Crafts of Sarajevo (tools for supporting culture)

Borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina that is mainly mountainous country are

dominated by massif of Dinaric Alps on the west, rivers round up this region,
Sava and Una on the north, Drina to the east and Montenegro plateau on the
south. In the countryside there are great numbers of rivers that run to the
tick forests up to the Herzegovina where river Neretva goes through stone
landscape up to the Adriatic Sea.

This area is through history inhabited by Illyrians, people of Indo European

origin. Roman conquest did not pass this country; most of the area is
conquered in beginning of 9th AD. It can be said that cultural influences of
Rome did not made bigger significance in inner parts of the county. After the
fall of Rome numerous invaders raided the country, firstly Avars, Goths an
then Slavs. Slavs settled on this area in mid 6th century AD, Slavs are
considered as significant and dominant group in this region.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is geographically set between two large groups,

Croats on west under influence of Carolingian empire and Roman Catholic
Church and Serbs with relations to Byzantine Empire and Eastern Orthodox
Church. These two groups, beside its common Slavic origins are developing in
different cultural, artistic and religious forms. Although this population is
considered linguistically and ethnically Slavic, mixtures and conversions that
have taken place over period of time are created ethnical coherent but
culturally diverse population.

In middle age, Bosnia is connected more to Croatia and Herzegovina is

dominated by Kingdom of Serbia. Bosnia in 1180 becomes an independent
country, a kingdom under Ban Kulin. Expanded over the two centuries, Bosnia
becomes the most powerful state in Western Balkans and due to its rich
mines enjoys relative prosperity. Significant aspect of Bosnian medieval
history is the nature of indigenous Bosnian church, much influenced by
Bulgarian Bogomil sect with dualist beliefs. This church and Bosnia is accused
from Vatican for heresy. In this time culture flourished in Bosnia, in areas of
manuscript, illumination and metal works. Legendary and original symbol of
Bosnia in that time is onumentally decorated tombstone, called Stećak.

With Turkish conquest of the region Islam has introduced as a new religion, it
is viewed as reliable religious and social system for majority of population.
Long after Ottoman conquests Muslims remained a minority in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. During Ottoman rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina rich cultural
heritage developed even more, and become enriched in its oriental
component. Arrival of Jews in Balkans form Spain in 1490th made also a
significant contribution to culture and history of Bosnia. Under 400 year
Turkish rule Bosnia was bordering with Western Europe, a capital of Sarajevo
was second largest city in large Turkish Empire. Culture flourished with
development and mix of Islamic, Catholic, Orthodox and Sephardic cultures.

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Old crafts in Sarajevo

Today’s Bosnia and Herzegovina is an image of it the past; arts and crafts are
embedded in modern culture from past times. In capital of Sarajevo there is
Centre of old crafts, located in old city core ambient that is certainly a part of
this old crafts tradition. Organized development of crafts in Sarajevo dates
with arrival of Ottoman Turks, in 15th century and with rise up of Sarajevo as
large urban settlement. This first emergence of crafts started to expand with
military needs and with development of construction in new buildings. With
development of town also grew the need for utilization of crafts, before all in
warfare, construction works, households and jewelry.

Some written records are mentioning crafts in the 1490th as notes in

cadastral records, understandably this crafts are connected with army needs.
Crafts as black smith, sward makers, footwear makers, leather workers and
wool carders are ones most common ones. In the period to come this number
has doubled in scale and in new crafts including locksmiths, carpenters, wood
carvers, cooks, blanket makers, coppersmiths and so on.

In 17th century with the needs of market and new improved innovations in
technology appearance of new crafts is also in increase, clock repairs, brush
makers, quilt making and tailors are one of the most present. In period to
come gods are produced in large quantities by leather workers, copper
smiths, silk makers and black smiths. In some crafts there is peek of
aesthetic value and high level of detail reached, some of this products are
valued through out whole empire and well known in region. Specifically works
of copper smiths and filigree workers in gold and silver and leather works are
exported in distant countries.

In old part of Sarajevo every group of crafts had its own street, named by a
dominant craft or similar. These streets have these names even today, and
these shops can be found in their purpose named streets. The leather
workers are located in the street still known by the name of their craft,
Saraći.

In the Ottoman period in Sarajevo crafts were a main branch of commercial

activities in old part of town, they provided a living material for majority of
urban population. In Austro Hungarian period crafts had difficult position,
stagnation was present as well as lack of means to continue works as
introduction of new modern technology in production of industrial items
appears. Opening of roads and continuing trends in fashion change, lifestyle
and clothing lead to direct disappearance of crafts. Many of the crafts
adapted to modern times, modernization helped them to survive in some
way. New crafts are emerged and make synergies with the old ones like in
shoe making, tailoring, and mechanics of all kind.

