In Bosnia-Herzegovina, three main communities have traditionally lived side by side: the Muslim/Bosniak community, the Orthodox/Serb community, and the Catholic/Croat community, as well as a small Jewish community. Until the 1960s, the term “Muslim” was written in Serbo-Croatian indifferently with a capital or lower-case “m,” and depending on the context, referred only to the Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina or to all members of the Umma (the community of believers). In 1968, the League of Communists officially recognized the existence of a Muslim nation and established a strict distinction between the national name Musliman (with a capital “M”), applying only to Muslim Slavs speaking Serbo-Croatian, and the religious name musliman (with a lower-case “m”), which designated all followers of Islam. In this book, for the period before 1993, I use the term “Muslim” with a capital “M,” both for its religious and its national meaning. In 1993, the national name “Muslim” was given up in favor of “Bosniak,” and I adhere to this new usage. However, when discussing periods that extend before and after 1993, I use the term “Muslim/Bosniak.” Moreover, a distinction must be made between the term “Bosniak” (noun Bošnjak, adjective bošnjački), which applies only to members of the Bosniak nation (i.e. people of Muslim cultural tradition) and the term “Bosnian” (noun Bosanac, adjective bosanski), which refers to all inhabitants of Bosnia-Herzegovina regardless of their nationality or religion. While these rules may seem complex, they are necessary in order to grasp the political and religious history of the Muslims/Bosniaks.
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