Bosnian Muslims

By Tone Bringa and John Beierle

Muslimani, Bosnjaci.

The Bosnian Muslim homeland is the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Western Balkans; one of six republics in the former Yugoslavia. They share the country with the Bosnian Serbs and Croats whose identification and political orientation is largely synonymous with that of the neighboring countries of Serbia and Croatia. Bosnia and Herzegovina has been claimed by both these neighboring peoples, but the Muslims have fought such claims. The Bosnian Muslims consider themselves as belonging to a distinct ethnic group or nation and, contrary to the Bosnian Serbs and Croats, consider Bosnia-Herzegovina as their one and only homeland.

The Bosnian Muslims are the largest ethnic group in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the dominant group in the political unit of the country called the Bosniac-Croat Federation. During the 1992-95 war the Muslims were either expelled from or killed in the territories controlled by either the Croat or Serbian armies. The highest number of expulsions and massacres of Muslims took place in the eastern and northern parts of the country where the Bosnian Serbs took control over what was to become the Republika Srpska. These were mainly Muslim majority areas prior to 1992. The Muslims have traditionally dominated the cities and have a strong urban orientation. Culturally the capital of Sarajevo has always been strongly influenced by the Muslim population. Since 1995 the Muslim population has concentrated in the major cities under Bosnian Muslim control: Sarajevo, Zenica and Tuzla. In the constitution for Bosnia and Herzegovina outlined by the Dayton agreement (21 November 1995) the official name for the Bosnian Muslims is Bosniac, an English translation of the ethnonym BoÓnjak (BoÓjaci) and preferred by the Bosnian Muslim political leadership.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnian Muslims lived among Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats throughout the country. During particularly difficult periods in this century of institutionalized discrimination or perceived political pressure, Muslims left their country and established communities abroad. As a consequence of the past war (1992-1995), we find communities of Bosnian Muslims throughout Europe, with the largest number located in Germany. Outside of Europe groups of refugees from Bosnia, with the assistance of the United Nations, have been sent to the United States, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan.

According to the 1991 national census for Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Muslims comprised 43.5 percent or almost two million (1,902,956) people of a total population of 4,337,033. However, as a consequence of the 1992-1995 war this number has been reduced. The largest concentrations of Muslims were in the central and eastern parts and in the north west corner of the country. During the war hundreds of thousands of Muslims either fled or were systematically expelled from their homes. In addition thousands were killed in massacres. For instance, when the city of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia was taken by Serb forces in July 1995 it is believed that as many as six thousand Muslim men were massacred. The war and particularly the strategy of so- called "ethnic cleansing" has left approximately 1.3 million people internally displaced with a majority of these being Muslims. In addition to the more than two million refugees an estimated minimum of 200,000 people were killed during the war.

The Bosnian Muslims share a common language with their Serb and Croat neighbors both those within Bosnia and Herzegovina and those in the neighboring states of Serbia and Croatia. It is a Slavonic language and its official name before the disintegration of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was Serbo-Croat. Since the dissolution of this state and its division into ethnically based nation states this common language has become officially known under three different designations: Serbian (the eastern EKAVSKI variant using the Cyrillic alphabet), the official language of the Serbian population, Croatian (the western, IJEKAVSKI variant using the Latin alphabet), the official language of the Croatian population, and Bosnian (which is of the IJEKAVSKI variant and uses the Latin alphabet), the official language of the Bosnian population. The latter distinguishes itself from the Croatian mainly by a variation in vocabulary. A process of reinventing vocabulary or readopting archaic words and forms has been initiated for all three versions by nationalist leadership and scholars as part of their respective nation-building projects. Many words which before 1992 were only used colloquially and only among Muslims particularly in rural areas are now used as part of the written and official language by the media and state officials in Sarajevo. Many of these words are derived from Turkish.

