Summary
A dervish or a man, life or death
A religious subtext of a novel “Dervis i smrt” (“A De... more Summary
A dervish or a man, life or death
A religious subtext of a novel “Dervis i smrt” (“A Dervish and Death”) by Mesa Selimovic
It has been talked a lot on a visible connection of the novel A Dervish and Death by Mesa Selimovic with the religion and holly books, but still this connection has not been explained precisely. Although the novel by Selimovic has had an important and rumbling critical, theoretical and literature-historical perception, this aspect of his has been more emphasized than being seriously reconsidered and examined. The aim of this book has been to explore a religious subtext in the novel, to discover its potential intellectual connection with the religious manuscripts, and to explain what meaning a certain religious motif gets in the context of the novel. Our exploration has shown that the novel A Dervish and Death communicates mainly with the holly book of Islam, Koran, and then over the Koran, it connects to the Old and New Testimony. Besides it, the novel is often inter-textually connected with the philosophic and literature works of the Islamic, Oriental world, and then, as this research shows, for the folk beliefs and legends of South Yugoslav nations. A larger part of the book researches a quote connection of Selimovic novel with the Islamic holly book, Koran. This kind of research has been necessary for complete interpretation of A Dervish and Death, where it has been indirectly directed through the quotes of the Koran, visibly emphasized into the beginning of each novel’s chapter, and also quotes in the text of the novel itself. This has been pointed out by the critics since the novel has been published, evading in that opinion to what degree the novel A Dervish and Death has been connected for the thought of the Koran and in what way it has been treated. During the research it has been firstly necessary to confirm what part from the Koran Selimovic quotes in his novel, so as to be explained the original meaning of certain quotes and their influence onto the context of the novel. Although the quotes in the beginning of each chapter are obviously the quotes from the Koran, Selimovic has never emphasized from what sura it has (chapter) been taken from the Koran, i.e. what exactly ayet (a sentence, a verse) has been quoted from the Koran. This research firstly points onto what Koran ayets Selimovic quotes, and then it compares the quotes from the novel with all famous translations of the Koran that had existed in the time of writing the novel. Here it is a word of translations by Mica Ljubibratic Hercegovac, co-authors translation by Muhamed Pandza and Dzemaludin Causevic and translation by Ali Riza Karabeg. Besides it, the quotes have been compared with the translation of the Koran by Besim Korkut, that has been published much later than the novel A Dervish and Death, but it has been reconsidered until today the most precise in meanings, and therefore stating of this translation in the work has been important for an analyze of the quotes in the context of the novel. Comparison of the quotes from the novel with the translations of the Koran shows that the author of the novel has not relied to any of the existing translations, but he has styled the quotes himself, for the needs of the novel. He has spoken on it himself, justifying it by a lack of a good, suitable literature translation of the Koran, and he emphasizes it as a reason why this holly book, differently from the Bible, has not been fully quoted in the European literature. As ayets have been styled by the author for the needs of the novel by himself or they have been paraphrased to function in their meaning in the text, it can be shown in an example on whom the critics have talked on before (e.g. Nikola Milosevic). It is a quote from the beginning of the first chapter of the novel A Dervish and Death: “I call for a witness time, beginning and ending of all-that each man is always in a lost!” in this quote, Selimovic has given a key of own communication with the religious manuscripts. He ends this quote with an interrupted ayet from the Koran. The ayet in the original Koran text continues with an optimistic religious thought on salvation for those who believe: “just not those who believe and do good deeds, and who recommend truth to each other and recommend patience” (Koran, 103:1-3). Selimovic himself spoke on the purpose of interruption of this key quote to show that only those who find love in themselves shall not be in lost, and it is a real context of the novel. In the same way the novel A Dervish and Death communicates with the other quotes from the Koran, and it is a similar communication of the novel with all other religious manuscripts. Comparison of Selimovic’s quotes from the original Koran text can represent a problem even for good experts of the Koran. The majority of the quotes from the novel have been completely eradicated from the context of certain sura, and they have gained a completely different meaning or even opposite from the meaning from the Koran. Some quotes are difficult to be recognized that can be seen the best in the example of the quote from the beginning of chapter six of the novel A Dervish and Death and it is: “It is weak the one who is looking for, and it is weak what has been asked from him” that has been very difficult to bring into a connection with an ayet from the Koran, during this research. The quote has been changed so much, styled or eradicated from the context of a longer ayet so it is difficult to recognize how it has stated originally. This book reconsiders the meaning of all quotes from the Koran as in their original form; the Islamic thought interprets them and compares them with the meanings that these quotes gain in the context of the novel. It has been used interpretations of certain ayets from more well-known interpreters and analyses of the Koran, Islamic theologians and philosophers. As the most important for this research, it is taken an interpretation given in documentaries, footnotes and introductions into sura, that in the Koran translations give Dzemaludin Causevic and Muhamed Pandza. Although, their comments have been denied by theologians saying as being incorrect, they can directly influence onto the Selimovic while he was writing the novel, since the translation of Causevic and Pandza was published in that time and was easily accessible. In the work we look at and analyse interpretations of ayets that Selimovic has quoted in his novel, whose authors have been Arabic theologians Ibn Kesir and Sejid Kutb, so as the original meaning of the ayets would be presented more precisely. There is an assumption that Selimovic has not used or treated too much onto more voluminous theological interpretations of the Koran. By comparison of theological interpretations of the Koran text and meanings that ayets can gain in the context of the novel, it can be concluded that the Koran subtext is contained in a certain degree and meaning in the novel, both in the original meaning, or it has been emphasized similarities or deliberately emphasized differences. Meanings of ayets and quotes in some examples are completely different, put into different context, where it has been clearly emphasized that it is primary an artistic and literature importance of the novel. The Koran in the subtext of the novel is placed into other ways, not only through quoting of its parts. In the subtext of the novel stands a story of the God’s Messengers, known in the Islamic theology either through the Koran, or other religious manuscripts. This book analyses it in the chapter Stories on the God’s Messengers in the Subtext of the Novel. Selimovic mostly takes those events from the lives of the God’s Messengers that have been described in the same or similar way in other monotheistic manuscripts and therefore he directs through the Koran onto the Old and New Testimony. The author points out onto the stories on the God’s Messengers in several places in the novel and in the names of the characters. Thus, for instance, a fugitive found in a tekiya (a building for dervishes), Ahmed Nurudin in his mind names him Ishak, that is a name of a Messenger (in the Bible, Isaac), Nurudin’s pupil is called Mula Jusuf, that directs onto a Messenger Jusuf (Josef), while the name of Ahmet’s brother Harun is directly connected with a Messenger Harun (Musa’s brother, in the Bible Moses). A comparative analyze of the Koran stories on the God’s Messengers whose names have characters in the novel A Dervish and Death and the text itself, shows that these stories are certainly contained in the subtext. The names direct onto a deeper connection. As an example how this connection functions, it can be separated stories on the God’s Messengers who went to the ruler of their time and tried to look for the truth and justice, being the central stories placed in the subtext of the novel. Among them, the most important one is a story on the Messenger Musa (Moses) and his brother Harun (Aron). The Messengers have been rejected and expelled, in the same way as Ahmed and Nurudion have. Events from the fifth and sixth chapters: Nurudin’s leave to a Priest, Judge and Mufti, gradually lined show onto stories on the God’s Messengers Nuha ( Noja), Hud (Eber), Salih ( he has not been mentioned in the Bible), Ibrahim (Abraham), Lut ( Lot), Musa ( Moses) and others, that come to rulers of their time, telling the truth and being rejected. The most important story being put in the subtext of the novel is the story on the Messenger Musa. In Islamic theology, Musa became the first God’s Messenger, and then he asks the God to give Messaging to his brother Harun to help him, since