Christianity was the seat of the
Serbian Orthodox Church Christianity probably reached Kosovo in the 5th century as the
Roman Empire gradually split into a
Greek East and Latin West. Kosovo became part the former, known as the
Byzantine Empire, and thus fell into the sphere of the
Eastern Orthodox Church based in
Constantinople. During the
High Middle Ages, as Byzantine rule in Kosovo gave way to the
Serbian Empire in the early 13th century, there was an Orthodox Christian majority, but also a Catholic minority consisting of the
Italo-Dalmatian merchant class from
Ragusa,
German immigrants from
Hungary and
Transylvania, and probably all of the native
Albanian population.
Eastern Orthodoxy The presence of Serbian Orthodox bishops in
Lipjan and
Prizren was first recorded in the 10th century. The Serbian Archbishopric became autocephalous in 1219, when Saint Sava secured its independence from the
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and Greek bishops were expelled from Kosovo. In 1252, the seat of the Serbian Archbishopric was moved to
Patriarchate of Peć Monastery in
Peja, thus making it the religious and cultural centre of
Serbian Orthodoxy. In 1346, the
Archbishop of Peć assumed the title of
patriarch.
Catholicism , Kosovo's main Roman Catholic church, 2013 Kosovo was conquered by the
Ottoman Empire along with the other
remnants of the Serbian Empire in the period following the
Battle of Kosovo (1389). Although the Ottomans did not force the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian population to
convert to Islam, there was strong social pressure (such as not having to pay the
jizya) as well as political expediency to do so, which ethnic Albanians did in far greater numbers (including the entire nobility) than Serbs, Greeks and others in the region. Many Catholic Albanians converted to Islam in the 17th and 18th centuries, despite attempts by Catholic clergy to stop them. During the
Concilium Albanicum, a meeting of Albanian bishops in 1703, a strict condemnation of conversion – especially for opportunistic reasons such as jizya evasion – was promulgated. Whilst many of these converts stayed
crypto-Catholics to a certain extent, often helped by pragmatic lower clerics – the higher Catholic clergy ordered them to be denied
the sacraments for their heresy. Efforts to convert the
Laraman community of
Letnica back to
Catholicism began in 1837, but the effort was violently suppressed – the local Ottoman governor put Laramans in jail. After the Ottoman Empire abolished the death penalty for
apostasy from Islam by the
Edict of Toleration (1844), several groups of crypto-Catholics in
Prizren,
Peja and
Gjakova were recognised as Catholics by the Ottoman
grand vizier in 1845. When the Laramans of Letnica asked the district governor and judge in
Gjilan to recognise them as Catholics, they were refused however, and subsequently imprisoned, and then deported to
Anatolia, from where they returned in November 1848 following diplomatic intervention. In 1856, a further
Tanzimat reform improved the situation, and no further serious abuse was reported. The greater part of converts of Laramans, almost exclusively new-borns, took place between 1872 and 1924.
Protestantism Islam in
Prizren was completed in 1615. After victory at the
Battle of Kosovo (1389), the
Ottoman Empire imposed Islamic rule on the region. Conversion to Islam was not obligatory, but had several financial, social and political benefits. Until the sixteenth century the degree of Islamisation in Kosovo was minimal, and largely confined to urban centres. The pace of conversions to Islam only increased significantly in the second half of the sixteenth century, possibly because converts thus became exempt from the
cizje, a tax levied only on non-Muslims. By 1634, the majority of
Kosovo Albanians had converted to Islam, although a minority remained Catholic. Besides the ethnic Albanians, and the ruling
Turks who settled in Kosovo, the
Roma and some part of the Slavic-speaking population (later called the
Bosniaks or
Gorani, to distinguish them from the Orthodox Serbs) also became Muslims, most of them, by far,
Sunni; many of these belong to Sufi brotherhoods, although small a minority of
Shia Muslims formed in the countryside. By the end of the 17th century, the Islamic population started to outnumber the Christians. Between 70.6 and 95.6% of Kosovans are
Muslims. The constitution guarantees religious freedom. However, the Law on Freedom of Religion prevents some religious communities from registering as legal entities, a designation that would allow them to more easily buy and rent property, access burial sites, establish bank accounts, and carry out other administrative activities. Although tensions between Muslims and Orthodox Christians have occasionally flared up in the past, interreligious relations are generally peaceful. In January 2023, the government approved draft legislation amending the law on religious freedom, with the aim of deepening interreligious tolerance. Kosovo is part of the
International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance. == See also ==