Two documents from Tuzla sijjil from 1054–55/1644–45 kept in Gazi Husrev-beg Library
This work consists of a transcription, a translation and a detailed analysis of two important documents from the Tuzla sijjil from 1644–45, now stored in Gazi Husrev-beg Library as part of the Osman Asaf Sokolović collection. This article seeks to draw attention to a methodological approach to sijjils by way of a detailed analysis, which can offer new and greater scholarly insights. The first document is about the turning of the village masjid in Miričina into a Friday prayer mosque and it provides a complete picture of the official procedure for such a change of status. The work analyses religious, political, and social reasons for the change and claims that the most important one was probably the need to strengthen orthodox Islam among village population of the region where traces of the heterodox Hamzevi tariqat had been noted.
The other document is interesting for several reasons: First, it represents a testimony about agricultural disputes between high-ranking sipahis, ie. zaims and the city elites, who were trying to acquire marketable agricultural land near cities and river ports. Second, it provides new and significant details about the growth of Brčko as a town settlement in the first half of the 17th century. Finally, the document contains a detailed list of 21 witnesses, who were all citizens of Tuzla. By analysing the list, the author has discovered new data about the history of Tuzla in the 17th century. The author also offers new dating for the Behram-beg waqf, which he considers to have been founded in Tuzla in the first half of the 17th century.