Od Kulina Bana i dobrijeh dana — Since Kulin Ban and the good old days There has been enough upheaval in the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina that a saying about the best of times could be expected as a simile in any story (and if there is one thing Bosnia is full of it …
“Hard times create great men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And weak men create hard times.” G. Michael Hopf The golden age of Bosnia is generally accepted to center around one particular man – Ban Kulin. Certainly he didn’t come to power in easy and posh world-circumstances – when he …
“God I fear slightly, the Sultan not at all, and the Grand Vizier no more than my own horse.” A man who would say those words to the Ottoman Empire is not a man to be taken lightly, and Husein Gradaščević managed to prove that he deserved to say them before he died at the …
No one would have suspected that a humble German Mauser Rifle, carrying a breakthrough technology, would serve on many sides of the precursor conflicts to the Great War. The big small arms breakthroughs, the rifle cartridge, were quickly embraced by Germans arms manufacturers, and changed the range of infantry engagements from 50 meters, to a …
Many little girls dream of being princesses. And little girls lucky enough to already be princesses dream of being queens. But no little girl ever expects to be an unhappy, unloved queen. Especially if they are considered one of the most beautiful girls in the world. There is a story about the Serbian Queen Natalija …
In August 1963, one month after an earthquake decimated the capital of Skopje, an open topped car zipped around the Socialist Republic of Macedonia carrying two powerful men who were dancing around a renewed relationship. Josip Broz Tito, whose fantastic response to Stalin’s constant dispatching of assassins ended Soviet/Yugoslav relations for many years, was showing …
On 6 August 1566, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent died in bed while the Battle of Szigetvar raged around him. The Commander of the Ottoman Army, Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, immediately executed every witness to his death and had the word put about that Suleiman was merely ill and recuperating. He proclaimed Ottoman victory in …
Historical anachronisms can be fascinating, nowhere more than in the Balkans, a region which can itself be seen as a living historical anachronism. Named by German geographer August Zeune in 1808 after what he considered to be the dominant geographical feature in the area, the Balkan Mountain Range, the highest peak in the Balkans is …
Although most have since assimilated to their respective countries, for over a thousand years a non-Slav shepherd minority existed in the Balkans, speaking a Latin-based language and following their own traditions. The Vlachs, also known as the Choban in Romania, the Vlasi in Slavic areas, the Tsintsar in Serbia, and officially as the Arumani, first …
Vampires are from Serbia. They aren’t attractive, either. The question is – are vampires real? That is the question addressed in Kiss of the Butterfly by James Lyon. With the action taking place back and forth between centuries, the story follows grad student Stephen Roberts as he researches ancient folklore in a war-ravaged former Yugoslavia. …
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