ottoman territorial expansion in bosnia

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THE OTHER OTTOMAN SERHATIN EUROPE:OTTOMAN TERRITORIAL EXPANSION IN BOSNIAAND CROATIA IN FIRST HALF OF 16th CENTURY

Dino Mujadevi *

zet

AVRUPADAK DER OSMANLI SERHATI: 16. YZYILIN LKYARISINDA BOSNA VE HIRVATSTANDAK OSMANLITOPRAK GENLEMES

16. yzylda Osmanllarn Avrupada ilerleyii ok saydaaratrmann konusu olmutur. Akademik almalar Osmanlfetihlerinin balca ilerleyi istikametine younlamtr:Macaristan, Avusturya ve daha az da olsa Polonya. Sadece yerelneme haiz Osmanl kuvvetlerinin savat Adriyatik denizi vegnmz Hrvatistan ve Bosnas arasndaki Drava nehriarasndaki, Osmanl hududunda askeri ve siyasi gelimelerbyk lde gz ard edilmitir. Bu alma, 16. yzylboyunca daha az nemli olan bu hududda Osmanlilerleyiinin ana gzerghn ve olaylarn aydnlatmay veOsmanl devletinin bu blgeye asker sevkine daha fazlayounlamadnn sebeplerini ortaya koymay

amalamaktadr. ada Osmanl yazarlarnn ve modernzamann akademisyenlerinin tarihilik anlayna bu blgeyestanbulun ilgi eksikliinin etkisi de tartlacaktr.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Osmanl, Bosna, Osmanl fetihleri

Abstract

Ottoman expansion in Europe in the 16. c. has been subjectof large body of research. The scholarship concentrated onmain direction of Ottoman conquests: Hungary, Austria and tolesser extent Poland. Military and political developments on

*Ph.D., Croatian Institute for History, Zagreb/CROATIA


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the Ottoman frontier between Adriatic sea and river Drava intoday's Croatia and Bosnia, where only Ottoman troops of localsignificance fought, were largely overlooked. This paper triesto illuminate main directions and events of Ottoman expansionon this frontier of lesser importance during the 16. c. andtries to stress main reasons why Ottoman state didn't put morefocus on military push in this region. The impact of lack ofinterest of Istanbul in this region to historiographicalrepresentationin works of contemporaryOttoman authors, aswell as in modern scholarship are also discussed.

Key Words: Ottomans, Bosnia, Ottoman conquests

One of the major Ottoman studies topics during the long historyof this scholarly field is research on Ottoman conquests in MiddleDanube region in Central Europe in the 16 century. There are severalreasons for it. Hungarian kingdom was the only authentic Western

country in late medieval terms - that was, at least largely,conquered by Ottomans. Much smaller neighbouring MedievalBosnia, torne by its main division between Heterodox BosnianChurch, Catholicism and Ortodox Christianity, is not taken intoaccount here. The shock of defeat by Muslim Ottomans in plains ofPannonia, attributed very often to divine punishment, was felt verystrongly in Catholic and even Protestant West. This gave rise to largebody of works about wars against Ottomans - in this part of CentralEurope Hungary and Austria - and Ottomans in general. On theOttoman side this region attracted the bulk of interest. Since mainOttoman war effort was concentrated in this region, Ottomanhistoriography itself gave greatest importance to sucesses ofOttoman arms in Danube region, so much that wars in Asia and otherparts of Europe remained somewhat in shadow. Ottoman Europeancampaigns of 16. century were in works of Ottoman historians by farand large indentified with warfare in Hungary and Austria. Since theearly 19th century, modern studies of Ottoman military and politicalhistory continued focusing on the Middle Danube region, both inEurope and later in Turkey. To this contributed also the fact thatAustrian and Hungarian researchers of Ottoman history andphilology were actually pioneers in this field, whose sholarship wasmuch admired and even copied by later generations of Ottomanists.


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Their view of Ottoman conquests and Ottoman serhat remainsdominant even today.1

Nevertheless, the part of the panorama of Ottoman conquests inEurope was sistematically overlooked or, at least, under-researched.The scale and development of Ottoman military involvement in theregion between river Drava (border of Hungary proper) and Adriaticsea - roughly contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia -during the 16th century remains to this day largely unknown to theOttoman scholars outside this region. This situation isunderstandable. Ottoman historiography of Classical period bringsalso very little about warfare in this region and period and this is alsotrue for Ottoman archival sources. As previously said, Ottoman wareffort was by far and large concentrated in Middle Danube area,including large detachements of troops of central goverment andother eyalets. As I plan to demonstrate in full detail later, Ottomancampaigns on this frontier, usually known as Serhat- Bosna, were

performed by smaller local forces and had no major targets as Budaor Vienna in Middle Danube, so they naturally attracted far lesserattention of Ottoman chroniclers. To be fair, Ottoman historiansreported extensively on some early and later epizodes of Ottomanadvance in this region: famous fall of Bosnia in 1463 andcathastrophic defeat of Croatian nobility at Battle at Krbava field inand description of terrible Ottoman defeat at Sisak in 1593 by

1For the best introduction about Ottoman-Hungarian and Ottoman-Habsburgwars in 16th and 17th centuries. see: Gyula Kaldy Nagy, 16. Yzylda Macaristan'daTrk Ynetimi, Studia Turco-Hungarica I, Budapest, 1974, Caroline Finkel, Theadministration of warfare: the Ottoman military campaigns in Hungary, 15931606 ,

Beihefte zur Wiener Zeitschrift fir die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Bd. 14, Vienna,1988; Markus Khbach, Die Eroberung von Fuelek durch die Osmanen 1554. Einehistorisch-quellenkritische Studie zur osmanischen Expansion im oestlichen

Mitteleuropa, Wien Koeln Weimar - Boehlau, 1994; Claudia Rmer, OsmanischeFestungsbesatzungen in Ungarn zur Zeit Murds III., dargestellt an Hand von

Petitionen zur Stellenvergabe. Schriften der Balkan-Kommission, PhilologischeAbteilung, Bd. 35, sterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, 1995; GzaDvid and Pl Fodor (eds.), Ottomans, Hungarians, and Habsburgs in Central Europe.The Military Confines in the Era of Ottoman Conquest, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 2000; GzaDvid and Pl Fodor, Hungarian Studies in Ottoman History. In: Fikret Adanr andSuraiya Faroqhi (eds.), The Ottomans and Balkans, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 2002, pp. 305-350. For the general bibliography of works dealing with Ottoman expansion onMiddle Danube (among other issues) see: Hans-Jrgen Kornrumpf - Jutta Kornrumpf,Osmanische Bibliographie mit besonderer Bercksichtigung der Trkei in Europa, E. J.

Brill, Leiden, 1973; Karl-Heinz Rttimann, Die Trkei: Systematische Bibliographie:von 1500 bis 1950, K.-H. Rttimann, Schwbisch Hall, 2001.


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Habsburg Croatian/Slavonian troops. But the events of first half of16. century are reported scarcely. The theater of war between Dravaand Adritic sea is, in spite of its smaller strategic significance forOttoman Empire as a whole, very interesting as it presents Ottoman-Habsburg war from much more intimate and close, but nevertheless

bloody, perspective.By the beginning of 16. c. Ottoman rule extended over almost

whole Balkans with northern borders just south of the rivers Savaand Danube. In the next hundred years Ottoman expansion in Europecontinued mainly in direction of north-west and west, into theCentral Europe. Area of contemporary Croatia and some parts ofcontemporary Bosnia, still under Christian rule, stood in early 16. c.on the path of the Ottoman advance towards Central Europe,alongide with its bigger, more powerfull and better known northernneighbour, Hungary. Most of the medieval Bosnia was absorbed intothe Ottoman realm in second half of 15th c and this territory became

large material and, due to massive islamization, human resourcesbase for Ottoman aknc incursions and conquests towards west, i.e.contemporary Croatia, in later decades. At the beginning of thisperiod, most of the area of what is today Croatia consisted of twoseparate, but historically and linguistically aligned Catholic Christiankingdoms - Croatia and Slavonia, both united under common rule ofHungarian king. Those two kingdoms encompassed territory ofcontemporary Republic of Croatia and parts of contemporarywestern Bosnia-Herzegovina, and were separated roughly by riverKupa and mountains east to this river. In addition, some parts ofcontemporary eastern Croatia were part of territory of mediaevalHungary proper Poega and Srijem counties (upanije).2

The person that marked the period of Ottoman expansion inwestern Balkans in first half of 16th century, is without a doubt, GaziHusrev-beg. During the period 1521-1541 this son of native Bosniakand mother from Ottoman dynasty, was, with some short breaks,sancakbey of sancak of Bosnia and led or oversaw most of the

2 For the general introduction about Ottoman expansion in Western Balkanssee: Historija naroda Jugoslavije, vol. 2, Prosveta, Beograd-Zagreb, 1961; VjekoslavKlai, Povijest Hrvata, vol. 4-5, Zagreb, 1975; Hazim abanovi, Bosanski paaluk,postanak i upravna podjela, Sarajevo, 1981; Ive Mauran, Hrvati i Osmansko Carstvo,Golden Marketing, Zagreb, 1998; Mustafa Imamovi, Historija Bonjaka, Bonjaka

zajednica kulture Preporod, Sarajevo, 1998, pp. 103-112, 226-258; NenadMoaanin, Turska Hrvatska, Matica Hrvatska, Zagreb, 1999.


