Commission for Cooperation between BiH and UNESCO will send a nomination of Manuscript Collection of the Gazi Husrev-bey’s Library and the Sarajevo Haggadah for registration in UNESCO / International Memory of the World Register, as concluded at the last meeting of the Commission.
The decision was made after UNESCO opened the call for nominations for registration in UNESCO / International Memory of the World Register in October 2015, which will be considered in the cycle 2016 – 2017, about which the entity ministries of culture and members of the Commission for UNESCO have been informed. In the given period, the Commission for UNESCO of BiH received two nominations, the manuscript collection of the Gazi Husrev-bey’s Library and the Sarajevo Haggadah.
The collection of manuscripts of the Gazi Husrev-bey’s Library contains 10,561 unique manuscripts, which are an integral part of about 20,000 major and minor works of Islamic Studies, oriental languages, beautiful literature, philosophy, logic, history, medicine, veterinary medicine, mathematics, astronomy and other sciences.
The oldest preserved manuscript in the collection dates from 1105. Many manuscripts are characterized by the outstanding calligraphy and diverse decorations. The manuscript collection of Gazi Husrev-bey’s Library represents 5% of the remaining total number of written documents of BiH from the Ottoman period, and it is considered as the most valuable collection of its kind in the region of Balkans today.
Commission to Preserve National Monuments in 2013 declared Mushav of Fadil Pasha Serifovic, which is an integral part of the manuscript collection, as movable national monument.
The Sarajevo Haggadah represents an extraordinary example of medieval Hebrew decorative arts. It is a manuscript written on parchment, with a number of extraordinary illustration and it is one of the most famous and beautiful Hebrew illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages in the world. Sarajevo Haggadah was created in the mid-14th century, in the northern part of Spain. In 1894, the National Museum of BiH bought the Haggadah from its then owner, family Koen. Haggadah was declared as movable national monument of BiH in 2003.
Memory of the World Register was established back in 1997 in order to preserve the documentary heritage of significance. So far a total of 348 items is recorded in the Registry, including documents, manuscripts and library, museum and archives materials or collections.
(Source: nap.ba)
