BOOGEYLAND RESERVATION

Rhodes, Anthony. Where the Turk trod : a journey to Sarajevo with a Slavonic Mussulman 

Weidenfeld and Nicolson

London

1956

 

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CHAPTER XIII

 

GRADUAL RELAXATION IN BOSNIA OF THE STRICTNESS OF MAHOMMEDANISM—DIFFICULTY FOR A MAHOMMEDAN TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS—DEVICES FOR OBTAINING INTEREST— BIHAC—KRUPA— NOVI —TRAPPIST MONASTERY—HOT SPRINGS OF SLATINA—PRYNJAVOR—KARA-VLACHI—DERVENT

 

As we drove into Bihac we witnessed a sight full of prophetic meaning. On the outskirts of the town stands an Orthodox church, with a graveyard adjoining, and, close by it we met an old Turk driving a cart, laden with tombstones and Christian crosses. Our own driver, a Turk also, seemed as much impressed as we were. A few years ago such a thing would have been absolutely impossible. No Mahommedan would have so lowered himself. ! Now it is but one of many signs that the strictness of their religion is breaking down. Under the Turkish rule no swine were allowed to be kept. Now many of the Begs, although they will not keep them themselves, encourage their kmets to do so, and take the money resulting from their sale; and there is one wealthy Turk, who, I am told, does not scruple to keep them openly himself.

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In like manner the Koran forbids the drinking of wine, but the emancipated Turk, not only in Bosnia, but wherever he is brought into contact with Western manners, finds an easy excuse wherewith to quiet his conscience. He will not drink wine, but he will drink beer, or brandy, or whiskey, or any other form of alcohol, because the Prophet only forbade the drinking ofwine. These other drinks were not known when he was alive, and it was therefore not possible for him to forbid them. During a voyage from Port Said to Aden I shared a cabin with an Albanian, an officer in the Turkish army. We became friends at. once ; for, said he, “The Scotch and the Albanians are brothers. Are we not both mountaineers; and do we not both love whiskey?” It turned out that he had loved it only too well. He was seized one day, with a sudden and violent illness. I asked if 1 could do anything to help him, seeing that he was in great pain, ” No,” he said quite frankly, ” I am afraid not. 1 am suffering from alcoholic indigestion. I have drunk a great deal in my life.”-

It is inevitable that the Bosnian Mahommedans must, under the new conditions, lose their proud position, and become mere herdsmen and hamals, or porters. They are seldom capable of business. Either they are exceedingly frugal and unenter prising, or if they break away from their tenets and traditions, they become dissolute and reckless,

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and squander their wealth in every kind of foolish ness. Some of the Bosnian Turks, it is true, have tried to advance with the times, and one or two have amassed considerable wealth ; but the majority have not progressed, and I do not believe they ever will. The principles of their religion preclude any hope of their being able to compete upon equal terms with’ other traders, and trade, in itself, is repugnant to them. In the Pathan villages, even those of the most fanatical tribes, a certain number of Hindu traders are always tolerated. They open up trade with other places, and save the Pathans the necessity of trafficking themselves,

or of engaging in anything but agriculture and war.

I will take one instance only of the diffi culties that lie in the way of a Mahommedan becoming a successful merchant. Usury is strictly forbidden, and a believer ought not, therefore, to

put his money into a bank, or into any investment which will pay him interest. The injunction is clear ; there is no escaping from it, ” They who devour usury shall not arise from the dead, but as he ariseth whom Satan hath infected by a touch.

This shall happen to them because they say, ‘ truly selling is but as usury.’” And wherever Mahommedanism is maintained in its integrity this precept is rigidly complied with. It is so, for instance, in Afghanistan , and all along our north western

Indian frontier. A Pathan once consulted me how

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he should recover some money he had lent of which he could not obtain repayment. I advised him to bring a suit for it, with interest, which, as the money had been long due, would have amounted to nearly as much as the original debt. But he would not do this, ” I am a Mahommedan,” he said, “and cannot take interest. I only want my money back.” And when he brought his suit, he did so only for the exact sum he had lent. In India proper, where for years they have mingled with the Hindus, and with Europeans, they have no such scruples ; and in Bosnia , I found they have means, if they are so minded, of evading the strict letter of the law. They will not charge interest, but they contrive to obtain an exorbitant return for their money in other ways. A man will give another, say a sheep worth five guldens, on the condition that he is to receive an oka of butter, worth one gulden, every year till a sheep is returned to him ; so that he is really getting twenty per cent, for his money. Or a man will lend a certain sum to another, who gives him a receipt for it accompanied by a promise to buy from him a gold watch, at an agreed price. When the money is repaid, the watch is paid for also, but is never delivered. Or there is a third way. It is forbidden to lend money at interest, but it is not forbidden to be a partner in a particular enterprise, and to share the profits that may accrue from it. This is frequently done.