The independent kingdom of Bosnia arose in the Middle Ages. In the fifteenth century (1463), Bosnia was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, a conquest which took more than a century and a half to complete. In the centuries to follow a large number of the local people converted to Islam; the religion of the conquering state. Those who converted came from a broad cross section of society. The Bosnian gentry were probably among the first to embrace Islam -- and the securing of property and privileges may have been a motivating factor -- but peasants and members of other socio- economic categories followed suit. At the time of the Ottoman conquest there were inhabitants who adhered to both of the two Christian churches; Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox. Bosnia proper was mostly Catholic due to the extensive presence and proselytism of the Franciscans. Orthodox Slavs lived in areas of Herzegovina and in eastern Bosnia on the border with Serbia. Some scholars will argue that there was a third Christian Church present: The Bosnian Church. This church was the church of the Bosnian king and had been branded heretical and its members persecuted by Rome and Catholic Hungary. The church was allegedly influenced by Bogomilism (the religious doctrine of a Bulgarian sect which flourished between the tenth through fifteenth centuries), and it has been argued that those who converted to Islam were the persecuted members of the Bosnian Church. However, since there is little evidence to substantiate this claim a more plausible interpretation is that first there was no strong church organization or presence in Bosnia at the time and, second that people's religious life was non-doctrinal and influenced by both Orthodox, Catholic and non-Christian beliefs and practices. Indeed, the converts to Islam were recruited from all of the religious traditions.

The Ottoman administration favored those individuals among the local population who shared their faith. They had access to education and could hold office in the administration. A Bosnian Muslim elite grew up which through their office obtained rights in land. The peasants who worked on their land were usually Christians. Although a majority of Muslims too were peasants significant socio-economic differences developed between Bosnia's different religious communities. In the Ottoman Empire various groups had been identified and administered on the basis of religion. During Ottoman rule Bosnia was multi-religious and the three major faiths were Islamic, Serbian Orthodox and Roman Catholic. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, members of each religious community came to identify with a particular ethnic group or nationality; the Eastern Orthodox as Serbs, the Roman Catholics as Croats and the Muslims as Bosnian Muslims or Bosniacs. This ethnification of the different religious communities which was particularly influential in the case of the Catholics and the Orthodox was inspired by the national movements in neighboring Croatia and Serbia which in turn were inspired by the national movements in Europe as a whole. A Bosnian Muslim national movement developed much later, and had a less popular base. It was mainly a response to a Serb and Croat nationalist denial of the existence of a separate Bosnian Muslim identity and their competing claims that the Bosnian Muslims were ethnically either Serbs or Croats. Along with these claims went Serbia's and Croatia's nationalist aspirations to incorporate Bosnia and Herzegovina, or those territories with a substantial ethnic Serbian or Croatian population, into their respective nation states. However, the Bosnian Muslims refused to become either Serbified or Croatified.

Since its independent status in the Middle Ages, Bosnia and Herzegovina has been under the political control of different state powers: The Ottoman empire, The Habsburg empire and the Yugoslav kingdom each of which discriminated against one community or segment of the population while favoring another. In post World War II Yugoslavia, the communist partisans led by Marshal Tito, developed a complex system for the balance of power between the largest ethnic groups to make sure that no one ethnic group or nation within the multi-national Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was favored or became dominant. The main competition for power had historically been between Serbia and Croatia. In Bosnia and Herzegovina the two met in their hegemonic aspirations for territory expressed through their co-religionists and ethnic brethren. Bosnia and Herzegovina was thus a potential source of instability in the new socialist Yugoslavia. Tito may have calculated that the third group, the Muslims, could be used as a stabilizing factor. During Tito's rule in Yugoslavia the Muslims obtained constitutionally equal status with the Serbs and the Croats which Muslim activists had long demanded. The changing state policies towards the Bosnian Muslim population was reflected in socialist Yugoslavia's official nationalities hierarchy. In the population census of 1948, there was the option of being called "Muslims of undeclared nationality", in addition to Serb, Croat, and so on; in 1953 those who did not want to declare themselves as Serbs and Croats had the option of choosing "Yugoslavs of undeclared nationality." In 1961 the Bosnian Muslims were allowed to declare themselves as Muslims in the ethnic sense and finally in 1971 census they were acknowledged the same nationality status as their Bosnian Serb and Croat neighbors and able to declare themselves as Muslim under the category of nation (NAROD). However, an ambiguity remained since the name Muslim was primarily a religious label parallel to Orthodox and Catholic but not to Serb and Croat, and was understood as such outside of Yugoslavia. This became apparent with the international media coverage of the Muslims during the 1992-95 war. None of the three constituent nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina -- Muslims, Serbs and Croats carried an ethnonym which directly identified them with the country. In the case of the Muslims their religious rather than their ethnic affiliation and territorial identity was stressed, while for the Bosnian Catholics and Orthodox Christians it was their affiliation with a political and territorial entity outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

