Beginning in the late 1960s, the Yugoslav government recognized the Muslim Slavs of Bosnia and Hercegovina as a particular "nation" and not merely as a religious group. Belgrade granted this recognition in an effort to resolve the centuries-old struggle in which Serbs and Croats claimed ethnic ties with the Muslim Slavs to gain a political majority in the disputed republic of Bosnia and Hercegovina. Muslim Slavs lived in every Yugoslav republic and province, but by far the largest concentration was in Bosnia and Hercegovina (39.5 percent of the population). In the 1980s, Montenegro was 13.4 percent Muslim Slavs, Serbia 2.3 percent, and Kosovo 3.7 percent.

Controversy surrounds the geographic and ethnic origins of the Muslim Slavs. The best-known theory holds that during the Middle Ages Slavs in Bosnia and Hercegovina embraced a heretical form of Christianity known as Bogomilism, then converted in large numbers to Islam when the Ottoman Turks conquered them. A second theory says that the Muslim Slavs were Serbs who embraced Islam and settled in Bosnia. A third is that the Muslims were Turkish settlers from Anatolia who adopted the Serbo-Croatian language. In any case, Islamization brought tangible economic and social benefits to those who converted while the Turks ruled their territory; by 1918 Muslim Slavs accounted for 91 percent of Bosnia's landowners and a large portion of its merchants. Many emigrated to Turkey, however, after the end of Ottoman rule, and the Yugoslav land reforms of 1918 impoverished previously prosperous Muslim Slav landowners.

Islamic culture dominated Bosnia for centuries, and the region now boasts a wealth of mosques, medreseler (Islamic schools), tekkeler (dervish monasteries), Turkish inns and baths, graceful stone bridges, covered bazaars, cemeteries, and ornate Turkish-style homes. Modern Western culture penetrated Bosnia and Hercegovina only after Austria occupied the region in 1878, but most Muslims saw its influence as alien and a portent of a Roman Catholic resurgence. Gradually, Latin and Cyrillic scripts replaced the Arabic that was used for centuries to write Turkish, Arabic, and Persian literature. After 1918 secular education began supplanting Islamic schools, and education became available to women. Many Muslim Slav landowners became urban tradesmen and craftsmen after losing their properties in the interwar land reform. Long after World War II, the Muslim Slavs engaged predominantly in traditional crafts and modern services such as auto and electronics repair.

In need of inexpensive oil supplies in the 1970s, the Tito government encouraged relations between Yugoslavia's Muslim Slavs and their coreligionists in the oil-rich Arab countries, especially Libya. But by raising the status and visibility of its Muslim Slavs, Yugoslavia created another potential nationalist issue within its borders. In 1983 a dozen persons were convicted of fomenting religious and national hatred and planning to turn Bosnia into a religiously pure Islamic state. The likelihood of major upheaval sponsored by Muslim fundamentalists abroad was considered small, however, because most of Yugoslavia's Muslim population belonged to the Sunni branch of Islam not in sympathy with the main fundamentalist groups of the Middle East. (see Islam , this ch.).

Data as of December 1990

NOTE: The information regarding Yugoslavia (former) on this page is re-published from The Library of Congress Country Studies and the CIA World Factbook. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Yugoslavia (former) Muslim Slavs information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Yugoslavia (former) Muslim Slavs should be addressed to the Library of Congress and the CIA.