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Still, these are all awkward devices, utterly unsuited to the requirements of modern trade, and the bulk of a Turk’s money, unless he puts it into land, is obliged to lie idle. Not long ago, one of the wealthiest of the Begs became insane, and when the Government took charge of his property, a great deal of money was found buried under the floor of his house, in the same way that treasure is kept lying unproductively in the Palace vaults of man)’ an Indian Nawab. Under the pressure of Western competition all these restrictions are beginning- now to break down. Many of the Bosnian Mahommedans will openly take interest, and have no hesitation in depositing their money in the Banks. I know one personally who has money invested in the Savings Bank at Serajevo. All this points to the likelihood of a gradual reconversion to Christianity. The taste for luxury has been acquired, the old simple ways and manners are dying out, and it is galling- to a people who have once been dominant to feel them selves sinking step by step into the position of menials. They see that under the conditions of modern life, wealth alone can retain them in position and influence and power.

What, therefore, is more probable than that the younger generation should, one by one, abandon a religion which handicaps them so enormously. Mr. Evans’ forecast of a general reconversion has not as yet come true ; in great measure, I think, because the Austrians, with the

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hope of being able to support themselves by Mahommedan aid against the Slay population, which is to them such an unceasing perplexity and trouble, have treated the Mahommedans with greater consideration than the Christians, and so have preserved to them their feeling of pride, and to a certain extent, their sense of predominance. Mr. Evans, writing before the occupation, said “The nobles of Bosnia , whether Christian or Mahommedan, seem always to have valued their interests as a caste more highly than the creed they professed. Their tyranny has, on the whole, been more the tyranny of a caste than a creed. At the time of the Turkish conquest of Bosnia the forefathers of the present Begs renegaded for the most part, from a Puritan form of Christianity, and accepted the creed of their conquerors rather than sacrifice their possessions. There is indeed no prospect of such a severe alter native being placed before the Bosnian Begs at the present time, but there can be no doubt that even if it be for the sake of their social position, many of the Begs, if they must bow before the Giaour, will accept his creed. For them to-day, as at the moment of Turkish conquest, the chief anxiety is as to their position as a noblesse. Their rank secured, their future, political and religious, becomes quite a secondary consideration.” Hitherto, the Austrian policy has been to keep the Turks apart from the rest of the people, and to prevent any such religious amalgamation, rather than to encourage it. So

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the Turks, being as they are, the most favoured portion of the community, have, at the present moment no active motive for change ; but I have endeavoured to show that the change is nevertheless coming, not from pressure from without, but from far more permanent, though more gradual, influences from within. Before the occupation the manners of all the people, rich as well as poor, were frugal and simple, and the necessity for money was but little felt. But now that the Mahommedans have luxury all and have, to a certain extent, indulged in it them selves, they will be unable to do without it; and in a contest between desire and principle, desire generally prevails if the contest be but sufficiently prolonged. And there are many things that make it hard for a conscientious Mahommedan to succeed in business. His religious observances alone take up so much valuable time. Five times a day he must go to the mosque to pray. How is it possible for a man to

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compete with others in the face of such interruptions as that ? Moreover, the whole teaching of the Koran is against the spirit of modern trade. So too is that of Christianity, But, as a rule, in com mercial matters, Mahommedans conform to what their religion teaches them, while Christians frequently do not. Certain precepts of the Prophet have molded the lives of his followers, and purified their everyday dealings. All over Bosnia a Mahommedan’s word may be trusted in matters of buying and selling. He is bloodthirsty and treacherous, and cruel, but he will not lie, or cheat, or steal. Go into the Caršija in Serajevo, and buy from a Christian or a Jew, and you must haggle with him, for you may be sure that he will ask you three or four times the proper price, but it is not necessary to do so when you are buying from a Turk for he will ask you only the real value of what he is selling. ” Woe be unto those who give short measure or weight. Who when they receive by measure from other men take the full, but when they measure unto them, or weigh unto them, defraud. Let not these think they shall be | raised again at the Great Day, the clay whereon mankind shall stand before the Lord of all creatures. By no means.”

 

The Bridge of Mostar p. 47

 

There is still some argument about the origin of this bridge, thisStarimost. Popular Christian opinion attributes it to Trajan or Hadrian; while the Moslems, outraged that such heaven-sent inspiration should have originated in the head of a ghiaour, name the Sultan Suleiman, known to the Faithful as ‘The Magnificent’, as its author, contending that he built it in the year 974 of Hegira (or A.D. 1566 in our reckoning). The present authorities are anxious to conciliate both opinions-for the government is trying to bring the Christians and Moslems together-and they have struck a happy medium, arguing that the bridge, though clearly of Roman design, is made of material which is equally clearly Moslem; that it was built by the Romans but fell in the fourteenth century-to be rebuilt on the old plan by the Infidel.