Join us for an intimate and immersive experience in the heart of Bosnia and Herzegovina, exploring the living spiritual and artistic heritage of Sarajevo, Mostar, Blagaj, Travnik and Kaćuni.

Over 6 carefully curated days, participants will encounter the sacred spaces, historic cities and traditional arts within their authentic settings. The program includes guided visits to landmark sites such as the Gazi Husrev-beg complex, the Blagaj tekija and the historic towns of Mostar and Travnik, alongside hands-on workshops in tezhip (illumination), calligraphy and ebru (marbling) led by distinguished Bosnian masters.

The journey is led by art historian Dr. Haris Dervišević and cultural consultant Ömer Faruk Yeni. It is designed as a small, focused gathering limited to 12 participants to ensure depth, reflection and meaningful exchange.

Highlights of the program include:

• Sacred site visits across Sarajevo’s historic core

• A traditional Mesnevi evening at the Isa-bey Mevlevi tekija

• Guided exploration of Mostar’s old town

• Visit to the Blagaj tekija in its natural setting

• Travnik fortress and Ottoman urban heritage

• Workshops in tezhip, calligraphy and ebru with Bosnian master artists

• Evening dhikr gathering at Tekija Mesudiya in Kaćuni

• Traditional crafts visit in Sarajevo’s historic Kazandžiluk district

  17-25 June 2026

  Spaces are limited - reserve your place today!

The purpose of this program is to introduce the living masters of traditional arts. We will be exploring Bosnia’s traditional artistic life, at a fortuitous moment – the traditional arts are undergoing a renaissance, after decades of dormancy following the end of the Ottoman Empire. The old arts are being rediscovered and an aesthetic efflorescence, manifested in multiple interconnected art forms, is underway.

Meetings with Masters introduces participants to this exciting art world. Art and tradition do not live in a vacuum, but within the framework of a civilization. The book arts, such as calligraphy (hatt), marbling (ebru), illumination (tezhib), bookbinding (jild-i kitab)), music, and architecture all complement one another. Each, in its own manner, combines geometrical strictness with melodious rhythm – the two poles between which art evolves and which it succeeds in reconciling in various ways and styles. The overall environment created by the combination of architecture, calligraphy and music forges a mentality. It effects an equilibrium that is helpful for spiritual life.

By way of immersion into Bosnia’s traditional aesthetic world, this is a great opportunity to study calligraphy (hatt), marbling (ebru) and the art of illumination (tezhib) with living masters, and observe carefully architecture and sacred music – surroundings which by their beauty recall our heavenly origin and thereby also awaken our hope.

The most carefully curated and intensive aesthetic-spiritual surroundings are Bosnia’s mosques and tekkes or sufi lodges, some of which we will visit during this journey. Within them, calligraphy and its adjacent arts of ebru and tezhib, together with music and architecture, all combine to create a medium which rejoins the function of interiorizing contemplation – the aesthetic phenomenon becomes a receptacle that attracts a spiritual presence.