Moshe Rafajlović

Scholar of the Islamic faith and of medieval Persian literature. Born in Sarajevo to a prominent Jewish family, he studied in Sarajevo and moved to Istanbul to perfect his studies on Islamic religion and culture. He returned to Sarajevo, where he joined the Ottoman civil service, working for the tax authorities. He remained in town as a financial advisor after the Austro-Hungarian takeover of the capital in 1878. He published in 1901 one of the most important texts "La historia de los judiós de Bosna" (History of the Bosnian Jews). In 1911, he toured the Balkans together with the renowned Spanish scholar of Sephardic balladry, Don Manuel Manrique de Lara, recording oral texts from the Sefardi culture of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia.