Bosnia and Herzegovina as a Historical Balkan Bridge Between Cultures, Religions and Nations

Abstract

Given article presents an overview and analysis of the facts of the crossing of the Slavic, Oriental and European cultures in the very center of the Balkan Peninsula, as well as the connection of the Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim (Islamic) worlds and mentality in the historical retrospective of Bosnia and Herzegovina, its culture, ethnography and language. Special attention is paid to the specific moments of modern political life, socio-demographic problems, as well as to the peculiarities of the national mentality, traditions and customs of different peoples (formed as a result of confessional differences), living on the territory of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina. On this basis we try to present the specifics and uniqueness of this region: on the one hand, the Slavonic one, and on the other, not being such in the traditional and direct meaning of this word. Along with these questions, stereotyped views of the peoples of the former Yugoslavia on the Muslim part of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina, their actual implementation in contemporary culture, literature and language, as well as their transformation as a result of the crucial political events of the 1990s, are also considered. In the article it is concluded for the first time that apart from the notions Slavia Orthodoxa and Slavia Romana, traditionally accepted in the science about the Slavs, from the XVI century, the third world - Slavia Muslim with its mentality, culture, religion and language has started to form in the Balkans.