Croatian Franciscans at the Frontier between Christianity and Islam from the 15th to the 17th Century (original) (raw)
Related papers
CEU Annual of Medieval Studies, 2019
This article is a condensed version of my MA thesis defended at the Central European University in 2017 (also avaliable online) which aimed to understand the role of the Franciscans during the reign of the penultimate king of Bosnia, Stjepan Tomaš, whose reign was a period of major progress of Catholicism. This work problematized activities of the Franciscans of the Bosnian vicary across their missionary action, the Observant reform, their role at the royal court, the organization of an anti-Ottoman crusade and the frequent political reconfigurations of the mid-fifteenth century. The reign of the Stjepan Tomaš was essentially the time of the Franciscan triumph over the heretical Bosnian Church, the traditional spiritual pillar of political power in Bosnia. The spheres of life that these two organizations were competing to dominate were fully taken over by the friars and after a phase of gradual decline, the king ultimately expelled the Bosnian Church. The papacy also included Bosnia in an anti-Ottoman front, giving the friars the floor to present their ruler as an exemplary Christian and to preach the crusade. At the same time, the expansion of the Observant movement contributed to partition of the large Bosnian vicary among the local, Apulian, Dalmatian and Hungarian Observant communities. The conflict between them and their Observant superiors went on during the entire reign of Tomaš and brought together the monarchy and the vicary. The thesis discusses the source material issued during that crisis of integrity, and this material is a great help in understanding the lifestyle and aspirations of the friars of the Bosnian vicary.
Guneydogu Avrupa Arastırmaları Dergisi, 2009
Biased approaches to Bos11ia11 historiography in general, strong 11atio11alist sentiments and excessive i11terpretatio11s of certain phenomena have produced a number of disagreements berween scholars. This refers especially to the Bosnian religious histOIJ'· The purpose of my paper is twofold. It examines modem hisroriography of the early Ottoman Bosnia, and attempts to open some new venues to the study of the encounters berween difl'erent religious co1111111111ities and their representatives. /11 the first two centuries of Ottoman rule, th e attitude of Ouoma11 center towards co1fessio11al structure of Bosnian society, is a result of political, economic and social circ11111sra11ces 011 one hand, and the result of the Ottoman strategy of accepring some local i11stit11tio11s and including some 11011-Muslim elements into the milita1J1 class 011 the other. My paper consists of an overview of th e co11f essio11al structure in Bosnia, and an analysis of the relationship be/ween !he two churches (Catholic and Orthodo:>.) in the Balkans, focusing on the encounter between Ottoman State, Catholics, and Orthodox Christians.
The 'Ahdnâme of Bosnia: Diplomacy, Hagiography, Memory
Turcica, 2022
The ‘ahdnâme Mehmed II gave to the Franciscans upon the conquest of Bosnia in 1463 is both famous and obscure. Only tangentially known in the mainstream Ottoman scholarship, the document occupies a central place in the imaginaries of Catholic history under the Ottoman rule. Unlike the capitulations regulating trade and legal status of various communities and states, the Bosnian ‘ahdnâme is a much more laconic document understood to have recognized friars as the heads of the Bosnian Catholics and granted them protections. Due to the singular emphasis the Franciscans and Catholic historians have put on this document, scholars almost exclusively scrutinized the ‘ahdnâme’s origin and authenticity. Here, however, I examine the ‘ahdnâme’s broader history, its malleability at the hands of various actors, as well as its enduring and shifting legacies. By building on the existing studies and a variety of published and unpublished sources, I argue that in order to appreciate the ‘ahdnâme’s dynamic history, it is necessary to explore not only its content but how it fits into different narrative frameworks. Its history is organized around three thematic pillars: Mehmed II, berats and the Orthodox Church, and friar Anđeo Zvizdović. Each of these legal, imperial, and hagiographic elements is necessary for the narrative to be complete, but each of them also held precedence in different time periods and different socio-political and religious contexts.
Franciscan Bosnian vicariate embraces Observance: change or continuity?
Conference paper, 2023
My presentation will address the issue of the adoption of the Observant identity by the Franciscan Bosnian vicariate. While there is a consensus that the friars of the vicariate embraced the reform relatively quickly, the historiography remains divided in assessing when and how it happened. One can learn of the founding of the Bosnian vicariate as the original backbone of the Observant movement, even before Paoluccio of Foligno returned to Brugliano, but in other works, one can read that the vicariate became Observant only at the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, or even later. While some claim that the Observance was somewhat “native” to the friars of the vicariate, who supposedly planted the seeds of reform in the hearts of some of its Italian forerunners, including Bernardino of Siena, others say that it was introduced in the vicariate by outside forces, be it the Council of Constance or James of the Marches and likeminded reformers of the Quattrocento. My paper will be a fair attempt to clarify the intricate problem of the adoption of the reformed identity in the Bosnian vicariate, based on my recent research. I am going to juxtapose the two conflicting medieval narratives – those of the Hungarian Observant Chronicle and the chronicle of Bernardino of Aquila – on the Observance’s origin. Finally, I will call for a more balanced understanding not only of the Observant movement in the Bosnian vicariate, but of the Franciscan Observant movement as such.
The Review of International Affairs, 2020
The author explores complex discursive relations between the Serbian and Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak) community during their struggle for religious and educational autonomy vis-à-vis the Austro-Hungarian authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1897-1902. The starting hypothesis is that during their struggle against a common enemy over similar issues, an agonistic discursive relationship was formed between the two political elites. The Austro-Hungarian Empire sought to cut off Bosnian religious ties to Constantinople, both with the Ecumenical Patriarch and with the Caliph; and to force a state run school system on the population. This infringed on the traditional rights of ethnoreligious groups to communal autonomy regarding religious and educational matters, which resulted in the formation of the Movement for religious and educational autonomy and the Movement for Waqfmearif autonomy, among Serbs and Muslims respectively. These movements aimed at restoring their respective autonom...