Islam in Bosnia and Herzegovina - The Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Era

The Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Era

Islam was first brought to the Balkans by the Ottomans in the mid-to-late 15th century. Turks gained control of most of Bosnia in 1463, and seized Herzegovina in the 1480s. In the centuries after the invasion, a large number of medieval Bosnians (in Bosnian: Bošnjani), Bosnian dualists and Slavic tribes living in Bosnian kingdom were converted to Islam during the Ottoman rule. Bosnia and Herzegovina remained a province in the Ottoman Empire and gained autonomy after the Bosnian uprising in 1831. After the 1878 Congress of Berlin it came under the temporary control of Austria-Hungary. In 1908, Austria-Hungary formally annexed the region.

Bosnia, along with Albania, were the only parts of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans where large numbers of people were converted to Islam, and remained there after independence. In other areas of the former Ottoman Empire where Muslims formed the majority or started to form the majority, those Muslims were either expelled, assimilated/Christianized, massacred, or fled elsewhere (Muhajirs).