Bosniaks

Bosniaks (in Bosnian: Bo?njaci) are a Southeast European ethnic group, descended from South Slavic converts to Islam and non-Slavic Islamic peoples in the Ottoman province of Bosnia. Although it is a point of contention as to their original religion - Bogomilism (Bosnian Church) or Catholicism - the term is currently used for all descendants of Islamic converts. They are named after Bosnia, the largest and most significant historical region of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina. Religiously speaking, the majority of Bosniaks are Sunni Muslims.

History

Pre-Slavic roots

The earliest well known inhabitants of the area now known as Bosnia and Herzegovina were the Illyrians. This ancient Indo-European people presumably arrived in the west Balkans around 2000 BC, overrunning the various old European cultures who lived there before them (such as the Butmir Culture in the vicinity of modern Sarajevo). Despite the arrival of the Celts in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE, the Illyrians remained the dominant group in the west Balkans until the arrival of the Romans.

Related Topics:
Illyrians - Indo-European - Old European cultures - Butmir Culture - Sarajevo - Celts

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Rome conquered Illyria after a series of wars, the final being the crushing of a rebellion by certain tribes in what is now central Bosnia around 9 CE. Latin-speaking settlers from all over the empire settled among the Illyrians at this time. The Roman province of Dalmatia included Herzegovina and most of Bosnia, and a strip of northern Bosnia, south of the Sava River, was part of the province of Pannonia. The Vlachs, a historically nomadic people who live throughout the Balkans, speak a language derived from Latin, and are thought to be the descendants of Roman settlers and Romanized Illyrians. No longer present in a large number, they were absorbed into Bosnia's three main ethnic groups based on religion during the Ottoman period.

Related Topics:
Rome - 9 CE - Latin - Dalmatia - Pannonia - Vlachs

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It should be noted that Bosniaks, unlike other people whose land is named after an ancient ethnic name, derive their name from Bosnia (similar to Italians and Spaniards). The most commonly accepted theory regarding the origins of the name Bosnia is that it comes from the river Bosna, which has had a similar name since ancient times. That word itself is of either Latin or Illyrian origin.

Related Topics:
Italians - Spaniards - Bosna

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The Goths conquered Roman Dalmatia in the fifth century, and later the Alans, who spoke an Iranian language, and the Turkic Huns and Avars passed through what is now Bosnia. These invaders left few linguistic traces, and whatever remnant populations were left behind were absorbed by the Slavic wave that was to follow.

Related Topics:
Goths - Alans - Huns - Avars

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Genetic analysis of indigenousness

In 2005 various South European medical schools and institutions specializing in genetics did an analysis of the variation at 28 Y-chromosome biaUelic markers among a sample of males from throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, relatively equally split among all three major ethnic groups. The most notable find was the high frequency of the "Paleolithic European" halo group (Hg) I; specifically its sub-halo group I-P37. Indicative of Dinarics, the sub-halo group had a frequency of 71% among Bosnian Croats, 44% among Bosniaks, and 31% among Bosnian Serbs. A similar study in Croatia found that Croatian Croats had a frequency of about 45%, but that among them Croats in Dalmatia had a particularly high frequency (around two thirds).

Related Topics:
2005 - Genetics - Dinarics

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The high frequency of I-P37 among Croats in Bosnia and Dalmatia can be explained by the fact that Catholics in those regions historically mixed very little with other people. The smaller frequency among Croats in Croatia and Bosniaks is probably due to the various foreigners that were assimilated over the years. The study mentioned above confirmed that the Bosniak gene pool was impacted by foreigners from various regions in the Ottoman Empire more so than that of the other two groups, but not in a significant amount overall.

