Ćamil Sijarić

Ćamil Sijarić (18 December 1913 – 6 December 1989) was a Yugoslav novelist and short story writer. He enrolled in law school in 1936 and earned his degree four years later. Sijarić died in a car crash at the age of 75.

Life

He was born in Šipovice, near Bijelo Polje, in the Kingdom of Montenegro, to Muslim (Bosniak) parents. Both of his parents died while he was a child.^[1] 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.

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 Montenegro and the Bihor region around Bijelo Polje. His works have been translated in more than a dozen languages, including Russian, German and French.^[2]

Sijarić perished in a car crash in Sarajevo, shortly before his 76th birthday in December 1989.^[3]

Not long before his death, Sijarić wrote a poem called Znam (I Know), which appears to show him foreshadowing his own death:

Bibliography

Some of his most important works are

• Ram-Bulja (stories, 1953)
• Bihorci (novel, 1955)
• Mojkovacka bitka ("The Battle of Mojkovac", novel, 1968)
• Sablja (stories, 1969)
• Konak (novel, 1971)
• Carska vojska ("Imperial Army", novel, 1976)
• Francuski pamuk ("French Cotton", stories, 1980)

References