Cemâleddin Çauşeviç (1870-1938) - Life and achievements

This study is an attempt to shed light on the history of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina through life and work of religious leader Cemâleddin Causevic in the first half of the twentieth century. The life and work of the scholar of Bosnia and Herzegovina are being examined and the situation of Muslims in a certain historical period in the Balkans is also being discussed. For Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the end of the nineteenth century represents a sort of collapse of civilization. For all Muslims living within the borders of the Ottoman Empire, it meant being separated from spiritual center – Istanbul. The occupation, with the approval of the great powers, by Austria-Hungary in 1878 highlighted the beginning of a period in which Bosnian Muslims struggled to protect their identity. The main goal of this study is to determine the historical conditions and difficulties that occurred in the first half of the twentieth century for Bosnian Muslims following the life of Cemâleddin Causevic. The loss of religious identity of Bosniaks is closely connected to the military and political weakening of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkan. From the content of this study, it will be better understood what the Bosnian Muslims' attitude towards the Austro-Hungarian government and the religious order that emerged after 1878 was. With the advent of Cemâleddin Causevic, few changes have occurred in the historical and cultural developments of Bosnian Muslims. The basis of these changes and key points of Causevic's success are discussed in this study. Considering that the twentieth century has been a great century of chaos, great empires have disappeared, many independent states have been established, and the attitude of Causevic towards these historical phenomena is being examined. In each of the three sections of the study, the achievements of this scholar for Muslims in Bosnia and the Balkan are determined with a different approach. The study draws new conclusions about the life and work of this scholar by using many different sources. The results of the study confirm the thesis that Cemâleddin Causevic was one of the most important people for the religious and cultural advancement of Bosnian Muslims in the twentieth century.