Balkan Muslimity

Adhan Time in Kuleliburgaz (Pythion, Greece), 1890s

Kuleliburgaz'da Ezan Vakti (Pythion, Yunanistan), 1890'lar. . . Love history? Become one of our patrons by pledging $1/month and support the historical gems we uncover on a daily basis. http://bit.ly/2CK2tWB

“Evidence: War Crimes in Kosovo,“ is a body of work that was produced in Albania, Macedonia, and Kosovo between February and July 1999.  This work was a deliberate effort to address the issue of war crimes and was my first attempt to construct a documentary project in a kinetic environment.

I had photographed the war in Bosnia from January 1993 until it ended in December 1995 and continued to photograph its aftermath through the late 1990s. My work in Bosnia had been driven by news events and the demand for imagery from media clients in the USA and Europe. By the time the war ended, I felt I’d fulfilled my obligation to my clients but had failed to address decisively what I saw as the critical issues of the war—crimes against humanity and war crimes. During that war, I established a friendship with photographer Gilles Peress, who had a significant impact on the way I approached my work. We were frequent traveling companions during the violent years in the former Yugoslavia, where Gilles challenged me to use my photography with greater urgency and militancy and to explore the remote areas beyond the boundariesof my experience and imagination.

The war in Kosovo was the terminal act of dismemberment of Yugoslavia, a vicious endgame. It was evident during the prelude to the war that the pattern of murder, rape, deportation, and persecution the world had witnessed in Bosnia was being revisited by military or paramilitary forces loyal to the Republic of Serbia on what it considered to be a subjugated civilian populace. I agreed with my editors at Newsweek, Charles Borst and Guy Cooper, and with my longtime collaborator, Newsweek correspondent-at-large Rod Nordland, that I would focus my work on the issue of war crimes from the beginning of our coverage of the story. What remained was to find a narrative structure. Gilles encouraged me to approach the story like an investigator (he seemed to think my family’s history in the British police gave me some useful genetic advantage). But how would I frame the project?

EVIDENCE: WAR CRIMES IN KOSOVO

“Evidence: War Crimes in Kosovo,“ is a body of work that was produced in Albania, Macedonia, and Kosovo between February and July 1999.  This work was a deliberate effort to address the issue of war crimes and was my first attempt to construct a documentary project in a kinetic environment.

I had photographed the war in Bosnia from January 1993 until it ended in December 1995 and continued to photograph its aftermath through the late 1990s. My work in Bosnia had been driven by news events and the demand for imagery from media clients in the USA and Europe. By the time the war ended, I felt I’d fulfilled my obligation to my clients but had failed to address decisively what I saw as the critical issues of the war—crimes against humanity and war crimes. During that war, I established a friendship with photographer Gilles Peress, who had a significant impact on the way I approached my work. We were frequent traveling companions during the violent years in the former Yugoslavia, where Gilles challenged me to use my photography with greater urgency and militancy and to explore the remote areas beyond the boundariesof my experience and imagination.

The war in Kosovo was the terminal act of dismemberment of Yugoslavia, a vicious endgame. It was evident during the prelude to the war that the pattern of murder, rape, deportation, and persecution the world had witnessed in Bosnia was being revisited by military or paramilitary forces loyal to the Republic of Serbia on what it considered to be a subjugated civilian populace. I agreed with my editors at Newsweek, Charles Borst and Guy Cooper, and with my longtime collaborator, Newsweek correspondent-at-large Rod Nordland, that I would focus my work on the issue of war crimes from the beginning of our coverage of the story. What remained was to find a narrative structure. Gilles encouraged me to approach the story like an investigator (he seemed to think my family’s history in the British police gave me some useful genetic advantage). But how would I frame the project?

GREECE - CIRCA 1961: A stamp printed in Greece from the “Tourist Publicity” issue shows Fethiye Mosque, Ioannina, Epirus, circa 1961 .

A mosque in a village called Hisardžik near the town of Prijepolje in the southern Serbian region of Sandžak is the owner of a very valuable artifact - a Qur’an that is 400 years old. 

It was first believed that the Qur’an is 300 years old because the first page has an inscription that say “in the 1116 Hijri year” (1706 in the Gregorian calendar). However a new study conducted by experts of the National Library of Belgrade has shown that the Qur’an is at least 400 years old and might be the oldest in the Balkans. 

With the help of experts from Belgrade the damages on the Qur’an were fixed and afterwards it was displayed at the Prijepolje museum for 10 days and then it was returned to the mosque in Hisardžik where it belongs. 

Počitelj, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1993.