Abstract:
The article is devoted to the Balkan writing in Arabic script (arabica / arebica),
called also alhamijado / aljamijado in Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian
languages. The appearance of such cultural phenomenon is connected with the
history of Balkan as a part of the Ottoman Empire. In this text I describe the
arebica with its special characters, unknown in Arabic, Turkish and Persian,
used in Slavonic languages. Then I present the oldest known text in arabica,
called Chirvat türkisi (“Croatian Song”, 1588/1589) and the development of
this literature in several genres – both religious and secular. The next part of
the article is devoted do 2 most outstanding representatives of alhamijado literature:
Muhamed Hevai Uskufi (XVII C.), Abdulvehab Ilhamija (XVIII C.)
and Abdurrahmana Sirrija (XVIII/XIX C.). The last paragraphs are devoted
to the “renaissance” of alhamijado at the beginnings of the XXI C.
