Religious Puritans in Sarajevo in the 18^th Century

The paper studies the notes from Mulla Mustafa Basheski’s mecmua in which he recorded the presence of religious Puritans in the City of Sarajevo (medîne-i Saraybosna) in the second half of the eighteenth century. As this mecmua is of a diary type for the fact that the writer ended each of his notes by dating the event dealt with in it, we can see that the religious Puritans were influential both in religious and social life in Sarajevo from 1766-1767 until the end of the eighteenth century. Mulla Mustafa Basheski called them muteassibs, kadizadelis and munkirs. He related the appearance of the religious Puritans in Sarajevo to the arrival in the City of the person he mentioned under the name of Vaiz of Amasia (Amasyalı Vâiz). Vaiz was a teacher - muderis in a Sarajevo madrasah and preacher who “in each of his sermons criticised sufis, sheiks, kadis, pashas”. Several notes in the mecmua witness to the direct conflicts between the religious Puritans and sufis. Some notes reveal efforts of the Puritans to influence life of the overall community in the way that twice in the span of twenty years they arranged for a ban on the performance of acrobats who came to Sarajevo to entertain people with their skills.