The Prohibition of the Participation of the Delegation of Muslims of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in the General Islamic Congress in Egypt, 1926

The Caliphate Between Religion and Politics:

Abstract

UDK
28-74-784(=497.1):348:[342.53(620)“1926“

With the aim of re-establishing the caliphate following its abolition in 1924, the General Islamic Congress was organized in Cairo in early May 1926. Representatives of all Muslim peoples were invited to this gathering, including representatives of the Bosniaks. Although, in his correspondence with the state authorities of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the Reis al-ʿUlamāʾ explicitly emphasized that the issue was exclusively religious in nature and requested that the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Muslim delegation be allowed to participate in the congress, the state authorities denied permission for their departure to Cairo, justifying their decision on political grounds. Based on archival materials from the Gazi Husrev-beg Library in Sarajevo, the author presents correspondence between the Ulema-Medžlis and the Ministry of Religion of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes concerning the participation of representatives of Bosnian-Herzegovinian Muslims in the Cairo Congress of 1926.