stations are Bjelina, Zvornik, Višegrad, Goražda, Foča, Bilek, Avtovac and Trebinje, along the eastern frontier; Mostar and Stolac in the south; Livno in the west; and Bihać in the north.
12. Religion.—In 1895 43% of the population were Orthodox Christians, 35% Moslems and 21% Roman Catholics. The patriarch of Constantinople is the nominal head of the Orthodox priesthood; but by an arrangement concluded in 1879, his authority was delegated to the Austrian emperor, in exchange for a revenue equal to the tribute previously paid by the clergy of the provinces; and his nominations for the metropolitanate of Serajevo, and the bishoprics of Dolnja Tuzla, Banjaluka and Mostar require the imperial assent. Under Turkish rule the communes chose their own parish priests, but this right is now vested in the government. The Roman Catholics have an archbishop in Serajevo, a bishop in Mostar and an apostolic administrator in Banjaluka. Serajevo is also the seat of the Jewish chief rabbi; and of the highest Moslem ecclesiastic, or reis-el-ulema, who with his council is nominated and paid by the government. The inferior Moslem clergy draw their stipends from the Vakuf. Considerable bitterness prevails between the rival confessions, each aiming at political ascendancy, but the government favours none. In order to conciliate even the Moslems, who include the bulk of the great landholders and of the urban population, its representatives visit the mosques in state on festivals; grants are made for the Mecca pilgrimage; and even the howling Dervishes in Serajevo are maintained by the state.
13. Education.—Education for boys and girls between the ages of seven and fifteen is free, but not compulsory. The state supports primary schools (352 in 1905), where reading, writing, arithmetic and history are taught; and separate instruction is given by the Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Jewish and Moslem clergy. There are also various private schools, belonging to the different religious communities. These receive a grant from the government, which nevertheless encourages all parents to send their children to its own schools. One of the earliest and best-known private schools is the orphanage at Serajevo, founded in 1869 by two English ladies, Miss Irby and Miss Mackenzie. In the Moslem schools, which, in 1905, comprised 855 mektebs or primary schools, and 41 madrasas or high schools, instruction is usually given in Turkish or Arabic; while in Orthodox schools the books are printed in Cyrillic characters.
For higher education there were in 1908 three gymnasia, a real-school at Banjaluka, a technical college and a teachers’ training-college at Serajevo, where, also, is the state school for Moslem law-students, called scheriatschule from the sheri or Turkish code; and various theological, commercial and art institutes. Promising pupils are frequently sent to Vienna University, with scholarships, which may be forfeited if the holders engage in political agitation.
14. Antiquities.—Up to 1900 no traces of palaeolithic man had been discovered in Bosnia or Herzegovina; but many later prehistoric remains are preserved in Serajevo museum. The neolithic station of Butmir, near Ilidže, was probably a lake-dwellers’ colony, and has yielded numerous stone and horn implements, clay figures and pottery. Not far off, similar relics were found at Sobunar, Zlatište and Debelobrdo; iron and bronze ornaments, vessels and weapons, often of elaborate design, occur in the huts and cemeteries of Glasinac, and in the cemetery of Jezerine, where they are associated with objects in silver, tin, amber, glass, &c. Among the numerous finds made in other districts may be mentioned the discovery, at Vrankamer, near Bihać, of 98 African coins, the oldest of which dates from 300 B.C. Many vestiges of Roman rule survive, such as roads, mines, ruins, tombs, coins, frescoes and inscriptions. Such remains occur frequently near Bihać, Foca, Livno, Jajce and Serajevo; and especially near the sources of the Drina. The period between the downfall of Roman power, late in the 5th century, and the growth of a Bosnian state, in the 11th, is poorer in antiquities. The later middle ages are represented by several monasteries, and many castles, such as those of Dervent, Doboj, Maglaj, Žepče and Vranduk, on the Bosna; Bihać, on the Una; Prijedor and Kljuć, on the Sana; and Stolac, Gabela, Irebinje and Konjica, in Herzegovina. The bridge across the Narenta, at Konjica, is said to date from the 10th century. A group of signs carved on some rocks near Višegrad have been regarded as cuneiform writing, but are probably medieval masonic symbols. In a few cases, such as the Begova Džamia at Serajevo, the Foča mosques and the Mostar bridge, the buildings raised by the Turks are of high architectural merit. More remarkable are the tombstones, generally measuring 6 ft. in length, 3 in height and 3 in breadth, which have been supposed to mark the graves of the Bogomils. These are, as a rule, quite unadorned, a few only being decorated with rude has-reliefs of animals, plants, weapons, the crescent and star, or, very rarely, the cross.