Musa had swallowed a live coal when he was a child and since then he has defect in speaking. The Messenger Harun is in some way a supplement of Musa’s messaging. He represents for Musa a possibility to compensate what he misses so as to fulfill his life mission. In the novel of Mesa Selimovic, Harun is, different from Ahmed Nurudin; he is braver, more able to express his desires and aims. It is an eternal story on two brothers, from whom one is always braver, more open, closer to people and life. Harun is a brother open towards the outer world, and Ahmed is a brother closed in his inner world. As such, Harun is for Ahmed that part of his personality that he misses, supplements his being that does not feel complete, just as the Messenger Harun was a supplement of Musa’s Messaging. Harun is actually Ahmed’s alter ego, and after the loss of that alter ego, there starts a destruction of Ahmed’s personality. In a similar way, in the subtext of the novel has been placed stories on the God’s Messengers. Numerous stories on the God’s Messengers that are placed in the subtext of the novel end differently. Characters in the novel sometimes react completely opposite from the characters on the God’s Messengers, where it has been emphasized onto the human reality that is far away from the picture of ideal people spoken in the religious manuscripts. In this was, the novel certain religious motifs degrades, but not to degrade religion, but to gain a universality of own message. In the most cases, the author deliberately alludes to those stories and persons mutual with monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It emphasizes an aspiration to put in the subtext universal, archetype clues; where to the story of Ahmed Nurudin has been given a universality and generality. As an important discovery, it can be separated a connection between names of the main character of the novel Ahmed with the name Muhamed that is a name of the author Selimovic. These beautiful names have almost the same meaning in the Arabic language and originate from the same root. There is an assumption that the author wanted to emphasize onto an autobiographical feature of the novel A Dervish and Death. Although Selimovic denied it, numerous critics have still concluded that autobiographical features have been presented in the novel. In the chapter A connection with Islamic Mysticism and Dervish Philosophy, this research directs onto quote connection of the novel A Dervish and Death with the works of Islamic mystics and philosophers of Gazali, Rumi, Ibn Arebi, Isfahani, Ibn Sina and others, and also with the works of poets, like Husein Mostarac, who wrote under the influence of Islamic philosophers in these areas. By this, it has been opened a possibility for reconsideration of works from the point of Islamic mysticism (Sufism). A cycle structure of the novel, let’s say, points out onto a complex symbolism of a circle connected with a circled dance of Mevlevi Dervishes, to whom the main hero of the novel belongs to, Ahmed Nurudin. The novel also contains other symbols of Sufism, as the beauty of a woman as a symbol of temptation of this world, and it also points out onto similarities characteristic for the literature of the East, as Jusuf and Zulejha are. The essential idea of Sufism, searching for love and believing that love is a pre-beginning of everything, interweaves the entire novel. By putting into the subtext the idea of searching for love, being ideal of all religions and human ideologies, Selimovic gains universality and shows that the final idea of the novel is still not pessimistic. In the chapter Elements of Folk Beliefs and Clues in the Subtext of the Novel “A Dervish and Death”, it has been emphasized that the elements of folk beliefs and clues on life are presented in the novel, although it has been evident that they are not primary. Ahmed Nurudin is, undoubtedly, a man of the book and he is separated from the world of folk religion. He reminds on folk beliefs are as something carried from his childhood, when he reminds on his village. Still, impulses originated from folk religion undoubtedly appear in this novel and give fullness to its religious clues. With this segment of beliefs, Selimovic communicates as it is being showed in Ahmed’s father as a symbol of a nation and an ideal picture of folk wisdom, while the character of a mother connects to protected magical actions: taking away of the terrible and extinguishing of hot coal. Traditional clues on women, a true understanding of a woman and her ambivalent nature, have been brought in a description of a wife of a Judge. Ahmed Nurudin is specifically related to Djurdjevdan (a traditional celebration). The entire description of Djurdjevdan has an exceptional psychological- emotional role in the character of Ahmed Nurudin, since his emotional condition copies onto a collective, into an ancient rituality. In the character of Kara Zaim, it has been introduced in the novel an epic hero, and then he has been degraded to a traitor and spy. Traditional folk clues and beliefs supplement so complex religious subtext of Selimovic work, very often varying with already established meanings and senses. A conclusion would be that Selimovic in the novel A Dervish and Death gains all connection with religions in the same way. He puts in the subtext of the novel different archetype pictures, stories about ideal ones, sinless people and true heroes, about frequent connections among people , about religious truths and a hope offered by religions, and then he degrades them during the plot of the novel by a spontaneous twist of the plot. He puts characters in the same situations where archetype heroes are, he gives them very often the same names, in the essence he gives them the same features, and then their reactions are completely opposite from the archetype ones, each virtue symbolised by an archetype hero he degrades into an opposite one, the same one he fought against. Thus, it has been pointed out onto a human reality and affinity towards making mistakes, very often distant from the archetype and religious ideals. Degradation is an archetype picture emphasized for a key question: Are there those who believe and do good deeds, who recommend truth to each other and recommend patience? The final conclusion is degradation of archetype pictures and characters in the novel, and also a questioning that originates from it, it has not been given to suggest onto hopelessness, but as a warning, as a comparison of current real-human and sublime truths, and a sign of a higher split and remoteness among them. The Koran, Bible, Islamic philosophical manuscripts and folk beliefs, characters and pictures mentioned in them, have been given in the novel as a symbol of universality of values and truths, not only religious ones, but also human ones, and in a larger part, it has been based on them, a true painful humanity of Selimovic work.
Nadija Rebronja, Tradicionalne predstave o ženi u Bihoru i Pešteri na primeru pripovedaka ,,Timka... more Nadija Rebronja, Tradicionalne predstave o ženi u Bihoru i Pešteri na primeru pripovedaka ,,Timka“ i ,,Zelen prsten na vodi“ Ćamila Sijarića, Mileševski zapisi, br.10 (2014. štampano 2015), 317-322. (УДК 821.163.4(497.6).09-32 Сијарић Ћ. 305-055.2 316.75:316.3)
Il Sole Luna pressogli slavi meridionali, Edizionidell’OrsoAlessandria, Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Culture Moderne dell’Universitàdegli Studi «G.d’Annunzio» Chieti-Pescara, Dipartimento di Lingue e Letterature Straniere e Culture Moderne dell’Universitàdegli Studi di Torino, II, , 2017
Nadija Rebronja, Sunce, mesec, mesečina i zvezde u romanima Bihorci, Kuću kućom čine lastavice i ... more Nadija Rebronja, Sunce, mesec, mesečina i zvezde u romanima Bihorci, Kuću kućom čine lastavice i Carska vojska Ćamila Sijarića, Il Sole Luna pressogli slavi meridionali, Edizionidell’OrsoAlessandria, Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Culture Moderne dell’Universitàdegli Studi «G.d’Annunzio» Chieti-Pescara, Dipartimento di Lingue e Letterature Straniere e Culture Moderne dell’Universitàdegli Studi di Torino, II, 2017, 267-277. ISBN 978-88-6274-768-4
CLASH Conference (Cultural, Literary and Social Hybridity), International Conference: “Worlds colide – connections/divisions /dialogues between cultures”, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland, 2012
Nadija Rebronja, Merging of Balkan cultures in ‘’Death and the Dervish’’ by Meša Selimović, CLASH... more Nadija Rebronja, Merging of Balkan cultures in ‘’Death and the Dervish’’ by Meša Selimović, CLASH Conference (Cultural, Literary and Social Hybridity), International Conference: “Worlds colide – connections/divisions /dialogues between cultures”, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland, December 2012.
Оријентални утицај на савремену српску и јужнословенске књижевности, Недеља османског наслеђа, Филозофски факултет Универзитета у Београду, новембар 2011. , 2011
Оријентални утицај на савремену српску и јужнословенске књижевности, Недеља османског наслеђа, Фи... more Оријентални утицај на савремену српску и јужнословенске књижевности, Недеља османског наслеђа, Филозофски факултет Универзитета у Београду, новембар 2011.
Kulturne i jezičke veze – mostovi među narodima, Interuniverzitetska i interdepartmanska kulturološka saradnja, knjiga apstrakta, , 2015
Nadija Rebronja, Adem Vrcić, Symbols in Hüsnü ü Dil by Ahmed Vali, Kulturne i jezičke veze – most... more Nadija Rebronja, Adem Vrcić, Symbols in Hüsnü ü Dil by Ahmed Vali, Kulturne i jezičke veze – mostovi među narodima, Interuniverzitetska i interdepartmanska kulturološka saradnja, knjiga apstrakta, Državni univerzitet u Novom Pazaru, Univerzitet Mehmet Akif Ersoy, Novi Pazar, 2015.
