Historija Bošnjaka
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Historija Bošnjaka je historija koja prati razvoj Bošnjaka od najranijih doba do danas.
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[izmijeni] Predslavenski korijeni
Predslavenski korijeni Bošnjaka se mogu pratiti unazad do najranijih dobro poznatih stanovnika prostora danas poznatog kao Bosna i Hercegovina, Ilira. Pretpostavlja se da su ovi drevni narodi stigli na zapadni Balkan oko 2000 godina prije nove ere, zamjenjujući različite stare evropske kulture koje su tu ranije živjele (poput Butmirske kulture) u blizni današnjeg Sarajeva. Uprkos dolasku Kelta u 4. i 3. vijeku p.n.e. Iliri su ostali dominanta grupacija na zapadog Balkanu sve do dolaska Rimljana.
Rimska imperija je okupirala Iliriju nakon nekoliko serija ratova. Konačni rat je bilo gušenje pobune nekoliko plemena u području koje je danas poznato kao Srednja Bosna oko 9. vijeka nove ere. Doseljenici koji su govorili latinski jezik iz svih dijelova Imperije se naseljavaju među Ilire u to vrijeme. Rimska provincija Dalmacija uključivala je Hercegovinu i veći dio Bosne, kao i pojas sjeverne Bosne, a područje južno od rijeke Save je bilo dio Panonije.
Vlasi su bili nomadski narod, koji je živio po Balkanu, govorio jezikom izvedenim iz latinskog, porijeklom od rimskih naseljenika i romaniziranog autohtonog stanovništva. Tokom Osmanlijskog perioda je apsorbovan u bosanski narod odnosno tri glavne konfesionalne skupine koje su ga činile.
Potrebno je naglasiti da Bošnjaci za razliku od drugih naroda čije su zemlje dobile imena po njima samima, izovode svoje ime iz imena domovine Bosne (slično kao Italijani i Španci). Najčešće prihvaćena teorija koja se tiče porijekla imena zemlje Bosna kaže da je ime zemlje nastalo iz imena rijeke Bosne koje je imalo različito, ali slično ime od drevnih vremena. Samo porijeklo imena rijeke je latinsko ili ilirsko, Bosona.
U pojedinoj literatura, naprimjer "Sumrak i propast Rimskog carstva", Bošnjaci se pominju na spisku slavenskih naroda između Dunava i Jadrana, što implicira da Bošnjaci imaju starije ime od geografskog pojma. Mnogi autori navode Bošnjake kao jedan od slavenskih naroda u dolini Dunava. Viktor Duruy (1811-1894) u knjizi Histoire du Moyen-Age, poglavlje XXXI, navodi spisak naroda u dolini Dunava: Peuples de la vallée du Danube : les Hongrois. - Serbes, Bosniaques, Bulgares et Roumains. (Narodi doline Dunava: Mađari, Srbi, Bošnjaci, Bugari i Rumuni) [1]
Goti su osvojili Dalmaciju u petom vijeku, kasnije Alani koji su govorili iranski jezik, a Huni i Avari su prošli kroz današnje područje Bosne. Ovi narodi su ostavili nekoliko lingvističih tragova, a što god je populacije ostalo iza njih, apsorbovalo se kasnije u slavenskom talasu koji je uslijedio.
[izmijeni] Genetske analize
2005. godine razne južnoevropske medicinske škole i institucije specijalizovane u genetici su sprovele analize o varijacijama na 28 Y hromozomskih biaUelic markera na uzorku od određenog broja muškaraca iz sve tri glavne etničke grupe u Bosni i Hercegovini, podjednake veličine.
Najzapaženije otkriće je bila velika frekvencija "Paleolitsko evropske" halo grupe (Hg) I; posebno njene podgrupe I-P37.
Indikativno za dinarsku rasu, pod-halo grupa je imala 71% frekvencije kod bosanskih Hrvata, 44% kod Bošnjaka, a 31% kod bosanskih Srba. Slična studija u Hrvatskoj je pokazala da hrvatski Hrvati imaju frekvenciju od oko 45%, dok i među njima tačnije kod Hrvata iz Dalmacije postoji posebno visoka frekvencija (oko dvije trećine).
