Gazi Husrev Beg Madrasa: Ottoman masterpiece in Bosnia and Herzegovina, providing education for 5 centuries

SARAJEVO, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA - JANUARY 4: The historical Gazi Husrev Bey's Madrasa, one of the most prestigious high schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina, continues to serve in its 487th year of establishment as the oldest educational institution in the country. Anadolu Agency Video News (AAVN) on Thursday (Jan. 4) captured a historic madrasa founded by Gazi Husrev Beg, the grandson of Sultan II, Bayezid, on 8 January 1537 in the Bosnian capital city of Sarajevo. The madrasa, one of the most valuable Ottoman heritages in the historical Bascarsija, the heart of Sarajevo, provides uninterrupted education despite all the wars and difficulties it has gone through for five centuries. In the madrasa, built by stonemasons brought from the city of Dubrovnik in the south of Croatia, scientific lessons are given, as well as religious lessons. The madrasa, which has become the most established educational institution in the country, is among the primary preferences of Bosnian families because it teaches English, Arabic, and Turkish. Gazi Husrev Bey, who was the Ottoman sanjak governor for 20 years in the first half of the 16th century in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was one of the most influential figures in the urbanization of Sarajevo, which was a modest town at that time, with the mosques, madrasahs, libraries, clock towers, bazaars, inns and shops he built.(Footage by Nihad Ibrahimkadic/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)