Међународни научни састанак слависта у Вукове дане 14–19. IX 2022, МСЦ, Београд, тезе и резимеи, 2022
Надија Реброња, Дорћол у путописима Зука Џумхура, 52. Међународни научни састанак слависта у Вуко... more Надија Реброња, Дорћол у путописима Зука Џумхура, 52. Међународни научни састанак слависта у Вукове дане 14–19. IX 2022, МСЦ, Београд, тезе и резимеи, стр. 68. ISBN 978-86-6153-693-9
Исток, Научни скуп ,,Доситејеви дани“, Нови Сад, Завод за културу Војводине, 2015
Надија Реброња, Суфијски симболи у поезији Јунуса Емреа, у: Исток, Научни скуп ,,Доситејеви дани“... more Надија Реброња, Суфијски симболи у поезији Јунуса Емреа, у: Исток, Научни скуп ,,Доситејеви дани“, Нови Сад, Завод за културу Војводине, 2015, 77-83. ISBN 978-86-85083-95-2 UDC 821.512.161.09 Emre J. COBISS.SR-ID 320413959
Мултикултурализъм и многоезичие, Сборник с докладиот Тринадесетите междунарони славистични четения – София, 21-23. април 2016 г, Том II.Антропология. Литературознание, Велико Трново, 2017, Издателство ,,Фебер“, 2017
Мултикултурализъм и многоезичие, Сборник с докладиот Тринадесетите междунарони славистични четени... more Мултикултурализъм и многоезичие, Сборник с докладиот Тринадесетите междунарони славистични четения – София, 21-23. април 2016 г, Том II.Антропология. Литературознание, Велико Трново, 2017, Издателство ,,Фебер“, 551-560. ISBN 987-619-00-0651-0 5
Тišinа, FILUМ, Srpski јеzik, knjižеvnоst, umеtnоst. Zbоrnik rаdоvа sа mеđunаrоdnоg nаučnоg skupа оdržаnоg nа Filоlоškо-umеtničkоm fаkultеtu u Krаguјеvcu 28-29. X 2016, knjiga 2, Krаguјеvаc., 2017
The silenced, unspoken and unwritten in literature and culture is mostly present in the poetry of... more The silenced, unspoken and unwritten in literature and culture is mostly present in the poetry of dissident writers, as Muhamed Abdagic himself was. Many enthusiastically wrote about the poet who was silenced and almost unknown, since he was mistakenly, without proofs and official charge thrown into the government's disfavour after the World War II, including Stefan Tontic and Vujica Resin Tucic, who emphasized the importance of feeling forbidden in the Abdagic's poetics. The motif of being forbidden dominates the poetry of Muhamed Abdagic, and the work will question the silence as an echo of the feeling of being forbidden. The silence is present in the Abdagic's absence from the literary life and inability to publish his books during his lifetime. The poetics of silence is questioned throughout the walls, the real ones inside the house arrest, and the symbolic ones occurred due to isolation. The poetics of silence is in the poems that speak about the arrest, and that silence is the one where only verses are heard. The poetics of silence is also in the verses about strong friends who remained silent in front of the truth. The only thing that breaks the silence is poetry, so the poetics of silence is built on the contrast of silence/muteness/being forbidden – poetry, where the poetry is symbolically the only sound that writes and speaks the truth.
Keywords: poetry, silence, forbidden, Muhamed Abdagic, dissident poet
Summary
A dervish or a man, life or death
A religious subtext of a novel “Dervis i smrt” (“A De... more Summary
A dervish or a man, life or death
A religious subtext of a novel “Dervis i smrt” (“A Dervish and Death”) by Mesa Selimovic
It has been talked a lot on a visible connection of the novel A Dervish and Death by Mesa Selimovic with the religion and holly books, but still this connection has not been explained precisely. Although the novel by Selimovic has had an important and rumbling critical, theoretical and literature-historical perception, this aspect of his has been more emphasized than being seriously reconsidered and examined. The aim of this book has been to explore a religious subtext in the novel, to discover its potential intellectual connection with the religious manuscripts, and to explain what meaning a certain religious motif gets in the context of the novel. Our exploration has shown that the novel A Dervish and Death communicates mainly with the holly book of Islam, Koran, and then over the Koran, it connects to the Old and New Testimony. Besides it, the novel is often inter-textually connected with the philosophic and literature works of the Islamic, Oriental world, and then, as this research shows, for the folk beliefs and legends of South Yugoslav nations. A larger part of the book researches a quote connection of Selimovic novel with the Islamic holly book, Koran. This kind of research has been necessary for complete interpretation of A Dervish and Death, where it has been indirectly directed through the quotes of the Koran, visibly emphasized into the beginning of each novel’s chapter, and also quotes in the text of the novel itself. This has been pointed out by the critics since the novel has been published, evading in that opinion to what degree the novel A Dervish and Death has been connected for the thought of the Koran and in what way it has been treated. During the research it has been firstly necessary to confirm what part from the Koran Selimovic quotes in his novel, so as to be explained the original meaning of certain quotes and their influence onto the context of the novel. Although the quotes in the beginning of each chapter are obviously the quotes from the Koran, Selimovic has never emphasized from what sura it has (chapter) been taken from the Koran, i.e. what exactly ayet (a sentence, a verse) has been quoted from the Koran. This research firstly points onto what Koran ayets Selimovic quotes, and then it compares the quotes from the novel with all famous translations of the Koran that had existed in the time of writing the novel. Here it is a word of translations by Mica Ljubibratic Hercegovac, co-authors translation by Muhamed Pandza and Dzemaludin Causevic and translation by Ali Riza Karabeg. Besides it, the quotes have been compared with the translation of the Koran by Besim Korkut, that has been published much later than the novel A Dervish and Death, but it has been reconsidered until today the most precise in meanings, and therefore stating of this translation in the work has been important for an analyze of the quotes in the context of the novel. Comparison of the quotes from the novel with the translations of the Koran shows that the author of the novel has not relied to any of the existing translations, but he has styled the quotes himself, for the needs of the novel. He has spoken on it himself, justifying it by a lack of a good, suitable literature translation of the Koran, and he emphasizes it as a reason why this holly book, differently from the Bible, has not been fully quoted in the European literature. As ayets have been styled by the author for the needs of the novel by himself or they have been paraphrased to function in their meaning in the text, it can be shown in an example on whom the critics have talked on before (e.g. Nikola Milosevic). It is a quote from the beginning of the first chapter of the novel A Dervish and Death: “I call for a witness time, beginning and ending of all-that each man is always in a lost!” in this quote, Selimovic has given a key of own communication with the religious manuscripts. He ends this quote with an interrupted ayet from the Koran. The ayet in the original Koran text continues with an optimistic religious thought on salvation for those who believe: “just not those who believe and do good deeds, and who recommend truth to each other and recommend patience” (Koran, 103:1-3). Selimovic himself spoke on the purpose of interruption of this key quote to show that only those who find love in themselves shall not be in lost, and it is a real context of the novel. In the same way the novel A Dervish and Death communicates with the other quotes from the Koran, and it is a similar communication of the novel with all other religious manuscripts. Comparison of Selimovic’s quotes from the original Koran text can represent a problem even for good experts of the Koran. The majority of the quotes from the novel have been completely eradicated from the context of certain sura, and they have gained a completely different meaning or even opposite from the meaning from the Koran. Some quotes are difficult to be recognized that can be seen the best in the example of the quote from the beginning of chapter six of the novel A Dervish and Death and it is: “It is weak the one who is looking for, and it is weak what has been asked from him” that has been very difficult to bring into a connection with an ayet from the Koran, during this research. The quote has been changed so much, styled or eradicated from the context of a longer ayet so it is difficult to recognize how it has stated originally. This book reconsiders the meaning of all quotes from the Koran as in their original form; the Islamic thought interprets them and compares them with the meanings that these quotes gain in the context of the novel. It has been used interpretations of certain ayets from more well-known interpreters and analyses of the Koran, Islamic theologians and philosophers. As the most important for this research, it is taken an interpretation given in documentaries, footnotes and introductions into sura, that in the Koran translations give Dzemaludin Causevic and Muhamed Pandza. Although, their comments have been denied by theologians saying as being incorrect, they can directly influence onto the Selimovic while he was writing the novel, since the translation of Causevic and Pandza was published in that time and was easily accessible. In the work we look at and analyse interpretations of ayets that Selimovic has quoted in his novel, whose authors have been Arabic theologians Ibn Kesir and Sejid Kutb, so as the original meaning of the ayets would be presented more precisely. There is an assumption that Selimovic has not used or treated too much onto more voluminous