pp. 18 ff.
The spread of Islam stands out as the most significant issue in the discussion of the historical reasons for the present tragedy in Bosnia. The scope of Yugoslav (Bosnian) historiography has not fully examined the process of Islamization of Bosnia given that this process had certain perculiarities not present in the case of other Balkan countries. Unlike them, Bosnia was enveloped in the process of Islamization in a much more rapid and comprehensive way, both in its cities and villages.
what are the origins of Islam in Bosnia? In the neighboring Hungary as well as in northeastern Bosnia, Islam had emerged already in the 11th and 12th centuries, as a result of commerce or the employment of Muslims for minor military posts. As northeastern Bosnia had earlier ben part of Hungary, it is possible that there had been Muslims there, too. However, Islam disappeared from Hungary in the 13th century after the introduction of laws that required Christianizatino of all Muslims. Thus, there is no continuity between this first period of Islamization and the time when more consistent Islamization took place.
The spread of Islam in Bosnia began with the arrival of the Ottomans in 1453 when the first administrative center was set up in Vrhbosna and was since then incorporated into the Bosnian province. Most of the sources indicate that there was a clear link between the spread of Islam and the disappearance of the Bosnian church. Such viewpoints have been put forward mainly because the timing of the two processes overlapped and because of many common points in the ethics of Islam and Bogomilism. However, what has not sufficiently been studied are socio-political factors that greatly prepared the grounds for this Islamizatoin en masse. However, all these studies show different attitudes towards the ethnic, or rather confessional affiliation of the native Bosnian population in which Bosnian Islam has its origins. these differences stem from the fact that no light hs been shed on the issue of ethnic changes caused by the arrival of the vlach herdsmen, which coincided with the process of Islamization.
Though the scholarship on the issue has long dismissed the use of force in this process, some things should be mentioned again. It is clear that this process followed different routes in different territories of the former Yugoslavia. In Bosnia, it was much more rapid and comprehensive than elsewhere. In Srijem and Slavonia too, many Muslim cities were founded in a short period of time and even the villages started to acquire Islamic features. Yet, there would have been no particular reason for such differences had there not been the same ruler and the application of the same law of Islamization. Therefore, the spread of Islam in Bosnia was not a result of oppressive measures of the new ruler, but a consequence of already existing historical problems. these problems stem from the political, social and economic context of pre-Ottoman times, as well as the methods applied by the Ottomans towards the local population: recognizing most of the existing institutions and recruiting Christian nobility for sipahi and other military orders.
The anarchy in the political situation had been a result of the feudal division of Bosnia among the king and almost independent landlords. Also, the outrage among the poulation itself deepened as the last few kings began assaults on the followers of the Bosnian Church and tried to impose Catholicism by force. At the time of the arrival of the Ottomans, the memories of suffering and persecutions were still fresh, particularly in rural areas where the Bosnian Church had its stronghold. Furthermore, the economic status of the population was very difficult. The position of peasants in the feudal system has been considerably harder than their subsequent position as the reaya under the Ottomans. Likewise, the policies applied by the Ottomans to those who peacefully accepted their rule were very much in favor of both political and religious associations. The Ottomans accepted a good number of petty nobility and the army, leaving them their original land plots as timars.
It is well known that the Ottoman attitude towards their non-Muslims subjects was conditioned by the sharia. Because these were monotheists, their religious freedom was guaranteed in a written document after the first contacts of the Ottomans with their clergy. Therefore, the conversion into Islam in Bosnia could not have been a result of force. Such an act would have been against the principles of Islamic religious tolerance, particularly given the fact that as of the time of Selim I (1512-1520) who adopted the title of caliph in 1518 after conquering Egypt and some parts of Arabia including Mecca and Medina, the Ottoman sultans also represented religious leaders of the entire Muslim world. In addition to all this, numerous local sources confirm that the conversion to Islam in Bosnia was out of free personal choice.
