Hajji Loja

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Hadschi Loja , also Hadži Loja or Hadži Lojo (born 1834 in Sarajevo , as Salih Vilajetovic ; died 1887 in Mecca ), was a Bosniak dervish , gang leader and leader of the Muslim resistance against the occupation of Bosnia by Austria-Hungary in 1878.

Hajji Loja (portrait of Friedrich Franceschini )

Life

Sarajevo and banditry

Vilajetovic, born and raised in Sarajevo, the capital of the Ottoman Vilayet Bosnia, worked for years in religious functions in mosques and educational institutions in the city. He first appeared in May 1871 when, as the leader of a group of ordinary Muslims, he prevented the establishment of a Serbian Orthodox church in Sarajevo.

After its expulsion from Sarajevo 1875 he was appointed Briganten under the names battle Hadschi Loja (Haji = Mecca pilgrim , lojar = Talgarbeiter ). Violent acts against Christians in the “fight for Islam” and the “old Bosnian freedom” made him a freedom fighter among the ordinary Muslim people in Bosnia, where the Ottoman state structures were visibly deteriorating.

revolt

When the Austro-Hungarian army marched into Bosnia in 1878, there was considerable resistance from partisans, above all from Muslim fighters under the leadership of Hajji Loja. Armed Turks and Bosniaks had gathered at the bazaar and mosques in Sarajevo and had previously chosen the gang leader Hajji Loja as their leader.

After taking Sarajevo on August 19, 1878, the rebellious Bosnians retreated to the surrounding mountains and continued to resist for weeks using guerrilla tactics. Velika Kladuša Castle did not surrender until October 20th. Hadschi Loja was captured on October 3, 1878 by the Austro-Hungarian Infantry Regiment Archduke Joseph No. 37 in the Rakitnica Gorge near Rogatica .

Captivity and Exile

On September 27, 1879, the Sarajevo Garrison Court sentenced Haji Loja under the martial law for "guilty of crimes against the military power of the state and public violence by extortion, and sentenced him to death by hanging". Emperor Franz Joseph I , however, suspended the death penalty and the sentence was converted into a five-year heavy prison sentence, which he spent in the Theresienstadt fortress . This avoided turning him into a martyr. In 1884 Hajji Loja had to go into exile, choosing Mecca with his family as a place of emigration.

reception

In more modern literature, Haji Loja's role in war is usually less valued than in older or contemporary writings. In the Habsburg Monarchy it was often stylized as a symbol for the “ruthless violence of the Muslims”.

Hadschi Loja, whose transport to Theresienstadt in northern Bohemia attracted a great deal of attention, became so well known in Austria that his name was associated with the nickname "Hatschete (r)" (limping, crooked-footed). Because even before his capture, a shot had been released from his rifle that destroyed his ankle so that his lower leg had to be amputated. He wore a wooden leg for the rest of his life. In Styria , his name was considered a "child scare" and songs about him have been preserved.

"Hadschi Loja-Weckerl" was the name of a black caraway bread roll, later also called "Bosniakerl", a biscuit made from dark flour. At the end of the 19th century, small traders from Bosnia were also called "Hajji Loja" or "Bosniak" in Vienna.

The socialist Yugoslavia transfigured him stripped of banditry and religious fanaticism as a fighter for the revolution. An important street in Sarajevo was named after him, and in 1991 the name was transferred to a smaller street in the city.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Robert J. Donia: Sarajevo. A biography. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 2006, ISBN 0-472-11557-X , p. 55.
  2. ^ A b Robert J. Donia: Sarajevo. A biography. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 2006, ISBN 0-472-11557-X , p. 34.
  3. ^ A b c d e Felix Czeike : Historisches Lexikon Wien. Volume 3: Ha-La. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-218-00545-0 page 18 .
  4. ^ A b Richard Georg Plaschka : Avant-garde of resistance. Model cases of military rebellion in the 19th and 20th centuries. Böhlau, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-205-98390-4 , pp. 45 and 90.
  5. ↑ Vjekoslav Klaic: Bosnian history from the earliest times to the decay of the kingdom. Friedrich, Leipzig 1885, p. 455.
  6. ^ Richard Georg Plaschka: Avant-garde of resistance. Model cases of military rebellion in the 19th and 20th centuries. Böhlau, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-205-98390-4 , p. 97.
  7. ↑ Paula Giersch: For the Jews, against the East? Recoding in the work of Karl Emil Franzos (1848–1904). Frank & Timme, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-86596-476-2 , p. 244.
  8. ↑ Austria in History and Literature. ÖGL. With geography. Working Group for Austrian History, Institute for Austrian Studies, Volume 41, Vienna 1997, p. 184, ISSN  0029-8743 .
personal data
SURNAME Loja, Hajji
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lojo, Hajji; Loja, Hadži; Lojo, Hadži; Vilajetovic, Salih (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bosnian-Muslim gang leader and insurgent
DATE OF BIRTH 1834
PLACE OF BIRTH Sarajevo
DATE OF DEATH 1887
Place of death Mecca