Treba napomenuti da su "Dinarski geni" indikator autohtonosti Balkana ili mediteranskog područja. To se može zaključiti iz činjenice da je dinarska frekvencija također velika među nemediterancima, kao što su Ukrajinci i Nijemci, što govori o postglacijalnoj disperziji balkanskih izbjeglica. Također valja napomenuti da su domaći balkanski narodi poput Grka i Albanaca, u većini slučajeva sa dinarskom frekvencijom koja je blizu nule zato što su potomci pretežno neolitskih naseljenika.
Također je potrebno napomenuti da prilikom testiranja bošnjačkog uzorka u ovoj analizi, ni jedan Bošnjak nije bio iz Bosanske krajine. S obzirom na historijske faktore koji se vežu za ovaj kraj, moglo bi se očekivati da bi uključivanje bošnjačkog faktora iz Bosanske krajine povećalo frekvenciju I-P37 i pod-halo grupa koje se vežu za Slavene, dok bi se smanjila frekvencija pod-halo grupa koje se vežu za Mediteran, što bi značajno utjecalo na konačni prosječni rezultat analize. Buduće analize će vjerovatno pažnju posvetiti ovom pitanju.
[izmijeni] Srednjovjekovna Bosna
Slaveni su naselili Bosnu i okolne zemlje u 7. vijeku. Slavenska srpska i hrvatska plemena su došla poslije prvog vala slavenskih doseljavanja. Prije dolaska Hrvata i Srba, Slaveni su već postali značajan element na Balkanu. Hrvati su uspostavili kraljevstvo na tlu današnje sjeverozapadne Hrvatske. Srbi su se doseili na područje današnje južne Srbije, a kasnije su se rasprostranili na sjever i istok. Slavenska plemena bošnjačkih predaka su se naselila u dolini rijeke Bosne i gornjeg toka Vrbasa. Kako je pomenuto ranije, mnogi autori navode Bošnjake kao jedan od slavenskih naroda u dolini Dunava. Viktor Duruy (1811-1894) u knjizi Histoire du Moyen-Age, poglavlje XXXI, navodi spisak naroda u dolini Dunava: Peuples de la vallée du Danube : les Hongrois. - Serbes, Bosniaques, Bulgares et Roumains. (Narodi doline Dunava: Mađari, Srbi, Bošnjaci, Bugari i Rumuni) [2].
Hrvati su na zapadu došli pod utjecaj Germanske imperije pod dinastijom Karolinga i Rimske katoličke crkve, a Hrvatska je bila blisko povezana s Mađarskom, kasnije Austrijom do 20. vijeka.
Srbi na istoku su dolazili periodično pod vlast Bizantije, preobrativši se u istočno ortodoksno kršćanstvo, usvajajući kulturni utjecaj Bizantije.
Slavenska plemena u dolini rijeke Bosne od kojih će kasnije nastati Bošnjaci (arhaično: Bošnjani) su razvila svoja specifična vjerovanja koja su u sebi sadržavala različite utjecaje počevši od heretičkih kršćanskih učenja do šizme, dualizma, misticizma i utjecaja ranijih plemenskih vjerovanja od čega će kasnije izrasti Crkva bosanska, a njeni pripadnici će sebe nazivati "dobrim krstjanima", odbacujući katoličanstvo i pravoslavlje smatrajući ih đavoljim naukom. Za pripadnike Crkve bosanske u historiografiji se pojavljuju različiti nazivi: bogumili, patareni, manihejci, heretici itd. a taj fenomen ni do danas nije do kraja objašnjen, kao ni nadgrobni spomenici, stećci koji su ostali materijalni dokaz postojanja autohtone unikatne bosanske Crkve.
Nakon nekoliko vjekova postojanja bosanske banovine, autonomne teritorije pod vlašću bosanskih vladara, od kojih je najpoznatiji bio Kulin ban, koji su bili u vazalskom položaju prema Bizantiji i drugim kraljevinama, Bosna je postala nezavisna kraljevina 1377. godine. Za vrijeme vlasti Kulina bana, Crkva bosanska je postala najutjecajnija religija u zemlji, zadržavši taj položaj skoro do pred kraj postojanja Kraljevine Bosne.
