The project was supported by The Islamic Manuscript Association

The project Cataloguing Islamic Manuscripts from the Collection of the Bosniac Institute – Adil Zulfikarpasic Foundation in Sarajevo, which was implemented in 2015 and 2016 has been completed successfully. The aim of the project was the identification and cataloguing of uncatalogued Oriental and Islamic manuscripts from the collection of the Bosniac Institute. The project was supported by The Islamic Manuscript Association with £3.424, and it consisted of the identification and cataloguing of 247 works in 202 codices by codicology expert Mustafa Jahic, written in Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Bosnian in the fields of Islamic theology, mysticism, law, moral, lexicography, medicine, grammar, cosmology, etc.

The manuscripts are catalogued in accordance with standard methodology of catalogue processing, including metadata and descriptions of each individual work.

During the project, some rare or very significant works were identified, such as Iršād al-qāṣid ilā asnā al-maqāṣid  fī anwāʻ al-ʻulūm in Arabic on the classification of sciences which was written by  Šhamsuddīn Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm b. Ṣā‘id b. al-Akfānī al-Anṣārī al-Sinǧārī (died 749/1348), and also H̱arīda al-‘aǧā’ib wa-farīda al-ġarā’ib in Arabic on cosmology and geography, which was written by Šhamsuddīn Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm b. Ṣā‘id b. al-Akfānī al-Anṣārī al-Sinǧārī (died 749/1348), Futūḥ al-ġayb, on Islamic mysticism, which was written in Arabic by Šhayẖ ‘Abdulqādir b. Abū Ṣāliḥ b. ‘Alī b. Mūsā al-Ǧīlānī (al-Ǧīlī), who lived between 470/1077 and 561/1167, etc.

In addition, 168 manuscripts which were purchased from prominent individuals or Bosnian families of scholars and calligraphers were recorded, as well as over 20 names of donors who donated the manuscripts to the Bosniac Institute.

This project was part of a larger project which included the printing of a third volume of catalogues of Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Bosnian manuscripts, and the digitalisation of non-digitised manuscripts. Upon the completion of the project, the complete manuscript collection of the Institute of over 1000 codices will be available to the academic community in the form of a printed catalogue and in digital format.

Thanks to the mission of the Islamic Manuscript Association (http://www.islamicmanuscript.org/home.aspx) and its dedication to make Islamic manuscript legacy available for the requirements of research, learning and education, one part of what was until now an unknown treasure of manuscripts of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been revealed.