The conversion to Islam of petty nobles served as a positive example to poor peasants who saw in it not only a way to escape the religious brutality but also a hope for a better economic status. As has been mentioned earlier, the Ottomans abolished their feudal status and proclaimed them reaya, which had a powerful effect particularly in the area where there were many petty landlords and thus numerous peasants (e.g. Slavonia, north of the Sava river). There, a good number of peasants converted into Islam already after the first contacts with the Ottomans. The bisho of Zagreb, Simun Erdedi, wrote on November 24, 1536, "I can safely confirm that after the conquest of Brod, more than 40,000 people abandoned Christianity, in addition to those who were taken as slaves. More and more people are doing so, hoping that they will enjoy more peaceful times in what remains of their life....". Ten days later he wrote to King Ferdinand the following: "Unfortunately, these poor people are accepting Muhammadan faith out of despair, denouncing the faith of Christ the Saviour. So much so that my own vassals in the land of Sopja Fortress are leaving me, accepting the authority of the Turks".
The conversion to Islam brought economic benefits to the peasant. First, he was exempted from the state tax, harac, which was generally imposed on all adult Christians who did not serve the army but were protected by the state (zimmiyet). The amount of this tax was always one and a half ispence which in turn was the highest salavy of a landlord (25 akce). Moreover, a real turning pont in the spread of Islam among the masses in Bosnia was the defeat of Hungary at Mohac in 1526. The defeat of one of two most powerful Ottoman enemies in Europe caused a rapid loss of morale among Christian subjects. Some Ottoman codices show a considerable increase in the conversion rate in the year following the battle of Mohac, particularly among the rural Catholic populatoin. Kuripesic, a contemporary writer, claimed that it was "youth and indolence" that caused such a conversion en masse, in such a political context in particular.
There can be no doubt that all these motives and causes presented a strong moving force in the conversion process in Bosnia. They all can fall into four categorites: one, unstable political and social circumstances in pre-Ottoman times; two, economic advantages granted to new Muslims by the sharia and kanuns; three, dissatisfaction and resistance of the followers of the Bosnian Church to the Christian maintstream thought which they were forced to follow -- even though some sources indicate that they did so only formally --, and four, certain common points between the Bogomil and Muslim creeds.
The beginnings of the conversion into Islam date to the first encounters with the Ottomans, that is, immediately after 1435 when the Ottomans established their first centers in Vrhbosna. Since then, Bosnia formed part of a narrow corridor (so called Bosansko krajiste) which spread from Skopje to Hodidjed and included several vilayets and fortified cities (Skopje, Tetovo, Zvecan, Jelec, Ras, Sjenica and Hodidjed). The inhabitants here were some powerful families, old sipahis, city employees and refugees. As a result, several prominent military and political leaders of Bosnian origin appeared already in the service of Mehmed the Conqueror, among whom "Duke Ali-bey, the landlord of the Pavlovic county" was mentioned in the period between 1463 and 1467. Also, among them was Ali-bey Vlahovic, the son of lord Ivan Vlahovic, who, along with his brother, became in 1470 the Sultan's envoy in Dubrovnik where he was in charge of settling the hereditary matters of Herzeg Stjepan's sons. Given the fact that the Ottomans penetrated into some parts of Hungary in the course of their conquests, the names of Hungarian sipahis often went along with those of Bosnian. Such is the case of Ismail, a Bosnian, and Ali, a Hungarian, who held timars in the city of Hodidjed in 1463. In the city of Zvecani, a timar was owned by a certain Karaca, a Hungarian, and so was a timar in the area of Skopje.
The Jannisary Codex mentions that a good number of Bogomils submitted to Hemhed II and accepted Islam during the Sultan's visit to the city of Jajce in 1463. here is what the Codex says: "... When Mehmed-Han, the conqueror of Constant9inople, came to Bosnia, both common people (reaya) and higher classes (beraya) came to greet him en masse, and touching his garment they spontaneously accepted Islam". It is quite well known that the decases before Mehmed's arrival (during the reign of Stjepan Tomasevic) had been marked by a brutal persecution of the Bogomils as a consequence of the papal victory over the Bosnian nobility.
