A SISTER-COMMUNITY IN BOSNIA;


Foca-on-the-Drina

INSTEAD OF CONCLUSION

This essay is a walk through the past of the nicest 16th century mosque not only in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also in the entire region of the former Yugoslavia. The aesthetic value of the complex of the Aladza mosque was of high order in many senses. The harmony of the murals and architectural sculpture which were composed of Ummayad, Seljuk, Ottoman, Persian and even Chinese stylistic decorative elements and painted in expressive colors, made the Aladza mosque unique. Its harmonic proportion and green environment gave to the mosque an additional beauty which every visitor and friend of art enjoyed and deeply respected. Thus, the Aladza mosque got its place in the travel reports and scientific studies of its adorers starting with the Italian traveler, Paolo Contarini, in 1580 until the Serbian scholar, Andrej Andrejevic, in 1984.


The site where the Aladza mosque stood for centuries

An attentive reader of this essay probably noted that I wrote whole essay in past tense. And I did it with a reason. The Aladza mosque can be visited now only in history, imagination, and scientific and literatary works. At the very beginning of the recent war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the mosque was undermined and completely destroyed by Serbian Fascists. All of the material from which the mosque and the other monuments in its court-yard were built, was thrown into the nearby river. On the place where the Colorful mosque once was, there is now a bus-station.


Damaged and Destroyed Islamic Sites in Foca and Surrounding Area (Old and Partial List)

MOSQUES

  • Sultan Bayazid's (Tzar's) Mosque (1500-1501); Burned by Serb extremists, April 22-23, 1992.
  • The Aladza Moque (1550) -- Classical Ottoman style; Rocketed and then dynamitted
  • Atik Ali-Pasha's Mosque ("Musluk") (1546); Destroyed by mortar shells -- April 23, 1992.
  • Kadi Osman-Efendi's (Sheh's) Mosque (1593-1594); Damaged by Serb extremists -- April 1992.
  • Mustapha-Pasha's Mosque (16th century); Damaged considerably -- April 1992.
  • Mehmed-Pasha Kukavica's Mosque (1751-1752); Dominates town, stone minaret. Repeatedly damaged.
  • (Slatina) Local mosque; Shelled and destroyed -- April 1992.
  • (Ustikolina) Local mosque (1448-1449); Shelled and destroyed by Serb extremists -- April 27, 1992.
  • (Jelec) The Old Mosque (15th century); Burnt by Montenegrins in WWI; restored 1920-21.; Mined and destroyed -- May, 1992; Imam burned alive.

    MESJIDS

  • Mumin-Bey's Mesjid (16th century); Substantially damaged, 1992.
  • Sheih Pirija's Mesjid (16th century); Damaged April, 1992.

    SCHOOLS

  • Mehmed-Pasha Kukavica's Medrese (18th century); Heavily damaged -- April, 1992.


    After plundering and burning the mosque, Serb extremists took time to eat, drink and smoke in the burned mosque


    .. And this is what they left behind..

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