Islam in Croatia - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Islam in Croatia was introduced by the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

. Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

s constitute about 1.3% of the population of Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

. The Islamic Community of Croatia is officially recognized by the state.

The Turkish Ottoman civilization conquered part of Croatia from the 15th to the 19th century and left a deep imprint. Some Croats

Croats

Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

converted to Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

. The advancement of Ottoman Empire in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

was stopped on Croatian soil, which could be in this sense regarded as a historical gate of European civilization. Since 1519 Croatia has been known as Antemurale Christianitatis
Antemurale Christianitatis
Antemurale Christianitatis was a country defending frontiers of Christian Europe from the Ottoman Empire....

in Western Europe. The name was given by Pope Leo X

Pope Leo X

Pope Leo X , born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, was the Pope from 1513 to his death in 1521. He was the last non-priest to be elected Pope. He is known for granting indulgences for those who donated to reconstruct St. Peter's Basilica and his challenging of Martin Luther's 95 Theses...

Croatian Muslims

The historical names of many officials in the Ottoman Empire reveal their origin (Hirwat = Hrvat or Horvat, which is a Croatian name for Croat): Veli Mahmud Pasha

Veli Mahmud Pasha

Mahmud Pasha or Mahmud-paša Anđelović , also known simply as Adni, was a Serbian-born of Byzantine noble descent who became an Ottoman general and statesman, after being abducted as a child by the Sultan. As Veli Mahmud Paşa he was Grand Vizier in 1456–1468 and again in 1472–1474...

(Mahmut Pasha Hirwat), Rüstem Pasha

Rüstem Pasha

Rüstem Pasha Opukovic was a Croat who became an Ottoman general and statesman. He served as the Grand Vizier of Suleiman the Magnificent. Rüstem Pasha is also known as Damat Rüstem Pasha and Rüstem Paşa .-Biography:Rüstem Pasha was born in Skradin, Croatia...

(Rustem Pasha Hrvat - Opuković), Piyale Pasha

Piyale Pasha

Piyale Pasha , born in Viganj on the Pelješac peninsula, was a Croatian Ottoman admiral between 1553 and 1567 and an Ottoman Vizier after 1568. He was also known as Piale Pasha in the West or Pialí Bajá in Spain; )....

(Pijali Pasha Hrvat), Sijavus Pasha Hrvat, Memipaša Hrvat, Tahvilpaša Kulenović Hrvat etc. In the 16th century a traveler and writer Marco A. Pigaffetta wrote that almost everybody on the Turkish court in Constantinople

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

knows the Croatian language

Croatian language

Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...

, and especially soldiers. Marco Pigafetta in his Itinerario published in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

in 1585 states: In Istanbul it is customary to speak Croatian, a language which is understood by almost all official Turks, especially military men. Crucially though, it must be noted that the lingua franca at the time among Slavic elites in the Ottoman Empire was still Old Church Slavonic. For Italians traveling through to Istanbul, the language of the Slavic Croats was often the only exposure they had to any of the Slavic languages; indeed, Macedonian and Bulgarian dialects were far more common in Istanbul than Croatian, especially considering the brevity of Ottoman rule in Croatia and Serbia, compared to Bulgaria and Macedonia.

This can also be confirmed by the 1553 visit of Antun Vrančić

Antun Vrančić

Antun Vrančić also Antonio Veranzio was a prelate, writer, diplomat and Archbishop of Esztergom of the 16th century. Antun Vrančić was from Dalmatian town of Šibenik , then part of the Republic of Venice...

, Roman cardinal, and Franjo Zay, a diplomat, to Istanbul as envoys of the Croat - Hungarian

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

king to discuss a peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

. During the initial ceremonial greetings they had with Rüstem Pasha

Rüstem Pasha

Hrvat (a Croat) the conversation led in Turkish with an official interpreter was suddenly interrupted. Rustem Pasha Hrvat asked in Croatian if Zay and Vrančić spoke Croatian language

Croatian language

. The interpreter was then dismissed and they proceeded in the Croatian language during the entire process of negotiations.

