ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF PREPOROD, THE BOSNIAC CULTURAL ASSOCIATION

The process of modern cultural and educational association emerged in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a result of the new spirit of the time that was itself the expression of the altered socio-political and economic relations consequent on the establishment of Austro-Hungarian rule in 1878. At first, Bosniac societies were connected with the formation of reading rooms (kiraethana, from the Arabic qiraa', reading, and the Persian khane, meaning house), as the most appropriate establishments for Bosniacs to meet and advance their social life, given their existing traditions. It was only with the formation of the cultural and educational society known as Gajret, in 1903, however, that there emerged the first high-quality, mass, organized form of Bosniac cultural association and spiritual affirmation. During its forty years of existence, the society was twice banned: from 1914 to 1918, when it was handed over to the Vakuf-mearif Board (Ar. waqf, religious endowment; maa'rif, the plural of ma'rifa, knowledge) to manage, and from 1941 to 1945 when the Ustasha authorities ordered that its property be taken over by the Narodna uzdanica society. When the war came to an end, Gajret soon started up again, on 3 July 1945, only to merge with the newly-founded Muslim cultural association known as Preporod, on 15 November that same year.... Opširnije