For over 550 years, Islam in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been present. Across these centuries, Bosniak Muslims faced layered challenges, some posing a direct existential threat and others restricting worship or stripping political and economic rights. Yet they endured, and Islam remains alive in Bosnia today. What obstacles did Bosnian Muslims face, and how did they overcome them?
Why did Bosnians accept Islam?
The former Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dr Mustafa Cerić, explains that Islam entered Europe through two gates. The first was the Iberian Peninsula, where it remained for eight centuries. After the fall of Al-Andalus, Islam reached the Balkans, moving gradually from Serbia to Bosnia and Herzegovina following the Battle of Kosovo in 1389.
Dr Cerić calls Bosnia the “living Andalus”. He notes that Bosnians were drawn to Islam amid a historical struggle between the Byzantine Serbian Church and the Roman Catholic Church over Bosnia. The Bosniaks referred to themselves as the “Good Bosnians” and formed a church of their own with doctrines and rites differing from both sides. The two churches anathematised them, which became a key driver for embracing Islam when the Ottomans arrived.
Prof Ahmed Alibašić, a scholar of Islamic civilisation at the University of Sarajevo, adds that several factors eased conversion. Christianity in Bosnia, whether Orthodox or Catholic, was shallow in social reach. At the time, there were only about 80 churches and monasteries in the land that today hosts more than 3,000 houses of worship. With limited clergy presence, sparse transport and few books, most people rarely saw priests or participated in religious life.
When the Ottomans arrived with scholars, Sufi orders and government, many were struck by this visible strength. Christianity in Bosnia was weaker than in Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria, where church structures were far stronger.
Jawada Garić, Professor of International Relations at the Sarajevo School of Science and Technology, notes that the Ottomans opened Bosnia in 1463. Conversion was not immediate. The Bosnian Kingdom resisted the newcomers as invaders at first. Bosnia then had three churches: Orthodox, Catholic, and the Bosnian Church, sometimes called Bogomil. The latter was deemed heretical by the other two, and its followers faced persecution from the Catholic Church and the Hungarian Crown.
Gradual spread refutes the claim of conversion by force
Prof Alibašić rejects the claim that the Ottomans imposed Islam by force. Islam spread slowly over more than 150 years, and Muslims never formed an absolute majority during Ottoman rule in Bosnia.
Prof Garić supports this, citing the first census in 1879 under the Austro-Hungarian Empire after it occupied Bosnia, which recorded 38 per cent Muslims, 43 per cent Orthodox, 18 percent Catholics, alongside a Jewish minority that had arrived after the fall of Al-Andalus.
Once the Bosniaks embraced Islam, they lived it fully, willing to sacrifice and even migrate to guard their faith. This helps explain why Bosniaks are found in Tunisia, Algeria, Palestine, Syria, the Hijaz and Anatolia. Three forces limited a Muslim majority in Bosnia and Herzegovina: wars, plague, and migration as the Ottoman state receded.
First time under non-Islamic rule: migrate or stay?
After the Ottoman defeat to Russia in 1877–1878, Otto von Bismarck convened the Berlin Congress in 1878, which granted Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria-Hungary. For the first time since embracing Islam, Bosniaks lived under non-Islamic rule, and a profound question emerged: migrate to Muslim lands or remain in Bosnia?
Prof Garić notes that Muslims feared losing identity and being forced to abandon their religion, especially after witnessing neighbouring Serbia’s policy of expelling Muslims and demolishing Islamic architecture upon independence.
Austria-Hungary, however, did not adopt that policy. A pivotal fatwa by Imam Muhammad Taufiq Azbagić of Tuzla in 1886, titled “Treatise on Hijra”, argued that if a non-Muslim government is just and does not force Muslims to abandon their religion or commit prohibitions, then Muslims may live under it. The fatwa urged Bosniaks to stay, affirming that Bosnia was their homeland.
Dr Cerić also recalls a ruling by Imam Muhammad Rashid Rida answering a Bosnian student from Travnik with the principle “No hijra after the conquest of Mecca”, in contrast to opinions from Istanbul encouraging migration. Many did leave, but the majority remained and lived under the Austro-Hungarian emperor.
From resisting the empire to defending it
Austria-Hungary’s approach to Bosniaks was tactically pragmatic. Unlike Serbian coercion, Vienna showed openness, founding an Islamic Studies Faculty and a school for Sharia judges. It did not abolish Sharia courts, but introduced civil laws while retaining them. Even in architecture, authorities avoided purely Western designs that might provoke Muslims.
