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Ambiguous Subjects and Uneasy Neighbors: Bosnian Franciscans’ Attitudes toward the Ottoman State, ‘Turks, ’ and Vlachs

This study focuses on eighteenth-century Franciscan chronicles and other writings as narrative sources rich in individual and collective attitudes toward the ruling Muslims and the rival Orthodox Christian Serbs-Vlachs. These works were created in the wartime and postwar atmosphere of religious and ethnic tensions that marked the turbulent border province of Bosnia. Franciscan attitudes, stereotypes, and prejudices against Others are compared with relevant information from Ottoman documents preserved in the archives of the Franciscan monasteries. While one would expect the use of cautious language and self-censorship when referring to Muslims, the authors often openly expressed dislike, loathing, or hatred—in addition to prevailing indifference, mistrust, anxiety, and fear—toward the individual “Turks” who caused them harm or injustice. On the other hand, they occasionally praised virtuous Muslim friends and righteous dignitaries who provided them assistance in various endeavors. A special category was created for Catholics who “crossed to the other side” and “became Turk, ” occasionally including former Franciscans. Such “deserters” and “traitors” were unsurprisingly refuted as “damned” and “doomed souls, ” and often accused of hatred of former coreligionists, seemingly in accordance with the old chauvinistic Serbian saying that “a Turkified person is worse than a Turk.” This unforgiving attitude might stem from the Catholic Church’s weakness of authority when faced with a real danger of loss of its members via assimilation into the Muslim community. Religious leaders of the Orthodox Christians, pejoratively called “Vlachs, ” “schismatics, ” or “old believers, ” were harshly scourged as archenemies, evil-doers, and slanderers of Catholics in front of the authorities, and were portrayed as dirty, unholy, and betraying errants. In this respect, the Franciscan Christian nemeses received worse treatment than the “infidel Turks.” This animosity was further increased by competition among Christian elites, both ecclesiastical and lay.

Franciscan Chronicles, 18th Century, Ottomans, Bosnia, Confessionalization, Stereotypes, Prejudices

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