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It must be taken into account that out of the study's Bosniak subjects none came from Bosanska Krajina. Based on historical factors associated with the region, it could be expected that the inclusion of Bosniak subjects from this regions would have raised the frequency of I-P37 and Slav-associated sub-halo groups while lowering the frequency of Mediterranean related sub-halo groups among Bosniaks overall. Future genetic studies will hopefully shed more light on these issues. As it stands, current studies have shown that, genetically, Bosniaks are largely indigenous and have a large fraction of the ancient gene pool distinctive for the Balkan area.

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Medieval Bosnia

Slavs settled in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and the surrounding lands, which were then part of the Eastern Roman Empire, in the seventh century. The Slavic Serbs and Croats settled sometime after the first wave of Slavs. The Croats established a kingdom in what is now central Croatia and northwestern Bosnia. The Serbs settled in what is now central Serbia, and later expanding into the upper Drina valley of eastern Bosnia and into Eastern Herzegovina, known in the later Middle Ages as Zahumlje. The Croats to the west came under the influence of the Germanic Carolingian Empire and the Roman Catholic Church, and Croatia was closely tied to Hungary and later Austria until the twentieth century. The Serbs to the east came under periodic Byzantine rule, converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity and absorbed Byzantine cultural influences. After some centuries of rule by Croatia, Serb principalities, and the Byzantine Empire, an independent Bosnian kingdom flourished in central Bosnia between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries.

Related Topics:
Serbs - Croats - Carolingian Empire - Byzantine

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The subject of ethnicity in medieval Bosnia has been one of great debate ever since it was brought up in its current context by historians during the second half of the 19th century. All three ethnic groups in Bosnia have a different view on the matter, and this complex and sensitive subject has been further obscured by nationalism and propaganda through the ages. Proving their people as the true heirs of the medieval Bosnian state is important to many nationalists because they consider this indigenousness to have important implications in modern social, political, and interethnic issues. Simply put, however, there is no sign that the population of pre-Ottoman Bosnia and Herzegovina, in whichever social stratum, had developed Croatian or Serbian ethnic consciousness even in a medieval sense of the word. To quote Noel Malcolm from the book "Bosnia A Short History":

Related Topics:
19th century - Noel Malcolm

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:"As for the question of whether the inhabitants of Bosnia were really Croat or really Serb in 1180, it cannot be answered, for two reasons: first, because we lack evidence, and secondly, because the question lacks meaning. We can say that the majority of the Bosnian territory was probably occupied by Croats - or at least, by Slavs under Croat rule - in the seventh century; but that is a tribal label which has little or no meaning five centuries later. The Bosnians were generally closer to the Croats in their religious and political history; but to apply the modern notion of Croat identity (something constructed in recent centuries out of religion, history, and language) to anyone in this period would be an anachronism. All that one can sensibly say about the ethnic identity of the Bosnians is this: they were the Slavs who lived in Bosnia."

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The Bosnian Kingdom blended cultural influences from east and west; although nominally Roman Catholic, the Bosnian kings embraced elements of Byzantine culture and court ceremonial, and formed alliances and dynastic marriages with the neighboring rulers of both Croatian-Dalmatian and Serb states. Because of Bosnia's mountainous and inaccessible terrain and its remote location on the borderland between the Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, control by church authorities was weak. The religious situation was also peculiar because of the presence of an indigenous Bosnian Church (its adherents were known as kr?tjani, "Christians"). The kr?tjani were considered heretics by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. Modern historians have debated whether the Kr?tjani were a branch of the Bogomils, a Manichean sect which originated in Bulgaria, or whether they were members of the Catholic Church who had acquired some heretical beliefs and influences from Eastern Orthodoxy and fell into Schism. The latter is probably true.

Related Topics:
Bosnian Church - Roman Catholic Church - Orthodox Church - Bogomils - Manichean

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At its largest extent, under King Tvrtko Kotromanic, the Bosnian Kingdom included most of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the exception of north-western Bosnia, as well as parts of Dalmatia and western Serbia. Discord among his heirs weakened the kingdom after his death, and Bosnia and the Serb principalities to the east were unable to prevent Ottoman Turkish incursions into the western Balkans. The final Turkish conquest in 1463 marked the end of an independent Bosnia and the beginning of the influence of a third civilization, Islam.

