Mostar in Turkish poetry of XVII century
Mostar in Turkish poetry of XVII century

Summary/Abstract: Beside Sarajevo, the town about which several poems had been written so far. (M. Handžić, “Sarajevo u turskoj pjesmi”, Glasnik IVZ, Sarajevo, 1943., No. 7-12; O. Mušić, “Jedna turska pjesma o Sarajevu iz XVII vijeka”, Prilozi III-IV, Sarajevo, 1952-53, pp. 575-587). Mostar is also a town, that our people wrote poetry about in Turkish. Along with Sarajevo and its mosques, schools, public baths, libraries, gasthouses and water supplies – Mostar become one of the most prominent towns of Herceg-Bosna and gave relatively the largest number of learned man and poets. Dr. Safet-beg Bašagić along with biographical data on life and work of the famous poet of Mostar Derviš-pasha Bajezidagić published among others also his eulogy about Mostar and eight freely translated verses. (Dr. Safet- -beg Bašagić, Bošnjaci i Hercegovci u islamskoj književnosti, Sarajevo, 1912, pp. 39-50). He published (nazire) from the parallel Derviš-pasha ode of Mostar only two verses of the ode “by someone called Derviš-efendi of Mostar” without any additional coments. (Detto, pp. 43-87). In this work both poems, by the two Dervišes on Mostar, in such a way that the ode by Derviš-pasha Bajezidagić had nine and not eight lines, as Bašagić had published. As a comparison to the ode by Derviš-pasha, the poem about Mostar by hajji Derviš-efendi has also nine lines. Comparing these two pices about Mostar one can say and conclude that hajji Derviš-efendis’ poem about Mostar is as good as Derviš-pashas’, considering descriptions and the beauty of the language. One can see it from the text and translation of both poems. Although, Bašagić thought that Derviš-efendis’ “lags behind its paragon, and that it is not getting anywhere near it” is unfounded. With these two poems, a poem about Mostar by the so far unknown poet Tabije of Mostar was published. There are 13 lines of the same metre (el-hezeg) just as the poems by two Dervišes, and by description and beauty of the language is nothing less beautiful than poetry of the two mentioned above. The famous arched bridge over Neretva River in Mostar was especially mentioned in all three poems. This bridge, which is an attraction in Mostar, even today, inspired also a poet called Medjatija, who wrote some truely beautiful verses about it. As Medjatijas’ poem is full of alegorys and metaphores of hardly understandable abstract comparison. It was probably the reason why Bašagić did not even try to translate Medjatijas poetry. For Medjatijas’ poetry Bašagić said, that his poetriy is “a truely mysterious metaphores” (Detto, p. 56). There are seventeen lines, most part of which is the detailed description of the bridge and only a smaller number of them is difficult to understand, becouse of the picturesque comperations. This was probably the reason why Bašagić so deffinitely rejected Medjatija as a poet.

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