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Hamam Balkania Vladislav Bajac Randall A Major 9781908236142 Books

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This is a book that lives in two parts - one set in the Ottoman empire of the 16th century, and the other in our own 21st century reality. Here we have the story of two friends, both taken as children from their homes and inducted into the Turkish Sultan's private guard Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, the Serbian shepherd boy who rose to the position of Grand Vizier and Koca Mimar Sinan, the 'Michelangelo of the East'. Between them they represent both destruction and creation, while at the same time providing us with a harrowing insight into the heart of religion and identity. Back in our own time, we hear the voice of the author, sharing with us his experiences in the modern world, and his musings on faith, identity and nation. This is a truly ambitious book that rewards the reader with insights into some of the great questions of our time.

Hamam Balkania Vladislav Bajac Randall A Major 9781908236142 Books

Hamam Balkanija is called a novel, but it will probably disappoint those who read it as such. At the heart of it is the friendship between two men who were brought up in the Orthodox faith and forcibly converted to Islam. One is Sokollu Mehmed Pasha or Mehmed Sokolović, who served as grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire under three sultans, the other is the master builder Koca Mimar Sinan. Beyond their obviously invented conversations with each other, which never, at least in English translation, seem to reveal any meaningful differences in personality between the politician and the architect, there seems to have been little that differentiates this from a straight-up historical narrative. It is curiously cold and bloodless when it occasionally mentions the protagonists’ personal lives. For example, one is told that Mehmed Sokolović “also had some secret experience with children: two of his concubines had given birth to two children [each concubine had given birth to two children, or each had given birth to a child?], and he had partially hidden them from the public, but he was still considering whether he would officially recognize them as his own”. The focus is on the public dilemma created by the existence of his children. We aren’t told about his feelings for his offspring, or for the women he had copulated with to produce them. We aren’t even given the names of the children or his concubines in this passage.
Interspersed among the chapters of the historical novel per se is an autobiographical account by the other, much of which relates to his interactions with the Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk. Their friendship serves as a counterpoint to the friendship between Mehmed Sokolović and Koca Mimar Sinan in the body of the novel. I took this as straight-up narrative with no fictionalization, but it does show the problems with this form. Once a book is labelled a novel can you take even its apparently autobiographical elements at face value? Mr. Bajac certainly is well-connected but his descriptions of the people he has met sometimes puzzle. Why, for example, does he not mention that the writer David Albahari, Calgary-based and a Canadian citizen, who introduced him to Alberto Manguel, is a Serbian writer who has translated a lot of English-language works into Serbian?
The chapters in the modern day sometimes analyze the period during which Mehmed Sokolović lived, other times they deal with different aspects of the problems of mixed identities. It is obvious that Mr. Bajac is a leftist with the leftist habit of driveby slander (“the change of moving from socialism into a class society”) of the market economy. This may appeal to readers who share his views, but will likely annoy those who don’t.
Much of the material Mr. Bajac presents is fascinating. It seems that there was already animosity between Albanians and Slavs in the 16th century (see p.245) at least at the highest levels in the Ottoman court. Since these people, whether Albanians or Slavs, were all Moslems at least by conversion, religious animosity was presumably not a factor. However, sometimes his statements are headscratchers: “Who in their right mind would ever connect Istanbul and Vienna in the same empire?” (See p. 270.) The Roman Empire provided a precedent, since it contained both Istanbul and the territory on which Vienna was built. Since the Ottoman Empire already controlled a lot of the Danube watershed even before the conquest of Belgrade, it was hardly odd that they would also seek to control Vienna. Turn the question around: why would Mr. Bajac think that this was indisputably a bridge too far given that the Ottomans almost succeeded in their efforts to seize Vienna?
Mr. Bajac is the founder of Geopoetika, which published this translation of his novel, so he should assume some responsibility for the huge number of typos in the text (e.g. on p. 193: “Death is always were it belongs”). It appears that there was no native English speaker acting as copy editor. After a while I found myself playing a game of “search for the next typo”, which distracted from the enjoyment of the work. Also when I find things like Alberto Manguel referred to as “Alberto Manguela” on p. 209, this Canadian wonders what other errors might not have crept into the text that a typical North American would never notice as an error.
It would seem to me the main problem with Hamam Balkania as a book is that Mr. Bajac has never properly confronted the difference between having multiple identities and being a collaborator. In some ways Mehmed Sokolović seemed to try to defend Serbian interests, establishing Serbian as a language of diplomacy in the Balkans for the first time, and appointing his own brother as the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which he supported with state funds. At the same time, was he not a Turkicized Islamic convert? And if he appointed his brother as patriarch, wasn't that just because he was serial nepotist? If Serbs ultimately survived as a people and achieved independence was that because of people like Mehmed Sokolović or in spite of them? After all, Koca Mimar Sinan's people, the Orthodox Greeks of the Anatolian peninsula, did not survive, but were killed off or expelled from their homeland after being there for centuries. Did collaboration with the Turks forestall their disappearance as a people or create the conditions that led to it? It is odd that in a book of almost 400 pages, these questions aren't properly addressed at all. We are taught to admire both Mehmed Sokolović and Koca Mimar Sinan almost without reservation, when many people would consider them, and especially Mehmed Sokolović, as collaborators with a cruel and despotic regime.