Related Topics:
Tvrtko Kotromanic - Dalmatia - Serbia

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Ottoman rule

Historians have debated how and why the Slav population in Bosnia converted in such large numbers to Islam. The religious situation in Bosnia before the Turkish conquest was complex and unclear. Prior to 1463, Eastern Orthodoxy was probably limited to the upper Drina River valley and to eastern Herzegovina (Hum), which was predominantly Orthodox. The rest of Bosnia was nominally Roman Catholic, with a segment of the population belonging to an indigenous Bosnian Church (krstjani, "Christians"). The Krstjani were considered heretics by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. Modern historians have debated whether the Krstjani were a branch of the Bogomils, a Manichean sect which originated in Bulgaria, or whether they were members of the Catholic Church who had acquired some heretical beliefs and influences from Eastern Orthodoxy and fell into Schism. The latter is probably true . Part of the resistance of the Bosnian Church was political; during the fourteenth century, the Catholic Church placed Bosnia under a Hungarian bishop, and the schism may have been motivated by a desire for independence from Hungarian domination. Because of Bosnia's mountainous and inaccessible terrain and its remote location on the borderland between the Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, control by church authorities was weak. Historically it was thought that the Krstjani, who were persecuted by both the Catholics and the Orthodox, accounted for many of the converts to Islam. However, such an opinion is largely discredited among contemporary scholars (John Fine, Noel Malcolm, Maja Miletic, Srecko Dzaja) who pointed out that the number of adherents of Bosnian Church in the eve of Ottoman invasion did not surpass several hundred men and women and that the process of Islamization took more than three centuries.

Related Topics:
Bosnian Church - Roman Catholic Church - Orthodox Church - Bogomils - Manichean

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Although the Ottomans did not, as a rule, actively seek to convert their Christian subjects to Islam, it is thought that the greater rights afforded to Muslims in the Ottoman Empire motivated Christians to convert to Islam. The very loose control the Church had in Bosnia at the time undoubtedly also contributed to this. The Ottomans imported their feudal system to Bosnia after the conquest, and estates were granted to men, called spahis, in return for military service in times of war. At the beginning of the Ottoman period, these estates were usually, but not exclusively, granted to Muslims, and later only to Muslims. In Bosnia, these land grants gradually became hereditary, and by the end of the Ottoman period, a majority of the landowners in Bosnia were Muslims, and most Christians were peasants or serfs (raya). Christian and Jewish subjects of the Sultan paid a 'poll tax' from which Muslims were exempt. Slaves who converted to Islam could petition for their freedom, and it is possible that some of the Christians enslaved during the wars with Austria, Hungary, and Venice converted to Islam in order to secure their release.

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Many Christians became Muslims through the devsirme system, whereby boys were gathered from the Ottoman lands and were sent to Istanbul to convert to Islam and be trained as Janissary troops, servants of the Sultan or Ottoman officials. The system began in the fifteenth century and had ceased to operate by the middle of the seventeenth century, when the Ottomans shifted to a paid professional army and the title of Janissary became a symbol of rank. However, Janissaries served throughout the Ottoman Empire, and their descendants live throughout the former Ottoman lands. They had no right to marry until 1566, and even then could not marry until their retirement, although some Janissaries did return to Bosnia to raise families. Janissary settlers probably did not influence the demographics of Bosnia sigificantly, although many of Bosnia's Pashas and other officials were of Bosnian Christian origin through the devsirme system.

Related Topics:
Devsirme - Janissary - Ottoman Empire - 1566

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As the Ottoman Empire began to contract after the defeat at Vienna in 1683, many Muslim refugees from the lost Ottoman territories in Croatia, Slavonia, Hungary, and, later, Serbia found refuge in Bosnia, and were assimilated into the local Bosniak population.

