Ćamil Sijarić

Ćamil Sijarić (18 December 1913 – 6 December 1989) was a Bosnian novelist and short story writer. He enrolled in law school in 1936 and earned his degree four years later. Sijarić died in a car crash at the age of 75. His literally work introduced marginalized region of Sandžak and it's rural Bosniak population into Bosnian literature.
Life
He was born in Šipovice, near Bijelo Polje, in the Kingdom of Montenegro, to Muslim parents. He was of Albanian origin on his mothers side, and he considered Albanian to be native to him.
Both of his parents died while he was a child.
He was raised thereafter by his aunts and uncles.
Sijarić enrolled in the University of Belgrade's Law School and earned his degree in 1940. He was both a member of Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts, and Academy of Arts and Sciencies of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition to Bosnian, he spoke Albanian, Arabic, French and Russian.
During the Second World War, Sijarić worked as a clerk in the courts in Mostar, Bosanska Gradiška, Banja Luka and Sarajevo, cooperating all the time with the Unitary National Liberation Front of Yugoslavia. At the same time, he wrote and published poems in the Belgrade and Sarajevo magazines Žena danas and Gajret, and after the World War II also in Zora, Nova žena, Brazda, Oslobođenje.
His first literary work was Ram-Bulja (1953), which he first wrote in Albanian but then later translated and first it in published Bosnian. It was thereafter re-translated into Albanian shortly after because, according to Sijarić, the characters there themselves can be seen as Albanians. His most acclaimed work is the novel Bihorci (1955).
He spent most of his life in Skopje, Belgrade and later, Sarajevo, where he died in a car accident in 1989. However, almost all his major works are about Sandžak and the Bihor region around Bijelo Polje. His works have been translated in more than a dozen languages, including Russian, German and French.
Sijarić perished in a car crash in Sarajevo, shortly before his 76th birthday in December 1989.
Not long before his death, Sijarić wrote a poem called Znam (I Know), which appears to show him foreshadowing his own death:
Three schools bear the name of Ćamil Sijarić - in Sarajevo, Novi Pazar and Nemila. Several cities - Brčko, Novi Pazar, Podgorica, Tutin, Nova Varoš... have streets of this writer. In Novi Pazar, the "Pero Ćamilo Sijarić" literary prize is awarded, and in Bijelo Polje there is also a Day of Remembrance of Ćamilo Sijarić. A fountain was also built in his native village of Šipovice in memory of this Ćamil Sijarić.
Works
Some of his most important works are:
Ram-Bulja (stories, 1953)
Bihorci (novel, 1956)
Zelen prsten na vodi (stories, 1957)
Naša snaha i mi momci (stories, 1962)
Kuću kućom čine lastavice (1962)
Mojkovačka bitka (novel, 1968)
Sablja (stories, 1969)
Na putu putnici (stories, 1969)
Zapisi o gradovima (travelogues, 1970)
Konak (novel, 1971)
Kad djevojka spava, to je kao da mirišu jabuke (stories, 1973)
Carska vojska (novel, 1976)
Raška zemlja Rascija (novel, 1979)
Francuski pamuk (stories, 1980)
Oslobođeni Jasenovac (memoirs, 1983)
Rimski prsten (stories, 1985)
Herceg-Bosno i tvoji gradovi (travelogues, 1986)
Lirika (poems, 1988)
Koliba na nebu (poems, 1990)
Drvo kraj Akova (stories, 1990)
Awards
Honorary citizen of Leningrad
Award of the Association of Writers of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1953)
First prize at the anonymous competition of the publishing company Narodna prosvjeta (1955)
Svjetlost Award for the best published story in that company 1945-1955 (1955)
Thirteenth of July Award (1971)
Award of the Society of Writers of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1962)
Ivo Andrić Award (1980)
Yugoslav award for the novel (1983)
References
External links
Ćamil Sijarić
1913 births
1989 deaths
Montenegrin people of Albanian descent
University of Belgrade Faculty of Law alumni
People from Bijelo Polje
Bosniaks of Montenegro
Albanian male writers
Montenegrin novelists
Montenegrin short story writers
Members of the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts
20th-century novelists
Road incident deaths in Yugoslavia
20th-century short story writers
Bosnia and Herzegovina people of Albanian descent
Bosnia and Herzegovina people of Montenegrin descent
Bosnia and Herzegovina writers