SOCIAL WELFARE AND CHARITY INSTITUTIONS
OF GAZI HUSREV-BEY’S WAQF

Leafing through old magazines

Social welfare and charity institutions of Gazi Husrev-bey's waqf

Abdurahman Hukić

„... Gazi Husrev-bey's waqf was founded based on three vakufnamas (deeds of endowment): one from 1531 and two from 1537. Since its establishment until today, the following social welfare and charity institutions have been built and have been active:

1)     Musafirhana (free inn for visitors) and imaret (public soup kitchen);

2)     Caravanserai, later named Tašlihan;

3)     Hospital;

4)     Water-supply system;

5)     Public bath and

6)     Clock Tower.

Musafirhana and imaret

Even before Gazi Husrev-bey, there was a musafirhana in Sarajevo, which was commissioned by Isa-bey Ishaković as early as in 1461. It was situated at the present-day Bembaša. Isa-bey left a big estate for its maintenance, which can be seen from his vakufnama. The vakufnama says that the musafirhana is intended for travellers, even sejjids (descendants of Muhammed's grandsons), gazijas (military leaders) and other high-positioned people. His musafirhana worked for 250 years.

Without any doubt, musafirhanas and imarets have been the most distinguished of all charity institutions by their charity and social welfare meaning. Since, a musafirhana which provides free lodging for at least three days to poor visitors and the imaret, which offers food to travellers, pupils of religious schools and waqf officers were a form of active behavior aimed at bridging huge social differences in the environments they belonged to.

Gazi Husrev-bey musafirhana was built before 1531, since the vakfija (endowment letter) from the same year described it as a constructed building.

Both the musafirhana and the imaret were built on the west side of the Beg Mosque. Initially, the musafirhana and the imaret consisted of four rooms on the first floor with the porch, while the ground floor housed a stable for horses of riding travellers, the kitchen, storage, bakery, barn and other utility rooms.

The importance and significance of a musafirhana, i.e. the frequency and the number of visitors should be measured by its consumption of food supplies. In this respect, we should discuss here translations of Gazi Husrev-bey's vakufnamas by dr. Truhelka and F. Spaho. As a matter of fact, when translating the vakufnamas, both translate Arabic word 'kejl' as a kilogram, and the word 'okkijju' as an oka (1,283kg). According to these translations, the morning soup was supposed to be made of one kilo of cleaned rice with meat, and the evening soup of half a kilo. On Friday eve, a rice dish should be made of three kilos of rice and nine okas of butter-oil (sic.!), while zerde (sweet rice dish) was supposed to be made of one kilo of rice, three okas of butter-oil and twelve okas of pure honey.

Understandably, if the testament is translated in this way, one gets the impression that the musafirhana and the imaret provided services to several persons a day. However, completely different data are obtained if we understand the word 'kejl' as the Arabic word which refers to a measure of volume for corn of 10 to 12 kg (depending on customs of individual countries) while okkijja is only part of an oka.

In his “History of Bosnia” Muvekkit wrote the following about Gazi Husrev-bey musafirhana and imaret:

“In the musafirhana, always-travellers and devout poor people alternate, and they are accommodated there. Both them and their cattle are given supplies. There are never fewer of ten people there. They stay from a day to a year. The scheduled dishes were permanently and continuously cooked in the imaret. Besides the sixty officers of the Waqf, over sixty students and other people, for one hundred and seventy people, an oka of weigth consisting of four somuns (flat bread), plain bread, was distributed to each of them equally, every day. During the Ramadan everybody would get a ladle of rice pilaf and soup, and during Aid and every Friday, a ladle of zerde was added to the ladle of rice pilaf and soup. On other days, lunch consisted of a ladle of rice soup and dinner of a ladle of bean soup every day.”

Thus, the imaret and the musafirhana served several hundreds of people a day, and these data give a completely different dimension from what could be understood when words 'kejl' and 'okkija' are translated in a wrong way.

Another thing that we would like to point to is that most historians, including dr. Truhelka, wrote that the guests of the musafirhana were mostly the poor. However, the legator's text in the vakufnama indicates that the musafirhana provides lodging and the imaret food for better-off visitors as well: for scholars, even gentlemen. In addition, besides the guests of the musafirhana, the imaret provided food for pupils of Gazi Husrev-beg madrasa, officers of his Waqf, dervishes from Hanikah (monastery), poor people and others.

