Bakr-Baba’s Mosque is located next to the At Mejdan archaeological park in the Old Town, on the left bank of the Miljacka River, just a bit east of Ćumurija Bridge.

The original mosque was built in 1544 as part of the vakuf (endowment) set up by Hajji Alija Bakr-Baba, a prominent Sarajevo merchant, after whom the mosque was named.

At that time, this edifice was considered one of Sarajevo’s loveliest and largest mosques, with a minaret that reached a height of about 30 meters. The complex also included a mekteb (children’s school).

When Eugene of Savoy sacked Sarajevo in October 1697, the mosque went up in flames.

A new mosque was built on the same spot in 1700, but it later caught on fire and was rebuilt by neighborhood residents.

In 1741 or 1742, Hajji Ismail Misrija commissioned a medresa (religious educational facility) on the eastern side of the mosque’s courtyard, which contained a cemetery and, soon afterward, Abdulah Efendi Kantamirija had a library built here. By the end of the 18^th century, At Mejdan had become an important educational and cultural center.

It began to lose its original function at the beginning of the 19^th century, with the imposition of Austro-Hungarian rule, but the mosque and its adjacent facilities were already in a dilapidated and neglected state.

Immediately following Austro-Hungarian occupation, Bakr-Baba’s Mosque was turned into a military storehouse and the mosque and mekteb were knocked down in 1895. The site was then filled in and smoothed out to become part of At Mejdan Park.

It was during the first decade of the 21^st century that work got underway to excavate the archeological remains of the mosque and its adjacent buildings, at the behest of the learned Islamic scholar, Hajji Hafez Halid Efendi Hadžimulić.

A smaller but more modern mosque was built on the unearthed foundations of the old mosque and it was officially opened on June 27, 2011.

The interior of the mosque features the longest stone levha (Islamic calligraphic panel) in Europe. It is 45 meters long and the stone tablets weigh as much as 50 kilograms each and include parts of the Noor Supplication.

It was Halid Efendi Hadžimulić who initiated the idea for these stone inscriptions, and the turbet near the entrance to Bakr-Baba’s Mosque serves as his final resting place.