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Traditionally, the Turkish authorities classed subjects of the Empire not by nationality, but by religion. During the nineteenth century, modern national consciousness began to increase among the south Slavs; some historians now believe that it was in this period that Catholic Bosnians increasingly began to think of themselves as Croats, and Orthodox Bosnians as Serbs. The beginnings of a Muslim Slav national consciousness is also first attested in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as these early Bosniak nationalists began to assert a national identity distinct from both their Orthodox and Catholic neighbors, and from the other Muslim inhabitants of the empire. Most Serb and Croat nationalists tend to deny a separate Bosniak national identity, claiming that Bosniaks were either Serb or Croat in origin, but of Islamic religion. This debate, whether Bosnia and the Bosniaks are "really" Croats, Serbs, or a separate Bosniak nation, has energized debates among nationalists until the present day. Anthropologists find the question difficult to answer and ultimately rather without end, since, with a few notable exceptions, the ethnicity of the dominated has been prescribed by the dominators and by the general demographics of a region (compare the assimilation of the Romance population in nearby Dubrovnik).

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Like national identity in Bosnia and Herzegovina in general, Bosniak national identity is chiefly based on religion and communal feeling, as opposed to linguistic and/or physical differences from their neighbors. In that sense, the earliest foundation of modern Bosniak national development can be found as early as the beginning of the 18th century, as native Bosnian Muslims found themselves often fighting against the empire's enemies by their own (i.e. the Battle of Banja Luka, where the city's garrison was composed entirely of Bosniaks). On top of present cultural uniqueness, by the first half of the 19th century upper class Bosniaks and intellectuals were already propagating what can be considered early Bosniak nationalism, by way of writing and politics, all of which would later lead to the Bosniak rebirth at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

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Austro-Hungarian rule and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia

Bosnia and Herzegovina were occupied and administered by Austria-Hungary in 1878, and a number of Bosniaks left Bosnia and Herzegovina. Official Austro-Hungarian records show that 56,000 people mostly Bosniaks emigrated between 1883 and 1920, but the number of Bosniak emigrants is probably much larger, as the official record doesn't reflect emigration before 1883, nor include those who left without permits. Most of the emigrants probably fled in fear of retribution after the intercommunal violence of the 1875-1878 uprising. Many Serbs from Herzegovina left for America during the same period. One geographer estimates that there are 350,000 "Bosniaks" in Turkey today, although that figure includes the descendants of Muslim South Slavs who emigrated from the Sand?ak region during the First Balkan War and later. Another wave of Bosniak emigration occurred after the end of the First World War, when Bosnia and Herzegovina became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, known after 1929 as Yugoslavia.

Related Topics:
Austria-Hungary - Sand?ak - First Balkan War - First World War - Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes

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Urban Bosniaks were particularly proud of their cosmopolitan culture, especially in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, which was, until WWII, home to thriving Bosniak, Serb, Croat, and Jewish communities. After 1945, Sarajevo became one of the most ethnically mixed cities in the former Yugoslavia.

Related Topics:
Cosmopolitan - Sarajevo - WWII

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The struggle for recognition

Members of the 19th century Illyrian movement, most notably Ivan Frano Juki?, emphasized Bosniaks (Bo?njaci) alongside Serbs and Croats as one of the "tribes" that constitutes the "Illyrian nation".

Related Topics:
19th century - Illyrian movement - Ivan Frano Juki? - Serbs - Croats

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With the dawn of Illyrian movement, Muslim intelligentsia gathered around magazine Bosnia in the 1860s promoted the idea of a Bosniak nation. A member of this group was father of Savfet-beg Ba?agi?, a famous Bosniak poet. The Bosniak group would remain active for several decades, with the continuity of ideas and the use of the archaic Bosniak name. From 1891 until 1910 they published a magazine titled Bosniak. By the turn of centuries, however, this group has all but died out, due to its most prominent members either dying or deciding for Croat identity, the latter including Savfet-beg Ba?agi? himself.

