The Bosniak National Awakening (), also known as the Bosniak Revival () or Bosniak Renaissance (), is a period in history of the Bosniak people in which the Bosniaks and their intellectual front gathered together to stop the assimilation of their culture, language, people and country during the rise of Serb and Croat irredentism while being under Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and Yugoslav rule. The National Awakening traces its roots to the 17th century but had been commonly adapted in the 19th and 20th century.
Origins Bosnian uprisings (1831–1850)
The Muslim Bosniaks had felt a sense of betrayal from the Turkish Muslims, furthermore the abolishment of the ayan system which had been practiced by most of the Muslim elite, this upon territorial losses to Serbia, Austria and Montenegro in the last two centuries, foreign governors the Bosniaks started to develop a sentiment against the reformist Sultan Mahmud II which would lead to the First Bosnian Uprising in 1831 led by Husein-kapetan Gradaščević, who demanded Bosnian Autonomy, return of the 6 nahiye and Bosniak governors within the Eyalet, due to his patriotism, charisma and military victories he would receive the name Zmaj od Bosne (English:Dragon of Bosnia). Gradaščević's uprising had resulted in a defeat mainly due to loyalist in Herzegovina such as Ali-paša Rizvanbegović and Smail-aga Čengić, but the Bosniaks would lead another uprising in 1850 which started after Omer Pasha Latas had read the new ferman, the Bosniaks would rebel in Krajina, Posavina and Central Bosnia all of whom were brutally defeated, Omer Pasha Latas would take on several murders of the Bosniak Muslim Elite, the ones who were not murdered were arrested and sent to Constantinople. This would lead to a catastrophy in Bosnian society, and due to this Bosniaks would fall under assimilation of the Serbs and Croats as the Bosniak Muslim nobility were the only ones mainly educated on their ethnic origins, linguistics and their national identity. Even Ali-paša Rizvanbegović, a Bosniak who was on the side of the Ottoman Sultan against Gradaščević had been one of the ones murdered by Latas.
In literature
The Bosnian language has had a very developed poetry during this period, it also has one of the oldest dictionaries out of all the South Slavic people published in 1631 by Muhamed Hevaji Uskufi Bosnevi. Bosniaks such as the Sufi mystic Abdulvehab Ilhamija from Žepče, who had been a very educated man and published several literary works in Bosnian, Persian, Arabic and Turkish criticised the rule of the new Bosnian beylerbey Dželaludin-paša (Turkish:Celaludin Pasha) as a cruel ruler of Bosnia and the people and for his corruption. For this public criticism Dželaludin-paša invited Ilhamija to come to his home from Žepče to Travnik. Ilhamija walked by foot, where what happened to Ilhamija is uncertain. Dželaludin-paša had requested that he renounce his criticism of whim which he denied, in Bosniak legend he was either strangled or decapitated in the Travnik Castle. Furthermore, Bosniak Catholics such as Ivan Franjo Jukić who wrote the first Bosnian magazine Bosanski Prijatelj published in 1850, covering the topics of Bosnian Medieval History, Bosnian Medieval rulers and statehood and Ottoman rule in the country, origins of the Bosniak people, the Bosnian language and demographic landscape of the Bosnia Eyalet The Bosniak Catholic Antun Knežević, author of books such as Kratka povjest kralja bosanskih published in 1886 on the history of Bosnian kings. Knežević had written about Bosniak history since the medieval times, stating that Bosniaks were not Serbs or Croats but a separate people of three religions, with their own customs, history and language and was largely against the Serbisation of Orthodox Bosniaks and Croatisation of Catholic Bosniaks. These two Franciscans although Catholic were openly criticising the attempts of the Croatisation of the Bosniak Catholic population in Bosnia in the 19th century.
Another prominent Bosniak writer of this era is Hafiz Salih Gašević from Nikšić known for his poetic work Jasni i uzvišeni Mevlud na bosanskom jeziku (English:Clear and glorified Mawlid in the Bosnian language). In the preface of his Mawlid Gašević wrote the following:
I am begged by the elders of Kolašin:
"Write a Bosnian Mawlid for us!