With the rise of separatist nationalism and the dissolution of Tito's Yugoslavia towards the end of the 1980s the Serb and Croat populations in Bosnia and Herzegovina were mobilized for Serbia's and Croatia's respective nationalist state building projects. Explicitly or implicitly they sought a division of Bosnia and Herzegovina along ethnic lines. The Muslims were caught in between, (together with Bosnians of ethnically mixed parentage), as they neither identified with a political unit outside of Bosnia or had any military or political support from a neighboring patron state. Both the Muslim political leadership and the Muslim population favored a united multi-ethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Muslims became the victims of genocide perpetrated by the Serbian side and were the hardest hit by so-called "ethnic cleansing" (i.e. the organized terrorization, expulsion and killing of members of one ethnic group by another group in order to create ethnically homogenous areas controlled by the latter). Before war broke out in 1992 people of different ethno-religious backgrounds co-existed as neighbors, friends, and colleagues throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. The degree to which people co-existed and interacted varied from town to country, sometimes from one village to the next, from neighborhood to neighborhood, and from family to family. While in many villages people of different ethno- religious backgrounds would live side by side and often be good neighbors and sometimes close friends to one another, they would rarely intermarry. In other hamlets or villages, however, this was not the case for they would not live side by side and would know little about each other. Some families would have a long tradition of friendship across ethno-religious community lines while others would not. In towns, especially among the urban-educated class, intermarriage would be quite common, and would sometimes go back several generations in a single family. Some traditions, customs, and even rituals were regionally based and shared by people from all three different ethno-religious backgrounds. Regional differences would in other words supersede ethno-religious ones. During World War II different people of the Yugoslav kingdom were mobilized on opposite sides in the war. Historical memories from that conflict were reenacted in the 1992-95 war but this time with a much clearer ethno-nationalist basis.

Before 1992 Muslims were settled throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina but there were sharp regional variations in ethnic composition. For instance in the Bihac area in the north-west corner of the country Muslims made up 91 percent of the population. In some areas, such as that surrounding Banja Luka, Muslims lived among a Serb majority, while in western Herzegovina Muslims lived among a Croat majority. In some areas of central Bosnia Croats and Muslims were found in almost equal numbers while in Eastern Bosnia, Muslims were either a majority, or found in equal numbers with the Serbs. However, within these regions there could be considerable variations between municipalities. After the 1992-95 war Muslims lived concentrated in the central areas of Bosnia including the capital Sarajevo and the major cities of Tuzla and Zenica. The major cities are often divided into an old city center and a new area characterized by high-rise tower buildings. The former were divided into MAHALAS or neighborhoods which traditionally had been inhabited by one ethnic group. In Sarajevo for instance certain MAHALAS in the old city had been inhabited by urban Muslim families for generations. In rural areas Muslims lived either in separate villages or hamlets, or ethnically mixed ones. In those which were ethnically mixed the different groups were either settled in separate or clearly defined areas of the village, or families of different ethnic backgrounds lived next door to each other as first neighbors. Ethnically mixed settlements were mostly either Muslim/Croat or Muslim/Serb. Settlements typically consisted of brothers with their families. The ideal for a young married man was to set up his own household in a new house. However, it was not uncommon for a young family to share a household with the husband's parents until they could finish their new house. This house was often build on the husband's father's land nearby. As a result of the industrial development in Yugoslavia after World War II wage labor became widely available and in the 1960s migrant labor opportunities abroad made sons independent of their father, his land and inheritance. The traditional communal patri-group household called ZAJEDNICA ("community") became less common as brothers broke out of the household at a much earlier stage in their life-cycle and established their own households. As a consequence of the 1992-95 war there are hardly any ethnically mixed village communities left and approximately two- thirds of all housing have either been destroyed or damaged.

The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina destroyed most pre-war economic activities. During the war period people survived by living off small plots of land, by receiving food aid and remittances from abroad and some by engaging in black-market activities. The unemployment rate was very high (an estimated 80%). There are no distinct subsistence or economic activities in which Muslims engage. Although there are full-time farmers, agriculture is typically of the subsistence variety. That is, rural households receive their income mainly from industry and labor migrations and supplement the household economy from small agricultural holdings. Agricultural products such as milk, butter and eggs are sold at the local market mainly by women. As has happened in many rural areas in southern Europe where wage labor and labor migrations for males became significant sources of income for the households, agriculture has become female centered.

