Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, History

This dissertation examines how the Ottoman state incorporated Bosnians and Hercegovinians, and how Bosnians and Hercegovinians incorporated themselves, into the Ottoman bureaucratic, military, and social apparatus. This was a multilayered and multilateral process of Ottomanization and Islamization that involved the state and its subjects, two groups that were not mutually exclusive. I focus on the devshirme institution, a levy of mostly Christian young men from among Ottoman subjects in Anatolia and the Balkans. These youths were converted and trained as elite slaves of the sultan, instrumental in the governance and defense of the empire. I argue that the devshirme was a tool of integration and socialization used by the state and its subjects. I contend that the peculiar ways in which it functioned in Bosnia and Hercegovina, and the ways in which its products were mythologized, contributed to the establishment of Ottoman Bosnian and Hercegovinian communities and identities that still resonate. Chapter 1 explores how the Kingdom of Bosnia, following the Ottoman conquest in 1463, made the transition into the provinces of Bosnia and Hercegovina. This is the origin point of the provinces' Muslim populations. Chapter 2 focuses on Bosnian and Hercegovinian Muslims in the Ottoman military and administration during the sixteenth century, a period of ascendancy for these groups in the Ottoman state. I analyze how this ascendancy shaped Bosnian and Hercegovinian identity and how and why particular individuals from these provinces came to prominence. Chapter 3 is devoted to the period of empire-wide crisis in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Military rebellions by devshirme elements were a hallmark of this crisis, and Bosnians and Hercegovinians, along with other devshirme recruits, were denounced by rival factions within the military and administrative elite. During this period, an origin myth emerged rationalizing the distinctive and privileged status (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jane Hathaway (Advisor); Theodora Dragostinova (Committee Member); Scott Levi (Committee Member) Subjects: Ethnic Studies; European History; Folklore; History; Islamic Studies; Medieval History; Middle Eastern History; Middle Eastern Studies; Military History; Near Eastern Studies; Slavic Studies; World History