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Islamic Studies 36:2, 3 (1 997) 155
rosettes, are especially handsome. The carved wooden railings and the fronts
of the wardrobes (musanderas) are frequently very beautiful too. Despite the
fact that most of the decorative motifs and building materials used in the
wainscotting came from the East, native craftsmen in time brought so much
originality to their work that one may speak of a characteristically Bosnian art
in this field.50
As a rule, the wood floors in the wealthier homes are covered with
magnificently coloured carpets. One often sees beautiful wall hangings and,
here and there, decorative panels in calligraphy (levha = Arabic lawhah)
containing wise proverbs from the Qur'iin or from Arabian philosophy. Almost
every sturdy house had a bath chamber or washroom with adjoining large tile
stove, and every Muslim residence always had its own privy.5'
In the finer Muslim homes, the pavement of the courtyard was often
laid in geometrical figures. Behind the house, one usually found a vegetable
garden or an orchard. Along the sides and in the middle of the courtyard were
flower beds, with fragrant carnations, roses, tulips or lilacs, hyacinths, and (in
Herzegovina) pomegranates. Frequently, a stream or a fountain splashed
nearby, and century-old vines covered entire courtyards with their shade.
"Nobel types of roses", C. Peez writes, "flower in the gardens of the Muslims,
tended with love and pious care, because a religious legend has it that the queen
of flowers grew out of the sweat exuded by the Prophet during battle".52
In contrast to earlier history, the Ottoman period meant progress in the
development of housing throughout the Balkans. For example, in pre-Ottoman
Serbia in the first half of the fourteenth century, as the Italian writer-traveller
Brokar relates, even the palaces and houses of kings and other magnates were
built of wood. In Bosnia, however, there were many castles of Bans and kings
in the Middle Ages and shortly after the arrival of the Ottomans in the fifteenth
century, and there were about one thousand houses built of stone and many
solidly built caravanserais with lead-covered roofs.53
ADVANCEDCULTURE
Literary Activity of the Bosniaks in Oriental Languages
Soon after the Bosnian kingdom lost its independence in the year 1463, the
Bosnians and Herzegovinians (to be referred to as Bosniaks) began to contribute
to Turkish, Arabic, and Persian literature as new, but equal members of the
Ottoman Empire. From this time until the occupation of the country by troops
of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1878 the two provinces gave the Ottoman
Empire roughly three hundred scientists and artists. About half of these were
active as poets in one of the three official languages, Turkish, Arabic, or
Persian. Some wrote in two, some even in all the three languages.
Turkish was more or less the official language of the whole Ottoman
Empire, Arabic was preferred in learned circles, and Persian was limited mainly
to literature. Under the circumstances, it is understandable that educated people
preferred to use these languages, since their use smoothed the way to high
government positions. Thus, the Bosniaks' richest literary production in these