Mehmed Pasa Sokolovic

Mehmed Pasa Sokolovic

Mehmed Pasa Sokolovic was a Serbian born child out of town of Visegrad (Bosnia). Little Sokolovic was taken away from his birthplace at the age six, by Turkish soldiers, and it was brought up in military spirit within Turkish military academy in Istanbul. At that time this was a very common practice for a Turkish military, to take young boys away from their families, and raise them into a loyal soldiers of their army, ultimately returning them in their place of origin to rule over familiar masses.

As a young soldier, Sokolovic was showing signs of a promising career, which ultimately had brought him a title of "Pasa". Sultan in Istanbul was so impressed by loyalty of his (converted to Islam) high ranking officer, that he gave him a region of Bosnia to be under his control, since he knew the language and customs of his people. The region that he was given was a town of Visegrad and surrounding villages. After a couple of starting months of his region ruling , he was visiting the area where he was born, his on mother recognized him by the birthmark on his face and she embraced again her child after more then thirty years.

Mehmed Pasa Sokolovic was the first pesron of a Serbian decent to donate a bidge to his own people. Whole story was described in book "Na Drini Cuprija" (The Bridge on Drina) written by Ivo Andric(1892-1975), which brought Ivo a Nobel Prize for literary achivements.