ACADEMICIAN MIDHAT BEGIĆ (1911-1983)

Midhat Begić was born in Koraj, on 12 August 1911, in a renowned family of imams, Begić, and one of the most numerous families in Koraj. It engendered a great number of distinguished imams, muderrises, kadis, university professors, journalists, diplomats, lawyers, sociologists, doctors, engineers etc. Ibrahim-ef. Begić, the father of academician Midhat Begić, was one of the most respected personalities in the history of Koraj. For over 50 years, he served as an imam in the Čaršijska Mosque in Koraj. Even before 1914 he has a very rich home library. His main reading was Al-Ghazali, and he had all his works, as well as other mufassirs, all the way to Dž.(emaludin) Čaušević, who often visited Ibrahim-effendi. Even before the First World War, as an Aljamiado writer, he collaborated with newspapers Tarik, Misbah and Muallim, which were printed in Arebica script, and after 1918 he had his works published in newspapers such as Novo vrijeme, Gajret, Glasnik IVZ and others. Midhat's mother Fatima also came from a renowned family of ilmijas, the Abdurahmanovićs.

It was in such a family and spiritual environment that Midhat Begić grew up. In one review of his early childhood entitled “A letter to friend M”, he described Dž. Čaušević as a dear and frequent guest in his father's house, and wrote as follows: “I met Dž.(emaludin) Čaušević when I was a child, since my father was his supporter and a collaborator in his publications, and this burly man, made the impression of a wonderful guardian, was a permanent and often sudden guest at our home, and I used to pour water on his hands, like I did for my father and others, which I considered a recognition, appreciation” (A. Hamzić, 173).

Annex 1: Ibrahim-ef, Begić (1889-1971.), the imam at the Čaršijska Mosque in Koraj, father of academician Midhat Begić. (In the obituary of Ibrahim-ef. Begić we read the following: “A retired imam-registrar, longtime member of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Religious Community”. The janazah prayer for the deceased Ibrahim-effendi in front of the Čaršijska Mosque in Koraj was led by raisu-l-ulama Sulejman-ef. Kemura, on 25 June 1971. In: A. Hamzić, Koraj: sjećanje na jednu čaršiju, 195.

Ibrahim-ef. initiated founding of the reading room in Koraj and was its first president. As early as from 1912, understanding trends of the time, he ran German courses for youth of Koraj. At the beginning of the Second World War, he clearly expressed his anti-fascist orientation. He was an active collaborator of the People's Liberation Movement (PLM), same as his children. He had four sons and four daughters with his wife Fatima. He realized the importance and necessity of educating children in time, and made sure to send them to schools and universities, providing various kinds of support through charities. Thus, his son Midhat, an academician, was a professor of University of Sarajevo and a lecturer at Sorbonne in Paris; his son Muhidin, a member of vanguard of the People's Liberation Struggle was a diplomat, an ambassador in Poland and Turkey; his son Fahrudin was a professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Sarajevo and his son Muhamed a distinguished publicist.

Thus, academician Midhat Begić, draws origin from an aristocratic family Begić, from Koraj. He completed the primary school in his hometown, and then Sharia High School in Sarajevo. From 1930 to 1934 he studied his native language, French and Italian at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, where he received the bachelor's degree. He worked as a teacher at the academies of commerce in Novi Sad and Banja Luka until 1938, and then he decided to go to a study visit in Paris, in pursuit for new knowledge.

After education in Paris, he returned to Sarajevo with his wife Mauricette, and spent the war period (1941-1945) there, and was an underground collaborator with the People's Liberation Movement. Upon the end of the Second World War he was engaged in the ministry of culture, and from 1953 was a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo. In 1957 he launched a journal for literary and art critique entitled Izraz. He defended the doctoral dissertation in Lyon in 1958. From 1966 to 1969 he lectured literature at Sorbonne in Paris. He is the first teacher of this department who came from a Slavic university to make use of his excelling knowledge of Yugoslav and Slavic culture in general to give a new impetus to studies of this discipline at a Paris university (A. Hamzić, 311).

Čedo Kisić, a longtime editor-in-chief of the journal for culture and social issues Odjek, recorded the following about Begić: “With a zeal of romantic enthusiast, Midhat Begić built bridges between national literatures, fathoming a complex dialectics of their mutual relations. He continuously engrossed himself in European and world literary and art trends, never losing touch with his homeland, and with an equal respect approached work of writers regardless of their nationality, searching for distinctive creativity in their work and the sign of it, and finding his word about them” (Č. Kisić, 14).

In his report entitled “About literary trends in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1945 to this day”, which he submitted in 1970, at the ceremony of marking the 25th anniversary of the existence of publishing house “Svjetlost“, he was critical of literary trends and views of literature in Bosnia and Herzegovina, advocating the name “literature of Bosnia and Herzegovina” and, as he pointed out, “it makes sense to also discuss Muslim (even Jewish) writers in Bosnia and Herzegovina and their literature” (Š. Filandra, 260).

In Begić's biography, as A. Hamzić points out, “it does not suffice to say that he was a writer, literary critic and theoretician, a professor of University of Sarajevo and Sorbonne in Paris, editor-in-chief of literary journals, an aesthetician and the creator of modern essayist style of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a full member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnian and Herzegovina, and a receiver of highest social recognitions, since his spiritual figure by far transcends the standard meaning of the listed facts and places him among selected envoys of the spiritual constellation” (A. Hamzić, 309).

Annex 2: Ibrahim-ef. Begić with his sons in 1947: Fahrudin, Muhidin, Midhat and Muhamed. (A. Hamzić, Koraj: sjećanje na jednu čaršiju, 441.)

Annex 3. Academician Midhat Begić, 1911-1983. (A. Hamzić, Koraj: sjećanje na jednu čaršiju, 305.)

Midhat Begić in Koraj with friends

Trips to the homeland

When we make trips to our homeland, we return to our roots
and mark what has been preserved in our memory and feelings
and what keeps us as part of a whole with the environment, country and people,
and as a community which has its human features, its being and its shape
and which is not ashamed of itself.)

Midhat Begić

References

• Begić, Midhat, “Polazišta i poticaji”, Novi izraz, Sarajevo, Winter 1998, 3-8.

• Begić, Midhat, ”Književna kretanja u Bosni i Hercegovini od 1945. do danas (Draft)“, Simpozijum o savremenoj književnosti Bosne i Hercegovine, Svjetlost, Sarajevo, 1971, 72-73.

• Filandra, Šaćir, Bošnjačka politika u XX stoljeću, Sejtarija, Sarajevo, 1998.

• Hamzić, Alija, Koraj: sjećanje na jednu čaršiju, Harfograf, Tuzla, 2002.

• Ibrahimović, Nedžad, Čitalac sa raskršća: Uvod u Midhata Begića, Centar za kulturu i obrazovanje, Tešanj, 2001.

• Kapidžić-Osmanagić, Hanifa, “Ličnost nesumnjivog moderniteta“, Oslobođenje, Sarajevo,  1.3.1985., 7.

• Kisić Čedo, “Listići o Begiću“, Novi izraz, Sarajevo, Winter 1998, 14.

• Kodrić, Sanjin, Midhat Begić i počeci zvaničnog priznavanja bosanskohercegovačke i bošnjačke književnosti, available at: https://www.biserje.ba/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/bosnjacka-i-bh-knjizevnost-KB-v1-223-243.pdf (accessed on 8.3.2023)