Summary
A book chapter published by Edinburgh University Press traces the remarkable institutional history of Islamic communities across the former Yugoslav lands, from the nineteenth century through to the violent dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. Author Dunja Larise, a scholar of nationalism and religion in the Balkans, argues that the most enduring legacy of Austro-Hungarian rule was not a law but two institutions: the Reis-ul-Ulema and the Rijaset.
When Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, it faced a dilemma. Bosnian Muslims looked to Istanbul for religious authority, but Vienna wanted loyal subjects oriented toward the empire. The solution was to create an autonomous Islamic hierarchy independent of the Ottoman caliph. In 1882, Mustafa Hilmi Omerović became the first Reis-ul-Ulema, and the Rijaset was established as his governing council. What began as an administrative convenience became the template for Islamic organisation throughout the region.
Larise tracks how these institutions survived empire, monarchy, fascism and socialism. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia briefly moved the Reis-ul-Ulema’s seat to Belgrade before returning it to Sarajevo in 1938. Socialist Yugoslavia nationalised waqf properties, making the Islamic Community financially dependent on the state. Four constitutions between 1947 and 1990 reorganised the community repeatedly. When Yugoslavia collapsed, the Sarajevo-based structures asserted continuity with the 1909 Habsburg statute, claiming authority over Muslims in Croatia, Slovenia and Sandžak. Today, the Reis-ul-Ulema remains the central figure in Bosnian Islamic life, a living legacy of Habsburg pragmatism.
When Empire Met Faith
The story begins with a geopolitical bargain. In 1878, the Treaty of Berlin handed Austria-Hungary the administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The territory remained nominally Ottoman, but Vienna now governed it. This created an awkward situation. Bosnian Muslims, who numbered in the hundreds of thousands, owed religious allegiance to the sultan-caliph in Istanbul. Their muftis received appointment from the sheikh ul-Islam, the empire’s highest religious authority. Austria wanted loyal subjects, not subjects whose spiritual loyalties pointed elsewhere.
Count Gyula Andrássy, Austria-Hungary’s foreign minister, understood the problem clearly. In 1879, he instructed the provincial government to separate Bosnian Muslims from Constantinople’s authority, but to do so voluntarily rather than by force. The following year, a dispute erupted over the appointment of a new mufti in Sarajevo. Istanbul chose a Turk, Ahmet Şükrü Efendi. Austria rejected him and demanded a Bosnian instead. Bosnian notables, sensing an opportunity, sent a memorandum to Vienna proposing their own solution. They wanted a supreme religious leader with a council, modelled on the institutions other religious communities enjoyed.
Birth of an Institution
On 24 March 1882, the Porte appointed Mustafa Hilmi Omerović, the incumbent mufti of Sarajevo, as mufti of Bosnia. Austria promptly appointed him Reis-ul-Ulema, a title meaning “head of the scholars.” Four additional members joined his office, creating the Rijaset, or supreme assembly. Muftis were appointed in Bihać, Mostar, Banja Luka, Doboj and Tuzla, each paid 1,200 Kronen annually by the regional government.
Not everyone was satisfied. Bosnian Muslim notables resented that Austrian institutions appointed their religious officials. In 1889, under the leadership of Ali Fehmi Džabić, mufti of Herzegovina, they organised protests demanding autonomy. Their efforts bore fruit two decades later. The Autonomiestatut of 15 May 1909 ratified the autonomy of Islamic religious institutions and charitable organisations. The Islam Act of 1912 supplemented this by officially recognising the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam. In 1913, Mehmed Džemaludin Čaušević became the first Reis-ul-Ulema elected autonomously under the new framework.
| Year | Event | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| 1878 | Treaty of Berlin | Austria administers Bosnia |
| 1882 | Omerović appointed Reis-ul-Ulema | Institution created |
| 1889 | Džabić leads autonomy protests | Muslim notables demand self-rule |
| 1909 | Autonomiestatut | Legal autonomy granted |
| 1912 | Islam Act | Hanafi Sunnism officially recognised |
| 1913 | Čaušević elected | First autonomous Reis-ul-Ulema |
Serbia and Montenegro Take Different Paths
Austria’s approach was distinctive because it sought to create something new. Serbia and Montenegro, by contrast, wanted control without separation. The Principality of Serbia recognised freedom to profess Islam in 1868. After the Treaty of Berlin, an official Islamic Community was established, led by a mufti based in Niš. Imams received state salaries, and the church department of the Ministry of Education supervised operations. Yet Serbia still acknowledged Istanbul’s religious authority. As a young state, its priority was proving political sovereignty, not building new religious institutions.
Montenegro followed a similar trajectory. In 1878, King Nikola Petrović issued a decree establishing the first mufti, Saleh ef. Huli of Ulcinj, authorised by the sheikh ul-Islam. The St Nicholas Constitution of 1905 made the mufti of Podgorica the supreme Muslim authority and a permanent member of parliament. Islam gained recognition, but not equality with the Orthodox Church, which remained the state religion.
| Country | Recognition of Islam | Institutional Head | Seat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serbia | 1868 | Mufti | Niš, later Belgrade |
| Montenegro | 1905 | Grand Mufti | Podgorica |
| Bosnia (Austria) | 1912 | Reis-ul-Ulema | Sarajevo |
| Slovenia/Dalmatia | 1912 | (Under Bosnia) | Sarajevo |
| Croatia/Slavonia | 1916 | (Under Bosnia) | Sarajevo |
Yugoslavia Inherits Two Centres
The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, established in 1918, inherited two competing Islamic administrations. Sarajevo housed the Reis-ul-Ulema. Belgrade housed the Grand Mufti. For the first decade, both operated within their own jurisdictions without conflict. The Austro-Hungarian Statute of 1909 remained valid for Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia. The Grand Mufti oversaw Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro.
