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Last updated:
Dec.19.2003.
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University of Sarajevo,
Bosnia-Herzegovina
The foundation of the city of Sarajevo was laid in the early 15th century, at the junction of Roman roads in an area inhabited since the Neolithic Age. It was a time of expansion of the Ottoman Empire over the Kingdom of Bosnia, a time of great social and cultural change.
Ishak Bey Ishakovic is regarded as the founder of Sarajevo - he was the first to build a mosque, a court, a bridge, and several public institutions - but the fact is that the city was established by native inhabitants of this region, Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), many of whom had by that time already converted to Islam, the religion that came to this part of the world with the Turkish army and the Turkish administration.
A rapid development of crafts and trade made Sarajevo a rich town, a crossroad of religions and cultures, trade routes, and all sorts of travellers. In the 16th century it was one of the most affluent cities in this part of the Balkans, and it was during this period that some of the monumental buildings were built which to this day represent masterpieces of the architecture and civilisation of that age.
A higher education institutions were also established under the legacy of Gazi Husref Bey, which in almost all its aspects mirrored the universities of other large cities in Europe. Sarajevo has been a cosmopolitan city ever since it was founded. It was a place of refuge and settlement of Jews expelled from Spain in the 15th century, who built their synagogues in the vicinity of Orthodox churches, Catholic cathedrals and Islamic mosques.
Although squeezed between mountains, Sarajevo has nevertheless found enough room, like no other European city, to accommodate all four of the largest world religions and their associated cultures and civilisations. They lived together for centuries, creating new values and one might say, a new multinational civilisation that endured all challenges of history, including the most recent one embodied in the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina and its capital, Sarajevo.
The arrival of the Austro-Hungarian administrations to this region promoted the integration of Sarajevo, a Middle-Eastern city up to then, into the late 19th century Western Europe. This was a time of an indelible impact on the city of West-European culture, economy, tradition, and other civilisational values. Modern factories were built, Western-types schools were opened, and the city was further enriched with buildings of a variety of West-European architectural styles. The National Museum, one of the most important cultural institutions in the Balkans, was opened during the Austro-Hungarian period.
The city was of little interest to the regime that was established under the
Karadjordjevic dynasty after the World War I, which was triggered after the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand
in Sarajevo. For Sarajevo, the period between two World Wars was a period of stagnation, and even of regression.
The period after the World War II was marked by the development of industry, the educational system, cultural and many other institutions which made Sarajevo a modern-day metropolis and the capital of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was the time of founding of the European-type University, the Opera, numerous museums and galleries, scientific institutes etc. By 1990, the city's population grew to over half a million. The world entrusted to such a cosmopolitan and modern city the organisation of the 14th Winter Olympic Games, held in 1984 and internationally praised as one of the most successful events in the history of the Olympic Games.
The social and political changes that took part in this part of Balkans in the late 1980's led to creation of an independent and sovereign state of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992. This was an irresistible temptation for the nationalistic and expansionist projects of the neighbouring countries which tried, each in their own way, to conquer parts of the newly-formed state.
This led towards a vicious military aggression on the whole country, especially Sarajevo, whose aims included annihilation of Bosniaks
and those high civilisational values which had been created in this region for centuries. The city of Sarajevo alone was under siege for three and half years and, as a result of the aggressor's continuous attacks, it suffered great destruction and killing of its citizens.
The aggressor did not achieve its goal in spite of a million of shells fired at the city. Sarajevo has preserved its precious values and its cosmopolitan character which makes it a unique European city.
The story of Sarajevo in the post-war period resembles the story of the Phoenix. The city is rising from the ashes and moving towards a bright future, while preserving its glorious past at the same time.
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