JPI Spring 2018

Muslims as elites in urban centers, while most Christians remained peasants in the countryside. 22 The
general Christian reaction to Ottoman conquest and dominance sparked the formation of cultural
narratives that are inherently hostile to the Ottoman legacy. Mass conversion pushed Serbs and Croats
to self-identify by religion and distance themselves from the ‘Turk’ designation, a derogatory term still
used by nationalists that does not distinguish between Bosniaks and Ottomans. Conversion in the
Ottoman Empire predominantly occurred in contact regions vulnerable to attacks from Christian
Europe, specifically Bosnia and Albania. 23 In Bosnia, aside from forced victims of the devşirme child
levy, conversions were voluntary. The jizya, or poll tax imposed on non-Muslims, incentivized the
Ottoman administration to refrain from forced conversions. The tax became critical to driving
revenues to maintain imperial operations. 24
Historian Peter Sugar emphasizes that many scholars argue that economic benefits and
improved social mobility motivated Slavs to convert to Islam. 25 However, he suggests that similarities
among Christian and Islamic folk religions facilitated interaction, compromise, and the eventual
creation of a mixed religion with elements of both traditions that led to conversions. 26 While Sugar
seeks to dismiss the economic argument, it is evident that landowning elites converted to Islam,
retaining their assets in exchange for loyalty to the Sultan. Perhaps economic benefits did not serve as
an incentive to switch religions, but efforts to preserve status influenced the nobility. As Mazower
writes, “For centuries, conversion and acculturation opened up elite careers to men of different
backgrounds” before the Ottomans. 27 If conversion provided economic and class benefits before the
Ottoman arrival, why wouldn’t nobles act similarly under the Ottomans? Ultimately, scholarship
agrees that conversion and its legacy gave birth to Southeastern Europe’s greatest spark for conflict:
“large areas inhabited by ethnically mixed populations.” 28
FROM UNEASE TO UPRISING IN THE WESTERN BALKANS
During the 19 th and 20 th centuries, the Ottoman Empire experienced increased unrest and
uprising in its Balkan territories, specifically Bosnia, which lasted until its annexation by the Austro-
Hungarian Empire in 1908. The Austrian influence further diversified the ethnic composition of towns
like Višegrad: “At the same time officials began to arrive, civil servants with their families and, after
them, artisans and craftsmen for all those trades which up till then had not existed in the town. Among
them were Czechs, Poles, Croats, Hungarians, and Austrians.” 29 Mazower argues that the flow of
Europeans into Eastern Bosnia brought ideas emanating from the French Revolution. These new
Western concepts, like romantic nationalism, cultivated new ethno-religious state-building efforts in
the Western Balkans that contributed to additional unrest. Mazower references centuries of relative
ethnic peace in the Ottoman Balkans before the introduction of contemporary nationalism, arguing
22
Peter F. Sugar, Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354-1804, vol. 5 of A History of East Central Europe (Seattle: University of Washington Press,
1977), 50-59.
23
L. Carl Brown, Imperial Legacy: The Ottoman Imprint on the Balkans and the Middle East (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), 63.
24
Florian Bieber, "Muslim Identity in the Balkans before the Establishment of Nation States," Nationalities Papers 28, no. 1 (March 2000): 22, Historical
Abstracts with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed November 20, 2017).
25
Peter F. Sugar, Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354-1804, vol. 5 of A History of East Central Europe (Seattle: University of Washington Press,
1977), 50-59.
26
Florian Bieber, "Muslim Identity in the Balkans before the Establishment of Nation States," Nationalities Papers 28, no. 1 (March 2000): 22, Historical
Abstracts with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed November 20, 2017).
27
Mark Mazower, The Balkans: A Short History (New York: Random House, Inc., 2000), 40.
28
Peter F. Sugar, Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354-1804, vol. 5 of A History of East Central Europe (Seattle: University of Washington Press,
1977), 284.
29
Ivo Andrić, The Bridge on the Drina (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), 135.
JPI Fall 2017, pg. 12