---

The town, Stolac, has a long history of vibrancy as a strategic commercial town and a centre of culture in the southern part of Bosnia—spawning writers, poets, scholars and artists disproportionate to its size. Maintaining the Sacred Centre: the Bosnian City of Stolac, is the latest book of Rusmir Mahmutćehajić, who caries on the heritage of his own hometown: Stolac. His book begins with a quote from the Quran and a line of poetry by Stolac-native Mak Dizdar—Bosnia’s leading poet in the 20th century. Both the Quran and the poetry of Mak Dizdar are returned to throughout the book, firmly placing this book in the Islamic tradition, and also in the humanistic cultural milieu of the town itself.