Ali-Pasha's Mosque
Description
Ali-Pasha's Mosque is one of the most beautiful and most harmonious mosques in classical Ottoman style in Bosnia and Herzegovina, built in 1560 or 1561 as a waqf of Hadim Ali Pasha — a man born in Drozgometva on the Sarajevo Field, raised in Istanbul, and elevated to the highest positions of the Ottoman Empire. He served as beylerbey of Buda, Temesvár, and Egypt, and in his will explicitly requested that a mosque be built beside his tomb from the funds of his waqf.
Ali Pasha himself rests in the mosque's courtyard, alongside many prominent Bosniaks, and the tombstones of the dervishes Ajni-dede and Šemsi-dede have also been brought here — two companions of Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror, whose grave monuments rank among the oldest traces of Ottoman presence in Sarajevo. The mosque is open to visitors without reservation and is a mandatory stop for all those exploring the Ottoman heritage of Sarajevo.
