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Decisions on Designation of Properties as National Monuments

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60th session - Decisions

Hiseta (Mehdibeg) mosque, the site and remains of the architectural ensemble

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Status of monument -> National monument

            Pursuant to Article V para. 4 Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 39 para. 1 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, at a session held from 6 to 10 December 2003 the Commission adopted a

 

D E C I S I O N

 

I

 

            The site and remains of the mosque in Hiseta (Mehdi-beg mosque) in Hiseta, Banja Luka is hereby designated as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the National Monument).

            The National Monument consists of the mosque harem with nišan tombstones and the burial ground opposite the mosque.

            The National Monument is located on cadastral plot nos. 2601 and 2144 (new survey), corresponding to c.p. nos. 99/14 and 98/9 (old survey), c.m. Banja Luka VIII 13, Municipality Banja Luka, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

            The provisions relating to protection and rehabilitation measures set forth by the Law on the Implementation of the Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, established pursuant to Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of Republika Srpska no. 9/02) shall apply to the National Monument.

 

II

 

            The Government of Republika Srpska shall be responsible for ensuring and providing the legal, scientific, technical, administrative and financial measures necessary to protect, conserve, display and rehabilitate the National Monument.

            The Government of Republika Srpska shall be responsible for providing the resources for drawing up and implementing the necessary technical documentation for the rehabilitation of the National Monument, and for the actual rehabilitation.

            The Commission to Preserve National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the Commission) shall determine the technical requirements and secure the funds for preparing and setting up signboards with the basic data on the monument and the Decision to proclaim the property a National Monument.

 

III

           

            The following measures shall be implemented:

ـ       the mosque in Hiseta shall be rehabilitated on its original site, in its original form, of the same size, of the same or the same type of material and using the same building techniques wherever possible, based on documentation on its appearance in 1969, which is an integral part of this Decision;

ـ       the epigraphic material in the burial ground shall be documented, the harem set in order and damaged nišan tombtones and sarcophagi repaired;

ـ       the area of the mosque and harem shall be surrounded with a wooden fence as originally carried out using the principle of analogy.

 

IV

 

            All executive and area development planning acts not in accordance with the provisions of this Decision are hereby revoked.

 

V

 

            Everyone, and in particular the competent authorities of Republika Srpska, and urban and municipal authorities, shall refrain from any action that might damage the National Monument or jeopardize the preservation and rehabilitation thereof.

 

VI

 

            The Government of Republika Srpska, the Ministry responsible for regional planning in Republika Srpska and the heritage protection authority of Republika Srpska, and the Municipal Authorities in charge of urban planning and land registry affairs, shall be notified of this Decision in order to carry out the measures stipulated in Articles II to V of this Decision, and the Authorized Municipal Court shall be notified for the purposes of registration in the Land Register.

 

VII

 

            The elucidation and accompanying documentation form an integral part of this Decision, which may be viewed by interested parties on the premises or by accessing the website of the Commission (http://www.aneks8komisija.com.ba) 

 

VIII

 

            Pursuant to Art. V para 4 Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, decisions of the Commission are final.

 

IX

 

            This Decision shall enter into force on the date of its adoption and shall be published in the Official Gazette of BiH.

 

            This Decision has been adopted by the following members of the Commission: Zeynep Ahunbay, Amra Hadžimuhamedović, Dubravko Lovrenović,  Ljiljana Ševo and Tina Wik.

 

No: 07-6-1071/03-1

6 December 2003

Sarajevo

 

Chair of the Commission

Ljiljana Ševo

 

E l u c i d a t i o n

 

I – INTRODUCTION

 

            Pursuant to Article 2, paragraph 1 of the Law on the Implementation of the Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, established pursuant to Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a “National Monument” is an item of public property proclaimed by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments to be a National Monument pursuant to Articles V and VI of Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and property entered on the Provisional List of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of  BiH no. 33/02) until the Commission reaches a final decision on its status, as to which there is no time limit and regardless of whether a petition for the property in question has been submitted or not.

