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Potočka (Hajji Perviz) mosque, The site and remains of the architectural ensemble

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Status of monument -> National monument

            Pursuant to Article V para. 4 Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 39 para. 1 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, at a session held from 6 to 11 December 2003 the Commission adopted a

 

D E C I S I O N

 

I

 

            The site and remains of the architectural ensemble of the Potočka (Hajji Perviz) mosque in Banja Luka is hereby designated as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the National Monument).

            The National Monument is located on cadastral plot no.1181/1 (new survey), corresponding to c.p. no. 191/88 (old survey), cadastral municipality Banja Luka IV-8, Municipality Banja Luka, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

            The provisions relating to protection and rehabilitation measures set forth by the Law on the Implementation of the Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, established pursuant to Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of Republika Srpska no. 9/02) shall apply to the National Monument specified in the preceding paragraph.

 

II

 

            The Government of Republika Srpska shall be responsible for ensuring and providing the legal, scientific, technical, administrative and financial measures necessary to protect, conserve, display and rehabilitate the National Monument.

            The Commission to Preserve National Monuments (hereinafter: the Commission) shall determine the technical requirements and secure the funds for preparing and setting up signboards with the basic data on the monument and the Decision to proclaim the property a National Monument.

 

III

 

            The following measures to protect the National Monument shall be implemented:

ـ       the Potočka mosque shall be rehabilitated on its original site, in its original form, to the same dimensions, using the same or the same type of material and the same building methods wherever possible, based on documentation on its original appearance;

ـ       the foundations of the mosque shall be excavated to verify the dimensions of the building;

ـ       all fragments of stone that may have survived following destruction, whether on the site or on adjacent plots, shall be registered, protected and rebuilt into the walls of the mosque;

ـ       all fragments discovered that are too badly damaged to be so reintegrated shall be protected and suitably presented as part of the architectural ensemble;

ـ       the harem shall be set in order and damaged nišan tombstones repaired;

ـ       the harem of the mosque shall be surrounded by a wooden fence as originally done, using the principle of analogy.

                                       

IV

 

            All executive and area development planning acts not in accordance with the provisions of this Decision are hereby revoked.

 

V

 

            Everyone, and in particular the competent authorities of Republika Srpska, and urban and municipal authorities, shall refrain from any action that might damage the National Monument or jeopardize the preservation and rehabilitation thereof.

           

VI

 

            The Government of Republika Srpska, the Ministry responsible for regional planning in Republika Srpska and the heritage protection authority of Republika Srpska, and the Municipal     Authorities in charge of urban planning and land registry affairs, shall be notified of this Decision in order to carry out the measures stipulated in Articles II to V of this Decision, and the Authorized Municipal Court shall be notified for the purposes of registration in the Land Register.

 

VII

 

            The elucidation and accompanying documentation form an integral part of this Decision, which may be viewed by interested parties on the premises or by accessing the website of the Commission (http://www.anek8komisija.com.ba) 

 

VIII

 

            Pursuant to Art. V para 4 Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, decisions of the Commission are final.

 

IX

 

            This Decision shall enter into force on the date of its adoption and shall be published in the Official Gazette of BiH

 

            This Decision has been adopted by the following members of the Commission: Zeynep Ahunbay, Amra Hadžimuhamedović, Dubravko Lovrenović,  Ljiljana Ševo and Tina Wik.

 

No: 07-6-1075/03

6 December 2003

Sarajevo

 

Chair of the Commission

Ljiljana Ševo

 

E l u c i d a t i o n

 

I – INTRODUCTION

 

            Pursuant to Article 2, paragraph 1 of the Law on the Implementation of the Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, established pursuant to Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a “National Monument” is an item of public property proclaimed by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments to be a National Monument pursuant to Articles V and VI of Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter referred to as Annex 8) and property entered on the Provisional List of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of  BiH no. 33/02) until the Commission reaches a final decision on its status, as to which there is no time limit and regardless of whether a petition for the property in question has been submitted or not.

