Šefik Bešlagić (6 April 1908 – 19 November 1990) was a cultural historian from

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

, former Yugoslav republic.

Biography

Šefik Bešlagić was born in the town of Gornja

Tuzla Tuzla (, , ) is the List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 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 inha ...

in 1908. He was born in

Bosniak The Bosniaks (, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia (region), Bosnia, today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and who sha ...

family, and his mother Devleta (''née'' Mulalić) was a housewife, while his father Agan was a teacher. Šefik Bešlagić was educated in Tuzla,

Doboj Doboj ( sr-Cyrl, Добој, ) is a city in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated on the banks of the Bosna (river), Bosna river, in the northern region of Republika Srpska. As of 2013, it has a population of 71,441 inhabita ...

and

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

, before teaching in

Derventa Derventa ( sr-cyrl, Дервента) is a city in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in the Posavina region, northwest of the city of Doboj. As of 2013, the town has a total of 11,631 inhabitants, while the municipality has ...

and Gračanica. From 1953 to 1967 Šefik Bešlagić was the director of the republic's Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of

. He explored the medieval necropolis of monumental tombstones or '' Stećci''. He was a historian of material culture, especially of

megalith A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. More than 35,000 megalithic structures have been identified across Europe, ranging geographically f ...

s, ''stećak''s, ''nišan''s, '' čatrnja''s, ''stolica''s (judge stone seat or stone chair)'','' and other monuments.

Historiography

Nada Miletić and Alojz Benac dated first significant appearance of the phenomenon of the stećak to the thirteenth century, but this dating has been debated, in particular by Bešlagić and Dubravko Lovrenović, who date the tombstones to the mid-twelfth century.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beslagic, Sefik 1908 births 1990 deaths Writers from Tuzla Cultural historians 20th-century historians 20th-century Bosnia and Herzegovina historians Bosnia and Herzegovina medievalists Yugoslav historians