A Journey with experiences of a lifetime. The adventures of Gyula Germanus in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1902

Abstract

Gyula Germanus or Hajji Julius Abdul-Karim Germanus, Hungarian Muslim Orientalist Professor (1884-1979) was a well-known scholar and popular figure in Hungary from the turn of the century until late seventies. He was an Arabist, teacher, professor, writer, traveller, literary historian as well MP in Hungary (1958-1966) and member of many academies abroad. He converted to Islam in Delhi in 1930, and he was the first Hungarian to make a pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj) in 1935. In this paper, I would like to describe in more detail his first major trip abroad, which took him to Bosnia and Herzegovina in the summer of 1902. The 17-year-old Germanus, a newly graduated, well-informed, educated, multilingual and already interested in Eastern culture, had a lifetime of experiences on his journey. Based partly on one of his memoirs and partly on a radio play he wrote and found in the Germanus bequest, I will outline in detail a chronicle of his days in Bosnia. First he travelled by train from Budapest to Banja Luka, where he visited the only Trappist monastery in the Balkans, and then he wrote a brief history of the Trappist order in his book. He then travelled with his companions by coach along a wild and scenic road carved into the valley of the Vrbas river towards Jajce. He noted that the Hungarian soldiers who invaded Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878 had named the province “the land of curved mountains” for a reason. It is in Jajce that he had his greatest and most astonishing adventure, when he walked into a café in the evening, where he was greeted with great affection by the regular Bosniaks, especially after it turns out that he speaks Turkish. So he spends the evening in good company and is amply entertained. This first impression of the kindness and hospitality of the Muslim people of the East will stayed with him for the rest of his life. Jajca was followed by a journey by narrow-gauge railway to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. In addition to describing the city and its sights, Germanus also reported that he had made a new and very dear friend, the intelligent Ahmed Mustafa, a shariat law student. After meeting him, they talked about the Islamic religion, the Quran, shariat and visited the bazaar. Afterwards they had dinner and Germanus invited his new friend to visit Hungary, who accompanied him to Grazová and then to Raguza. They also discovered Raguza together and said goodbye to each other. From there Germanus travelled to Cattaro, then to Cetinje in Montenegro, where he had interesting and instructive adventures, and after a long and difficult ordeal, including two days of starvation, he arrived in Fiume, where he was helped by an acquaintance of his father’s, and was able to travel home in peace. In the conclusion, I will explain that six years after Germanus’ visit, the Austro-Hungarian Empire annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Empire, and tensions between the peoples of the Balkans escalated, leading to the Sarajevo assassination attempt on 28 June 1914, which soon afterwards led to the outbreak of the First World War. Germanus never forgot his first trip and the positive experiences he had here. He had sympathy for the Bosniaks and helped them in Hungary when veteran soldiers and officers stranded in Hungary after the First World War founded an Islamic religious community in 1931 under the leadership of former Military Imam Husein Hilmi Durić . Germanus, who was already a Muslim, supported them, mobilised his network of contacts for them and took on the role of secretary-general of the so-called “Gül Baba Cultural Committee”. I believe that the teenager Germanus’ personality development was greatly influenced by his trip in 1902 and the friendly, welcoming atmosphere that surrounded him.