            The Commission received a petition from the Islamic Community of BiH, Banja Luka Majlis (Council), on 27 August 2002.  

            Pursuant to the provisions of the law, the Commission proceeded to carry out the procedure for reaching a final decision to designate the Property as a National Monument, pursuant to Article V of Annex 8 and Article 35 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments.

 

II – PROCEDURE PRIOR TO DECISION

 

            In the procedure preceding the adoption of a final decision to proclaim the property a national monument, the following documentation was inspected:

ـ       Data on the current condition and use of the property, including a description and photographs, data of war damage, data on restoration or other works on the property if any, etc.;

ـ       The current condition of the property;

ـ       Documentation on the location and current owner and user of the property (copy of cadastral plan and copy of land registry entry);

ـ       Historical, architectural and other documentary material on the property, as set out in the bibliography forming part of this Decision.

 

            The findings based on the review of the above documentation and the current condition of the site are as follows:

 

1. Details of the property

Location

            The Potočka (Hajji Perviz) mosque in Banja Luka adjoins Patriarch A. Čarnojević street (on the corner of former M. Karabegović and  F. Dedić streets).

Historical information

            Following the construction of the Ferhad pasha mosque(1) and other public buildings in the Velika čaršija on the left bank of the Vrbas, with the construction of the bridge and transverse road from Pobrđe and the Arnaudija mosque through Velika čaršija, the Kastel fortress and beyond towards the south-western quarter of the town, the Donje Šeher or Lower Town area on the right bank of the river Vrbas began to develop, hastening the process of urbanization and extending the urban centre of Banja Luka.

            Four decades after the formation of the Gazanferija mosque(2) and mahala, there developed on the right bank of the Vrbas the Mala or Lesser čaršija (Suki sagir)(3) and four new mahalas: north of Gazanferija Mejdan and Kul mahala, and south of this the Stupnička (Hajji Salihija) and Potočka (Hajji Perviz(4)) mahalas.

            The last mosque and mahala to be built around Mala čaršija was the Hajji Perviz (Potočka or New) mosque. The mosque was built before 10 May 1630 (27 Ramadan 1039 AH), the date on which Hajji Perviz's vakufnama(5) was composed and certified by the seal of the Banja Luka kadi and the well-known poet Muhamed Nerkesi Sarajlija(6). This vakufnama reveals that Hajji Perviz built and endowed seven shops for the maintenance of the Potočka mosque and the salaries of its officials. These shops were built in Mala čaršija by the Ferhad pasha bridge and consisted of:

ـ       a bakery with capital of 3,600 akčas and a rent of 5 akčas a day, which the baker was required to pay to the vakuf;

ـ       an aščinica or eating house with capital of 1,600 akčas and a rent of 2 akčas a day;

ـ       a buzadžinica or boza shop with a rent of 4 akčas a day;

ـ       a chandlery with a capital of 7,000 akčas and a rent of 4 akčas a day;

ـ       a tinsmith's shop with a rent of 1 akča a day;

ـ       a barber's shop with a rent of 2 akčas a day;

ـ       a grocery, with a rent of 2 akčas a day.

            By 1635 Hajji Perviz had built a further 4 shops in Mala čaršija for the maintenance of the Potočka mosque and the salaries of its officials, built on land belonging to the Ferhad pasha vakuf to pay the mukata(7), one shop in the Ferhad pasha čaršija, two gardens (one close to the Ferhad pasha bridge and the other by the tekke (8), and 58.569 akčas as working capital, to be loaned at an interest rate of 10%. The fact that the vakufnama required some of these shops to be maintained out of the working capital makes it unusual, since the usual rule was for the revenue from the shops to be used to maintain other buildings (Bejtić, 1953, pp. 111-112).

            Hajji Perviz had his representative (one Mahmud-čelebija) give the last two codicils to first vakufnama to the kadija to be written and endowed at the end of Shawwal 1047 AH (mid March 1638).  Since the fifth and last codicil to Hajji Perviz’s vakufnama was certified prior to 1052 AH (1 April 1642 to 21 March 1643), in which one Fatima, daughter of Abdulah, left cash of 2,300 akčas for the Potočka mosque and which refers to Hajji Perviz’s death, it may be deduced that Hajji Perviz died before 1642.