With the continued development of market, modernization trends during the

twentieth century, certain crafts vanished in total, while those that survived

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had to adapt their way of working to the times and the demands of the
market. There are a significant number of old craftsmen in Baščaršija area
who despite all have succeeded in maintaining their traditional appearance
and offering their goods.

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Today in Baščaršija is not possible to find all of the old crafts present in their
historic places of origin, in museum are displayed some number of exhibits
that present art of the craftsmen and good hand made works from past.
Many of the old crafts are vanished or in a good way to be just a part of the
recent history. In exhibits is possible to find dishes, caps, brushes and wood
work. Tinsmith works, peddlers, knitting and calligraphy are also present,
with cloth makers and slipper makers. This exhibition is dedicated to all the
people that still today are working on traditional way in Baščaršija and their
crafts are still not vanished entirely. Majority of exhibition material in
museum of Bursa Bezistan is actually the old crafts exhibits cause these
works are the first ones that made Baščaršija, and made it interesting to the
years to come.

Efforts are to save old crafts and to still appreciate hand made products, it is
difficult to combine today, so exhibits and public awareness to “keep alive”
old traditions are necessary to make all this time actual. Today some of old
crafts are completely disappearing from Baščaršija, like blacksmiths and
haberdashers, like rope making and brush making are preserved just by one
or two persons in total. A reason to this situation is absence of schools to
educate generations for this calling, and in mass industrial production of
goods.

Crafts - keepers of Bašcaršija traditions

Every mention of Sarajevo, without saying means an old Baščaršija. Crafts as
building are the symbols of this town, its multi cultural environment and
coexistence. Crafts, craftsman and their products as real works of art are
noticeable on every step of old part of town. They have lived together
following all ups and downs through centuries.

Sometimes crafts were organized in societies, guilds, exclusively by its types

of craft. At those times crafts are transferred from father or old craftsmen
and also there were special schools so the young people can learn and
appreciate authentic way of work and tradition. In that time tax deductions
and stimulations are given from the government to all of town in its credits,
and today craftsmen on their own needs to demand status and benefits,
without this is not possible to conduct business today, especially not in the
way of constant changes that is brought to us by globalization world wide.

Preservation of cultural heritage needs to be one of most important missions

of every environment that has in purpose treasuring of identity but also and
promotion of its values. Zone of improved trade of Baščaršija has recognized
this big importance for Sarajevo and whole Bosnia and Herzegovina, and
assembled expert team in area of cultural heritage, like archeologists,
ethnologist and orientalist that are working on promotions values of “Spirit of
Baščaršija” in project that will last for 6 months and will produce a catalogue,
exhibition and movie.

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The goal is to that through texts and photos, on authentic way present
creation and development of crafts through history. Movie about works of
craftsmen and creation of products on Baščaršija will be shown on opening of
the exhibition. Contents of exhibition will be with most beautiful craft works
that are kept in museums and old crafts families. Exhibition aims to show
through combination of authentic and modern ambience all of the beauty of
old and modern craft works and to create bit forgotten ambience of
craftsmen surroundings.

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Crafts on Bašcaršija today
Today in old part of Sarajevo is possible to find some of the crafts that have
origins in old crafts traditions and that exits and working even today.

Slipper-maker’s craft
Slipper makers are one of them, when looking in the history, wearing of
slippers is closely associated with culture of life and the house. Footwear was
assorted according to purpose in the ancient civilizations of the Old East,
where the cities are developed. The out of doors footwear was strictly
separated from the one that was worn inside the house or temple. It was
regarded as blasphemy to enter in a temple or house in the shoes worn out of
doors.

This attitude toward the house and the temple was preserved through the
history of three monotheistic religions. Slippers became footwear that was
worn exclusively in and around the house. With the arrival of the Ottomans in
Bosnia, the process of urbanization began with foundation of cities of the
Levantine type, where economic life was clearly separated from the family
life.

Slippers became a kind of synonym for an urban living culture. The Bosnian
word for slipper is “papuča”, is the word of Arabic origin, pronounced as
“papuš” in Persian, but it came to us in pronunciation as “papuča”. The
Ottomans organized crafts into guilds, and then present craftsmen adapted
to newly appointed organizations. The slipper-maker's craft was joined to
boot-maker's guild, along with “mestvedžije” a makers of soft leather indoor
footwear and “firaeldžije”. The slipper makers were mentioned for the first
time in the registry from 1530, from which is visible that there were not so
many slipper makers, but by the second half of the 16th century, number of
these craftsmen jumped up in number.

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Craftsmen from this guild were located in the special street which was named
„Čizmedžijska čaršija“, although their workshops were also settled in other
parts of the Baščaršija. The workshops were built above the slipper shops.
The poorest craftsmen made their products at home and sold it to tradesmen
in inns or to domestic traders. Craftsmen of the boot maker’s guild were of
middle income state, while the traders were very rich. Tools used for making
slippers are basically the same as for all other crafts, which mainly process
leather. Now days
this products can be purchased in several shops, they popular name for the
tourists are “Aladinke”, like Disney cartoon with hero Aladdin who with one
rub of a magic lamp, meets up with Genie.

