harsh winters, and prisoner exchanges. Here, Sjećanja is neither a product of a later
perception nor a subsequently written text where the descriptions and analyses
appear post festum. On the contrary, Sjećanja is contemporary and concordant with
the historical terror of a slighted life of besieged towns, shelling, massacres, harsh
winters and scorching summers in towns with no utilities whose streets echoed
with the explosions of shells, the reek of sewage, and the stench of decomposing
human and animal bodies.

If Alija Izetbegović gained any satisfaction after the hell he went through alongside
all those who lovingly fought for the survival of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it would be precisely for Sjećanja in which he publishes his speeches, narratives,
accounts, addresses, interviews, encouragements, urges, cries, and entreaties. He
published the book not as a subsequently polished image or nicely framed picture
but as the simultaneous and direct consequences of the war, suffering, torment, and
cataclysm. All that he writes about in Sjećanja is significant because it is not formulated nor subsequently dispatched from a distanced, stylistically polished hindsight.
Instead, the work rather looms as a powerful and clear voice from the middle of
the Bosnian hell, often in frightening reality; it is an image of a terrifying picture
showing a hand appearing from a fresh grave. In this sense, Sjećanja is a first-rate
historical source precisely because its content is documented and positioned relative
to the actual questions of who, when, where, how, and why. This is why Sjećanja is
read and will be read for a long time as a book about the tribulations of those at the
crossroads of worlds.

The Voice of a Muslim Humanist

Based not just on Sjećanja but also his other books, Alija Izetbegović can best be
described as a Muslim humanist. The first word of the phrase clarifies his spiritual roots in Islam, while the other sheds some light on his trust in the humanist
traditions of the West and the world in general. Calling Alija Izetbegović a Muslim
humanist is still in line with Selimović’s observation about being at the crossroads
of worlds. Alija Izetbegović was acutely aware of these worlds and even more so of
their crossroads. He offered a synthesis. Sjećanja testifies to this on a number of
planes in many chapters.

At the height of the horrors of war when no reasonable word was expected from
any side, Alija Izetbegović, despite being a politician amidst difficult times, also
became engaged in newspaper, television, and radio interviews, sending out the
messages: “We tried to preserve Yugoslavia on the condition that Croatia remains