            Hajji Perviz was probably a native of the town(9), since the vakufnama refers to gardens and land which he had inherited from his forebears. He built his mosque on the extreme south-western edge of town, which was still not yet settled. This is why the mahala was to be known as Nova (new), one of the last to take shape on the right bank of the Vrbas.

            The brook (potok) that flowed past the mosque gave it the name Potočka, while the name of Hajji Perviz, its founder, was to be completely forgotten, as was usual with Bosnian mosques.

 

2. Description of the monument

Architecture

            The Hajji Perviz mosque was the smallest in Banja Luka. Written sources note that it was the smallest of the mosques in Donji Šeher(10). It had an entrance portico and a main interior space measuring 5.50 x 5.50 metres(11). According to the geodetic plan(12), the exterior dimensions of the mosque were c. 7.00 x 10.50 metres.

            Belonging to the single-space type of mosque with wooden minaret, it had a rectangular ground plan and external open sofas. The sofa railings were of close-set planks (13).

            The ground floor windows were of the double-casement type with wooden shutters on the inside similar to those of the Behram effendi mosque.

            The mihrab projected out from the surface of the wall as a plain rectangular frame with a simple rounded niche within, without stalactites(14). The mimber was wooden, with entrance, steps and baldaquin(15), very similar in its simplicity of treatment to that of the Behram effendi mosque. The mahfil was similar to that of the Ferhadija mosque, abutting onto the north-west and south-west walls and two columns.

            The portico was supported by four wooden pillars.

            The minaret was wooden, with an enclosed šerefe. Based on the difference between the interior and exterior dimensions of the central space of the mosque, it may be deduced that the walls were 70-75 cm thick at ground-floor level(16).

            Judging from available photographs(17), and changes to the exterior appearance of the mosque, it may be deduced that interventions were carried out to the building(18). These changes were: alterations to the roof pitch, which was reduced from some 40-45 degrees to about 30 degrees; alterations to the roof frame (radical changes to the roof pitch called for concomitant changes to the roof frame); changes to the railing of the exterior sofas, with the close-set boards replaced by wooden slats set more widely apart, known as “parmak”; alterations to the type, proportions and arrangement of the windows on the façade and a reduction in height of the walls of the mosque which led to the proportions of the mosque being altered as a whole (instead of narrow round-arched windows, much wider, four-sash, rectangular windows were set at the upper level; the iron bars on the lower row of windows were replaced by “vertical wooden slats” (19); as a result of the reduction in height of the walls and the less steep roof pitch more of the barrel of the minaret was visible above the roof; the pillars of the entrance porch were reduced in height.

            There are some ten old nišan tombstones without epitaphs and a number of grave mounds in the mosque harem.

Nišan no. 1

A tufa nišan, octagonal in cross-section, the sides measuring 13 and 9 cm, with a height of 105 cm.  The grave has a tufa surround measuring 94.5 x 220 x 24 cm.

Nišan no. 2

A tufa nišan, octagonal in cross-section, the sides measuring 13 and 9 cm, with a neight of 135 cm. The grave has a tufa surround measuring 135 x 222 cm.

Nišan no. 3

A tufa nišan, octagonal in cross-section, the sides measuring 18 and 11 cm, with a height of 118 cm. The grave has a tufa surround measuring 140 x 231 x 40 cm.

Nišan no. 4

The grave, which is lacking its headstone, has a tufa footstone measuring 19 x 9 x 72 cm, and a stone surround measuring 102 x 205 x 33 cm.

Nišan no. 5

A small stone coffin with a stone nišan with pleated turban, measuring 12 x 12 x 43 cm. The coffin is 67 cm wide, 127 cm long and 47 cm high.

