Publisher Description

As a Slavic-speaking religious and ethnic "Other" living just a stone's throw from the symbolic heart of the continent, the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina have long occupied a liminal space in the European imagination. To a significant degree, the wider representations and perceptions of this population can be traced to the reports of Central European—and especially Habsburg—diplomats, scholars, journalists, tourists, and other observers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This volume assembles contributions from historians, anthropologists, political scientists, and literary scholars to examine the political, social, and discursive dimensions of Bosnian Muslims' encounters with the West since the nineteenth century.

Author Biography

František Šístek is a Research Fellow at the Institute of History, Czech Academy of Sciences and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University in Prague.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction
František ŠístekChapter 1. The 'Turkish Threat' and Early Modern Central Europe: Czech Reflections
Ladislav Hladký and Petr StehlíkChapter 2. The Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina between Millet and Nation
Boidar JezernikChapter 3. Ambivalent Perceptions: Austria-Hungary, Bosnian Muslims and the Occupation Campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1878)
Martin GabrielChapter 4. Sleeping Beauty's Awakening: Habsburg Colonialism in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1878–1918
Clemens RuthnerChapter 5. The Portrayal of Muslims in Austrian-Hungarian State Primary School Textbooks for Bosnia and Herzegovina
Oliver PejiChapter 6. Towards Secularity: Autonomy and Modernization of Bosnian Islamic Institutions under Austro-Hungarian Administration
Zora HesováChapter 7. Under the Slavic Crescent: Representations of Bosnian Muslims in Czech Literature, Travelogues and Memoirs, 1878–1918
František ŠístekChapter 8. Divided Identities in the Bosnian Narratives of Vjenceslav Novak and Rebecca West
Charles SabatosChapter 9. Austronostalgia and Bosnian Muslims in the Work of Croatian Anthropologist Vera Stein Erlich
Bojan BaskarChapter 10. The Serbian Proverb Poturica gori od Turina (A Turk-Convert is Worse Than a Turk): Stigmatizer and Figure of Speech
Marija MandiChapter 11. From Brothers to Others? Changing Images of Bosnian Muslims in (Post-)Yugoslav Slovenia
Alenka BartuloviChapter 12. Exploring Religious Views among Young People of Bosnian Muslim Origin in Berlin
Aldina emernicaChapter 13. The West, the Balkans and the In-Between: Bosnian Muslims Representing a European Islam
Merima ŠehagiConclusion
František ŠístekIndex

Review

"With a polyphonic and intellectually sophisticated methodology, Imagining Bosnian Muslims in Central Europe offers the reader a series of fascinating case studies exploring the ways Central European intellectuals, media figures, artists and politicians have represented Bosnian Muslims." • Fabio Giomi, Center for Turkish, Ottoman, Balkan and Central Asian Studies, CNRS Paris

Review Quote

"With a polyphonic and intellectually sophisticated methodology, Imagining Islam in Central Europe offers the reader a series of fascinating case studies exploring the ways Central European intellectuals, media figures, artists and politicians have represented Bosnian Muslims." * Fabio Giomi, Center for Turkish, Ottoman, Balkan and Central Asia Studies, Paris

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