O počecima Bosne u ranom srednjem vijeku
On the Beginnings of Bosnia in the Middle Ages

Summary/Abstract: Until now it was considered that the earliest mention of Bosnia belonged to the period from the middle of the 10th century when the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (945-959) in his famous work De administrando imperio, listing the kastra oikoumena in Serbia, also mentioned two towns in the region of Bosnia: Katera and Desnik. On the other hand, whilst listing Slav principalities in the former Roman province of Dalmatia, the educated Emperor registered: Croatia, Serbia, Zachlumi, Terbounia, Pagania and Dioclea, but not Bosnia. It was according to these writings that an overwhelming opinion about Bosnia being an integral part of Serbia at that time was formed in historiography. This view was further corroborated by the information provided by Einhard in his Annals from the year 822, when he said that Serbs were a people who ruled over a large portion of Dalmatia. Together with the already known borders of Southern Slav principalities, as recorded by Emperor Constantine VII, it was evident that Bosnia did not exist as a principality in the 9th century. The other important source for early Bosnian history is the Gesta regum Sclavorum, a work considered for too long as a creation from the middle of the 12th century. Since this work belongs to the very end of the 13th century (1296-1300), it can be said that news about Bosnia from that scripture, which concern the time before 1018, can almost completely be disregarded as untrustworthy. It is also well known that the number of Slav principalities in the area of the modern Western Balkans was much bigger in the earlier period than in the time of Constantine Porphyrogenitus.

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