BOSNIAN
Excerpts from Wikipedia.org
Bosnians (Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian: Bosanci / Босанци; sing. Bosanac / Босанац) are people who live in, or come from, Bosnia and Herzegovina. By the modern state definition a Bosnian can be anyone who holds a citizenship in the state including members of the constituent ethnic groups of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. Additionally, ethnic minorities such as Jews, Roma, Albanians, Montenegrins, and others may consider Bosnian to be attached to their ethnicity (eg. Bosnian Albanian). Some individuals choose to identify soley as Bosnian at a national level.
History of Bosnia
The earliest cultural and linguistic roots of Bosnian history can be traced back to the Migration Period of the Early Middle Ages. It was then that the Serbs, Croats, and other Slavs from northeastern Europe, invaded the Eastern Roman Empire with their Avar overlords and settled the Balkan peninsula. There, they mixed with the indigenous paleo-Balkan peoples known collectively as the Illyrians. Centuries later, the Croatian and Serbian kingdoms emerged from the chaos of the Dark Ages, contrasted by their subjects' adherence to Catholic and Orthodox Christianity. The Croats to the west swore allegiance to Rome, influenced by neighboring Catholic kingdoms, while the Serbs to the east fell under Byzantine influence and embraced Orthodoxy. Between these kingdoms an independent Bosnian state arose, marked by its weak religious structure and unclear ethnic affiliation. Inhabitants of the Bosnian kingdom sometimes called themselves Bošnjani, a regional name derived from the river Bosna which flows through the heart of the country. Before the collapse of the Roman Empire, the river was called the Bosona by the native Illyrians, and some scholars speculate that the name Bosnia itself derives from this term.
The Bosnian kingdom grew and expanded under the Kotromanic dynasty to include Croatian and Serbian territories. As a consequence, even more Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians dwelt within its borders, along with adherents of a native Bosnian Church whose origins and nature are a subject of continued debate among scholars. Those belonging to this sect simply called themselves Krstjani ("Christians"). Many scholars have argued that these Bosnian Krstjani were Manichaean dualists related to the Bogomils of Bulgaria, while others question this theory, citing lack of historical evidence. Both Catholic and Orthodox Church authorities considered the Bosnian Church heretical, and launched vigorous proselytizing campaigns to stem its influence. As a result of these divisions, no coherent religious identity developed in medieval Bosnia as it had in Croatia and Serbia.
As the centuries passed, the Bosnian kingdom slowly began to decline. It had become fractured by increased political and religious disunity. By then, the Ottoman Turks had already gained a foothold in the Balkans; first defeating the Serbs at the Battle of Kosovo and expanding westward, the Turks eventually conquered all of Bosnia and portions of neighboring Croatia. These developments would alter Bosnian history forever, introducing an Islamic component into the already confounded Bosnian ethno-religious identity. The Bosnian Church would forever disappear, although the circumstances under which it did are as hotly debated as its nature and origins. Some historians contend that the Bosnian Krstjani converted en masse to Islam, seeking refuge from Catholic and Orthodox persecution, while others argue that the Bosnian Church had already ceased to operate many decades before the Turkish conquest. Whatever the case, a distinct Slavic Muslim community developed under Turkish rule in Bosnia, giving rise to the modern Bosniaks.
Some Christians became Muslims through the devsirme system, whereby boys were gathered from the Ottoman lands and were sent to Istanbul to convert to Islam and be trained as Janissary troops, servants of the Sultan or Ottoman officials. One observer in the 16th century even mentioned that the Sultan believed Bosniaks were "the best, most pious and most loyal people" and "much bigger, more handsome, and more able" than other Muslim peoples. Though the devsirme system probably didn't influence the demographics of Bosnia significantly, it did firmly establish the Slavic element and language in Istanbul's administration and provided Bosnia with local Bosniak governors from 1488 onward.
About one hundred years ago, the term "Bosniak" had a similar meaning to the one "Bosnian" has today, in addition to being ethnic as well. In fact many of the people who lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina once considered themselves to be a part of the "Bosniak people", not exclusively Muslim Bosniaks (as today) but also the Bosnian Catholics and Orthodox Christians.
Ethnic Groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina
More than 95% of population of Bosnia and Herzegovina belongs to one of its three constitutive ethnic groups: Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats .
Bosnian Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks have no major physical traits by which they can be distinguished.
While each have their own standard language variant and a name for it, they speak mutually intelligible languages. On a dialectal level, Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks speak a variety of Štokavian dialects. The question of standard language of Bosnia and Herzegovina is resolved in such a way that three constituent ethnic groups have their educational and cultural institutions in their respective native or mother tongue languages: Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian.
The most easily recognizable feature that distinguishes the three ethnic groups is their religion, with Croats predominantly Catholic Christians, Bosniaks predominantly Muslim, and Serbs Orthodox Christians.
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks or Bosniacs (Bošnjaci) are a South Slavic people, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina ("Bosnia") and the Sandžak region of Serbia and Montenegro, with a smaller autochthonous population also present in Croatia, Kosovo (province of Serbia) and the Republic of Macedonia. Bosniaks are typically characterized by their tie to the Bosnian historical region, traditional adherence to Islam, and common culture and language.
