BOSNIA

BOSNIA. The region in the north central area of the former Yugoslavia (q.v.) and, until recently, characterized by a mixed population of Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats, and Muslim Slavs, with the latter holding the plurality. The medieval state of Bosnia, more or less contiguous with the boundaries of the former Yugoslav republic, flourished in the 12th-14th c. Poised between the Roman Catholic world, represented chiefly by Hungary, and the Orthodox in Serbia (q.v.), its rulers have been accused of opting for a religion which sided with neither. Rather, they espoused the medieval dualism of the Bogomils (q.v.), though this is perhaps less certain than has often been maintained. With the Turkish conquest of all the Balkans in the 14th and 15th c., the formerly Christian (or Bogomil) population seems to have converted more or less en masse to Islam (q.v.). Their descendants thus constitute the largest group of Muslims among present-day Slavs (q.v.).