Pitanje etniciteta srednjovjekovne Bosne je preraslo u veliku debatu od trenutka kada je postavljeno u svom trenutnom kontekstu od historičara tokom druge polovine 19. stoljeća. Sve tri etničke grupe u Bosni imaju svoje stavove o ovom pitanju, a ovo kompleksno i osjetiljivo pitanje je dalje zamračeno nacionalizmom i propagandom tokom vijekova iz susjednih zemalja Srbije i Hrvatske.
Mnogim nacionalistima je dokazivanje da je njihov narod istinski nasljednik srednjovjekovne Bosne važan cilj, jer smatraju da autohtonost ima značajne implikacije u modernom socijalnom, političkom i međuetničkom pitanju. Tokom rata u Bosni od 1992. do 1995. godine nacionalistički režimi iz Srbije i Hrvatske su se pozivali na "povijesna" ili "istorijska" prava na Bosnu što je u krajnjem ishodu imali poguban bilans po pitanju ljudskih i materijalnih žrtava.
Jednostavno rečeno nema nikakvog dokaza da je populacija predosmanlijske Bosne u bilo kakvom društvenom staležu razvila hrvatsku ili srpsku etničku svijest čak i u srednjovjekovnom poimanju etniciteta. Da citiramo Noela Malcolma iz knjige "Bosnia A Short History" kada govori o pokušaju prisvajanja bosanske historije od strane srpskih istoričara i hrvatskih povjesničara:
"Na pitanje da li su stanovnici Bosne bili Hrvati ili Srbi 1180. godine se ne može odgovoriti iz dva razloga: - prvo, zato što ne posjedujemo dokaze, - drugo, pitanje nema smisla. Možemo reći da je većina bosanskog teritorija u sedmom stoljeću bila okupirana od strane Hrvata ili barem od Slavena pod hrvatskom upravom; međutim ta odrednica je bila plemenske prirode, koja nije imala nikakvog ili gotovo nikakvog značenja pet vijekova kasnije. Bošnjani su bili općenito bliži Hrvatima tokom svoje religijske i političke historije; ali primjenjivati modernu oznaku hrvatskog identiteta (nečeg što je konstruisano u bliskoj prošlosti na bazi religije, historije i jezika) na nekoga iz tog period bi bio anahronizam. Jedino što se sa sigurnošću može reći o etničkom identitetu Bošnjana je ovo: Oni su bili Slaveni koji su živjeli u Bosni."
Kraljevina Bosna je bila smještena između istočnog i zapadnog svijeta. Bosanski kraljevi su bili pod velikim utjecajem Crkve bosanske koja je u to vrijeme bila dominantna religija, ali su iz političkih razloga i pozicioniranja kraljevstva u kršćanskoj Evropi, koja je bila netolerantna prema šizmatičkim i heretičkim učenjima, nominalno bili Rimokatolici, iako su s druge strane primjenjivali i elemente bizantijske kulture i dvorskih ceremonijala, sklapajući saveze s drugim evropskim dvorovima, ali uvijek zadržavajući crkvenobosanski sistem vrijednosti. Tako su na bosanskom kraljevskom dvoru među najutjecajnijima bili djedovi Crkve bosanske koji su zajedno sa kraljevima krojili politiku zemlje.
Pošto je Bosna bila planinska, neprohodna zemlja, na granici katoličanstva i pravosljavlja, crkveni autoriteti su imali slabu kontrolu nad zemljom, boreći se između sebe za dominantnu ulogu. Za to vrijeme je autohtona Crkva bosanska (njeni pripadnici su se nazivali "dobri krstjani") bila neprikosnovena za stanovništvo. I Rimokatolička crkva, kao i Istočna pravoslavna su krstjane smatrali hereticima. Moderni historičari vode rasprave o tome da li su krtjani bili bogumili, manihejska sekta koja vodi porijeklo iz Bugarske, ili su bili pripadnici rimokatoličke crkve koji su vremenom prihvatili heretička učenja i postali šizmatici ili su bili unikatan proizvod slavenskih plemena koja su se dolaskom na područje Bosne izmiješali sa domaćim Ilirima i drugim narodima razvijajući vlastiti vjerski sistem. Za razliku od tadašnjih evropskih zemalja Bosna je bila neuporedivo tolerantnija prema drugačijim religijskim shvatanjima, te je predstavljala oazu u Evropi kada su vjerske prilike u pitanju.
