Some see its 142 sheets of specially bleached and thinned calfskin as worth millions, but for Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), it is priceless.
Its protection is worth risking one's life, which some have done throughout history.
The Sarajevo Haggadah (Hebrew for story or narration) was crafted in Spain and intended for use during the Jewish religious holiday of Passover, but has been in the Balkans since the 19th century.
Today, under strict security measures, it is kept in the safe of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"As far as the profession is concerned, there is absolutely no doubt, it is truly the most valuable monument of medieval Jewish art."
"It may sound strange to some people, but for example, the only depiction of a 14th-century synagogue is in that manuscript," Mirsad Sijarić, curator of the National Museum in Sarajevo, tells BBC Serbian.
By UNESCO's decision in 2017, it was entered into the International Memory of the World Register, which includes manuscripts and documents.
"Its importance is artistic, historical and symbolic - and it is this combination that sets it apart from most other haggadahs," Haris Halilović, professor of Global Studies at RMIT University in Melbourne, tells BBC Serbian.
In Sarajevo, a predominantly Muslim city, the Haggadah is not just a religious book, but a guardian of a community that has survived three wars in the past 120 years.
Because of that Milorad Dodik's statement, the former president of Republika Srpska (RS), one of the two entities into which BiH is divided, before a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog that "the Haggadah should be returned to Israel" was greeted in Sarajevo as a provocation.
"This topic has not been discussed," read a written response from the RS Government to the BBC in Serbian.
The Israeli embassy in Tirana, which covers Bosnia and Herzegovina, told BBC Serbian that "no Israeli authorities have submitted any initiative or request for the Haggadah to be transferred to Israel."
"It's easiest to give away what's not yours, especially when you want to give it to someone who doesn't belong to it, nor has it ever belonged to it," Jakob Finci, president of the Jewish Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, told BBC Serbian.
"Simply put, the Sarajevo Haggadah has nothing to do with Israel, except that it is a Jewish religious book."
"It has to do with Jews, but not with the State of Israel."
Dodik has been violating the law for a long time by usurping the position of President of the RS and often meets with officials from other countries even though he does not hold any political office, believes Tanja Topić, an analyst from Banja Luka, the administrative center of the RS, in a statement to the BBC in Serbian.
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About the Haggadah - a story about a story
For centuries, stories and prayers have been read from the Haggadah during the evenings before the Passover holiday.
It is not used in religious buildings, but in homes.
The Sarajevo manuscript differs from the others in the level of decoration and number of pages, but also in the content preserved in the manuscript.
It is among six or seven luxurious Sephardic haggadahs, made in Catalonia during the first half of the 14th century, commissioned by wealthy Jewish families for use during Passover celebrations and representing the pinnacle of Jewish art in medieval Spain, says Shalom Sabar, a retired professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
"Characterized by their lavish figurative miniatures and refined calligraphy, these manuscripts are held in major museums and libraries around the world, such as the British Library in London and the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest," a Jewish art expert said in a written response to the BBC.
He says he has been personally connected with the Sarajevo Haggadah for decades.
"Since my studies in the early 1970s, I have owned a reproduction of the Sarajevo Haggadah (Cecil Roth edition, printed in Belgrade in 1962), which my family and I have used at every Seder (ritual dinner during Passover) for over fifty years," he adds.
The Sarajevo Haggadah, written on parchment, is known for its exceptionally beautiful and numerous illustrations, although in Judaism, just like in Islam, it is forbidden to depict human figures because they are made in the likeness of God.
"But you must not depict God."
"However, the Sarajevo Haggadah is full of illustrations and in today's sense of the word, it was made as a comic strip about the rescue of the Jews from Egyptian slavery and their crossing of the Red Sea and entering the promised land," explains Finci, who raised funds for the preservation of the Haggadah at a time when the National Museum was closed.
Watch the video: The fascinating history of the Sarajevo Haggadah
For Professor Halilović, this almost 700-year-old book is also exceptional because it is not just a religious text or an artistic object, but an artifact of survival.
Through her story, it is possible to read about political turmoil and suffering.
"It unites within itself the Sephardic exile, Ottoman pluralism, Austro-Hungarian rule, fascist occupation, socialist Yugoslavia, and post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina."
"There are few manuscripts that carry such layered and continuous histories in a single codex," he says.
The road from Spain to Sarajevo
The Sarajevo Haggadah was most likely written in the area Barcelona around 1350.
