A history of Bushnaqs in the Arab world
(Modern Egypt and Thebes. 1843 by Sir John Gardner Wilkinson)
The events are in 1516, just after El Sultan El Ghuri Mamluk of Egypt was defeated by the Ottoman Sultan Selim. “Having satisfied his savage appetite, the Turk ” allowed the body of Toman Bay to be buried by the side of his father's grave f;” and finding no pretext for farther persecutions against the conquered Memlooks, he meditated other conquests. With this view he fitted out an expedition against Upper Egypt and Ethiopia, which penetrated into Dar-Mahass J, leaving on his return garrisons at Asouan, E'Dayr, Ibrtiem, the isle of Sai, and other places, to secure possession of the country. The greater part of them consisted of Bosnian soldiers; and some of their descendants are still found at Asouan and E’ Dayr. At E’ Dayr, the capital of Nubia, the kachcfs, who governed the country until the expeditions of Mohammed Ali into Sennar, were descended and derived their rank from the Turkish chiefs of Sultan Selim; and I have known individuals at Asouan who still retain the tradition as well as the distinguishing characteristics of their origin.”
Wilkinson also travelled to Bosnia and Herzegovina and met with Ali Pasha Rizvanbegovic and his sons and interviewed them and described the country in great detail.
Also in the 1640's there was a struggle between 2 rival Mamluk groups. One were the Faqaris and the other were the Qasimis. Ahmad Katkhuda ‘Azaban al Dumurdashi's Chronicle of Egypt 1688-1755 Jane Hathaway in The politics of Households in Ottoman Egypt: The rise of the Qazdaglis, writes that the Ottomans injected Bosnian Soldiers into the Qasimi faction to counter the great strength of Ridvan Bey who was the Mamluk Faqari commander of the pilgrimage,Amir al Hajj, in the 1640's. Turkish chronicles refer to Ahmad Bey Bushnaq and his brother Sha'aban Bushanq and nephew Ibrahim AbuShanab. In 1656 when Ridvan bey died Ahmad Bey consolidated his power, In 1659 he became governor of Sa'eed in place of Muhammad bey Faqari and then the Qaimaqam. In 1660 he destroyed the Faqaris. The Ottoman Authorities also did away with him when he got too powerful.
This is a recurring theme in my readings about Bosnians. Bosnian tendency to extreme loyalty to Ottomans and Ottoman betrayal.
Ahmed Bey Bushnaq of Caesaria (Grandfather of Abdul Azal Bushnaq-Cehajic) Caught a carrier pigeon with a message to the British from the Jewish spy Sarah Aaronsohn.
Apparently Ahmad Pasha died a martyr whilst he was in jail …either the British or possibly the new state of Israel jailed him and took away his land/belongings. He enjoyed raising pigeons as a hobby. One day he noticed a new pigeon among his flock with a message attached to it. He took the message to the Turks. This uncovered the nili gang network that was working nearby (the pigeon was probably supposed to to travel to Egypt to pass the secret message from the nili gang to the British). This was of course around the time that world war one started.. Ahmad pasha was tortured and treated badly, he was given hardly any clothes to wear in the winter ..and apparently died (probably directly/indirectly because of that).
Briefly also Mustafa Bushnaq of Nablus was one of Haj Amin El Husseini's loyal supporters (Info from a quick search on google books). Which reminds me: Haj Amin el Husseini met Hitler in his efforts against the British and helped recruit a division among the Bosnian muslims to fight along with the croatians on the German side. It was called the Handzar/Hanjar (Khanjar) division. This is often used as propaganda of the Nazism of Haj Amin el Husseini by the Jews. Bosnian muslims in general fought on all sides in WWII, some were with the Croats and Germans, some were with the Partisans anda small numbeer even fought with the Cetniks. Basically they did what was best to protect their communities. In any case this cannot be held against the Bosnians by any body, even the French fought and collaborated with the Germans. In December 1947 Bosnian fighters along with other Syrians, Iraqis, Lebanese, Jordanian and Sudanese fighters came to Palestine to help fight against the nascent Israeli state. 500 Bosnians were with the forces of Abdul Qader al Husseini and Hasan Salama. 100 were in Jaffa under the command of the Iraqi Adel Nejm el Din.
