Persian Language as Vehicle of Islamic Cultural Memory in Ottoman Bosnia

Abstract

This work represents an attempt to point out, within the framework of Islamic culture and civilisation in the Balkans, at a segment of creativity of Bosnians in the Persian language and a segment influenced by Persian culture within the Bosnian territory. Islam is not only a religion but also a civilisation and culture, which by the means of Ottoman conquest and Ottoman Rule came to Bosnia and Herzegovina. As Ottomans were in science and philosophy, in literature especially, very much influenced by Persians, they also left a trace on the culture of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on literary tradition especially. Numerous manuscripts of different Persian works have also been preserved in manuscript collections all over Bosnia and Herzegovina. That is an indicator of interest (curiosity) Bosnians had for creativity in this language. Although there were mostly copies of poetry, since Persian enjoyed a reputation as a language of poetry in Bosnia, other fields were also represented, such as: dictionaries, handbooks for teaching Persian, grammars and other in this copies. The Islamic civilisation circle and the Ottoman Empire respectively, as representative of this circle in this area were cultural and historical and languages bridge that have spanned time and space, and joined the civilisation of the outermost East and the outermost West of the Ottoman Empire. This civilisation bridge has been lasting to this very day.