Product details Paperback 312 pages Publisher Istros Books (February 1, 2014) Language English ISBN-10 1908236140

Tags : Hamam Balkania [Vladislav Bajac, Randall A. Major] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. This is a book that lives in two parts - one set in the Ottoman empire of the 16th century, and the other in our own 21st century reality. Here we have the story of two friends,Vladislav Bajac, Randall A. Major,Hamam Balkania,Istros Books,1908236140,Fiction - General,Fiction Literary,Fiction : Historical - General,Historical - General,Literary
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Hamam Balkania Vladislav Bajac Randall A Major 9781908236142 Books Reviews

Vladislav Bajac weaves together two separate yet equally compelling stories that drives the reader to want more. The duality between the past and present is gripping, poetic, and inspired.
Hamam Balkania by Vladislav Bajac is a stunning mix of historical fiction and memoir. Translated from the original Serbian, this book has two parallel stories, one that follows the author’s philosophical train of thought on Serbia and the Ottoman Empire, as well as the idea of the “hamam,” or, cleansing oneself. The other direction of the novel is historical fiction, and follows the life of Bajica Sokolović, a boy who has been taken from his Serbian home in order to serve the sultan in the Ottoman Empire.

The boy struggles with maintaining his identity as he is forced to change his name to Mehmed Sokollu and learn an entirely new language. As he learns more about the empire, he is forced to split up with the other Serbian people who have been forced to serve, and as an older student, must witness the war up close. The violence shocks him at first, but in his service, he learns to overcome that. He finds solace in the friendship of a Serbian engineer who builds magnificent structures for the sultan and building reparations during the war. Their friendship is something that Bajica cherishes among the loneliness that comes from being ripped away from one’s home and family.

This fantastic read will challenge your mind and think about the things that matter. The author brings up subjects concerning happiness, pleasure, duality, discipline, and nature. He stresses in the beginning of the book that in nature, we find true pleasure and happiness. Bajac’s writing is beautiful and descriptive, leaving you with a clear picture of what is happening, a love for his incredibly well developed characters, and a thirst for more. As your curiosity heightens, you will learn more about the Ottoman Empire, Bajica’s struggles, Bajac’s take on the history of the empire, and its influence on Serbia. Reading Hamam Balkania was like stepping into a new culture and a new world, and of course, another time.