theological interpretations of the Koran. By comparison of theological interpretations of the Koran text and meanings that ayets can gain in the context of the novel, it can be concluded that the Koran subtext is contained in a certain degree and meaning in the novel, both in the original meaning, or it has been emphasized similarities or deliberately emphasized differences. Meanings of ayets and quotes in some examples are completely different, put into different context, where it has been clearly emphasized that it is primary an artistic and literature importance of the novel. The Koran in the subtext of the novel is placed into other ways, not only through quoting of its parts. In the subtext of the novel stands a story of the God’s Messengers, known in the Islamic theology either through the Koran, or other religious manuscripts. This book analyses it in the chapter Stories on the God’s Messengers in the Subtext of the Novel. Selimovic mostly takes those events from the lives of the God’s Messengers that have been described in the same or similar way in other monotheistic manuscripts and therefore he directs through the Koran onto the Old and New Testimony. The author points out onto the stories on the God’s Messengers in several places in the novel and in the names of the characters. Thus, for instance, a fugitive found in a tekiya (a building for dervishes), Ahmed Nurudin in his mind names him Ishak, that is a name of a Messenger (in the Bible, Isaac), Nurudin’s pupil is called Mula Jusuf, that directs onto a Messenger Jusuf (Josef), while the name of Ahmet’s brother Harun is directly connected with a Messenger Harun (Musa’s brother, in the Bible Moses). A comparative analyze of the Koran stories on the God’s Messengers whose names have characters in the novel A Dervish and Death and the text itself, shows that these stories are certainly contained in the subtext. The names direct onto a deeper connection. As an example how this connection functions, it can be separated stories on the God’s Messengers who went to the ruler of their time and tried to look for the truth and justice, being the central stories placed in the subtext of the novel. Among them, the most important one is a story on the Messenger Musa (Moses) and his brother Harun (Aron). The Messengers have been rejected and expelled, in the same way as Ahmed and Nurudion have. Events from the fifth and sixth chapters: Nurudin’s leave to a Priest, Judge and Mufti, gradually lined show onto stories on the God’s Messengers Nuha ( Noja), Hud (Eber), Salih ( he has not been mentioned in the Bible), Ibrahim (Abraham), Lut ( Lot), Musa ( Moses) and others, that come to rulers of their time, telling the truth and being rejected. The most important story being put in the subtext of the novel is the story on the Messenger Musa. In Islamic theology, Musa became the first God’s Messenger, and then he asks the God to give Messaging to his brother Harun to help him, since Musa had swallowed a live coal when he was a child and since then he has defect in speaking. The Messenger Harun is in some way a supplement of Musa’s messaging. He represents for Musa a possibility to compensate what he misses so as to fulfill his life mission. In the novel of Mesa Selimovic, Harun is, different from Ahmed Nurudin; he is braver, more able to express his desires and aims. It is an eternal story on two brothers, from whom one is always braver, more open, closer to people and life. Harun is a brother open towards the outer world, and Ahmed is a brother closed in his inner world. As such, Harun is for Ahmed that part of his personality that he misses, supplements his being that does not feel complete, just as the Messenger Harun was a supplement of Musa’s Messaging. Harun is actually Ahmed’s alter ego, and after the loss of that alter ego, there starts a destruction of Ahmed’s personality. In a similar way, in the subtext of the novel has been placed stories on the God’s Messengers. Numerous stories on the God’s Messengers that are placed in the subtext of the novel end differently. Characters in the novel sometimes react completely opposite from the characters on the God’s Messengers, where it has been emphasized onto the human reality that is far away from the picture of ideal people spoken in the religious manuscripts. In this was, the novel certain religious motifs degrades, but not to degrade religion, but to gain a universality of own message. In the most cases, the author deliberately alludes to those stories and persons mutual with monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It emphasizes an aspiration to put in the subtext universal, archetype clues; where to the story of Ahmed Nurudin has been given a universality and generality. As an important discovery, it can be separated a connection between names of the main character of the novel Ahmed with the name Muhamed that is a name of the author Selimovic. These beautiful names have almost the same meaning in the Arabic language and originate from the same root. There is an assumption that the author wanted to emphasize onto an autobiographical feature of the novel A Dervish and Death. Although Selimovic denied it, numerous critics have still concluded that autobiographical features have been presented in the novel. In the chapter A connection with Islamic Mysticism and Dervish Philosophy, this research directs onto quote connection of the novel A Dervish and Death with the works of Islamic mystics and philosophers of Gazali, Rumi, Ibn Arebi, Isfahani, Ibn Sina and others, and also with the works of poets, like Husein Mostarac, who wrote under the influence of Islamic philosophers in these areas. By this, it has been opened a possibility for reconsideration of works from the point of Islamic mysticism (Sufism). A cycle structure of the novel, let’s say, points out onto a complex symbolism of a circle connected with a circled dance of Mevlevi Dervishes, to whom the main hero of the novel belongs to, Ahmed Nurudin. The novel also contains other symbols of Sufism, as the beauty of a woman as a symbol of temptation of this world, and it also points out onto similarities characteristic for the literature of the East, as Jusuf and Zulejha are. The essential idea of Sufism, searching for love and believing that love is a pre-beginning of everything, interweaves the entire novel. By putting into the subtext the idea of searching for love, being ideal of all religions and human ideologies, Selimovic gains universality and shows that the final idea of the novel is still not pessimistic. In the chapter Elements of Folk Beliefs and Clues in the Subtext of the Novel “A Dervish and Death”, it has been emphasized that the elements of folk beliefs and clues on life are presented in the novel, although it has been evident that they are not primary. Ahmed Nurudin is, undoubtedly, a man of the book and he is separated from the world of folk religion. He reminds on folk beliefs are as something carried from his childhood, when he reminds on his village. Still, impulses originated from folk religion undoubtedly appear in this novel and give fullness to its religious clues. With this segment of beliefs, Selimovic communicates as it is being showed in Ahmed’s father as a symbol of a nation and an ideal picture of folk wisdom, while the character of a mother connects to protected magical actions: taking away of the terrible and extinguishing of hot coal. Traditional clues on women, a true understanding of a woman and her ambivalent nature, have been brought in a description of a wife of a Judge. Ahmed Nurudin is specifically related to Djurdjevdan (a traditional celebration). The entire description of Djurdjevdan has an exceptional psychological- emotional role in the character of Ahmed Nurudin, since his emotional condition copies onto a collective, into an ancient rituality. In the character of Kara Zaim, it has been introduced in the novel an epic hero, and then he has been degraded to a traitor and spy. Traditional folk clues and beliefs supplement so complex religious subtext of Selimovic work, very often varying with already established meanings and senses. A conclusion would be that Selimovic in the novel A Dervish and Death gains all connection with religions in the same way. He puts in the subtext of the novel different archetype pictures, stories about ideal ones, sinless people and true heroes, about frequent connections among people , about religious truths and a hope offered by religions, and then he degrades them during the plot of the novel by a spontaneous twist of the plot. He puts characters in the same situations where archetype heroes are, he gives them very often the same names, in the essence he gives them the same features, and then their reactions are completely opposite from the archetype ones, each virtue symbolised by an archetype hero he degrades into an opposite one, the same one he fought against. Thus, it has been pointed out onto a human reality and affinity towards making mistakes, very often distant from the archetype and religious ideals. Degradation is an archetype picture emphasized for a key question: Are there those who believe and do good deeds, who recommend truth to each other and recommend patience? The final conclusion is degradation of archetype pictures and characters in the novel, and also a questioning that originates from it, it has not been given to suggest onto hopelessness, but as a warning, as a comparison of current real-human and sublime truths, and a sign of a higher split and remoteness among them. The Koran, Bible, Islamic philosophical manuscripts and folk beliefs, characters and pictures mentioned in them, have been given in the novel as a symbol of universality of values and truths, not only religious ones, but also human ones, and in a larger part, it has been based on them, a true painful humanity of Selimovic work.
