule him. They invited him to perform a funeral prayer. One of the men laid down in the coffin. Once they lined up to perform the prayer, sheikh Jujo turned around and coldly asked: "Are we saying this prayer for an alive or a dead man?" The men looked at each other confused, but one of them spoke up: "to a dead man".

When the prayer was finished they all moved towards the coffin. The young men were ready to laugh and ridicule sheikh Jujo, but the scene they saw caused everything but laughter. Their friend still laid in the coffin, but this time, dead.

Decades after the death of Mustafa Ejubović, his grave was visited by people which truly believed in mystic powers of that place.

Prophecies of Hasan Kaimija and Gajgus are also interesting. The former predicted a large accident that will strike Sarajevo. Because of unruly behaviour, Kaimija was expelled from the city according to the evaluation of the authorities of that time. Therefore the prophecy could be interpreted as a kind of anger. However, it really happened. In the years that followed, Sarajevo experienced a few different disasters which brought great human and material damage.

Serbs and Turks are one and the same people

After the battle at Kosovo 1389, when the Ottomans completely defeated the Serbian army, which lead to a catastrophic reduction of the male population, something took place which forever changed that people in its entirety. According to claims of historians in the entire Serbia there were only 200 thousand men left. Defeated and destroyed, Serbs became a part of the grand Ottoman empire and so suffered the worst fate of a looser. After the victory the Ottomans ruled over Serbia and in the long history of 500 years in entirety they changed the demographic image of the country. Namely, Turkish soldiers married Serbian women and girls or even raped them which resulted in every other child in Serbia, having a Turk as a father. That's why there is not one family in Serbia which doesn't have Turkish genes in their heritage. All of this unquestionably reflected in the physical appearance of the Serbian people which is very similar to the Turkish people which is especially evident in the facial features, namely, a larger part of the population has dark hair and eyes, just like the Turks. Because of this historical but also genetic connectedness, everything that was Turkish  became an inseparable part of the Serbian identity from the Turkish cuisine, language, music and even mentality.  

 

Today when you compare Serbs and Turks, besides physical similarity, you will notice some important links: both people are extremely nationalistically driven, both people strive for creating Grand Turkey i.e. Grand Serbia, both people do not accept minorities, both people committed genocide which they deny - over Armenians and Bosniaks, both people are trying to assimilate other people around them, both people pretend to be great religious people, both people claim other's cultural heritage as their own, etc. There are too many similarities in order to conclude something else instead of that they are brothers i.e. same people.

 

Bosniaks - one of the best genetically preserved people in Europe

 

Luckily, Bosniaks didn't have the same fate under the Ottoman rule since by converting to Islam they were spared all of the negative events which struck the Serbian people. Today, out of historical but also genetic research we know that Bosniaks are one of the rare European people which can brag with a large percentage of racial purity. This was noticed long time ago by Karl Steiner, doctor in Ljubinja, which in his work "Bosnian folk medicine" writes the following: "Bodily the tall man from Bosnia and Herzegovina represents undoubtedly the most beautiful type of South Slavic-Illyrian racial mixture. He is taller from his neighbours in Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia, his chest are powerfully kept, musculature firm and hinged; smooth or weak curly, brown or dark hair and black eyes we see among the members of all three religions, but as often brothers are similar but yet different, similarly our Muslims, Orthodox and Christians show certain characteristics, which through centuries came about due to mixture in breeding. For example among the Christians and Muslims the iris of the eyes is mostly light, often blue or yellowish, while eyes among the Orthodox are usually darker, often black. Among the Muslim and Catholic children one can often see light blue hair, soft, skin white as milk, generally typical Aryan type, but the hair and skin colour will darken bit by bit, while these characteristic among the Orthodox are rare."

 

Unlike the extremely large genetic mixture between Serbs and Ottomans in Serbia, in Bosnia and Herzegovina there is a completely different situation about which Ćiro Truhelka, archaeologist and historian, wrote the following in his anthropological study:

 

"Endogamy was among the Bosniaks (Muslims in Bosnia) so strict, that in my time I knew a dozen Bey families, which intermarried and they wouldn't allow in their harem women which were out of this circle, though they were from the best homes. Because of the mentioned reasons mixed marriages between the Ottoman and Bosnian Muslims were extremely rare and without evident effect on shaping the race."

Endogamy and with it harem enclosure were the most successful measure of protection of racial element in Bosnia, and I believe that I can say, that rare ethnic groups in Europe managed to preserve their identity like the Bosniaks in Bosnia. The merit goes to harem exclusivity, which in this case preserved racial characteristics of the forefathers. Similarly it is familiar that  there was antagonism between the Bosnian Muslims and Ottomans and that the Bosniaks dreaded from marrying their daughters to so called Turkuše (superlative of Turk), that antagonism often gained a dangerous political form, and was the cause of revolts.      

Die Bohnenlegung

Wahrsagung mit Hilfe von 41 weißen Bohnen wird in Bosnien und Herzegowina bacanje graha, falanje u grah oder ogledanje u grah genannt. Jemand der sich mit der Wahrsagerei beschäftigt wird faladžinica für eine Frau genannt, bzw. wen es sich um einen Wahrsager handelt, beläuft sich der Name auf faladžija. Das Wort falanje stammt aus dem persischen Wort fal und bedeutet Vermutungen oder Hinweis.

Wahrsagung mit Hilfe der Bohnen (favomancija) ist ein Teil der Tradition dieses Landes. Es wird angenommen das die Abstammung zurück auf die Ilyren folgt die Anstelle von Bohnen damals Knochen von Vögeln auf den besetzten Boden warfen um das Schicksal zu bestimmen. Es ist interessant festzustellen, dass noch in Bosnien es Menschen gibt die Bohnen werfen allerdings das Schicksal nach der Position der Bohnen lesen.