For the Quran is all the Iman we have
Build us a Bosniak Mawlid, we please!"
Bosnian:
Moliše me kolašinski prviši:
"Nami mevlud daj bosanski napiši!
Što j' u Kur'an na sve iman imamo
Bošnjački nam gradi mevlud molimo!"
Another prominent figure of Bosniak literature was a woman named Umihana Čuvidina, in 1813, Čuvidina was engaged to a young man named Mujo Čamdži-bajraktar who died as a soldier of the imperial army of Ali-paša Derendelija during the First Serbian Uprising of the early 19th century. He was killed near the small town of Loznica near the Drina river. Strongly affected by her fiancé's death, Čuvidina decided never to marry and began writing poetry about her fiancé and his fellow soldiers. For three years after Mujo's death, Umihana did not make it out of her yard. In the fourth year, she manually cut off all her hair as a sign of eternal mourning for her dead love and tied it onto the fence in her yard. This is something that is mentioned in her poems. The only full poem that can be attributed to Čuvidina without doubt is the 79-verse-long epos called "Sarajlije iđu na vojsku protiv Srbije" (English: "The Men of Sarajevo March to War Against Serbia"), which was written in Arebica script.sité de Strasbourg, Université de Strasbourg. Institut de turcologie, Association pour le développement des études turques, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France); Turcica; Éditions Klincksieck, 1984.Ivan Franjo Jukić and other Bosnian Franciscans requested the right to establish a printing house in 1847, 1850, 1853, and 1857, but each time their requests were denied by the Ottoman government. After the Vilayet reforms Bosnia got its first printing house named Vilajetska štamparija. It was bought by the Government of the Vilayet of Bosnia from Ignjat Sopron, a Serbian writer from Zemun. Its most notable editor was Mehmed Šakir Kurtćehajić from Bijelo Polje, Bosnia's first newspaper founded in 1866 and he would later on establish Sarajevski cvjetnik in 1868.
Austro-Hungarian rule
Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia in 1878 where the local population led a fierce resistance led by Hadži Lojo, which had been defeated by the much stronger and well-armed Austro-Hungarian Army, furthermore by the Congress of Berlin Bosnia would lose the Sanjak of Novi Pazar and much of the Eastern territories of the Sanjak of Herzegovina, including Nikšić and Kolašin. The Catholic population was very fond of the new Monarchy, The Orthodox and Muslim population saw them as invaders. The Bosniak Muslims who remembered the Habsburg invasion in the 17th century feared that they and their children would become Christianised largely fled to the Ottoman Empire, estimates range between 140,000 and 200,000 Bosniak Muslims settled in the Ottoman Empire during the Austro-Hungarian rule. After years the Muslims had realised they can live freely in the new monarchy, Franz Joseph would grant the Muslims a Grand Mufti separate from the Ottoman Empire, first one being Mustafa Hilmi Hadžiomerović.
The Bosniak renaissance
Bosniak literature in the 19th-20th century
Western literature and literary styles were introduced, the newspaper "Bosniak" was started in 1891 by Mehmed-beg Kapetanović Ljubušak, talking about religious, political, linguistic and ethnic topics. Kapetanović had advocated to stop the irredentism and attempted assimilation of the Bosniaks and Bosnian language from Serb and Croat political fronts. Interestingly during this time Bosniak nobles were allowed to keep their estates, many of the nobles actually studied in western secular Universities in Vienna, Budapest and Zagreb, notably Safvet-beg Bašagić who received his doctorate in the University of Vienna and worked as a professor of oriental languages in the University of Zagreb. Bašagić would be the author of many historical books, mainly ranging from the late medieval era to the Ottoman rule in the country. Edhem Mulabdić from Maglaj was also the author of the first novel in the Bosnian Language "Zeleno busenje" (Green sod) published in 1898, Mulabdić was also one of the editors of the newspaper "Bosniak" after Kapetanović's death, he also started the Bosniak political magazine Behar (English:Blossom) in 1900 and cultural society Gajret in 1903 with Safvet-beg Bašagić, Osman Nuri Hadžić and Osman Đilkić (Đikić only started Gajret, he would become isolated from other Bosniak writers due to his pro-Serb views).
