Ottoman conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Ottoman conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina was a process that started roughly in 1386, when the first Ottoman attacks on the Kingdom of Bosnia took place. In 1451, more than 65 years after its initial attacks, the Ottoman Empire officially established the Bosansko Krajište (Bosnian Frontier), an interim borderland military administrative unit, an Ottoman frontier, in parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[1] In 1463, the Kingdom fell to the Ottomans, and this territory came under its firm control. Herzegovina gradually fell to the Ottomans by 1482. It took another century for the western parts of today's Bosnia to succumb to Ottoman attacks, ending with the capture of Bihać in 1592.

Origins and etymology

The entire territory that is today known as Bosnia and Herzegovina was not conquered by the Ottoman Empire at once in a single battle, but it took the Ottoman Empire several decades to conquer it.

Military units of the Ottoman Empire made many raids into feudal principalities in the western Balkans at the end of the 14th century, some of them into territory of today's Bosnia and Herzegovina, long before the conquest of the Bosnian Kingdom. The first Ottoman raids led by Timurtash-Pasha happened in the eastern parts of Bosnia in 1384.^[2] The Battle of Bileća in 1388 was the first battle of the Ottoman army on the territory of today's Bosnia and Herzegovina. It soon won important victories against the regional feudal lords in the Battle of Marica (1371) and Battle of Kosovo (1389).

In 1392, the Ottomans established the Skopsko Krajište after the capture of Skopje, the capital of the Serbian Empire between 1346-1371; the term krajište (крајиште) had originally served as an administrative unit of the Serbian Empire or Despotate to designate border regions where the emperor or despot had not established solid and firm control due to raids from hostile neighboring provinces. The militarized territories that would later receive the name Bosansko Krajište (lit. Bosnian Frontierland) were thus governed by the same Ottoman administration, based in Skopje.^[3]

War with the Bosnian Kingdom

After the death of King Tvrtko I in 1391, the Bosnian Kingdom went into decline. In the 1410s, local noblemen Hrvoje Vukčić of the House of Hrvatinić, Sandalj Hranić of the House of Kosača and Pavle Radenović of the House of Pavlović controlled large swaths of territory once controlled by Tvrtko, and effectively controlled the Kingdom by aligning themselves with competing branches of the House of Kotromanić. In 1413, a conflict escalated between Hrvoje and Sandalj while the latter was helping Stefan Lazarević fight the Ottomans in Serbia; subsequently, Hrvoje allied himself with the Ottomans, who invaded Bosnia in May 1414, which prompted a subsequent invasion by the troops of the Kingdom of Hungary. In a major battle in August 1415 that took place either near Doboj or in the Lašva Valley, the Ottomans won a major victory, upsetting the balance of power in the region.^[4]

The first permanent presence of Ottoman armies in Bosnia was established in 1414, after the region near Donji Vakuf (known as Bosnian Skoplje in medieval times) was captured. In period between 1414 and 1418, the Ottoman Empire conquered Foča, Pljevlja, Čajniče and Nevesinje. During the same year Višegrad and Sokol were captured too.

In 1415, Sandalj Hranić, who controlled today's eastern Herzegovina, became an Ottoman vassal.

Isa-Beg Isaković organized in 1455 one of the first Ottoman censuses in the western Balkans.

By the end of this period, in the 1460s, the territory of the Kingdom of Bosnia was significantly reduced, with the Ottoman Empire controlling the entirety of today's eastern Bosnia, as far north as Šamac, and Herceg Stjepan under control of all of today's Herzegovina as far north as Glamoč.^[5]

Sanjaks

The Ottoman conquest of the Kingdom of Bosnia ended in 1463 with the death of King Stjepan Tomašević.^[6] The Siege of Jajce ensued shortly thereafter in which the Kingdom of Hungary retook the Jajce Fortress. The victory was hailed at Matthias Corvinus's court as a restoration of the Kingdom of Bosnia, then under Hungarian sovereignty.^[7] The Hungarians formed the Banate of Jajce after that.

