Justice and Guilt: Death and the Dervish by Meša Selimović

A strong affinity between literature and law was a paramount theme in the 1990s. After that its prevalence flattened. But still there are some elements in it that appear to be worthy of reflection, though it is challenging if applied to concrete literary texts that develop a specific relation to judicial discourse. In this field of tension there emerges a hybrid construction which resists any clear or one-sided determination or classification. Such an exemplary text is the novel Death and the Dervish by Meša Selimović. Interweaving elements of ethical and juridical discourse, and natural and Islamic law, the novel approaches the unexplored terrain of relations between one’s own and a foreign law. This distinction culminates in contemplating the foreign as positive and one’s own as natural law. Natural law could be seen as the source of justice, while the positive is opposed to it. The main character, in the necessity of revenging the murdered brother, compromises with positive law, becomes Qadi, and takes part in the system only to experience the futility of his resistance. The way out of this cul-de-sac must be his own death. The crucial question, which remains unsolved, is whether his defeat seals the destiny of local culture in its conflict with Ottoman institutions and their materialization in Bosnia.