Za vrijeme Tvrtka Kotromanića, Bosansko kraljevstvo je uključivalo područje današnje BiH izuzev sjeverozapadnog dijela zemlje, potom je uključivalo dijelove Dalmacije i zapadne Srbije.
Bosna je za vrijeme Stjepana Tomaševića, posljednjeg bosanskog kralja vidno oslabila. Za razliku od prethodnih bosanskih kraljeva (kao i vlastitog oca, Stjepana Tomaša), Tomašević je kako bi dobio krunu od Vatikana odlučio da se povinuje zahtjevima rimokatoličke crkve i konačno obračuna sa Crkvom bosanskom o čemu je obavijestio Papu, tražeći za uzvrat krunu. Počela su istrebljenja bosanskih krstjana što je Bosnu dovelu na rub građanskog rata. U takvoj uzavreloj situaciji Osmanlijsko carstvo dolazi na Balkan, a Bosna 1463. pada pod vlast Carigrada.
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[izmijeni] Ottoman rule
Historians have long debated how and why the Bosnians converted in such large numbers to Islam. There is no simple answer to this question, and the underlying reasons are complex and numerous. One important fact is that the Ottomans did not, as a rule, actively seek to convert their Christian subjects to Islam (the many generations it took for Bosnia to become predominantly Muslim and the retaining of Slavic customs among converts testify to this). The Ottoman Empire at the time was centered on militaristic expansion independent of religion, and the primary split was not between Muslims and nonbelievers but between the military-administrative class (the Ottomans) and the serfs (raya), neither of which was exclusive to any particular faith. Though the state eventually acquired a more Islamic focus, by this time, Muslims already made up a large majority of Bosnia's population.
The Ottoman conquest of Bosnia was notable because, unlike all other European regions that came under Ottoman control, Bosnia retained its status as a distinct entity from the very beginning (first as a sanjak, then as a province [eyalet]). The Ottomans imported their feudal system to Bosnia shortly after the take-over, and estates were granted to men called sipahis, in return for military service in times of war. At the beginning of the Ottoman period, these estates were usually, but not exclusively, granted to Muslims, and later only to Muslims. In Bosnia, these land grants gradually became hereditary, and by the end of the Ottoman period, a majority of the landowners in Bosnia were Muslims, and most Christians were peasants or serfs.
Probably the biggest reason behind the spread of Islam in the region was the very weak presence of the Church in Bosnia at the time. The old competition between the Catholic and Bosnian churches (along with the Orthodox Church in certain areas) contributed to a very weak and disorganized religious structure in much of Bosnia. To many Bosnians religion was a combination of traditions and superstitions. Compared to the well-funded and organized religious institutions of their neighbors, it was relatively easy for Bosnians to switch from their folk-Christianity to Islam. It is significant that the only other European region under Ottoman control where a large segment of the population adopted Islam was Albania; also home to competing Christian sects.
Also important was the growth of urban centers, the vast majority of which were Muslim. Cities that were founded at the time, such as Sarajevo and Mostar, grew rapidly with a specifically Islamic character and advanced living standards. It is understandable that many Christians in the outlying rural regions would convert to Islam to be part of the superior conditions in such places. Further, slaves who converted to Islam could petition for their freedom, and many of the Christians enslaved during the wars with Habsburg Austria, Hungary, and the Republic of Venice converted to Islam in order to secure their release. Many of these newly-freed converts settled in the growing cities, further contributing to their growth and development.
It is thought that the greater rights afforded to Muslims in the Ottoman Empire motivated Christians to convert to Islam. However, the extent to which Muslims were privileged is often overestimated. The primary discrimination faced by non-Muslims was of a legal nature, as Christians and Jews were not allowed to file lawsuits or testify against Muslims in court. There were also rules of conduct imposed upon them, but there were many to whom these rules did not apply. Though much has been made of the fact that Christian and Jewish subjects of the sultan paid a poll tax from which Muslims were exempt, Muslims were also faced with the religious zakat tax, whereas Catholics made donations to their church only on a voluntary basis.
