The Sarajevo Clock Tower is located near Gazi Husrev-Bey mosque and is one of the biggest in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Sarajevo Clock Tower is the only one in the world that measures the lunar time, according to Islamic prayers, the mechanics of this symbol from Bascarsija brought from London in 1876 two Sarajevo merchants Hashim Aga Glodžo and Mehaga Hadžikapetanović.
The needles and numbers were gold-plated in 1967, after repairs made by a hairdresser, a former muvekit, a person who cares about the clock and tower, Abdulah Kasumagić.
Muvekit (clockkeeper)
The current muvekit is Mensur Zlatar, which is more than half a year old. He said the Sahat Tower, more likely, was built in the 16th century, and that it was the first written trace of the 17th century.
“It is mentioned that Evliya Çelebija, a Turkish travel writer who describes the God’s mosque and its surroundings, wrote that there are clock-towers with western foreign mosques,” says Zlatar.
He points out that before the London mechanism on the tower was a Turkish clock that no longer exists, and that was taken from Baščaršija to the mosque in Vratnik: “The clock had a dial only on one side, facing towards the fly, and the other had a transmission that enables the toes on all four sides. ”
Since 1967, when the clock was repaired and gilded, Zlatar began to worry about it.
It explains that showing the time on a lunar calendar means that at the time of sunset the clock shows 12 hours, on a hydrographic calendar, where a sunset stops one date and the other is created. Since the day is longer or shorter for a minute or so, the clock at Sahat-kula is taken care of at 24 o’clock in the fast or late for one minute, so that every day they will not climb every 30 meters tall tower, until whose 76 wooden stairs lead.
The Zlatar states that the person taking care of the clock must be close to the Clock Tower, as he, whose work is a few yards away. Regardless of the complexity of work and climbing on the tower, Zlatar says his muveita service means a lot.
“For more than five decades, this is how I feel in blood, emotionally it means, is unique in the world, and this watch is owned by Vakuf (Muslim practice of endowing property to a religious institution) , who left Gazi Husrev-beg,” Zlatar said.
Astrolabium and sextant
It explains that the muvekit word came from the Turkish word, the time.
At the time when the Clock Tower was created, Muvekit had a much more significant role than today, he was able to calculate time. He had a primitive instrument used on ships, astrolabium. The weather was determined by the shades and the sun, while the rest of the slaughter was according to the aksham (prayer time). After that, by developing more swiftness, a seamless, advanced measuring instrument was used. This instrument was also owned by Sarajevo’s muvekithana, and time was easier and more precise to determine.
The Sarajevo Clock Tower is located near the Gazi Husrev-bey mosque and is one of the largest in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 12 years ago it was declared a national monument of BiH.