After the persecution of Jews from Spain in 1492, the manuscript was brought to Sarajevo by Sephardic refugees who had settled in Bosnia and other parts of the Ottoman Empire.
There are no accurate historical documents that could precisely confirm the year in which the Sarajevo Haggadah was brought to Bosnia.
It is assumed that at the end of the 15th century it left the area of present-day Spain, and during the 17th century it was in the territory of present-day Italy.
"The first reliable information we have is from 1893, when the manuscript was offered to the National Museum for purchase, and from that moment we have all the documentation," says Sijarič, curator of the National Museum.
Joseph Cohen sold the book to the then newly formed National Museum, as evidenced by the purchase contract from 1894.
At that time, the National Museum did not have the money to purchase this extremely important religious book, but it received funds from Vienna since Bosnia was then under Austro-Hungarian rule.
"After some time, it was sent to Vienna where it was examined by experts and they very quickly published a publication about the Haggadah," Sijarić adds.
"It was analyzed at a time when there were no photocopiers, so it was hand-drawn. Then a book was made about it called the 'Sarajevo Haggadah', hence the name," explains Finci.
No matter where it ends up, it will always be called the Sarajevo Haggadah because that is its "christened name" that it received after its discovery and stay in Sarajevo, he emphasizes.
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Muslims and Christians risked their lives defending the Haggadah
It bore witness to the turbulent history of the Balkans.
During World War II, as well as during the siege of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995, Muslim and secular guards risked their lives to protect it.
"This makes her a symbol of the ethics of solidarity, togetherness and moral responsibility that was expressed in our Bosnian and Herzegovinian society."
"On the other hand, cultural artifacts like the Haggadah often become an instrument of contemporary politics and politicking precisely because they carry strong symbolic capital," adds Bakić.
The first story about the defense of the Haggadah dates back to World War II.
The then museum director Jozo Petrović and curator Derviš Korkut managed to convince the German army officers that the Haggadah was not in the museum.
One version is that Petrović told the officer that he had previously given the book to another member of the German army.
When the soldier left without the Haggadah, its relocation was organized.
"Then Dervish Korkut took it out of the museum."
"It's a story. Some of it can't be verified because there's no written record."
"However, Derviš Korkut's role has also proven to be such in other matters," says Sijarić.
One of the legends is that the Haggadah was once kept in a mosque on Mount Bjelašnica near Sarajevo.
"Much has been written about it, but there is no credible written trace," says historian and emeritus Imamović, who published the book "On the Sarajevo Haggadah" in 2008.
It also tells of the case of the theft of a Haggadah from the 1950s, similar to action movies, when it was taken out of a museum, even though only a few museum employees knew where it was kept and had the keys.
Thanks to the involvement of the police and the closure of the borders, it was found and prevented from being taken out of the country, but many doubts remain about the person who ordered it and the thieves.
The President of the Jewish Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina says that it is certain that the Haggadah has been in danger several times, and that each time it has risen like a phoenix.
Written evidence confirms that at one point during World War II, the book, along with other valuables from the National Museum, was kept in the vault of the Central Bank in Sarajevo.
"Which was repeated during the siege of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1994, when it was again kept in the same place," says Sijarić.
During the last war, the museum director was Imamović, who, in an interview with the BBC, recalled the operation to transfer the Haggadah.
"Many were unaware of its value."
With a colleague from the museum and three police officers, he carried out the removal operation during the night of June 6, 1992.
"The police asked me - is the book really so valuable that we should all lose our heads over it," Imamović recalled in an interview with the BBC.
He managed to hide the location of the Haggadah for a long time, but one day its storage place was discovered.
The news that the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina had sold the Haggadah in order to acquire weapons echoed in the world media.
"Someone from the museum ran out and said it was in the Central Bank depot, foreigners asked me to see it because no one in the world believed it hadn't been sold," Imamović recalls.
He says that during the war, many were interested in the National Museum's most valuable work and offered to "guard" it, including the state of Israel.
"While I was the museum director, I didn't give it away."
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The Sarajevo Haggadah is one of the first protected monuments in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This closely guarded symbol of Sarajevo has only left Bosnia three times.
Once she went to Vienna, the capital of Austria, for an appraisal, and another time for a day at an exhibition in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, and once in Budapest, writes Imamović.
