11 Facts About Bosniaks

Bosniaks are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry, culture, history and language.

Bosniaks are typically characterized by their historic ties to the Bosnian historical region, adherence to Islam since the 15th and 16th centuries, culture, and the Bosnian language.

Y-DNA studies on Bosniaks show close affinity to other neighboring South Slavs Y-DNA results show notable frequencies of I2 with 43.

Principal component analysis of Y-chromosomal haplogroup frequencies among the three ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks, showed that Bosnian Serbs and Bosniaks are by Y-DNA closer to each other than either of them is to Bosnian Croats.

Bosniaks are generally defined as the South Slavic nation on the territory of the former Yugoslavia whose members identify themselves with Bosnia and Herzegovina as their ethnic state and are part of such a common nation, and of whom a majority are Muslim by religion.

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Since that time the Bosniaks adopted European culture under the broader influence of Habsburg Monarchy.

At the outbreak of World War I, Bosnian Muslims were conscripted to serve in the Austro-Hungarian army, some chose to desert rather than fight against fellow Slavs, whilst some Bosniaks attacked Bosnian Serbs in apparent anger after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Bosniaks were prevalent throughout almost all of Bosnia in 1991, a year before the war officially broke out.

Today Bosniaks make up the absolute majority in Sarajevo and its canton, most of northwestern Bosnia around Bihac, as well as central Bosnia, Brcko District, Gorazde, Podrinje and parts of Herzegovina.

At the vernacular level, Bosniaks are more linguistically homogeneous than Serbs or Croats who speak non-standard dialects beside Shtokavian.

Bosniaks have been described as "Cultural Muslims" or "Progressive Muslims".