Title: Porodica Kurt iz Mostara
Description: After all the research and resources available for Kurt family members from Mostar, on the basis of their position in society then, we can say that their ancestors in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth century were members of the army of the Ottoman Empire. For carrying out military service they were given tymars i.e. feuds which generated income. After the conquest of parts of today’s Croatia and Hungary, they were received properties in that part of the empire, probably due to their warrior or other merits. They later moved to Lika, Perusic. Their nickname or surname was Kasumović. After taking Lika by Austria they fled to Bosnia. Around 1700, they came to Mostar and took the nickname / surname Kurt. They had several houses in the mahalle Carina in Mostar, where all Kurt family members lived. Thanks primarily to their military merits, they were received tymars which they later, either by  purchase and marriage, increased around Nevesinje (villages Kljuna, Sopilja, Bijenja), in West Herzegovina (Duvno, Broćanac Biograci and Široki Brijeg), Stolac (Dabrica and Trijebanj) and in the villages north of Mostar (Potoci, Humi and Lišani, Vrapčići, Goranci, Vihovići, Dobrč, Zijemlja) and south of Mostar (Žulja, Hodbina and Opine). These properties later became hereditary. They used to marry  members of the families belonging to the same social class.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, thanks to their incomes and abilities, they gained a place and reputation in Mostar, and gradually transformed into an ulema social class. They accepted the beginning of the industrial era passively. The value of their immovable properties were not invested in the creation of new value. In the period from 1908 to 1965, during the various agrarian reforms, they generally  lost their properties, and thus lost a place and influence in the new societies.

During the Ottoman Empire they belonged to the ruling class, firstly the military-feudal, and then the ulema class; during the Austro-Hungarian monarchy they belonged to the class of small landowners and religious intelligence. With the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Mostar Kurt family shared the fate of other Bosniaks, and came in a subordinate position and lost their properties. Some Kurt family  members learned  trades and became part of the working class, which in Bosnia and Herzegovina began to form between the two world wars. Other Kurt family  members  were educated and took their places in society according to their professions and skills.

Some famous people from Mostar Kurt family are:
(see family tree)

Hajji Ahmet – aga Kurt alemdar (1810 – 1895)
Hajji Ahmet – aga was a son of Hajji Nuhan – aga Kurt alemdar. He made it possible for the Franciscan church and monastery to be constructed in Siroki Brijeg by selling his property  in 1845. He was a witness and participant in the tumultuous events in Konak – the seat of the government of Mostar, just before entering of the troops of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in Mostar in 1878.

Hajji Fadil ef. Kurt muderis in Travnik (1845- 1893)
The son of Hajji Ahmet studied Islamic Studies for several years in Istanbul. After returning from his studies, he was appointed the muderis  of the madrasah in Travnik, where he taught all the religious subjects.

Hajji hafiz kurra Muhamed ef. Kurt muderis in Mostar (1850-1940)
He was the younger son of Hajji Ahmet. Around 1870 he went to study in Istanbul and returned to Mostar before the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878. He was the muderis of  Roznamedži Ibrahim ef. madrasah in Mostar.

Muhamed Šefket ef. Kurt mufti of Banja Luka and Tuzla (1879- 1963)
The son of Hajji Fadil  was a very progressive religious worker. He was constantly  elected  a member of the Supreme Waqf Parliament. During the Second World War he worked to protect the Serbs in Tuzla and their religious sites  and  was awarded for his  work after 1945.

Muhamed Kurt (1875- 1943)
He was the oldest son of  Mustafa who  was a son of Mehmed aga, a brother of Hadji Ahmet –aga Kurt alemdar. He was the first professional actor from Mostar who spent his  career  at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb in the period from 1903 to 1909.

Mehmed Dželaluddin Kurt (1876-1944)
The younger brother of actor Muhamed was a writer and lawyer. He was one of the first two Bosniaks who enrolled at the university in Zagreb. The first was Osman Nuri Hadžić in 1893. Mehmed  Dželaluddin was one of the founders of the Croatian singing club Hrvoje in Mostar. In Zagreb he was a member of the committee and commissioner of the Croatian Relief Association Napredak for Croatia and Slavonia. He was the author of a  book with a collection of sevdalinkas issued in 1902.

Husnija Kurt (1900 – 1959)
He was the fifth child of Hajji hafiz kurra Muhamed, a muderis in Mostar. He was a teacher in the Mostar High School and participant to create a new Yugoslavia and Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Second World War. He was also a member of the presidency of AVNOJ and ZAVNOBiH  in Jajce and Mrkonjić Grad in 1943.

Kurt family gave some artists: Zlata Kurt, a screenwriter from Sarajevo, a daughter of Husnija, and her son  Aleš Kurt, a film and theater director from Sarajevo, and Ismet Kurt, a son of Salih from Mostar. Ismet’s copper engravings  represented Bosnia and Herzegovina at the World Expo in Shanghai in 2010.

The family, especially the descendants of Muhamed Šefket from Tuzla, gave dozens of doctors, lawyers, engineers and teachers.

At the beginning of the twenty first century there are five main branches of Mostar Kurt family  of unequal size –  three branches  live in Mostar, one in Tuzla and Zagreb, and one in Sarajevo and Visoko.
Subjects: Genealogy, Biography