Transcribers of Oriental manuscripts from Gornji Vakuf

Abstract

During the Ottoman period (1463 – 1878) several hundred Oriental manuscripts transcribers were active in Bosnia. Some of them can be described as calligraphers. Most of them worked in urban centres such as Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Mostar and Travnik, but small towns also produced significant contributors to the field including Gornji Vakuf (Uskopje, Uskoplje). Considering the number of transcribers and the quality of their manuscripts one could even speak of the Gornji Vakuf school of manuscript copying.

This article presents transcribers from Gornji Vakuf, lists and describes their manuscripts available to the author, especially those from the Gazi Husrev Beg Library in Sarajevo.

Gornji Vakuf had more than 50 manuscript transcribers. Here twenty one of them have been selected for their importance while others have only been mentioned. Some of the transcribers had exquisite handwriting so that they may be ranked among calligraphers. These were: Sulejman ibn Ibrahim Had- žiabulić Uskopjevi, Sulejman ibn Muhammed, Muhammed Rušdi ibn Derviš Husejn Hadžiabulić, Abdullah ibn Salih, Šit-efendija Ruždić, et al. Sulejman ibn Ibrahim Hadžiabulić was a certified calligrapher. In calligraphy he was a student of Ismail Zihni Konjičanin, who had been a student of Hasan al-Vefai al-Misri, an Egyptian who died in Sarajevo. The earliest known transcribers from Gornji Vakuf was Husejn, a mu'allim, who copied Hasan Kafi Pruščak’s Hadiqa as-salat in 1605. Some Gornji Vakuf transcribers were active during the 19th century, too.