Atik mosque in Fojnica for centuries resists to time and enemies, proudly standing on the place where it was build long time ago, in 1551 by Mustafa Sin Hidru. The street in which mosque is built is named by him. It represents one of the oldest building in this part of BiH.
At the entrance in the mosque, visitors can read inscription or tarih (Turkish), written by Abdurahman efendi Sirija written in Ottoman language. It speaks about the date of restoration of the mosque, after Eugen of Savoy passed through this area.
Ahmed Vuković, imam of the mosque, says that tarih is the most interesting and most valuable part of the mosque.
”It is written in Ottoman language. Tourists who visit the mosque are surprised when they see how people were educated in that period of time, in such small place”, said Vuković.
”Thanks to God that this mosque is restored, it was a big wish of all inhabitants of this region to be so. Everyone made an effort because this is old place. Let their effort be awarded by the Lord.’’, said Vuković.
Specificity of the mosque is that it preserved its authentic look. One of the characteristics is that it preserved the names that remained within the people, some according to legends, and some according to historical data.
One of the names is Middle mosque, due to the geographic position, because it is settled between Čaršijska mosque and Muharem efendi mosque.
The other name is most interesting, Girls’ mosque.
”When Eugen of Savoy came to the city, he burned down the mosque. People who lived here, did not have enough money to reconstruct it. Legends says that there were three girls in the street who never got married, so they gave their miraz (dowry), for the reconstruction of the mosque”, says Vuković.
Mosque is built of the wood. The entrance is the most interesting, because there are sofas , that were used for religious classes. Dervishes or sufis were named by it. They performed their zikr and lectures on these sofas.
‘’Fojnica is well known for tekkies also, and this mosque is the one where zikr was performed.”, Vuković added.
The oldest hand-written Qur’an was found in the wall of the mosque.
”After the mosque was burned, people hid Qur’an, which was found during the reconstruction. It is 350 years old. There was one delegation from one of the Istanbul universities, and when they saw books, which we found in the attic of the mosque, they were surprised because majority was written in Ottoman and Persian language’’, said Vuković
Bejdavi tafseer is also found, written in Ottoman language, as well as Arabic-Turkish dictionary, that according to some historians, cannot be found even in Istanbul.
Last reconstruction works were finished in 2001.
(Source: Vijesti.ba)
