The title engraved at the candlesticks of Kizlar-aga mosque at Mrkonjić Grad

Abstract

In this article a title engraved at the candlesticks of Kizlar-aga mosque at Mrkonjić Grad is presented in original and in original and in translation. This mosque is the only, till nowadays, preserved building of the rich waqf of Kizlar-aga Mustafa by the end of the XVIth century, who was the third figure, by rank, in the Imperial court at Istanbul. Being the imperial kizlar-aga (person entrusted with the organization of Sultan’s court) Mustafa-aga founded a rich waqf institution in his native village Gornja Kloka (now Mrkonjić Grad) in Bosnia, aiming at faster economic and cultural growth of that place. He bequeathed there the following institutions: mosque, mekteb (Muslim elementary school), Karavansaraj (with 20 rooms for overnight stay of travelers and traders), 24 shops, bakery, a certain number of books and 59.040 akches for the salaries of waqf employees and 615.060 for the circulation with 10% profit a year to be used for the meintenance of the buildings.

By imperial edict from the last decade of the month Safer 998 (30 XII 1589 - 5 I 1590) the village Gornja Kloka was declared as Kasaba - small town, with the title Novo Jajce (Yaytse Yenicesi, Yenice-i Yaytse or Yaytse-i cedid). A week market day was on Friday and for the settlers there tax benefits were provided. With waqfnama (whose transcription is kept in Gazi Husrev-beg Library in Sarajevo) and cadastral notebooks (photocopies of cadastral notebooks from Bašbakanlik Aršivi at Istanbul which are kept in Oriental Institute at Sarajevo), this title represents also a written source not only for this waqf but also for the candlesticks as the original and rare structures of the inventory of the one of the oldest and famous mosques.