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| Many Christians became Muslims through the devsirme system, whereby Christian boys were gathered from the Ottoman lands and were sent to Istanbul to converted to Islam and trained as ] 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. Jannisaries served throughout the ], and their descendants live throughout the former Ottoman lands. Janissaries had no right to marry until ], and even then could not marry until their retirement, although some Janissaries did return to Bosnia to raise families. Many of Bosnia's Pashas and other officials were of Bosnian Christian origin through the devsirme system. | Many Christians became Muslims through the devsirme system, whereby Christian boys were gathered from the Ottoman lands and were sent to Istanbul to converted to Islam and trained as ] 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. Jannisaries served throughout the ], and their descendants live throughout the former Ottoman lands. Janissaries had no right to marry until ], and even then could not marry until their retirement, although some Janissaries did return to Bosnia to raise families. Many of Bosnia's Pashas and other officials were of Bosnian Christian origin through the devsirme system. | ||
| 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 |
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. | ||
| Being part of ] and influenced not only by the ] but also by the ] culture, Bosnian Muslims are considered to be some of the most advanced Islamic peoples of the world. | Being part of ] and influenced not only by the ] but also by the ] culture, Bosnian Muslims are considered to be some of the most advanced Islamic peoples of the world. | ||
Revision as of 06:34, 8 February 2004
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Bosniaks (natively: Bošnjaci), previously known as Ethnic Muslims of Yugoslavia, are Slavs descended from those who converted to Islam during the Ottoman period (15th-19th century). Bosniaks are named after Bosnia, the westernmost Balkan region held by the Turks. Most Muslim inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina identify themselves as ethnically Bosniak, as do some Muslims of Serbia and Montenegro (in the Sandžak region). It is important to note that not all of the Muslims of the Balkans are Bosniaks; Muslim Albanians, Turks, and Roma and Sinti also live on the Balkan Peninsula.
The earliest known inhabitants of the area now known as Bosnia and Herzegovina were the Illyrians, who spoke a language related to modern Albanian. The Romans conquered Illyria after a series of wars, and Latin-speaking settlers from all over the empire settled among the Illyrians. 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. Modern Albanians trace their ancestry to the ancient Illyrians, and 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.
The Germanic 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.
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, and the Croats established a kingdom in what is now central Croatia and northwestern Bosnia, and the Serbs settling in what is now central Serbia, and later expanding into the upper Drina valley of eastern Bosnia and into Herzegovina, known in the later Middle Ages as Hum. The Serb, Croat, and Bosnian languages are very closely related, and most linguists consider them to be dialects of the same language. 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 converted to Eastern Orthodox Christanity and absorbed the cultural influences of Byzantine Civilization. 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. The final Turkish conquest in 1463 marked the end of an independent Bosnia and the beginning of the influence of a third civilization, Islamic Civilization.
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 mostly to the upper Drina River valley and to Herzegovina (Hum), which was predominantly Orthodox. The rest of Bosnia was nominally Roman Catholic, with a large 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 either the Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic church who fell into schism and acquired some heretical beliefs. Because of Bosnia's mountainous and inaccessible terrain and its remote location on the borderland between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, control by church authorities was weak. Historically it was thought that the Krstjani, who were persecuted by both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, accounted for many of the converts to Islam.
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 Ottomans imported their feudal system to Bosnia after the conquest, and feudal estates were granted to individuals in return for their 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. 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.
Many Christians became Muslims through the devsirme system, whereby Christian boys were gathered from the Ottoman lands and were sent to Istanbul to converted to Islam and 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. Jannisaries served throughout the Ottoman Empire, and their descendants live throughout the former Ottoman lands. Janissaries 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. Many of Bosnia's Pashas and other officials were of Bosnian Christian origin through the devsirme system.
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.
Being part of Europe and influenced not only by the oriental but also by the occidental culture, Bosnian Muslims are considered to be some of the most advanced Islamic peoples of the world. The nation takes pride in the melancholic folk songs sevdalinke, the precious medieval filigree manufactured by old Sarajevo craftsmen, and a wide array of traditional wisdoms that are carried down to newer generations by word of mouth, and in recent years written down in numerous books.
1968 saw the first identification of the Yugoslav Muslims as a unique nationality. The term "Muslim as a nationality" (Muslimani u smislu narodnosti) was officially adopted.
In September 1993 Congress of Bosnian Muslim Intellectuals adopted the term Bosniak instead of the previously used Muslim. Some Serbs 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 once used for all inhabitants of Bosnia regardless of faith. Since the 1990s, the name has been projected outside of Bosnia itself, onto Serbia's and Macedonia's Slav Muslim population. It allows a Bosniak/Bosnian distinction to match the Serb/Serbian and Croat/Croatian distinctions between ethnicity and residence.