SKICE PORODIČNOG ŽIVOTA U SARAJEVU POSLJEDNJIH DECENIJA OSMANSKE VLADAVINE
SKETCHES OF FAMILY LIFE IN SARAJEVO IN THE LAST DECADES OF OTTOMAN RULE

Summary/Abstract: In Sarajevo in the last decades of the Ottoman rule, there were many instances of modernisation of the Ottoman society and a growing influence of Western European countries. It was particularly visible in public life; i.e. shops began resembling, more and more, those in major European centres. Consequently, the structure of population in the city gradually changed. Changes of family life had a particularly strong social component, since the wealthier families could afford to adopt these new habits and customs, while the poorer segments of population continued with traditional family life. In the structure of families in Sarajevo in the first half of the 19th century, there was a process of dissolution of big families. The average family began to have four members: parents and two children. One needs to note that the mortality rate of babies during the entire 19th century was high so that the figure illustrating an average Sarajevo family relates to the children that survived and not to those that were born. It is evident that, with these social changes, people did not get married at a very young age any more, while the age difference between spouses was between 4 and 10 years. Spouses did not show their mutual affection in public; the only public display of emotions was that of mutual respect. People did divorce one another, yet it was a very rare occurrence. The wedlock was most often broken by death of one of spouses. If the head of family died, the surviving members of his household were faced with great difficulties. Taxes for transfer of ownership and debts were among these difficulties that struck families left without their head. The space where families exercised freely their private, intimate life was their homes. In the Ottoman period, to have a home meant to have one’s own house. Traditionally, the way houses were constructed with separate parts for men and women was maintained in most homes, although Western influences were felt more strongly in the choice of furniture, particularly in the homes of emerging urban elite, mainly among merchants. Immigrants, mainly from Western European countries had special influence on the family life; their lifestyle gradually influenced all segments of life of domicile population of Sarajevo.

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