Abdullah ef. Riđanović

In memoriam

The Riđanović Family  is a well-known scholarly family from Mostar, which produced several learned individuals who held various positions within the Islamic hierarchy of Bosnian Muslims. Among them were imams, khatibs, preachers, teachers, professors of Islamic sciences (mudarris), muftis, and qadis. The most renowned scholar of this family was Abdullah Effendi. Abdullah Effendi  was born in Mostar in 1844, the son of Haji Ahmed Derviš Effendi, a well-known imam from Mostar. He completed his elementary religious education (maktab) and advanced studies (madrasa) in Mostar, where he received his  ijazah  (teaching license) from the most famous scholar of Herzegovina at the time, Haji Mustafa Sidki Karabeg, the Mufti of Mostar. Recognizing Abdullah Effendi's great ability and talent, Mufti Karabeg took him as an associate and, until his death, as his closest friend. At the invitation of many scholars, Abdullah Effendi, along with Mufti Karabeg, frequently visited Istanbul. During one of these many visits, he extended his journey to the holy sites and performed the Hajj pilgrimage. Together with Mufti Karabeg, Abdullah Effendi also took part in two military actions against rebels from Montenegro who attacked Muslim villages in eastern Herzegovina, looting Muslim property and burning down Muslim homes. Abdullah Effendi stood by Mufti Karabeg during the turbulent times of the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Mostar in 1878, when the mufti, the qadi, the governor ( mütesarrıf ), and the district administrator ( kaymakam ) were killed in the government building ( konak ). Two years later, Abdullah Effendi wrote a 34-page work in Arabic, in which he described in detail the life of Mufti Karabeg and the occupation of Mostar. After Ali Fehmi Džabić was removed from the position of Mufti of Mostar, Abdullah Effendi assumed the position in 1899. Despite his duties as mufti, Abdullah Effendi never left the  mihrab  (prayer niche). He served as the imam of the Haji Husein Kotle mosque and as a professor ( mudarris ) at the Koski Mehmed Pasha madrasa. He passed away on April 17, 1917, and was buried in the Šarića harem cemetery in Mostar. Taken from the book: "100 Bosniak Imams from the Period 1912–2012"

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