Citizens of Two Empires: Ottoman and Habsburg Muslims’ Allegiances

Habsburg occupation of the Ottoman province of Bosnia Herzegovina after the Berlin Congress (1878) was constructed on the basis of political and legal ambiguity. The Ottoman and Habsburg rulers both claimed to be the protectors of its Muslims. Taking advantage of their unique position, Muslims formed new relationships with both empires in an attempt to preserve their status and interests. They addressed both empires as Ottomans, as Muslims, and as Habsburg subjects, aware of protections offered in exchange for political recognition, imperial legitimacy, and diplomatic influence.

The discourse of civilization, citizen rights, and international norms increasingly became part of the traditional petitioning system for Bosnians in both the Ottoman and Habsburg empires corresponding to efforts and claims these empires tried to project. By analyzing individual and group petitions and other archival sources, I examine the ways in which the Bosnian Muslims interacted with the Ottoman and Habsburg states, that is, what legal and diplomatic opportunities they used in order to draw conclusions about their understanding of citizenship, sovereignty, legitimacy, and loyalty. Muslims in Habsburg Bosnia had opportunities at consuming a variety of legal protections, choices of which did not necessarily exclude the others. This overlap, of both the state protections and citizen allegiances, is telling of the early twentieth century negotiations about the meaning of citizenship as well as its imperial imprint.