By Stolac Municipality
MOBILE HERITAGE
LIBRARIES
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
1. Library of the Muslim Community Board -- Stolac -- a valuable collection of printed and manuscript documents and books, as well forty manuscripts from 17-19 century. The library was destroyed in mid-July 1993, along with the Tepa unit and offices of the Muslim Community Board.
2. Library of the EmperorŐs Mosque -- tens of manuscripts in Bosnian, Arabic, Turkish, and Persian, from 17-19 century. Destroyed together with the EmperorŐs Mosque.
3. Library of the Podgradska Mosque -- tens of manuscript books and documents from previous centuries. All the works were destroyed in a fire set to destroy the mosque.
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
In summer 1993 several family collections of document, manuscript books and valuable printed books were destroyed. There is only partial information on the contents of these collections. We can list collections of the following families: Behmen, Mahmutcehajic, Mehmedbasic, Rizvanbegovic.
We have complete information on the manuscript books from the Mehmedbasic family collection, which was destroyed (Annual of GBH).
CARPETS AND RUGS
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
1. EmperorŐs mosque collection of 50 carpets and 30 rugs of different sizes, styles of make, and age. From the artistic and historic point of view, this was one of the most valuable collections in B&H, since it included carpets several centuries old. This collection was destroyed with the Mosque.
2. Podgradska Mosque collection of 30 carpets, most over a century old. all the carpets were burnt in the night of 28 July 1993, when the mosque was burnt. On this occasion, 25 local and Oriental valuable rugs were also destroyed.
3. Mosque in Cuprija collection of 20 carpets and 12 rugs, most over a century old. The entire collection was destroyed with the mosque, on 27 July 1993.
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Several hundreds of carpets and rugs, of international artistic and historic value, were destroyed in family houses and urban units (Ada, Begovina, Behmenluk, Cuprija, Podgrad, Uzinovici, Zagrad, etc.) as well as in villages of Osanici, Borojevici, Poplat, Crnici, Prenj, Rotimlja, Pjesivac, etc.
Only more than a century carpets and rugs were listed here. Ways and places of make of each of them make them items of special value to the Bosniak national culture.
LEWHAS
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
1. EmperorŐs Mosque collection of 8 portable lewhas (artistic inscriptions in Arabic with holy text) from 18 and 19 century, made in ink on parchment, with different styles, and some illuminated in color and gold. All were destroyed in summer 1993, when the mosque was burnt and mined for the first time.
At the same time, about 20 al fresco lewhas, probably from 1788, the year when the mosque was reconstructed, were destroyed as well. Lewhas were written in rich nesh-talik script.
2. Lewhas in Podgradska Mosque -- 5 lewhas from 19 century; judging from the style, probably all done by the same artist. Excerpts from QurŐan were written in gold, in nesh scripts, on black. All were destroyed in fire set in 28 July 1993.
3. The Mosque in Cuprija collection of 4 lewhas from 19 century. Destroyed on 27 July 1993, when the mosque was burnt.
4. Wall lewhas in the mosque of Ismail-Kapetan Saric, in al fresco. Names of Allah, Muhammed, Ebu-Bekr, Omer, Osman, Ali, Hasan, and Husein were written in large nesh-talik script, and were parts of rich wall decorations of the mosque. The fire set by HVO soldiers using phosphorous material, destroyed even the wall plaster.
4. Collection of the mosque in Crnici, 3 lewhas of modern make (early 20 century). They were destroyed on 14 July 1993, when the mosque was burnt.
PRIVATE COLLECTION
The destroyed houses of Behmen, Hrle, Mahmutcehajic, Mehmedbasic, Muftic, Rizvanbegovic and Turkovic families, as well as others, contained about one hundred lewhas of artistic and historic value. All were destroyed with the houses.
ARTIFACTS WITH EMBROIDERY AND LACE
The destroyed houses in Ada, Begovina, Behmenluk, Cuprija, Uzinovici, Podgrad, Zagrad, as well as houses in villages of Osanici, Borojevici, Poplat, Crnici, Prenj, Rotimlja, Pjesivac, etc., contained several hundred artifacts (scarves, shawls, window curtains, items of clothing, etc.) decorated with hand-made embroidery of great artistic and historic value. All were destroyed with the houses. The ones listed here were only the ones over a century old, embroidered with gold, silver, or silk thread, on hand-woven cloth, and which represented cultural heritage of special importance.
At least one hundred items made of lace, hand-made in a particular way with silk thread (keranje), over a century old and representing cultural heritage of artistic and historic value, were also destroyed.
PAINTINGS
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
1. Gallery of prints and paintings by Branko Sotra in the house of Saric, containing paintings, prints, and documents illustrating life and work of Branko Sotra, a painter, was destroyed on 29 July 1993.