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Ottoman military operations from Bosnia towards west.3 Ottomanadvance towards west from Bosnia started actually a decade earlierunder Selim I, after 3 decades in which Ottomans didn't advance inthis area. Between 1512-1514 Bosnian Ottoman forces took fromChristians forts in northern (Srebrenik) and western (Klju) Bosnia,

but also occupied permanently large parts of southern medievalCroatia and came to the shores of Adriatic. With ascension ofSleyman the Lawgiver to the throne in 1520, Ottomans offensive inEurope started in earnest, and the new Bosnian sancakbey Husrevwas one of the major players. Under his leadership Bosnian Ottomantroops, among other sultan's forces, took part in successful siege ofBelgrade (1521.) and victory over Hungarian army in battle ofMohcs (1526). During the period 1522-1527. Bosnian Ottomanarmy took almost the whole area of medieval Croatia south of theVelebit mountain controlling by this access to Venetian coastaltowns in Dalmatia and Croatian regions of Lika and Krbava. Theheart, as well as the largest part, of medieval Croatia came underOttoman rule at that time, and the new sancaks of Klis and Krka weresoon formed to be formed. Bosnian Ottoman military sucesseschanged political, demographic and economic face of this region. In1527. last major Christian stronghold in former medieval Bosnia, thefortified town of Jajce, surrendered to Husrev-beg. After this thewhole valley of Vrbas came to his control and Bosnian Ottoman armycame to the forntiers of Slavonia on rivers Una and Sava.4

After the Mohcs, where Hungarian king died, and other defeatsby the armies of the new sultan Sleyman, the Hungary andassociated kingdoms of Slavonia and Croatia were in disarray andwithout king. In 1527. Croatia elected Ferdinand, Habsburg archdukeand brother of emperor of Holy Roman Empire Charles V, to thetrone in order to recive help from the outside for the mere survival ofthis kingdom. In Slavonia and Hungary civil war broke out betweensupporters of Ferdinand and John Zpolya, the other pretender whoenlisted help from Ottoman sultan and became his vassal. During theperiod 1527-1536 Ottomans fought directly against Ferdinand,restoring John Zpolya's power in most parts of Hungary and

3 For the detailed biography of Gazi Husrev-beg see: Behija Zlatar, Gazi Husrev-beg, Orijentalni institut u Sarajevu, Sarajevo, 2010.

4 Seid M. Tralji, Husrevbegov boravak i rad u Dalmaciji, Anali Gazi Husrev-

begove biblioteke, vol. 5-6, Sarajevo, pp. 7-21; Mustafa Imamovi, Historija Bonjaka,pp. 232-238; Behija Zlatar, Gazi Husrev-beg, pp. 23-40.


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besieging unsucessfully Ferdinand's capital Vienna twice. Husrev-begjoined in with Bosnian forces during Ottoman unsuccessful campaignagainst Vienna in 1532-33. Ottoman advance towards Croatia andSlavonia was halted in this period, but incursions and low intensityconflict persisted. But, by the 1536 Ferdinand grew stronger and

controlled also Slavonia and roughly one third of Hungary, so theOttomans were compelled to intervene to curb Ferdinand's power.Husrev-beg led Bosnian Ottoman army in 1536 in expedition to otherside of river Sava, where he helped Ottoman troops from Seminderne(Smederevo) sancak under command of Mehmed-beg Jahjapaiduring the campaign to crush the Christian resistance in formerPoega county (upanija), which now became sancak Poega. HisBosnian troops even took the city Poega itself. This becamefoundation of Bosnian influence in the Poega sancak, which sawmany administrators, timarlik holders and other population, bothChristian and Muslim, coming in large numbers from sancak ofBosnia, the pillar of Ottoman military, demographic and culturalinfluence in Western Balkans. After securing borders of sancak ofBosnia to the north, Husrev-beg immediately turned to the southernflank. During 1537 and 1538 he crushed last Habsburg pockets ofresistance in former medieval kingdom of Croatia in immediatehinterland of Venetian Dalmatia forts Klis, Nadin and Vrana consolidating Ottoman power there for the next hundred years. Inthis area only Dalmatian islands and coastal towns (Zadar, ibenik,Split) remained under Christian, i. e. Venetain control. In 1540 he alsotook the control over the fort of Dubica in Una valley paving the wayfor Ottoman penetration towards heart of medieval Slavonia -Zagreb. This was his last sucess on this front and he died next year,

