Balkans | 486 Years of the Ottoman Legacy in Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Gazi Husrev Bey Madrasah

The Ottoman heritage Gazi Hüsrev Bey Madrasa in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, continues its 486-year educational tradition.

Halim Husic, deputy director of the Gazi Husrev-bey madrasah, founded on January 8, 1537, by Gazi Husrev-bey, grandson of Sultan Bayezid II, one of the Ottoman sultans, and Sened Zajemović, one of its graduates, director of institutions of the Islamic Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina made assessments about the school to a reporter AA.

Hosek, deputy director of the Gazi Husrev Beg School, said that he began his education at the school in 1973, then joined the Faculty of Islamic Sciences at the University of Sarajevo, and returned to the school he graduated from after graduating from the university. I started to work.

Noting that he had an unbreakable relationship with the school for 50 years, Hosek said, “The school, which was built by Gazi Hüsrev Bey on January 8, 1537, has been providing continuous education for 486 years. The Gazi Hüsrev Bey school has continued its work despite all the difficult conditions Like fire, flood and war, he said.

“The school adapts to the time period and the circumstances in which you live.”

“The school has been teaching continuously for nearly 500 years and is adapted to the period and conditions in which it is located, as indicated in the founding name of its founder, Gazi Husrev Bey,” said Heusk. Use phrases.

Hosek pointed out that in addition to general courses such as natural sciences, social sciences and foreign languages, there are many technical courses such as recitation, interpretation, hadith, jurisprudence, doctrine and ethics in the school, and he said that they had the opportunity to read.

Heusk said, “After World War II, there were only 10-15 students in the school for a while during the socialist process, but that number gradually increased after the 1970s. As far as we went after the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we had about 500 graduates.” 457 students the first semester of this year, and 120 of them will graduate this year.” He said.

Students from the former Yugoslavia studied at the school.

Zajimovic, an alumnus of Gazi Hüsrev Bey Madrasah, was born in 1969 and graduated from the school in 1988.

Zajemović continued:

My family members were members of the Socialist Party and therefore did not expect me to enroll in school. My six uncles were against me going to school, and my brother, my mother, and our neighbors met and suggested that I enroll in the military school, which was very popular at the time, but I made a firm decision to go to school and saw this school and this path myself.

Zajemović emphasized that he had been living in the same dormitory with almost all the students from the former Yugoslavia during his years at the school, and said that the school had a good advantage in this respect and that his contacts with his friends, with whom he studied, were not. I stopped even years later.

Zajemović continued:

We were the generation that pioneered and witnessed the “social changes” in the socialist system. After graduating from school, there were big changes both in Yugoslavia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. With the transition from the socialist system to the democratic system, the emergence of new political parties and the disintegration of social relations, Islam and Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and therefore those who have just graduated from school, began to feel the “freedom” that will affect our lives later. Thanks to this, many of us have received a university education both in BiH and abroad.

Zajemović said, “Since 1537, it has continued to provide education despite all circumstances, withstood in spite of all political regimes, and even emerged strong from the country’s last war, which shows how strong and important the school of Gazi Hüsrev Bey is.” He said.

Ghazi Husrev Bey built the school for his mother.

Gazi Husrev Bey, who was the flag bearer of the Ottoman Empire for 20 years in the first half of the 16th century in Bosnia and Herzegovina, played the most important role in the urbanization of Sarajevo, which was a modest town at that time, with mosque, school, library, clock tower, bazaar, inn and shops that built it.

It is mentioned in the documents in the archives of the Gazi Husrev Bey Foundation that the school was built by his son, Gazi Khosrev Bey, in memory of Seljuk Hatun, and that the school was first called “Seljuk”.

The school is also known as “Korsunlu School” among the people because of its lead roof.

At the door of the historic school, “This building was built for those who pray for knowledge and the love of God. Ghazi Khusraw, the defender of religion, is the source of goodwill and pride of justice.” Contains the text.

While Isakoglu Isa Bey, the first sanjak chief of the Ottoman Empire in Bosnia, was described as the “founder of Sarajevo”, Gazi Husrev Bey was recorded in historical records as the name that made Sarajevo a city and a trading center.

The madrasa, which is one of the most important works left by Gazi Husrev-bey in Sarajevo, still bears witness to history with its 486-year history.

AA