From the 1960s until the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the beginning of the 1990s many Bosnians Muslims as well as Serbs and Croats left on labor migrations, primarily to Germany and Austria. When the labor market in Europe became more restricted in the 1980s, men left for Canada and Australia. In addition Yugoslav companies were involved in construction work in the Middle East and Bosnian Muslim men would work for contracted periods in this region. The money they earned would often be invested in projects in their home country, often put into the building of a new house back in Bosnia or invested in the establishment of a private business.

In the larger cities and market towns Muslims are engaged in the small industry of traditional handicrafts: Coppersmiths make traditional plates, coffee-grinders, coffee-sets and tables. Silver and goldsmiths make the traditional filigree jewelry. Shoemakers make the traditional Bosnian slippers and leather shoes. Muslim artisans also make traditional pottery and some women knit the traditional, colorful and richly patterned woolen socks which they sell at the marketplace.

Both men and women are involved in wage labor in industry, education, the health services, public administration, etc. Household work is, however, primarily the domain of women, and particularly in rural areas there are clear ideas about women's and men's work. As already noted, agriculture is often dominated by women and so is sheep-herding. This has often been a consequence of the men leaving the villages to work in industry in the nearest city or abroad.

During Ottoman rule, (1463-1878), Bosnia had a feudal system with Muslim BEGS or landlords at the top. The Muslim landlords made up two percent of the Muslim population, but most of the sharecroppers (KMETS) who worked on their land were Christians (Orthodox or Catholic). There were some Muslim KMETS (as there were some Catholic or Orthodox landlords) but most Muslim peasants were free-holders and did not have to make obligatory payments to a landlord. The KMETS had to render over one-third of their annual crop to a Muslim landlord and another tenth in levies to the state. Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there were a series of peasant revolts in Bosnia. They were directed towards the feudal system with its Muslim landlords. The Austro-Hungarian dual kingdom which governed Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1878-1918 only made a few cosmetic changes to the existing system. During royal Yugoslavia, 1918-41, radical agrarian reforms were introduced and 150,000 peasant families received over one million hectares of land. The previous, mostly Muslim, owners of the land received some cash compensation from the Yugoslav government. During the socialist period in Yugoslavia another set of agrarian reforms were introduced. Over one and a half million hectares throughout Yugoslavia were confiscated and allotted to ex-partisans and landless peasants. With these reforms Muslim landlord privilege was totally eradicated. The peasant working collectives introduced in 1945 proved to be an economic disaster and by 1965 had ceased to exist. The 1945 agrarian reform had set a maximum of 25-35 hectares allowed under private ownership. In 1953 the maximum was decreased to 10 hectares and was again increased slightly for mountainous region in the 1980s. Former great Muslim families were allowed to retain their land but were limited to the same amount of arable land as everybody else.

The basic social and political unit in rural communities are agnatically-based kin groups. This is reflected in the settlement pattern whereby brothers with their wives and children live next- door to each other on land inherited from their father. Yet, this agnatic structure is modified through the important role of maternal kin and affines in a person's kinship network. The relationship between in-laws called PRIJATELJI or "friends"is important and elaborated on in ritual gift exchanges in connection with marriage. Affines may be called upon in times of crisis to assist economically or otherwise. Affines and kin constitute a kinship network with a political and economic mobilizing potential. Descent is reckoned patrilineally, but in practice kinship networks are bilaterally based. Uterine kin are included in an exogamy rule but an individual's knowledge about uterine kin is usually more scanty than that of his or her agnatic kin. This is, however, less true if a person's mother is a native to the village or town of his or her father. In rural areas Bosnian Muslims are usually endogamous within the ethnic group. Kinship is thus the main organizational principle for the ethnic community and ethnic loyalties are primarily kinship loyalties.

The Bosnian Muslim kinship terminology system is parallel to that of their Bosnian Serb and Croat neighbors. For instance all three groups distinguish between uncles and cousins on the father's and the mother's side. The terms used by men and women for their respective parents-in-law also differ. The same term is used for a brothers' wife, a son's wife and a man's brother's son's wife. This lumping together of close male relatives' wives reflects the old patrilocal and patri-group based household organization. Some kinship terms Muslims share with their Serb and Croat counterparts while others are specific to the Muslims but without indicating any difference in the terminological system. Several of the terms used by the Bosnian Muslims are derived from Turkish, while those used by Bosnian Serbs and Croats are Slav.

