Mehmed Spaho

Mehmed Spaho was born on March 13, 1883, in Sarajevo into an influential mercantile family. Earning a doctorate in law from the University of Vienna in 1908, Spaho became the undisputed political representative of Bosniaks in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia).

Founding leader of the Yugoslav Muslim Organization (JMO), Spaho served as Minister of Trade, Industry, and Transport in successive royal cabinets. His legendary negotiation of Article 135 in the 1921 Vidovdan Constitution (known as the 'Turkish Paragraf') preserved the six historical districts of Bosnia, preventing its territorial partitioning by larger neighboring powers. He died mysteriously in a Belgrade hotel in 1939 during negotiations over the Cvetković-Maček agreement.