15. History.—Under Roman rule Bosnia had no separate
name or history, and until the great Slavonic immigration of
636 it remained an undifferentiated part of Illyria
(q.v.). Owing to the scarcity of authoritative documents,
it is impossible to describe in detail the events
Formation of
the Banate.
of the next three centuries. During this period Bosnia
became the generally accepted name for the valley of the Bosna
(ancient Basanius); and subsequently for several outlying and
tributary principalities, notably those of Soli, afterwards Tuzla;
Usora, along the south-eastern bank of the Save; Donji Kraj,
the later Krajina, Kraina or Turkish Croatia, in the north-west;
and Rama, the modern district of Livno. The old Illyrian
population was rapidly absorbed or expelled, its Latin institutions
being replaced by the autonomous tribal divisions, or Županates,
of the Slavs. Pressure from Hungary and Byzantium gradually
welded these isolated social units into a single nation, whose
ruler was known as the Ban (q.v.). But the central power
remained weak, and the country possessed no strong natural
frontiers. It seems probable that the bans were originally
viceroys of the Croatian kings, who resumed their sovereignty
over Bosnia from 958 to 1010. Thenceforward, until 1180, the
bans continued subject to the Eastern empire or Hungary, with
brief intervals of independence. The territory now called
Herzegovina was also subject to various foreign powers. It
comprised the principalities of Tribunia or Travunja, with its
capital at Trebinje; and Hlum or Hum, the Zachlumia of
Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who gives a clear picture of this
region as it was in the 10th century.[1]
The schism between Eastern and Western Christendom left Bosnia divided between the Greek and Latin Churches. Early in the 12th century a new religion, that of the Bogomils (q.v.), was introduced, and denounced as heretical. Its converts nevertheless included many of the Bosnian Religious controversies. nobles and the ban Kulin (1180–1204), whose reign was long proverbial for its prosperity, owing to the flourishing state of commerce and agriculture, and the extensive mining operations carried on by the Ragusans. An unusually able ruler, connected by marriage with the powerful Servian dynasty of Nemanya, and by treaty with the republic of Ragusa,[2] Kulin perceived in the new doctrines a barrier between his subjects and Hungary. He was compelled to recant, under strong pressure from Pope Innocent III. and Béla III. of Hungary; but, despite all efforts, Bogomilism incessantly gained ground. In 1232 Stephen, the successor of Kulin, was dethroned by the native magnates, who chose instead Matthew Ninoslav, a Bogomil. This event illustrates the three dominant characteristics of Bosnian history: the strength of the aristocracy; the corresponding weakness of the central authority, enhanced by the lack of any definite rule of inheritance; and the supreme influence of religion. Threatened by Pope Gregory IX. with a crusade, Ninoslav was baptized, only to abjure Christianity in 1233. For six years he withstood the Hungarian crusaders, led by Kaloman, duke of Croatia; in 1241 the Tatar invasion of
- ↑ De Administrando Imperio, 33 and 34. The names of Chulmia and Chelmo, applied to this region by later Latin and Italian chroniclers, are occasionally adopted by English writers.
- ↑ For the commercial and political relations of Ragusa and Bosnia, see L. Villari, The Republic of Ragusa (London, 1904).
