Xavier Bougarel, Nadživjeti Carstva: Islam, nacionalni identitet i politička lojalnost u Bosni i Hercegovini
Xavier Bougarel, Surviving Empires: Islam, National Identity and Political Loyalty in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Summary/Abstract: his review examines Xavier Bougarel’s Nadživjeti Carstva: Islam, nacionalni identitet i politička lojalnost u Bosni i Hercegovini (2nd ed., 2023), a comprehensive study of Bosnian Muslim political identity from the late Ottoman period to the post-Dayton era. Bougarel’s central argument challenges teleological narratives of nationalism by proposing that Bosnian Muslims historically developed their collective identity not through a sovereign national project, but through strategic loyalty to existing imperial and state structures. Rather than conceptualizing Bosnian Muslims as a failed nation, he interprets their political behaviour as a rational response to demographic vulnerability, institutional dependency, and shifting imperial power.

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