11. Government.—At the time of the Austrian annexation in 1908, the only remaining token of Ottoman suzerainty was that the foreign consuls received their exequatur from Turkey, instead of Austria; otherwise the government of the country was conducted in the name of the Austrian emperor, through the imperial minister of finance at Vienna, who controlled the civil service for the occupied territory. Its central bureau, with departments of the interior, religion and education, finance and justice, was established at Serajevo; and its members were largely recruited among the Austrian Slavs, who were better able than the Germans to comprehend the local customs and language. A consultative assembly, composed of the highest ecclesiastical authorities, together with 12 popular representatives, also met at Serajevo. For administrative purposes the country was divided into 6 districts or prefectures (kreise), which were subdivided into 49 subprefectures (bezirke).
Every large town has a mayor and deputy mayor, appointed by the government, and a town council, of whom one third are similarly appointed, while the citizens choose the rest; a proportionate number of councillors representing each religious community. To ensure economy, the decisions of this body are supervised by a government commissioner. The commune is preserved, somewhat as in Servia (q.v.), but with modified powers. Each district has its court of law, where cases are tried by three official judges and two assessors, selected from the leading citizens. The assessors vote equally with the judges, and three votes decide the verdict. Except where the litigants and witnesses are German, the Serbo-Croatian language is used. An appeal, on points of law alone, may be carried to the supreme court in Serajevo, and there tried by five judges without assessors. In cases not involving a sum greater than 300 florins (£25), no appeal will lie; and where only 50 florins (£4 : 3 : 4) are in question, the case is summarily decided at the Bagatelle Gericht, or court for trifling cases. The number of lawyers admitted to practice is strictly limited. As far as possible, the Turkish law was retained during the period of occupation; all cases between Moslems were settled in separate courts by Moslem judges, against whom there was an appeal to the supreme court, aided by assessors. All able-bodied males are liable, on reaching their 21st year, for 3 years’ service with the colours, and 9 years in the reserve. The garrison numbers about 20,000 Austrian troops, and there are 7100 native troops. The principal military stations are Bjelina, Zvornik, Višegrad, Goražda, Foča, Bilek, Avtovac and Trebinje, along the eastern frontier; Mostar and Stolac in the south; Livno in the west; and Bihać in the north.
12. Religion.—In 1895 43% of the population were Orthodox Christians, 35% Moslems and 21% Roman Catholics. The patriarch of Constantinople is the nominal head of the Orthodox priesthood; but by an arrangement concluded in 1879, his authority was delegated to the Austrian emperor, in exchange for a revenue equal to the tribute previously paid by the clergy of the provinces; and his nominations for the metropolitanate of Serajevo, and the bishoprics of Dolnja Tuzla, Banjaluka and Mostar require the imperial assent. Under Turkish rule the communes chose their own parish priests, but this right is now vested in the government. The Roman Catholics have an archbishop in Serajevo, a bishop in Mostar and an apostolic administrator in Banjaluka. Serajevo is also the seat of the Jewish chief rabbi; and of the highest Moslem ecclesiastic, or reis-el-ulema, who with his council is nominated and paid by the government. The inferior Moslem clergy draw their stipends from the Vakuf. Considerable bitterness prevails between the rival confessions, each aiming at political ascendancy, but the government favours none. In order to conciliate even the Moslems, who include the bulk of the great landholders and of the urban population, its representatives visit the mosques in state on festivals; grants are made for the Mecca pilgrimage; and even the howling Dervishes in Serajevo are maintained by the state.
13. Education.—Education for boys and girls between the ages of seven and fifteen is free, but not compulsory. The state supports primary schools (352 in 1905), where reading, writing, arithmetic and history are taught; and separate instruction is given by the Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Jewish and Moslem clergy. There are also various private schools, belonging to the different religious communities. These receive a grant from the government, which nevertheless encourages all parents to send their children to its own schools. One of the earliest and best-known private schools is the orphanage at Serajevo, founded in 1869 by two English ladies, Miss Irby and Miss Mackenzie. In the Moslem schools, which, in 1905, comprised 855 mektebs or primary schools, and 41 madrasas or high schools, instruction is usually given in Turkish or Arabic; while in Orthodox schools the books are printed in Cyrillic characters.