If you are in love with philosophy, books that make you think, or historical fiction, then this is the book for you.
Hamam Balkanija is called a novel, but it will probably disappoint those who read it as such. At the heart of it is the friendship between two men who were brought up in the Orthodox faith and forcibly converted to Islam. One is Sokollu Mehmed Pasha or Mehmed Sokolović, who served as grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire under three sultans, the other is the master builder Koca Mimar Sinan. Beyond their obviously invented conversations with each other, which never, at least in English translation, seem to reveal any meaningful differences in personality between the politician and the architect, there seems to have been little that differentiates this from a straight-up historical narrative. It is curiously cold and bloodless when it occasionally mentions the protagonists’ personal lives. For example, one is told that Mehmed Sokolović “also had some secret experience with children two of his concubines had given birth to two children [each concubine had given birth to two children, or each had given birth to a child?], and he had partially hidden them from the public, but he was still considering whether he would officially recognize them as his own”. The focus is on the public dilemma created by the existence of his children. We aren’t told about his feelings for his offspring, or for the women he had copulated with to produce them. We aren’t even given the names of the children or his concubines in this passage.
Interspersed among the chapters of the historical novel per se is an autobiographical account by the other, much of which relates to his interactions with the Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk. Their friendship serves as a counterpoint to the friendship between Mehmed Sokolović and Koca Mimar Sinan in the body of the novel. I took this as straight-up narrative with no fictionalization, but it does show the problems with this form. Once a book is labelled a novel can you take even its apparently autobiographical elements at face value? Mr. Bajac certainly is well-connected but his descriptions of the people he has met sometimes puzzle. Why, for example, does he not mention that the writer David Albahari, Calgary-based and a Canadian citizen, who introduced him to Alberto Manguel, is a Serbian writer who has translated a lot of English-language works into Serbian?
The chapters in the modern day sometimes analyze the period during which Mehmed Sokolović lived, other times they deal with different aspects of the problems of mixed identities. It is obvious that Mr. Bajac is a leftist with the leftist habit of driveby slander (“the change of moving from socialism into a class society”) of the market economy. This may appeal to readers who share his views, but will likely annoy those who don’t.
Much of the material Mr. Bajac presents is fascinating. It seems that there was already animosity between Albanians and Slavs in the 16th century (see p.245) at least at the highest levels in the Ottoman court. Since these people, whether Albanians or Slavs, were all Moslems at least by conversion, religious animosity was presumably not a factor. However, sometimes his statements are headscratchers “Who in their right mind would ever connect Istanbul and Vienna in the same empire?” (See p. 270.) The Roman Empire provided a precedent, since it contained both Istanbul and the territory on which Vienna was built. Since the Ottoman Empire already controlled a lot of the Danube watershed even before the conquest of Belgrade, it was hardly odd that they would also seek to control Vienna. Turn the question around why would Mr. Bajac think that this was indisputably a bridge too far given that the Ottomans almost succeeded in their efforts to seize Vienna?
Mr. Bajac is the founder of Geopoetika, which published this translation of his novel, so he should assume some responsibility for the huge number of typos in the text (e.g. on p. 193 “Death is always were it belongs”). It appears that there was no native English speaker acting as copy editor. After a while I found myself playing a game of “search for the next typo”, which distracted from the enjoyment of the work. Also when I find things like Alberto Manguel referred to as “Alberto Manguela” on p. 209, this Canadian wonders what other errors might not have crept into the text that a typical North American would never notice as an error.
It would seem to me the main problem with Hamam Balkania as a book is that Mr. Bajac has never properly confronted the difference between having multiple identities and being a collaborator. In some ways Mehmed Sokolović seemed to try to defend Serbian interests, establishing Serbian as a language of diplomacy in the Balkans for the first time, and appointing his own brother as the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which he supported with state funds. At the same time, was he not a Turkicized Islamic convert? And if he appointed his brother as patriarch, wasn't that just because he was serial nepotist? If Serbs ultimately survived as a people and achieved independence was that because of people like Mehmed Sokolović or in spite of them? After all, Koca Mimar Sinan's people, the Orthodox Greeks of the Anatolian peninsula, did not survive, but were killed off or expelled from their homeland after being there for centuries. Did collaboration with the Turks forestall their disappearance as a people or create the conditions that led to it? It is odd that in a book of almost 400 pages, these questions aren't properly addressed at all. We are taught to admire both Mehmed Sokolović and Koca Mimar Sinan almost without reservation, when many people would consider them, and especially Mehmed Sokolović, as collaborators with a cruel and despotic regime.