While the City Disappeared in Flames: The Song "Oh Užice, Little Constantinople" Was Sung by Bosniak Girls as They Fell to the Ground and Kissed It One Last Time

The Muslims of the Užice villages relocated to Bosnia as early as 1834, while the final exodus from the city occurred on September 28, 1862. The folk lyrical song Oj, Užice, mali Carigrade ("Oh Užice, Little Constantinople") was created during the forced expulsion of Muslims from Užice. According to tradition, it was composed by Bosniak girls at Užice's natural gate – Terazije, near Bešlagić’s inn – as they fell to the ground and kissed it for the last time, while the city disappeared in flames.

Given the year it was documented (Karadžić, 1841), it is assumed that the song may have originated during the Serbian capture of Užice in the First Serbian Uprising (1805), or during one of the expulsions in the 1830s. The Muslims of the Užice villages had moved to Bosnia by 1834, and the final departure from the city took place on September 28, 1862. Užice was completely burned at that time. An Užice baker and innkeeper, Miladin T. Radović, left a manunoscript describing it:

> "The fire, it seemed, reached into the sky. Not even the smallest needle could be found in the entire area around Užice."



This folk song has survived to the present day in the following (sung) version:

> Oh, Užice, little Constantinople / While you were, how fine you were. / One could not pass through you / From hyacinths and carnations / From young men and girls. / From the scent of roses and basil, / From the sighs of beautiful girls.



The song was recorded from the singing of well-known pre-WWII singer Sulejman Džakić (1904–1978) by composer, ethnomusicologist, and Radio Belgrade editor Đorđe Karaklajić. Džakić was a vocal soloist on Radio Belgrade and a role model for many later sevdalinka performers. His own family had been expelled from Užice and resettled in Bosanski Šamac, and he learned the song from his grandfather.

Interestingly, the song was not recorded by sevdalinka interpreters, but almost exclusively by performers of Serbian folk music. Thus, in most discographies, it has been listed as a Serbian folk song. This might be due to the fact that it arose from a tragic context, and as such, it did not attract the interest of vocal sevdalinka interpreters. With the establishment of the Institute of Sevdah – the Omer Pobrić Foundation – the song was revived by sevdalinka singer Fadil Gračić.

Second Largest City in Serbia

In its time, Užice was the second-largest city in Serbia, right after Belgrade. It was worthy even of the imperial city of Constantinople, as it is referred to in the song: its neighborhoods, houses, inns, watermills, madrasas, Quran and hadith schools all testified to its economic and industrial rise and to its status as a major educational and cultural center of the time.

Evliya Çelebi, in his Travelogue, described it as follows:

> "Descending exactly two thousand steps southeast and east from that city, along paths carved through rugged cliffs, lies a beautiful and prosperous šeher (city) in a spacious plain, with solidly built houses, both ground-level and multi-story. They are lined one above the other and adorned on both sides of the Đetinja River with vineyards, gardens, and rose bushes.

It has a total of four thousand eight hundred houses, mostly chimneys covered with shingles and tiles, because many of the owners are ziamet and odžak holders (landowners). Among all of them stands out the very imposing saray of zaim Džafer-aga...

Because of the pleasant climate, the inhabitants are so beautiful that their faces glow red like rubies... Their women wear black feredže and not the pink, green, or red čohe (broadcloth). All behave modestly, but do not go to the market or bazaar, as they consider it shameful. All are pious and good women like Rabia al-Adawiyya."

Recorded by Vuk Karadžić

The song Oj, Užice, mali Carigrade was recorded by Vuk Karadžić and published in 1841 in his book Serbian Folk Songs (Women’s Songs) under the noscript “Užice Song” (no. 672). The final two verses cruelly testify to the frequent burning of Užice. Karadžić wrote of it as a city that was burned and looted every ten years:

> Oh, Užice, little Constantinople! / While you were, how fine you were! / One could not pass through you / From corners and shop counters, / From stores and merchants, / From young men and girls, / From hyacinths and carnations, / But since they conquered you, / You’ve been smoking like drying plums.

After the Muslim population was expelled, the architecture of šeher Užice gradually changed into a Serbian-type town, and all traces of Islamic culture and civilization disappeared. The families expelled from Užice to Bosnia took with them the keys to the front doors of their homes. Many of them hoped to return, and some families still keep those keys today as a memento of their former home.

