Bosnia and Herzegovina

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: Two provinces of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Previous to the Treaty of Berlin (1878) they formed the extreme northwestern part of Turkey in Europe, but since 1908 they have been part of Austria. Bosnia has the Hungarian and Austrian provinces of Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia on the north and west, Servia to the east, and to the south Herzegovina, which is bounded on the east by Montenegro and on the south and west by Dalmatia. The capital is Sarajevo in Bosnia, the chief town and former capital of Herzegovina, Mostar. The area is about 16,200 and 3,500 miles respectively; the population (1896) 1,591,036, of whom 219,511 are credited to Herzegovina. The natives are nearly all Slavs of the Servian branch. The number of foreigners living in the land is estimated at 71,000, most of them having entered the country since the Austrian occupation.

The religious statistics for 1895 were as follows: Greek-Orientals, 673,246 (43 per cent.); Mohammedans, 548,632 (35 per cent.); Roman Catholics, 334,142 (21 per cent.); Jews, 8,213; other religions (mostly Protestants), 3,859. The Mohammedans, in the main converts from Christianity since the Turkish conquest in the fifteenth century, are not of the most rigid kind, although they made a brave stand against the Austrian government. They are the landed proprietors of the country and merchants in the towns. They are under the Sheik ul Islam in Constantinople and a Rais al Ulama in Sarajevo. They have a large endowment fund for mosques, schools, hospitals, and the like, which is now administered under government supervision. The free exercise of their religion is guaranteed to them. The Roman Catholics are descendants of the older population and constitute the larger number of the artisans in the cities and the farmers. They are most numerous in the districts of Travnik and Mostar. The Franciscans have been active among them since the thirteenth century and have done much for them. Their condition has much improved since the Austrian occupation. There is an archbishop of Bosnia, who since 1881 has resided at Sarajevo, and there are suffragan bishops of Banjaluka, Mostar and Duvno, and Marcana and Trebinje. The provincial seminary is at Banjaluka, where there are also four schools for boys and four for girls and an orphan asylum under the charge of Trappist monks. The adherents of the Greek Church are under the patriarch of Constantinople and the metropolitans of Sarajevo, Dolnja Tuzla, and Mostar. They are most numerous in the north, are farmers and traders, and are inferior to both the Latins and Mohammedans in education. Less than ten per cent. of the entire population can read or write, and the church schools are poor. Public schools are being established and there are three higher schools (two gymnasia and a Realschule), ten trade schools, and a normal school.

Bibliography: The church statistics are included in those for Austria. Consult: V. Klais, Geschichte Bosniens bis zum Zerfall des Königreichs, Leipsic, 1885; Bosniens Gegenwart und nächste Zukunft, Leipsic, 1886; Die Lage der Mohammedaner in Bosnien, Vienna, 1900 (answered by Kallay und Bosnien-Herzegovina, Budapest, 1900).