ending by that one of the most important but often overlooked -periods in history of Ottoman Bosnia.5

After Husrev-beg's death in 1541 Ottoman advance was onlytemporarily stopped and his immediate successor at post ofsancakbey of Bosnia, Ulama-beg, launched in 1543 a successfuloffensive against Slavonian Habsburg troops - together with Husrev-beg's kethda Murat-beg Tardi, who became sancakbeyof Poega in1541 - in area west of Poega. Ulama-beg in 1550 went on to becomesancakbeyof Poega and continued Ottoman conquest of mediaevalSlavonian territory between rivers Drava and Sava. After he took

5 Seid M. Tralji, Husrevbegov boravak i rad u Dalmaciji, pp. 7-21; BehijaZlatar, Gazi Husrev-beg, pp. 40-53.


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important towns of azma and Virovitica 1552, new Ottoman sancakcalled Zaasna was formed. The formation of Zaasna sancakwas thelast Ottoman advance in the region between Drava and Sava. 6 Muchsouthern, between Sava and Adriatic Ottoman advance continued inUna and Kupa vallies for next fourty years, but Ottoman successes

were not spectacular as before. Finally, after the defeat and death ofBosnian vali Hasan-paa at Sisak in 1593, Ottoman conquests inWestern Balkans were finally checked. Habsburg and Venetiancounterattacks in period between 1594 and 1718 reduced Ottomanpresence in Western Balkans to present day Bosnia-Herzegovina,Serbia (south of Sava and Danube) and Montenegro and resulted indisappearence of Ottoman population and heritage in these areas.7

Under military leadership of Husrev-beg, who was later namedby Bosniaks the Gazi and is considered as the greatest hero andbenefactor of the country, Ottoman Bosnia came out its territorialnutshell, which was created under Mehmed II. Fatih, and became

largest military power, so to speak, in Western Balkans in first half of16th c. The military operations led by Husrev-beg and other Bosniansancakbeys and commanders in this area had little or no supportfrom forces of central Ottoman goverment, and only forces ofneighbouring sancaks, primarily Seminderne, joined occasionally, asthe case of conquest of Poega testifies. These forces were relativelysmall and underequipped and very only matching the scarseChristian Croatian-Slavonian military forces. According to westernsources Bosnian Ottoman forces that besieged Klis in 1537, whichwas the major operation of Bosnian Ottoman army around that time,were numbering 8 000 men. Other campaigns against lesserChristian strongholds were fougth with lesser number of troops. Incomparison Ottoman army that participated in campaign againstHungary in 1526 numbered 55 000 men and the Ottoman troops thatwere sent against Vienna in 1529 numbered, at least, 120 000soldiers! These troops consisted of numerous detachment fromalmost all eyalets of Empire and troops under command of centralgovernment, which were never or almost never deployed in WesternBalkans.

6 For biography of Ulama-beg see: Dino Mujadevi, Osmanska osvajanja uSlavoniji 1552. u svjetlu osmanskih arhivskih izvora, Povijesni prilozi, vol. 28,

Zagreb, 2009, pp. 89-107.7 Mustafa Imamovi, Historija Bonjaka, pp. 246-289.


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Ottoman historiography of Classical Age was, curiously enough,not very much intersted in relatively great succeses of BosnianOttoman arms in area between Drava and Adriatic in first half of 16.c.. Even the Gazi Husrev-beg famous in Bosnia itself neverreceived much attention by Ottoman narrative sources. Events of this