Father of the Bosnian renaissance Safvet-beg Bašagić had been given the title of "Father of the Bosnian renaissance" due to his literary works, Bašagić started writing as a student and published a song Pjesma Bošnjaku (English:Song to the Bosniak) in 1891 in the newspaper Bosniak, he wrote the following:
Song to the Bosniak, 1891:
Greetings, dear memories,
From the mountaineer on the cold rocks,
Where the falcon's nest lies,
Where the land binds blood brothers,
Where better days are anticipated,
Where one's own heroes are revered.
You soar into the clouds,
To extinguish the Sun's fiery rays
And carry them to a tender nest.
Ah, Bosniak! May fortune be with you!
Stand firm, dear Bosnia, as a boundary marker,
Dear Bosnia, a pride and glory!
My Bosniak, eagle-eyed,
We've slept through enough sweet dreams,
We've overcome enough bitter wounds,
Through a few more years.
The time is near, as it must come, To soar like a gray falcon,
To shout: "The Bosniak still lives!" He still lives, he will not die,
As long as the Earth revolves around the Sun.
You know, Bosniak, it not long ago,
by all of my World, It's not even been fifteen summers,
When in our proud Bosnia,
In the heroic land of Herzegovina,
From Trebinje to the gates of Brod,
There were no Serbs or Croats.
And today, through their whims,
Both strangers spread like their own.
And something else, which the keen eye,
Brave pride and heroic heart,
Must be astonished to see:
Both guests have attacked us,
To seize our brightest treasure,
Our proud and beloved name;
Yes, they want to sweeten their talks!
The moment of decision has come,
To join in the joyous cry:
Hello, son of our dear homeland, Our hero, proud Bosniak!
Greetings to you from the rugged knight,
Live, live for thousands of years!
To the dear mother, for joy and pride,
Fighting for the holy mysteries!"
Bosnian:
"Primi pozdrav, premili spomene
Od gorštaka sa studene st´jene,
Gdje´no soko sokoliće leže,
Gdje´no zemlja krvnu braću steže,
Gdje se bolji očekuju dani,
Gdje se štuju svoji velikani.
Ti poleće nebu pod oblake,
Da ugasiš žarkom Suncu trake
I sneseš ih u gnijezdo milo.
Ha, Bošnjače! Sretno tebi bilo!
Miloj Bosni stani na međniku, Miloj Bosni na ponos i diku!
Moj Bošnjače, oko sokolovo,
Dosta slatkih prespavasmo snova,
Dosta ljutih preboljesmo rana,
Kroz nekol´ko godinica dana.
Već je hora, koja doći mora,
Da poletiš kao soko sivi,
Da povikneš: “Jošte Bošnjak živi!“
Jošte živi, mrijet mu se neće,
Dok se Zemlja oko Sunca kreće.
Znaš, Bošnjače, nije davno bilo,
Sveg’ mi sv'jeta nema petnaest ljeta,
Kad u našoj Bosni ponositoj,
I junačkoj zemlji Hercegovoj,
Od Trebinja do Brodskijeh vrata,
Nije bilo Srba ni Hrvata.
A danas se kroz svoje hire,
Oba stranca ko u svome šire.
I još nešto, čemu oko vješto,
Hrabri ponos i srce junačko,
Nada sve se začuditi mora:
Oba su nas gosta saletila,
Da nam otmu najsvjetlije blago,
Naše ime ponosno i drago;
Eto hoće, šećer razgovore!
Kucnuo je časak odlučnosti,
Da kliknemo i mi u radosti:
Zdravo sine, mile domovine,
Naš junače, ponosni Bošnjače!
Pozdravlja te sa krša viteze,
Živi, živi na hiljade ljeta!