Some Christians became Muslims through the devsirme system, whereby boys were gathered from the Ottoman lands and were sent to Istanbul to convert to Islam and be trained as Janissary troops, servants of the Sultan or Ottoman officials. One observer in the 16th century even mentioned that the Sultan believed Bosniaks were "the best, most pious and most loyal people" and "much bigger, more handsome, and more able" than other Muslim peoples. Though the devsirme system probably didn't influence the demographics of Bosnia significantly, it did firmly establish the Slavic element and language in Istanbul's administration and provided Bosnia with local Bosniak governors from 1488 onward.
The 17th century brought major defeats and military setbacks on the Ottoman Empire's western frontier. With major wars occurring every few decades, Bosnia was economically and militarily exhausted. For Bosnia and Bosniaks, the most critical conflict of all was the Great Turkish War. At its very start in the mid 1680s, the Habsburgs conquered nearly all of Ottoman Hungary, sending tens of thousands of Muslim refugees flooding into Bosnia. A similar process occurred with the Habsburg conquest of Lika and Slavonia. Thousands of Muslims from these parts fled eastward into the Bosnian pashaluk, while those who remained were forcibly converted to Catholicism. In total, it is estimated that more than 100,000 Muslims were expelled from the frontier regions and settled in Bosnia during this time. Many brought with them a new sense of hostility towards Christianity.
Ottoman military disasters continued into the next decade. In 1697, Habsburg Prince Eugene of Savoy conducted an extremely successful border raid which culminated in Sarajevo being put to the torch. The Great Turkish War was finally ended by the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. However, in the late 1710s yet another war between the Ottomans and the Habsburg-Venetian alliance ensued. It was ended by the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, but not before sending another wave of Muslim refugees fleeing to Bosnia proper.
These events created great unrest among Bosniaks. The sentiment of discontent was further magnified by war and an increased tax burden. As a result, Bosniak revolts sprang up in Herzegovina in 1727, 1728, 1729, and 1732. A large plague that resulted in the death of thousands during the early 1730s contributed to the general chaos. In 1736, seeking to exploit these conditions, The Habsburgs broke the Treaty of Passarowitz and crossed the Sava river boundary. In one of the most significant events in Bosniak history, local Bosniak nobility organized a defense and counterattack completely independent of the ineffective imperial authorities. On August 4, at the Battle of Banja Luka, the outnumbered Bosniak forces routed the Habsburg army and sent them fleeing back to Slavonia.
Traditionally, the Ottoman authorities classed subjects of the Empire not by nationality, but by religion. During the nineteenth century, modern national consciousness began to increase among the south Slavs; some historians now believe that it was in this period that Catholic Bosnians increasingly began to think of themselves as Croats, and Orthodox Bosnians as Serbs. The beginnings of a Muslim Bosnian national consciousness is also first attested in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as these early Bosniak nationalists began to assert a national identity distinct from both their Orthodox and Catholic neighbors, and from the other Muslim inhabitants of the empire. Most Serb and Croat nationalists tend to deny a separate Bosniak national identity, claiming that Bosniaks were either Serb or Croat in origin, but of Islamic religion. This debate, whether Bosnia and the Bosniaks are "really" Croats, Serbs, or a separate Bosniak Bosnian nation, has energized debates among nationalists until the present day. Anthropologists find the nationalist statements on Serbian or Croatian origin rather irrational and ultimately undignified attention, since, with a few notable exceptions, the ethnicity and history of the dominated in communist and monarchy Yugoslavia has been prescribed by the dominators and by the general demographics of a region.
Like national identity in Bosnia and Herzegovina in general, Bosniak national identity is chiefly based on religion and communal feeling, as opposed to linguistic and/or physical differences from their neighbors. In that sense, the earliest foundation of modern Bosniak national development can be found as early as the beginning of the 18th century, as native Bosnian Muslims found themselves often fighting against the empire's enemies by their own (i.e. the Battle of Banja Luka, where the city's garrison was composed entirely of Bosniaks). On top of present cultural uniqueness, by the first half of the 19th century upper class Bosniaks and intellectuals were already propagating what can be considered early Bosniak nationalism, by way of writing and politics, all of which would later lead to the Bosniak rebirth at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.
