About Banja Luka seccade

Abstract

Yugoslav ethnologists have been engaged in studying the seccades and other products that got their names after the town of Banja Luka because they used to be made there. Nowadays they are no longer available. Hamdija Kreševljaković and Bratislava Vladić-Krstić thought that the seccades and dosemes originating from Banja Luka were carpet products, while Milenko S. Filipović does not classify them into that category.

The inventories of the estates of rich Muslims from Banja Luka and other Bosnian towns as well as places throughout the Ottoman Empire from the last decade of the 17th century onwards are the most reliable historical sources for the information about Banja Luka seccades, saf-seccades, dosemes, pillows, makats, Banja Luka middle-room (orta) and sideways (yan) carpets and Banja Luka hasas. Some of the documents mention the characteristic Banja Luka handwork and technique (Banaluka isi, Banalukakari seccades, Banaluka taklidi Selanikkuri seccade).

 Yet, all these data, without objects themselves, are not sufficient to answer clearly the questions about the material they were made of or about what they looked like.Turkish scientists Celal Esad Arseven and Can Kerametli gave rather detailed descriptions of Banja Luka techniques on the basis of the samples of the seccades kept in some Turkish museums. Those are made of one colour waterproof cloth (guha) on the surface of which small pieces of the same quality of different colours are applied as ornaments to form a harmonious unity with it. Two exceptionally beautiful seccades are kept in the museum at Galata in Istanbul (Galata Mevlevihanesinin Divan Edebiyati Musezi). One of them has floral patteras on it and the other, in addition to them, on its wide border shows a town, most probably Banja Luka with its districts, mescids, the fiver Vrbas and the bridges.