Imagining Bosnian Muslims in Central Europe by František Šístek

Author:František Šístek [Šístek, František]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, Eastern, Social Science, Islamic Studies, Ethnic Studies, European Studies
ISBN: 9781789207750
Google: sJ7UDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Published: 2021-01-14T01:06:53+00:00

Reflections of the Occupation and Establishment of the New Order

The Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the summer of 1878 evoked mixed feelings in Czech society. A number of soldiers from the Lands of the Bohemian Crown actively participated in the military campaign and the ensuing pacification of the Ottoman provinces. Members of staunchly Slavophile circles of nationalist intellectuals, who tended to regard the Habsburg imperial policies with suspicion and criticism as essentially anti-Slavic and anti-Czech, did not hide their disagreement or disappointment. In the name of the higher interests of Slavdom, they believed, the provinces should have been divided between the two Christian South Slavic states of Serbia and Montenegro. Some Czech politicians and entrepreneurs of an Austro-Slavic mindset, however, welcomed and supported the occupation. They believed that the increase in the total number of Slavs in the Habsburg Monarchy after the acquisition of the new, overwhelmingly Slavic territories would eventually boost the Czech political demands and fortunes within the Habsburg Monarchy. In the eyes of some Czech industrialists, entrepreneurs, and members of the bourgeoisie, the occupation was also seen as a chance for future Czech economic expansion in South East Europe (Nečas 1972).

The images of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its Muslim population in Czech travelogues, literature and memoirs dealing with the occupation campaign of 1878 present a darker, bloodier, and more disturbing picture than later accounts and testimonies from the golden era of the Habsburg ‘civilizing mission’ at the turn of the twentieth century. We can distinguish a specific group of sources that deal not only with the occupation of 1878 itself but also with the subsequent and often rough and violent establishment of the new order, which lasted well into the first half of the 1880s. Texts from this period were mostly written by direct observers who had actively participated in the occupation and pacification as members of the imperial army. Topics such as active armed resistance against the occupation, harassment and repression of the locals by the occupying forces, revolts and uprisings (especially the uprising in Herzegovina in 1881), and banditry are among the most characteristic traits, setting sources from the first phase of the occupation apart from later texts, which dealt more with the classical and, outwardly, mostly peaceful and orderly period of Habsburg rule.

The Muslims in many parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina resisted the occupation and regarded the Habsburg army with suspicion and contempt. Not surprisingly, they were primarily conceptualized as a hostile enemy population by many Czech observers. A collection of autobiographic stories from the occupation of 1878 and the uprising of 1881, published by entrepreneur and future member of the Bohemian Provincial Diet Jindřich Lemminger (1857–1906) as Episody z bosenského povstání (Episodes from the Bosnian Uprising), is a rather telling case in this respect. It is primarily written from the point of view of a Habsburg soldier. The daily lives and problems of his fellow comrades in arms receive more attention than the fate of the local population. Writing about the

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