            The Commission received a petition from the Islamic Community of BiH, Majlis of Banja Luka, on 27 August 2002.

            Pursuant to the provisions of the law, the Commission proceeded to carry out the procedure for reaching a final decision to designate the Property as a National Monument, pursuant to Article V of Annex 8 and Article 35 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments.

 

II – PROCEDURE PRIOR TO DECISION

 

            In the procedure preceding the adoption of a final decision to proclaim the property a national monument, the following documentation was inspected:

ـ       Data on the current condition and use of the property, including a description and photographs, data of war damage, data on restoration or other works on the property, etc.;

ـ       The current condition of the property;

ـ       Documentation on the location and current owner and user of the property (Banja Luka Municipality: copy of cadastral plan and copy of land registry entry);

ـ       Historical, architectural and other documentary material on the property, as set out in the bibliography forming part of this Decision.

 

            The findings based on the review of the above documentation and the condition of the site are as follows:

 

1. Details of the property

Location

            The mosque in Hiseta is on the left bank of the Vrbas, half way between Donji and Gornji Šeher in Kozarska street in Banja Luka, and is owned by the Board of the Islamic Community of Banja Luka.

Historical data

            There is no reference to the Mehdi-beg mahala in the 1604 census of the Bosnian sandžak(1).    The mosque in Hiseta probably dated from the early 17th century, given that the name of the founder of the mosque is to be found in the vakuf-nama of Sefer-spahija dated 1618(2).

            The 1851 census of Banja Luka’s mahalas and houses refers to the Mehdibeg mahala, which at that time had 47 houses and whose inhabitants were liable to pay tax of 4230 groschen(3). In the 17th century Hiseta was densely populated(4).

            There is no other known information on Mehdi-beg in historical documentation.

 

2. Description of the property

            The mosque belongs to the type of single-space mosque with hipped roof and wooden minaret.  In 1983, Banja Luka had a total of eight mosques with wooden minarets, six in Donji Šeher and two in Novoselija. (Bećirbegović: 1999, pp. 125-126). 

            The Mehdibeg mosque (prayer space measuring 7.60 x 9.40 m), along with the Seferbeg mosque (prayer space measuring 7.20 x 8.00 m) and the Hajji Osman mosque (prayer space measuring 7.30 x 7.30 m) and the Salihija mosque, form a group of mosques with wooden minarets where the central prayer space was larger than usual (Bećirbegović: 1999, pp. 125-126). The mosque in Hiseta was the largest mosque with a wooden minaret in Banja Luka. According to the geodetic map(5), its exterior dimensions were approx. 8.90 x 15.00 meters. The interior prayer space, according to information in other available written sources, measured 920 cm long x 740 cm wide x 440 cm high(6). 

            The sofas outside the building were walled in after World War II(7).

            There were two rows of windows on the walls of the central area of the mosque, and one window on each of the side walls of the sofas, extending in height over two storeys. The windows were rectangular and left plain. The ground floor windows were protected by vertical slats on the outside.

            In terms of layout, the ground plan includes a deep front mahfil(8) (3.60 m deep, whereas in other mosques with wooden minarets in Banja Luka the depth ranges from 1.2 to 2.7 metres)(9). The mahfil rested on two rows of wooden pillars (four in each row, approx. 115-120 cm apart)(10), had no projecting area for the muezzin, and stood along the north-west wall of the building above the entrance.

            The mosque was whitewashed inside and out, and the walls, to judge from the drawing available(11), were approx. 75 cm thick.

            The hipped roof was of wooden construction clad with double-overlap plain tiles(12), with the ridges clad with ridge tiles, and guttering on the eaves. The floor construction was of wooden joists.  An available photograph(13) of the interior of the mosque shows the -“okagača”(14) beam beneath the ceiling joists of the ceiling of the central space, aligned with the entrance and mimber(15).

