Mostar
Mostar means “jambatan” . The bridge was built by the Ottoman great king -Suleymen . Bosnia is the northern part of the country where the river Bosnia flows. Herzeg means “knight” . Both people decided to unite to form the modern day BH. We spent the night at a hotel called carpie diem hotel. Nice little hotel with modern ambience and simplistic deco. In half an hour we reached the old town of Mostar.
The rain will not dampen my spirit to explore Mostar.Our tour started with a big Roman Katholik church. Seriously? You have not done with the church thing? The mosques seemed unimportant altghough I could see a few mosques around the place. Well he led us to an old mosque in the middle of the town but we had to buy a ticket to get in. Well …..
I saw in them (the locals) desperations. Everyone just waited to nick money from us —the tourists. The traders, mosque guy, the toilet lady, and not to mention some random ladies came up to you fir money. The scars of brutal war have started to heal and to recover from the war. the guy kept the war stories to a minimal. The guy was young maybe he missed the war altogether.
Mostari experienced two horrific wars. The first one with the Serbs and the second one among themselves (with the Croats).The Dayton Accord put a stop to this bitter dispute and ended the war.
The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement or the Dayton Accords (Serbo-Croatian: Dejtonski mirovni sporazum, Дејтонски мировни споразум), and colloquially known as the Dayton(Croatian: Dayton, Bosnian: Dejton, Serbian: Дејтон) in ex-Yugoslav parlance, is the peace agreement reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, United States, finalised on 21 November 1995,[3] and formally signed in Paris, on 14 December 1995. These accords put an end to the three-and-a-half-year-long Bosnian War, which was part of the much larger Yugoslav Wars.
The Croats are mainly Roman Katholik and Bosnians are muslim. Islam came with the Ottoman and colonization. Those converted to Islam were seen to betray the land. During the Ottoman time, a muslim would get more benefit financially or economically than the non- muslim. This discrimination created jealousy and hatred. carried over long after the Turkish left.
As we rode through the rain on a winding mountain roads to Sarajevo, I pondered how we are indebted to the Turkish for bringing Islam to the Balkans. They fought endless wars to spread Islam. and in some parts the mosques they built in those days are still standing and some are still financed by the Turkish government. By and far we underestimated the contribution of Turkey in protecting Islam and the Muslim world. I guess that is the message to take home out of this journey. To understand the sacrifices and struggles that people pay to uphold their faith and safe guard their belief.
The road to Sarajevo is just like KL-Karak highway but up a notch. I felt at home as the bus winding up and down the slippery roads. We reached Sarajevo around Zuhr time. People have just left the mosque , one of the many mosques around the old bazaar. As the bus passed through the city, we could see the scars of the war from the building; bullet holes and abandoned apartments. The city is old and seems to hold a lot of memories.
I sat at the edge of a mosque to let the rain passed. The bazaar was still busy with people mainly tourists pacing the clobbered stones on the main street. The call for Asr prayers went on air as they did for hundred of years. I felt connected but not in an ordinary way as the patrons of the mosque were different in color of the skin and hair. They were mainly like the Turkish —- black hair, white skin and colored eyes. Very different but when the guy recited the Quran , it sealed the connection—- it was so mesmerising, heavenly.
The stoned walls surrounding the mosque took me to the past, I imagined, the time when Islam ruled and the sultan gave command. Sarajevo had been the jewel of a crown of many rulers and conqueror. The word Sarajevo means “palace” in turkish and I could feel the vibe of dignitaries as I sat trying to nurse my tired feet.
By 6pm we were on the bus again. The hotel just a short distance away but the evening traffics made the trip much further.