Isa-beg became the first sanjakbey of the Bosnian Sanjak in 1464.^[8]

After taking the Kingdom of Bosnia in 1463, Mahmud Pasha also invaded Herzegovina and besieged Blagaj after which Herceg Stjepan conceded a truce that required ceding all of his lands north of Blagaj to the Ottomans.^[9]

The Ottoman territory in Bosnia continued to be expanded into newly-established sanjaks: the Sanjak of Herzegovina was formed in the 1470, subordinated to the beglerbey of Rumelia like the Bosnian sanjak. In 1480, the Sanjak of Zvornik was formed but subordinated to the Beglerbey of Budim.

Even though the Bosnian Kingdom fell, there were several fortresses that resisted much longer – the last fortress in Herzegovina fell in 1481.^[6] The House of Kosača maintained the Duchy of Saint Sava as an Ottoman vassal state until 1482.

In 1481, after the death of Mehmed II, Matthias Corvinus invaded Bosnia again and reached Vrhbosna (Sarajevo), but all of those gains were undone within a year.^[10]

In the 1530s, the Kingdom of Hungary had remained in control of the forts on the south bank of the Sava and Jajce. Jajce Fortress was finally taken by the Ottomans in 1527.^[10]^[6]

The House of Berislavić controlled the region of Usora in the north until it in turn succumbed in the 1530s.^[11]

Parts of southwestern Bosnia were sectioned into the Sanjak of Klis, which was formed in 1537 subordinated to the Eyalet of Rumelia.

Aftermath

The Eyalet of Bosnia was established in 1580.^[12]

It took until 1592 and the fall of Bihać to reach the westernmost frontiers of what is modern Bosnia, and the modern western border of Bosnia to be established. After that, the territory of today's Bosnia and Herzegovina remained under largely undisturbed Ottoman rule until 1689 and the Great Turkish War.