[izmijeni] Austro-Hungarian rule and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Bosnia and Herzegovina was occupied and administered by Austria-Hungary in 1878, and a number of Bosniaks left Bosnia and Herzegovina. Official Austro-Hungarian records show that 56,000 people mostly Bosniaks emigrated between 1883 and 1920, but the number of Bosniak emigrants is probably much larger, as the official record doesn't reflect emigration before 1883, nor include those who left without permits. Most of the emigrants probably fled in fear of retribution after the intercommunal violence of the 1875-1878 uprising. Many Serbs from Herzegovina left for America during the same period. One geographer estimates that there are 350,000 Bosniaks in Turkey today, although that figure includes the descendants of Muslim South Slavs who emigrated from the Sandžak region during the First Balkan War and later. Another wave of Bosniak emigration occurred after the end of the First World War, when Bosnia and Herzegovina became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, known after 1929 as Yugoslavia.
Urban Bosniaks were particularly proud of their cosmopolitan culture, especially in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, which was, until WWII, home to thriving Bosniak, Serb, Croat, and Jewish communities. After 1945, Sarajevo became one of the most ethnically mixed cities in the former Yugoslavia.
[izmijeni] The struggle for recognition
Members of the 19th century Illyrian movement, most notably Ivan Frano Jukić, emphasized Bosniaks (Bošnjaci) alongside Serbs and Croats as one of the "tribes" that constitutes the "Illyrian nation".
With the dawn of Illyrian movement, Bosniak intelligentsia gathered around magazine Bosnia in the 1860s promoted the idea of a Bosniak nation. A member of this group was father of Safvet-beg Bašagić, a famous Bosnian poet. The Bosniak group would remain active for several decades, with the continuity of ideas and the use of the archaic Bosniak name. From 1891 until 1910 they published a magazine titled Bosniak. By the turn of centuries, however, this group has all but died out,due to its most prominent members either dying, or deciding for Croat identity.
The administration of Benjamin Kallay, the Austria-Hungarian governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina, enforced the idea of a unitary Bosnian nation (Bosanci) that would include the Catholic and Orthodox Bosnians as well as Muslims. The idea was fiercely opposed by Croats and Serbs, but also by a number of Muslims. This policy further clouded the Bosnian ethnical issue and made the Bosniak group seem as pro-regime. After Kallays death in 1903, the official policy slowly drifted towards accepting the three-ethnical reality of Bosnia.
Muslim National Organization (MNO), a political party founded in 1906, was a major opponent of the regime and promoted the idea of Muslims as a separate entity from Serbs and Croats. A group of dissidents that, among else, subscribed with the Croat Muslim identity formed a party named Muslim Proggressive Party (MNS), however it received little popular support and faded away in the next few years.
The first constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1910 explicitly mentioned Serbs, Croats and Muslims as the "native peoples". This was reflected in the elections held soon thereafter, when the electoral was divided into a Serb, Croat and Muslim ballot. MNO, Serb National Organization (SNO) and Croat National Community (HNZ) received almost unanimous support in their respective ballots, and their members formed the parliament, albeit this parliament had little power in the Austria-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina. All translations of the Constitution into native languages used lower-case M for Muslims as followers of Islam (This is because the proper nouns such as Muslim and Christian were and still are written in lowercase letters in Bosnian (Serbo-Croatian) language).
After the World War I, Bosnia and Herzegovina became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes which later transformed into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The Serb monarchy, being one of the victors of the World War, sought Croat and Slovene political parties as their partners when forming the country. MNO, reformed into the Yugoslav Muslim Organization (JMO), dropped the pursuit of Muslim national identity and focused on protecting the religious and existential issues of Muslims through coalescing with other parties, sometimes even with the Serbian parties such as Nikola Pašić's People's Radical Party and Milan Stojadinović's Serbian Radical Party.
In the 1921 census, only Serbs, Croats and Slovenes were recognized as native nations or "tribes", and these were the only available options for ethnicity. The result was that a large number of Bosniaks simply left the field for ethnicity blank. This phenomenon, labeled nonethnical element (nenarodni element), was a topic of heated debate amongst scholars and politicians for years to follow. Some of them argued that the nonethnical element were descendants of the Turkish occupier and as such should be expelled. Nevertheless, thanks to the helpful influence of JMO, there were only isolated incidents of oppression against Bosniaks.
