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170 SMAIL sn~~ClThe Cultural Achievements of Bosnian Muslims Hydraulic Architecture Architecturally, the most valuable fountains, watering-places, stations for drinking-water (sabil) and public baths came into being in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The first Turkish aqueducts were built at that time also. Many of the fountains have beautiful ornamental and figure decoration (such as representations of flowers). On the wall surfaces of these objects, Arabic ornamental script is usually engraved, giving information about donors and the years in which they were built. Only in those fountains found in sacred buildings - shadrewan or Sadman - and in public baths do we find round, square, octagonal, or hexagonal basins, in which the water level is raised to about one meter above the earth. Along the outside of the encircling walls which frame the building, several watertaps are arranged in a row. In the centre there are usually stone cups on flowers from which the water bubbles forth and rushes down to the lower level. Most of the shadrewans are roofed and surrounded by ornamented stone columns. The sabils, which have now entirely disappeared, were small drinkingwater stations near the market-places, directed by an official, and they provided the populace with good drinking-water. The last sabil in Sarajevo, a square, domed building erected by Mehmed Pasha Kukavica in 1775, was destroyed in the year 1891. In addition to numerous aqueducts'and a swimming-pool in Sarajevo, the old Bosnians left behind some fifty-six public baths (hamwm). The most beautiful of these were: the Gh&i Khusrew Beg bath (built in 1557), the two largest baths of Mostar, and the baths of Stolac, PoEitelj, and Blagaj in Herzegovina. The Gh%i 'TSP Beg bath in Sarajevo, built by the founder of the mosque and rnadrasahs in ~skiib (Sk~pje),~ is still standing. The interior paneling of these baths consisted of lovely woodcarvings. In the centre of the reception rooms there were gaily splashing fountains. In the sixteenth century Sarajevo had seven public baths, and the institutionwas not lacking even in smaller towns, such as Kladanj, Praea, Rudo, Kostajnica, and Jasenovac. Medicinal springs in Kiseljak and Ilidia, near Sarajevo, and other places, were carefully maintained and used extensively. Public lavatories were also known, two existing in Sarajevo and two in Banjaluka (sixteenth century). BOSNIAN TOWN-PLANNING The development of Bosnian towns is closely connected with the building of Muslim religious establishments (awk2jj. Most towns were founded in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when the building activity springing from religious motives was at its peak. The Croatian historian, Hamdija KreSevljakoviC was able to prove that a large number of these religious establishments were donated by the simple faithful, who literally earned their bread by the sweat of their brow.73 Finally, we might note that in this era the Ottoman Empire had reached its zenith, and for almost fifty-two consecutive years Bosniaks had held the important office of grand vizier in Istanbul.
Islamic Studies 3 6 : 2, 3 ( 1 9 9 7) 171 Two essential characteristics of Bosnian city-planning are the choice of site and the ingenious placement of objects. In order to provide the building sites with a pleasant view, the houses were either built, terrace-like, above one another, or, in rigorous observation of social considerations, separated from one another by gardens and vacant areas. For reasons of both sanitation and aesthetics, building near running water was preferred. Because of the strong ritual emphasis on cleanliness in Islam, Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, got its first water system as early as 1461; it was a pious donation by 'is% b. IshakoviC (d. 1469). In the later half of the sixteenth century a number of smaller Bosnian villages and towns such as Banjaluka, FoEa, Livno, Mostar, and Travnik already had water systems and public fountains. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the paved streets of the business quarters (car@) of several Bosnian towns, which were constructed with a slope, were washed almost daily by means of diverted waters of a river canal or brook which were made to flow down them.74 On the whole, the aesthetic achievement is impressive. In the ancient vizier-city of Travnik, for example, water flows through nearly every courtyard. Everywhere one hears the splashing, and senses the freshness of nature. A general tendency to extend the green of nature into the dwelling is evident and, thus, most of the older Bosnian cities are characteristically gardenlike." Architects The outstanding architecvs of the Ottoman period were: Khayr al-Din, builder of the old bridges in Mostar; Mehmed, architect of the Ghai Khusrew Beg Mosque in Sarajevo; Ramadm Agha, architect of the Alaja Mosque in FoEa; NajjFr H2jj Ibr2him and Siniin al-Bosnawi, all of the sixteenth century. In the eighteenth century there were two architects of Greek-Orthodox faith, StaniSa and Tanasije, who also designed buildings consecrated to Islam, and K. JireEek reports the occasional engaging of Italian architects to work in Bosnia.76 Juraj Neidhardt, the leading architect in Bosnia today, characterizes Bosnian culture in architecture as follows: "The basic principles of Bosnian architecture are in accord with modem prerequisites: its foremost principle is humanity. The other principles are derived therefrom: a way of building conforming to the scale of Man, a close relationship to Nature, a logical disposition in urban texture and a clear differentiation of its component parts according to their individual function" .n CONCLUSION Understood in a religious light, the Ottoman- and Post-Ottoman period left a deep impact on the spirit, mind, and external cultural profile of the Bosniaks, an impact expressed in literature, art, and historical development. On the whole, Islam served as a major factor in shaping the intellectual outlook of the Bosnian Muslims. They, however, adopted the Hanafi school of thought which is, relatively speaking, a school of free-thinking people (ashab al- ra 'y) .
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