BAYRAKTARLAR MAUSOLEUM

This Ottoman mausoleum (Tyrbja e Bajraktarit, Bayraktarlar turbe) is located in the Gazimestan Memorial Park, near the Serbian "Monument to the Heroes of Kosovo". It is linked to the memory of the battle of Kosovo Polje in 1389. The türbe (mausoleum) is an octagonal building, 3.5 m high, covered with a lead dome and topped with an alem ("banner" in Turkish), a finial decorated with a crescent moon. Rebuilt in 1791 and 1864, then renovated in 2015 by the Turkish development agency Tika, it houses two coffins visible through the windows: those of two "flag bearers" of Murad I who died with him in the battle of June 15, 1389. More accurately, these would be the flag bearer(bayraktar in Turkish) and the shield bearer (kalkan taşıyıcı) of the sultan, but the tomb is designated as that of the "flag bearers"(bayraktarlar, the plural of bayraktar). Holding a prestigious position, the sultan's bayraktar was a high-ranking officer who enjoyed a high reputation within the Ottoman army.

Place of Sufi pilgrimage. According to Turkish tradition, the flag bearer buried here was called Gazi Mestan and gave his name to the whole area, where the "Monument to the Heroes of Kosovo" and the Memorial Park are located. As this soldier was a member of a Sufi brotherhood (a religious order of the mystical stream of Islam), the site became a place of pilgrimage, still maintained by the dervishes of Pristina. An old Sufi cemetery is still present opposite the mausoleum, on the other side of the road. In fact, the identity of the two soldiers buried in the mausoleum remains a mystery. For example, it is not known whether they died in the great battle of Kosovo Polje in 1389 or whether they fell in the other battle of the same name, which pitted the Ottomans and their Serbian allies against Hungarian and Romanian troops on 17-20 October 1448. Loaded with historical and religious symbols, the site is regularly targeted. It has been the object of several desecrations since the Kosovo war, most recently in 2017. As a result, it is often closed to visitors. The perpetrators of these degradations are unknown: Serbian nationalists or Sunni extremists opposed to Sufis? If the mausoleum is surrounded by many mysteries, it is also surrounded by garbage. Indeed, one of Pristina's many illegal dumpsites is located nearby.