For higher education there were in 1908 three gymnasia, a real-school at Banjaluka, a technical college and a teachers’ training-college at Serajevo, where, also, is the state school for Moslem law-students, called scheriatschule from the sheri or Turkish code; and various theological, commercial and art institutes. Promising pupils are frequently sent to Vienna University, with scholarships, which may be forfeited if the holders engage in political agitation.
14. Antiquities.—Up to 1900 no traces of palaeolithic man had been discovered in Bosnia or Herzegovina; but many later prehistoric remains are preserved in Serajevo museum. The neolithic station of Butmir, near Ilidže, was probably a lake-dwellers’ colony, and has yielded numerous stone and horn implements, clay figures and pottery. Not far off, similar relics were found at Sobunar, Zlatište and Debelobrdo; iron and bronze ornaments, vessels and weapons, often of elaborate design, occur in the huts and cemeteries of Glasinac, and in the cemetery of Jezerine, where they are associated with objects in silver, tin, amber, glass, &c. Among the numerous finds made in other districts may be mentioned the discovery, at Vrankamer, near Bihac, of 98 African coins, the oldest of which dates from 300 B.C. Many vestiges of Roman rule survive, such as roads, mines, ruins, tombs, coins, frescoes and inscriptions. Such remains occur frequently near Bihac, Foca, Livno, Jajce and Serajevo; and especially near the sources of the Drina. The period between the downfall of Roman power, late in the 5th century, and the growth of a Bosnian state, in the 11th, is poorer in antiquities. The later middle ages are represented by several monasteries, and many castles, such as those of Dervent, Doboj, Maglaj, Žepče and Vranduk, on the Bosna; Bihać, on the Una; Prijedor and Kljuć, on the Sana; and Stolac, Gabela, Irebinje and Konjica, in Herzegovina. The bridge across the Narenta, at Konjica, is said to date from the 10th century. A group of signs carved on some rocks near Višegrad have been regarded as cuneiform writing, but are probably medieval masonic symbols. In a few cases, such as the Begova Džamia at Serajevo, the Foča mosques and the Mostar bridge, the buildings raised by the Turks are of high architectural merit. More remarkable are the tombstones, generally measuring 6 ft. in length, 3 in height and 3 in breadth, which have been supposed to mark the graves of the Bogomils. These are, as a rule, quite unadorned, a few only being decorated with rude has-reliefs of animals, plants, weapons, the crescent and star, or, very rarely, the cross.
15. History.—Under Roman rule Bosnia had no separate name or history, and until the great Slavonic immigration of 636 it remained an undifferentiated part of Illyria (q.v.). Owing to the scarcity of authoritative documents, Formation of the Banate. it is impossible to describe in detail the events of the next three centuries. During this period Bosnia became the generally accepted name for the valley of the Bosna (ancient Basanius); and subsequently for several outlying and tributary principalities, notably those of Soli, afterwards Tuzla; Usora, along the south-eastern bank of the Save; Donji Kraj, the later Krajina, Kraina or Turkish Croatia, in the north-west; and Rama, the modern district of Livno. The old Illyrian population was rapidly absorbed or expelled, its Latin institutions being replaced by the autonomous tribal divisions, or Županates, of the Slavs. Pressure from Hungary and Byzantium gradually welded these isolated social units into a single nation, whose ruler was known as the Ban (q.v.). But the central power remained weak, and the country possessed no strong natural frontiers. It seems probable that the bans were originally viceroys of the Croatian kings, who resumed their sovereignty over Bosnia from 958 to 1010. Thenceforward, until 1180, the bans continued subject to the Eastern empire or Hungary, with brief intervals of independence. The territory now called Herzegovina was also subject to various foreign powers. It comprised the principalities of Tribunia or Travunja, with its capital at Trebinje; and Hlum or Hum, the Zachlumia of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who gives a clear picture of this region as it was in the 10th century.[2]