Nadija Rebronja, Tradicionalne predstave o ženi u Bihoru i Pešteri na primeru pripovedaka ,,Timka... more Nadija Rebronja, Tradicionalne predstave o ženi u Bihoru i Pešteri na primeru pripovedaka ,,Timka“ i ,,Zelen prsten na vodi“ Ćamila Sijarića, Mileševski zapisi, br.10 (2014. štampano 2015), 317-322. (УДК 821.163.4(497.6).09-32 Сијарић Ћ. 305-055.2 316.75:316.3)
Il Sole Luna pressogli slavi meridionali, Edizionidell’OrsoAlessandria, Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Culture Moderne dell’Universitàdegli Studi «G.d’Annunzio» Chieti-Pescara, Dipartimento di Lingue e Letterature Straniere e Culture Moderne dell’Universitàdegli Studi di Torino, II, , 2017
Nadija Rebronja, Sunce, mesec, mesečina i zvezde u romanima Bihorci, Kuću kućom čine lastavice i ... more Nadija Rebronja, Sunce, mesec, mesečina i zvezde u romanima Bihorci, Kuću kućom čine lastavice i Carska vojska Ćamila Sijarića, Il Sole Luna pressogli slavi meridionali, Edizionidell’OrsoAlessandria, Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Culture Moderne dell’Universitàdegli Studi «G.d’Annunzio» Chieti-Pescara, Dipartimento di Lingue e Letterature Straniere e Culture Moderne dell’Universitàdegli Studi di Torino, II, 2017, 267-277. ISBN 978-88-6274-768-4
CLASH Conference (Cultural, Literary and Social Hybridity), International Conference: “Worlds colide – connections/divisions /dialogues between cultures”, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland, 2012
Nadija Rebronja, Merging of Balkan cultures in ‘’Death and the Dervish’’ by Meša Selimović, CLASH... more Nadija Rebronja, Merging of Balkan cultures in ‘’Death and the Dervish’’ by Meša Selimović, CLASH Conference (Cultural, Literary and Social Hybridity), International Conference: “Worlds colide – connections/divisions /dialogues between cultures”, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland, December 2012.
Оријентални утицај на савремену српску и јужнословенске књижевности, Недеља османског наслеђа, Филозофски факултет Универзитета у Београду, новембар 2011. , 2011
Оријентални утицај на савремену српску и јужнословенске књижевности, Недеља османског наслеђа, Фи... more Оријентални утицај на савремену српску и јужнословенске књижевности, Недеља османског наслеђа, Филозофски факултет Универзитета у Београду, новембар 2011.
Kulturne i jezičke veze – mostovi među narodima, Interuniverzitetska i interdepartmanska kulturološka saradnja, knjiga apstrakta, , 2015
Nadija Rebronja, Adem Vrcić, Symbols in Hüsnü ü Dil by Ahmed Vali, Kulturne i jezičke veze – most... more Nadija Rebronja, Adem Vrcić, Symbols in Hüsnü ü Dil by Ahmed Vali, Kulturne i jezičke veze – mostovi među narodima, Interuniverzitetska i interdepartmanska kulturološka saradnja, knjiga apstrakta, Državni univerzitet u Novom Pazaru, Univerzitet Mehmet Akif Ersoy, Novi Pazar, 2015.
Међународни научни састанак слависта у Вукове дане 14–19. IX 2022, МСЦ, Београд, тезе и резимеи, 2022
Надија Реброња, Дорћол у путописима Зука Џумхура, 52. Међународни научни састанак слависта у Вуко... more Надија Реброња, Дорћол у путописима Зука Џумхура, 52. Међународни научни састанак слависта у Вукове дане 14–19. IX 2022, МСЦ, Београд, тезе и резимеи, стр. 68. ISBN 978-86-6153-693-9
Исток, Научни скуп ,,Доситејеви дани“, Нови Сад, Завод за културу Војводине, 2015
Надија Реброња, Суфијски симболи у поезији Јунуса Емреа, у: Исток, Научни скуп ,,Доситејеви дани“... more Надија Реброња, Суфијски симболи у поезији Јунуса Емреа, у: Исток, Научни скуп ,,Доситејеви дани“, Нови Сад, Завод за културу Војводине, 2015, 77-83. ISBN 978-86-85083-95-2 UDC 821.512.161.09 Emre J. COBISS.SR-ID 320413959
Мултикултурализъм и многоезичие, Сборник с докладиот Тринадесетите междунарони славистични четения – София, 21-23. април 2016 г, Том II.Антропология. Литературознание, Велико Трново, 2017, Издателство ,,Фебер“, 2017
Мултикултурализъм и многоезичие, Сборник с докладиот Тринадесетите междунарони славистични четени... more Мултикултурализъм и многоезичие, Сборник с докладиот Тринадесетите междунарони славистични четения – София, 21-23. април 2016 г, Том II.Антропология. Литературознание, Велико Трново, 2017, Издателство ,,Фебер“, 551-560. ISBN 987-619-00-0651-0 5
Тišinа, FILUМ, Srpski јеzik, knjižеvnоst, umеtnоst. Zbоrnik rаdоvа sа mеđunаrоdnоg nаučnоg skupа оdržаnоg nа Filоlоškо-umеtničkоm fаkultеtu u Krаguјеvcu 28-29. X 2016, knjiga 2, Krаguјеvаc., 2017
The silenced, unspoken and unwritten in literature and culture is mostly present in the poetry of... more The silenced, unspoken and unwritten in literature and culture is mostly present in the poetry of dissident writers, as Muhamed Abdagic himself was. Many enthusiastically wrote about the poet who was silenced and almost unknown, since he was mistakenly, without proofs and official charge thrown into the government's disfavour after the World War II, including Stefan Tontic and Vujica Resin Tucic, who emphasized the importance of feeling forbidden in the Abdagic's poetics. The motif of being forbidden dominates the poetry of Muhamed Abdagic, and the work will question the silence as an echo of the feeling of being forbidden. The silence is present in the Abdagic's absence from the literary life and inability to publish his books during his lifetime. The poetics of silence is questioned throughout the walls, the real ones inside the house arrest, and the symbolic ones occurred due to isolation. The poetics of silence is in the poems that speak about the arrest, and that silence is the one where only verses are heard. The poetics of silence is also in the verses about strong friends who remained silent in front of the truth. The only thing that breaks the silence is poetry, so the poetics of silence is built on the contrast of silence/muteness/being forbidden – poetry, where the poetry is symbolically the only sound that writes and speaks the truth.
Keywords: poetry, silence, forbidden, Muhamed Abdagic, dissident poet
The book "The Naive Story" by Petar Pijanovic is the first detailed research on the children's pr... more The book "The Naive Story" by Petar Pijanovic is the first detailed research on the children's prose models. It communicates with a lot of examples from Serbian children's prose, and this very feature may be emphasized as the book's most important quality.
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Books by Nadija Rebronja
A dervish or a man, life or death
A religious subtext of a novel “Dervis i smrt” (“A Dervish and Death”) by Mesa Selimovic
It has been talked a lot on a visible connection of the novel A Dervish and Death by Mesa Selimovic with the religion and holly books, but still this connection has not been explained precisely. Although the novel by Selimovic has had an important and rumbling critical, theoretical and literature-historical perception, this aspect of his has been more emphasized than being seriously reconsidered and examined. The aim of this book has been to explore a religious subtext in the novel, to discover its potential intellectual connection with the religious manuscripts, and to explain what meaning a certain religious motif gets in the context of the novel. Our exploration has shown that the novel A Dervish and Death communicates mainly with the holly book of Islam, Koran, and then over the Koran, it connects to the Old and New Testimony. Besides it, the novel is often inter-textually connected with the philosophic and literature works of the Islamic, Oriental world, and then, as this research shows, for the folk beliefs and legends of South Yugoslav nations.
A larger part of the book researches a quote connection of Selimovic novel with the Islamic holly book, Koran. This kind of research has been necessary for complete interpretation of A Dervish and Death, where it has been indirectly directed through the quotes of the Koran, visibly emphasized into the beginning of each novel’s chapter, and also quotes in the text of the novel itself. This has been pointed out by the critics since the novel has been published, evading in that opinion to what degree the novel A Dervish and Death has been connected for the thought of the Koran and in what way it has been treated.
