Shared Legends

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   SHARED LEGENDS

In this thread I would love for AE forumer's to share certain legends
that are shared between different peoples. It can be something like,
for example, the modern idea of Santa Claus, or the Virgin Mary
sighting at Medugorje.

For my example I want to share the story of Safikada.

Safikada was a real woman, of this we are certain. While we cannot say
if the legend surrounding her is true, we can say her grave in the city
of Banja Luka, in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, still exists and
still bears a specific passage normally reserved by those who died by
their own hand.

The legend of Safikada is well-known among Bosniaks, Bosnian Croats,
and Bosnian Serbs who were born and raised in the city of Banja Luka
(not the city's current population). It is also well-known among Turks
of Bosniak ancestry in Izmir, many of whom still visit her grave to
light candles and say prayers.

At the time Safikada was born, Banja Luka was, as it was for much of
the Ottoman Empire's course in this region, a dangerous frontier city.
It was a city of Ottoman soldiers, quaint Bosniak peasants, and
constant heartache and misery due to violent incursions from Christian
areas of Europe.

Thus it was generally frowned upon in Banja Luka for a young woman to
marry a soldier, even though soldiers were among the most desirable of
suitors elsewhere in Bosnia. It was certainly frowned upon for the most
beautiful woman in the city, a woman whose name was on the lips of
every boy and whose body was in their most private fantasies.

Safikada, however, didn't let this scare her away from love. She fell
madly in love with a Turkish soldier from Izmir who was stationed at
Banja Luka's famous Kastel. Even though it went against the traditions
of the time, she openly walked the streets with him, holding hands, and
courting publicly.

To put an end to it, the Turkish soldier's influential commanders
persuaded the Sultan to transfer him back to Anatolia. Safikada and the
Turkish soldier vowed to be faithful to each other until death and for
the next several years Safikada walked the streets of Banja Luka alone,
wearing a widow's black burqha. She refused so many suitors that she
became a joke in Banja Luka and the jealous women and lustful boys
taunted her fidelity to her "imaginary Turk".

With time, word reached Banja Luka that the Turkish soldier had been
killed. Safikada's father, who always bowed to the wishes of his
daughter, finally accepted a suitor and arranged for her marriage - but
it was too late. The day she found out her lover had died, Safikada
wore her wedding dress to the Kastel, waited until the cannons were
lit, and then stood before one screaming, "I will remain faithful to
you until I die".

She was not killed instantly by the cannon and was carried away on
boards by anxious and frightened Turkish soldiers. While entering the
city of Banja Luka she passed away. Afraid to touch her beautiful body,
they left her there in the street where she was eventually burried, not
far from the kastel.

Her grave is, as I've said, still visited by residents of both Banja Luka and Izmir.