A new building housing the Gazi Husrev-Beg Library, a collection of more than 100,000 mainly Arabic and Turkish texts, has opened in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The library was founded in 1537 by Gazi Husrev-beg, a provincial governor of Bosnia under Ottoman rule, who also financed many buildings in Sarajevo's old city. The location of the collection was moved many times throughout its history; during Bosnia's war of the 1990s, the collection was housed in eight different locations. The newly built library was funded by donations from Qatar. (Photos by Midhat Poturović, RFE/RL's Balkan Service)
Historic Islamic Library Reopens In Sarajevo
![The facade of the new building of the Gazi Husrev-Beg Library in Sarajevo](https://gdb.rferl.org/d3c7134f-866a-4977-a2e1-845ad7a947ea_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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The facade of the new building of the Gazi Husrev-Beg Library in Sarajevo
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![Dignitaries from Qatar attended the opening. Qatari donors provided some $8.8 million to finance the construction of the new library.](https://gdb.rferl.org/da57ddba-3979-4b17-b841-7d57fe4a3565_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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Dignitaries from Qatar attended the opening. Qatari donors provided some $8.8 million to finance the construction of the new library.
![Bosnian schoolchildren attend the opening ceremony.](https://gdb.rferl.org/80cabbd9-c9e0-43ed-8ab8-c7d57160bbf8_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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Bosnian schoolchildren attend the opening ceremony.
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![Bakir Iyetbegovic (left), the Bosniak member of Bosnia-Herzegovina's tripartite presidency, alongside a Qatari official](https://gdb.rferl.org/a048ee96-e9cc-4d90-9825-54614895fed3_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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Bakir Iyetbegovic (left), the Bosniak member of Bosnia-Herzegovina's tripartite presidency, alongside a Qatari official
![The library houses more than 100,000 items. The oldest is an Arabic-language manuscript dating to the beginning of the 12th century.](https://gdb.rferl.org/42878cf4-f32c-4235-a923-eb1565a232ce_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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The library houses more than 100,000 items. The oldest is an Arabic-language manuscript dating to the beginning of the 12th century.
![](https://gdb.rferl.org/8f47b72f-f619-4183-ad43-e42348421314_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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