During the research it has been firstly necessary to confirm what part from the Koran Selimovic quotes in his novel, so as to be explained the original meaning of certain quotes and their influence onto the context of the novel. Although the quotes in the beginning of each chapter are obviously the quotes from the Koran, Selimovic has never emphasized from what sura it has (chapter) been taken from the Koran, i.e. what exactly ayet (a sentence, a verse) has been quoted from the Koran. This research firstly points onto what Koran ayets Selimovic quotes, and then it compares the quotes from the novel with all famous translations of the Koran that had existed in the time of writing the novel. Here it is a word of translations by Mica Ljubibratic Hercegovac, co-authors translation by Muhamed Pandza and Dzemaludin Causevic and translation by Ali Riza Karabeg. Besides it, the quotes have been compared with the translation of the Koran by Besim Korkut, that has been published much later than the novel A Dervish and Death, but it has been reconsidered until today the most precise in meanings, and therefore stating of this translation in the work has been important for an analyze of the quotes in the context of the novel.
Comparison of the quotes from the novel with the translations of the Koran shows that the author of the novel has not relied to any of the existing translations, but he has styled the quotes himself, for the needs of the novel. He has spoken on it himself, justifying it by a lack of a good, suitable literature translation of the Koran, and he emphasizes it as a reason why this holly book, differently from the Bible, has not been fully quoted in the European literature.
As ayets have been styled by the author for the needs of the novel by himself or they have been paraphrased to function in their meaning in the text, it can be shown in an example on whom the critics have talked on before (e.g. Nikola Milosevic). It is a quote from the beginning of the first chapter of the novel A Dervish and Death: “I call for a witness time, beginning and ending of all-that each man is always in a lost!” in this quote, Selimovic has given a key of own communication with the religious manuscripts. He ends this quote with an interrupted ayet from the Koran. The ayet in the original Koran text continues with an optimistic religious thought on salvation for those who believe: “just not those who believe and do good deeds, and who recommend truth to each other and recommend patience” (Koran, 103:1-3). Selimovic himself spoke on the purpose of interruption of this key quote to show that only those who find love in themselves shall not be in lost, and it is a real context of the novel. In the same way the novel A Dervish and Death communicates with the other quotes from the Koran, and it is a similar communication of the novel with all other religious manuscripts.
Comparison of Selimovic’s quotes from the original Koran text can represent a problem even for good experts of the Koran. The majority of the quotes from the novel have been completely eradicated from the context of certain sura, and they have gained a completely different meaning or even opposite from the meaning from the Koran. Some quotes are difficult to be recognized that can be seen the best in the example of the quote from the beginning of chapter six of the novel A Dervish and Death and it is: “It is weak the one who is looking for, and it is weak what has been asked from him” that has been very difficult to bring into a connection with an ayet from the Koran, during this research. The quote has been changed so much, styled or eradicated from the context of a longer ayet so it is difficult to recognize how it has stated originally.
This book reconsiders the meaning of all quotes from the Koran as in their original form; the Islamic thought interprets them and compares them with the meanings that these quotes gain in the context of the novel. It has been used interpretations of certain ayets from more well-known interpreters and analyses of the Koran, Islamic theologians and philosophers. As the most important for this research, it is taken an interpretation given in documentaries, footnotes and introductions into sura, that in the Koran translations give Dzemaludin Causevic and Muhamed Pandza. Although, their comments have been denied by theologians saying as being incorrect, they can directly influence onto the Selimovic while he was writing the novel, since the translation of Causevic and Pandza was published in that time and was easily accessible. In the work we look at and analyse interpretations of ayets that Selimovic has quoted in his novel, whose authors have been Arabic theologians Ibn Kesir and Sejid Kutb, so as the original meaning of the ayets would be presented more precisely.
There is an assumption that Selimovic has not used or treated too much onto more voluminous theological interpretations of the Koran. By comparison of theological interpretations of the Koran text and meanings that ayets can gain in the context of the novel, it can be concluded that the Koran subtext is contained in a certain degree and meaning in the novel, both in the original meaning, or it has been emphasized similarities or deliberately emphasized differences. Meanings of ayets and quotes in some examples are completely different, put into different context, where it has been clearly emphasized that it is primary an artistic and literature importance of the novel.
The Koran in the subtext of the novel is placed into other ways, not only through quoting of its parts. In the subtext of the novel stands a story of the God’s Messengers, known in the Islamic theology either through the Koran, or other religious manuscripts. This book analyses it in the chapter Stories on the God’s Messengers in the Subtext of the Novel. Selimovic mostly takes those events from the lives of the God’s Messengers that have been described in the same or similar way in other monotheistic manuscripts and therefore he directs through the Koran onto the Old and New Testimony. The author points out onto the stories on the God’s Messengers in several places in the novel and in the names of the characters. Thus, for instance, a fugitive found in a tekiya (a building for dervishes), Ahmed Nurudin in his mind names him Ishak, that is a name of a Messenger (in the Bible, Isaac), Nurudin’s pupil is called Mula Jusuf, that directs onto a Messenger Jusuf (Josef), while the name of Ahmet’s brother Harun is directly connected with a Messenger Harun (Musa’s brother, in the Bible Moses). A comparative analyze of the Koran stories on the God’s Messengers whose names have characters in the novel A Dervish and Death and the text itself, shows that these stories are certainly contained in the subtext. The names direct onto a deeper connection. As an example how this connection functions, it can be separated stories on the God’s Messengers who went to the ruler of their time and tried to look for the truth and justice, being the central stories placed in the subtext of the novel. Among them, the most important one is a story on the Messenger Musa (Moses) and his brother Harun (Aron). The Messengers have been rejected and expelled, in the same way as Ahmed and Nurudion have. Events from the fifth and sixth chapters: Nurudin’s leave to a Priest, Judge and Mufti, gradually lined show onto stories on the God’s Messengers Nuha ( Noja), Hud (Eber), Salih ( he has not been mentioned in the Bible), Ibrahim (Abraham), Lut ( Lot), Musa ( Moses) and others, that come to rulers of their time, telling the truth and being rejected.
The most important story being put in the subtext of the novel is the story on the Messenger Musa. In Islamic theology, Musa became the first God’s Messenger, and then he asks the God to give Messaging to his brother Harun to help him, since Musa had swallowed a live coal when he was a child and since then he has defect in speaking. The Messenger Harun is in some way a supplement of Musa’s messaging. He represents for Musa a possibility to compensate what he misses so as to fulfill his life mission. In the novel of Mesa Selimovic, Harun is, different from Ahmed Nurudin; he is braver, more able to express his desires and aims. It is an eternal story on two brothers, from whom one is always braver, more open, closer to people and life. Harun is a brother open towards the outer world, and Ahmed is a brother closed in his inner world. As such, Harun is for Ahmed that part of his personality that he misses, supplements his being that does not feel complete, just as the Messenger Harun was a supplement of Musa’s Messaging. Harun is actually Ahmed’s alter ego, and after the loss of that alter ego, there starts a destruction of Ahmed’s personality. In a similar way, in the subtext of the novel has been placed stories on the God’s Messengers.
Numerous stories on the God’s Messengers that are placed in the subtext of the novel end differently. Characters in the novel sometimes react completely opposite from the characters on the God’s Messengers, where it has been emphasized onto the human reality that is far away from the picture of ideal people spoken in the religious manuscripts. In this was, the novel certain religious motifs degrades, but not to degrade religion, but to gain a universality of own message. In the most cases, the author deliberately alludes to those stories and persons mutual with monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It emphasizes an aspiration to put in the subtext universal, archetype clues; where to the story of Ahmed Nurudin has been given a universality and generality.
As an important discovery, it can be separated a connection between names of the main character of the novel Ahmed with the name Muhamed that is a name of the author Selimovic. These beautiful names have almost the same meaning in the Arabic language and originate from the same root. There is an assumption that the author wanted to emphasize onto an autobiographical feature of the novel A Dervish and Death. Although Selimovic denied it, numerous critics have still concluded that autobiographical features have been presented in the novel.
