Życie i dzieło Abdurrahmana Sirriji (1775–1847)

Abstract

Abdurrahman Sirrija (“Secret”), also known as Sirri-baba Sikirić was one of the most outstanding representatives of Bosnian Sufi literature. He was also a sheikh of Naqshbandiyya order and a founder of famous Tekiya in Oglavak near Fojnica. He studied Islamic theology and mysticism in Fojnica, Sarajevo and then in Istanbul and Central Asia. As a Sufi sheikh he was one of most reputable mystics of his times, a teacher and friend of another outstanding writer of 19th century, Abdulvehab Ilhamija. Sirrija knew some Oriental languages well: Arabic, Persian and Turkish. The best evidence of this fact is his library including important religious Muslim works. Sirri-baba left only a small Divan so called ilahiye („God poem”) both in Bosnian and Turkish. Bosnian poems written in Arabic script (aljamiado) include only three pieces of didactic character, and the most famous of them is so called Ilahiye elif, which I present in my paper on the basis of an unused manuscript from Gazi Husrev-begova Library at Sarajevo. The edition of the ilahiye takes into account its transcription based on Šakir Sikirić’s version from 1941 and a comparison with Friedrich Krauss’ and Abdurahman Nametak’s transcriptions as well as its translation into Polish. The paper also contains the translations of two other Bosnian poems of Sirrija. Ilahiyes in aljamiado contain a lot of borrowings from Oriental languages and are characterized by a rather simple content because of their utilitarian goals. Abdurrahman Sirrija left also 21 poems in Turkish (as far as I know still unpublished; they are only known in the Bosnian translation). The texts in Turkish are of fully different character and represent the Sufi poetry of high literary level. The author uses the rich mystical symbolism and his poems contain many ideas known from Turkish, Persian and Arabic mystical poetry and philosophy. Abdurrahman Sirrija was known also as a calligrapher. There is a preserved copy of the Koran written by him and two so called levhe (“tablet”) with fragments of Koran and typical religious formulas. The offspring of Abdurrahman Sirrija, the family of Sikirić still plays an important role in cultural and religious life of Bosna and Herzegovina.