Andras J. Riedlmayer
Destruction and Reconstruction of Bosnia's Cultural Heritage

Since 1985, Andras J. Riedlmayer has been bibliographer, in charge of the Documentation Center of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, at the Fine Arts Library, Harvard University. A native of Budapest, Hungary, he was educated in Germany and the United States. His academic involvement with Bosnia began 27 years ago when he wrote his senior thesis (A.B., History, University of Chicago) on "Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Congress of Berlin." He holds graduate degrees from Princeton University (M.A., Near Eastern Studies) and Simmons College (M.S., Library and Information Science).

He spent several years engaged in research and travel in the Middle East and the Balkans as a Fulbright Scholar in the 1970's, working in archives and manuscript libraries. He has published articles dealing with Ottoman history, Islamic architecture, and the study of manuscript sources, in journals such as Muqarnas: An Annual of Islamic Art and Architecture, Art Libraries Journal, The Turkish Studies Association Bulletin, Middle East Studies Association Bulletin and Harvard Ukrainian Studies.

On April 4, 1995, he testified on cultural destruction at a Congressional hearing on genocide in Bosnia. Along with several academic colleagues, he has recently launched an international project to track down and gather together microfilm copies of some of the unique manuscripts and documents that went up in flames when libraries and archives in Sarajevo, Mostar and other towns in Bosnia were burned down by nationalist extremists in 1992-93.