When Bosnia’s National Library went up in flames in 1992 in a bombardment during the Bosnian Serb siege of Sarajevo, Mustafa Jahic knew he had to act to save his institution’s priceless collection.
As curator of the almost 500-year-old Gazi Husrev Bey Library, Jahic was guardian of a treasure trove of Oriental literature in the heart of Sarajevo, a city under siege during Bosnia’s war from 1992 to 1995.
His and others’ efforts were rewarded when a new state-of-the-art library, a stone’s throw from the original in the cobbled streets of Sarajevo’s historic Bascarsija district, opened its doors recently.
Photo: Reuters
照片：路透
“A unique book that is destroyed can never be restored again,” said Jahic. “So for me to save a single book became tantamount to saving a human life. It steered me through the war.”
Some 3 million books perished when the National Library and Sarajevo’s Institute for Oriental Studies were razed in a bombardment by Bosnian Serb forces.
Fearing for his own library’s 100,000 volumes, Jahic and a small team of fellow book lovers braved sniper fire to smuggle them in banana crates from one safe house to another.
Photo: AFP
照片：法新社
Two decades later, the works are together again. Funded by a US$9 million donation by the government of Qatar, the library holds 25,000 manuscripts from across the Islamic world.
(Reuters)
當波士尼亞國家圖書館於一九九二年波國塞爾維亞裔部隊圍困塞拉耶佛期間慘遭砲轟起火時，亞希奇知道他必須採取行動搶救他所負責管理的無價收藏品。
身為有將近五百年悠久歷史的格茲胡色雷貝圖書館館長，亞希奇是這個位於塞拉耶佛市中心的東方文獻寶庫守衛者，塞拉耶佛在波士尼亞於一九九二年到一九九五年爆發戰爭期間遭到圍困。
他和其他人的努力最近終於見到了成果，一座距離舊館只有一箭之遙、位於塞拉耶佛巴許恰須亞舊城區的鵝卵石街道上，一座嶄新的圖書館最近剛剛開幕。
「一本書如果被毀就再也無法修復，」亞希奇說。「所以對我而言，搶救一本書就相當於搶救一條人命。這個信念帶領著我渡過戰爭。」
當國家圖書館和塞拉耶佛東方研究所遭塞裔部隊砲火夷平時，約有三百萬本館藏書籍也付之一炬。
擔心他自己館內的十萬本書籍也可能不保，亞希奇和一小群愛書人冒著生命危險，從狙擊手槍火下用裝香蕉的箱子把書籍偷運出來分送到不同避難點。
二十年後，這些文獻又再度聚首。在卡達政府提供九百萬美元捐款贊助下，新圖書館現在藏有來自全伊斯蘭世界的兩萬五千件手稿。
（路透／翻譯：俞智敏）
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