Gajret

Gajret was a cultural society established in 1903 that promoted Serbian identity among the Slavic Muslims of Austria-Hungary (today's Bosnia and Herzegovina).[1] After 1929, it was known as the Serbian 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 Muslims were Serbs lacking ethnic consciousness.[3] The view that 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

See also

References
  1. Allworth 1994, p. 125.
  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.
  3. Allworth 1994, p. 126.
  4. Allworth 1994, p. 116.
  5. književnost, Institut za jezik i književnost u Sarajevu. Odjeljenje za (1974). Godišnjak Odjeljenja za književnost. Institut za jezik i književnost u Sarajevu. p. 101.
  6. Hoare 2007, pp. 132–133.
  7. Hoare 2013, p. 41.
  8. Greble 2011, p. 121.
  9. Hoare 2007, p. 132.
  10. Hoare 2013, p. 356.

Sources
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