After Ottoman conquests of Serbian lands in the late 14th century, conversion of Orthodox Christian Serbs began.

Konstantin Mihailović Konstantin Mihailović, also known as Constantine of Ostrovica, born in 1430, was a Serbian soldier and author of a memoir of his time as a Janissary in the army of the Ottoman Empire. Mihailović was born in the village of Ostrovica, near Ru ...

(

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1455–63), an Ottoman

janissary A janissary (, , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops. They were the first modern standing army, and perhaps the first infantry force in the world to be equipped with firearms, adopted dur ...

of Serb origin, spoke of Crypto-Christian Serbs in the janissary corps, having been converted as boys through the ''

Devşirme Devshirme (, usually translated as "child levy" or "blood tax", , .) was the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman practice of Conscription, forcibly recruiting soldiers and bureaucrats from among the children of their Balkan Christian subjects and raising th ...

''. The first documented evidence of

Crypto-Christianity Crypto-Christianity is the secret adherence to Christianity, while publicly professing to be another faith; people who practice crypto-Christianity are referred to as "crypto-Christians". In places and time periods where Christians were persecuted ...

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of Serbia, history, and Serbian lan ...

comes from an Ottoman Serbian ''deli'' (warrior) confessing to a French ambassador at the Ottoman court in 1568. He confesses that he belongs to the Serb nation and faith, that he lives with Turks and simulates himself (as a Muslim), but that he was born as, and in his heart is, a Christian. Religious

syncretism Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various school of thought, schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or religious assimilation, assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the ...

in Serb families is documented in Ottoman documents. An 1848 census of Ottoman

Novi Pazar Novi Pazar ( sr-cyr, Нови Пазар) is a List of cities in Serbia, city located in the Raška District of southwestern Serbia. As of the 2022 census, the urban area has 71,462 inhabitants, while the city administrative area has 106,720 inha ...

shows instances of "one brother believes in Christ, the other in Muhammed", and several ones where the father is Christian and his sons Muslims. In the

Sandžak Sandžak (Serbian Cyrillic: ; ) is a historical and geo-political region in the Balkans, located in the southwestern part of Serbia and the eastern part of Montenegro. The Bosnian/ Serbian term ''Sandžak'' derives from the Sanjak of Novi Paza ...

area (historical Raška), even after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, some Christian widows remarried Muslims and stayed secret Christians, while being "real Muslims" in society. Anthropological studies attest Muslim families recalling their ''slava'' (patron saint tradition), while some Muslim families in the 19th and 20th century were recorded as still venerating their patron saint and Christmas. Serbian nationalist

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...

have used the existence of religious syncretism and Crypto-Christianity in Bosnia and Herzegovina as proof of the Serb origin of

Bosnian Muslims The Bosniaks (, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and who share a common ancestry, culture, history and the ...

. In Serbian and South Slavic, the term ''dvoverstvo'' (двоверство, "double belief, dual faith") is also used.

See also

References

Further reading