In der bosnischen Tradition der Weissagung von Bohnen wird der Fatima zugeordnet, der Tochter des Propheten Mohammed die sich mit dieser Fähigkeit heimlich interessiert und beschäftigt hat. Aber bei einer Gelegenheit, trat Mohammed unerwartet in ihr Zimmer, gerade in einem Moment wo Sie das Schicksal ihrer Freundin vorhergesagt hat. Vor großer Überraschungen hatte Fatima nur eine Hälfte der Bohnen unter ihrem Kleid verstecken können, während die andere Hälfte blieb. Wie es Mohammed sah, sagte er ihr: "Möge es dir halbe Wahrheit und halb falsch sein". Seit dieser Zeit glaubte man, dass es in einer Hälfte die Wahrheit ist und in der anderen Hälfte Lüge.


Dazu benötigt man als erstes 41 weiße Bohnen und ein rotes Stofftuch. Es wird angenommen, dass aus der Zeit der Illyrer die rote Farbe vor bösen Blicken schützt, bringt Glück und Gesundheit. Deshalb werden die Bohnen auf diesem roten Tuch gelegt um der Person das Schicksal vorherzusehen und Sie vor dem schlechten Schicksal zu schützen.

Eine Person die Weissagung übt, nimmt die Bohnen in die rechte Hand über denen, und wird dreimal ein Gebet aus dem Koran wiederholen. Meist ist es Al Fatiha, dessen Gebet eine Hingabe (Geschenk) für die Seele von Fatima ist. Auf diese Weise kommt die Hilfe bei der Vorhersage und deshalb gilt Sie als Patronin der Wahrsagerei. Die Bohnen werden dann auf die Oberfläche des Tisches abgesenkt und der rechte Arm wurde dreimal im Uhrzeigersinn gemischt und zugleich wird die Frage gestellt.

Der Wahrsager wird nach dem Zufallsprinzip 3 kleinere Stapel von Bohnen bilden, gleiche Größe. Aus jedem Stapel werden 4 Bohnen entnommen bis zum Ende es dann 4, 3, 2 oder 1 Bohnen bleibt die vor sich gelekt wird. Das gleiche wird mit dem zweiten und dritten Stapel wiederholt.

Auf diese Weise wird die erste Zeile gebildet, die aus 5 oder 9 Körnern bestehen kann (221, 122, 212, 131 oder 333, 324, 243, 441).

Wenn die erste Zeile gebildet wird, werden die restlichen Körner zusammen auf einem Stapel geführt von denen wieder 3 kleineren Stapeln gebildet. Aus denen werden 4 entnommen und die zweite Reihe entsteht Das gleiche Verfahren wird für die Bildung der dritten Ordnung wiederholt. Es muss erwähnt werden das von der ersten bis zweiten und dritten Reihe nur 4, 8 oder 12 Körner rauskommen kann (112, 121, 242, 233, 413, 444).

Der Rest von Körnen wird unter der dritten Reihe gelegt, aber die separat 4 Körner Gruppen bilden. Diese nennt man hatma. Die Wahrsagung beginnt mit der Zählung der hatma um herauszufinden wie viele es sind, weil jeder seine eigene Bedeutung hat. Zum Beispiel:

122
233
431
44444

Hier im Beispiel haben wir 6 hatma (4)

234
413
242
4444

Hier im Beispiel haben wir 7 hatma


Bedeutung des Stapels von 4 Körnern (hatma):

5 hatma: Glück, kommende Nachrichten, Aktion
6 hatma: für eine Frau, Trauer und Schmerz
7 hatma: ein Zeichen des Fortschritts und Förderung
8 hatma: für Männer Trauer und Schmerz
9 hatma: Glück, Erfüllung, großes Glück. Wen aber neun vierer kommen, dann wird die Wahrsagung unterbrochen.

Das beschriebene Verfahren zur Bildung von drei Reihen wird dreimal für die Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft durchgeführt. Auf diese Weise wird ein detailliertes Bild von dem Schicksal der Person wahrgesagt. Die Zahl für die Vorhersage besteht aus drei Reihen:

Erste Reihe symbolisiert der Kopf das Denken, die Gedanken, Hoffnungen und Erwartungen.

Zweite Reihe symbolisiert das Herz und stellt die Gefühle, das Potenzial und die Lust.

Dritte Reihe symbolisiert die Tür und präsentiert das Ereignis, An- und Abreise.

Vertikale auf der linken Seite ist eine Frau, die Mitte das Haus und rechts der Mann.

Beispiel:
212
341
112

Für den Fall, dass das Schicksal der Frau prophezeit wird, dann wird es von links nach rechts interpretiert bzw. die Zahlen 212, 341, 112. Ist der Kunde ein Mann dann deuten die Zahlen von rechts nach links 212, 143, 211.
Durch die Analyse der Bohnen kann der Wahrsager viele wichtigen Informationen bekannt geben. Ob der Kunde unter dem Einfluss der schwarzen Magie steckt, ob er heiratet, bekommen er einen neuen Job, reisen er, wird krank bis zu einer Beschreibung einer dritten Person, und so weiter.

Über die Wahrsagerei über Bohnen gibt es viele Überzeugungen in Bosnien wie folgt:

Es wird schlecht empfunden wen die Wahrsagung nicht bezahlt wird, weil sonst es nicht passiert, nicht in Erfüllung geht.
Wer die Bohnen essen tut, wird nicht viel Erfolgt in dieser Art von Wahrsagerei haben.
Die zur Weissagung benutzten Bohnen dürfen nicht gekocht und gegessen werden, weil sonst es zu Streit im Haus kommt.