Islam in the Balkans

ISLAM IN THE BALKANS
Name
Course
Date of submission
The Bosnia and the Jewish in the Balkans
Introduction
Various factors exist for the process of Islamization of the Balkan community. It was a gradual process that became distinct among the different periods it developed. Thus, certain periods depicted more employment of techniques to convert people into Islam, motivated by additional factors that neccessitated the move. The Islamization process occurs in different successive stages as pertains to the prevailing conditions facilitating its development. This paper will discuss the Islaminization of two groups in the balkans: the Bosnia and the Jewish groups.[Minkov, Anton. Conversuin To Islam In The Bailkans: Kiswe Bahas, Petitions And Ottoman Social Life, 1670-1730. (Boston: Brill, 2004), p.108]
The Bosnia Group
Bosnia, a country within the Balkan region, stands between the Dalmatian coastal strip and the lowlands of Serbia which served as the entry points for immigrants. The country's terrain points to a highly mountainous area with deep and distributed forest growth. In addition the different landscapes in the country become separated by the many impassable rivers. The ethnic community shows a great divesity of racial groups. a number of invasions occured in Bosnia leading to the increase and diversity in population. The Slav invasions from the sixth to the seventh century forms the basis for the identity of the commuity in terms of culture and language. nonetheless, other racial communities inhabited the region prior to the Slavs' arrival. Illyrians become the earliest population of Bosnia, with Greek and Roman archeological evidence pointing to the common practice of tattoing.[Malcolm, Noel. Bosnia, A Short History (New York: Scribners, 2004), p.1] [Noel (2004, p.2)] [Noel (2004, p.3).]
Before the arrival of the Serbs and the Croats, the existing Slav community engaged in pagan-like form of worship, for instance, through addressing various gods as Veles, the god of thunder. The Bosnians lived under the rule of these two grouos in different stages, with an overturn of leadership as the enhanced Byzantine Empire took control of them in the tenth century. Generally, the identity of the Croats dominated the Bosnian political and religious history. However, due to the inaccessability of the area, the Bosnian Church depicted different aspects far from the principles of the Catholic Church which had been the original foundation for religious practice. Thus, conflict arose among various groups who wanted to take control of Bosnia, such as Hungary which desired to control the bishopric in the country. eventually, the Bosnian Church became obsolete with the arrival of the Turkish army setting the pace for a new religious platform, Islam.[Noel (2004, p.8)] [Noel (2004, p.15)] [Ibid]
The Jewish Group
The Jewish community in the Balkans represents one of the minority populatioins in the rregion. Others include t...