Qasida by Hafiz Salih Gašević

Abstract

Hafiz Salih Gašević is the author of a popular Mawlid in Bosnian language. He also composed a qasida with no title, the copy of which is kept in the Museum of Herzegovina in Mostar. For the first time, this paper presents an integral text of Gašević’s aljamiado qasida in Latin lettering. In addition, we have analyzed the qasida at different levels: orthographic, historical, linguistic, contentive. Gašić’s qasida belongs to the second period of the development of Arebica characterized by the time in which the author lived and worked. The qasida offers a new information to be included in Gašević’s biography: the name of his teacher in Nikšić. Gašević wrote the qasida following an accustomed oriental-Islamic form used in almost all qasidas of similar genre. Toward its end, Gašević clearly emphasizes that the qasida was written in Bosnian language. As far as at least benevolent researchers are concerned, this fact concludes a century-long discussion on the literary language of his Mawlid. The content of the qasida is descriptive and imperative, with mainly eschatological topics.