Gazi Husrev Bey's Library

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Gazi Husrev-bey's Library
Gazi Husrev-begova biblioteka
Gazi Husrev-begova Biblioteka.png
Gazi Husrey Bey Complex - panoramio.jpg
The main gate of Gazi Husrey-bey Madrasa & Library Complex, built in 1531-37.
Gazi Husrev Bey's Library
43°51′34.6″N18°25′42.0″E / 43.859611°N 18.428333°E / 43.859611; 18.428333
LocationGazi Husrev-begova 46, Baščaršija, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Type Public library [1]
Established1537(487 years ago) (1537) [2]
Reference to legal mandatePublic libraries of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Collection
Items collectedFund comprises Manuscript Fund, Orientalistic Fund, Periodicals Fund, European Fund, Archives Fund, Islamic Community Fund, Photographic Fund
Sizecca 100 000 items [2]
Criteria for collection?
Legal deposit ?
Access and use
Access requirementsUser must be registered before being given access to Library funds and reading rooms. The registration is made in a membership card valid for 12 months. Entry, exit, and membership identification are made at the Reception Desk of the Library. When entering a reading room, one must provide a membership card and an identification document that shall be returned to them upon exit.
Circulation?
Members?
Other information
Budget? million (2015)
DirectorProf. Hilmo Neimarlija, chairman of the five members board [1]
Employees29 FTE [1]
Website Official website OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg (in Bosnian and English)
The Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque which originally housed the Library circa 1900. Sarajevo Begova Mosque 1900.jpg
The Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque which originally housed the Library circa 1900.

The Gazi-Husrev-beg Library is a public library in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina founded in 1537 by the sanjakbey of Bosnia Gazi Husrev-beg during Ottoman rule, it is a part of the larger complex with the Gazi Husrev-beg Medresa. It holds one of the most important collections of Islamic manuscripts in Bosnia-Herzegovina, including many originally donated by Gazi Husrev-beg. The collection survived through Bosnian war and Siege of Sarajevo. The library also holds a sizable number of books, journals, newspapers, documents and photographs.

Contents

As part of the larger complex of Gazi Husrev-begova Medresa , the library facilities are part of the National Monument designation. [3]

Foundation

In 1537, the Ottoman Empire governor of Bosnia, Gazi Husrev-beg, established a madrasa for the education of the people of the region. In the charter for its creation, the governor stipulated that "whatever money remains from the construction of the madrasa shall be used for purchasing good books, which will be used in the madrasa by readers, and for copying from them by those who engage in science." [4]

The library and the madrasas functioned for over three hundred years as one unit until, in 1863, the library was moved to its own room, where it stayed until 1935 when it was moved to the Sarajevo Mufti’s office outside the Careva Mosque. The library continued to grow until the whole building of the former mufti's office was used for housing the library's holdings. It remained in this location until the start of the Siege of Sarajevo in 1992. [5]

Destruction and safekeeping

In 1697, an Austrian general Eugene of Savoy, raided the library, destroying many historical works. Some of the most important documents to be lost were the Sarajevo court registers, chronicling land ownership, marriages, and other important legal events.

During the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s, much of the city of Sarajevo was under siege by forces of the Army of the Republika Srpska. Many of the printed books were moved to the Careva Mosque for safekeeping. The manuscripts were moved eight times during the nearly four-year siege of the city. The 500 most valuable manuscripts were placed inside the vaults of the Privredna Banka, where they were hidden. They remained there until the siege was lifted. [4]

Rebuilding

The Gazi-Husrev-beg Library re-opened on January 15, 2014, after 10 years of construction. The new library was built largely from a grant of US$8.8 million from the country of Qatar and has the capacity to hold nearly 500,000 items. [6] The new library is three stories high and made of glass and marble. It has reading rooms, a conservation room and a 200-seat auditorium with WiFi headsets that allows for simultaneous translations of up to three different languages. In the basement is a museum dedicated to Bosnia's history of literacy. [7]

Holdings

The library contains over 100,000 volumes of manuscripts, printed books, and documents in Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Bosnian and other languages. More than 10,500 library units include codices of manuscripts with approximately 20,000 texts in the fields of Islamic sciences, Oriental languages, belles-lettres, philosophy, logic, history, medicine, veterinary science, mathematics, astronomy, and others.

Since the Siege of Sarajevo and the restoration of the library, several important Islamic manuscripts have been added to the library's collection. Some of the most important of these manuscripts are the following:

There are also significant copies of Mus'hafs, illuminated copies of the Qur'an, contained in the library's collection as well as a variety of teaching licenses from the Ottoman Empire period, and 35,000 printed books in Bosnian and other European languages. [4]

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Sultanzade Gazi Husrev-beg was an Ottoman Bosnian sanjak-bey (governor) of the Sanjak of Bosnia in 1521–1525, 1526–1534, and 1536–1541. He was known for his successful conquests and campaigns to further Ottoman expansion into Croatia and Hungary. However, his most important legacy was major contribution to the improvement of the structural development of Sarajevo and its urban area. He ordered and financed construction of many important buildings there, and with his will bequeathed all his wealth into endowment for the construction and long-term support of religious and educational facilities and institutions, such as the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, and the Gazi Husrev-begova Medresa complex with a Gazi Husrev-beg Library, also known as Kuršumlija.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "About - Management and Staff". www.ghb.ba. Archived from the original on 1 January 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  2. 1 2 "History". www.ghb.ba. Archived from the original on 1 January 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  3. "The architectural ensemble of the Gazi Husrev-beg medresa with the site and remains of the Khanaqah in Sarajevo". old.kons.gov.ba. Komisija za očuvanje nacionalnih spomenika. 11 September 2006. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 Jahić, M. (2013). The Gazi-Husrev-beg Library, AMOSGRAF, Sarajevo.
  5. Nir Shafir, Gazi-Husrev-beg Library, Hazine, retrieved from https://hazine.info/ghb_library/ Archived 2014-04-14 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Bosnia opens The Gazi Husrev-beg library housing ancient Islamic manuscripts, retrieved from https://english.alarabiya.net/variety/2014/01/16/Bosnia-opens-library-housing-ancient-Islamic-manuscripts
  7. Verde, Tom. 2016. "Saving Sarajevo's Literary Legacy." Aramco World. Volume 67, number 1, January–February 2016. Page 33. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/895830331