            The building had a particularly handsomely-worked stone(16) mihrab with four rows of true, precisely executed stalactites and an arcaded frieze with five vertical grooves and a decorative pommel at the top. The crown part of the mihrab was decorated with stylized foliate and floral motifs.  An ayat from the Qur’an was incised in the central area of the crown of the mihrab. To the right of the mihrab, set by the south-west wall, was the wooden mimber, which was of more simple workmanship with a baldaquin, nine steps and passage. The crown area of the mimber was decoratively treated, carved with an ayat from the Qur’an. The entrance had a pointed arch. The appearance of the sides of the stair rail and of the sides of the mimber was articulated by simple straight-line geometric forms(17).  The canopy above the podium of the mimber rested on four pillars. The cap of the mimber was cubic in shape.

            The minaret was wooden, emerging from the roof, and had a covered šerefe, the alem (finial) had two pommels(18). The minaret had very small apertures on the šerefe (so-called “blind” minaret) (Bećirbegović: 1999, p. 126). According to written sources, almost all wooden minarets in Banja Luka were octagonal, and about 8 m high from the floor of the attic area to the alem of the minaret. The šerefe was somewhat wider (approx. 10cm), and all the minarets were plain and unadorned (Bećirbegović: 1999, p. 126).

            The rough dimensions of the façade of the building can be ascertained from an available sketch(19). The height from ground level to the eaves on the north-west was approx. 4.85 m, the roof ridge approx. 9 m, and to the alem of the minaret approx. 15.20 m. The roof pitch was approx. 40 deg, the width of the body of the minaret approx 175 cm and of the gallery approx. 205 cm, and the height from the flooring of the ceiling construction of the mosque to the alem of the minaret approx 10 m.

            The minaret was altered on a number of occasions. After World War II the wooden minaret was clad with sheet metal, and after the 1969 earthquake a concrete minaret was erected.

            A harem soon grew up around the mosque, with a large number of nišan tombstones of different dates and varying value.

            The oldest nišans can be dated to the same time as the mosque itself; many of them are damaged and sunken into the ground. The oldest of them are the type of nišan with a turban made of softer local stone. The transition from square to circular cross section is achieved via a “creased” frieze(20). There were five damaged stone sarcophagi in the harem, “armour” with nišans, that can be dated to the 17th century.  The height of the nišans was usually up to 1.50 m, in the case of those set on a sarcophagus. Various types of stone were used, including the frequent use of bihacite from Bihać (Mujezinović, 1998, p.)

            During on site inspections in March and November 2003 only one grave with nišans on a sarcophagus was recorded. The sarcophagus measures 80 cm wide x 190 cm long x 85 cm high, with the covering slab, approx. 12 cm thick, overlapping the vertical face of the body of the sarcophagus by approx.10-15 cm. The stone pedestal and covering slab of the sarcophagus are worked with horizontal geometric mouldings; the nišan is fitted into the covering slab at an angle (inclined to the north-west) of approx.10-15 deg. off the vertical; the nišan is about 88 cm high measured from the covering slab, has a turban of softer local stone, and the transition from the square to the circular cross section is achieved via a “creased” frieze.

            In the burial ground on the other side of Kozarska street (c.p. 2144, c.m. Banja Luka VIII-13 new survey, equivalent to c.p. 98/9 old survey) there are about ten nišans dating from various periods, of different types and decorative treatment. Nišans made of the softer bihacite stone are worked with mouldings and a richer finish in the shape of geometric mouldings, while those of local stone are of more austere form and plainer decorations(21).

 

3. Legal status to date

            The building was not subject to protection nor entered in the Register of Monuments.

 

4. Research and conservation and restoration works

            No research or conservation works have been carried out.

            Interventions to the building have been carried out by the congregation.

            The sofas outside the building were walled in using brick after World War II.

            After World War II the wooden minaret was clad with sheet metal, and after the 1969 earthquake a concrete minaret was erected.

 

3. Current condition of the property

            The building was dynamited and destroyed on 4 July 1993(22)  and the site was partly cleared.

            The nišan tombstones in the harem are in poor condition, damaged and sunken into the ground.

