Avdo Ribić — Avdikadija

Avdo Ribić, son of Omer and grandson of Enes, was the kadi (judge) of the Jezero district. People called him Avdikadija, and he is the head of our family tree. He had four sons: Šemso, Izo, Rešid and Akif.

He is a historical figure, having taken part in the Bosniak uprising against the Ottomans during the reign of Sultan Abdülmecid. Among other reforms, the sultan introduced the Tanzimat — a law on compulsory military service. Bosnians tried to resist it, and a movement for autonomy was growing. Avdikadija joined that movement.

To pacify Bosnia, the sultan sent Omer-pasha Latas, a converted Orthodox Christian from near Gospić, who crushed every attempt at autonomy with brutal methods. To avoid arrest, Avdikadija fled to Pliva, some thirty kilometres from Jezero. But Omer-pasha captured his sons, so he surrendered. Omer-pasha ordered him given 200 strokes of the cane.

The friar Ivan Jukić, who travelled with Omer-pasha for a time, described it: »I listened to the cries of the old man they were torturing; it was heart-breaking. I begged the pasha not to torment a man over 76 years old. To which Omer-pasha curtly replied: ’Let him — let the Bosniak see what it means to rise against the sultan!’«

Avdikadija’s daughter-in-law Hanumica remembered it differently: by her account, as he was struck Avdikadija shouted: »Strike, little Omer, damn your mother!«

After the torture, Omer-pasha had the old kadi shackled and marched on foot with 1,500 Bosnian rebels toward Constantinople. Friar Jukić, himself a prisoner, marvelled that the man of 76 reached Constantinople alive, over 1,500 km away: »Behold the hard Bosnian bone!« The old kadi of Jezero died in a Constantinople prison.