The 'Ahdnâme of Bosnia: Diplomacy, Hagiography, Memory (original) (raw)
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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.
2020
The conquest of the Ottoman state at the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century put under its rule most of the territory inhabited by Croats. In the Croatian lands that came under Ottoman rule, the legal position of Catholics was built on the model of Muhammad's order towards those who recognized his political power and possessed »holy books« and did not accept Islam. The conqueror of Bosnia, Sultan Mehmed II gave the Bosnian Franciscans Hatisherif the so-called Ahdnama, by which he guaranteed to the Franciscans personal inviolability and freedom of religious activity, and to the Christian population unhindered possession of property and freedom of residence in the area of his authority. It was a pragmatic act, because despite the legal guarantees, the position of Catholics and Franciscans was very difficult. Wars with Christian, mostly Catholic countries, often provoked terrible retaliation. The Franciscans were the only Catholic priests in the area under Ottoman...
The Crusade in the Fifteenth Century: Converging and Competing Cultures, (ed. Norman Housley), Crusades – Subsidia 8, Routledge, London – New York, 2016, 151-168.
https://www.routledge.com/The-Crusade-in-the-Fifteenth-Century-Converging-and-competing-cultures/Housley/p/book/9781472464712 By highlighting Ottoman attacks on Croatia, Hungary and North Italy during the 15th century, this paper will explore the origins and development of the “antemurale” concept from a Bosnian point of view. Whereas the cases of certain frontier states which bordered with the expanding Ottoman Empire have been well researched so far, not much attention has been given to the role played by the Bosnian Kingdom in the broader Christian struggle against this aggressive adversary. The Ottomans gained a foothold in Bosnia very early on, in the last decade of the 14th century, and I will attempt to show that they used Bosnia as a stepping-stone for further attacks on lands ruled by the Hungarian King and other Christian princes in the West. It is because of this that the Bosnian rulers and nobles were considered as being complicit in these assaults, and were effectively denied the assistance necessary to get rid of the Ottoman influence in their state. In a way, having been forced to remain on the opposite side of Christendom’s bulwark, Bosnia became an open gate through which the Ottoman akinji raiders passed at will. When it became inevitable that the Ottomans would conquer their Kingdom, the Bosnian rulers sought military help from those states which were not directly threatened. In order to draw attention to their plight, and thus initiate a crusade, they presented their state as a “gate”, “key” or “shield” of Christendom. Despite their best efforts, they received no help from the Western states and the Bosnian Kingdom was finally incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1463. The strategic importance of Bosnia was not lost on contemporaries and in the following period the Bosnian “antemurale” discourse was adopted by Venice and the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus.
Nulla spes sit … Bosnia and the Papacy in the Thirteenth Century
Spécimina Nova Pars Prima Séctio Médiaévalis XI, 2021
The main goal of this paper is to examine the relations between the Bosnian Banate and the papacy during the thirteenth century, one of the most turbulent periods in the history of this interaction. The focus will be set on the development of the situation regarding the Bosnian bishopric, its position in the political turmoil, and its fate after the collapse of every chance for agreement. First, we will give a short overview of the periods that precede this time when this bishopric was the centre of two waves of the Christianization of these areas and the carrier of religious life during the late Antiquity and early Middle Ages. The main part of the paper is dedicated to the events from the first half of the thirteenth century, crucial period that shaped the future political and religious picture of medieval Bosnia. The final part of the paper will cover the longest lasting consequences of the aforementioned events: the cessation of official contacts between Bosnia and the Roman Curia, relocation of the Bosnian bishopric outside its territory, and the formation of the Bosnian church-an autocephalous organization that emerged on the foundations of the previous Catholic diocese.
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.
Güneydoğu Avrupa Araştırmaları Dergisi, 2009
THE CHURCHES AND EARLY OTTOMAN GOVERNANCE IN BOSNIA: THE REALITY AND HISTORIOGRAPHICGENERAL/SATIONS IN 20TH CENTURY Biased approaches to Bosnia 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.
Comparative Southeast European Studies , 2022
This article revisits the history of the Franciscan archives under Ottoman rule by focusing on archival documents, practices, and spaces in the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Fojnica. Ottoman papers and archives preserved in the Franciscan spaces were often associated with Ottoman oppression. In this study, the author demonstrates that the documentary relationship between monasteries and Ottoman chanceries was not one-directional and cannot be characterized as oppressive. Franciscans actively engaged with the Ottoman documents and genres; they relied on the Ottoman vocabularies and legitimacy embedded in the documents, and subverted them at the same time, carving out their own physical and discursive spaces, which were tied to and yet different from the imaginaries of the Ottoman imperial order. The article emphasizes how examining archival narratives is located at the intersection of practices, texts, and spaces.
Historiographic controversy about the Crusades against Bosnian "heretics"
Journal of Balkan and Black Sea Studies No. 4, 2020
The teachings of the Bosnian Church constitute one of the greatest mysteries of the medieval period of Bosnian history. The issue whether it acted in the realms of heresy or orthodoxy has been disputed in a scientific battleground in historiographical circles many times. Just a touch less controversy is linked with the nature of military missions proclaimed and executed against Bosnian ''heretics''. Some authors characterize these conflicts as religious, so typical for crusades, while others, however, emphasize the political and territorial pretensions of Hungary regarding Bosnia, as the main motif, describing the Holy war idea as a cover story for the sake of the Papal curia. The triangle between Hungary, Rome and Bosnia was the focal point of discourse in which numerous accusations on one side and explanations from the other occurred, along with war propaganda, anti-heretic warnings and attempts to prove innocence and that right path were followed. Interestingly, the Bosnian medieval state, so many times threatened with crusades against it, became the leading advocate for crusade missions against the Ottoman danger in the 15th century. This transformation did not occur because crusader ideas prevailed, but rather because of evolution within the social and administrative structures. This work will explore all the differences between the opposing historiographic streams, their approaches regarding sources and literature. The main goal is to determine how research performed with more or less identical source material, can produce such opposing results.