The Emperor’s Mosque is Sarajevo’s oldest mosque and one of the oldest in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is presumed that Isa Bey Ishaković, the founder of Sarajevo, had this place of worship built soon after the city’s founding in 1462 in honor of Sultan Mehmed II “the Conqueror”.

Sarajevo was attacked in 1480 by the despot, Vuk Grgurević, leader of King Matija Korvina’s Hungarian troops. The mosque suffered extensive damage and a total reconstruction was carried out during the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and it was at this time that the mosque took its current form.

During the period of Austro-Hungarian rule, some of the adjacent structures were knocked down and a new building was erected which would come to house the seat of the Reis-ul-Ulema, office of the Grand Mufti of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

There is a cemetery behind the mosque where prominent Sarajevans were buried, such as Sheikh Ibrahim Bistrigija; Mula Muhamed Emin and the Bosnian muhafiz, Abdulah Pasha. It is believed that it also contains the grave of Isa Bey Ishaković.