The Ottomans had begun their expansion attempts into Bosnia-Herzegovina almost two centuries earlier, but conquest was slow and the real push by the Ottomans to take the region did not occur until 1463.  It was not until 1528 that the last stronghold, Jajce in central Bosnia-Herzegovina, fell to the Ottomans.  Some four decades later, Zitomislici was founded.  Those four decades coincide with the reign of Suleyman the Lawgiver, one of the most famous consolidating sultans in the history of the Empire.  Suleyman's goal was to create a centralized Empire, and even the relatively recently conquered territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina would have felt the effects of his reforms. The Imperial systems of estates may well have originally been to the advantage of the peasants in southern Bosnia-Herzegovina; timariots, or landlords, were often absent and tithes and taxes could be paid in kind and the requirement of working on the lord's land was usually less stringent than was the case in Western Europe.  Peasants were 'leaseholders,' but their right to use the land, if not the right to the land itself, could be inherited  and could even be sold without the permission of the timariot.  The peasantry was legally granted freedom of movement, though how well that law was upheld can be called into question.  Nor did the timariot have the judicial powers over his peasants that his Western counterparts did.

    The Orthodox Church had not been popular in most of Bosnia until the Ottomans had invaded, but in the region of Herzegovina it had held sway among many of the pre-Ottoman nobility.  It appears that, throughout Bosnia, the time after the Ottoman invasion was one in which a number of Orthodox monasteries were being constructed.  Some of this surge in Orthodoxy is probably the result of what appears to be a resettlement policy of the Ottoman Empire, to repopulate ravaged or abandoned areas along the threatened western borders of the Empire.

    Most of the nationalist mythology that has grown up concerning the period of Ottoman control of the region has been based around the religious differences that existed between conqueror and conquered.  In fact, most scholars agree that religious persecution within the Ottoman territories was far less than that practiced in Western Christian countries.  Christians, as 'peoples of the Book,' were promised certain treatment under Islamic law.  They were known as dhimma or protected persons, and their role in Islamic society was founded on a mixture of protections and restrictions.  In return for paying a certain tax, they received the protection of the government and many of the benefits reserved otherwise for Ottoman citizens.
 
 

    The monastery in Zitomislici was built on the foundations of the ruins of an old Serbian Orthodox church.   The permit for its construction was granted in 1566 by the Ottoman government, and over the next forty years the monastery was built.  It was financed by the Hrabren family, a wealthy family with historical ties to the Herzegovina area dating from before the Ottoman occupation.  It housed an internationally famous scriptorium and was supported by large land holdings worked by the monks themselves.  Despite its relative financial independence, the monastery remained, for most of its lifetime, intimately tied to the nearby village.  Records show no conflict between the monastery and the local Muslim population.

    Beyond that, little can be found about the monastery itself.  If the monastery thrived until the 18th century, the Ottoman Empire was not so consistently lucky.  Various parts of the Empire began to grow restive under Imperial control, and the European powers once again discussed uniting to end the Eastern threat.  Throughout the Empire, the political situation was changing.  Peasants found themselves being turned back into serfs and the lords gained power at their expense.  Foreign powers began incursions on the westernmost parts of the Empire, including western Bosnia-Herzegovina.  Territories to the north of Zitomislici were contested.

    Bosnia-Herzegovina continued to be a contested region, Ottoman territory that the Empire could barely hold on to but had to maintain control of.  Successive wars with Venice, Austria and Russia made economic stability in Bosnia-Herzegovina unlikely.  Zitomislici's international reputation might also have suffered from being trapped in an area close to the war zone.  With open warfare, intellectual and spiritual contemplation might have suffered as well.  Historians assert that the region of Bosnia-Herzegovina was isolated by the sporadic warfare and peace and that the uncertainty of the time was reflected in increasing religious and social discord.  If this was the case, Zitomislici might well have been affected.  The only evidence that can be offered to support such a claim is that Zitomislici's fame for its scriptorium seems to have diminished after the 18th century, even as the Imperial situation was worsening.

    In 1878, Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Ottoman rule was at an end.  It was not Austria-Hungary but the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina who took it upon themselves to end Ottoman control in a three year mass uprising beginning in 1875.  Every student of history knows that from that time on, the Balkans were a hotbed of unrest.  Austria-Hungarian rule was no more desirable than Ottoman rule had been.  How Zitomislici was affected by the growing nationalist movements in the local region is uncertain.  Contention over the Balkans was one of the short term causes of the first World War.  Were the Serbian Orthodox monks of Zitomislici, close to the southern border of Croatia, affected by pan-Slavic movements going on in Serbia, by the war, by the interests of Russia clashing with those of Austria-Hungary, of France clashing with Germany?  We know that Zitomislici didnít escape the Second World War unscathed.  In June 1941, the refractory was burned down, the monks were murdered and the church was looted by an Ustashi detachment.  We also know that the monastery was still important enough to local and national life that it was rebuilt and restored at the end of the war.  Fifty-one years after the destruction during the war, another war completed the job.  In July 1992, Croat militants burned down the church, dynamited it and then razed the ground with a bulldozer, destroyed as many remnants of the monastery as possible.
 

by Jessica Katz, jkatz@brynmawr.edu
Last updated 12-19-02