By Ancient Bosnia:
"Along its edges whisper the footsteps of janissaries, while the scent of incense from the harem slowly fills the air. The sultanas may have vanished long ago, but their radiance and secrets remain woven into this piece of silver. This is a story of power, faith, and history that shaped the Bosnian valleys, where the aromas of spices, the sounds of dervishes, the call to prayer from minarets, and an empire that lasted for centuries all intertwined. Touch the past and feel the imperial silence in your hands.🇧🇦🇹🇷"

Getting ready for Kurban Bajram ❤️

🇸🇾 Usame Zukorlić Meets Syrian President: “Syria Gives Hope to the Free World”

Usame Zukorlić, Minister without portfolio in the Government of Serbia in charge of reconciliation, regional cooperation, and social stability, paid an official visit to Damascus, where he held a high-level meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

🗣 In a statement shared on social media, Zukorlić emphasized the symbolic importance of Syria's perseverance:

“There are few leaders whose life path so strongly symbolizes a people’s struggle for freedom and dignity. Syria today gives hope to the entire Ummah and the free world – precisely because, despite all the trials, it has not collapsed nor descended into a fratricidal war following the fall of dictatorship.”

🤝 He also noted being particularly moved by President al-Sharaa’s genuine and brotherly concern for the state of Muslims in the Balkans, which he described as heartfelt and sincere.

🕌 As part of the same visit, Zukorlić also met with Asaad Al-Shaibani, Syria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, where they discussed further avenues of cooperation and mutual support.

Note: For those that don't know Usame is an Ethnic Bosniak

Bajram Šerif Mubarek Olsun!
May you all be joyful and filled with love on this wonderful day 💕

Jajce 📍Bosnia and Herzegovina 🇧🇦

🇧🇦 1:0 🇸🇲

We won but at what cost...

Survivors of Dachau concentration camp, 18 Bosnian Muslim Partisans, photographed in-between the barracks at the camp, May 1945. 🇧🇦☪

🇺🇳 How 99% of UN humanitarian/peacekeeping missions work.

Excerpt from Bosnian movie "Ničija zemlja/ No Man's Land"

Surreal feeling, to be honest. There is a sense of closure now that the nightmare has passed. To all the men from Bosnia who now rest beneath the ground of Syria — your lives were not given in vain. Till we meet again. 💚

Kapetan Jevgenij-beg Prigojević in Bosnia after the failed uprising against Sultan Putinov 🇧🇦🇷🇺☪

I might actually make a sticker out of it 😁

MUHAMED HADŽIEFENDIĆ – The Man Who Saved the Muslims of Northeastern Bosnia from Extinction ⚜☪️

Background:

Muhamed-aga Hadžiefendić was one of the shining figures in Bosniak history. He was born on January 18, 1898, in Tuzla. At that time, all of it was part of the Habsburg Monarchy, as Bosnia and Herzegovina was an Austro-Hungarian province granted to the Vienna Court by the Great Powers after the Berlin Congress. His father was a skilled merchant who amassed considerable wealth. His father's wish was for young Muhamed to follow in his footsteps, but Muhamed had little interest in that path. He completed primary school in Tuzla and graduated from the Commercial Academy in Sarajevo.

With the outbreak of the First World War, following the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Muhamed Hadžiefendić—highly motivated and patriotic—joined the 3rd Infantry Division, based in Tuzla. In fact, he volunteered. The command sent his unit to the Italian front, where they engaged in fierce battles in the northern part of the Apennine Peninsula. They achieved significant successes. By the end of the war, he had reached the rank of lieutenant. With the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the first South Slavic state was formed: the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. Since he had been part of the defeated army, Muhamed Hadžiefendić withdrew into a kind of clandestine existence. He continued his father's trading business and significantly increased the family's wealth. However, in 1934, he went to Belgrade to attend the Military Academy, where he graduated after four years. He took his exams as an external candidate. In 1938, he earned the rank of major in the reserve forces of the Royal Yugoslav Army. When the Axis Powers invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1941, Muhamed Hadžiefendić was among the many officers who betrayed and broke their oath, immediately deserting the army.

Citizens of Tuzla, Gračanica, Devetaci, Puračić, and other nearby places still recall—based on oral accounts from their parents and grandparents—that Hadžiefendić's Legion played a key role in defending Bosniaks from Chetniks and Partisans, who for a time jointly committed crimes against Bosniaks. Anyone who does not blindly follow the communist interpretation of history understands that the Bosniaks of Tuzla and the surrounding areas would have faced the same fate as the Bosniaks of Eastern Bosnia and Eastern Herzegovina.

