Bošnjačka vjerska inteligencija i izazovi nacionalne identifikacije tokom austrougarskog razdoblja
Bosniak Religious Intelligentsia and the Challenges of National Identification during the Austro-Hungarian Period

Summary/Abstract: The paper explores the challenges that Bosniak religious intelligentsia was faced with in terms of national identification during the Austro-Hungarian period. Research shows that this intelligentsia has often had a key role in all the major political, social and cultural issues of that time. In the first two decades of the occupation, religious intelligentsia was often the key representative of its people. The Austro-Hungarian authorities tried to use this fact in their project of creating an integral Bosnian nation that includes the three largest confessional communities in the country. Also, a number of representatives of the Muslim religious intelligentsia was affected by the Serbian and Croatian national ideologies that at the time sought to position themselves more firmly in Bosnia and Herzegovina. From the historical viewpoint, although Bosniaks formally and legally entered the Austro Hungarian era in 1878, judging from the expression of their collective identities, they had remained living in the Ottoman era for several decades more.In this era the fundamental divide among the population was faith, not the nation, which can be seen as one of the reasons for the ‘delayed’ national development. It is easy to see a long present and very serious psychological barrier towards the new government on the part of Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This barrier was further strengthened by the new administration through certain political measures, and their main concern after the occupation was the preservation of religious identity. Therefore, it is somewhat understandable why Bosniaks at that time showed no particular interest in the development of national consciousness and fostering of elements that determine their national singularity. It is important to note that the concept of nation is not a rigid, static, fixed form, but as all other artificial constructs, it changes its content over time, and it is important to distinguish all those elements and forms that go along with its definition at the present time and a century earlier.

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