Nišan no. 6

A woman’s stone nišan measuring 16 x 7 x 38 cm, with a stone surround measuring 61 x 92 cm.

Nišan no. 7

An undressed stone block erected as a nišan.

Nišan no. 8

A man’s stone nišan with turban, measuring 15 x 16 x 33 cm. The footstone is leaning against it, and there is a woman’s nišan lying on the ground beside it.

Nišan no. 9

A man’s stone nišan with turban, measuring 20 x 20 x 75 cm.

Nišan no. 10

A man’s stone nišan with pleated turban, measuring 23 x 20 x 97 cm.

 

3. Legal status to date

            The building was not under protection or registered in the Register of Monuments.

 

4. Research and conservation and restoration works

            No research or conservation works had been carried out on the building under the expert supervision of the heritage protection authority. The mosque was rebuilt on several occasions.  Photographs of the remains of the demolished building taken on 8 March 2003 show that the walls of the mosque as built during some later interventions to the building were of slag concrete blocks and were about 20 cm thick. This intervention occurred after 1974, the date of information about the mosque provided in the first edition of M Mujezinović’s Islamska epigrafika Bosne i Hercegovina, 1974.

 

5. Current condition of the property

            The building was set on fire on 6 September 1993, when the roof, minaret, portico and walls were damaged.

            Photographs taken on 8 March 2003 show the remains of the ruined mosque. The walls(20) of the mosque were of slag concrete blocks, the base of the exterior sofas were concreted, and there was a masonry trough on the right-hand entrance sofa (21).

            During an on-site inspection on 28 November 2003, the following was ascertained: concrete foundations and base slab have been laid, measuring approx. 8.97 x 12 metres, the base slab approx. 80 cm high. Steel anchors for vertical ringbeams approx. 3 metres apart have been set in the concrete base slab.

 

III - CONCLUSION

 

            Applying the Criteria for the adoption of a decision on proclaiming an item of property a national monument (Official Gazette of  BiH nos. 33/02 and 15/03), the Commission has enacted the Decision cited above.

            The Decision was based on the following criteria:

A.         Time frame

B.         Historical value

E.         Symbolic value

E.ii.      religious value

E.v.      significance for the identity of a group of people

 

            The following documents form an integral part of this Decision:

ـ       Copy of cadastral plan;

ـ       Copy of land register entry and proof of title;

ـ       Photodocumentation;

ـ       Drawings.

 

Bibliography

            During the procedure to designate the harem of the Potočka (Hajji Perviz) mosque in Banja Luka as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina the following works were consulted:

 

Bećirbegović, Madžida, Džamije s drvenom munarom u Bosni i Hercegovini (Mosques with wooden minarets in BiH) 2nd ed, Sarajevo, 1999

 

Bejtić, Alija, "Banja Luka pod turskom vladavinom", "Arhitektura i teritorijalni razvitak grada u 16. i 17. vijeku", (Banja Luka under Turkish rule, Architecture and territorial development of the town in the 16th and 17th centuries), Naše starine I (Annual of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of SR BiH), Sarajevo, 1953

 

Husedžinović, Sabira, "Džamije Banja Luke u planovima austrijskih ratnih karata iz XVIII stoljeća" (Mosques of Banja Luka in the plans of 18th c. Austrian war maps), Contributions to Oriental Philology 47-48, Oriental Institute, Sarajevo, 1999

 

Husedžinović, Sabira, Vakufname – značajni istorijski izvori za upoznavanje urbane topografije Banjaluke XVI-XIX vijeka (Vakufnamas – important historical sources for determining the urban topography of Banja Luka in the 16th-19th centuries), Journal of the Archives and Archivists’ Society of BiH, vol. 30, Sarajevo, 1990

 

Husedžinović, Sabira, study of the Potočka (Hajji Perviz) mosque drawn up for the Commission to Preserve National Monuments on the basis of the material in the m/s of the unpublished work: «Dokumenti opstanka, džamije in Banja Luka» (Documents on the survival of the mosque in Banja Luka), 2003

 