These persecutions were the main reason for such a welcome of Mehmed II. Nevertheless, we must emphasize that the ottoman census does not speak of such a rapid conversoin in the early times, but of a relatively slow and steady spread of Islam in Bosnia.
It is also known that after the fall of Bosnia in 1463, the petty nobility and city administrators willingly surrendered their possessions to the Ottomans. Most of them converted to Islam. Thus, the census of 1468 registered 14 sipahis as "new Muslim", and explicitly noted that Isa-Bali "surrendered the city of Samobor and converted to Islam". The same census mantions the names of 11 new Muslims whose fathers or brothers remained Christians and 12 others whose last names reveal Christian origins. It is noticeable that the ethnic identity of these new Muslims was diverse. Most of them were Bosnians, but there were also Hungarians, Albanians, Wallachians, Saxons, all of which had been encountered in these areas (six Hungarian, four Wallachian, one called Karagoz was German and one, called ali, was a Saxon and he held a timar in the city of Dobrun. The last two were experts working in mining areas). Most of the fortified cities of this new sancak of Bosnia, however, were in the hands of the mustahfizs coming from the East, including Macedonia and Serbia.
The spread of Islam among common people began somewhat later, even though conversions of individuals were recorded in this early period too. In the eastern parts of the Kuslat nahiye located around the Drina river, the first instances of conversion were recorded in a village of Skugrica already in 1476. There, out of 44 households, 14 converted to Islam in this year, becoming the only Muslim households in this area. The reasons for their conversion are still not clear, except that they all were in one way or another linked with the landlord Radivoje Oprasic who himself embraced Islam some years later. They paid the smallest land tax (resmi-i bennak), which amounted to 9 akce per household, indicating that they all may have possessed the minimum amount of land (a half cift).
The specificity of the eastern part of Bosnia were major ethnic changes caused by the arrival of the Ottomans. The fall of Bosnia resulted in the disappearance of powerful landlords and petty sipahis who moved across the Sava river. The Ottoman codices dating to the first half of the 16th century (1519, 1528, 1533 and 1548) speak of landlords who moved into the areas of the Lower and Middle Drina and Posavina (i.e. the area around the Sava river) only after the arrival of the Ottomans. These were primarily the vlach herdsmen and their lords, who had already in the mid 16th century been accepted as sipahis and were thus incorporated into the military system. Soon after the conquest of the Hungarian princedom of Srebrenica (northeastern Bosnia, 1512-1519), large groups of vlachs wee directed to the vast land on both sides of the Drina river. It is only logical that Islam started to spread throughout this area among the vlachs and the agricultural populatoin, despite the number of converts among the vlachs themselves, stemming mainly from the location of their settlements (i.e. Bosnian vs. Serbian river banks).
In 1533 when the vlachs lost tax privileges and were placed in the same group with the agricultural population, the Muslim population formed ca. 30%. The percentage difference among various nahiyes can be explained through the influence of Christian institutions in whose proximity the percentage of Muslim populatoin was considerably lower. On the other hand, this percentage was higher around fortified cities where the Ottoman culture was felt more strongly. According to the Ottoman codices of the mid 16th century, the percentage of Muslim population in northeastern Bosnia was ca. 40%. The consolidation of Ottoman rule in the domain of both politics and economy resulted in a rapid growth of Muslim towns as well as a general increase in population. In northern Bosnia many deserted villages were populated again while many new ones were established. This process of resettlement of deserted areas by their native population went hand in hand with the settlement of the new population, as the spread of Islam was closely tied to city developments. The Muslims poured into cities from the immediate surroundings in the same or neighboring nahiyes, depending on the urban situation. Thus, the conversion to Islam and the development of cities are two causally related processes.
