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Prof. Draženko Đurović, PhD
University of Istočno Sarajevo, Faculty of Philosophy, Istočno Sarajevo, Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina

 

THE NATIONAL QUESTION OF THE MUSLIMS OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA ACCORDING TO THE ATTITUDES OF MUHAMED HADŽIJAHIĆ IN 1960

Vol. XLIV, 2/2026, pp. 449–470
https://doi.org/10.29362/ist20veka.2026.2.dju.449-470

 

ABSTRACT/RESUME:

In 1960, Muhamed Hadžijahić addressed the party and state leadership in writing “anonymously,” seeking—on the eve of the population census planned for the following year—to encourage a decision by the communist authorities to finally “recognize” and confirm the national distinctiveness of Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Within this endeavor, he suggested the affirmation of the national name Bosnian (Bosanac) and articulated a narrative containing elements that indicate his alignment with the Bosniak national concept. However, given that both before and after 1960 he displayed deviations from this standpoint, it is difficult to assess the actual degree of consistency in his advocacy and promotion of Bosniak national ideology. This fact supports the view of a chronic disorder and instability within the Muslim intelligentsia in articulating a national orientation, and it contributes to an understanding of the reasons behind the delayed development of the national identity of the Islamic population in Bosnia and Herzegovina. On the other hand, although historical developments have shown that it lacked sufficient capacity to definitively constitute a modern nation, identification with the legacies of the Ottoman period—above all with religion—prevailed among Hadžijahić, as well as among a significant portion of Muslim intellectuals and, more broadly, the Islamic population in the central Yugoslav republic. From this identification emerged the contours of one of the most significant phenomena and problems of Bosnian-Herzegovinian society. Specifically, the issues and themes that Muhamed Hadžijahić raised in his 1960 letter vividly confirm that Muslim identity sensibilities, expressed through affiliation with the “Turkish faith,” and the anti-Ottoman content drawn from Serbian history and literature, embedded within the state cultural model, were mutually incompatible and fundamentally opposed to one another. As such, they constituted a factor with strong potential to fundamentally antagonize interethnic relations between Serbs and Muslims.

 

KEYWORDS: Muhamed Hadžijahić, Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the national question, League of Communists of Yugoslavia

 

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