In the history of the development of librarianship by the mid-20th century, librarians had to be able to use a specific style of writing. The “library cursiveˮ was a special style of writing developed and taught in schools for librarians. At a time when the catalogues completed manually, of exceptional significance was a “shared cursiveˮ for librarians.
The Gazi Husrev-Bey’s Library in Sarajevo is the first library, one of the oldest and most renowned for which Gazi Husrev-Bey secured funds and whose founding date is reliably established. Through the waqfnama (endowment) on his maddrasah, Gazi Husrev-Bey suggested that “the surplus left from the cost of constructing the maddrasah be used for buying good books for the maddrasah, to be used by readers and copied for those engaged in science.” Accordingly, we can ascertain that Gazi Husrev-Bey’s Library was established at the same time as the maddrasah—in 1537.
Today, the Gazi Husrev-Bey’s library is located in the heart of the Old Town, in Gazi Husrev-begova St, 46, where a new, representative building was constructed specifically for this purpose. On 15 January 2014, the opening ceremony of the new building was held, which was built and equipped with the financial support of the State of Qatar. The building is located next to the western wall of the Kuršumlija Maddrasah. In the end, the Library has returned to its original home, in the place of its founding and beginning, into the Gazi Husrev-Bey’s waqf complex.
The Gazi Husrev-Bey’s Library currently has about one hundred thousand library units (manuscripts, printed books, journals and various documents) in Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Bosnian and some other European languages. Of these, more than 10,500 library units are manuscript codices with about 20,000 major and minor works from Islamic sciences, oriental languages, fine literature, philosophy, logic, history, medicine, veterinary science, mathematics, astronomy and other sciences.
Working hours: Mon– Fri: 08:00 – 18:00hrs
Sat: 08:00 – 16:00 hrs
Address: Gazi Husrev-begova St. No. 46
Tel.: +387 33 238 152
E-mail: info@ghb.ba
Web: www.ghb.ba