The Ototmans encountered in Bosnia small towns, called varos after a Hungarian word. These had developed primarily as mining centers and were built around mediaeval fortresses. The population was Christian, involved in various crafts, agriculture, mining and commerce. The development of the Oriental-Muslim type of city (kasaba) began 2-3 decades after the conquest, depending on the consolidation of power and the spread of Islam. In the second half of the 15th century, Novi pazar began to grow, then Sarajevo and Foca. However, the rapid growth began only after the defeat of the Hungarians at Mohac in 1526. The growth of cities in Bosnia followed two routes: either through the expansion of existing varos settlements, or through the foundation of completely new ones, depending on strategic and communication positions. In the instance of the former, the varos became the suburban "Christian neighborhood" of the growing kasaba, which gradually diminished with the conversion of its inhabitants to Islam. In case a varos had a strong economic basis (e.g. a mine), the spread of Islam would go more slowly and such a varos would never turn into a significant Ottoman kasaba. On the other hand, new cities built around villages or small settlements usually grew more rapidly and included almost solely a Muslim population. Such cities were centers of sancak-beys: Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Travnik in the sancak of Bosnia, Mostar and Taslidza (Pljevlja) in the sancak of Herzegovina, and Livno in the sancak of Klis. This administrative factor (sancak-bey center) affected most clearly the rapid urban and economic growth that turned these cities into the most developed cities of this province. Sarajevo, as its capital, reached the highest point of development among them all, similar to some cities in the East (Edirne or Bursa).
When we speak of the origins of city dwellers, we can discern confessional divisions into two main groups: original Christians and new Muslims. The Muslim city population did not increase much, and it was the original Christian population that started to embrace Islam. The existing varos were small in size and number in comparison to the new kasabas, particularly in the 17th century. The most developed varos encountered by the Ottomans was FOjnica, a major silver mine and commercial place in central Bosnia. In 1468 it consisted of 329 Christian households and 3 Fanciscan monks. That same year, a tiny settlement of Utorkoviste (named after its market on Tuesdays, i.e. Salipazari) out of which Sarajevo would later grow, consisted of 75 tax paying households, 5 of which were Muslim. Until the first half of the 17th century, Sarajevo grew into a city of 93 neighborhoods, 91 of which were Muslim and 2 Christian, both comprising 4,220 households, 144 of which were Christian.
In Sarajevo, like in other cities, the Muslim population was formed mainly from the settlers coming from the surrounding areas. In the early period, a number of settlers came from eastern Rumelia (Macedonia, Albania and Bulgaria) which by then hd been under Ottoman rule for more than half a century. These immigrants formed a part of the military-administrative apparatus, clergy, dervishes and trained craftsmen. In time, they were gradually replaced by the local Bosnian population. Already in the first half of the 16th century a decrease in the number of immigrants can be seen. In Novi Pazar, for example, only three immigrants were listed in the census of 1528, and 5 immigrants in Sarajevo. This means that the city population was formed out of local originally Christian settlers who were mainly craftsmen of the same or neighboring nahiyes. Three fourths of the recorded population had Christian origins.
Another portion of the city population was formed from prisoners of war. The prisoners were usually divided among the commanders the the sancak-bey, and were sold as slaves. In the kanunname for the sancaks of Bosnia in 1565 and Klis in 1574 the taxes for the slave market were specified: 2 akce for the buyer and the seller respecitvely. Also, the names of the market places were mentioned in the defters of the 16th century. Many slaves converted to Islam so as to escape this gruesome fate. This is only understandable given the benevolent Islamic attitude towards emancipation from slavery. The Qur'an (90:13) speaks of slave manumission as one of the greatest gifts to God. As a part of some ritual sanctions, such as braking the bast or an oath, liberating the slave was one of several recommendations, and in the case of a wealthy person, the sole recommendation. Thanks to such an attitude towards slavery, all those who possessed slaves felt it their moral duty to free them, particularly if the slaves embraced Islam. Generally speaking, there was a generous attitude towards freed slaves: in many vaikf-names (Husrev-bey's in Sarajevo, karagoz-bey's in Mostar, etc.), there are orders to the endowers to transfer after their death the administration of vakifs to their freed slaves.
