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| successor = Ibrahim Maglajlić {{small|(as [[Islamic Community of Yugoslavia#List of Grand Muftis (1930–1993)|Grand Mufti of Yugoslavia]])}}
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'''Mehmed Džemaludin [[Effendi|ef.]] Čaušević''' (28 December 1870 – 28 March 1938) was a [[Bosniaks|Bosnian Muslim]] theologian, thinker, educator, reformer, journalist, translator and linguist who served as the [[Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina#List of Grand Muftis|Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina]] from 1914 to 1930, during the period of the [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia]]. He was one of the most significant and influential Bosniak personalities of the 20th century.
==Early life==
Mehmed Džemaludin Čaušević was born in northwestern Bosnia, in the village of [[Arapuša]], near [[Bosanska Krupa]] on 28 December 1870. His earliest education was obtained at the hands ofby his father, Ali Hodža, who was a member of the local Islamic clergy. As a teenager, Čaušević was enrolled into the [[madrasa]] of the nearby city of [[Bihać]], where he attracted the attention of its foremost instructor, Mehmed Sabit Ribić (who was also the city’s [[Mufti]]).
==Education==
Čaušević was sent to [[Istanbul]] at the age of seventeen to receive a higher education in Islamic studies. While in the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] capital, he finished his education in Islamic Studies with high marks and subsequently enrolled in the empire’s law school, the ''Mekteb-i Hukuk''. It was here that heHe was first exposed to the [[Tanzimat|ongoing modernization]] that had been instituted in the empire over the last several decades.
ThereSources are sources indicating that during the summer months, while a student at the ''Mekteb-i Hukuk'', Čaušević would, on invitation, travel back to Bosnia to speak at various venues. It was already apparent from his lectures at this time that he was receptive to notions of both religious and societal reform. Moreover, he spent some time in [[Cairo]], where he intermittently attended the lectures of the famous [[Arabs|Arab]] reformer [[Muhammad Abduh]]. These lectures appear to have had a considerable impact on Čaušević since he refers to Abduh in his later writings as ''Ustaz-i muhterem'', “Respected Teacher.” Upon graduating from the ''Mekteb-i Hukuk'', in 1901, Čaušević departed from Istanbul and returned to Bosnia.
==Return to Bosnia and Herzegovina==
The turn of the 20th century was a period of great cultural and political transformation within [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], and it was also a time when Čaušević emerged as an individual who was well-versed and capable in both traditional Islamic [[theology]] as well as modern [[science]] and thought. The Bosnian Muslim society struggled to endure the psychological anxiety of being ruled by traditionally antagonistic forces (both Austria and later, [[Serbs|Serb]]-dominated Yugoslavia). As a result, tens of thousands of [[Bosniaks|Bosnian Muslims]] abandoned their homeland, seeking refuge in ''hicret'', or immigration, to lands still under Muslim rule.
Needless to say, this flight triggered not only considerable alterations to Bosnia and Herzegovina's demographic make-up, but an incredible [[Human capital flight|brain-drain]] on Bosnia and Herzegovina's Muslim society as well. Yet at a time when it was popular for educated and religious people to leave their land for what was left of the Ottoman Empire, Čaušević did the reverse by instead abandoning his residency in Istanbul and returning to his homeland to assist it inat a time when it was suffering through immense and painful transformations, a time when the continued existence of the Bosnian Muslim people came into serious question.
==Activities in Islam in Bosnia and Herzegovina==
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