У царству гусара

by Mihailo Petrović Alas

"Da je to bilo kakvo putovanje dobro poznatim putem, ili običan turistički izlet kakve organiziraju i po programu izvode putnička preduzeća, a pri kojima samo treba platiti pa ići za vođom i gledati na stvari njegovim očima, odista ne bi ga vredelo ovde opisivati."

Ovim rečima započinje svoju knjigu "U carstvu gusara" Mihailo Petrović Alas. Reč je o štivu o posebnoj vrsti putovanja - ekspediciji po dalekim i teško pristupačnim krajevima Bermuda, Bahama i Malih Antila. Delo krase opisi veličanstvene tropske prirode, morske i ostrvske flore i faune, vrlo egzotični i za današnje čitaoce, a nekmoli za domaću publiku tridesetih godina prošlog veka.

Centralni deo putopisa "U carstvu gusara" posvećen je istoriji nastanka i širenju gusarstva, avanturama, opasnostima, neizbežnom kodeksu gusarskog života, te legendarnoj Tortugi, kao pozornici najvećih pustolovina, strašilu za čitave države i neprilaznom pribežištu šačici odvažnih avanturista, koji su više od dva veka gospodarili Atlantskim okeanom.

209 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1933

About the author

Mihailo Petrović Alas, born in 1868, was an influential Serbian mathematician. He was also a distinguished professor at Belgrade University, an academic, fisherman, writer, publicist, musician, businessman, traveler and volunteer in the Balkan Wars and the First World War.

He finished the First Belgrade Gymnasium in 1885, and enrolled at the natural science-mathematical section of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. In September 1889, he went to Paris to receive further education. He got a degree in mathematical sciences from Sorbonne University in 1891. His doctorate was in the field of differential equations. In 1894, Petrović became a professor of mathematics at the Belgrade's Grande école (which later became the University of Belgrade) and held lectures until his retirement in 1938.

In 1882, he became a fisherman apprentice, and in 1895 he took an exam to become a master fisherman. Mihailo Petrović got the nickname "Alas" (river fisher) because of his passion for fishery. He was not only an aficionado, but expert as well. He participated in legislative talks regarding the fishery convention with Romania, and in talks with Austria-Hungary about the protection of the fishery on Sava, Drina and Danube rivers.

Alas' passion for fishing eventually grew into a specific worldview, and became a distinctive, practiced and defined “philosophy of life". Standing out in his literary writings is his most detailed and most famous popular science novel - "The Eel Novel" that offers the reading public a retrospective of the solutions proposed to the two-millennium-old eel mystery in a lucid, accessible manner.

He played violin, and in 1896, founded a musical society named Suz.

When the Second World War broke out in Yugoslavia, the Germans captured him. After a while, he was released because of illness. On 8 June 1943, professor Petrović died in his home in Kosančićev Venac Street in Belgrade.