Ćamil Sijarić

He was born in Šipovice,[4] 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.[5] Both of his parents died while he was a child.[6] 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.[7]

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.[8]

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.[9] 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.[10]

Sijarić perished in a car crash in Sarajevo, shortly before his 76th birthday in December 1989.[11]

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.[12]

Some of his most important works are:

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