Related Topics:
1860s - Savfet-beg Ba?agi? - 1891 - 1910 - Croat

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The administration of Benjamin Kallay, the Austria-Hungarian governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina, enforced the idea of a unitary Bosnian nation (Bosanci) that would include the Catholic and Orthodox Bosnians as well as Muslims. The idea was fiercely opposed by Croats and Serbs, but also by a number of Muslims. This policy further clouded the Bosnian ethnical issue and made the Bosniak group seem as pro-regime. After Kallays death in 1903, the official policy slowly drifted towards accepting the three-ethnical reality of Bosnia.

Related Topics:
Benjamin Kallay - Austria-Hungarian - Bosnia and Herzegovina - 1903

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Muslim National Organization (MNO), a political party founded in 1906, was a major opponent of the regime and promoted the idea of Muslims as a separate entity from Serbs and Croats. A group of dissidents that, among else, subscribed with the Croat Muslim identity formed a party named Muslim Proggressive Party (MNS), however it received little popular support and faded away in the next few years.

Related Topics:
Muslim National Organization - Political party - 1906 - Serbs - Croats

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The first constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1910 explicitly mentioned Serbs, Croats and Muslims as the "native peoples". This was reflected in the elections held soon thereafter, when the electoral was divided into a Serb, Croat and Muslim ballot. MNO, Serb National Organization (SNO) and Croat National Community (HNZ) received almost unanimous support in their respective ballots, and their members formed the parliament, albeit this parliament had little power in the Austria-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina. All translations of the Constitution into native languages used lower-case M for Muslims as followers of Islam (This is because the proper nouns such as Muslim and Christian were and still are written in lowercase letters in Bosnian (Serbo-Croatian) language).

Related Topics:
Constitution - Bosnia and Herzegovina - 1910 - Serbs - Croats - Muslims - Elections - Parliament - Austria-Hungarian

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After the World War I, Bosnia and Herzegovina became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes which later transformed into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The Serb monarchy, being one of the victors of the World War, sought Croat and Slovene political parties as their partners when forming the country. MNO, reformed into the Yugoslav Muslim Organization (JMO), dropped the pursuit of Muslim national identity and focused on protecting the religious and existential issues of Muslims through coalescing with other parties, sometimes even with the extreme Serb Radicals.

Related Topics:
World War I - Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes - Kingdom of Yugoslavia - Yugoslav Muslim Organization - Coalescing - Serb Radicals

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In the 1921 census, only Serbs, Croats and Slovenes were recognized as native nations or "tribes", and these were the only available options for ethnicity. The result was that a large number of Bosniaks simply left the field for ethnicity blank. This phenomenon, labeled nonethnical element (nenarodni element), was a topic of heated debate amongst scholars and politicians for years to follow. Some of them argued that the nonethnical element were descendants of the Turkish occupator and as such should be expelled. Nevertheless, thanks to the helpful influence of JMO, there were only isolated incidents of oppression against Bosniaks.

Related Topics:
1921 - Serbs - Croats - Slovenes

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This political void was quickly filled with a number of opposition parties which recognized Muslims as a separate nation. Among them was the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, as a document from the 1930s reveals. It's no coincidence that a large number of Bosnian Muslims joined the Communist Party, and later the partisans, many of them becaming prominent political leaders and commandants.

Related Topics:
Communist Party of Yugoslavia - 1930s - Partisans

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During the World War II, the authorities of the Nazi-puppet Independent State of Croatia tried to ally with the Bosniaks whom they considered to be "Muslim Croats" against the Serbs and other "undesirables". As a token, the Artists Gallery museum (by Ivan Mestrovic) in Zagreb was furnished with minarets and ceded to be used as a mosque.

