UNSA Institute of History: edition “History of Bosnia and Herzegovina” promoted
On 28 December 2013, in the Sarajevo City Hall, the “History of Bosnia and Herzegovina” edition was officially promoted. The edition represents the first institutional historiographic synthesis in post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina, which covers the period from prehistory to the beginning of the 21st century.
It is a generational project, as the authors call it, on which they have been actively working for the last two and a half years, and the special value of the work is certainly that it was written by local authors, i.e. 47 PhDs, nine editors, and expert opinion on the manuscript was given by is 11 reviewers.
The edition consists of six volumes (about 2,250 pages) entitled: “The Space of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Prehistory and Antiquity, “Medieval Bosnia”, “Bosnia in the Ottoman Era”, “Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Austro-Hungarian Era”, “Bosnia and Herzegovina in 20 century (1918-1945) and “Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 20th century (1945-1995)”.
The editor-in-chief and director of the UNSA Institute of History, Sedad Bešlija, pointed out that half a century had been waiting for the synthesis of the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The greatest value of the edition lies in the fact that until now in the history of research in Bosnia and Herzegovina we have not had a synthesized, rounded knowledge about the past of our homeland Bosnia and Herzegovina. For the first time, the Institute of History of the University of Sarajevo, together with many authors and collaborators from 17 institutions from all over the country, tackled such a project. Today, we are pleased to present to the public that we have reached the end, said Bešlija.
The authors are: Sedad Bešlija, Snježana Šušnjara, Kerima Filan, Dženan Brigić, Gaj Trifković, Adnan Jahić, Nikola Čiča, Adis Zilić, Sanja Gladanac Petrović, Enes Dedić, Andrea Baotić Rustanbegović, Esad Kurtović, Nedim Rabić, Dženan Dautović, Edin Bujak . S. Omerović, Salkan Užičanin, Omer Hamzić, Nehrudin Rebihić, Dženita Sarač Rujanac, Semir Hadžimusić, Mirza Džananović, Aida Abadžić-Hodžić, Aida Ličina Ramić, Jasmin Medić, Sead Selimović, Hamza Karčić, Hikmet Karčić, Zilha Mastalić-Košuta, Edin Veletovac, Muamer Džananović and Sead Bandžović.
Dženita Sarač, senior research associate of the Institute of History and one of the authors of the synthesis, said that there has been a need for a synthesis for a long time.
An accessible history of Bosnia and Herzegovina that will answer numerous open questions. There were attempts, but it took sixty years for the Institute of History to find the strength to start this project. It is the sublimation of knowledge about our near and distant past. The result of many years of accumulated knowledge about our past, said Sarač.
One of the co-authors, historian Jasmin Medić, editor of the volume covering the period from 1990-1995. year, he said that in that part they analyzed the preparations for the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1990 to 1992.
The role of the neighboring republics of Serbia and Croatia during the breakup of Yugoslavia, war crimes, the genocide in Srebrenica, the siege of Sarajevo, war crimes throughout BiH. A total of seven authors worked on this volume. Scientists from other fields were also involved. I believe that there will be those who will be dissatisfied. However, we hope that future scientists will use this as a basis for future generations of new works. This is an overview of everything that has been written so far about the period of aggression”, said Medić.
During the promotion, Bešlija praised the work of the Institute of History in the past years and said that in that institution they have more than eight editions a year.
It is important to follow official scientific research institutions, and the Institute of History has been watching over these scientific standards for 64 years and thus approaches the past. We are witnessing that there are all kinds of approaches, and the worst are the mythological ones, which confuse both the profession and the general readership, concluded Bešlija.
In the crowded City Hall, in addition to the authors who participated in the creation of the historiography, the rector of the University of Sarajevo, Prof. Dr. Rifat Škrijelj, one of the reviewers, academician Mirko Pejanović, and the chairman of the Sarajevo Canton Assembly Elvedin Okerić, who financially supported the project. In addition to the official program moderated by Una Bejtović, there was also a special music program performed by violinist Amina Džinalić and guitarist Elvira Solak.
On the occasion of the promotion of this capital work of the Institute, director Sedad Bešlija was a guest on the show Novi dan on N1 television on December 28, 2023. year: https://n1info.ba/video/novi-dan/sedad-beslija-bih-uvijek-nadje-put-da-opstane/?fbclid=IwAR38tpBySLIezDLuWITeqOlhGmuZEoEs83Krddk9BziyxySfS8rL0Dg4nmQ
Also, the director of Bešlija was a guest on the show Sarajevo Morning of Television Sarajevo on 27/12/2023.
The edition can be ordered on the web-shop of the Institute of History or via e-mail nauka@bih.net.ba
