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Islam in Serbia
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Islam in Serbia
Islam in Serbia is a minority religion and the second largest religion in the country after Christianity. According to the 2022 census, there were 278,212 Muslims in Serbia, making up 4.2% of the population. The vast majority of Muslims in Serbia belong to the Sunni Islam.
Islam began to spread rapidly following the Ottoman conquest of Serbia in the 15th century, gradually becoming the dominant religion in certain regions. Serbia's ethnically diverse Muslim community was largely formed through a long process of Islamization among the local Slavic population, and to a much lesser extent through the immigration of ethnic Turks from Anatolia. Among the most notable Muslim Serbs of that period were Mahmud Pasha Angelović (1420–1473) and Mehmed Pasha Sokolović (1505–1579), both of whom served as Grand viziers of the Ottoman Empire.
Islam was the official state religion of the Ottoman Empire, although the existence of other faiths was tolerated. Under the Ottoman system of religious autonomy, recognized religious communities were organized into independent entities known as millets, which retained their own religious laws, traditions, and languages under the protection of the sultan. Although Islam held a privileged position, Christian and Jewish subjects enjoyed a degree of legal, judicial, and cultural autonomy. Nevertheless, non-Muslims were subject to various forms of discrimination, including special taxes from which Muslims were exempt. Modern historiography generally agree that the motives behind the conversion of Slavic population in the Ottoman Empire to Islam were primarily economic and socio-political in nature.
Muslims once constituted the majority population in Belgrade. According to the Ottoman traveler and writer Evliya Çelebi, when he visited Belgrade in 1660, Belgrade had approximately 108,000 inhabitants, of whom around 57,000 were Muslims. The largest was the Batal Mosque, located on the site of the present-day House of the National Assembly, which contemporary travel writers compared to Hagia Sophia.
During the successive stages of Serbia's liberation from Ottoman rule (1793–1867), the Muslim population steadily declined. During the First Serbian Uprising, many mosques in Belgrade were destroyed; in 1836, Serbian authorities compiled a register of Belgrade's mosques, listing sixteen surviving mosques in the city. Mosques were also demolished in other towns within the Principality of Serbia: in Užice 34 mosques were destroyed, while 24 were demolished in Smederevo. Following the withdrawal of the "Turkish" population from Belgrade in 1867, many of whom were actually Slavic Muslims, the final phase in the destruction of Belgrade's mosques began. As Felix Kanitz observed, "sometimes mines would accidentally explode at night, destroying mosques that obstructed urban regulation." Over time, all remaining mosques in Belgrade were demolished except for the Bajrakli Mosque. In 1862, an international conference of the Great Powers held in Kanlıca sanctioned the expulsion of Muslims from Serbia. Entire Muslim families were expelled from villages and towns incorporated into the Principality of Serbia. During this period, many Muslims fled as refugees to Bosnia Eyalet or to the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, which at the time remained outside Serbian control. Muslims from Valjevo, Šabac, and Užice migrated to Kostajnica in Bosnia, where the area in which they settled became known as "Užice."[12] Many Muslims expelled from Serbia also settled in Zvornik in Bosnia as well. It is estimated that at by the end of the 1860s only about ten thousand Muslims remained in the Principality of Serbia.
Freedom of religion in the Principality of Serbia was formally recognized by the decree issued by Prince Mihailo Obrenović in 1868. In order to ensure that Muslims were "not left without religious comfort," the Belgrade Jamaat (Muslim religious community) was granted the use of the Bajrakli Mosque, which continues to serve as only Muslim place of worship in Belgrade today.
At the 1878 Congress of Berlin, Serbia was recognized as an independent state and acquired new territories from the Ottoman Empire (present-day Nišava, Pirot, Toplica, and Pčinja districts), in which a large Muslim population resided. The Treaty of Berlin stipulated that "no person in Serbia shall be excluded or prevented from exercising civil or political rights or from holding public office on grounds of religious affiliation or denomination," and that "freedom and the public exercise of all forms of religious confession shall be guaranteed to all persons in Serbia, as well as to foreigners." Following the annexation of these territories, the Law on the Organization of the Liberated Areas affirmed the right of "Muslim citizens and citizens of any other religion recognized by law" to freely and equally perform "the religious rites of their faith."
The Islamic community in Serbia was headed by the mufti, whose seat was in Niš. The Mufti of Niš was appointed by the Shaykh al-Islām in Istanbul, while the appointment was formally confirmed by the King of Serbia.