The Bosnian Muslims are exogamous and disapprove of marriage between relatives reckoned collaterally up to "the ninth generation". "Generations" are counted from ego or alter up to an apical ancestor. Since genealogies are rarely known further back than the third or fourth generation, the prohibition is usually applied to any known cousins of traceable genealogical ties. In rural areas and among urban religiously oriented families marriages with non-Muslim Bosnians are disapproved. Bosnian Muslims (like their Serb and Croat counterparts) are thus exogamous within the kin group and endogamous within the ethno-religious group although there are numerous exceptions to the latter, particularly in more urban settings. During the socialist period in Yugoslavia any marriage had to be registered by the secular authorities before a religious ceremony could be conducted. Only a few religiously devout Muslims married according to Shari'a or Islamic law. Such a wedding did have a symbolic value but could not supersede secular laws on marriage. Polygyny is not permitted and was never common in the past when Islamic law on marriage was accepted by the authorities. Divorce is socially acceptable, religiously permissible, and not uncommon. Children will in some instances remain with their father and in others with their mother. The legal age for marrying is eighteen, but in reality, and particularly for girls, it is not unusual that marriage takes place before this age. This is possible under a traditional custom of elopement. Socially a couple is married if the woman is brought to the man's parent's home as a bride, spends the night there, followed by a series of visits and gift-exchanges between the groom's and bride's parents and close family. Married status is essential to obtain recognition as an adult and responsible individual.

The basic socioeconomic unit is the household based on the nuclear or core-family which is generally virilocal in rural areas and neolocal in urban areas. In some rural areas the traditional viri-patrilocal extended family unit is found. In both rural and urban regions a young couple would often share a house with the husband's parents, and although the young couple would prefer their own separate home this was not always practically or economically possible. As a consequence of the war, domestic arrangements have been radically altered. Houses and apartments are in short supply and many people have been displaced from their homes; families and households have been split, and/or households have again become large extended family units. The domestic unit, however, is still the primary socializing unit. A household gains considerable social worth and status from offering hospitality to guests. A guest should be treated to the best a household can offer in the way of food and comfort.

Secular and not Islamic inheritance laws are followed and inheritance is equal for both male and female heirs. Farm property is divided equally among all heirs but inheriting females (daughters) often relinquish their share to a brother or brothers since they usually marry out of the village.

Child rearing is similar to that in other European countries. The kind of socialization a child receives is often dependent on the socio-economic status of its family. Generally, however, socialization is more gender specific than is the case, say in northern Europe. Boys are brought up to be the center of attention and to take precedence over their female siblings. Certain tasks and skills are learned as gender specific. Education is seen as important and encouraged. In rural areas, sons more than daughters, are encouraged to become educated, while girls frequently leave school earlier and marry earlier than boys. Children grow up with many adults around and children are rarely excluded from adult social gatherings. Depending on the religious attitude of the parents both boys and girls will be sent to Quranic schools (MEKTEB) at the age of six or seven. Before the changes in demographic and settlement patterns caused by the war this used to be a common practice in villages but less common in cities.

The settlement pattern and the political power was substantially effected by the 1992-95 war in which the Muslim population was ethnically cleansed from virtually the entire Serb controlled territory of northern and eastern Bosnia and from parts of the Croat controlled territory as well. The Bosnian Muslims are the largest group in the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The internationally recognized country consists of two entities, a Serb entity (Republika Srpska), a Federation of the Bosnian Muslims (Bosniacs), and the Bosnian Croats (the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina). Under the terms of the Dayton Peace agreement The Republika Srpska occupies 49 percent of the territory and the Federation 51 percent. The Muslims are the largest and dominant group within the Federation. As of the 1996 elections the Muslim nationalist party (the SDA) has an absolute majority in the Federation Parliament and is in a position to elect the Prime Minister and most of the ministers. There is also considerable power sharing between the Muslims and the Croats within the Federation. Substantial powers are devolved from the federation to cantons and municipalities. Certain cantons are predominantly Muslim, while others are predominantly Croat or mixed. Within the mixed cantons there are elaborate procedures for power sharing between the Muslims and the Croats. A substantial part of the Muslim population has legal and voting rights within the Republika Srpska. However, with few exceptions they do not live within the Republika Srpska as they were ethnically cleansed from this territory and have not been able to return. The country of Bosnia-Herzegovina has a very weak central government with control of only a limited number of functions such as foreign relations, foreign trade and currency. Even military matters are handled by the two entities. There is a national parliament with two-thirds of its members coming from the Federation and one-third from the Republika Srpska. The Presidency rotates every eight months between a Serb, a Muslim and a Croat. In 1996 the presidential election was won by a Bosnian Muslim, Alija Izetbegovic.

