The comic: Ajvaz-dede - the spiritual builder of Bosnia

Addressing those present at Ajvatovica at the 505th Days of Ajvatovica in 2015, the Reisu-l-Ulema of the Islamic Community in BaH Husein ef. Kavazović emphasized the significance of organization of this manifestation and the preservation of its tradition.

“I wish to express my gratitude to the generations of Muslims who have before us, by preserving the memory of this prayer and great God’s friend Ajvaz-dedo, saved for us this spirituality that can be felt only here, at Ajvatovica, and at no other place in B&H. Their hope that they trust us the preservation of this tradition from generation to generation imposes for us an obligation to, with the same flame and the same consciousness as those good Muslims, give our best to preserve Ajvatovica and the memory of Ajvaz-dedo, the greatest Bosnian spiritualist that this country has ever breeded, for our children, the generations that are to come after us, as well as for our yet unborn children”, said Reis Kavazović among other things.

According to the post on the blog Bosnian Magic, "every year in June, thousands of Bosniaks gather at the holy site at Ajvatovica near the village of Prusac. According to legend, Prusac had problems with water supply.  Ajvaz-dedo found a water spring near Prusac, but it was blocked  with a 74 meters long rock. Ajvaz-dedo spent 40 days praying to Allah to split the rock. On the fortieth morning, following his prayers,  Ajvaz-dedo dreamed that two white rams collided and split the rock. 

In June 1990 the Islamic Community (IZ), organized a landmark commemoration of the sixteenth-century conversions to Islam in Bosnia.

Concurrently the IZ symbolically restored the national  Bosniak shrine at Ajvatovica in western Bosnia via massive pilgrimage under green banners of Islam. The pilgrimage had originated in 1463 and had continued as an established tradition until it was interrupted by a police action in 1947. Legend has it that Ottoman religious instructors came to the Prusac area in the 1460s to establish regular instruction and convert local members of the Bogumil "Bosnian Church" to Islam.

On 16-17 June 1990. over 100.000 people made pilgrimage to Ajvatovica to commemorate the beginning of the conversion to Islam in Bosnia. At the mountain shrine where Muslim mystics meditate above the valley of the historic conversion."

The comic in the form of a picturebook:  Ajvaz-dede - the spiritual builder of Bosnia, was published by Yunus Emre Enstitüsü in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Ajvaz-dede was a Sufi dervish who arrived in Akhisar (known today as Prusac, Bosnia and Herzegovina) with the conquering Ottoman armies in 1463.