Oldest library in Balkans is in Sarajevo - it houses 900-year-old manuscript

The library  has been working continuously since its establishment in 1537. It is a home to the manuscripts from various parts of the Islamic world dealing with Islamic and natural sciences, mathematics, algebra, geometry, astronomy and other fields of science.

The oldest manuscript in the library is the fourth volume of the famous theological-mystical work "Ihya' 'ulum al-din", i.e. 'Encyclopedia of Islam' by Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali. The work was copied in 1106, five years before the author's death

"This work represents the most read work in the Muslim world, after the Qur'an (the holy book of Muslims). The first part of the fourth volume of this work, Kitab al-Tawba, whose transcription was completed by Abdulgabbar Hasanabad (Hasanabad, a city in the province of Isfahan in Iran) in 1107. As far as we know, it is the oldest copy of this famous work in the world," said Hamza Lavic, senior librarian.

Cultural institution

Although the Gazi Husrev-beg Library has the designation "library" in its name, it is essentially a cultural institution that covers a much wider range of literature and sources that are very important for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and for Bosniaks who have lived in this region for the last 500 years.

"In addition to the manuscript collection, which represents the library's most significant collection, consisting of nearly 11,000 manuscript codices, the library's very significant collections also include archival collections," said Lavic.

Archive of Ottoman Documents

Another very important collection of archival collections is the archive collection of Ottoman documents.

"There are about 20,000 individual documents originating from the period of Ottoman administration in Bosnia and Herzegovina - from the arrival of the Ottomans to these areas in 1463 until the end of 1878 ," said Lavic, stating that there are several sub-collections, and the most significant sub-collection is the endowments - about 800 of them, which talk about the establishment and development of individual endowments in Bosnia and Herzegovina that significantly contributed to the general social and urban development of certain cities.

The library also contains a commentary on the first book of Ibn Sina, a central figure in Islamic intellectual history in various fields.

His most famous work in the field of medicine is the work "Al-Qanun fi at-tibb", which is an overview of the entire medical knowledge of the time in which it was created. It consists of five books and in it are systematized and defined branches of medical science known at that time.

The 1849 Quran from

The library also houses a rich collection of Qur'an transcriptions from different periods. In the collection, the manuscript dating from 1265/1849 stands out. transcribed by Ahmad bin Muhammad al-Muhagir al-Daghistani al-Makki.

"This is a mushaf that was specially prepared so that others could copy from it, in order to reduce the possibility of translation errors. It has exceptionally rich calligraphy and decorations. It represents one of the most important cultural treasures of BiH. It is the third generation of the first mushaf in Islam, which was collected by the Caliph Hazrat Umar," explained Lavic.

The complete manuscript collection of the Gazi Husrev-beg Library in Sarajevo, with 10,585 manuscript codices, was inscribed on the UNESCO "Memory of the World" list in 2018 and is the only collection of its kind to be inscribed on this prestigious world list from Bosnia and Herzegovina.