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Islam in Serbia
Islam in Serbia is a minority religion and the second largest religion in the country after Christianity. According to the 2022 census, there were 278,212 Muslims in Serbia, making up 4.2% of the population. The vast majority of Muslims in Serbia belong to the Sunni Islam.
Islam began to spread rapidly following the Ottoman conquest of Serbia in the 15th century, gradually becoming the dominant religion in certain regions. Serbia's ethnically diverse Muslim community was largely formed through a long process of Islamization among the local Slavic population, and to a much lesser extent through the immigration of ethnic Turks from Anatolia. Among the most notable Muslim Serbs of that period were Mahmud Pasha Angelović (1420–1473) and Mehmed Pasha Sokolović (1505–1579), both of whom served as Grand viziers of the Ottoman Empire.
Islam was the official state religion of the Ottoman Empire, although the existence of other faiths was tolerated. Under the Ottoman system of religious autonomy, recognized religious communities were organized into independent entities known as millets, which retained their own religious laws, traditions, and languages under the protection of the sultan. Although Islam held a privileged position, Christian and Jewish subjects enjoyed a degree of legal, judicial, and cultural autonomy. Nevertheless, non-Muslims were subject to various forms of discrimination, including special taxes from which Muslims were exempt. Modern historiography generally agree that the motives behind the conversion of Slavic population in the Ottoman Empire to Islam were primarily economic and socio-political in nature.
Muslims once constituted the majority population in Belgrade. According to the Ottoman traveler and writer Evliya Çelebi, when he visited Belgrade in 1660, Belgrade had approximately 108,000 inhabitants, of whom around 57,000 were Muslims. The largest was the Batal Mosque, located on the site of the present-day House of the National Assembly, which contemporary travel writers compared to Hagia Sophia.
During the successive stages of Serbia's liberation from Ottoman rule (1793–1867), the Muslim population steadily declined. During the First Serbian Uprising, many mosques in Belgrade were destroyed; in 1836, Serbian authorities compiled a register of Belgrade's mosques, listing sixteen surviving mosques in the city. Mosques were also demolished in other towns within the Principality of Serbia: in Užice 34 mosques were destroyed, while 24 were demolished in Smederevo. Following the withdrawal of the "Turkish" population from Belgrade in 1867, many of whom were actually Slavic Muslims, the final phase in the destruction of Belgrade's mosques began. As Felix Kanitz observed, "sometimes mines would accidentally explode at night, destroying mosques that obstructed urban regulation." Over time, all remaining mosques in Belgrade were demolished except for the Bajrakli Mosque. In 1862, an international conference of the Great Powers held in Kanlıca sanctioned the expulsion of Muslims from Serbia. Entire Muslim families were expelled from villages and towns incorporated into the Principality of Serbia. During this period, many Muslims fled as refugees to Bosnia Eyalet or to the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, which at the time remained outside Serbian control. Muslims from Valjevo, Šabac, and Užice migrated to Kostajnica in Bosnia, where the area in which they settled became known as "Užice."[12] Many Muslims expelled from Serbia also settled in Zvornik in Bosnia as well. It is estimated that at by the end of the 1860s only about ten thousand Muslims remained in the Principality of Serbia.
Freedom of religion in the Principality of Serbia was formally recognized by the decree issued by Prince Mihailo Obrenović in 1868. In order to ensure that Muslims were "not left without religious comfort," the Belgrade Jamaat (Muslim religious community) was granted the use of the Bajrakli Mosque, which continues to serve as only Muslim place of worship in Belgrade today.
At the 1878 Congress of Berlin, Serbia was recognized as an independent state and acquired new territories from the Ottoman Empire (present-day Nišava, Pirot, Toplica, and Pčinja districts), in which a large Muslim population resided. The Treaty of Berlin stipulated that "no person in Serbia shall be excluded or prevented from exercising civil or political rights or from holding public office on grounds of religious affiliation or denomination," and that "freedom and the public exercise of all forms of religious confession shall be guaranteed to all persons in Serbia, as well as to foreigners." Following the annexation of these territories, the Law on the Organization of the Liberated Areas affirmed the right of "Muslim citizens and citizens of any other religion recognized by law" to freely and equally perform "the religious rites of their faith."
The Islamic community in Serbia was headed by the mufti, whose seat was in Niš. The Mufti of Niš was appointed by the Shaykh al-Islām in Istanbul, while the appointment was formally confirmed by the King of Serbia.
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