The following are three “entries” from An Occasional Diary of Love and War, which the author has planned and partly written and which spans some fifty years of his life in Bosnia – from his early childhood in pre-World War II Sarajevo to the present time. Midhat Ridjanović is a professor emeritus of English and linguistics at University of Sarajevo; […]
I arrived on the agreed day. I spent two nights at the local inn, met several respected gentlemen, and, in fact, they deigned ask me for my name, origin, and reason for coming. I persuaded them to believe in the veracity of the prepared information. At first sight, everything here seems peaceful, or perhaps, I still haven’t managed to sharpen […]
In modern times where the world is bombarded by media and other peoples’ perceptions of reality, stereotypes are the tools for processing experience and human communication. We costume and dress up our perceptions communicating through simplified schemes for decoding the significances of the notions in the world that surround us. The mind performs operations to simplify the reality by framing […]
A certain Jew of Sarajevo by the name of Moshe Havijo converted to Islam in Travnik, and through trickery insinuated himself into an order of dervishes and received the name Dervish Ahmed. To the untaught Muslim masses he passed himself off as a miracle-worker, infused with divine inspiration, and the people believed in him. Probably this false Dervish Ahmed made […]
D.O.M. Catherine Reginae Bosnensi Stephani Ducis San (c) ti Sabbae Sorori, Et genere Helene et Domo Principis Stephani natae, Tomae Regis Bosnae Uxori. Quantum vixit annorum LIIII Et odbormivit Romae Anno Domini Et odbormivit Romae Anno Domini MCCCCLXXVIII DIE XXV Octobris Monumentum ipsius scriptis positum. This was inscribed upon my tomb, but what you don’t know is how I arrived here in the […]
In the history of medieval Bosnia, only a few women have left such a prominent mark as Katarina Vukčić Kosača, who is one of the most compelling among them. Her life story illuminates the history of the Bosnian Kingdom in its last few decades to such a remarkable extent that it is no wonder that all those describing the 15th-century […]
By assembling the folk traditions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the historian Vlajko Palavestra noticed that the memories of events and individuals from medieval Bosnia live even to this day. This fact especially applies to stories about Queen Katarina, which one can still hear among elderly people living in the vicinity of Kraljeva Sutjeska, Kreševo, Fojnica, Olovo, and other places in […]
General Ratko Mladić, commander-in-chief of the Bosnian Serb Army, entered Srebrenica on July 11, moments behind the first Serb soldiers, accompanied by a television crew. “We present this city to the Serbian people as a gift,” Mladić said, speaking to the camera. “Finally, after the rebellion of the Dahis, the time has come to take revenge on the Turks in […]