Muhamed Filipović (3 August 1929 – 26 February 2020) was a Bosnian academic, writer, essayist, theorist and philosopher. As a young man he took part in the communist takeover of power and

Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene: , or the National Liberation Army, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska (NOV), Народноослободилачка војска (НОВ); mk, Народноослобод ...

in 1945. He worked as a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy at the

University of Sarajevo The University of Sarajevo ( Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian: ''Univerzitet u Sarajevu'' / Sveučilište u Sarajevu / Универзитет у Сарајеву) is a public university located in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the larges ...

. Some authors see him as one of the leading late 20th and early 21st century Bosniak academics.

Early life

Filipović was born on 3 August 1929 in

Banja Luka Banja Luka ( sr-Cyrl, Бања Лука, ) or Banjaluka ( sr-Cyrl, Бањалука, ) is the second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the largest city of Republika Srpska. Banja Luka is also the ''de facto'' capital of this entity. I ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

, then a part of the

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 unt ...

to Sulejman Filipović and his wife Đula. His mothers first cousins were Džafer and

Osman Kulenović Osman Kulenović (15 December 1889 – 7 June 1947) was a Yugoslav politician and lawyer, most notable for serving as the Vice President of the Government of the Independent State of Croatia in 1941. Early life Osman Kulenović was born to a weal ...

. He bore the surname Filipović, not only after his father but also after his mother. The Filipović family from his paternal side hail from

Glamoč Glamoč ( sr-cyrl, Гламоч) is a town and municipality located in Canton 10 of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in southwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the foothills of Staretin ...

, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Career

Filipović graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and received his doctorate in 1960. He was a member and president of the

Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

. He worked as a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the

. He published 56 books, some of which have been translated into other languages. His book “

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

– A Monograph of His Thought” has been translated into Danish, Swedish, French, Bulgarian, Slovak, Italian and Chinese. He was a founder and leader of the Muslim Bosniak Organization (MBO). At the beginning of the

Party of Democratic Action The Party of Democratic Action ( bs, Stranka demokratske akcije; abbr. SDA) is a Bosniak nationalist, conservative political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina. History The Party of Democratic Action (SDA) was founded on 26 May 1990 in Sarajevo, ...

(SDA, est. 1990), the party also included a very influential secular nationalist grouping, led by

Adil Zulfikarpašić Adil Zulfikarpašić (23 December 1921 – 21 July 2008) was a prominent Bosniak intellectual and politician who was the vice president of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the Bosnian War of the 1990s, under Bosnia's first President ...

and Muhamed Filipović. He led a delegation and negotiated both with presidents of Croatia and Slovenia republics in SFRY, who invited Bosnia to join them on the planned path to secession, and later in June 1991, on behalf of SDA president

Alija Izetbegović Alija Izetbegović (; ; 8 August 1925 – 19 October 2003) was a Bosnian politician, lawyer, Islamic philosopher and author, who in 1992 became the first president of the Presidency of the newly independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ...

, Zulfikarpašić and Filipović met with SDS president

Radovan Karadžić Radovan Karadžić ( sr-cyr, Радован Караџић, ; born 19 June 1945) is a Bosnian Serb politician, psychiatrist and poet. He was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal Tr ...

Nikola Koljević Nikola Koljević (Serbian Cyrillic: Никола Кољевић; 9 June 1936 – 25 January 1997) was a Serbian politician, university professor, translator and an essayist, one of the foremost Yugoslavian Shakespeare scholars. In 2016, he was pos ...

and

Momčilo Krajišnik Momčilo Krajišnik (; 20 January 1945 – 15 September 2020) was a Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian Serb political leader, who along with Radovan Karadžić co-founded the Bosnian Serb nationalist Serb Democratic Party (Bosnia and Herz ...

to discuss the future status of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina. He then met with representatives of Serbia who invited Bosnia to stay. Both proposals were rejected by Bosniak leaders at the time. He considered especially tragic that proposal to stay in Yugoslavia together with Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro was rejected by

, after very successful negotiations with

Slobodan Milošević Slobodan Milošević (, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997 (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic of ...

, who agreed to all of his numerous demands - from Bosniak president and army chief of Yugoslavia to preserving unity of Bosnia within Yugoslavia. During the

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...

, he was the ambassador to the United Kingdom.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Filipovic, Muhamed 1929 births 2020 deaths People from Banja Luka Bosniaks of Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosniak writers Yugoslav dissidents Bosnia and Herzegovina philosophers 20th-century philosophers 20th-century Bosnia and Herzegovina historians Bosnian nationalism Burials at Bare Cemetery, Sarajevo Members of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina