Gajret was a cultural society established in 1903 that promoted Serb identity among the Slavic Muslims of Austria-Hungary (today's Bosnia and Herzegovina).[1] After 1929, it was known as the Serb Muslim Cultural Society.[1] The organization was pro-Serb.
History
After the 1914 Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand leadership of the association was interned in Arad.[2]
The organization viewed that the South-Slavic Muslims were Serbs lacking ethnic consciousness.[3] The view that South-Slavic Muslims were Serbs is probably the oldest of three ethnic theories among the Bosnian Muslims themselves.[4] After the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Bosnian Muslims, feeling threatened by Catholic Habsburg rule, established several organizations.[4] These included, apart from Gajret, the Muslim National Organization (1906) and the United Muslim Organization (1911).[4] In 1912, after the death of Osman Đikić, the editing of Gajret was entrusted to Avdo Sumbul.[5]
Gajret's main rival was the pro-Croat Muslim organization Narodna Uzdanica,[6] established in 1924.[3] In interwar Yugoslavia, members experienced persecution at the hands of non-Serbs due to their political inclinations.[7] In this period association run a number of student dormitories in Mostar, Sarajevo, Belgrade and Novi Pazar.[2]
During World War II, the association was dismantled by the Independent State of Croatia.[8] Some members, non-Communists, joined or collaborated with the Yugoslav Partisans (such as M. Sudžuka, Z. Šarac, H. Brkić, H. Ćemerlić, and M. Zaimović[9]). Ismet Popovac and Fehim Musakadić joined the Chetniks.
In 1945, a new Muslim organization, Preporod, was founded in order to replace the pro-Serb Gajret and pro-Croat Narodna Uzdanica.[10] The former organizations voted for and were merged into Preporod.[10] In 1996 it was reestablished as a Bosniak cultural association.[7]
Notable members
- Osman Đikić (founder)
- Safvet-beg Bašagić (founder)
- Edhem Mulabdić (founder)
- Avdo Sumbul
- Osman Nuri Hadžić
- Ismet Popovac
- Fehim Musakadić
- Muhamed Sudžuka
- Zaim Šarac
- Husein Brkić
- Hamdija Ćemerlić
- Murat-beg Zaimović
See also
References
- 1 2 Allworth 1994, p. 125.
- 1 2 Aleksa Mikić (1971). Živan Milisavac (ed.). Jugoslovenski književni leksikon [Yugoslav Literary Lexicon] (in Serbo-Croatian). Novi Sad (SAP Vojvodina, SR Serbia): Matica srpska. p. 129.
- 1 2 Allworth 1994, p. 126.
- 1 2 3 Allworth 1994, p. 116.
- ↑ književnost, Institut za jezik i književnost u Sarajevu. Odjeljenje za (1974). Godišnjak Odjeljenja za književnost. Institut za jezik i književnost u Sarajevu. p. 101.
- ↑ Hoare 2007, pp. 132–133.
- 1 2 Hoare 2013, p. 41.
- ↑ Greble 2011, p. 121.
- ↑ Hoare 2007, p. 132.
- 1 2 Hoare 2013, p. 356.
Sources
- Allworth, Edward (1994). Muslim Communities Reemerge: Historical Perspectives on Nationality, Politics, and Opposition in the Former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-1490-8.
- Greble, Emily (2011). Sarajevo 1941–1945: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Hitler's Europe. Cornell University Press. pp. 15, 34–35, 39, 121, 124, 163, 235, 237. ISBN 978-0-8014-6121-7.
- Hoare, Marko Attila (2007). The History of Bosnia: From the Middle Ages to the Present Day. Saqi. pp. 131–133. ISBN 978-0-86356-953-1.
- Hoare, Marko Attila (2013). The Bosnian Muslims in the Second World War. Oxford University Press. pp. 41, 44, 68, 142, 126–7, 144–5, 171, 176, 356. ISBN 978-0-19-936531-9.