The 1942/1943 Edition of Uskufi’s Dictionary With the Foreword by Derviš M. Korkut

Abstract

The publication of a dictionary Makbul-i arif by Muhamed Hevai Uskufi in 1943 in what was then Glasnik hrvatskih zemaljskih muzeja u Sarajevu (lit.trans. The Gazette of the Croatian National Museum in Sarajevo), regardless of the contemporaneous socio-political context, is an indispensable cultural and historical fact. The author Derviš M. Korkut in the text of his Foreword expresses unambiguous recognition and respect for Uskufi’s and his mother tongue the Bosnian language, but as a concession to time he calls that language Croatian and writes in ‘root’ Croatian spelling, which was then editorial and linguistic policy of the “Glasnik”. Korkut, as the elite educated intellectual and expert in the Turkish studies, presents several other bold points with which later science has led controversy. The paper also provides bio-bibliographical information on the editor Korkut and touches on some important literary and lexicological aspects of Uskufi’s Dictionary.