Korkut was born on 5 May 1888 in
Travnik to father Ahmed Munib Korkut and mother Šahida (née Biščević). He had four brothers and five sisters. One of his brothers, Besim, who was an
Arabic professor, translated the
Quran into
Bosnian. Early in his life, Korkut wanted to become a doctor, but after urging from his parents to continue learning, he went to study in
Istanbul and at the
Sorbonne. In addition to his native
Bosnian, Korkut spoke
Turkish,
Arabic,
French and
German. He was mobilized into the
Austro-Hungarian army in July 1917 as a military imam at the rank of II Class captain. He worked as a chief in the Muslim section of the Ministry of Religions in
Belgrade from 1921 to 1923, when he was forced to resign due to pressure from members of the
People's Radical Party. Until 1937 he worked as a curator of the
National Museum of Montenegro in
Cetinje and at the
Riyaset of the
Islamic Religious Community. In 1940 he married Servet Ljuž, an
Albanian from
Kosovska Mitrovica. With her, Korkut had three children. On 6 April 1941,
Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers of
Nazi Germany and
Fascist Italy. After a short campaign that lasted just 12 days, the
Yugoslav Army surrendered on 17 April. The Nazis established the
Independent State of Croatia, a puppet state that controlled all of modern-day
Croatia,
Bosnia and Herzegovina and parts of
Serbia, led by
Ante Pavelić. His
Ustaše militias became notorious for their violent policies against the
Serb,
Jewish and
Romani populations in the region. In early 1942, the German commander
Johann Fortner arrived in Sarajevo to take the
Sarajevo Haggadah. Korkut grabbed the Haggadah from the vault, after which he tucked in his coat just minutes before the general arrived. During a meeting in the museum office, Fortner demanded the employees to hand over the manuscript. The employees convinced him that a German officer already had the manuscript, but refused to disclose who possessed it. Later that afternoon, he drove out of the city to a remote village where he gave his friend who was imam of a local mosque the book. The Haggadah was hidden among several
Qurans and other sacred Islamic texts where it was saved from destruction. It was returned intact to the museum at the end of the war. In April 1942, Korkut came across Mira Papo, a nineteen year old Jewish girl. Mira and her family were previously arrested by the Ustaše and was taken to a women's camp. Her father Salomon, who worked as a custodian in the Finance Ministry was taken to the
Jasenovac concentration camp, where he perished. Mira escaped and joined the
Yugoslav Partisans shortly afterwards. However, many of her comrades were killed and Papo returned to Sarajevo where she came across a friend of her father's who sympathized with her situation. Korkut heard about her and snuck her out to his home. She was given a veil and the Korkuts said she was a girl named Amira who was a house servant. Derviš and Besim also contributed to the signing of a
resolution condemning atrocities committed against Serbs and Jews living in the Independent State of Croatia. Mira stayed with them for months until August 1942, when a family member living in the
Italian occupied zone gave her a train ticket to travel toward the Adriatic where she hid out for the rest of the war. The Italians
interned Jews escaping from the Nazis and Ustaše, but they were treated better and allowed sanctuary. In 1994, Derviš and Servet were awarded the
Righteous Among the Nations for their actions during the Holocaust. ==Legacy==