Apparently, almost all captured slaves converted to Islam so as to be manumitted. The Ottoman codices show that the contribution of free slaves to the formation of the city populatoins had both qualitative and quantitative dimensions. even though they also inhabited villages, most of them became city dwellers. They were all recorded as sons of Christians. Their professions were mainly crafts of different kinds, religious elite and state employees.
The quantitative significance of free slaves was higher than what the census could record. nevertheless, the specification of their number was pursued: for example, it is recorded that there were 42 households of manumitted slaves in Novi Pazar in 1528, which constituted 7% of the entire Muslim population. In the same year, their percentage in Sarajevo was 7.6%, which included 70 freed slaves at the time when Sarajevo consisted of only 919 Muslim households. In 1540, the imam of cekrekci Muslihuddin mosque was a manumitted slave, and a number of others were listed in Kladanj), that is Cetvrkoviste (or Persembepazari, called so after its market on Thursdays), Visoko and Livno. The census of 1570 records 130 freed slaves in Sarajevo, while the number of clergy was altogether 128.
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Another factor must be mentioned regarding the formation of the city populations. A number of privileges wee given to those who wanted to live in the city so that by the end of the 16th century all cities in Bosnia acquired strong Islamic features. The legislation concering the exemption from the status of reaya and its taxes, so-called mu'afiyet, applied mainly to city dwellers, paving the vaw to a rapid migration into cities which thus became strong Ottoman centers. Mu'afiyet applied to all cities but was conditioned by a specific level of development: for a settlement to gain the status of kasaba which would in turn free its population from the status of reaya, the sipahi tax of resm-i cift as well as state taxes of avariz-i divaniye ve tekalif-i orfiye, the following conditions had to be fulfilled: one, at least one cemaat of permanent population; two, at least one mosque where all prayers were performed; and three, one permanently fixed market day.
Because of the fact that mu'afiyet depended on city professions such as crafts and commerce, whereas the status of reaya depended on agriculture, the peripheral population of Muslim quarters and Christian varos that were considered peripheral fell in the category of reaya, regardless of their confession. According to the same principle, the Christian city population that was involved in the crafts and inhabited Muslim neighborhoods formed a part of the craft establishment and enjoyed the same privilegs as Muslims.
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In the second half of the 16th century the ottoman codices reveal a smaller increase in the Muslim population and a slower conversion rate than in the first half of that century. Undoubtedly, the general political context left its impact on this process too. The defeat of the Ottoman navy at Lepanto in 1571 and the Ottoman army at Sisak in 1593, a crisis in the timar/sipahi system, were all a consequence of long-term wars. Yet all these reasons do not fully explain such a small increase in population in some parts of Bosnia in that half a century. The answer to this question most probably rests in the fact that the Ototman conquest of Slavonia (1536-1552) and the foundation of Muslim cities in the sancaks of Srem, Pozeg, and partly in Pakarac, both caused an emigration of Muslim population from already consolidated cities of Bosnia into these new areas, in accordance with the government's policies. In the period of Ottoman expansion, the law required an organization of the emigrants from the established cities for their resettlement into the newly gained territories. This was the reason why certain kasabas in northeastern Bosnia suffered a drop in population in the second half of the 16th century. The Ottoman census of the sancaks of Slavonia confirms this by mentioning many Muslims from the sancaks of Bosnia and Zvornik, and that not only in fortified cities and kasabas, but the countryside too. Among these Muslims there were some Christians too.