This arrangement ended with King Aleksandar’s dictatorship. Between 1929 and 1935, the semi-autonomous position of Islamic communities came under threat. Religious affairs were transferred to the Ministry of Justice. The Reis-ul-Ulema’s seat moved to Belgrade. Čaušević objected and was retired in 1930. The Law on the Islamic Religious Community, passed on 31 January 1930, unified all Muslim communities under a single organisation with the Reis-ul-Ulema as supreme head.
Democracy’s brief return in 1935 reversed these changes. Mehmed Spaho, leader of the Yugoslav Muslim Organization, entered government and insisted on restoring the Reis-ul-Ulema to Sarajevo. In 1938, his brother Fehim Spaho was appointed Reis-ul-Ulema for the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He enacted a new constitution that deprived the ulema of decision-making power over waqf properties, earning it the nickname “the secular constitution.”
Socialism Reshapes the Community
The Second World War brought catastrophe. In Serbia, the fascist satellite government and Četnik forces pursued a programme of ethnic and religious cleansing against Muslims. In the Independent State of Croatia, Muslims were labelled “Islamic Croats” and pressured to profess Croatian nationalism. The Islamic Community survived by adapting, but old rivalries resurfaced as opportunists sought favour with the Ustaša regime.
After the war, socialist Yugoslavia re-established the Islamic Community. The first Supreme Waqf Council met in Sarajevo on 26 August 1947 and elected Ibrahim Fejić as Reis-ul-Ulema. The new state granted religious communities autonomy in theory but demanded loyalty in practice. Fejić’s inaugural address endorsed the ban on veiling, calling it an obstacle to women’s equality.
The nationalisation of large private landholdings in 1958 devastated the Islamic Community’s finances. Waqf properties, which had funded mosques and schools for centuries, were seized. The 1959 constitution abolished the mufti institution, replaced the Džemat Imam with a committee and centralised authority. Left without independent income, the community depended almost entirely on state funding. Government officials influenced appointments, as a 1959 conversation between an IC official and a state representative revealed. When asked about salaries for new imams, the official was told funds were not the problem. “The fundamental issue is the appointment of the right staff.”
Nation-Building and the Muslim Question
The 1960s brought a new dynamic. Yugoslav Muslims began demanding recognition as a nation, not merely a religious group. The 1968 plenary sessions of the Bosnian Communist Party rejected integrating Muslims into Serb or Croat nations. In 1971, a Muslim nation was formally recognised as equal to other Yugoslav nations.
The 1969 constitution reflected these changes. It reinstated the mufti, made the Sarajevo-based assembly the highest body for Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia, and created regional assemblies in Pristina, Skopje and Titograd. This arrangement planted seeds for future conflicts. By subordinating Croatian and Slovenian communities to Sarajevo, it established a hierarchy that would be contested after Yugoslavia’s collapse.
| Constitution | Year | Key Change |
|---|---|---|
| First | 1947 | Single community, Supreme Waqf Council |
| Second | 1959 | Waqf abolished, mufti institution removed |
| Third | 1969 | Mufti reinstated, Sarajevo supreme for Croatia/Slovenia |
| Fourth | 1990 | Five regional assemblies, Ramadan Constitution |
Dissolution and Legacy
The 1990 Ramadan Constitution reorganised the community one final time. Five regional assemblies were created: Sarajevo, Pristina, Skopje, Podgorica and Zagreb. The Supreme Assembly comprised 46 members. Each regional head became a Mešihat, acting as executive organs of the Rijaset. The Reis-ul-Ulema remained head of the entire Yugoslav Islamic Community.
It was not to last. In early 1993, the Rijaset held its final meeting in Skopje and declared that successor states should establish independent Islamic Communities. Bosnia held a Renewal Assembly on 28 April 1993, restoring continuity by invoking the Austro-Hungarian Statute of 1909. This reference was strategic. It connected the new Bosnian community directly to pre-Yugoslav times, claiming authority over Muslims in Croatia, Slovenia and Sandžak. The Reis-ul-Ulema institution, created by Austria in 1882, became the foundation for post-Yugoslav Islamic organisation.
Why This History Matters
Larise’s chapter reveals something counterintuitive. The Habsburg Empire, a Catholic monarchy, created the institutional framework that still structures Islamic life in the Balkans today. The Reis-ul-Ulema and Rijaset were Austrian inventions, designed to serve imperial interests but adopted and adapted by Muslim communities themselves.
This history complicates simple narratives about Islam in Europe. It shows that Islamic institutions are not timeless relics but products of specific political circumstances. It also demonstrates how institutional structures outlive the empires that created them. When Yugoslavia collapsed, the Islamic Community did not start from scratch. It reached back to Habsburg precedents for legitimacy.
For contemporary debates about Islam and integration, this history offers a useful reminder. Muslim communities in Europe have long histories of negotiating with secular states. The forms those negotiations take, from Austria’s 1912 Islam Act to Bosnia’s 1909 Autonomiestatut, shaped institutions that persist today. Understanding this legacy helps explain why some Muslim communities in the Balkans have stronger institutional autonomy than their counterparts in Western Europe. It also explains why disputes over authority, legitimacy and representation continue to shape Islamic life in the region.
