 | |
| Formation | 1903 |
|---|---|
| Founders | Osman Đikić Safvet-beg Bašagić Edhem Mulabdić |
| Defunct | 1941 |
| Headquarters | Sarajevo |
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.
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]
