Some Characteristics of the Acceptance of Islam in Bosnian Sanjak at the Beginning of 16th Century

Abstract

The acceptance of Islam presents a phenomenon that distinguishes Bosnia in relation to the other regions of the Balkans under the Ottoman rule. In that respect, Bosnia could be compared only to Albania. Still, although there are many studies that treat this phenomenon, many other questions remain that need to be actualized. This paper presents an attempt to point out some specific phenomena in a phase of that process. The paper was created on the basis of Ottoman sources from the beginning of the 16th century and through them the paper tries to trace the achieved degree of acceptance of Islam. The observation includes the whole Bosnian sanjak, from Mitrovica (Kosovo) in the southeast to Udbina (Croatia) in the northwest. The main questions that impose themselves are the similarities and (or) differences in certain regions of sanjak, specificities in these regions and the reflection of that phenomenon in urban and rural places. To answer these questions, sanjak was divided into five territories. We have tentatively named them: Novi Pazar territory, East Bosnia, Middle Bosnia, Western Bosnia, and Mid-Dalmatian hinterland. The Ottoman administration recognized them as: Vilajet Jeleč, Zemlja Pavlovića, Kraljeva Zemlja, Vilajet Hrvat. This division is historically rooted and justified by occasional but insignificant departures made under the influence of the sources, later administrative divisions or some geographical factors. As it has been pointed out, these departures are slight and  do not change the overall result. The analysis and comparisons were made in regional and local frames. Their result can be summarized in a few postulates. In this phase of the Ottoman rule, the level of acceptance of Islam in the Novi Pazar region was extremely low, especially in rural areas (2%). These areas were affected neither in breadth nor in depth. The presence of Islam in that area was made more prominent by the urban population for whom it is not possible to determine the local element percentage. The entire area up to the river Drina showed these characteristics. It is interesting that to the end of the 16th century this trend had not changed significantly and that it did not show a significant increase. The entrance to the medieval region of Pavlovićs suggests not only a greater acceptance of Islam, but especially accelerated dynamics of that process in the rural areas in relation to the towns. Although the valley of Bosnia was the place of the most prominent acceptance of Islam, and partially balanced dynamics in the urban and rural places, it still occurred that some towns, especially miners’ ones, where the Catholic church exercised a great influence, fall behind in accepting Islam in relation to the rural areas. The swing of that process in the area west of nahiya Uskopje, that is the valley of the Vrbas, significantly decreases. However, until the end of the 16th century, it would progress more in this area than in the southeast of the sanjak. Still, it is interesting that rural Dalmatian areas in a very short time reached a degree held by the southeast areas for more than one century of Ottoman rule. The influence of churches, Orthodox or Catholic, was obviously an important factor that affected the weaker intensity of acceptance of Islam. It was confirmed by the case of rural settlements of the southeast of sanjak, but also by certain cases in the areas of the more prominent acceptance of Islam. The same results could be found in the settlements where the existence of Catholic Church objects were documented, in Kreševo, Fojnica, Olovo or Sutjeska.