Images of the Ottomans in History Textbooks in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Year 2007, Issue: 17, 103 - 137, 01.01.2007

Ahmet Alibašić

Abstract

This article analyzes the history textbooks that are used in primary schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the aim of establishing the main contours of the image of the Ottomans which is depicted in Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian textbooks. To achieve this, this article compares how the key issues in Ottoman history, such as the Kosovo battle and the process of Islamization, are handled. It becomes clear that there is a difference between Bosnia and Herzegovina history textbooks, which try to highlight the best from the past as the basis for contemporary coexistence, and Serbian textbooks, and sometimes Croatian ones, which bring forward the worst of it for the students, attention. What is especially disturbing is the frequent mention in Serbian textbooks of alleged impalements of Serbs by the Ottomans. The myths that other authors have identified in general national historiographies of the Balkans are almost all present in the textbooks analyzed. By comparing contemporary history textbooks with the Franciscan and Orthodox monastery chronicles from 15th and 18th century Bosnia the paper shows how nationalism distorted historiography in Bosnia in ways that require urgent rewriting of the textbooks so that others may be included in a meaningful way.

Keywords

Bosnia, Ottoman image, history textbooks, education, Balkans

References

• Torsti, Pilvi, Divergent Stories, Convergent Attitudes, Helsinki: Taifuuni, 2003.