Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Called “Begova Mosque” for short, this is Sarajevo's most important and most historic
Cost and Hours:
Outer courtyard-free; mosque-2 KM—buy ticket at little house to
the left as you enter courtyard; specific opening times vary depending on prayer schedule
and are posted at ticket office—generally May-Sept daily 9:00-12:00 & 14:30-16:00 &
17:30-19:00, Oct-April open sporadically, closed to visitors during Ramadan, Sara
č
i, tel.
033/532-144,
www.vakuf-gazi.ba
.
Visiting the Mosque:
Start in the outer courtyard. The
fountain
in the middle (with wa-
ter piped in from the mountains three miles away) is for washing before prayer. Around the
leftside,lookforthetwofreestanding
mausoleums
(youcan'tenterthem,butyoucanpeek
through the windows around the side). The larger one holds the remains of the mosque's
founder and namesake, Gazi Husrev-Bey (1480-1541;
bey
is an Ottoman aristocratic title,
like “Lord” or “Sir”). He was a governor of Bosnia who donated vast sums to improv-
ing Sarajevo (throughout the Old Town, look for plaques that say
Gazi Husrev-Begov-Vak-
uf
—marking his gifts to the city). The smaller mausoleum holds his assistant and secretary,
a highly educated Croat named Tardi
ć
who had been captured in a battle. He accepted Gazi
Husrev-Bey's offer of a job, a precondition of which was that he convert to Islam, and went
on to become the governor's most trusted advisor. The
cemetery
behind the mausoleums
hasgraves botholdandnew; oneofthe most recent holdsthe remains ofthe imam fromthe
destroyed mosque in Banja Luka, a Serb stronghold in northern Bosnia.
Now, let's go inside. Buy a ticket at the office and step into the mosque's
interior
(wo-
men must cover their heads, but visitors can keep their shoes on). You'll see many of the
remarkably spacious-feeling architecture. Many of the carpets are gifts from Muslim na-
tions and date from the Tito era. As an anchor of the non-aligned world, which included
many Muslim countries (in North Africa and the Middle East), Tito had particularly good
relations with Islamic leaders. The electric lighting—the world's first in a mosque—was
installed by the Habsburg rulers in 1898 (the same year they lit up Vienna's Schönbrunn
Palace), suggesting how deeply the Habsburgs respected the local Islamic faith. The be-
sieging Bosnian Serb forces in the 1990s didn't share this respect, and used the mosque's
minaret for target practice. Looking through the windows, you can see the walls are six feet
thick—which helped save it from utter destruction. The mosque was badly damaged, and
renovated in 1996 using funds largely from Saudi Arabia; the interior—while covered in
fine calligraphy—is still less ornately decorated than it once was.
