c. 2003 Religion News Service

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina _ In its 466 years of preparing religious leaders, doctors, lawyers, historians and engineers, the Gazi Husrev-beg madrassa, or Islamic school, has seen the comings and goings of two empires, two world wars, 40 years of communism and a devastating ethnic conflict.

But on a recent day, the sun-drenched courtyard of the madrassa’s girls school seemed light-years from any of those conflicts. A teen-age girl in an ankle-length skirt and a headscarf giggled into a mobile phone. Two others paced the length of the small, narrow walkway arm-in-arm in quiet conversation. The laughs and chatter of other high school girls drifted out the open door and windows.

All were preparing to leave their residential school for a five-day visit home for an official holiday weekend. It was an unusual break in a six-day-a-week schedule packed with classes, prayer and personal etiquette and guidance sessions.

A 10-minute walk away, the students in the boys school were laughing, throwing mock punches, hearing the results of their Arabic tests and packing small bags for the long bus rides to the towns and villages of Bosnia where their families live.

Their attendance at one of the oldest schools in the Balkans is a source of pride and often a matter of tradition in their families. This year’s midsummer graduating class was the school’s 453rd, and senior Alija Pandur is following in the footsteps of three uncles who graduated from the madrassa.

“I wanted to be just like them,” said Pandur, 18. He makes an exception, though: All three uncles are imams, or religious leaders in mosques, and Pandur wants to become a doctor. “The madrassa is very useful. … One learns a lot about Islam and other religions and also about other subjects as any other school has.”

At a time when interpretations of Islam are being debated worldwide in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, and similar schools, especially in Pakistan, are considered breeding grounds for a violent, anti-Western version of Islam, this madrassa reflects the largely mild nature of the Islam that came to the fore in Bosnia during the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

Located in the city’s historic Turkish quarter, the madrassa is a respected educational institution in what British historian Noel Malcolm called “the most secularized Muslim population in the world.”

The country now has five madrassas other than Gazi Husrev-beg, but the latter was the only one allowed to continue functioning after World War II by communist authorities who put strict controls on the exercise of religion in what was then Yugoslavia.

“Taking into consideration the circumstances in which it operated during the period from 1945 to 1990, I believe that the madrassa has done a great job indeed, and that is what people still appreciate,” said Ahmet Alibasic, a professor in the Islamic Sciences Department who attended the madrassa in the late 1980s.

The recent war of nearly four years from early 1992 to late 1995, as the former Yugoslavia fought Bosnia’s independence, interrupted the school’s functioning for more than a year at the beginning of the conflict. But the school resumed work for the 1993-94 school year with a new program that included enough natural science and mathematics courses to allow graduates to qualify for any university in the country.

“Modern life today is asking all sorts of questions about life, and the Islamic point of view can contribute with its specific intellectual and moral strength,” said Muharem Omerdzic, a representative of the Islamic Community organization, in his speech to the graduates.

Today, about 48 percent of Bosnians are considered traditionally Muslim (called ethnically Bosniaks), while those with Orthodox and Roman Catholic backgrounds are considered ethnically Serb (34 percent) and Croat (15 percent), respectively.

More than 40 years of communism before the recent war left most Bosnians distinctly secular.

But Sarajevo’s equally distinct pride in its history, however contested, secures a prominent place for the Gazi Husrev-beg madrassa. Its oldest building with its multi-domed lead roof and a newer dormitory and classroom building blend into the mix of modern architecture with traditional beige and brown stone polished by centuries of wear.

About 240 boys and 150 girls attend the madrassa these days. Their rigorous schedule includes courses in Islamic law and ethics, reading and translating the Quran, four foreign languages _ Arabic, Turkish, English and Latin _ as well as the traditional subjects of biology, history, math, philosophy and logic.

Students pay some tuition, but the school also receives funding from the government and the Islamic Community coffers. The school remains the primary source of high school instruction for future Islamic religious leaders, but emphasis has moved increasingly to secular subjects that students need to enter public universities.

Although the madrassa has been a center of defense for Islamic religious practices and freedoms, particularly during the communist era, it also produced some of the country’s leading Muslim political leaders during that time and later. While groups from the Middle East, especially from Saudi Arabia, build vast mosques around Bosnia to promote a more fundamentalist, Wahabbi-style form of Islam, the madrassa maintains its reputation as moderate and mainstream.

“We are an open school, transparent, preparing children to be ready for Europe and to function in a modern environment,” Assistant Director Ismet Veladzic said.

Students have their own association and publish a magazine called Zem-Zem.

The swirling controversies worldwide about the nature of Islam and its use to justify violence have had little effect on the madrassa, Veladzic said.

“We are immune to that,” he said. “We have been through so much over the centuries.”

DEA END GIENGER