Abstract
During the final decade of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century, the fate of religious buildings in Bosnia1 was a reflection of processes, events, and relations not only within and between religious communities and groups, but also in society as a whole. For the purposes of the thesis set out in this chapter, it is important to distinguish between religious buildings and sacred space. The essence and form of sacred spaces derive from a spiritual truth: sacred buildings are based on the science of forms, on the symbolism inherent in forms; sacred symbols manifest their archetype by virtue of a certain ontological law. Sacred architecture is symbolic. In the case of religious architecture, however, the religious function may be imposed on any form.2
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Notes
Titus Burckhardt, in William Stoddart (ed.), The Essential Titus Burchatrdt: Reflections on Sacred Art, Faiths, and Civilizations (Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2003).
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Fairfax Circle Baptist Church, Lejla’s Story—Operation Christmas Child, http://www.youtube.com, (n.d.), accessed November 12, 2012. The financing of the reconstruction of a mosque by a Saudi-based organization was a part of a strategy aimed at acquiring the spiritual leadership of the community. The result of this process is the replacement of the Hanaf, the moderate traditional local version of Islam, with Wahhabism.” J. C. Antúnez, Wahhabism in Bosnia-Herzegovina—Part One (London: Bosnian Institute) http://www.bosnia.org.uk (homepage), 2008.
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See, for example, Vladimir Brodnjak, Razlikovni rječnik srpskog i hrvatskog jezika (Zagreb: Školske novine, 1991). This dictionary is the required handbook for public workers in Bosnia and Herzegovina to be used for official correspondence and public statements. The dictionary of the Bosnian language in unofficial use in public correspondence by some officials is the product of research by Alija Isaković—
A. Isaković, Rječnik karakteristčne leksike u bosanskome jeziku (Wuppertal: Bambi, 1992).
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“Political memory” is a term that often features in writings on the war and post-war period in Bosnia. See, for example, Darko Karačić, Tamara Banjeglav, and Nataša Govedarica, Re: Vizija Prošlosti, Službene politike sjećanja u Bosni i Hercegovini, Hrvatskoj i Srbiji od 1990. godine (Sarajevo: Asocijacija Alumni centra za interdisciplinarne postdiplomske studije i Friedrich-ebert-Stifung, 2012);
Timothy G. Ashplant, Graham Dawson, and Michael Roper, “The Politics of War Memory and Commemoration: Context, Structures and Dynamics,” in T. G. Ashplant, G. Dawson, and M. Roper (eds), The Politics of War Memory and Commemoration (London and New York: Routledge, 2000), pp. 3–85;
W. Höpken, “Between Memory Politics and Mourning: Remembering World War II in Yugoslavia,” in Bad Memories. Sites, Symbols and Narrations of the Wars in the Balkans, Contributions to the Conference “Bad Memories” held in Rovereto on November 9, 2007 (rovereto: osservatorio balcani e caucaso, 2010), also available at http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/our-products/bad-memories-75492, accessed February 1, 2013.
“Cultural memory is rather embodied in objectivations which store meanings in a concentrated manner, meanings shared by a group of people who take them for granted. These can be texts, such as sacred scrolls, historical chronicles, lyric or epic poetry. They can also be monuments, such as buildings or statues, shared material signs, signals, symbols and allegories as storages of experience, memorabilia erected as reminders. Further on, cultural memory is embodied in regularly repeated and repeatable practices, such as festivals, ceremonies, and rites. Finally, cultural memory just like individual memory is linked to places. To places where some significant and unique event has taken place, or to places where a significant event is regularly replayed.” Agnes Heller, “A Tentative Answer to the Question: Has Civil Society Cultural Memory?” Social Research 68(4), Civil Society Revisited (Winter 2001), pp. 1031–1040, The New School, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40971525.
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Rudolf Schwarz, The Church Incarnate: The sacred function of Christian architecture (Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1958), pp. 9–10.
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Jacques Barzun, “The Bugbear of Relativism,” The Culture We Deserve (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1989).
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English translation from Annemarie Schimmel, Deciphering the Signs of God: A Phenomenological Approach to Islam (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), p. 15.
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R. Perić, “Fra Ivo, Isus je jedini i sveopći Spasitelj svijeta,” Crkva na kamenu 5(2012), 29–32, http://www.cnak.ba;
I. Marković, “Biskupe Ratko Periću, istina se živi, istina oslobađa!” http://www.prometej.ba, 2012.
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William R. Lethaby, Architecture, Mysticism and Myth (New York: Macmillan, 1892), p. 256.
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Tone Bringa, Being Muslim the Bosnian Way: Identity and Community in a Central Bosnian Village, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995), p. 230.