In the chapter A connection with Islamic Mysticism and Dervish Philosophy, this research directs onto quote connection of the novel A Dervish and Death with the works of Islamic mystics and philosophers of Gazali, Rumi, Ibn Arebi, Isfahani, Ibn Sina and others, and also with the works of poets, like Husein Mostarac, who wrote under the influence of Islamic philosophers in these areas. By this, it has been opened a possibility for reconsideration of works from the point of Islamic mysticism (Sufism). A cycle structure of the novel, let’s say, points out onto a complex symbolism of a circle connected with a circled dance of Mevlevi Dervishes, to whom the main hero of the novel belongs to, Ahmed Nurudin. The novel also contains other symbols of Sufism, as the beauty of a woman as a symbol of temptation of this world, and it also points out onto similarities characteristic for the literature of the East, as Jusuf and Zulejha are. The essential idea of Sufism, searching for love and believing that love is a pre-beginning of everything, interweaves the entire novel. By putting into the subtext the idea of searching for love, being ideal of all religions and human ideologies, Selimovic gains universality and shows that the final idea of the novel is still not pessimistic.
In the chapter Elements of Folk Beliefs and Clues in the Subtext of the Novel “A Dervish and Death”, it has been emphasized that the elements of folk beliefs and clues on life are presented in the novel, although it has been evident that they are not primary. Ahmed Nurudin is, undoubtedly, a man of the book and he is separated from the world of folk religion. He reminds on folk beliefs are as something carried from his childhood, when he reminds on his village. Still, impulses originated from folk religion undoubtedly appear in this novel and give fullness to its religious clues. With this segment of beliefs, Selimovic communicates as it is being showed in Ahmed’s father as a symbol of a nation and an ideal picture of folk wisdom, while the character of a mother connects to protected magical actions: taking away of the terrible and extinguishing of hot coal. Traditional clues on women, a true understanding of a woman and her ambivalent nature, have been brought in a description of a wife of a Judge. Ahmed Nurudin is specifically related to Djurdjevdan (a traditional celebration). The entire description of Djurdjevdan has an exceptional psychological- emotional role in the character of Ahmed Nurudin, since his emotional condition copies onto a collective, into an ancient rituality.
In the character of Kara Zaim, it has been introduced in the novel an epic hero, and then he has been degraded to a traitor and spy. Traditional folk clues and beliefs supplement so complex religious subtext of Selimovic work, very often varying with already established meanings and senses.
A conclusion would be that Selimovic in the novel A Dervish and Death gains all connection with religions in the same way. He puts in the subtext of the novel different archetype pictures, stories about ideal ones, sinless people and true heroes, about frequent connections among people , about religious truths and a hope offered by religions, and then he degrades them during the plot of the novel by a spontaneous twist of the plot. He puts characters in the same situations where archetype heroes are, he gives them very often the same names, in the essence he gives them the same features, and then their reactions are completely opposite from the archetype ones, each virtue symbolised by an archetype hero he degrades into an opposite one, the same one he fought against. Thus, it has been pointed out onto a human reality and affinity towards making mistakes, very often distant from the archetype and religious ideals. Degradation is an archetype picture emphasized for a key question: Are there those who believe and do good deeds, who recommend truth to each other and recommend patience?
The final conclusion is degradation of archetype pictures and characters in the novel, and also a questioning that originates from it, it has not been given to suggest onto hopelessness, but as a warning, as a comparison of current real-human and sublime truths, and a sign of a higher split and remoteness among them. The Koran, Bible, Islamic philosophical manuscripts and folk beliefs, characters and pictures mentioned in them, have been given in the novel as a symbol of universality of values and truths, not only religious ones, but also human ones, and in a larger part, it has been based on them, a true painful humanity of Selimovic work.
Papers by Nadija Rebronja
Keywords: poetry, silence, forbidden, Muhamed Abdagic, dissident poet
A dervish or a man, life or death
A religious subtext of a novel “Dervis i smrt” (“A Dervish and Death”) by Mesa Selimovic
It has been talked a lot on a visible connection of the novel A Dervish and Death by Mesa Selimovic with the religion and holly books, but still this connection has not been explained precisely. Although the novel by Selimovic has had an important and rumbling critical, theoretical and literature-historical perception, this aspect of his has been more emphasized than being seriously reconsidered and examined. The aim of this book has been to explore a religious subtext in the novel, to discover its potential intellectual connection with the religious manuscripts, and to explain what meaning a certain religious motif gets in the context of the novel. Our exploration has shown that the novel A Dervish and Death communicates mainly with the holly book of Islam, Koran, and then over the Koran, it connects to the Old and New Testimony. Besides it, the novel is often inter-textually connected with the philosophic and literature works of the Islamic, Oriental world, and then, as this research shows, for the folk beliefs and legends of South Yugoslav nations.
A larger part of the book researches a quote connection of Selimovic novel with the Islamic holly book, Koran. This kind of research has been necessary for complete interpretation of A Dervish and Death, where it has been indirectly directed through the quotes of the Koran, visibly emphasized into the beginning of each novel’s chapter, and also quotes in the text of the novel itself. This has been pointed out by the critics since the novel has been published, evading in that opinion to what degree the novel A Dervish and Death has been connected for the thought of the Koran and in what way it has been treated.
During the research it has been firstly necessary to confirm what part from the Koran Selimovic quotes in his novel, so as to be explained the original meaning of certain quotes and their influence onto the context of the novel. Although the quotes in the beginning of each chapter are obviously the quotes from the Koran, Selimovic has never emphasized from what sura it has (chapter) been taken from the Koran, i.e. what exactly ayet (a sentence, a verse) has been quoted from the Koran. This research firstly points onto what Koran ayets Selimovic quotes, and then it compares the quotes from the novel with all famous translations of the Koran that had existed in the time of writing the novel. Here it is a word of translations by Mica Ljubibratic Hercegovac, co-authors translation by Muhamed Pandza and Dzemaludin Causevic and translation by Ali Riza Karabeg. Besides it, the quotes have been compared with the translation of the Koran by Besim Korkut, that has been published much later than the novel A Dervish and Death, but it has been reconsidered until today the most precise in meanings, and therefore stating of this translation in the work has been important for an analyze of the quotes in the context of the novel.
Comparison of the quotes from the novel with the translations of the Koran shows that the author of the novel has not relied to any of the existing translations, but he has styled the quotes himself, for the needs of the novel. He has spoken on it himself, justifying it by a lack of a good, suitable literature translation of the Koran, and he emphasizes it as a reason why this holly book, differently from the Bible, has not been fully quoted in the European literature.
As ayets have been styled by the author for the needs of the novel by himself or they have been paraphrased to function in their meaning in the text, it can be shown in an example on whom the critics have talked on before (e.g. Nikola Milosevic). It is a quote from the beginning of the first chapter of the novel A Dervish and Death: “I call for a witness time, beginning and ending of all-that each man is always in a lost!” in this quote, Selimovic has given a key of own communication with the religious manuscripts. He ends this quote with an interrupted ayet from the Koran. The ayet in the original Koran text continues with an optimistic religious thought on salvation for those who believe: “just not those who believe and do good deeds, and who recommend truth to each other and recommend patience” (Koran, 103:1-3). Selimovic himself spoke on the purpose of interruption of this key quote to show that only those who find love in themselves shall not be in lost, and it is a real context of the novel. In the same way the novel A Dervish and Death communicates with the other quotes from the Koran, and it is a similar communication of the novel with all other religious manuscripts.
Comparison of Selimovic’s quotes from the original Koran text can represent a problem even for good experts of the Koran. The majority of the quotes from the novel have been completely eradicated from the context of certain sura, and they have gained a completely different meaning or even opposite from the meaning from the Koran. Some quotes are difficult to be recognized that can be seen the best in the example of the quote from the beginning of chapter six of the novel A Dervish and Death and it is: “It is weak the one who is looking for, and it is weak what has been asked from him” that has been very difficult to bring into a connection with an ayet from the Koran, during this research. The quote has been changed so much, styled or eradicated from the context of a longer ayet so it is difficult to recognize how it has stated originally.
This book reconsiders the meaning of all quotes from the Koran as in their original form; the Islamic thought interprets them and compares them with the meanings that these quotes gain in the context of the novel. It has been used interpretations of certain ayets from more well-known interpreters and analyses of the Koran, Islamic theologians and philosophers. As the most important for this research, it is taken an interpretation given in documentaries, footnotes and introductions into sura, that in the Koran translations give Dzemaludin Causevic and Muhamed Pandza. Although, their comments have been denied by theologians saying as being incorrect, they can directly influence onto the Selimovic while he was writing the novel, since the translation of Causevic and Pandza was published in that time and was easily accessible. In the work we look at and analyse interpretations of ayets that Selimovic has quoted in his novel, whose authors have been Arabic theologians Ibn Kesir and Sejid Kutb, so as the original meaning of the ayets would be presented more precisely.
