Širenje islama u Hercegovini
Expansion of Islam in Herzgovina

Summary/Abstract: The expansion of Islam must bc treated as a long-lasting proccss in the whole region of Bosnia and Herzcegovina. In the present paper we have briefly exposed the most probablc reasons for the expansion of Islam and the results of that process at the end of the 16th century. ln brief, the expansion of lslam in Herzegovina was basically equal to the same process in the other regions of Bosnia, but it also had a certain peculiarities. The region of Herzegovina was settled by two social groups: plowmen and cattle breeders -Vlachs. This fact had a certain influence on the proces of islamization. Large number of plowmen accepted Islam. More than 80 % of plowmen were islamised untill the end of the 16 th century. The paper presented percentage of islamization in nahiyas, which later on became kazahs (administrative districts ruled by qadis). The percentage of islamized Vlachs was lower. They lived in border region of Herzegovina, and, according to our researches, about 35% of Vlachs accepted Islam. The structure of Ottoman society must be taken into consideration regarding this question, as well as the specific characteristics of the development of society in Bosnia. Its development was substructural in relation to the central (Ottoman) society. Upon that development depended the position of the population not only in the beginning when the population was Christian by religion, but also later on when it was islamized.

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