Kreševljaković, Hamdija, Izabrana djela II, "Esnafi i obrti u Bosni i Hercegovini (1463-1878)" (Selected works II, Guilds and crafts in BiH 1463-1878), Sarajevo, 1991

 

Mujezinović, Mehmed, Islamska epigrafika Bosne i Hercegovina, kn. 2, Istočna i centralna Bosna, (Islamic epigraphics of BiH, vol. 2, eastern and central  Bosnia), 3rd ed, Sarajevo, 1998

 

(1) In 1579

(2) built in the late 16th century by Gazanfer, a feudal knight and military commander of the Bosnian pashaluk

(3) Mala čaršija evolved as the fourth čaršija following the Hunćanija (Emperor’s) čaršija, the Sofi Mehmed pasha čaršija and the Velika (Ferhad pasha) čaršija. The Mala čaršija trade and crafts centre had its own separate mosque which, because of its position in the Mala čaršija, acquired the name Sukija. It had three ground-floor shops, with the prayer space on the upper floor.  Later the mosque was known as the Talina, for the eponymous imam who sold his own goods to a shop on the ground floor of the mosque.

(4) The vakufnama calls the settlement around this mosque the Jeni mahala or new mahala, which means that it was one of the last mahalas on the right bank of the Vrbas (Mujezinović, 1988, p. 224)

(5) Details of the construction of the mosque and the endowment of the shops intended for its maintenance are to be found in the vakufnama of the legator (GHB, sicil II, no. 360 of 1630 and 1633; sicil II no. 361 p. 32 of 1637; sicil II no. 358 p. 30)

(6) Dr Safvet beg Bašagić: Bošnjaci i Hercegovci u islamskoj književnosti, Sarajevo, 1912, p. 60

mukata (Tur. Mukataa) rent (Domović, 2001, p. 926)

(7)  mukata (Tur. Mukataa) rent (Domović, 2001, p. 926)

(8)  the entire area around this tekke on the right bank of the Vrbas was named Tekija

(9) “if one also bears in mind that these two gardens being endowed were his inheritance (the deed of endowment does not refer to other legators, that he had bought them) then it could be ssaid that he was a native of Banja Luka” (Bejtić, Alija: Banja Luka pod turskom vladavinom, Naša starina I, Sarajevo, 1953, p. 112)

(10) Bećirbegović, 1999, p. 125

(11) ibid, p. 11. Other sources relate that the interior dimensions were 5.6 x 5.6 m (Mujezinović, 1999, p. 225)

(12) Republican Geodetics Authority of BiH, Cadastral municipality Banja Luka IV-8, sheet 129. Scale 1:1000, 1978

(13) A photograph shows that the board railing of the exterior sofas was half the height of the sofas themselves and that they were set close together (source of photograph: Museum of the Bosnian Krajina, Banja Luka, inv. No. F IT 376)

(14) Bećirbegović, 1999, p. 150

(15) ibid, p. 165

(16) Details of the interior dimensions of the mosque are taken from the first edition of M Mujezinović’s Islamska epigrafika Bosne i Hercegovina, 1974.  The conclusion reached concerning the thickness of the walls of the ground floor thus relates to the state of the building prior to 1974.  Photographs of the remains of the demolished building, taken on 8 March 2003, show that the walls of the mosque as built during some later interventions to the building were of slag concrete blocks and were about 20 cm thick

(17) photograph of the exterior appearance of the mosque, Museum of the Bosnian Krajina, Banja Luka, inv. No. F IT 376, no date given, and photograph of the exterior of the mosque (Bećirbegović, 1999, p. 125, illus. 117, photograph of the mosque of more recent date)

(18) no details of when these interventions were carried out have been found

(19) description, Bećirbegović, 1999, p. 125

(20) 8 March 2003, the date of an on site inspection of the condition of the building, wall structure of the front and partly [sic]

(21) the trough was made of slag concrete blocks, lined inside with ceramic tiles, had a water pipe, and was probably used for taking abdest, the ritual ablutions

 





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