dcnovice
Posts: 37282
Joined: 8/2/2006
Status: offline
|
Need a break from depressing news, religious strife, partisan mudslinging, and so forth? Then treat yourself to the December 3rd issue of The New Yorker and read "The Book of Exodus" by Geraldine Brooks. It's a classic example of the magazine at its best: drawing me into a world I'd known nothing about by weaving an amazing--and inspiring--tale. I'd keenly hoped to link to it, but alas, it's not online.
Dervis Korkut (1888-1969) was a Muslim scholar and, in 1941, chief librarian of the Bosnian National Museum in Sarajevo. That year, "after Yugoslavia tried to appease the Nazis by passing anti-Jewish laws, Korkut wrote a paper titled 'Anti-Semitism Is Foreign to the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina,' in which he explored the benign history of Bosnia's intercommunal relations and pointed out that Jews, rather than being the predatory financial manipulators of propaganda, were more likely to be found in the Bosnian underclass." He resisted "intense pressure to join a Fascist-leaning group known as the Young Muslims."
When the Nazis occupied Sarajevo in 1941, he defied their order to turn over the museum's "greatest treasure, a masterpiece of medieval Judaica known as the Sarajevo Haggadah. A Haggadah, from the Hebrew root 'HGD'--'to tell'--relates the story of the Exodus from Egypt." Instead, he took it to a mosque in a remote village. The imam, a friend, kept the book safe by hiding it "among Korans and other Islamic texts."
"[T]he rescue of a Jewish book may be what Dervis is best remembered for. But what really matters in the Korkut family is another rescue--of a young Jewish woman." Korkut and his wife sheltered Mira Papo in their home, "passing her off as a Muslim servant" who looked after their infant. The Muslim woman's veil, which my Western eyes often see as a form of oppression, was an invaluable tool for disguising the young fugitive. Papo stayed with the Korkuts for four months, until a relative was able to arrange for her escape to an unoccupied area. For hiding Papa, the Korkuts were later honored as Righteous Among the Nations by Israel. This sign tells more about them.
After the war, Korkut became "an outspoken critic of Yugoslavia's oppressive attitudes of religion, and of its new Prime Minister's plan to raze the old Ottoman buildings of Sarajevo and replace them with Soviet-style modernist blocks." He was tried on trumped of charges of, ironically, aiding the Fascists during the war and served six years in prison.
After Korkut's death his daughter, Lamija was amazed by the good works her father had done: "[S]o many people came to the house, saying, 'He helped me find a job,' 'He gave me loans,' 'He guaranteed my credit,' 'He found a flat for me.'"
I read Korkut's story tonight. It came as a timely reminder that Islam is more, much more, than fanatics in the streets of Sudan.
_____________________________
No matter how cynical you become,
it's never enough to keep up.
JANE WAGNER, THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF
INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE
|
Dervis Korkut: A Muslim Hero - 
Profile
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread