H. MEHMED-EF. HANDŽIĆ IN MEMORIAM

U povodu 57. godišnjice preseljenja na ahiret

Abstract

H. Mehmed ef. Handzić was born on December 16, 1906 in Sarajevo were he completed rushdiya (Muslim junior high school) and Shariah Junior High School. He enrolled at Cairo's Al-Azhar University in 1926 and graduated from there in 1930. Upon his return in Sarajevo he continued his work as a prominent and well-respected intellectual. He came down in the Bosnian history namely as a chief driving force behind the resolutions condemning prosecution of Serbs, Jews, Gypsies and Bosniacs aswell as all other prosecuted minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the NDH (Independent Croatian State) rule. In 1932 he was employed by Ghazi-Husrav bay's madrasah and in 1937 by Ghazi-Husrav bay's library, as a librarian. During the 1939/40 school year he was named a professor at theSenior Shariah Theological School, where he taught Tafsir andFundamentals of Shariah. He was a member of the Steering Boardof "Merhamet", a Muslim charity, a member of the top management of "AlHidaya", an organization of Muslim clerics and of theirmagazine published under the same name (which he also edited for sometime). He also led the "National Salvation" council, established August26, 1942. This council brought together all Bosniac organizations, communities and associations with the main goalof securing physical and spiritual survival of Bosniacs in theface of terrible atrocities. He died on July 29, 1944 in Sarajevo hospital, after a simple appendix operation. Suspicionsregarding the circumstances of his death were the matter of public concern, having in mind his high standing and thesimplicity of the surgery.

Footnote Majlis of the Islamic community of Sarajevo will in the nextperiod mark anniversaries of death of famous Sarajevo ulama.The 57th anniversary of death of H. Mehmed ef. Handzić was marked on August 26 in Careva mosque after maghrib prayers with theappropriate program. This article was a lecture presented duringthis program, brought here in full.