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Mehmed "Meša" Selimović was a writer from Bosnia and Herzegovina and one of the greatest writers in Serbo-Croatian of the 20th century. His most famous works deal with Bosnia and Herzegovina and the culture of the Bosniak inhabitants of the Ottoman province of Bosnia.
Selimović was born on April 26, 1910 in Tuzla, present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he graduated from elementary school and high school. In 1930, he enrolled to study the Serbo-Croatian language and literature at the University of Belgrade. In 1936, he returned to Tuzla to teach in the gymnasium that today bears his name. He spent the first two years of World War II in the hometown Tuzla, where he was arrested for participation in the Partisan anti-fascist resistance movement in 1943.
During the war, Meša's brother, also a communist, was executed by partisans' firing squad for alleged theft, without trial; Meša's letter in defense of the brother was to no avail. That episode apparently affected Meša's later contemplative introduction to Death and the Dervish, where the main protagonist Ahmed Nurudin fails to rescue his imprisoned brother.
Selimović started writing fairly late: his first book, collection of short stories Prva četa (The First Company) was published in 1950. However, his novel Death and the Dervish (Derviš i smrt, 1966) was widely received as a masterpiece. The novel reflected Selimović's own torment of the execution of his brother; the story speaks of the futility of one man's resistance against a repressive system, and the change that takes place within that man after he becomes a part of that very system.
Selimović was born on April 26, 1910 in Tuzla, present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he graduated from elementary school and high school. In 1930, he enrolled to study the Serbo-Croatian language and literature at the University of Belgrade. In 1936, he returned to Tuzla to teach in the gymnasium that today bears his name. He spent the first two years of World War II in the hometown Tuzla, where he was arrested for participation in the Partisan anti-fascist resistance movement in 1943.
During the war, Meša's brother, also a communist, was executed by partisans' firing squad for alleged theft, without trial; Meša's letter in defense of the brother was to no avail. That episode apparently affected Meša's later contemplative introduction to Death and the Dervish, where the main protagonist Ahmed Nurudin fails to rescue his imprisoned brother.
Selimović started writing fairly late: his first book, collection of short stories Prva četa (The First Company) was published in 1950. However, his novel Death and the Dervish (Derviš i smrt, 1966) was widely received as a masterpiece. The novel reflected Selimović's own torment of the execution of his brother; the story speaks of the futility of one man's resistance against a repressive system, and the change that takes place within that man after he becomes a part of that very system.
