Bosniaks: people, language, history and modern identity

Origin of the country name

The Slavic settlers, who settled in today's Bosnia and Herzegovina in the course of the Slavs' land grabbing in the Balkans, took the name of their new homeland from the native Illyrians, in contrast to the Croats and Serbs, who named the new homeland after themselves (Croatia, Serbia). The Illyrians named their country after the headwaters of the Bosna River, whose old name is no longer known. However, it is assumed that the river name also contained the root "Bos" among the Illyrians.

The earliest known mention of the river today is from the year 8 of our era by Velleius Paterculus in the context of his description of the Great Revolt in the years 6 to 9, which speaks of the defeat of the Pannonian units on August 3 of the year 8 near the river Bathinus flumen. Another Latin name is Basan. However, these names, like the name Bosna, derive from the original Illyrian name.

The earliest mention of the country's name is by Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the 10th century. (cwrinon Bosona).

Bošnjani (Middle Ages)

The country name later gave rise to the term Bošnjani (Sg.: Bošnjanin; Lat. Sg.: Bosnensis; Ital. Pl.: Bosignani), which was used to designate the inhabitants of the territory of early late medieval Bosnia. Depending on the political motive, the inhabitants of the newly conquered territories were also called Bošnjani. Whether there was a connection between religious affiliation and the ethnonym is disputed.

One of the oldest documents using the term Bošnjani comes from Stjepan II. Kotromanić around the year 1322, there it says: "dobri Bošnjani" (German: gute Bošnjane/Bosnians/Bosniaks). At that time, the ethnonym was almost always associated with the adjective good.

Bošnjaci (Ottoman Empire)

With the conquest by the Ottoman Empire, the Bosnian language slowly changed; words ending in "-ak" were used more frequently (such as Poljak or Slovak). With the stabilization of Ottoman rule, Bošnjanin was replaced by Bošnjak (pl.: Bošnjaci). During Ottoman rule, the entire population of Bosnia was referred to as Bošnjaci. In the course of the Croatian and Serbian national movements of the 19th century, Catholic and Orthodox inhabitants of Bosnia increasingly referred to themselves as Croats and Serbs, respectively. At that time, the Bošnjaci of today did not have a real designation of their own, as there was initially no nationalism in this sense on the Muslim side. They felt themselves to be part of a large Islamic community. During this period, Bošnjaci lived predominantly in Eyâlet Bosnia.

Muslimani (Austria-Hungary)

After the occupation campaign and thus the beginning of Austro-Hungarian rule, the term Muhamedanci or Muhamedovci (Muhammedans) was used by the occupiers, but the Bosniaks could not make friends with it. The population continued to refer to themselves as Bošnjak or Turčin (Turk), the latter being used as a proper and foreign term by Muslims throughout the Balkans. At the same time, the term Musliman (Muslim) emerged. In the Austro-Hungarian military, however, the term "Bosniak" has always been used. In 1900, Muhamedanci was officially replaced by Musliman, which was accepted by the population.

Yugoslavia

At the time of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the existence of a separate people was denied; one could not call oneself Bošnjak or Muslim in any way in the censuses. Instead, the options "Muslim Croat" and "Muslim Serb" were available, but these were rejected by leading Bosnian politicians such as the president of the Yugoslav Muslim Organization Mehmed Spaho.

Even at the time of socialist Yugoslavia, the existence of a separate ethnicity was initially denied; in the first census in 1948, one could only call oneself Srbin-musliman (Muslim Serb), Hrvat-musliman (Muslim Croat) or neopredjeljen-musliman (ethnically indifferent Muslim). In 1953, all options to call oneself a Muslim - in whatever form - were eliminated. Instead, the term Yugoslav was introduced. In 1961 Musliman jugoslovenskog porijekla (Muslim of Yugoslav origin) was given. Finally, in 1968 - in the course of an incipient general decentralization of the state - the Muslims in the ethnic sense were declared the sixth Yugoslav state people. From 1971 on, one could call oneself Musliman u smislu narodnosti (Muslim in the ethnic sense) in censuses.

Present

When the disintegration of Yugoslavia began in 1989, there was a return to the old term Bošnjak. From 1993 onwards, it was officially used again in Bosnia; since then, mainly population groups of Muslim origin from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Sandzak identify themselves with the term, as well as many Muslim South Slavic minorities in Southeast Europe. It is irrelevant whether they are practicing Muslims or those who have a Muslim background culturally and familially. There are also Gorans who see themselves as Bosniaks. Today, the Bošnjaci are constitutionally one of the three constituent peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

For the results of the October 2013 census, it was expected in advance that an appreciable proportion of Bosnian residents might identify themselves as Bosnians or Herzegovinians, i.e. choose a territorial rather than ethnic reference. Depending on the size of this group, this would challenge the proportional system established in the Dayton Agreement between the country's three "official" ethnic groups. Today, Bosniaks make up the majority of the population with 50.11 %.

The modern term for all inhabitants of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, regardless of their ethnicity, is Bosnian (Bosanci).

Bosniaks mostly speak Bosnian, a standard linguistic form of the štokavian dialect on which Croatian and Serbian are also based, and which is now officially regarded as an independent language within Bosnia and is being developed as such. Compared to the other standard varieties of Serbo-Croatian, it shows differences in phonology and morphology, and to some extent in syntax, spelling, and also in vocabulary, the latter being the most obvious.

The Bosnian vocabulary shows somewhat greater influences from the Turkish, Persian and Arabic languages, which found their way into Bosnian through Ottomanism. In the 2013 census in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1,866,585 inhabitants, and thus the majority of the population, described their language as Bosnian.

Family names

The Bosniak surnames often have the endings "ić" or "ović", as is common in the South Slavic region. The influence of Ottoman-Islamic culture can be seen in the surnames. Thus, many Bosniaks bear names such as "Imamović" (translated: son of the Imam) or "Hadžiosmanović" (son of Hadji Osman). Since Bosniaks constituted the nobility in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the rule of the Ottoman Empire, there are many surnames that indicate this such as "Kurbegović" (descendants of Kur-beg) or "Hadžipašić" (descendants of Hadji-paša). The most common titles of nobility found in surnames are -beg-, -aga- and -paša-.

However, there are also Bosniak surnames that do not have an ić ending. These usually refer to a profession, origin or other factors of the family history. An example of such a name is the common name Zlatar (translated: goldsmith). There are also surnames that originate from the pre-Slavic period and whose meaning is not known today.

Other Bosniak names have nothing oriental about them, but end in -ić. These names originated in the Middle Ages and have probably not changed since then. They belong to the old Bosnian nobility or to the last wave of converts to Islam. Examples are Tvrtković and Kulenović (cf. King Tvrtko or Ban Kulin).

The first names of Bosniaks are mostly of Arabic, Turkish or Persian origin. For example, many are called Hasan, Adnan, Sulejman or Emir. Some Arabic names are shortened. In addition, names that are not religiously bound and are widespread throughout the South Slavic region, such as the name Zlatan (the Golden), are also popular.