REVIVALIST IDEAS OF MEHMED EF. HANDŽIĆ

Abstract

UDK 28:929 Handžić M.
          28-725-4/-5:929 Handžić M.

This article relates about the intellectual engagements and the revivalist ideas of Mehmed Handžić, one of the most remarkable scholars of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the first half of twentieth century, and this year marks the 70th anniversary of his passing away. Many authors have considered Mehmed Handžić and Džemaludin Čaušević to be the two supreme intellectual figures amongst BiH ullama in the first half of the twentieth century. Through his comprehensive engagements Mehmed ef Handžić identified himself with his people. In only sixteen years of his work in religious, education, cultural and humanitarian spheres as well as in academic research work he produced remarkable results. He wrote over three hundred titles (books, monographs, articles, textbooks etc.) related to all the fields of Islamic and Bosniak culture and tradition. In this article I intend to point out some segments of his revivalist engagement and mark a number of his ideas thereof. The primary aim in his revivalist ideas is a moral awakening of Bosnian Muslims. It can be established with a confidence that he was the most respectable representative of moderate traditional Bosnian ullama in the twentieth century.