In the secularized society of the Bosnian Muslims, Islamic law has not functioned as the social control mechanism common to many Islamic countries. Instead values, which the Muslims share with non-Muslim Bosnians, such as a strong egalitarianism, jealousy, and loyalty to the kin and household, have been important. In modern times Muslims have experienced a degree of discrimination from the Christian sections of the population within what was formerly Yugoslavia. The popular opinion of Muslims by the majority Christian population ( Orthodox and Catholic) is of a secretive people, not to be trusted, conservative in their ways, and even backward. This is ironic for a group which used to represent society's educated and economic elite. The long experience of more or less totalitarian governments combined with experiences of harassment and violence have imbued the Bosnian Muslim people with a weariness and even fear of authority, and distrust of strangers expressed through a guardedness in speech and behavior. The loyalty expected from friends and allies is correspondingly strong.

In 1995 the Bosnian Muslims emerged from Europe's bloodiest and longest lasting war since 1945 as the victims of genocide and the primary victims of an organized campaign that became known as ethnic cleansing. The primary source of conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina is politicized ethnicity and the extreme brand of Serbian and to a lesser extent Croatian nationalist ideologies propagating ethnically pure territories. Not only did more than 100,000 Muslims perish in the 1992-95 war which is more than five percent of the prewar Muslim population, but Bosnian Muslims were completely driven out of eastern and northern Bosnia, areas where the Muslims had been a majority prior to the war. This experience has led to a deeply held sense of injustice and anger. The Dayton agreement remains fragile and new large scale fighting between Bosnian Muslims and either the Serbs or Croats may erupt at any time. The war left many Bosnian Muslims destitute and homeless and without many opportunities for employment. This creates tension within families and among Bosnian Muslims as they compete for scarce job employment opportunities and housing. Further, the extreme brutality of the war traumatized many Bosnian Muslims, particularly young soldiers, women subject to systematic rape, and children. In addition many families were split by the war and/or lost several of their members. Post-traumatic stress is likely to put strains on families and be a source of long-term tension and potential conflict.

Bosnian Muslims (Bosniacs) are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school of law. Religion is the main distinguishing factor between Serbs, Croats and Bosniacs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Islam thus defines and sets apart Bosniacs from Serbs and Croats. Since religion and ethnic identity are intimately interconnected in Bosnia-Herzegovina, public displays of religious beliefs were discouraged in socialist Yugoslavia (1945-1990). Membership in the communist party, which was a prerequisite for achieving a successful career or being hired as a state employee, excluded the possibility of practicing one's religion openly and in public. Although this was valid for members of all three religious communities in Bosnia, the limitations put on the expression of Muslim religious beliefs was at times particularly vigorous. During this period only a small number of Muslims were devoutly practicing and following the five pillars of Islam. Towards the end of the 1980s the regime relaxed its attitude towards religion and many new mosques were built, often with the economic sponsorship from Islamic countries in the Middle East. With the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the late 1980s and early 1990s there developed an increased popular interest in religion and Islamic practices. The war and the great suffering and losses inflicted on Muslims in particular have increased an awareness of Islamic religious practices. Furthermore, in the nationalist climate of the 1990s Islamic rituals are central to the expression of a Bosniac national identity. Islamic symbols are core elements in emblems and the political rhetoric of the main Muslim party, the SDA, elected to power in 1990. In rural areas the Islamic religion was always practiced as part of a body of traditions. This rural form of Islam was less scriptural than that found among the devout elite in the cities. Rural religious practices are a blend of orthodox Islamic practices, popular Islamic practices (such as the visiting of saints graves for good health and fortune), and other non-Islamic customs some of which Muslims share with their Christian neighbors. In some regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina the influence of the Naqshibandi sufi order and their religious customs is reflected in local practices.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina there are both male and female religious instructors. The male instructor is called a HODÑA while the female instructor is called a BULA. Both are educated at the MEDRESSA [a Quaranic school] in Sarajevo. The men and women receive the same education but will have different duties once employed by a mosque council. Women cannot lead prayers in the mosque, or perform the ritual washing of a male corpse. BULAS are particularly engaged in leading TEVHIDS (social gatherings with collective prayers for the souls of the dead), preparing a female corpse for burial, reciting and reading at MEVLUDS (a festive gathering where Islamic recitations, songs and poems are performed in honor of the birth of the Prophet Mohammed), and in some cases as instructors at children's Quranic school. On ritual occasions other devout Muslims who are known as good reciters may be called upon to give a recital, a HAFIZ (Islamic scholar who knows the Quran by heart) demands particular respect. Finally, there are the HODÑAS who are members of a sufi order and sought by people in times of personal crisis.

