The Wedding of Smailagić Meho

Lore & Background

The story of Meho Smailagić circulated in oral tradition before being recorded in writing. An early collected text was taken down in 1885 by the Austrian ethnographer Friedrich S. Krauss from the singer Ahmed Isakov Šemić in the village of Rotimlja. Krauss published the Bosnian text with a German translation in Vienna in 1890 as Mehmeds Brautfahrt. Ein Volksepos der südslavischen Muhammedaner. Krauss’s published version (about 2,160 lines) presents the narrative framework in a compressed form compared with later recorded performances, and later discussion of Međedović’s poem often uses it as a point of comparison for expansion and variation within the tradition. In the early 1930s the American classicist Milman Parry undertook fieldwork among South Slavic epic singers as part of his investigation into the oral background of Homeric poetry. Parry conducted two principal expeditions (1933; and June 1934 to September 1935) and worked in locations including Novi Pazar, Bijelo Polje, Kolašin, Gacko, Stolac and the Bosnian Krajina. The resulting archive is preserved as the Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature. The collection preserves both sung performances accompanied by the gusle and dictated texts produced under fieldwork conditions. Parry’s recording apparatus used two turntables so that discs could be changed in sequence and long performances could be documented without breaks despite the short duration of individual disc sides. A singer who became especially important for later scholarship was Avdo Međedović from Obrov near Bijelo Polje. Albert Lord treated Međedović as a particularly informative performer for studying the composition of long narrative songs within a living oral tradition and for comparing how narrative scale and detail could vary across performances and recording circumstances. Lord later returned to the region in 1950–1951 and recorded additional material from singers connected with Parry’s earlier fieldwork. At Parry’s request, Međedović dictated The Wedding of Smailagić Meho in July 1935. Accounts of the poem’s transmission note that Međedović learned the basic narrative outline from a printed version read aloud to him and then developed the story using the techniques and resources of the oral epic tradition. The dictated text preserved as Parry Collection no. 6840 runs to 12,311 lines. The 1935 dictated text was later published with an English translation and scholarly apparatus as volume 3 of Serbocroatian Heroic Songs, edited and translated by Albert B. Lord and David E. Bynum. In addition to the Harvard edition and translation, the poem has appeared in several later South Slavic editions intended for regional readerships, including the Sarajevo edition published by Svjetlost with an extended introductory study by Enes Kujundžić. This edition situates Međedović’s dictated version within the Bosniak epic tradition and provides contextual discussion of its narrative structure, themes, and stylistic features. The poem has also been published in Bosnian-language editions by El-Kelimeh, which present the text for contemporary readers and educational use within Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Sandžak region, generally without extensive critical notations.

Reader's Guide

The Wedding of Smailagić Meho holds significance as one of the longest recorded epics in the Serbo-Croatian oral tradition, with the 1935 dictated version by Avdo Međedović reaching 12,311 decasyllabic lines. Its recording during Milman Parry and Albert Lord's fieldwork was central to the development of the oral-formulaic theory of composition, which posits that oral poets compose in performance using formulaic phrases and themes. The poem's length and narrative complexity, especially compared to earlier recorded versions such as Friedrich S. Krauss's 1885 text of about 2,160 lines, provided scholars with a key example of how oral singers expand and vary traditional material. Međedović's learning of the basic outline from a printed version read aloud, then developing it orally, further illustrated the interplay between written and oral transmission. The epic's setting on the Ottoman–Habsburg frontier and its themes of investiture, marriage, treachery, and battle reflect the historical and cultural context of the Bosniak frontier community. The poem continues to be studied for its narrative structure, stylistic features, and its place within the broader South Slavic epic tradition, with editions published for both scholarly and regional readerships.

Did You Know?

• The most famous version of the poem was dictated between 5 and 12 July 1935 by the guslar Avdo Međedović to collectors Milman Parry and Albert Lord in Bijelo Polje.
• The dictated text, preserved as Parry Collection no. 6840, consists of 12,311 decasyllabic lines and is one of the longest recorded epics in the Serbo-Croatian oral tradition.