References

^ Ibrahimagić, 1998, p. 77 More than 50 years passed between the first Ottoman attack and the establishment of "Bosansko krajište" as an interim form of military and territorial organisation of Ottoman rule in Bosnia (1451)(22). [...] 22. Šabanović, Bosanski pašaluk, str. 35.
^ Handžić, Mehmed. "Rasprava h. Mehmeda Handžića o pitanjima vjere stanovništva BiH prije dolaska Turaka te islamizacije prostora BiH". www.bosnjacki-topraci.com (in Bosnian). New York: Association of Bosniaks. 1384 dolazi Timuraš paša sa vojskom i hara po istočnoj Bosni.
^ Evliya Çelebi (1967). Hazim Šabanović (ed.). Putopis - Kulturno nasljeđe (in Serbo-Croatian). Svjetlost. p. 279. 29. Skopski sandžak nije osnovan odmah poslije zauzimanja Skoplja, nego je od 1392. pa sve do pada Srbije (1459.) i Bosne (1463.) Skoplje bilo sjedište krajišnika koji su upravljali cijelim turskim područjem od Skoplja do Vrhbosne. Osnivanjem smederevskog i drugih sandžaka u Srbiji i bosanskog sandžaka to je krajište znatno smanjeno i izgubilo značaj koji je dotle imalo. Sredinom XVI. v. ono je postalo središnja oblast zasebnog skopskog sandžaka.
^ John Van Antwerp Fine (1994). The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. University of Michigan Press. pp. 468–469. ISBN 978-0-472-08260-5. Retrieved 2013-01-26.
^ Safvet-beg Bašagić (1900). Kratka uputa u prošlost Bosne i Hercegovine, od g. 1463-1850 (in Serbo-Croatian). Vlastita naklada. p. 17. Najprije razmotrimo kraljeve zemlje prije pada. Turci su imali li vlasti slijedeće zemlje i gradove: Nevesinje, Gacko, Zagorje, Podrinje, Taslidžu, Čajnič, Višegrad, Sokol, Srebrenicu, Zvomik, Šabac, Samac i Sarajevo s okolicom. Sva ostala Hercegovina do Glamoča bila je u rukama hercega Stjepana, na koju kralj nije mogo računati. Kad izvadimo još mnoge gradove po sjevernoj i zapadnoj Bosni, u kojima su gospodovali patarenski velikaši, kraljeva država bila je mala podrtina na zemljovidu današnje Herceg-Bosne [...]
^ ^a ^b ^c Pinson, Mark (1996) [1993]. The Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Historic Development from Middle Ages to the Dissolution of Yugoslavia (Second ed.). United States of America: President and Fellows of Harvard College. p. 11. ISBN 0-932885-12-8. Retrieved 2012-05-06. The Ottomans conquered Bosnia in 1463; ... though last fortress in Herzegovina was to fall in 1481, and in Bosnia Jajce under Hungarian garrison actually held until 1527
^ Babinger, Franz (1992) [1978]. Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time. Bollingen Series 96. Translated from the German by Ralph Manheim. Edited, with a preface, by William C. Hickman. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 229. ISBN 0-691-09900-6. OCLC 716361786.
^ Isa-beg (in Croatian). Retrieved January 15, 2023.
^ Safvet-beg Bašagić (1900). Kratka uputa u prošlost Bosne i Hercegovine, od g. 1463-1850 (in Serbo-Croatian). Vlastita naklada. p. 20. U Hercegovini Mahmut paša je udario na nenadani otpor. Kršna zemlja Hercegovina sa golim brdima, tijesnim klancima i nepristupnim gradovima zadavaše turskom konjaništvu puno neprilika. Osim toga domaći bogumili junački su se borili uz svoga hercega i njegove sinove. Doduše Mahmut paša je dolinom Neretve sjavio do pod Blagaj i obsijedao ga; nu je li ga zauzeo ili je poslije nagodbe s hercegom predao mu se, nema sigurnih vijesti. Videći herceg Stjepan, da bez povoljna uspjeha, Mahmut paša ne će ostaviti Hercegovine, opremi najmlagjega sina Stjepana s bogatim darovima sultanu, da moli primirje. Na to Fatih ponudi, da gornju polovinu svojih zemlje ustupi Turskoj, a donju zadrži za se i za sinove. Mladoga Stjepana kao taoca zadrži u Carigradu, koji iza kratkog vremena pregje na islam pod imenom Ahmed beg Hercegović. Herceg Stjepan pristane na sultanovu ponudu, pa sklopi mir i ustupi Turcima svu gornju Hercegovinu do Blagaja. Na to Mahmud paša bude pozvan u Carigrad.
^ ^a ^b John Van Antwerp Fine (1994). The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. University of Michigan Press. p. 589. ISBN 978-0-472-08260-5. Retrieved 2013-02-02.
^ Pavo Živković; Marija Brandić (May 2007). "Usora i Soli u prva dva stoljeća turske prevlasti". Povijesni zbornik: Godišnjak za kulturu i povijesno nasljeđe (in Croatian). 1 (1–2). Faculty of Philosophy, University of Osijek: 53, 58. ISSN 1846-3819. Retrieved 2012-09-02. Nakon što je tridesetih godina XVI. stoljeća Usora pala pod tursku vlast, nestankom posljednjeg Berislavića [...] Padom utvrđenog naselja Kobaša 1536. godine, turske vlasti od toga su naselja stvorile sjedište kadiluka i nahije.
^ Ibrahimagić, 1998, p. 77 And 117 years passed from the fall of Bosnia in 1463, when the first sanjak was established as the first independent form of military, administrative and political form of organisation of Ottoman rule in Bosnia, until the establishment of the Bosnian beglerbegluk or ayalet [province] as a separate province of the Ottoman Empire in 1580.