            During the on site visit in November 2003, it was ascertained that the concrete foundations of a new building had been laid (exterior dimensions approx. 9 x 15 m, thickness of foundation walls approx. 35 cm, height of base slab approx. 80 cm). An interior foundation wall had also been erected about 380 cm from the north-west entrance wall. On top of the foundation walls reinforced concrete ring beams had been laid, and vertical reinforcements left for more ring beams, placed at the junctions of the foundation walls and between these junctions, leading to the conclusion that the plan is to erect a building with vertical reinforced concrete ring beams.

            The harem plot to the south-west of the mosque is fenced off with a chain-link fence mounted on prefabricated concrete posts.

 

III - CONCLUSION

           

            Applying the Criteria for the adoption of a decision on proclaiming an item of property a national monument (Official Gazette of BiH nos. 33/02 and 15/03), the Commission has enacted the Decision cited above.

            The Decision is based on the following criteria.

A.         Time frame

B.         Historical value

E.         Symbolic value

E.ii.      religious value

E.v.      significance for the identity of a group of people

 

            The following documents form an integral part of this Decision:

ـ       Copy of cadastral plan

ـ       Copy of land register entry and proof of title;

ـ       Photodocumentation;

ـ       Drawings

 

Bibliography

            During the procedure to designate the site and remains of the Hiseta mosque in Banja Luka as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina the following works were consulted:

 

Banja Luka, Town plan, Documentation, Historic development and heritage, Cultural and historical heritage, Town planning institute of Banja Luka, 1975

 

Bećirbegović, Madžida, Džamije s drvenom munarom u Bosni i Hercegovini (Mosques with wooden minarets in BiH) 2nd ed, Sarajevo, 1999

 

Bejtić, Alija, "Banja Luka pod turskom vladavinom", "Arhitektura i teritorijalni razvitak grada u 16. i 17. vijeku", (Banja Luka under Turkish rule, Architecture and territorial development of the town in the 16th and 17th centuries), Naše starine I (Annual of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of SR BiH), Sarajevo, 1953

 

General census of the Bosnian sandžak for 1604, Vol. III (Original title: Defter-i-mufassal-i liva-i Bosna cild salis, Ankara, Tapu Kadastro, Kuyûd-1 Kadîme Arşivi TD 479), Sarajevo: Bosniac Institute Zűrich, Sarajevo Branch: Oriental Institute, 2000

 

Husedžinović, Sabira, Vakufname – značajni istorijski izvori za upoznavanje urbane topografije Banjaluke XVI-XIX vijeka (Vakufnamas – important historical sources for determining the urban topography of Banja Luka in the 16th-19th centuries), Journal of the Archives and Archivists’ Society of BiH, vol. 30,

 

Husedžinović, Sabira, study of the harem of the Hiseta mosque drawn up for the Commission to Preserve National Monuments on the basis of the material in the m/s of the unpublished work: «Dokumenti opstanka, džamije in Banja Luka» (Documents on the survival of the mosque in Banja Luka), 2003

 

Mujezinović, Mehmed, Islamska epigrafika Bosne i Hercegovina, kn. 2, Istočna i centralna Bosna, (Islamic epigraphics of BiH, vol. 2, eastern and central  Bosnia), 3rd ed, Sarajevo, 1998

 

Architectural documentation originating from prior to 1995 (source: drawings from Dr Sabira Husedžinović)

 

Report by the Banja Luka Mufti’s office on the condition of the Islamic Community, religious and cultural buildings and vakuf property, Banja Luka, April 2000

 

(1) General census of the Bosnian sandžak for 1604, Vol. III (Original title: Defter-i-mufassal-i liva-i Bosna cild salis, Ankara, Tapu Kadastro, Kuyûd-1 Kadîme Arşivi TD 479), Sarajevo: Bosniac Institute Zűrich, Sarajevo Branch: Oriental Institute, 2000

(2) As well as the most important vakufnamas (of Sofi Mehmed-pasha and Ferhad-pasha Sokolović), which are evidence of building activity in Banja Luka during the period of the Bosnian pashaluk, there are also a certain number of vakufnamas relating to buildings erected in Banja Luka from the 17th to the 20th century.  One of the witnesses who signed Sefer-spahija’s 1618 vakufnama (original in the Collection of oriental ms, Manus scripta turcica” no 4464, Oriental Institute, Sarajevo) was Mehdi-beg, who was probably the vakif of the eponymous mosque in Hiseta (Husedžinović: 1990, pp. 95-115).