No one knows its exact value, but in 1991, when the Spanish government requested that the Haggadah be exhibited in Madrid to mark the 500th anniversary of the Jewish exile, the National Museum Administration requested a guarantee of seven million dollars.
Historian Imamović believes that wealthy Jews would have spent more than a billion dollars on the purchase.
"Although the Haggadah legally belongs to Sarajevo and should remain preserved there, it should be available to all who wish to study and appreciate it - especially Israeli Jews, many of whom come from Spanish and Balkan Sephardic communities, such as those from Bosnia and Sarajevo, expelled from Spain in 1492 who brought with them precious Hebrew books."
"In that sense, the manuscript is also a silent witness to the plight of the Jewish people," Sabar concludes.
Why is Dodik offering something that isn't his as a gift?
Dodik's "offer" to Israel came half a year after the head of the Conference of European Rabbis, Finkas Goldschmidt, asked philanthropists to buy the Sarajevo Haggadah, even though it is not for sale.
"The Sarajevo Haggadah - an enduring symbol of Jewish survival, resilience and coexistence is now reduced to a political prop."
"The exploitation of Jewish heritage by the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina is extremely shameful and dishonorable," Goldschmidt wrote on Iks after learning that this museum The money from the sale of the Haggadah publication is donated to the people of Palestine..
The Museum's management justified the decision by claiming that "the people of Palestine suffer systematic, calculated and cold-blooded terror, directly from the state of Israel, and indirectly from all those who support and/or justify its shameless actions."
The latest conflict in the Middle East It began on October 7, 2023, when members of the extremist organization Hamas invaded Israel, killed 1.200, and took 251 hostages.
In the ensuing Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, more than 71.000 Palestinians were killed, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.
At the initiative of US President Donald Trump, the two sides agreed to a ceasefire agreement that has been in effect since October 2025.
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Dodik was among the first to react to the National Museum's move, calling the decision "an insult to the Jewish people and Israel."
The Embassy of Israel said it hopes that the BiH authorities will take all measures to ensure the preservation of one of the oldest and most beautiful documents "so that everyone can continue to enjoy it and so that Sarajevo can once again justify its own heritage as a symbol of interfaith and intercultural tolerance."
"However, if the behavior of the museum management poses a risk to the Haggadah, it may be necessary to consider a rescue operation and its transfer to an institution that respects and preserves the spiritual heritage of all religions," they added in a written response to the BBC in Serbian.
They also say that they "deeply appreciate the position of Dodik", whom they called the president in the statement, regarding the Jewish community of BiH, and especially Republika Srpska.
The update of the story about the Haggadah from late January 2026, on the eve of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, during Dodik's visit to Israel, "represents an expression of arrogance and hubris," analyst Topić says.
"In addition to flattering his hosts in Israel, he is also trying to flatter the Americans, belittling the Bosniak population and its statesmen, as unworthy of preserving the Jewish manuscript," he adds.
He believes that Dodik's goal is to send a message that only Serbs preserve heritage and culture. The Holocaust.
"This served as an 'argument' for him to point out radical Islam in BiH and standing on the defensive of 'defending Christian values', side by side with Trump and Netanyahu."
"Although he made an unrealistic and unachievable offer, Dodik does not care about the consequences of what he said; it was important to him that some official outside the borders of BiH accept him as a relevant politician," Topić believes.
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'A cheap political gesture'
Dodik's statement was condemned by the Interreligious Council (IRC), which includes the head of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Archbishop of Vrhbosna, and the Metropolitan of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
"There is no doubt that Dodik's offer to 'return' the Haggadah to Israel is an instrumentalization and abuse of the book and religion at the same time, especially due to the fact that the Haggadah has never been to Israel, nor does it belong to it historically or on any other basis," MRV responded to questions from the BBC.
For Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Sarajevo Haggadah has a multi-layered significance that far exceeds its artistic and religious value, says Sarina Bakić, professor of sociology at the Sarajevo Faculty of Political Sciences.
Therefore, it is not surprising that a medieval religious and artistic book is being used in today's political context.
"Therefore, calling for the 'return' of the Haggadah to Israel is an absolutely historically inaccurate claim, functions as a cheap political gesture to erase the Bosnian and Herzegovinian and Sephardic context of its preservation, and fits it into contemporary geopolitical games and problems."
"Such statements do not speak about the artifact itself, but about an attempt to instrumentalize the past in order to produce a desirable political reality," Bakić concludes.
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