era and area were reported relatively rarely and without any depth.Moreover, some of the most important reports are actually takenfrom Western sources! Some of the stories presented by Ottomanhistorians are not very reliable. Probably the best example fortreatment of serhat- Bosna by classical Ottoman historiography isearly 17. c. monumental work by Ibrahim Peevi, Tarih-i Peevi.8 Hewas the native of neighbouring Ottoman Hungary, but also hadBosnian Muslim roots and was very much keen to celebrate OttomanBosnian successes. Nevertheless, by his time, late 16th and early 17thnot much of Gazi Husrev-beg era was preserved by earlier authors ororal history to be transmitted to further generations. Othercontemporary authors write even less about this region in early 16. c.Peevi mainly concentrates to short descriptions of conquests of onlyseveral towns or forts mentioned by name: i.e. Skradin on Adriatic in1521/229 or Ilok, Erdut and Osijek in 1526.10 Bosnian sancakbeyHusrev-beg was briefly mentioned in context of fall of Jajce in 1527 11and fall of Klis 1537 and some other towns in hinterland ofDalmatia.12 It seems that Peevi used some earlier Ottomanchronicles for these reports, probably Knh-l-Ahbarby Mustafa Aliof Gelibolu.

Ottoman conquest of Poega in 1537 under leadership ofMehmed-beg Jahjapai, Gazi Husrev-beg and Murat-beg Tardi andunsuccesfull large Habsburg counterattack that year recieved muchmore attention by Peevi. Having very only very limited data on theseevents from Ottoman sources, he apparently used extensively

8 For the life and work of Ibrahim Peevi see: Franz Babinger,Geschichtsschreiber der Osmanen und ihre Werke, 1923, pp. 192-195; FehimNametak, Predgovor, In: Ibrahim Alajbegovi Peevija, Historija (Bosnian translationof Tarih-i Peevi), vol. 1, El-Kalem, Sarajevo, 2000, pp. 5-14.; Dino Mujadevi,brahim Peevija (1574. - 1649.). Osmanski povjesniar Hrvatske i Bosne iHercegovine podrijetlom iz Peuha, Scrinia Slavonica, vol. 9, Slavonski Brod, 2009,pp. 379-394.

9 Ibrahim Alajbegovi Peevija, Historija, vol. 1, pp. 79-80.10 Ibrahim Alajbegovi Peevija, Historija, vol. 1, p. 89.

11 Ibrahim Alajbegovi Peevija, Historija, vol. 1, p. 126.12 Ibrahim Alajbegovi Peevija, Historija, vol. 1, pp. 172-173.


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Western sources (kffar tarihleri, kefere byle yazmlar), for thisepisode, most probably Hungarian historian Miklosz Istvnffy.Description of epizode of 1537 distinguishes itself by many detailsabout Habsburg side, usually not present in Ottoman narrativesources, which during that period stereotypically concentrate on

Ottoman side of the events. Even the description of Ottoman warlordMehmed-beg Jahjapai is given according to Western sources: hewas, according to them greatest enemy of Christians who shed somuch Christian blood, that he was even sick after he ordered murderof a group of Christian prisoners after defeating them in vicinity ofPoega.13

Ottoman archival sources bring very little information onOttoman conquests between Drava and Adriatic during early 16.c.Tahrir and other defters are no help due to the sort of informationthey provide. Archival sources that depict warfare royal decrees(fermans) and its summaries, so called mhimme defters and could

be valuable for this sort of research are virtually non existent for thisperiod. Earliest preserved mhimme defters date back to 1552 andcould be only helpful for research of Ulama-beg's campaign againstVirovitica and azma in summer of 1552. Due to scarcity of bothOttoman narrative and archival sources for student of Ottomancampaigns in first half of 16th c. in this area contemporary Westernsources, which are more abundant, are indispensable. With Ottomansources alone we wouldn't be able to build a coherent picture ofOttoman military inolvement in this crucial period.14

As previously stated, Ottoman leadership saw no reason toinvest heavily into military conquest of area between Drava and

Adriatic Sea since there were no prized political targets such asHungarian capital Buda or Austrian Vienna and other centers ofpopulation, which was subject of numerous Ottoman legends as kzlelma and seen as Empire's main target. The region between riverDrava and Adriatic sea had lesser population than its northernneigbours. Also the terrain of Western Balkans was rough especially Dinarid mountains with weak road infrastructure and itwas far more difficult to transport men and equippement in this areathan in Pannonian plains of Hungary, which also had Danube asimportant mean of transportation. These is probably the reason why

13 Ibrahim Alajbegovi Peevija, Historija, vol. 1, pp. 177-178.

14 For mhimme defters of 1552. see Dino Mujadevi, Osmanska osvajanja uSlavoniji 1552 u svjetlu osmanskih arhivskih izvora, pp. 89-107.


