Isak Samokovlija (3 September 1889 – 15 January 1955) was a Bosnian writer. By profession he was a physician. His stories describe the life of the Bosnian Sephardic Jews.

Biography

Samokovlija was born into a Sephardi Jewish family in

Goražde Goražde ( sr-cyrl, Горажде, ) is a city and the administrative center of the Bosnian-Podrinje Canton Goražde of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated on the banks of the Drina rive ...

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 ...

at the time of the Austro-Hungarian occupation. While one side of his family came from Spain after the Expulsion of Jews from Spain, "his great-grandfather moved to Bosnia from the town of

Samokov Samokov ( ) List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, is a town in Sofia Province in the southwest of Bulgaria. It is situated in Samokov Valley between the mountain ranges of Rila, Vitosha and Sredna Gora, 55 kilometres from the capital Sofia. Due ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

", which led to "the surname Los Samokovlis in Ladino or Samokovlija in Bosnian. After completing primary school Samokovlija went to Sarajevo. He attended high school with Ivo Andrić, the first Yugoslav to win the

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

. After graduating high school in 1910, he received a scholarship from local Jewish charity La Benevolencija to study medicine in Vienna. Later he worked as a doctor in the towns Goražde and Fojnica (1921–25) before beginning a regular job at Sarajevo's Koševo hospital in 1925. At the beginning of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he was a department head at the Koševo hospital. In April 1941 he was discharged from service as well as other Jews, but soon he was mobilized as a medical doctor fights against a

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...

epidemic. It was not until 1945, he managed to escape Yugoslavia and hide until the country was liberated. After the end of World War II, he held various positions in the Bosnian and Yugoslav literary circles. From 1948-51 he edited the magazine ''Brazda'', and then, until his death he was an editor at the publishing company Svjetlost. His first short story ''Rafina avlija'' was published in 1927 and two years later his first collection of stories, ''Od proljeća do proljeća'', came out. Several of his stories were made into television films and his book ''Hanka'' was made into a film of the same name directed by Slavko Vorkapić in 1955. He did not live to see the film, dying at age 65 in January 1955. He was buried in the old Jewish cemetery on the slopes of

Trebević Trebević ( sr-cyrl, Требевић) is a mountain in central Bosnia and Herzegovina, located in the territories of Republika Srpska, Sarajevo and Istočno Sarajevo, bordering Jahorina mountain. Trebević is tall, making it the second shortest ...

mountain, near

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 ...

Bibliography

*''Rafina avlija'' (1927, Rafo's Yard) *''Od proljeća do proljeća'' (1929, From Spring to Spring) *''Nosač Samuel'', (1946, Samuel the Porter) *''Solomunovo slovo'', (1949, Solomun's Letter) *''Hanka'' (Hanka) *''Plava Jevrejka'' (The Blond Jewess) *''On je lud'' (He is Crazy) *''Fuzija'' (Fusion) *''Tragom života'' (Following Life) *''Đerdan'' (The Necklace) *''Priča o radostima'' (A Story of Joy)

References

1889 births 1955 deaths Bosnia and Herzegovina writers Bosnia and Herzegovina Sephardi Jews People from Goražde {{BosniaHerzegovina-writer-stub

Biography

Bibliography

Further reading

References