Gazi Husrev-bey's musafirhana hosted travellers for 300 years; however, during raisu-l-ulama Hilmija Hadžiomerović, in agreement with waqf committee, it was closed at the end of the last century. On its last days, the musafirhana was situated on the site of former pub “Aeroplan” (the corner of the Sarači and Gazi Husrev-beg streets).

It should be noted that Gazi Husrev-bey's vakufnama explicitly provided that the budget intended for the musafirhana and the imaret can be exceeded if the need arises.

The imaret was closed during the First World War (1915-1920).

The musafirhana and the imaret had management of their own. The imaret was headed by shaykhul-imare, and the institution employed about twenty workers and officers who performed various duties: from the procurement clerk to dishwasher.

The imaret prepared food primarily for the categories listed above, and what was left would be distributed to everybody who asked for it.

Caravanserai (Kjarban-saraj)

We included Gazi Husrev-bey caravanserai, better known under the name Tašlihan, into charity institutions relying only upon Elvija Čelebi, who referred to it as caravanserai, and it is well-known that historians included caravanserais into social welfare institutions, since lodging in caravanserais was free of charge. However, both Truhelka and Kreševljaković refer to it as an inn, i.e. a commercial institution; Kreševljaković also wrote about a sidžil (court record) no. 2 from 1566, which shows that the inn was rented for 30,000 akčas. Still, we decided to include it in this kind of institutions, which Muvekkit describes it as follows: “There are many Gazi Husrev-bey's charity institutions in Sarajevo, and many massive and big buildings ... One of the massive buildings of this waqf in the city of Sarajevo is an inn known under the name Tašli-han. It is an old inn covered with boards, and it was whole built of wood. There are about sixty rooms above his storages. It is a very massive and big caravanserai. A vaulted corridor (ćemer) was built leading from the rooms, but after the latest, Austrian occupation, these vaults on the upper floor were damaged and razed.”

Tašli-han was built along the west side of the still existing and renewed bezistan (domed market), on the site of the present garden of the Hotel “Evropa“. It had the upper floor, while the ground floor housed many shops and storages.

At a time, Bezistan and Tašlihan were the center of Bosnian trade, and the inn was always full of many travellers who needed loding and accomodation.

Tašlihan was damaged in 1697, during the invasion of Eugene of Savoy, and even more in a fire of 1879, after which it never recovered. Its remains were razed in 1912.

Hospital

Before tha Gazi Husrev-bey, or Waqf as people called it, Hospital, there are no data on the existence of any hospital in Bosnia and Herzegovina during Turkish rule. It was only upon the initiative of vali Topal Šerif Osman-pasha (1861-1869), that the mutevelija (manager) of Gazi Husrev-bey waqf, hadži Asim-beg, founded a hospital. Initially, it had over 30 beds, one doctor and one pharmacist. The hospital was opened on 8 October 1866. It had separate rooms for male and female patients. Patients were admitted to the hospital regardless of their religion, and mostly free of charge. The hospital was funded by the waqf.

In 1882 the hospital was taken over by the occupier's Land Government; however, the Waqf gave its subsidy to the hospital all until 1894. It means that Gazi Husrev-bey Hospital was supported out of its own income for 14 years, and for 12 years Gazi Husrev-bey's waqf donated funds to the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the hospital budget. The same, waqf, building also housed the National Hospital until 1894.

In his “History of Bosnia”, Muvekkit writes the following about the Waqf Hospital: “Besides, the poor would come to hospital, regardless of the religion, both men and women. Each patient was given the prepared clothes and bedding, and was treated. The necessary food was also given. There were never fewer than ten patients in it.”

Gazi Husrev-bey Hospital was best described by Gavro Vučković, a well-known political and public figure of the time, since he himself was treated in it, in June 1870.

In 1894, the hospital was turned into the Institute for Mental Patients and worked as such until the establishment of the Department for Nervous and Mental Diseases within the Land Hospital in Sarajevo.

Water-supply system

“To allow frequent ritual washing and face washing, Turks paid a great attention to clean drinking water, both in inhabited places and on roads...”, wrote dr. Risto Jeremić in his book „Prilozi istoriji zdravstvenih i medicinskih prilika Bosne i Hercegovine pod Turskom i Austrougarskom (Contributions to the history of healthcare and medical circumstance of Bosnia and Herzegovina during Turkish and Austro-Hungarian administration) (Belgrade, 1951, published by Naučna knjiga). Indeed, the connection between Islamic religion and cleanliness and ritual washing made Islamic peoples great promoters of water-supply systems. In this respect, a special credit goes to Arabs in Spain, and then to Persians, and Turks learned this skill from them. It is from Turks that we learned to build water-supply systems.

