Written by Petrit Latifi

Qorr Husa Kolashini, Ćor Huso Husein or Ćor Huso Kolašinac (c. 1820-1911?)¹ was most likely an Albanian lahutar or guslar, consdiering his origin. “Qorr” or “Ćor“means “blind” in Albanian. In the study “THE EPIC OF BOSNIAKS IN MONTENEGRO”, we can read that Qorr Huso was from Kolashin², at the time a known Albanian town, and that he was a permanent guest in Peshter, also an Albanian region.

“Salih Ugljanin said that many practiced and became good guslars thanks to the “hardening” and listening to the famous and blind in one eye Ćor Hus Husović from Kolašin, who was a permanent guest in the villages of Pešter, in the homes of the wealthier Pešter people and in the inn in the village of Ugao on Pešter, the famous Sufi, mullah Emro Mahmutović, better known as Hodž’ Prlo.

Due to all that has been said, we can rightly claim that the originator of this epic song wave is precisely a personality of the caliber of one Ćor Hus Husović, whose skill is also witnessed by Mumin Vlahovljak. Czech Slavist Matija Murko believes that he was blind, which was certainly not true, because among the Pešter people the name or nickname “Ćor” (from Turkish kör (روآ (- blind, ćorav)) was used for a person fanatically in love with the gusle and healthy Kraješnica.

Assumptions about Husović’s death are only speculation, especially when it is known that Hus’s Kolasin muhajirs, in addition to the villages on Pešter and around Novi Pazar, were also in some villages below Mount Kopaonik (Borčani and Isovo) that were destroyed and deserted by Serbian units in actions after 1911, so, incidentally, Ćor Huso, as a respectable and wealthy person who spread the glory of his Bosniak people everywhere with his songs, could have made enemies and been a victim of bandits or perished in those bloody actions.”

Qorr Huso taught other guslars of Novi Pazar and Bijelopolje

“… Ćor Huso Husein of Kolašin . We know something of this singer not only from Avdo , who heard about him from his father , but also from other singers in Bijelo Polje and Novi Pazar who learned songs from Ćor Huso..”³

Qorr Husa played at the court of Franz Joseph

“Ćor Huso was so famous and recognizable in these parts that, according to Salih Ugljanin (also an Albanian-Bosnian lahutar) he was even at the court of Franz Joseph (“des Wieners Kaisers” – the Viennese Emperor) in Vienna, who rewarded him handsomely. The equipment of his horse, his clothes and his physical appearance attracted deserved attention everywhere. The leader of the Bosniak Komit movement, Jusuf Mehonjić, spent a long time among his comrades on Peštera: “… in Sandžak he wrote a diary in Cyrillic letters in ten-line columns about his exploits against Serbia, Montenegro…”

Qorr Husa lived to be over 100 years old?

“Rajko Medenica based on the stories of Salko Hot from Velje Polje and my little story that I wrote down from a centenarian from Kolašin, Ćor Huso Husović, one of the founders of epic Sandžak guslars dressed like a real the hero of epic poems, with jamadans, shalwars, a levor at his waist, a rifle on his shoulder, had a mustache and bristling eyebrows, while his horse was led by an armed companion.”

Ćor Huso Husovic is one of the most interesting figures among Bosniak singers. Milman Parry was the first among collectors who, as early as 1934, heard legends about Ćor Hus from Salih Ugljanin Pešterec. Later, the valuable Alois Schmaus and, of course, Matija Murko, who could not miss anything about the epic poem, wrote down legends about Ćor Hus from this same singer and some other storytellers (Tragom srpsko-hrvatske narodne epice, JAZU vol. 42: Zagreb, 1951, vol. 1-2).

Reference

Click to access Almanah%2031-32.pdf

1. https://books.google.se/books?id=YLtiAAAAMAAJ&q=%C4%86or+Kola%C5%A1inac&dq=%C4%86or+Kola%C5%A1inac&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=1&printsec=frontcover&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjY1fWOxKyLAxXAKxAIHTl6AC4Q6AF6BAgIEAM ↩︎
2. https://books.google.se/books?id=sZ9iAAAAMAAJ&q=%C4%86or+Kola%C5%A1inac&dq=%C4%86or+Kola%C5%A1inac&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=1&printsec=frontcover&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjY1fWOxKyLAxXAKxAIHTl6AC4Q6AF6BAgFEAM ↩︎
3. https://books.google.se/books?id=4ZR9AAAAIAAJ&q=%C4%86or+Huso&dq=%C4%86or+Huso&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=1&printsec=frontcover&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj4gsPhxKyLAxX-GRAIHRz-HfA4FBDoAXoECAQQAw ↩︎