Coppersmiths

Coppersmiths are also a significant part of a guild that also gathers tinsmiths.
The craftsmen create items from copper while the latter make them by tin
plating. Since the items are made from copper, especially tableware, they
were not only tin plated, but also decorated with ornaments and engravings,
what gives them an artistic dimension. The decorating in the past was done
mostly by women, known as savaćenje. It is a decorating method typical of
Sarajevo and has survived to this day. This craft came to Bosnia and
Herzegovina with the arrival of Ottoman Turks, and the Coppersmiths’ Bazaar
in Sarajevo can be found at the same place where it was founded in the 16th
century. Although copper smiths shops could be found in Vratnik, the centre
of this craft was in the Oprkanj Street in Baščaršija. This bazaar met the
needs for copper smith items of the entire Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Coppersmiths could take pride in the most numerous tools of the trade and in
more than seventy different products including dishes and tableware of
various types and sizes, water vessels ewers, jugs and pitchers, coffee ware
with jugs, coffee pots and coffee cup holders, different sacred objects,
lighting products, items for barber shops, items for baths, etc.

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The chief raw materials are copper, tin, lead and sal ammoniac, which were
melted in high temperature ovens and then poured in moulds. The work was
extremely strenuous and demanded special equipment parcel which was kept
moist at all times. The first of the coppersmiths in Sarajevo is mentioned in
the year 1489. Their number gradually increased and they were able to found
a guild in early 16th century. Theirs was the first guild whose members
started trading in copper, tin and copper smith products. First reports of this
can be found in early 18th century, while trading did not appear in other
guilds until the 19th century. Thanks to the Austria Hungarian authorities, a
special workshop for handcrafts was established, providing an additional
stimulus to this activity. All of their smithies are today located in the tourist
attraction in Sarajevo - the Kazandžiluk street. Best purchased souvenir in
Sarajevo today is coffee pot with cup holders.

Filigree and silversmith's crafts

Processing and using of metals took very important position in craft

production. Metal processing crafts include black smiting, gun smiting, sword
smiting, "zildzije" as production of tools from brass and bronze, lock smiting,
copper smiting and silver smiting. Coppersmiths and silversmiths dealt with
precise artistic processing of metals. Silversmiths made gold and silver
jewelry.

A silversmith's street was founded in the first half of 16th century at location
of today's Gazi Husref-bey's Street and Mali Kujundžiluk Street. Goldsmiths
work mainly in this street today. The filigree craft originates from
silversmith's craft, but by the time, filigree workers perfected their skills and
became independent, as a separate trade. At the beginning, silversmiths
made pieces of jewelry, while filigree workers made precise ornaments of
bent and knitted silver wire to fill voids in the pieces of jewelry, or the
ornaments were just glued on the surface. Filigree is Latin word, which means
“something precise”. Since the Turkish word for filigree is “telkar”, it is
possible that filigree craft was brought in this region through Ragusa in Italy.
The silver ore, used by the craftsmen, had been mainly extracted from
various minerals from Kreševo and Srebrenica regions.

A thin wire would be made first and then it was knitted with great precision
and soldered for a basis, using special silver powder. Perfect forms were and
are still made from a silver wire, thus the filigree art can be rightfully
qualified as an art or applied art. Separating from silversmiths, the filigree
workers began to make not only jewelry, but also items of use, such as
jewelry and money boxes, ladies' bags, tobacco pipes, cigarette cases, etc.
Beside jewelry, their filigree work was used to decorate weapon, respectively,
sword handles and different kinds of guns.

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Filigree-workers designed various jewelry articles, as they still do, including
“belenzuke” and “halhale” a kind of bracelets, earrings, brooches, pendants,
“teperluke” a decorations for women's caps, belt buckles and belts. The
filigree craft and silver smiting have survived till today, and there are few
craftsmen who preserve tradition of jewelry designing. It is to hope that they
will transfer their skills to young people, thus the art of silver and gold
processing will not die out in our region. Today this jewelry can be bought in
the streets of Baščaršija in Sarajevo

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References:
- Wenzel, Marian, Ornamental Motifs on Tombstones from Medieval Bosnia and
Surrounding Regions. Sarajevo, Veselin Maslesa, 1965
- Basler, Đuro, Cultural history of BiH, 1966
- Ivan Lovrenovic, Labirint i pamčenje, Bosanski Mramorovi, Oslobođenje, Sarajevo
1990
- Old crafts in BiH, Norbert Heyl and Cristina Gregorin, Sarajevo 2008
- Stari zanati, Ahmet Muminovic, Sarajevo, 2008
- www.bhcrafts.ba, www.stari-zanati.ba, www.bascarsija.ba

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