There is an assumption that Selimovic has not used or treated too much onto more voluminous theological interpretations of the Koran. By comparison of theological interpretations of the Koran text and meanings that ayets can gain in the context of the novel, it can be concluded that the Koran subtext is contained in a certain degree and meaning in the novel, both in the original meaning, or it has been emphasized similarities or deliberately emphasized differences. Meanings of ayets and quotes in some examples are completely different, put into different context, where it has been clearly emphasized that it is primary an artistic and literature importance of the novel.
The Koran in the subtext of the novel is placed into other ways, not only through quoting of its parts. In the subtext of the novel stands a story of the God’s Messengers, known in the Islamic theology either through the Koran, or other religious manuscripts. This book analyses it in the chapter Stories on the God’s Messengers in the Subtext of the Novel. Selimovic mostly takes those events from the lives of the God’s Messengers that have been described in the same or similar way in other monotheistic manuscripts and therefore he directs through the Koran onto the Old and New Testimony. The author points out onto the stories on the God’s Messengers in several places in the novel and in the names of the characters. Thus, for instance, a fugitive found in a tekiya (a building for dervishes), Ahmed Nurudin in his mind names him Ishak, that is a name of a Messenger (in the Bible, Isaac), Nurudin’s pupil is called Mula Jusuf, that directs onto a Messenger Jusuf (Josef), while the name of Ahmet’s brother Harun is directly connected with a Messenger Harun (Musa’s brother, in the Bible Moses). A comparative analyze of the Koran stories on the God’s Messengers whose names have characters in the novel A Dervish and Death and the text itself, shows that these stories are certainly contained in the subtext. The names direct onto a deeper connection. As an example how this connection functions, it can be separated stories on the God’s Messengers who went to the ruler of their time and tried to look for the truth and justice, being the central stories placed in the subtext of the novel. Among them, the most important one is a story on the Messenger Musa (Moses) and his brother Harun (Aron). The Messengers have been rejected and expelled, in the same way as Ahmed and Nurudion have. Events from the fifth and sixth chapters: Nurudin’s leave to a Priest, Judge and Mufti, gradually lined show onto stories on the God’s Messengers Nuha ( Noja), Hud (Eber), Salih ( he has not been mentioned in the Bible), Ibrahim (Abraham), Lut ( Lot), Musa ( Moses) and others, that come to rulers of their time, telling the truth and being rejected.
The most important story being put in the subtext of the novel is the story on the Messenger Musa. In Islamic theology, Musa became the first God’s Messenger, and then he asks the God to give Messaging to his brother Harun to help him, since Musa had swallowed a live coal when he was a child and since then he has defect in speaking. The Messenger Harun is in some way a supplement of Musa’s messaging. He represents for Musa a possibility to compensate what he misses so as to fulfill his life mission. In the novel of Mesa Selimovic, Harun is, different from Ahmed Nurudin; he is braver, more able to express his desires and aims. It is an eternal story on two brothers, from whom one is always braver, more open, closer to people and life. Harun is a brother open towards the outer world, and Ahmed is a brother closed in his inner world. As such, Harun is for Ahmed that part of his personality that he misses, supplements his being that does not feel complete, just as the Messenger Harun was a supplement of Musa’s Messaging. Harun is actually Ahmed’s alter ego, and after the loss of that alter ego, there starts a destruction of Ahmed’s personality. In a similar way, in the subtext of the novel has been placed stories on the God’s Messengers.
Numerous stories on the God’s Messengers that are placed in the subtext of the novel end differently. Characters in the novel sometimes react completely opposite from the characters on the God’s Messengers, where it has been emphasized onto the human reality that is far away from the picture of ideal people spoken in the religious manuscripts. In this was, the novel certain religious motifs degrades, but not to degrade religion, but to gain a universality of own message. In the most cases, the author deliberately alludes to those stories and persons mutual with monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It emphasizes an aspiration to put in the subtext universal, archetype clues; where to the story of Ahmed Nurudin has been given a universality and generality.
As an important discovery, it can be separated a connection between names of the main character of the novel Ahmed with the name Muhamed that is a name of the author Selimovic. These beautiful names have almost the same meaning in the Arabic language and originate from the same root. There is an assumption that the author wanted to emphasize onto an autobiographical feature of the novel A Dervish and Death. Although Selimovic denied it, numerous critics have still concluded that autobiographical features have been presented in the novel.
In the chapter A connection with Islamic Mysticism and Dervish Philosophy, this research directs onto quote connection of the novel A Dervish and Death with the works of Islamic mystics and philosophers of Gazali, Rumi, Ibn Arebi, Isfahani, Ibn Sina and others, and also with the works of poets, like Husein Mostarac, who wrote under the influence of Islamic philosophers in these areas. By this, it has been opened a possibility for reconsideration of works from the point of Islamic mysticism (Sufism). A cycle structure of the novel, let’s say, points out onto a complex symbolism of a circle connected with a circled dance of Mevlevi Dervishes, to whom the main hero of the novel belongs to, Ahmed Nurudin. The novel also contains other symbols of Sufism, as the beauty of a woman as a symbol of temptation of this world, and it also points out onto similarities characteristic for the literature of the East, as Jusuf and Zulejha are. The essential idea of Sufism, searching for love and believing that love is a pre-beginning of everything, interweaves the entire novel. By putting into the subtext the idea of searching for love, being ideal of all religions and human ideologies, Selimovic gains universality and shows that the final idea of the novel is still not pessimistic.
In the chapter Elements of Folk Beliefs and Clues in the Subtext of the Novel “A Dervish and Death”, it has been emphasized that the elements of folk beliefs and clues on life are presented in the novel, although it has been evident that they are not primary. Ahmed Nurudin is, undoubtedly, a man of the book and he is separated from the world of folk religion. He reminds on folk beliefs are as something carried from his childhood, when he reminds on his village. Still, impulses originated from folk religion undoubtedly appear in this novel and give fullness to its religious clues. With this segment of beliefs, Selimovic communicates as it is being showed in Ahmed’s father as a symbol of a nation and an ideal picture of folk wisdom, while the character of a mother connects to protected magical actions: taking away of the terrible and extinguishing of hot coal. Traditional clues on women, a true understanding of a woman and her ambivalent nature, have been brought in a description of a wife of a Judge. Ahmed Nurudin is specifically related to Djurdjevdan (a traditional celebration). The entire description of Djurdjevdan has an exceptional psychological- emotional role in the character of Ahmed Nurudin, since his emotional condition copies onto a collective, into an ancient rituality.
In the character of Kara Zaim, it has been introduced in the novel an epic hero, and then he has been degraded to a traitor and spy. Traditional folk clues and beliefs supplement so complex religious subtext of Selimovic work, very often varying with already established meanings and senses.
A conclusion would be that Selimovic in the novel A Dervish and Death gains all connection with religions in the same way. He puts in the subtext of the novel different archetype pictures, stories about ideal ones, sinless people and true heroes, about frequent connections among people , about religious truths and a hope offered by religions, and then he degrades them during the plot of the novel by a spontaneous twist of the plot. He puts characters in the same situations where archetype heroes are, he gives them very often the same names, in the essence he gives them the same features, and then their reactions are completely opposite from the archetype ones, each virtue symbolised by an archetype hero he degrades into an opposite one, the same one he fought against. Thus, it has been pointed out onto a human reality and affinity towards making mistakes, very often distant from the archetype and religious ideals. Degradation is an archetype picture emphasized for a key question: Are there those who believe and do good deeds, who recommend truth to each other and recommend patience?
The final conclusion is degradation of archetype pictures and characters in the novel, and also a questioning that originates from it, it has not been given to suggest onto hopelessness, but as a warning, as a comparison of current real-human and sublime truths, and a sign of a higher split and remoteness among them. The Koran, Bible, Islamic philosophical manuscripts and folk beliefs, characters and pictures mentioned in them, have been given in the novel as a symbol of universality of values and truths, not only religious ones, but also human ones, and in a larger part, it has been based on them, a true painful humanity of Selimovic work.
Keywords: poetry, silence, forbidden, Muhamed Abdagic, dissident poet