Muhamed Hevaji Uskufi Bosnevi ( tr, Mehmet Hevayi Uskufi, born c. 1600 in Dobrnja near

Tuzla Tuzla (, ) is the third-largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the administrative center of Tuzla Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it has a population of 110,979 inhabitants. Tuzla is the economic, cultural, e ...

, died after 1651) was a Bosnian poet and writer who used the Arebica script. Uskufi is noted as the author of the first " Bosnian- Turkish" dictionary in 1631; ''Magbuli 'ari'' or ''Potur Sahidiya'', one of the earliest dictionaries of the language in Bosnia. A hand-copy dating from 1798 is currently kept at the City Archive of Sarajevo. The dictionary, written in verse, contains more than 300-word explanations and over 700 words translated between Bosnian and Turkish. In his works, writing under the pseudonym ''Uskufi'', Hevaji calls his language " Bosnian", and emphasizes his Bosnian descent. He is also the author of the religious and moral writing "Tabsirat al-'arifin" which is written partly in Turkish and partly in Bosnian, and the author of several poems in Turkish. From works written in his native tongue stand out "Ilahi bezeban-i Srb" ( Nasheeds in Serbian) and "Bera- i da'vet-i iman be zeban-i Srb" (Call to Faith in Serbian). Possibly terms designating Serbian and Bosnian language in his work could be synonyms.

Legacy

Following a collaboration between the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

and the Bosnian Ministry of Education and sciences, the dictionary was reissued on national day in 2012 during a ceremony in Tuzla, the birth town of Hevaji. According to the Norwegian Slavist Svein Mønnesland, the dictionary is made relevant today not least because of politic aspects since it shows the Bosnian language to have a long tradition.

References

External links

Historijski arhiv Sarajevo

USKUFI BOSNEVI, Muhamed Hevai
Bošnjaci.net,

*Muhamed Hukočić, Ahmet Kasumović, Ismet Smailović, "Muhamed Hevaji Uskufi", , Biblioteka Baština, Sarajevo, 1990. 1600s births Year of death unknown Writers from Tuzla Bosnian Muslims from the Ottoman Empire 17th-century writers from the Ottoman Empire Bosniak writers Bosniak poets Bosnian language Bosnia and Herzegovina writers {{BosniaHerzegovina-bio-stub