Summary
Rusmir Mahmutćehajić: Stolačka Čaršija in the perspective of perennial philosophy
SHAH ZAFARII, the last Mughal ruler, wrote a ghazal to the destroyed Delhi after it fell into English hands after the Great Hindustan Rebellion in 1857: "Paradise was once Delhi, Love reigned in it, its charm is defiled, only ruins remain. No tears for the multitude that is without sheets, trapped in a mass grave; no prayer for the fallen eshraf, in a cemetery without a funeral." Likewise, Rusmir Mahmutćehajić's Stolac bazaar is a gazelle to the destroyed Stolac. However, if it was only a matter of lyrical inspiration, aimed at nostalgia for what was lost, the author's testimony would be just as poignant, but not so inspiring. The key, however, is not in the loss of urban order, which is a signpost towards the center - towards the transcendental - but in finding order within oneself, which enables the restoration of the destroyed world.
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