Officials aimed to orient Bosnians toward Central Europe and away from Istanbul’s Sheikh al-Islam, yet this eventually benefited Muslims. They gained greater responsibility over their own affairs, including the management of awqaf after overcoming bureaucratic hurdles.
The shift in loyalty reached its height during World War I. After early resistance, Bosniaks formed a distinct regiment within the imperial army, with local imams, freedom to perform prayers, and halal kitchens. They fought alongside the empire after concluding that their religion and faith were not in danger under its rule.
Prof Alibašić stresses that the Austro-Hungarian period offers lessons for Muslims in Europe today. Bosnians were not exceptional among Ottoman subjects in their attitudes toward European culture and modernity. Yet once they experienced a law-respecting state that protected freedom of religion, their perspective shifted.
A landmark of this era was the establishment of the Islamic Community leadership in 1882. The title “Reis ul-Ulama” was given to the Grand Mufti in Bosnia, a title otherwise known in Palestine. The selection process sought broad legitimacy. A local council proposed three names, the emperor chose one and sent it to the Sheikh al-Islam in Istanbul, after which the Reis was appointed by decree.
Socialist Yugoslavia and unprecedented restrictions
During World War II, Bosnian Muslims lost more than 8 percent of their population due to the Nazi occupation and massacres by extremist Chetnik forces. After the war, Bosnia and Herzegovina entered the socialist Yugoslav period with Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro and Macedonia.
Dr Cerić notes that many Bosniaks sided with Marshal Tito from 1945 to 1980 because this was the only way to stop the killing. Tito, despite shortcomings, represented a historic interest for Bosniaks. When they enjoyed spiritual freedom, they were attacked in their bodies and demography. Under Tito, spirituality was restricted, but demographic space expanded, and the number of Bosniaks grew.
The first 15 years were extremely tough. The regime consolidated socialist rule, conducted purges, shut down NGOs and religious schools across Yugoslavia, leaving only the Sarajevo and Pristina madrasas. Traditional Muslim dress was legally discouraged, the hijab was labelled a sign of backwardness, Sufi orders were closed, awqaf were nationalised, Sharia courts were abolished, and Friday sermons had to be submitted to the police in advance.
Even so, Prof Alibašić urges a two-sided view. Restrictions were real, yet security was also real, and that mattered.
With the Non-Aligned Movement and Yugoslavia’s greater openness to Arab and Muslim countries, conditions improved in the 1970s. Mosques were built again, the Islamic Studies Faculty reopened, and a constitutional amendment recognised Muslims as a constitutive nation of Yugoslavia, instead of subsuming them under other categories.
The breakup of Yugoslavia and an existential threat
After Tito’s death, extremist nationalisms surged, peaking in the 1990s. Slovenia declared independence, then Croatia, which faced Serbian military aggression. When Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence, Bosnian Serbs, backed by Serbia with the powerful Yugoslav arsenal, launched a genocidal war against Bosniak Muslims.
Dr Cerić, who returned from Malaysia in mid-1993 and later served as Grand Mufti, recalls the heavy price paid in genocide, displacement and exile. Bosniaks decided, for the first time in modern history, to fight for themselves and to resist at all costs. Their victory, he says, had three dimensions: moral, legal, and military.
Ongoing challenges
The Dayton Agreement of 1995 ended the war and created a federal system of two entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina with a Bosniak and Croat majority, and the Republika Srpska with a Serb majority, in addition to the Brčko District. Many in Bosnia view Dayton as the only way to stop the war, though far from ideal for state-building.
Prof Alibašić highlights today’s most pressing difficulty as a state that is hard to govern. He lists three interlinked challenges that reinforce each other: ethnic divisions that turn every file into a communal dispute, corruption, and economic development. Ethnic politics fertilise corruption, which in turn blocks growth.
Dr Cerić underscores the importance of Bosnia joining European security structures and NATO to stabilise peace. Bosnia’s question has never been purely domestic. External roles and pressures have always shaped it, for good and ill.
Prof Garić adds another dimension regarding women’s voices in Muslim decision-making in Bosnia. Highly educated women are present across fields, yet decision forums remain male-dominated. She asks: why not a woman on the Council of Muftis or a devout Bosnian woman ambassador representing the country globally?
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