This political void was quickly filled with a number of opposition parties which recognized Muslims as a separate nation. Among them was the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, as a document from the 1930s reveals. It's no coincidence that a large number of Bosnian Muslims joined the Communist Party, and later the partisans, many of them becaming prominent political leaders and commandants.
During the World War II, the authorities of the Nazi-puppet Independent State of Croatia tried to ally with the Bosniaks whom they considered to be "Muslim Croats" against the Serbs and other "undesirables". As a token, the Artists Gallery museum (by Ivan Mestrovic) in Zagreb was furnished with minarets and ceded to be used as a mosque.
The Declaration of the State Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ZAVNOBiH), issued on November 25th of 1943 by the partisan government, is widely considered to be the constitutional basis of the modern Bosnia and Herzegovina. This document uses essentially the same wording as the 1910 Constitution. Furthermore, the Resolution of ZAVNOBiH states: "Today, the nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, through their only political representative - the ZAVNOBiH, desire that their country, which is neither Serb, nor Croat nor Muslim, but Serb as well as Croat and Muslim, should be the free and united Bosnia and Herzegovina in which the full equality, legal and otherwise, of Serbs, Muslims and Croats will be guaranteed".
Unfortunately, this declaration was broken as soon as World War II was over, as the Constitution of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (later Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) mentioned Serbs and Croats, but not Muslims, as the native nations (narodi). In the Yugoslav census of 1948, 90% of Muslims in Yugoslavia declared themselves as "nationally undetermined". Furthermore, many who registered as Serbs or Croats did so largely out of societal and economic pressure. When the "Yugoslav, nationally undeclared" option became available in 1953, 900,000 people registered as such.
With a weakening of Serb dominance in Bosnian communist leadership, the door opened up for a new national identification. Finally in the 1961 Yugoslav census, the "Muslims in the ethnic sense" option first appeared. By 1963 Muslims were listed in the Bosnian constitution alongside Serbs and Croats. Finally, in 1968, "Muslims" with a capital M was adopted as the term for a member of a nation rather than "Muslims" as adherents to Islam. (This summons forth the old discussions about whether a Jew is a member of a tribe or of a religion; the dilemmas were parallel).
The decision wasn't greeted without debate among communist leadership, but Bosniaks had made themselves clear. "Practice has shown the harm of different forms of pressure," read a communique issued by the Bosnian Central Committee, "from the earlier period when Muslims were designated as Serbs or Croats from the national viewpoint. It has been shown, and present socialist practice confirms, that the Muslims are a distinct nation".
From then until the Yugoslav wars, Bosniak national identity continued to develop with two different philosophies forming. These breakthroughs in the 60s were not carried out by religious Muslims (in fact, they were headed chiefly by secular Muslim communists) but in the following decades two separate schools of thought emerged. The first, was a secular "Muslim Nationalism"(as supported by people such as Hamdija Pozderac), and the second was a separate revival of Islamic religious belief (a reaction to communist sponsored secularism and advocated by people such as Alija Izetbegović). The effects of these two separate ideas on what exactly Bosnian Muslims are that have also occasionally clashed can be seen to this day.
In September 1993, the Congress of Bosnian Muslim Intellectuals re-introduced the historical ethnic name Bosniaks instead of the previously used Muslim by nationality. Other ethnic groups (Serbs and Croats) objected to the name as a ploy to monopolize the history of Bosnia and make them seem to be foreign invaders (see History of Bosnia and Herzegovina). The term in itself means Bosnians and is an archaic term that was once used for all inhabitants of Bosnia regardless of faith. Bosniaks counter by pointing out that Bosniak is the historical term for their nation, and that had they truly wanted to "monopolize" Bosnian history it would have been far easier to use the "newer" version "Bosanci" which, however, has a somewhat different meaning.
Since the 1990s, the name has been adopted outside of Bosnia itself, onto the Slavic Muslim population of other former Yugoslav republics such as Serbia and Macedonia. It allows a Bosniak/Bosnian distinction to match the Serb/Serbian and Croat/Croatian distinctions between ethnicity and residence.