(3) data from document (doc.no. 139, folio 6a) in the State Archives in Sarajevo (Bejtić: 1953, p. 115)

(4) “There survives to this day a tradition in Banja Luka that in one mosque in Hiseta, of which the mihrab was still visible until recently, as many as seventy lanterns would come to ‘isha prayers [night prayer], which would also indicate that the quarter was indeed once well populated.” (Bejtić: 1953, str. 91)

(5) details of exterior dimensions of the Mehdi-beg mosque taken from map (Republika Srpska Geodetics Institute, cadastral municipality Banja Luka VIII-13, sheet 127, scale 1:1000, 1978)

(6) details from drawing taken from Banja Luka, Town plan, Documentation, Historic development and heritage, Cultural and historical heritage, Town planning institute of Banja Luka, 1975

(7) the fact that the exterior sofa area was walled in is indirectly confirmed by a description of the portal of the entrance door: “…The Mehdi-beg and Sefer-beg mosques have portals with pronounced frames and high arches, as in the Ferhadija mosque.” (Bećirbegović: 1999, p. 126)

(8) all Bosnia’s mosques with wooden minarets can be allotted to one of several groups depending on the positioning of the mahfil:

ـ       mosques with no mahfil

ـ       mosques with the mahfil along a single wall – front mahfil

ـ       mosques with the mahfil along two walls

ـ       mosques with the mahfil along three walls

ـ       mosques with the mahfil in the attic, and

ـ       mosques with two-storey mahfils.

Two subgroups can be differentiated in the large group of mosques with front mahfil: one group with a front mahfil of average or normal depth covering ¼ to 1/3, and the other with a deep mahfil covering 1/3 to 2/3 of the prayer space (Bećirbegović, 1999, pp. 58-63)

(9) Bećirbegović: 1999, p. 125

(10) from drawing in Banja Luka, Town plan, Documentation, Historic development and heritage, Cultural and historical heritage, Town planning institute of Banja Luka, 1975

(11) as n. 7

(12) an available photograph shows that the rows of tiles were very closely fixed (source: documentation of Dr Sabira Husedžinović)

(13) (source: photograph from documentation of Dr Sabira Husedžinović)

(14) a beam set perpendicularly to the direction of the ceiling joists and serving to take part of the load; usually set in the centre of the load-bearing span of the ceiling joists.

(15) Two conclusions may be drawn from the position of the “okagača” beam:

1) that the joists of the ceiling of the central area were laid across the shorter span

2) that the construction of the roof frame used the post system

(16) “…The use of stone when building Banja Luka’s mosques made it possible to execute more precise stalactite decorations.” (Bećirbegović: 1999, p. 154)

(17) achieved by laying darker-painted boards over a background painted in lighter colour

(18) (source: photograph from documentation of Dr Sabira Husedžinović)

(19) from drawing in Banja Luka, Town plan, Documentation, Historic development and heritage, Cultural and historical heritage, Town planning institute of Banja Luka, 1975

(20) a frieze with decorative geometric forms of linked irregular tetrahedrons; the tops of the tetrahedrons touch the lower edge of the frieze (line linking the frieze with the square form) and the upper edge of the frieze (line linking the frieze with the cylindrical form) at N points (the number of these points on the upper and lower edges of the frieze is equal; in the case of this nišan N=8.

(21) From photograph taken on site on  28.11.2003

(22) Report by the Banja Luka Mufti’s office on the condition of the Islamic Community, religious and cultural buildings and vakuf property, Banja Luka, April 2000, p. 27

 



   


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