When walking from Dariva to Goat’s Bridge or driving from Pale to Sarajevo, it is hard not to see an unusual turbe located on the top of the hill on the left bank of Miljacka River, right across from the rocks that are favorite to mountaineers from Sarajevo.
This turbe is located in a place named Sejhova, or Sejhova Korija, and it is about a kilometer east from the former Isa-bey’s tekke, but many do not know anything about it, a cave or cardak (old, wooden house that was used to be built in BiH) that were placed in that place once.
“Even before the founder Isa-Bey Ishakovic laid the foundation of our city, and before he built Emperor’s mosque, Muslims lived in the valley that was known as “Zlatni do”. Their faith was brought by traveling Sufis, who attracted people with their behavior and spread their knowledge and faith. Before the construction of the tekke in 1457-58, Sufis used to come to this valley and gathered here. Sufis were the vanguard appreciated by the then inhabitants of this valley. It is not known when exactly the cardak was constructed, nor when it was destroyed. It was probably destructed by Eugene of Savoy, who burned down the entire Sarajevo, as well as the whole Bentbasa,” said Mufid Garibija, an architect from Sarajevo and a real expert on the history of the city.
In this space of Sejhova Korija and this cardak, as he says, were organized Iftar dinners, as well as different kinds of celebrations.
“For the technical needs was used water from Miljacka, which was clean and full of trout back then. Drinking water was taken from the spring “Ebu Hayat,” or “Water of life”, which was used and drank not only by residents but also the Sufis. It was believed that it was a holy water, and old Sarajevans are still visiting this spring that is hidden from the public,” said Garibija.
In the very foothills near Korija, there was a small cave which still can be seen, and it was used for the 40-day long solitude of Sufis, which they did for the sake of their spiritual progress. Sheiks from the Mevlevi tekke would send Sufis here when the time for that spiritual breakthrough came.
Turbe and cardak on Sejhova Korija, the cave, tekke on Bentbasa and spring Ebu Hajat were part of one large Sufi complex. However, this whole composition is sadly gone and there are only memories left, together with spring Ebu Hajat and the cave with wooden doors.
(Source: faktor.ba)