From the fall of the Bosnian Kingdom until the 16th century, many water-supply systems and fountains were built. All the water-supply systems and fountains were built upon the private initiative. It was only later that the state began to take care of it. The first water-supply system in Sarajevo was built in 1461, and the last one in 1866.

The natural position of Sarajevo, i.e. the configuration of the land surrounding it made it easier to organize the water-supply network, since water flew based on natural gravity and only rarely uphill, under its own pressure.

“Nobody among Sarajevo and Bosnian benefactors was equal to Gazi Husrev-bey in building water-supply systems”, wrote Hamdija Kreševljaković in his work “Vodovodi i gradnja vodovoda u starom Sarajevu” (Water-supply systems and their building in old Sarajevo). The following water-supply systems existed in Sarajevo before Gazi Husrev-bey and his system: Skender-pasha, Isa-bey, Ajas-bey and Firuz-bey.

Gazi Husrev-bey water-supply system is mentioned in his vakufnama drafted in December 1531. It was a system which led from Crnilo spring to the mosque and other Gazi Husrev-bey's endowments, and was 7 kilometer long. The system supplied the mosque shardivan, hanikah (dervish monastery), madrasa, imaret, musafirhana etc. Muvekkit wrote as follows about the Bey's water-supply system: “From a distance of one-hour walk from the city of Sarajevo, drinking water was brought to all charity institutions and distributed to all neighborhoods for people's needs, to twenty-one neighborhood, to flow from the spring of Crnilo.”

Over centuries, Gazi Husrev-bey's waqf took care of this water-supply system, which covered most part of the city. One does not need to explain what it meant to a city in the mid-16th century, the more so since after the fall of the Roman Empire water-supply systems were not actively built. The Middle Ages recorded no activities of the kind, except in Islamic countries.

It should be noted that Gazi Husrev-bey water-supply system in Sarajevo was mostly conducted through wooden shuttles, which required frequent repairs, and the Waqf spent great amounts of money for maintaining the system and its expansion.

From historical sources we learn that many people in our regions, including many women, founded endowments for water.

Bath

Adjustment of public life to Islamic requirements, particularly with respect to water, was prominent even before Gazi Husrev-bey, since three baths were built in Sarajevo even before 1521: Ajas-bey's, Firuz- bey's and Gazi Bali-bey's. However, same as Gazi Husrev-bey surpassed his predecessors in Sarajevo in everything else, he surpassed them in building a bath, which still exists in Titova Street in Sarajevo and which is without any doubt one of the most interesting buildings of the Turkish period in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It is not known when exactly it was built, but it makes sense that it happened after 1537, since the bath is not mentioned in any of the three preserved Gazi Husrev-bey's endowment letters.

The bath was covered with two big domes and several smaller ones, and symmetrically divided into two parts: one for male and one for female visitors.

A special feature of the bath was that rooms were distributed in such a way that temperature of the rooms increased sequentially as one entered and passed through the rooms, so that the visitor would be gradually exposed to a larger, warmer room. The bath had several boxes where visitors would take off and put on their clothes, and there was also a gallery with sofas for rest after bathing.

Describing the appearance of Gazi Husrev-bey hammam in the last century, Muvekkit wrote the following: “There is also a čifte hamam (public bath with warm water), a separate part for men and a separate part for women, and it is very high and massive.”

Bey Bath worked until 1914.

Clock Tower

Next to the former imaret, across the mosque, a clock tower was built to show the time to Sarajevo citizens. There are no reliable data on when it was built, but in recordings known so far it was first mentioned by Ćatib Čelebija, a Turkish geographer from the first half of the 17th century. He wrote that the clock tower had a bell.

A court record from 1139 Hijri year noted that the whole plain around the mosque burned down during the invasion of prince Eugene of Savoy, and that preparations were in progress for repairing the clock tower.

However, it was damaged again in the fire of 1831, and was repaired. During repairs of the clock tower before Austro-Hungarian occupation (in 1875), the present clock, purchased in England, was put on Gazi Husrev Bey Clock Tower, while the former, old clock was transferred to a wooden clock tower which was then situated in the neighborhood of Vratnik...

The complex of Gazi'- Husrev Bey's waqf

Sources:

• Abdurahman Hukić, “Socijalne i humanitarne ustanove Gazi Husrev-begova vakufa”, Anali Gazi Husrev-begove biblioteke, volume IX-X, Sarajevo, 1983, pp. 233 – 240.