The world-view foundations of hetero-images in Mullā Muṣṭafā Basheskī’s Chronicle

Abstract

Written in the second half of the 18th century in the Ottoman Turkish language the Chronicle of Mullā Muṣṭafā Basheskī discusses ideological references about hetero-images in regard to post-structuralist imagology. Considering the hypothesis that the image of the other is always culturally conditioned, the members of other religions are researched through the analysis (Bosnian Catholics, Orthodox and Jews), military and political enemies of the Ottoman Empire (Austrians, Russians, Montenegrins) and non-Bosnians (Turks and Arabs). To be more precise, the way in which the chronicler creates the image of the members of other religions always depends on the fact whether they are neighbors i.e. people who live nearby and share living space or the members of other religions living across the Empire’s border. Basheskī’s descriptions, characterizations, as well as his comments of the ‘’inner others’’, are never primarily directed at the religious identity of the mentioned ones; those characterizations, however, either affirmative or negative, are always ad hominem oriented and related to real people. Nevertheless, as regards to the imagery point of view, those characterizations go beyond the notion of religion, being general and universal. Accordingly, such perception is related to chronicler’s cosmopolitan interpretation of the original rules of Islam, as well as to his affinity towards Sufi mysticism. As a result, imagery point of view of Sarajevo in the Chronicle does not function on the profanedescriptive, but on the ethical grounds, thus connecting empirical, concrete and metaphysical. However, as regards to the ‘’external others’’, the lack of information and affective relation towards the real danger, resulted in predominance of mythological conceptions and stereotypes even in Basheskī’s Chronicle.