Related Topics:
World War II - Independent State of Croatia - Ivan Mestrovic - Zagreb - Mosque

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The Declaration of the State Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ZAVNOBiH), issued on November 25th of 1943 by the partisan government, is widely considered to be the constitutional basis of the modern Bosnia and Herzegovina. This document uses essentially the same wording as the 1910 Constitution. Furthermore, the Resolution of ZAVNOBiH states: "Today, the nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, through their only political representative - the ZAVNOBiH, desire that their country, which is neither Serb, nor Croat nor Muslim, but Serb as well as Croat and Muslim, should be the free and united Bosnia and Herzegovina in which the full equality, legal and otherwise, of Serbs, Muslims and Croats will be guaranteed".

Related Topics:
November 25th - 1943 - Bosnia and Herzegovina - 1910

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Unfortunately, this declaration was broken as soon as World War II was over, as the Constitution of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (later Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) mentioned Serbs and Croats, but not Muslims, as the native nations (narodi). In the Yugoslav census of 1948, 90% of Muslims in Yugoslavia declared themselves as "nationally undetermined". Furthermore, many who registered as Serbs or Croats did so largely out of societal and economic pressure. When the "Yugoslav, nationally undeclared" option became available in 1953, 900,000 people registered as such.

Related Topics:
World War II - Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia - Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - Serbs - Croats - Muslims - 1948 - 1953

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With a weakening of Serb dominance in Bosnian communist leadership, the door opened up for a new national identification. Finally in the 1961 Yugoslav census, the "Muslims in the ethnic sense" option first appeared. By 1963 Muslims were listed in the Bosnian constitution alongside Serbs and Croats. Finally, in 1968, "Muslims" with a capital M was adopted as the term for a member of a nation rather than "muslims" as adherents to Islam. (This summons forth the old discussions about whether a Jew is a member of a tribe or of a religion; the dilemmas were parallel).

Related Topics:
1961 - 1963 - 1968 - Muslims - Jew

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The decision wasn't greeted without debate among communist leadership, but Bosniaks had made themselves clear. "Practice has shown the harm of different forms of pressure," read a communique issued by the Bosnian Central Committee, "from the earlier period when Muslims were designated as Serbs or Croats from the national viewpoint. It has been shown, and present socialist practice confirms, that the Muslims are a distinct nation".

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From then until the Yugoslav wars, Bosniak national identity continued to develop with two different philosophies forming. These breakthroughs in the 60s were not carried out by religious Muslims (in fact, they were headed chiefly by secular Muslim communists) but in the following decades two separate schools of thought emerged. The first, was a secular "Muslim Nationalism", and the second was a separate revival of Islamic religious belief (a reaction to communist sponsored secularism and advocated by people such as Alija Izetbegovi?). The effects of these two separate ideas on what exactly Bosnian Muslims are can be seen to this day.

Related Topics:
Yugoslav wars - Alija Izetbegovi?

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In September 1993, the Congress of Bosnian Muslim Intellectuals adopted the term Bosniak instead of the previously used Muslim. Other nationalities objected to the name as a ploy to monopolize the history of Bosnia and make them seem to be foreign invaders (see History of Bosnia and Herzegovina). The term in itself means Bosnian and is an archaic term that was once used for all inhabitants of Bosnia regardless of faith. Bosniaks counter by pointing out that Bosniak has been a historical ethnic term for their nation since the 10th century, and that had they truly wanted to "monopolize" Bosnian history it would have been far easier to adopt the name "Bosnian" in itself instead of using the more archaic version.

Related Topics:
1993 - History of Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Since the 1990s, the name has been adopted outside of Bosnia itself, onto the Slavic Muslim population of other former Yugoslav republics such as Serbia and Macedonia. It allows a Bosniak/Bosnian distinction to match the Serb/Serbian and Croat/Croatian distinctions between ethnicity and residence.

Related Topics:
1990s - Serbia - Macedonia

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