Bosniaks belong to the Slavic ethnic group, but nevertheless their 'genetic roots' are a mixture of Slav settlers and descendants of pre-Slavic indigenous Balkan peoples, mainly of Illyrian tribes. For example, anthropologist John J. Wilkes regards Bosniaks (and Bosnians in general) as a possible descendant of the Illyrians and places Bosnia as once the centre of the Illyrian kingdom
There are more than two million Bosniaks living in the Balkans today. Once spread throughout the regions they inhabited, various instances of ethnic cleansing and genocide have had a tremendous effect on the territorial distribution of their population. Partially due to this, a notable Bosniak Diaspora exists in a number of countries, including Austria, Germany, Sweden, Turkey and the United States. Both within the region and the outside world, Bosniaks are often noted for their unique culture, which has been influenced by both eastern and western civilizations and schools of thought over the course of their history.
The highest number of Bosniak immigrants and people descending of Bosniaks are found in Turkey. Today, it is generally accepted that approximately 350,000 Turks descend directly from Bosniaks who immigrated to Turkey mostly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Documents recently found by Turkish historians, however, indicate that Turks having direct and indirect Bosniak ancestry, number as high as 1.5 million.
It is believed that many aspects of Bosniak identity were lost among these people due to Turkish assimilation laws in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Bosniak immigrants to Turkey were required to change their names to Turkish or Turkish sounding ones (under the Law on Family names). As a consequence of this, today some Turks do have somewhat Slavic sounding surnames. However some also have entirely Slavic surnames, the most common one probably being "Kiliç" spelled in Turkish as compared to the Bosnian version which is spelled "Kilić".
In Turkey Bosniaks mostly live in the Marmara Region which is in other words the north-west Turkey. The biggest Bosniak community in Turkey is in Istanbul and also there are notable Bosniak communities in Izmir, Edirne, and Bursa.
Serbs
The last 1996 UNHCR population census registered 1,484,530 Serbs or 37.9% of the total population of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The modern estimate is that they form more likely about 37.1% (2000). The vast majority live on the territory of the Republika Srpska, and West Bosnia and Una-Sana cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbs are the most territorially widespread nation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Serbs (Serbian: Срби or Srbi) are a South Slavic people living in the Balkans and Central Europe, mainly in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, to a lesser extent, in Croatia. They are also a significant minority in two other republics of the Former Yugoslavia- the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Serbs are an officially recognized minority in both Romania and Hungary (mostly in Banat). There is a sizeable Serbian diaspora in Western Europe (predominantly concentrated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria), as well in North America: the United States and Canada.
Byzantine sources report that part of the White Serbs, led by the Unknown Archont, migrated southward from their Slavic homeland of White Serbia (Poland) in the late sixth century and eventually overwhelmed the Serbian lands that now make up Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Dalmatia. After settling on the Balkans, Serbs mixed with other Slavic tribes (which settled during the great migration of the Slavs) and with descendants of the indigenous peoples of the Balkans: Greeks, Thracians, Dacians and Illyrians.
Almost one millennium afterwards, overwhelmed by the Ottoman wars in Europe which ravaged their territories, Serbs once again started crossing the rivers Sava and Danube and resettling the previously abandoned regions in Central Europe which are today's Vojvodina, Slavonia, Transylvania and Hungary proper. Apart from the Habsburg Empire, thousands were attracted to Imperial Russia, where they were given territories to settle: Nova Serbia and Slavo-Serbia were named after these refugees. Two Great Serbian Migrations resulted in a relocation of the Serbian core from the Ottoman-dominated South towards the developed (Christian) North, where it has remained ever since.
Croats
It is estimated that there are approximately 600,000 Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to 2000 data from the CIA World Factbook, Bosnia and Herzegovina is ethnically 15.3% Croat. Croats are generally recognized to be the wealthiest, on average, of the nation's ethnic groups.
Croats (Croatian: Hrvati) are a South Slavic people mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4.6 million Croats living in the Balkan region, and an estimated 9 million throughout the world. Due to political, social and economic reasons, many Croats have since migrated throughout the world, and established a notable Croatian diaspora. Large Croat communities exists in a number of countries, including The United States, Australia, Germany, Chile, New Zealand and South Africa. Croats are noted for their unique culture, which throughout the ages, has been variously influenced by both the Eastern world and the Western world.
The earliest Croatian state was the Principality of Dalmatia. Prince Trpimir of Dalmatia was called Duke of Croats in 852. In 925 Croatian Duke of Dalmatia Tomislav of Trpimir united all Croats. He organized a state by annexing the Principality of Pannonia as well as maintaining close ties with Pagania and Zahumlje.
Since the creation of the personal union with Hungary in 1102, the Croats were at times subjected to forceful Germanization and Magyarization from XVII century. The ensuing Ottoman conquests and Habsburg domination broke the Croatian lands into disunity again—with the majority of Croats living in Croatia proper and Dalmatia. Large numbers of Croats also lived in Slavonia, Istria, Rijeka, Herzegovina and Bosnia. Over the centuries ensued a wave of Croatian emigrants, notably to Molise in Italy, Burgenland in Austria and eventually the United States of America.
The origin of the Croatian tribe before the great migration of the Slavs is uncertain. According to the most widely accepted Slavic theory of the 7th century, the Croatian tribe moved from the area north of the Carpathians and east of the river Vistula (referred to as White Croatia) and migrated into the western Dinaric Alps. White Croats formed the Principality of Dalmatia in the upper Adriatic. Another wave of Slavic migrants from White Croatia subsequently founded the Principality of Pannonia.
Genetically, on the Y chromosome line, a majority (>87%) of Croats belong to one of the three major European Y-DNA haplogroups -- Haplogroup I (38%), Haplogroup R1a 35% and Haplogroup R1b 16% All three groups migrated to Europe during the upper paleolithic around 30,000-20,000 BC.