2. A collection of paintings in the ŇRenaissanceÓ Muslim Cultural Society, containing at least 50 valuable paintings by Bosnian painters, was destroyed in the mid-July 1993.
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
At least a hundred paintings of great artistic and historic value, such as those by Robert Kvasina, M. Rizvanbegovic, M. Hrle, Muradif Cerimovic, Djordjo Kurilic, Emir Buzaljko, Mersad Berber, and others, were destroyed in houses of Behmen, Buzaljko, Mahmutcehajic, Hrle, Turkovic, Mehmedbasic, Kohnic, Dizdar, and other families.
OLD FURNITURE AND HOUSEHOLD ITEMS
1. A large wall-mounted clock with pendulum, over a century old, was destroyed with the EmperorŐs Mosque.
2. There was a large wall-mounted clock with pendulum, over a century old, in the Podgradska Mosque. It was destroyed with the mosque on 28 July 1993.
Various furniture and household items of value, considered a part of cultural heritage under regulations of article 1 of the Hague Convention, were destroyed in houses in Ada, Behmenluk, Cuprija, Podgrad, Uzinovici, Zagrad. etc. tens of wardrobes, built-in treasuries, chests, wall and ceiling engravings, sofas, brick and tile fire places, made in 18 and 19 century, were all destroyed. The artistic value of destroyed furniture gave it importance for both Bosnian and international heritage.
At least 20 copper and brass mangalas, hand-made and richly decorated, made in 18 and 19 century, were also destroyed.
METAL ARTIFACTS
Various metal valuables were destroyed in houses in Stolac and neighboring villages. tens of pieces of hand-made golden, silver, or metal jewelry were destroyed or stolen. At least 100 pieces of over a century old artistically decorated personal weaponry (swords, daggers, rifles, etc.) were also destroyed.
ANTIQUE DISHES OF ARTISTIC VALUE
Hundreds of pieces of glass, copper, porcelain, and silver dishes from 18 and 19 century were destroyed in houses of Ada, Behemluk, Begovina, Cuprija, Podgrad, and Zagrad. Copper dishes were mainly made locally, and different plates, jugs, and bowls were of special value. Glass, porcelain, and silver pieces were mainly from the East, or were brought from Dubrovnik, Venice, Vienna, Prague, and Budapest.
ANTIQUE INSCRIPTIONS
Inscriptions on old buildings of Stolac, mainly from 16 to 19 century, were mainly in Arabic and Turkish, in Arabic script, and had both historical and artistic value. The following inscriptions were destroyed in summer 1993:
1. Inscription above the entrance of the EmperorŐs Mosque, in black ink on lime, made in 1519, when the mosque was built.
2. Inscription above the entrance of the EmperorŐs Mosque, in black ink or lime, in small nesh-talik script in Turkish, made in 1788/89, when the mosque was reconstructed.
3. Tens of tombstones in the courtyard of the EmperorŐs Mosque, including 27 with engraved inscriptions -- the oldest one from 1660, and the most recent from 1878.
4. Inscriptions above the entrance of Podgradska Mosque, from 1732/33, engraved in stone block of 20 x 28 cm, in Turkish.
5. Inscription above the entrance of Podgradska Mosque, from 1812/13, engraved in stone, in beautiful nesh-talik script in Turkish. It was framed with parallel ribbons and flowers engraved between them.
6. Inscription above the entrance of Podgradska Mosque, from 1888/89, engraved in stone block of 22 x 32 cm, in beautiful nesh script, in Turkish.
7. Inscriptions of three tombstones in the courtyard of Podgradska Mosque, from 19 century.
8. Inscription above the entrance of the mosque in Uzinovici, from 1741, engraved in stone, in verse in Turkish, in nesh script.
9. Inscription above the entrance of the mosque in Uzinovici, from 1791/92, in black ink on the wall, in small nesh-talik script, in verse in Turkish.
10. Inscription on a well in the courtyard of the mosque in Uzinovici, engraved in plain nesh script in 1810.
11. Inscription above the entrance of the Mosque in Cuprija, from 1765, on lime plaster, in verse in Turkish, in beautiful nesh-talik script.
12. Inscriptions in the interior of DjulhanumaŐs house, from 1856, carved in wood (three inscriptions).
13. Inscriptions carved in wood in a room of the house of Izet Rizvanbegovic, from 1840.
14. Inscriptions on a wooden pillar in the courtyard of the house of Murat Rizvanbegovic, from 1860.
15. Inscription above the entrance to the Saric house, from 1734, engraved in a small stone plaque.
16. Inscription on a wooden built-in treasury in the house of Zulfo Mahmutcehajic, in ink on wood, in nesh script in Turkish.
(Contents of the inscriptions can be found in: Mehmed Mujezinovic, Islamska epigrafika Bosne i Hercegovine, III ŇIslamic Epigraphics of B&H, vol. IIIÓ.)