The mufti of Zagreb during the Second World War was Ismet Muftić

Ismet Muftic

Ismet Muftić was the first Croatian Islamic mufti.He became mufti of the Croatian capital Zagreb in 1917 after the Islamic community was reformed there. His main task was to attempt to build a permanent mosque in the city. Due to lack of funds, the community was not able to achieve this on its own...

. He was executed by the Partisans in 1945.

Statistics

According to the 2001 census the population of Croatia

Croatia

is 4,437,460. Of these Muslim

Muslim

s make up: 1.3% (57,687)

The Croatian South Slavic Muslim community, per census 2001, is divided between around 20,000 people who still declare themselves as Muslims by nationality, around 20,000 who declare themselves as Bosniaks, and around 10,000 who declare themselves Croats of Islamic faith.

The population of other Muslim minorities in Croatia (from the 2001 census) is as follows:

Turks: 300 (0.01%)

Population of other minorities in Croatia who have a sizable amount of Muslims (2001 census):

Roma: 9,463 (0.21%)
Albanians: 15,082 (0.34%)

Muslims in Croatia

As regards the status of the Muslim

Muslim

Bosniak

Bosniaks

The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia...

minority, the the following may be stated:

Within the territory of the present Republic of Croatia, Muslim believers were registered for the first time during the 1931 census: 1,239 of them were in Zagreb and their overall number in Croatia being only about 4000. The next censuses that registered Muslim believers were as follows:
1,077 persons in 1948,
16,185 persons in 1953,
3,113 persons in 1961,
18,487 persons in 1971,
23,740 persons in 1981,
43,486 persons in 1991.

It's important to note that during the early 1970's, SFRY (former Yugoslavia

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...

) officially recognized the Muslims as a nationality (in this case separated from a religious basis, e.g., Džemal Bijedić

Džemal Bijedic

Džemal Bijedić was a Bosniak Communist politician from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the prime minister of Yugoslavia from 1971 until his death.- Early life :...

, a communist federal prime-minister was a declared Muslim and an atheist) therefore allowing more individuals to declare their alignment with this categorization. The introduction of new categorization may be considered as one of root causes of the sudden spike in the number of individuals declaring themselves as Muslims.

Based on the figures recorded during the 1931 to 1961 census, it may be concluded that a certain number of Muslim believers declared themselves as Croats or Yugoslavs. Finally, an additional increase can be contributed to the influx of Bosnian Muslims that took place during and after the 1992-1996 Bosnian conflict

Bosnian War

The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...

Islam today

Croatia's capital Zagreb

Zagreb

Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...

has one of the biggest mosques in Europe

Europe

, although during the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

it had none (Zagreb was never occupied by the Ottomans

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

).

The Mufti

Mufti

A mufti is a Sunni Islamic scholar who is an interpreter or expounder of Islamic law . In religious administrative terms, a mufti is roughly equivalent to a deacon to a Sunni population...

of Zagreb

Zagreb

is imam Ševko Omerbašić, the leader of the Muslim

Muslim

community of Croatia

Croatia

.

Muslims are currently trying to build a mosque in Rijeka

Rijeka

Rijeka is the principal seaport and the third largest city in Croatia . It is located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128,735 inhabitants...

. Muslims also plan to build a mosque in Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...

on top of the mountain behind the old town. The local council, however, has rejected this and suggested it be built behind the mountain. This, in turn, was rejected by the Muslim community. The Muslim community is also planning to build a mosque in Osijek

Osijek

Osijek is the fourth largest city in Croatia with a population of 83,496 in 2011. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja county...

& Sisak

Sisak

Sisak is a city in central Croatia. The city's population in 2011 was 33,049, with a total of 49,699 in the administrative region and it is also the administrative centre of the Sisak-Moslavina county...

. A mosque in Karlovac

Karlovac

Karlovac is a city and municipality in central Croatia. The city proper has a population of 49,082, while the municipality has a population of 59,395 inhabitants .Karlovac is the administrative centre of Karlovac County...

is also being considered.

External links

http://www.hr/darko/etf/et02.html
http://www.islamska-zajednica.hr/
http://www.zg-medresa.hr/

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Croatian Muslims

Statistics

Muslims in Croatia

Islam today

See also

External links