After the massacres in Koraj, Tupkovići, and Devetaci, and following the defense of Puračić, Hadžiefendić began seriously forming a unit to defend villages and towns with a majority Bosniak population. On December 22 in Tuzla, the Volunteer Detachment of the People's Uprising under Major Hadžiefendić was established. His fighters resembled other Home Guard forces but were visibly distinct in their uniforms, which incorporated elements of traditional Muslim dress.

For most of 1942, Hadžiefendić’s Legion did not retreat an inch from the territory it controlled. Over time, its ranks grew, evolving from a detachment into the Hadžiefendić Volunteer Legion Group, which by spring 1942 numbered 5,000 soldiers divided into six battalions. The Legion’s continued growth led to a final reorganization in July 1942 into the Volunteer Home Guard Regiment (DOMDO), fulfilling the vision of Tuzla’s Bosniak leaders for a military-security stronghold in the greater Tuzla region.

The political and military situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina became more complex with the formation of the 13th SS Mountain “Handžar” Division. At the end of March, Hadžiefendić was summoned to Sarajevo, where he met with SS Oberleutnant Krempler and took the first concrete steps toward establishing the 13th SS Division. Upon returning to Gračanica, Hadžiefendić wore a German uniform for the first time—paired with a Bosnian fez—signaling his readiness to support the creation of a Bosniak SS division. In late May, he took up a position as an officer in the division. Other officers from the Legion were also invited to join but defected to the Partisans. This marked the end of Hadžiefendić’s Legion.

Immediately after defecting, the former legionnaires began promoting the Partisan movement. The defection of Omer Gluhić gave the NDH (Independent State of Croatia) authorities a pretext to remove Hadžiefendić as the Legion commander, which they did in June 1943.

🕊 Grave in the courtyard of the Jalska Mosque

After Tuzla fell to the Partisans on October 2, 1943, Hadžiefendić neither hid nor fled his home. However, his political opponents held him responsible for the city’s delayed fall to the Partisans. Five days after their entry, Hadžiefendić was called to trial and swiftly sentenced to death. The greatest irony lies in the fact that those who had attacked the Bosniaks sentenced, for “fighting against the Muslim people,” the very man who had organized their defense. Hadžiefendić was executed on October 7, 1943. He refused to be blindfolded, saying: “I am an officer, and I am not afraid to look death in the eye.” His body lay in the sand for nearly a year. Only in the summer of 1944 was it transferred to Tuzla by Topčić’s "Green Cadre" and buried in the courtyard of the Jalska Mosque.

Muhamed Hadžiefendić was resented by his political opponents because:

– during the April War of 1941, he refused to fight for the interests of Greater Serbian circles in Belgrade;
– in November 1941, during an attack by Serbian insurgents from Ozren on the majority-Muslim town of Puračić, and after the fall of Devetaci, he forced Home Guard units from Slavonia to defend it;
– on December 22, 1941, following the Partisan-Chetnik massacre of Muslims in Koraj, he founded the “Volunteer Detachment of the People's Uprising of Major Hadžiefendić,” which he separated from the NDH armed forces;
– politically, he was close to the Bosniak autonomists in Sarajevo, who advocated for the separation of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the NDH;
– during the existence of the DOMDO Legion, Chetniks avoided the Tuzla area entirely;
– the DOMDO Legion did not participate in battles against the NOV and POJ (Partisan forces), focusing solely on protecting Muslim villages from Chetnik attacks;
– he supported the formation of the 13th SS “Handžar” Division, made up of Bosnian Muslims, as the nucleus of a future Bosnian Guard, further weakening the NDH’s military forces;
– together with Omer Gluhić and Meša Selimović, he did not defect to the Partisans on May 10, 1943;
– he did not actively join the 13th SS Division, instead going on “sick leave”;
– during the first liberation of Tuzla on October 2, 1943, he did not defend the city against the NOV and POJ;
– he was an anti-communist;
– no Orthodox village remembers him the way they remember the Ustaša Francetić.

Muhamed-aga’s only “sin” was that he was an anti-communist—which should not be surprising for a pre-war merchant and a soldier of the Royal Yugoslav Army. Hadžiefendić was condemned as an ideological, not military, enemy—against all conventions.