Institute for Oriental Studies

Abstract

The represent pamper, written on the occasion of the 25^th anniversary of the Institute for Oriental Studies, offers a survey of development and work of that institution. The Institute was founded at the time when the young Federal State of Bosnia and Herzegovina made great strides forward, in almost all fields of human activity. In such conditions, the idea to prepare the staff and institutions for the field of Oriental Studies came into being, and as a result, the Institute for Oriental Studies was founded in 1950. According to the decree by which the Institute was founded, its basic tasks were also determined. They were as follows: collecting, preserving, study and publishing of the archives and manuscripts in oriental languages, as well to as study literature and art in these parts. In 25 years, since the founding of the Institute, it has become a unique and important research institution, as well as the institution in which the archives and manuscripts are being studied.

The most important task of the Institute, and its main activity, invaluable wealth of archives-material and manuscripts are kept at the Institute library. Besides keeping of the original archives, a considerable effort was made to make micro-films of the materials relevant to this country; the materials found in the archives of the foreign countries. So, in the course of several years, about hundred land-registers were filmed on about 20.000 copies. Afterwards, more intensive efforts were made to collect the literary materials from different sources in the country, and abroad. At the moment, the collection of manuscripts, with about 5.000 of manuscripts, with almost fifteen thousands of works, belongs among the most numerous manuscri!pt sources in our country.

The Institute puts out the periodical under the title “Contributions to Oriental Philology”, as well as the publications Monumenta Turcica and special editions. The publication “Contributions to Oriental Philology” in the course of its twenty-five years long life, gathered a large number of contributors, the Institute staff in the first place, but also a considerable number of people from outside the Institute. Most works deal with the history of the Ottoman period, then with the study of literature, with works of our writers, written in Oriental languages; as well as the study of Arabic, Turkish and Persian, and the study of architecture and art. Important and larger sources in Turkish are published in the form of Monumenta Turcica. That publication is published serially: laws and regulations, defters, sidjils, waqufnamas, fermans, berats, and other sources.

More important results of the research done in the Institute, are published in Special Editions. Except for the above editions, the Institute staff publish their work through other publishing houses. In that way, some more voluminous works, which were the direct result of the work of the Institute were published.

The Institute for Oriental Studies maintains close ties with numerous institutions at home and abroad, primarily with institutions for oriental studies, but with some others as well (such as: libraries, archives, museums).