Footnote #4, "99 mahalas of whitewashed houses punctuated by 99 slender minarets":
The number 99 has special connotation in Islam, as it is associated with the 99 names of God. However the intrepid Evlija Celebi, who taveled the Ottoman world, wrote in the 16th century that Sarajevo "has about 104 mahalas, ten of which are inhabited by Serbs and two by Jews. There is no Catholic Mahala beause the Catholics come to town only for short stays." (Grabijan, 1951) p. 34. The 1841 registers list 100 Sarajevo Mahalles' by male population and by the number of households according to religion (Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Gypsy)(Nagata, 1979).
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