It is fortunate that Qaʾimi’s türbe and its interior were carefully documented by Mehmed Mujezinović before it was razed to the ground 25 years ago. His account of the türbe’s wooden partition is particularly noteworthy. It provides an insight into the importance attached to the ziyaret ‘tradition’ of the Bosnian Muslims and, in particular, to Qaʾimi’s türbe as a place of pilgrimage. The partition was made of fitted beech shingles and divided the first room, where the entrance of the türbe is located, from the second room which houses the cenotaph that marks the grave of the Šejh. The latter is framed by two simply cut tombstones without inscriptions; the grave stele is crowned with a three-dimensional representation of the Šejh’s headgear (tadž), enclosed by a simple openwork wooden grille and with ceremonial rosaries (tesbih) placed on the cenotaph; further tesbihs for the use of visitors hang from the railing of the grille.

According to Mujezinović, the partition was inscribed with around a hundred graffiti made by the pilgrims who visited Qaʾimi’s türbe. A number of inscriptions had been partially erased over time and so become illegible, but the surviving graffiti attested to Bosnian ziyaret rituals since the death of Hasan Qaʾimi. From the signatures it was possible to gain an impression of the sociological composition of the pilgrims: the visitors included ulema (religious scholars), Sufis, scholars and members of the general public. Their inscriptions demonstrated the exceptional degree of veneration paid to the Šejh over the centuries. Many pilgrims cited verses, while others eulogized Qaʾimi, adding their signatures and date of visit. Among these was a certain Ahmed Miri who made a calligraphic composition of the Ashabi kehfa in Arabic letters in the form of a sailing boat.  The composition refers to the Al al-Kahf or the Aṣhab al-Kahf (the seven ‘People of the Cave’ mentioned in surat al-kahf (The Cave, 18:9–26), who went to the ‘threshold of God’ (dargah-i Allah), where God enclosed them in a cave. There, they sank into a miraculous sleep lasting three hundred and nine years, to shelter them from the depravity of the world. Thus associated with a golden age, the Seven were cradled by God as though in a boat; this is also why the Ottoman fleet put itself under their patronage and inscribed their names on the sterns of their ships. The story of the refuge from a hostile world is modelled upon the Christian legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus and enjoyed long-lasting popularity throughout the Islamic world. The simile of the companions’ miraculous ‘sleep’ in a sacred space such as a cave has been a recurring motif in Islamic mysticism. Caves are traditionally seen as places of seclusion and meditation; in Sufi thought they are often viewed as a place for withdrawal from the world as well as a symbol of initiation and of proximity to the divine. It is well known that Muhammad was prepared for prophethood and received his initial qurʾanic revelation in a cave on Mount Hiraʾ where he used to retire for meditation. It was in the solitude of this cave, the place of meditation in the dark, undisturbed in his concentration upon God, that he was first blessed with the divine words. It was also in a cave that, at the time of his emigration from Mecca to Yathrib (later called Medina) in 622, the Prophet sought refuge together with his companion Abu Bakr to evade his pursuers (Q 9:40). According to Sufi tradition, this was the place where Muhammad introduced Abu Bakr into the mysteries of halvet (spiritual retreat) and the silent zikr (‘remembrance of God,’ divided into zikr al-qalb, ‘in the heart,’ and zikr al-sirr, ‘of the innermost being’).  The apocalyptic aspect of the legend of the Al al-Kahf is reflected in the popular Muslim belief that the Seven will precede the Mahdi, ‘the rightly guided one’ whose rule will be inaugurated before the end of the world, during the conquest of Jerusalem, where they will perish as shehids (martyrs in combat for the faith). 

Before the total destruction of the türbe in 1992–95, it housed six documents from the first half of the 19th century that related to the appointment and functions of the türbe’s keeper, or türbedar, and his revenues, alluding to his role as a kind of intercessor for the pilgrims, instructing visitors about the local etiquette of devotion and administering alms. The first known türbedar of Qaʾimi’s türbe was Šejh Omer of Jedren (Edirne) who also served as zaviyedar (administrator) of the tekke in Zvornik. After his death in 1819, the Šejh was succeeded by his son Mehmed. Today the türbe is cared for by two türbedars, one of them currently a woman. Hiba and Šaban Šehmedović each take two-week turns to care for Hasan Qaʾimi’s türbe.