The Chronicle of Muhammed Enveri Kadić
The Chronicle of Muhammed Enveri Kadić is a monumental manuscript work whose autograph, preserved under the shelf mark R‑7301/7328, is held in the collections of the Gazi Husrev-bey Library in Sarajevo. The author of this remarkable chronicle is Muhammed Enveri Kadić (1855–1931), a Sarajevo-based chronicler, historian, poet, and bibliophile. Also known as Tārīḫ‑i Enverī, the Chronicle comprises a vast compilation of documents that trace the history of Bosnia from 1364 to 1928.
Kadić entered state service in 1870, during which he held a number of positions, including clerk, recorder, judge, and chief scribe at the Supreme Sharia Court. Alongside his official duties, he was deeply involved in archival and library work. Produced over a period of more than six decades, his extensive compilation spans 28 volumes and represents an invaluable repository of historical data on Bosnia and Herzegovina. The importance of the Chronicle lies not only in its extraordinary scope, but also in the exceptional value of the primary historical documents it preserves, which secure it a prominent place in Bosnian historiography. Beyond its significance as a key source for the history of Bosnia, the Chronicle offers crucial insights into the administrative, military, political, socio-economic, and socio-cultural history of the Balkans during the Ottoman period, illuminating the fundamental operational dynamics of the Ottoman imperial system in the region.
The contents of this impressive work include copies of numerous documents—such as fermans, berats, buyuruldus, waqf deeds, wills, and others—as well as transcripts or excerpts from travelogues, chronicles, court records, miscellanies, divans, and related texts. Additionally, it preserves verses by Bosniak poets in Oriental languages, inscriptions from mosques, madrasas, and other edifices, and chronograms from tombstones, including 115 composed by Kadić himself, together with a wide array of other relevant historical data.
The Chronicle is arranged chronologically across 28 volumes, comprising nearly 11,000 pages. The earliest document recorded refers to the Battle of Sırpsındığı (modern Sarayakpınar), fought in 766 AH / 1364–1365 between the Ottoman Sultan Murad I and the allied forces of Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia, and Wallachia. The concluding entry, dated 1346 AH / 1928, consists of a note on individuals who passed away in Sarajevo during that year.
As part of the project entitled “Preparation for the Publication of the Chronicle of Muhammed Enveri Kadić, Creation of Regesta in Turkish and Bosnian, and Publication,” conducted jointly by the Turkish Historical Society (Türk Tarih Kurumu) and the Gazi Husrev-bey Library in Sarajevo between 2021 and 2026, a total of 11,196 images contained within the 28 volumes were summarized, systematically indexed,incorporating data such as place names and personal names, and translated into Bosnian.
The database created as a result of this project was presented to the public on 10 April 2026 and is accessible via specially developed web platform at the following link.
