HUSEJN-EF. OMEROVIĆ

Six decades of dedicated service in the role of imam-muallim

Abstract

UDK: 929 Omerovic H.

This article presents the life of a softa (student) of Podrinje Madrasa school in Zvornik, who dedicated the prime of his life as well as a good part of his retirement age to the service as imam-muallim. Husein efendi Omerović was born in Gornja Kamenica near Zvornika in year 1930, to father Salih-efendije and mother Nesiba-hanuma. According to the available sources, he is the only living student of Podrinje Madrasa school, and that fact in particular was one of the main reasons for writing this article.  At the age of twenty, he married Džemila-hanuma Redžić with whom he had seven children, two sons and five daughters, and lived fifty years of harmonious married life. Today he is retired and lives in his family house in Memići near Kalesija, where he is cared for by his eldest daughter Emina-hanume. The primary reference for this article is a direct account from Husein-effendi and his daughters Emina and Senada along with some documents from the Archive of the Ryasat of the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo the Majlis of the Islamic Community in Kalesija.