Ćiro Truhelka, “Dva heraldička spomenika iz Bosne,” Glasnik Zemaljskog muzeja (1889), pp. 73–76; Milenko S. Filipović, “Starine u Bakićima kod Olova,” Glasnik Zemaljskog muzeja (1928), pp. 69–78; Alojz Benac, Olovo— Srednjovjekovni nadgrobni spomenici Bosne i Hercegovine II (Beograd: Savezni institut za zaštitu spomenika kulture, 1951), pp. 26–28;
Šefk Bešlagić—Nišani XV i XVI vijeka u Bosni i Hercegovini (Sarajevo: Akademija nauka i umjetnosti Bosne i Hercegovine, 1978), pp. 33–34.
Anđelko Đermek, “Slavenski mitski trokut i legenda o Kamenim svatima,” Studia Mythologica Slavica XII (Institute of Slovenian Ethnology at ZRC SAZU, 2009), pp. 223–247.
Vlajko Palavestra, “Svatovska groblja-problemi istraživanja,” Godišnjak XXX (Sarajevo: Centar za balkanološka ispitivanja, knj. 28, ANUBiH, 1992–1997).
Harry Norris, Islam in the Balkans: Religion and Society between Europe and the Arab World (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1993), pp. 150–157.
Martin T. Hautsma and Emiri Johanes Van Donzel, E. J. Brill’s First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936 (1993), pp. 171–172.
Brandon Wheeler, Prophets in the Quran: An Introduction to the Quran and Muslim Exegesis (London: Continuum International, 2002), p. 73.
Stephen Scwartz, Sarajevo Rose: A Balkan Jewish Notebook (London: Bosnian Institute, 2005).
Andreas J. Ridelmayer, “From the Ashes: The Past and Future of Bosnia’s Cultural Heritage,” in Maya Shatzmiller (ed.), Islam and Bosnia: Confict Resolution and Foreign Policy in Multi-Ethnic States (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2002), pp. 98–135.
Anthony D. Smith, The Cultural Foundations of Nations: Hierarchy, Covenant and Republic (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008), p. 19.
Vjekoslav Perica, Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).
Michael Sells, “Crosses of Blood: Sacred Space, Religion and Violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Sociology of Religion 64(3) (2003), pp. 309–331.
Ivo Banac, The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1984), p. 410.
Slobodan Mileusnić, Duhovni genocid: pregled porušenih, oštećenih i obesvećenih crkava, manastira i drugih crkvenih objekata u ratu 1991–1993 (Beograd: Muzej Srpske pravoslavne crkve, 1994), revised edition 1996, 1998, 2000;
Ilija Živković, Raspeta Crkva u Bosni i Hercegovini—uništavanje katoličkih sakralnih objekata u Bosni i Hercegovini 1991–1996 (Zagreb: Hrvatski Informativni centar, 1998).
Andreas Riedlmayer reported that according to statements by the Rijaset of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serb forces destroyed 534 mosques, three tekkes, and several hundred other religious buildings (turbes, medresas, etc.); Croat forces destroyed 123 mosques, one tekke, and 70 other religious buildings. Nadžida Čano cites, “Islamic Community in BiH states that out of prewar 1,144 mosques 614 were destroyed, and 307 damaged” (Nadžida Čano, “Suđenje zbog uništenja vjerskih objekata,” BIRN—Justice Report, http://www.bim.ba (n.d.), accessed November 11, 2011);
Muharem Omerdić states that 1,180 mosques were damaged as a result of the war, of which 709 were totally destroyed by Serb forces and 123 were destroyed by Croat forces (M. Omerdić, Prilozi proučavanju genocida nad muslimanima (1992–1995) (Sarajevo: El Kalem, 1999).
Commission to Preserve National Monuments, “Izvještaj radnog tima Komisije za očuvanje nacionalnih spomenika od 25.08.2004. o uvidu u stanje lokaliteta na kome je Komisija za traženje nestalih osoba otkrila masovnu grobnicu,” http://kons.gov.ba; Andreas J. Ridelmayer, “From the Ashes: The Past and Future of Bosnia’s Cultural Heritage,” in Maya Shatzmiller (ed.), Islam and Bosnia: Confict Resolution and Foreign Policy in Multi-Ethnic States (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2002), pp. 98–135.
Amra Hadžimuhamedović, “The Meaning of Homeland—Heritage and Uprootedness,” Forum Bosnae 44 (2008), pp. 328–345.
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Zoran M. Jovanović, “O ideji prošlosti u savremenoj umetnosti—ka razumevanja ‘vizantine’ u srpskoj kulturi tokom poslednjeg stoleća,” Teme 33(4) (2009), pp. 1393–1411, esp. 1395.
Christopher S. Wood, Forgery, Replica, Fiction: Temporalities of German Renaissance Art (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008).
Milijana Okilj, Црква Светог Апостола Павла, publication issued on the occasion of the consecration of the church, Trebinje, 2007.
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Andreas Huyssen, Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003), p. 8.
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Hadžimuhamedović, A. (2014). Three Receptions of Bosnian Identity as Reflected in Religious Architecture. In: Ognjenović, G., Jozelić, J. (eds) Politicization of Religion, the Power of Symbolism. Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137477897_7
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