The idea of Muslims as an ethnicity or nationality developed mainly during the Yugoslav socialist period. Beginning in the 1960s, the government officially recognized Muslims by nationality (Muslimani) in census records, distinguishing them from other South Slavic peoples such as Serbs, Croats, and Montenegrins. This classification was part of a broader effort by the Yugoslav authorities to promote ethnic balance and reduce religious divisions by framing identity in secular, national terms rather than strictly religious ones. The concept was also influenced by earlier perceptions from both Christian and communist leaders who viewed Muslims as a separate cultural group. Many of these populations were seen as moderately observant in their religious practices, reflecting a blend of Islamic, Slavic, and local traditions. Most South Slavic Muslims historically lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Sandžak region (spanning Serbia and Montenegro), northeastern Montenegro, western and central Macedonia, southern parts of Croatia, and southern Kosovo, including the Gorani communities. The
Ottoman conquests led to many autochthonous inhabitants converting to
Islam. However, nationalist ideologies appeared among South Slavs as early as the 19th century, as with the
First and
Second Serbian Uprising and the
Illyrian movement, national identification was a foreign concept to the general population, which primarily identified itself by denomination and province. The emergence of modern nation-states forced the ethnically and religiously diverse Ottoman Empire to modernise, resulting in several reforms. The most significant of these were the
Edict of Gülhane of 1839 and
Imperial Reform Edict of 1856. These gave non-Muslim subjects of the Empire equal status and strengthened their autonomous
Millet communities. There was a strong rivalry between South Slavic nationalisms.
Vuk Karadžić, then the leading representative of
Serbian nationalism, considered all speakers of the
Štokavian dialect, regardless of religious affiliation, to be Serbs.
Josip Juraj Strossmayer, the Croatian Catholic bishop and his
People's Party advocated the idea of South Slavic unity. At the same time,
Ante Starčević and his
Party of Rights sought to restore the Croatian state based on the so-called historical right, considering Bosnian Muslims as Croats. In both Croatian and Serbian national ideology, the territory of the
Bosnia vilayet was of great importance because both wanted to incorporate it into their future national states. From their point of view, Bosnian Muslims were Croats or Serbs who converted to Islam. In 1870, Bosnian Muslims comprised 42.5 per cent of the population of the Bosnia Vilayet, while Eastern Orthodox Christians accounted for 41.7 per cent and Catholics for 14.5 per cent. Which national state would get the territory of the Bosnia vilayet thus depended on who the Bosnian Muslims would favour, the Croats or the Serbs. In Bosnia and Herzegovina at that time, the population did not identify with national categories, except for a few intellectuals from urban areas who claimed to be Croats or Serbs. The population of Bosnia and Herzegovina primarily identified itself by religion, using the terms Turk (for Muslims),
Hrišćani (Christians) or Greeks (for the Orthodox) and "
Kršćani" or Latins (for the Catholics). Furthermore, the Bosna vilayet particularly resisted the reforms, which culminated with the
rebellion of
Husein Gradaščević and his
ayans in 1831. Reforms were introduced in Bosnia and Herzegovina only after
Omer Pasha Latas forcibly returned the province to the sultan's authority in 1850. The reforms marked the loss of the influence of the
ulama (the educated clergy), Sharia was no longer used outside of family matters, and a system of public education was introduced, in addition to religious education. The reforms marked the beginning of journalism and the establishment of modern political institutions, and ultimately the establishment of a provincial assembly in 1865, in which non-Muslims also sat. The revolt of the Bosnian ayans and the attempted formulation of provincial identity in the 1860s are often portrayed as the first signs of a Bosnian national identity. However, a Bosnian national identity beyond confessional borders was rare, and the strong Bosnian identity of individual ayans or Franciscans expressed at that time reflected regional affiliation, with a strong religious aspect. Christians identified more with the Croatian or Serbian nation. For Muslims, identity was more closely tied to the defence of local privileges, but it did not call into question their allegiance to the Ottoman Empire. The use of the term "Bosniak" at that time did not have a national meaning, but a regional one. When
Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, national identification was still a foreign concept to Bosnian Muslims. The
Austro-Hungarian administration of
Béni Kállay promoted the idea of a non-confessional unitary "Bosniak" identity that would encompass all inhabitants (more akin to "Bosnism"), going even as far as prohibiting Bosnian cultural associations from using the terms "Serb" and "Croat" in their names in the 1880s. In 1883, they officially called the vernacular language "Bosnian". The policy placed its hopes mainly with the Catholic community (who were not yet as deeply entrenched in Croat nationalism as the Orthodox were in the Serb one) and the Muslim community (seeking to distance them from the Ottoman Empire). In reality, only a small circle of Muslim notables at the time favoured such a unitary nation. The main proponent of the movement was
Mehmed Kapetanović. Although it failed, the Bosniak ideology promoted by the Austrian-Hungarian authorities laid the foundation for the modern Bosniak identity. By emphasising the pre-Ottoman past, it created a founding myth, a theory of the massive conversion of medieval
Bogumils to Islam upon the Ottoman conquest, offering a historical continuity and reasoning behind their presence in Europe. The Serbo-Croatian Muslims were referred to as "Mohammedans" until the early 1900s, when the term "Muslims" gained wider traction. It gained an official recognition during the 1910 census. After World War II, in the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Bosnian Muslims continued to be treated as a religious group instead of an ethnic one.
Aleksandar Ranković and other Serb communist members opposed the recognition of Bosniak nationality. Nevertheless, in a debate that went on during the 1960s, many Bosnian Muslim
communist intellectuals argued that the Muslims of
Bosnia and Herzegovina are a distinct native Slavic people that should be recognized as a
nation. In 1964, the Fourth Congress of the Bosnian branch of the
League of Communists of Yugoslavia assured their Bosnian Muslim membership the Bosnian Muslims' right to
self-determination will be fulfilled, thus prompting the recognition of Bosnian Muslims as a distinct nation at a meeting of the Bosnian Central Committee in 1968, however not under the Bosniak or Bosnian name, as opted by the Bosnian Muslim communist leadership. As a compromise, the Constitution of Yugoslavia was amended to list "Muslims" in a national sense; recognizing a constitutive nation, but not the Bosniak name. The use of
Muslim as an ethnic denomination was criticised early on, especially on account of motives and reasoning, as well as disregard of this aspect of Bosnian nationhood. Following the downfall of Ranković, Tito also changed his view and stated that recognition of Muslims and their national identity should occur. retained their Muslim designation During the
Intra-Bosnian Muslim War (1993–95) the forces loyal to the
Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia retained their Muslim name, while those loyal to the central government of the
Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina adhered to the
Bosniak term, adopted during the
Bosnian war in 1993. Sometimes other terms, such as
Muslim with capital M were used, that is, "musliman" was a practising Muslim. At the same time "Musliman" was a member of this nation (
Serbo-Croatian uses capital letters for names of peoples but small for names of adherents). The election law of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, recognizes the results from 1991 population census as results referring to Bosniaks. == Population ==