Because of the clear political (Islamic) standpoint towards the peoples of other religions, the confessional differences at first did not show much. For long, the conversion to Islam was merely formal and consisted of adopting a Muslim name only. Young people who embraced Islam continued to live in the same households with their Christian parents. The Muslims and Christians jointly engaged in leasing state property, they protected each other at court, helped each other in business, so that the Christian origin carried no negative effects. Howevr, with the development of cities as centers of Ottoman-Islamic culture and prosperity, the polarization emerged. Fortification of Muslim cities that had originall been unclosed, began and they were surrounded by several rows of gates. This was the case with all of the Balkans, because many areas became the site for bandid operatoins. At the end of the 16th century, there was a tendency to conceal one's Christian origin, which had not been the case before. All this was a consequence of the genral political milieu marked by persistent wars with the West (1593-1606).
From the beginning of the 17th century, the situation began to change. The develoment of cities reached its peak and further construction stopped while the population increased. A very specific case of the sancak of Bosnia was recorded in the census of 1604. This central and largest sancak of Bosnian province extended from Kosovska Mitrovica in the southeast to the county of Cazin in the northwest. Its southeastern part, i.e. east of the Drina river, cut through the rivers of Lim and Ibar up to the territory of present-day Serbia, engulfing thus the area of the sancak of Novi Pazar. All in all, the sancak of Bosnia covered about a fourth of the entire territory of Bosnia province.
Before we consider the data from this census of 1604, let us present some facts which can better explain this data. The population in the Ottoman Empire was divided into two main categories: the feudal class (army) and the subjects (reaya). Between the two stood the city populatoin, in accordance with its status. The feudal class included sipahis, fortress guards, the army in general, military and administrative personnel, judges, state employees, and for a while, the vlach. City population enjoyed the privilege of not being subjugated to the sipahis, that is, because it possessed no land, it did not pay land taxes. It was involved in professions related to the city, such as in the crafts and commerce, and was usually exempted from state taxes and levies. It enjoyed no other privileges.
The most numerous were the subjugated peasants (the Muslim and Christian reaya). They too fell into two categories: agricultural and herdsmen. The difference between the economic and legal status of these two latter groups stemmed from the nature of their economy and produce. They were both obliged to pay taxes to the sipahi and the state.
The census of 1604 that was based on the economic and confessional structure of the populatoin summarized both city dwellers and peasants. The surprising outcome was the rapid spread of Islam: of the total number of 64,721 households, 45,941 were Muslim including 4,979 single males while only 18,891 were Christian (both Catholic and Orthodox). That means that the ratio was 71% Muslim and 29% Christian. Moreover, it is interesting that a high number of Muslims fell into the category of city populatoin. The number of all privileged households in cities was 9,843, including 2,429 bachelors. The Muslim reaya amounted to 36,098 households with 1,550 bachelors. City population thus formed 21% and the reaya 79% of the total number. this demonstrates that the Muslim reaya in the sancak of Bosnia in 1604 was almost twice as numerous as the Christian reaya. Within the Muslim population, one fifth were city people and four fifths agricultural.
If Islam really spread through Bosnia in the dimensions that are recorded in the 17th century, it is only safe to assume that the land was distributed to the Muslims in similar proportions. Also, the inheritance among the Christian families was passed over from parents to children, regardless of whether the latter embraced Islam or not. It is not surprising therefore that there was plenty of mixing between the Christian (mainly Orthodox) and Muslim population, particularly in the countryside where the Orthodox population was settled. Another factor contributed to this mixing. During the frequent wars of the 18th century many Muslim households lost their male members, so that the surviving females used to voluntarily invite their Christian neighbors to take over their field work which they themselves could not do. Thus, the Christians would inhabit these lands as permanent employees, working on the land both for their own benefit as well as the benefit of their Muslim empoyers. Later, in the former Yugoslavia, these employees that had originally beenhired on an ad hoc basis were to become true ownes of these land plots.