Andrija Simic

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Andrija Šimić (* 1833 in Alagovac , to Ružići , Grude , Paschalik Herzegovina , Ottoman Empire ; † February 5, 1905 in Runovići near Imotski , Kingdom of Dalmatia , Austria-Hungary ), called Andrijica (little Andreas) because of his small stature , was a Heiducke in Bosnia and Herzegovina . Šimić is considered by the Croats in Herzegovina and the neighboring area around Imotski ( Imotska krajina ) as the last Croatian heathen and hero of the freedom struggle against Ottoman rule . The life of this “Croatian Robin Hood ” has served Croatian writers and poets as a template for their works to this day.

Live and act

Andrija Šimić was born into a very poor family in western Herzegovina , which was then part of the Ottoman Empire . Šimić became a lawless Heiduck after the Ottoman tax collector arrested his father and the Kadi, from whom he asked for help, had him arrested. He practiced his predatory heathening mainly in the area of Imotski and the Vrlika . His retreat was the Kamešnica Mountains , where the cave he used can still be seen today . Sometimes he extended his area of ​​activity to Kupres , Glamoč , Tomislavgrad , Mostar or even Sarajevo and Travnik .

When Šimić attacked the Ottomans unhindered from Vran , Čvrsnica and other Herzegovinian mountains around 1870 , the Muslims began to attribute superhuman strength to him. So he robbed not only the rich Ottoman Begs but also wealthy Catholics . On the one hand he sometimes killed, on the other hand he saved the life of the wealthy Dervish Beg Kopčić in 1869 at great risk when he was attacked by Šimić's men. Beg Kopčić later testified to this at the trial against Šimić in Split . The Beg belonged to the Kopčić family who ruled Tomislavgrad (formerly Duvno ), who had to do with the Heiducken Mijat Tomić around two hundred years earlier . The family maintained good contacts with the Franciscans and priests and made it possible for them to provide pastoral care for the Catholic population in remote areas.

After a bounty was placed on Šimić, he was captured in the spring of 1878. In the same year Bosnia and Herzegovina came under the administration of Austria-Hungary due to the agreements of the Berlin Congress , but remained formally under the Ottoman Empire under international law . Šimić was sentenced to life imprisonment under Austro-Hungarian administration and incarcerated in Koper (now Slovenia ) . After several requests for clemency, Šimić was pardoned in 1901 and released from Austro-Hungarian custody. Among other things, the bishop of Mostar , Paškal Buconjić , had campaigned for his release by pointing out that Šimić became a Heiduck out of sheer need. His release and return to his homeland aroused great interest among the population. Šimić posed armed in the clothes of a Harambaša , visited the previous locations of his actions and told his life story in restaurants. In an interview after his release, Šimić said:

“I was a sinner, but never an outlaw. I have given the poor no grief. I helped the beggars and I always respected female honor […] I took from those who had and gave to those who did not. "

A few years later, Šimić died in Runovići near Imotski in 1905 . His grave is in the local cemetery.

Afterlife

Already twenty years after Šimić's death, the writer and Zagreb Deputy Mayor Milutin Mayer (1874-1958) discovered on the occasion of a visit to Tomislavgrad in 1924 that his contemporaries in Šimić saw the "heir" of Heiducken Mijat Tomić , as he was the Christian Raja protected from the violence of the Ottomans and mercilessly beaten the Turkish tyrants.

Today streets in Imotski , Knin and Tomislavgrad are named after Šimić . There is a memorial plaque at the place in Imotski where Šimić was found sick.

On May 22, 2008, the Croatian Post Mostar issued a block of stamps with the title Andrija Šimić i hajdučka trava (Andrija Šimić and the heather grass) for mail from Bosnia and Herzegovina . The postage stamp depicts the common yarrow (so-called heather grass), while the block shows Andrija Šimić with a flintlock pistol at the ready.

See also

literature

  • Mijo Milas : Hajduk Andrijica Šimić: tekst i pjesma . Zagreb 1972.
  • Mijo Milas: Hrvatski narodni junak hajduk Andrijica Šimić . Split 1996.
  • Ivo Žanić : Flag on the Mountain: A Political Anthropology of War in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina 1990–1995 . SAQI, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-86356-815-2 , The rehabilitation of Andrija Šimić, p. 206 ff .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ŽANIĆ, 2007, 206
  2. ↑ Slobodna Dalmacija , 24.-25. December 1995
  3. ↑ Marcel Cornis-Pope, John Neubauer: History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe . John Benjamin Publishing Co, 2010, ISBN 978-90-272-3458-2 , pp. 415 .
  4. ↑ From an interview with Andrija Šimić, printed by the Pučki list newspaper in Split in 1902. Quoted from MILAS 1972.
  5. ↑ MAYER 1924: 57
personal data
SURNAME Šimić, Andrija
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Šimić, Andrijica
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Croatian heather
DATE OF BIRTH 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH Alagovac near Grude , Herzegovina
DATE OF DEATH February 5, 1905
Place of death Runovići near Imotski , Croatia