Hor Rejjan Concert and New CD

To promote their new album “Ya Resulallah,” Hor Rejjan performed for a packed hall tonight, along with special guests Hfz. Aziz Alili, Eldin Husejnbegović, Zejd Šoto, Miralem Babajić, Hor Hewser, and Hor Gazel.  I’m sure video from the concert will show up on YouTube, and I’ll update the post when it does.  For now, here are some of their music videos, and some photos from the event.  Great job guys!

With Gazel

Zejd Šoto

Hor Kewser

Eldin Husejnbegović (the girls next to me were going completely nuts – I didn’t realize he was that kind of popular!)

Hor Rejjan

With Hfz. Aziz Alili

A few photos

Here are a few photos of Bosnia.  Enjoy!

On the train from Zagreb, somewhere between the border and Sarajevo.

Dome inside Gazi Husref-Beg’s mosque

Another dome

Inside the mosque

Latin bridge.   This is where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot by a Bosnian Serb, beginning World War One.

Sebijl, Baščaršija (“Pigeon Square”)

View of the hills from my balcony, a couple weeks ago.  The snow is all gone now!

Miljacka River, from Grbavica

Kazandžiluk street in Baščaršija, where all the copper and silver tea sets are sold.

Randomness

I’m behind on posts.  I’m also behind in my travel journal!  While I catch up, here are some random observations and notes:

People here love to walk, especially by the river.  It’s great exercise, great scenery, and a time to talk to friends or think!

Dimsi cheese goes very well with mushroom tortellini!  It’s almost enough to keep me from missing my colby…

I visited the History Museum last week.  I saw it called a “living museum” somewhere (I’m wondering if that’s why they never fixed the bullet-holes in the building while the National Museum next door was completely repaired); the main part contains personal memoirs, artifacts, articles, and photos from the recent war.  It is a very powerful exhibit, and it’s an interesting experience (not sure how else to describe it!) to see the photographs of the destroyed buildings, and then walk outside afterwards and see the same buildings, repaired.

The art scene is great here!  More on that later, hopefully.

After listening to sevdalinka for several months before coming here, it is wonderful, and somehow comforting, to hear them in cafes, stores, etc…

Zumbuli (bluebells) smell wonderful!

I’m so glad to be in my own apartment.  Some of you know I was in a hostel for nearly a month when I first came.  However, that was also a great experience.  The owner and staff there were wonderful, helpful, and hospitable.  The director did not speak English, so it was a great way for me to practice my Bosnian.  He was so patient with me, never interrupting, and just waiting for me to think it through and come up with the correct word (and helped me out if I didn’t know it).

The ladies at these Women’s education centers (Kewser and Nahla) have become great friends. More on these organizations later.

I’ve met some of the musicians here; I was waiting for my Bosnian to improve before I started contacting everyone, but I think now it’s time to get down to business!

Methinks Willy Wonka!

Pop Quiz. Is this:

A.  The Miljacka River after it’s been raining and all the snow has melted?

B.  Willy Wonka’s Chocolate River?

Review of Concert

On Sunday night, about 10,000 people braved the cold weather to attend “Gazu u mom srcu” (Gaza in my heart), a giant concert held to raise money for humanitarian relief in Gaza. It was such a large concert, in fact, that it was held in Zetra, the Olympic stadium. The event was scheduled to begin at 7:00 pm, but people began filling the stadium over an hour in advance, and by 6:30 the hall was nearly full. The audience consisted of viewers of all ages, ranging from children to the elderly. The stage was beautifully set up, with white hanging lights and arches to the side of the stage. In the center was a screen, on which a slide show consisting of images from Palestine would be displayed throughout the event. To either side of the screen were sets of high bleachers, which began to fill up just before 7:00.

Several choirs from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina and other parts of the Balkans were scheduled to participate in the event and they began to file onto the stage, taking their places on the bleachers to enthusiastic applause. The members of each choir were dressed alike, for example the women of Hor Kewser were dressed in shiny red and gold outfits. The instrumentalists took their places in front of the bleachers, and the soloists, narrators, and hafizi (those who had memorized the Qur’an, and would recite it during the event) sat in the middle, just under the screen. Shortly beforehand, I had seen the Reis ul-Ulema, Dr. Mustafa Cerić, and his wife arrive and take their seats in the front row.

The event started promptly with a recitation from the Qur’an. There are many hafizi (Arabic: Huffadh) in the Balkans who have been trained at the Gazi Husref-Bey madrasa. Some of them, such as Aziz Alili, Burhan Šaban, Senad Podojak, and Mensur Malkić, who all participated in the event, are also very popular singers of ilahije. After most of the recitations, a narrator read the Bosnian translation of the passages.

I was familiar with many of the singers there, but not all of them. Some of those less familiar to me were pop singers. A highlight of the event, in my opinion, was Hamza Raznatović’s (lead singer of pop band MacBeth) rendition of the well-known ilahije “Dosta mi je Allah moj” (My God is enough for me – see him singing this at a different event on Samaha’s blog). After hearing Burhan Šaban sing a song in Arabic at the beginning of the event, I hoped that he would later perform one of his own songs, and he did – “Dođi Najdraži” (Come, Most Beloved – see music video of this song here). I think he performed this song because it describes the Prophet’s return from the isra’ and mi’raj, part of which took place at the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Slides of the structure were shown on the screen during the performance. Another highlight was Aziz Alili’s performance of “Šehidi” (Martyrs – see video of him performing this song here), a song that was popular in Bosnia during and after the war here. I could see that many of the older people in the audience were deeply moved by the song. Interestingly, while the permissibility of musical instruments and female singers are hotly debated in many parts of the Muslim world, they appear to be non-issues here. The event ended with a brief speech and a du’a by Reis ul-Ulema Dr. Mustafa Cerić, and people began piling out of the stadium.

So Why is Chef too busy to write an abstract?

I’m leaving for Bosnia in less than three weeks!  I will be there for four months, mostly in Sarajevo, conducting research on ilahije.

So I’m very busy studying Bosnian and preparing for the trip right now.  Any advice would be welcome!  For the next two weeks, I’ll probably be asking a lot of questions on here, picking the collective minds of whoever happens to stop by.

The question for today involves laptops and the internet.  I just bought a new laptop, masha’Allah, and I need to know what to do to make sure it will be internet-ready over there.  Keep in mind I am technologically inept, so this might be a stupid question.  It does receive wi-fi, meaning I can connect to networks (for example, I know how to connect to the wifi at Panera and the public library).  I will need to use it when I get an apartment in Sarajevo.  How will I do that?  For example, if they say the apartment has internet, how do I connect to it?  And if the apartment doesn’t have it, what do I do (probably a region-specific question but like I said, I’m inept) to get it?  I guess the main question is:  do I need to buy anything here for it before I leave, that will ensure my ability to use the laptop there?  And should I buy a transformer or converter for the charger, or just an adapter?  It does have that little “box” in the middle of the cord; is that its own transformer/converter, and would it be good enough?

Thanks!/Hvala!