The schism between Eastern and Western Christendom left Bosnia divided between the Greek and Latin Churches. Early in the 12th century a new religion, that of the Bogomils (q.v.), was introduced, and denounced as heretical. Religious controversies. Its converts nevertheless included many of the Bosnian nobles and the ban Kulin (1180-1204), whose reign was long proverbial for its prosperity, owing to the flourishing state of commerce and agriculture, and the extensive mining operations carried on by the Ragusans. An unusually able ruler, connected by marriage with the powerful Servian dynasty of Nemanya, and by treaty with the republic of Ragusa,[3] Kulin perceived in the new doctrines a barrier between his subjects and Hungary. He was compelled to recant, under strong pressure from Pope Innocent III. and Béla III. of Hungary; but, despite all efforts, Bogomilism incessantly gained ground. In 1232 Stephen, the successor of Kulin, was dethroned by the native magnates, who chose instead Matthew Ninoslav, a Bogomil. This event illustrates the three dominant characteristics of Bosnian history: the strength of the aristocracy; the corresponding weakness of the central authority, enhanced by the lack of any definite rule of inheritance; and the supreme influence of religion. Threatened by Pope Gregory IX. with a crusade, Ninoslav was baptized, only to abjure Christianity in 1233. For six years he withstood the Hungarian crusaders, led by Kaloman, duke of Croatia; in 1241 the Tatar invasion of Hungary afforded him a brief respite; and in 1244 peace was concluded after a Bosnian campaign against Croatia. A renewal of the crusade proving equally vain, in 1247 Pope Innocent III. entered into friendly negotiations with the ban, whose country was for the moment an independent and formidable state. The importance attached to its conversion is well attested by the correspondence of Pope Gregory IX. with Ninoslav and various Bosnian ecclesiastics.[4]
On the death of Ninoslav in 1250, vigorous efforts were made to exterminate the Bogomil heresy; and to this end, Béla IV., who appeared as the champion of Roman Catholicism, secured the election of his nominee Prijesda to the Period of Hungarian supremacy. banate. Direct Hungarian suzerainty lasted until 1299, the bans preserving only a shadow of their former power. From 1299 to 1322 the country was ruled by the Croatian princes, Paul and Mladen Šubić, who, though vassals of Hungary, reunited the provinces of Upper and Lower Bosnia, created by the Hungarians in order to prevent the growth of a dangerous national unity. A rising of the native magnates in 1322 resulted in the election of the Bogomil, Stephen Kotromanić, last and greatest of the Bosnian bans.
At this period the Servian empire had reached its zenith; Hungary, governed by the feeble monarch, Charles Robert of Anjou, was striving to crush the insurgent magnates of Croatia; Venice, whose commercial interests were Stephen Kotromanic. imperilled, desired to restore peace and maintain the balance of power. Dread of Servia impelled Kotromanic to aid Hungary. In an unsuccessful war against the Croats (1322-26), from which Venice derived the sole advantage, the ban appears to have learned the value of sea-power; immediately afterwards he occupied the principality of Hlum and the Dalmatian littoral between Spalato and the river Narenta. Ragusa furnished him with money and a fleet, in return for a guarantee of protection; commercial treaties with Venice further strengthened his position; and the Vatican, which had instigated the Croats to invade the dominions of their heretical neighbour (1337-40), was conciliated by his conversion to Roman Catholicism. Defeated by the Servian tsar Dushan, and driven to ally himself with Servia and Venice against Louis I. of Hungary, Kotromanic returned to his allegiance in 1344. Four years later his influence brought about a truce between Hungary and the Venetians, who had agreed with Bosnia for mutual support against the Croats; and in 1353, the year of his death, his daughter Elizabeth was married to King Louis.