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Ottoman Bosnians never attempted to besiege heavily fortifiedDalmatian towns on Adriatic coast nor to land on eastern Adriaticislands, which were defendended by Venetians. They were not asimportant as northern regions and access to them was too costly.

Ottoman invasion in first half of 16. c., directed and executedmainly from neighbouring Ottoman ruled Bosnia under Gazi Husrev-beg, led to loss of roughly half of territory of what is now Croatia toOttomans. In addition to massive loss of human life and materialdevastations, famine and massive emigration were omnipresentduring the wartime years, especially in the regions near the alwayschanging Ottoman-Christian demarcation line. During this period,large parts of Catholic native population fled or were resettled bytheir feudal lords from eastearn parts of contemporary Croatia thatwere about to be taken over by Ottomans. Ottoman authoritiesarrranged for the newly conquered, but often deserted, regions ofCroatia to be settled by Muslim and Christian Catholic and Ortodox

population from other parts of Ottoman Empire. Similarly territoriesthat remained under Christian rule were populated by new Christianimmigrants, mostly fleeing before the Ottoman advance or comingdirectly from Ottoman territory. Many people were enslaved duringOttoman Bosnian campaigns according to some estimates, as muchas 8% of population of Bosnias largest town Sarajevo was of slaveorigin in 1528. This led to tectonic political, ethno-religious, culturaland linguistical changes. Migrations of Christian population, eitherfleeing from Ottoman army or rule, either as a result of Ottoman statepolicy of resettlement, besides its influence on creating andspreading of some ethnic and religous identities, left one otherlasting blueprint. That was mixing of different ethnic identities in

relatively small area. Probably, nowhere in Europe so many ethnicand religous groups co-existed, for better or for worse, as in Westernparts of Balkans during Ottoman rule. Beside the fact that Muslims,Christians and Jews coexisted freely, but sometimes uneasily, it isworth noting that different Christian ethno-religous communitieslived dispersed and mixed. Probably most famous example isterritory of Ottoman eyaletBosnia where two different South SlavicChristian communities, Roman Catholics and Ortodox, since first halfof 16. c. have lived largely dispersed all over the area living side byside.15

15 For overview of these developments see: Noel Malcolm, Bosnia a shorthistory, Macmillan, London, 1994, p. 67 and passim.


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One of the most striking examples for that process is differencebetween linguistical situation in Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro andSerbia before and after Ottoman conquests in the first half of 16th c.The most important feature of these changes is large spreading overthese areas of neo-tokavski Southern Slavic dialect, largely spoken

by Ortodox Vlah population, and paralel spreading of variant of oldtokavski dialect, spoken largely by Catholic Vlah population. Vlahs ofboth Christian denominations replaced lingustically and culturallydifferent Catholic population in largest part of newly conqueredterritories in first half of 16. century in Bosnia and Herzegovina andCroatia. The older Catholic population left in organized orunorganized fashion for secure places in western Hungary andAustria. Linguistical implication of these events are immense forwhole Southern Slavic area. tokavski dialect in different formsbecame exclusive language of Ortodox Christians, most of Muslims ofSouth Slavic origin and Catholics of Bosnia and Croatia.

Ottoman conquests in early 16th century, led to deminishing,territorially and otherwise, of Catholic Christian kingdoms of Croatiaand Slavonia, but this also had resulted by ending of politicalfragmentation in this area. Western parts of medieaval Croatia andSlavonia never came under Ottoman rule, but became nucleus forfuture Croatian statehood and nationalism precisely because ofOttoman pressure. As we said, until the early 16 th century Croatia andSlavonia were two separate autonomous dominions althoughhistorically connected under Hungarian crown, but Ottomanexcursions and conquests of parts of their territory led in the firsthalf of 16. century to their political unification due to reasons ofdefence. Instead of two noble assemblies (sabor) and two viceroys(ban) Croatia and Slavonia had one sabor and one ban. Statehoodtradition of what is now Croatia comprasing Croatia, Slavonia (andDalmatia) got its crucial features right about this time. WithoutOttomans the political situation would stay very different and therewould probably be separate statehood traditions/kingdoms:Croatian, Slavonian and even Dalmatian along the coast- and not asingle Croatian!16

16 For history of linguistic and national unification in Croatia see: Ivo Banac,The National Question in Yugoslavia, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1984.


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Finkel, C., The Administration of Warfare: the Ottoman militarycampaigns in Hungary, 15931606, Beihefte zur WienerZeitschrift fir die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Bd. 14, Vienna

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