In Islam, religious ceremonies accompany life-cycle rituals such as male circumcision, marriage, and death. Among Bosnian Muslims circumcision is rarely elaborated on although some devout families may organize a MEVLUD in connection with their son's circumcision. A religious wedding ceremony was rare prior to 1990 but may be on the increase; in any case it is a rather low key and private ceremony. Death is the life crisis which receives the most ritual elaboration through various forms of congregational prayers on behalf of the dead. Here the TEVHID and particularly the women's TEVHID occupies a central place. Ceremonial holidays follow the Islamic calendar, but some of these such as the new year and the prophet's birthday are only observed by the devout, while others have a more popular appeal. Bajram is a three day feast which marks the end of Ramadan or the month of fasting. It is celebrated by most Bosnian Muslims independently of whether he or she has been fasting or not. As such Bajram is similar to the status of Christmas in the Christian Western world. Only a small number of devout Muslims (and primarily women) would fast during the socialist Yugoslav period, but since 1990 the numbers have been increasing. Bosnian Muslims also observe Kurban Bajram or the sacrifice of the ram. In addition, throughout the calendar year, individual Muslim households may host a MEVLUD often in connection with happy events such as the birth of a child. TEVHID or prayers for the dead is the most popularly held non-calendric ceremony. Muslims are required to pray five times a day and (for men) to attend the mosque on Fridays. Devout Muslims do practice this, but again most Bosnian Muslims do not.

Bosnian Muslim architecture is reflected in the style of mosques and houses in the old neighborhoods in cities such as Sarajevo, Travnik and Mostar. During the 1992-95 war more than a thousand Muslim religious cites were destroyed and among these some of the oldest and finest examples of Bosnian Muslim architecture. The famous Ferhad Pasha mosque in Banja Luka, and the Aladña mosque in Foca were among those blown up and leveled to the ground by Serbian nationalist forces. The old Ottoman bridge in Mostar was blown up by Croatian nationalist forces. In folk music Bosnian Muslims are associated with particular kinds of melancholic love songs called SEVDAHLINKE, and a traditional stringed instrument called SAZ. Islamic calligraphy has also been produced by Bosnian artists.

Prior to the war Bosnia-Herzegovina had a extensive medical and health care system with a highly educated medical profession. Bosnians of all three ethno-religious backgrounds would seek the assistance of alternative healers as a supplement to conventional medicine and usually when such treatment had not succeeded. Some Muslims visit HODÑAS known to possess extraordinary powers which enable them to divine and cure physical and mental inflictions which medical doctors have not been able to cure. Certain HODÑAS write small charms with a Quranic verse which a person carries for healing or protection. As among other Muslim peoples the holy text has healing powers and the recital of specific verses from the Quran may also be used for healing. Many Bosnians independent of faith have knowledge of the use of herbs and herbal teas and other natural remedies against certain ailments.

At death there are certain obligatory rituals prescribed by Islamic law which are performed by men, such as the ritual washing of the corpse (except for the ritual washing of a female body which must be performed by a woman), and the DÑENAZA prayers and burial. Women are not allowed to attend the burial ceremony and instead they participate in TEVHID, collective prayers held for the deceased in order to help him or her to secure a good afterlife. This ritual is not prescribed by Islam and is therefore considered voluntary. It has it own form characteristic of Islamic practices in Bosnia. The TEVHID used to be performed mainly by women but now is increasingly being performed by men. It is held five times, usually in the house of the deceased, and at determined intervals over a period of one year following his or her death. The prayers are said on behalf of the deceased and believed to assist him or her in the afterlife through earning him or her religious merit. At the same time those who say the prayers or recite increase their own chances of well-being in the afterlife. It is also an occasion for remembering and honoring other dead relatives and neighbors. In times of special need people may pray at the shrines of a Muslim martyr (ÓEHIT) or saint (EVLIJA). Because of their piety during their lifetime and/or their heroic deaths and martyrdom these pious dead are believed to be closer to God and in a position to mediate on behalf of the living.

Documents referred to in this section are included in this eHRAF collection and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number.

