Seeking the Sleepers
1993
And yet each state must crumble to the dust of which it is made. The Ottoman
Empire is no more, and the live-and-let-live pragmatism of Balkan Islam has
no place in an age of terrible purity. Twice this century have the heretic-killers
come again with fire and the knife and the one true faith, to harry the folk
of Bosnia and Herzegovina from their homes, to drown and stab and rape and burn.
A letter from N, smuggled out of Sarajevo. The paper stiff with candle-wax.
You remember the AladÃa mosque? The Serbs bulldozed it. A bus shelter stands
there now.
Later I learn that the other mosque was demolished too. This time by the Croats.
Over the stones, smoke drifts once more on the wind. Under the stones, the
chosen sleep. But the day they shall wake is at hand.
1. This, I now know, is no random aesthetic: the
cube represents earth, and the hemisphere heaven; the centre of each is joined
by an invisible axis, the column of sun, which passes through the heart of the
worshipper. Not knowing this then, I felt only peace. (back)
– by Francis R. Jones (Northumberland, UK)