Safvet-beg Bašagić

Dr. Safvet-beg Bašagić (6 May 1870 – 9 April 1934), also known as Mirza Safvet, was a Bosnian and Croatian writer. Described by historians as the "father of Bosnian Renaissance", he was one of the most renowned poets of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the turn of the 20th century. Bašagić co-founded the political journal Behar and founded the cultural society Gajret. In 1910, he was elected President of the Bosnian council. He is also well-known for his oeuvre of over seven hundred biographies that he compiled over decades.

Safvet-beg Bašagić
Born	Safvet Bašagić (1870-05-06)6 May 1870 Nevesinje, Bosnia Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Died	9 April 1934(1934-04-09) (aged 63) Sarajevo, Drina Banovina, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Resting place	Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, Sarajevo
Pen name	Mirza Safvet
Occupation	Writer
Language	Croatian
Nationality	Croat[1]
Citizenship	Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, Yugoslav
Education	University of Vienna
Relatives	Ibrahim-beg Bašagić (father) Lutfullah-beg "Bašaga" Redžepašić (grandfather) Almashanuma Čengić (mother) Dedaga Čengić (maternal grandfather) Smail-aga Čengić (maternal great-grandfather)

Life

Tomb of Safvet-beg Bašagić in Sarajevo

Bašagić was born into a Bosnian Muslim family in Nevesinje to a long line of nobles on 6 May 1870.^[2] He identified as a Croat.^[1][3] His maternal grandfather was Dedaga Čengić [bs], himself the son of agha Smail-aga Čengić (1780–1840). He finished his primary schooling in Konjic, Mostar, and Sarajevo. He received his doctorate at the University of Vienna, where he studied Arabic and Persian languages.

Bašagić was installed as the first parliamentary president of the Muslim National organisation in 1908.^[4] He taught Oriental languages at the University of Zagreb and was an associate of Silvije Strahimir Kranjčević.

As president of the Diet of Bosnia, Bašagić advocated either a unification of Bosnia and Herzegovina with Croatia^[5] or autonomy.^{[6][verification needed]}

Bašagić was curator of the Archaeological Museum in Sarajevo from 1919 to 1927.

Bašagić died in 1934 in Sarajevo and is buried in the cemetery of Gazi Husrev-beg's Mosque.

Works

The Bašagić collection of Islamic manuscripts and old books, which can be found in the holdings of the University Library in Bratislava, was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 1997.^[7] Part of this collection is available on-line from the World Digital Library^[8] and Digital Library of the University Library in Bratislava.^[9]

Bašagić collection of Islamic manuscripts

Bašagić in an Ottoman military uniform

Safvet-beg Bašagić was a collector, literary, journalist, poet, translator, professor, bibliographer, museum curator, and a politician. His collection of Islamic manuscripts and prints comprises Arabic, Persian, and Turkish works and rare Serbian and Croatian texts written in Arabic script.

Bašagić's collection also contains manuscripts, prints, works of medieval Islamic scholarly literature, and belles-lettres spanning the interval from the 12th to the 19th centuries. The 284 manuscript volumes and 365 printed volumes portray the more than a thousand-year-long development of Islamic civilization from its commencement to the beginning of the 20th century.

Bašagić attempted to deposit the collection in a more secure place than the Balkan region of his time. In the turmoil of the turbulent development of Balkan nations in the 19th and 20th centuries, his collection eventually found its haven of rest in the funds of the University Library, Bratislava.

The University Library in Bratislava makes considerable provisions for the protection of Bašagić's collection documents that are adequate to their worth and value. The entire collection has been professionally examined by Czech and Slovak scholars and is stored and used for scientific purposes. To adequately protect the original documents and ensure their preservation for future generations, the Library has decided to digitize the collection. Many items from the collection are already available online.^[9][10]

Bibliography

• Trofanda iz hercegovačke dubrave (1894)
• Kratka uputa u prošlost Bosne i Hercegovine (1463-1850) (1900)
• Abdullah-paša (1900)
• Pod ozijom ili krvava nagrada (1905)
• Misli i čuvstva (1905)
• Gazi Husrev-beg (1907)
• Uzgredne bilješke I (1907)
• Najstariji ferman begova Čengića (1907)
• Bošnjaci i Hercegovci u islamskoj književnosti I (Bosnians and Herzegovinians in Islamic literature) (1912)
• Izabrane pjesme (1913)
• Opis orijentalnih rukopisa moje biblioteke (1917)
• Nizamul-Alem (translation, 1919)
• Najstarija turska vijest o Kosovkom boju (1924)
• Mevlud (1924)
• Omer Hajjam: Rubaije (translation, 1928)
• Znameniti Hrvati - Bošnjaci i Hercegovci u Turskoj carevini (Illustrious Croats - Bosnians and Herzegovinians in the Ottoman empire) (1931)