The Bosnian Muslims file consists of nine English language works. Although there is no single study in this collection of documents that gives an overall comprehensive coverage of Bosnian Muslim ethnography, the five works by the cultural anthropologist William G. Lockwood do provide a broad range of ethnographic topics, even though the primary focus of most of these is on social organization. Lockwood's studies center around the village of Planinica in the Skoplje Polje region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the author did most of his fieldwork. These provide information on the market economy, social organization (as noted above), forms of marriage among rural Muslims, social change, culture history, and the function and role of songs in terms of their relationship to social structure. (See Lockwood 1975, 1974, 1979, 1975, 1983; eHRAF documents nos. 1-4, & 9). The two documents by Donia are basically history oriented. The first of these (Donia 1978, no. 5), traces the political, social, economic and cultural foundations of the Bosnian Muslims from the beginning of the Ottoman period (1463) to the 1960s. Donia's second work (Donia 1986, no. 7), presents a detailed historical account of the Bosnian Muslim movement to achieve cultural and religious autonomy under the Habsburg regime in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the period of 1878-1914. Tone Bringa's monograph (Bringa 1995, no. 6), is a study of a mixed Muslim-Catholic community in central Bosnia which she calls "Dolina" (a pseudonym). This book describes how Muslim religion and ethnicity were sustained and experienced in Bosnia prior to the collapse of the Yugoslav state. The author also discusses social values in terms of family, marriage and kinship networks, and how they mold wider political and social identities. Dyker's article provides some brief socio-economic information on the ethnic Muslims of Bosnia culled from various types of published reports. These data relate generally to demography, language, religious orientation, nationalism, and occupations.

The culture summary was written by Tone Bringa, October, 1996. The synopsis and indexing notes were written by John Beierle, November 1996.

• AVLIJA -- parking lot for horses, near the market town -- categories 363, 311, 231

• BALIJE -- Muslim peasants -- category 565

• BEGOVI -- descendants of Muslim aristocracy -- category 565

• CARSIJA -- market town -- category 366

• COBAN -- herder -- category 233

• collateral groups -- category 616

• dervishes -- a religious sect -- category 795 (sometimes with 794)

• HAN -- primitive hotels -- category 485

• HODZA -- Islamic religious leaders and teachers -- categories 793, 875

• KADI -- a Muslim magistrate who judges according to Islamic law -- category 693

• KAFANA -- coffeehouses -- category 275

• KOMSIJA -- groups of neighboring households -- category 621

• KUCA -- household -- category 592

• MAHALE -- a division of a village similar to the KOMSIJA but on a larger scale -- category 621 (sometimes with 571)

• MAJSTORI -- all types of craftsmen, but especially the all purpose village craftsman who works chiefly as a carpenter -- categories 463, 335

• MEVLUD -- devotional rituals -- category 796

• MOBA -- cooperative work groups -- category 476

• Mosque council -- category 795

• MUFTI -- a professional jurist who interprets Islamic law -- category 693

• MUKABELA -- a gathering of Islamic scholars in the Mosque to recite the Qur'an aloud from beginning to end --category 788

• Muslim National Organization (MNO) -- category 665

• NACIJA -- "nation"; a group of people with similar religious affiliation -- categories 619, 186, 771

• OPSTINE -- communes comparable to American counties -- category 634

• OTMICA -- bride abduction -- category 583

• PRELO -- spinning bee or generally any occasion of visiting -- categories 574, 461

• PRIJATELJATWO -- in-lawship -- categories 606, 607

• SEHIT -- a Muslim martyr -- categories 798, 776

• SELO -- village -- category 621

• SHERIAT -- the Islamic body of law -- category 671

• SREZ -- an administrative unit larger than a OPSTINE -- category 631 (possibly with 635)

• STARESINA -- household elder; head of a ZADRUGE -- categories 592, 596, 554

• SVEKAR -- father-in-law -- category 606

• SVEKRVA -- mother-in-law -- category 606

• TEVHID -- prayers for the dead -- categories 782, 769

• TURBE -- a small mausoleum of a Muslim martyr -- category 778

• VAKUF (WAGF or HABUS) -- an Islamic trust fund or foundation which finances religious activities and schools -- category 741

• village committees -- categories 623, 631

• village mosque council -- category 795

• ZADRUGE -- extended family households -- categories 592, 596

Bringa, Tone. Being Muslim the Muslim way: identity and community in a Bosnian village. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.

Donia, Robert J. Bosnia and Hercegovina: a tradition betrayed. By Robert J. Donia and John V.A. Fine, Jr. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.

Malcolm, Noel. Bosnia, a short history. London: Macmillan, 1994.