Islamization of Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Slavic population underwent a large-scale conversion to Islam after the region’s conquest and occupation by the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the 15th century, giving it a unique character within the Balkan region. This conversion appears to have been neither sudden nor, for the most part, coerced, but rather was a gradual and voluntary process--it took more than a hundred years for the number of Slavic Muslims to approach parity with that of Christians. (Malcolm 1994, pp. 51–55)

Several factors appear to have been behind this process. Most important was that Christianity had relatively shallow roots in Bosnia on the eve of the Ottoman invasion. Bosnia lacked a strong Christian church organization to command a strong following--the result of a scarcity of priests and competition among the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches and the indigenous and schismatic Bosnian Church, which collapsed shortly before the Ottomans arrived. This left most Bosnians religiously unengaged and receptive to the appeal of Islam’s sophisticated and dynamic institutions. This receptiveness was aided by the development among many Bosnians of a kind of folk Christianity centered on various practices and ceremonies that was adaptable to a form of folk Islam popular at the time of the invasion. (Fine 2002, p. 6; Friedman 1996, pp. 16–18; Malcolm 1994, pp. 41–42; Sugar 1977, pp. 52–53)

Economic and social gain was also an incentive to become a Muslim: conversion to Islam conferred economic and social status. Under the feudal system imposed by the Ottomans, only those who converted to Islam could acquire and inherit land and property, which accorded them political rights and status denied non-Muslims. A number of Christian nobles, however, were able to retain their estates early on in the Ottoman occupation by fighting on behalf of the Empire, suggesting that holding on to their property was not a major incentive for early conversions to Islam. At a lower socioeconomic level, most new converts to Islam were able to turn their holdings into freehold farms. At the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder were the serfs, who constituted the majority of the population and were predominantly Christians. In addition, only Muslims could hold positions in the Ottoman state apparatus, which conferred special privileges and a much higher standard of living. Muslims also enjoyed legal privileges: Christians could not sue Muslims and their testimony could not be used against Muslims in court. (Friedman 1996, p. 30; Friedman 2004, p. 8; Malcolm 1994, pp. 63–66; McCarthy 1994, p. 65)

The gradual conversion of many Bosnians to Islam proceeded at different rates in various areas and among different groups. Conversion to Islam was more rapid in urban areas, which were centers of learning and of the Ottoman administration, than in the countryside. Merchants found it advantageous to convert to Islam because they gained greater freedom of movement and state protection for their goods as Muslims. Many professional soldiers also converted to Islam to ensure more rapid promotion. (Friedman 1996, pp. 18–19)

The various advantages and priviliges that were reserved for Muslims and the large number of conversions they encouraged among the native Slavic population led to the emergence over time of a largely local Slavic Muslim ruling class that dominated political and economic power in Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Jelavich 1983, pp. 88–89)

[edit] References

Fine, John V.A. (2002), “The Various Faiths in the History of Bosnia: Middle Ages to the Present”, in Shatzmiller, Maya, Islam and Bosnia: Conflict Resolution and Foreign Policy in Multi-Ethnic States, McGill Queen's University Press, pp. 3-23 .

Friedman, Francine (2004), Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Polity on the Brink, Routledge .

Friedman, Francine (1996), The Bosnian Muslims: Denial of a Nation, WestviewPress .

Jelavich, Barbara (1983), History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, vol. 1, Cambridge University Press .

McCarthy, Justin (1994), “Ottoman Empire: 1800-1878”, in Pinson, Mark, The Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Harvard University Press, pp. 54-83 .

Malcolm, Noel (1994), Bosnia, A Short History, New York University Press .

Sugar, Peter F. (1977), Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354-1804, University of Washington Press .