Ottoman archives fund
Archives Fund consists of two collections:
1. Collection of documents in Ottoman Turkish language
2. Collection of documents in Bosnian language
1.The collection of documents in Ottoman Turkish language contains documents issued by various local, provincial, and central authorities of the Ottoman rule. Currently, the fund holds a collection of 88 sijils (protocols) of the Sarajevo Sharia Court covering the periods of 1552-1565 and 1725-1852. These protocols are of special significance for studying of the political, cultural, and economic history of Sarajevo, as well as of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The protocols include valuable data on the Sarajevo citizens, their professions, and their material status. Since the protocols include data on books owned by some families from Sarajevo, conclusions can be made on their cultural level as well.
There is also a valuable collection of around 1.500 endowment charters kept in the fund. Out of this number, 421 are originals while the rest are certified copies. Endowment charters are precious sources for studying of the history and development of towns and religious, educational and economic buildings in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Endowment charters copies are rewritten into three books (charter protocols). In addition to endowment charters, there are also other documents like testaments, writs, advertisements, legal evidence papers etc.
Important part of archives fund is a collection of teaching licenses (Bosnian: Idžazetnama) which serve as a ground for studying of history of education of Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in the other educational centers of Ottoman Empire. A smaller number of teaching licenses is processed within this fund while majority of it is in the manuscripts fund. Teaching licenses have an exceptional artistic value.
A larger part of the fund is composed of various documents comprising 4.967 registered archive units with around 7.000 heterogeneous Ottoman documents such as firmans, ordinances, legal documents, fatwas, invoices, orders, petitions, decrees, testimonies, letters etc. The fund includes a great number of defters from Gazi Husrev-bey’s Endowment. All these documents represent an important source for studying of the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The archives fund also holds a collection of translations of archive materials that kadi Abdulah Polimac translated from Ottoman Turkish to Bosnian, for Gazi Husrev-bey Library.
2. In the collection of loose documents in Bosnian language, mostly presented are those that cover the period from Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the end of the Second World War. A smaller number of individual documents relate to the recent period.
This collection contains 1.051 registered archive units with a large number of individual documents. It also includes various official documents of some institutions and organizations such as the Office of El-Hidayah, than documents, translations, published and unpublished works, thematically organized notes, and working versions of materials of archive collection of Osman Asaf Sokolović, Dr. Muhamed Hadžijahić, a collection of archivals by Fejzulah ef. Hadžibajrić, as well as materials of some other prominent persons. Particularly significant contribution to collection of documents in Bosnian and Ottoman Turkish language gave Muhamed Enveri Kadić.
Within this collection, inventory books kept as of the time of Salih Sidki Hadžihusejnović Muvekkit are also processed, as well as Library’s archive documents, since they represent a historical overview of the work of Gazi Husrev-bey Library. They range from handwritten inventory books to modern digitalization.