Muslim, educated and well-dressed: Gajret’s self-civilizing mission in interwar Yugoslavia

Abstract

This article addresses the activities of Gajret, the most important Muslim cultural association in the Yugoslav space of the first half of the twentieth century. Established in 1903 in Sarajevo, the association managed in its four decades of existence to involve thousands of activists of both sexes in its activities, and to organize a network of local branches reaching even beyond the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Initially established to provide scholarships for Muslim male pupils, the association gradually diversified its activities, published journals and books, provided literacy and handiwork courses, established student dorms and workshops, and much more. The text will focus on two aspects of the association’s life: firstly, its relationship with the state authorities, and how this relationship shifted over time, from cooperation, to opposition, to co-optation. Secondly, the article will focus on the association’s gender agenda, discourses and practices, with a special focus on Muslim women. At the intersection between these two research questions, the thesis of this article posits that Gajret’s self-civilizing project aimed to foster new generations of modern, nationally aware Muslim men and women capable of playing an active role in the emerging Yugoslav middle class.

Keywords:

• Islam
• nationalism
• gender
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• post-Ottoman

Notes

1. Clayer and Bougarel, Les musulmans de l’Europe du Sud-Est, 118.

2. “Proslava 25-godišnice Gajreta u Prnjavoru,” Gajret 1 (1929): 26.

3. Idem.

4. Idem, 28.

5. See in particular Sorabji, “Mixed Motives,” 108–27. More recently, see also Raudvere and Spahić-Šiljak, Bosnian Muslim Women’s Rituals.

6. There are several publications in the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian language dedicated to this association or to one of its local sections. The book that remains, without a doubt, the most important is Kemura, Uloga Gajreta. For an exhaustive overview of the History of Bosnian Muslims in post-Ottoman times, see in particular Bougarel, Survivre aux empires and Clayer and Germain, Islam in Inter-War Europe.

7. On early voluntary associations in Bosnia, see in particular Kruševac, Sarajevo pod austro-ugarskom upravom, and Mikić, Banjaluka.

8. On the Orthodox-Serbian cultural association Prosvjeta (‘Education’, established in 1902 in Sarajevo) see Madžar, Prosvjeta. On the Catholic-Croatian organization Napredak, (‘Progress’, established in Mostar in 1902 and in Sarajevo in 1903) see Išek, Mjesto i uloga HKD Napredak.

9. Giomi, “Forging Habsburg Muslim Girls.”

10. Karić, Prilozi, 19–122. Karčić, Društveno-pravni aspect, 198–209.

11. Kemura, Uloga Gajreta, 27–42.

12. Kemura, Uloga Gajreta, 51.

13. Idem, 108. On nationalism in Bosnia before the Great War, see in particular Hajdarspasić, Whose Bosnia? and Okey, Taming Balkan Nationalism.

14. On the activities of the JMO in the 1920s, see Purivatra, Jugoslovenska Muslimanska Organizacija. For the 1930s, see Hasanbegović, Jugoslavenka Muslimanska Organizacija.

15. Kemura, Uloga Gajreta, 156.

16. Rebac, “Osman Ðikić,” 128.

17. Kemura, Uloga gajreta, 157–62.

18. Troch, Nationalism and Yugoslavia, 44.

19. Papić, Školstvo, 21.

20. Kujraković, “Odnos bošnjaka.”

21. Kemura, Uloga Gajreta, 308.

22. Archive of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereon ABIH) – FG – 1102, Regulation for Gajret Student Dorms in Yugoslavia (1921).

23. Idem.

24. Historical Archive of Sarajevo (hereon HAS) – G4 – 204/34 – Director of Gajret Female student dorm to the Central Branch (1934).

25. Kemura, Uloga Gajreta, 290.

26. Kemura, Uloga Gajreta, 206.

27. “Zapisnik,” Gajret 10 (1932): 225.

28. ABIH – FG – 13 – 2847, Hasanbegović to the Minister of Education (30 June 1932).

29. For an analysis of this point, see in particular Troch, Nationalism and Yugoslavia, 119–21.

30. ABIH – FG – 13 – 3236, Hasanbegović to the Minister of Education (6 October 1932).

31. ABIH – FG – 13 – 3401, Higher Chief of the Islamic Religious Community of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to Gajret Central Branch (14 October 1932).

32. Kemura, Uloga Gajreta, 210–13.

33. Rajčević “Revolucionarna bosanskohercegovačka omladina” and, more recently, Pavlaković, The Battle for Spain is Ours.

34. “Izvještaj Glavnog Odbora Gajreta za godinu 1936–7,” Gajret 7–9 (1937): 116.

35. HAS – G4 – 678/37, Central Branch to the Student Dorms (1937).

36. ABIH – FG – Local Branch in Mostar to the Central Branch (1937).

37. Yugoslav Archive (hereon AJ)-720-NSP672 Flyer of the Youth of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1938).

38. Kemura, Uloga Gajreta, 236.

39. Kemura, Uloga Gajreta, 245–6.

40. ABIH, FG – 10 – 3517 Local female branch in Tešanj to the Central branch (13 August 1931).

41. Karić, Prilozi.

42. Giomi, “Daughters of Two Empires,” 1–18.

43. For both female and male voices asking for stronger engagement of Muslim women in the public space, see in particular “Osvitanje,” Pravda 5 (March 4, 1919): 1, and Ðumišić, Ko smeta napretku i prosvjećivanju muslimana.

44. Kujraković, “Osvitanje.”

45. Dautović, Uloga El-Hidaje; Jahić, Hikjmet, 77–82, Jahić, Islamska zajednica, 472–6.

46. “Portreti gajretovih radnika,” Gajret 12 (1931): 299.

47. Idem.

48. “Zapisnik XXIV redovne glavne Skupštine,” Gajret 11 (1930): 402.

49. HAS – FG – 5, Gajret Statutes (1932): 12.

50. Kemura, Uloga Gajreta, 266.

51. “Jedan apel Narodnog ženskog Saveza,” Domovina 100 (1921): 1–2.