Historical fiction can be the a fantastic way to ingrain history events as long as it doesn’t deviate too far from the dry and dusty demands of factual “truthiness”, and in the vein The Second Seal by Dennis Wheatley is an excellent primer for the dabbler who wants to get started in the area World …
Rebellions against the Ottoman Empire were not solely the province of the Christian Ottoman subjects. On 29 March 1831 an army of Bosnian subjects, 1/3 of them Christian, marched toward the Ottoman headquarters in Travnik. At its head was the son of a Bosnian noble family, the Captain of Gradačac, Husein Gradaščević, the Dragon of …
The crises in the Balkans jumped one to the next as the 1800s turned into the 1900s. Royal assassinations turned into paradigm shifts, causing strikes against the status quo. No longer wanting to be a dependent satellite of Austria-Hungary, Serbia turned toward Russia and began attempting to diversify their economics. Sensing the threat to …
The last thousand years of Balkan history is a tale of three powers pulling on the limbs of an infant, as in the Biblical parable of Solomon’s wisdom. The Balkan baby is yanked first toward Austria, then toward Russia, and all the while the Ottoman Empire is pulling steadily on its legs. The arguments between …
The provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be occupied and administered by Austria-Hungary…Austria-Hungary reserves the right to maintain garrisons and to have military and trading roads over the whole area of that portion [the Sandjak of Novi Pazar] of the ancient Vilayet of Bosnia. The diplomatic coda to the Pig War of 1906-1908 became, like …
It takes a great man to turn a Duchy into a Kingdom, and for the medieval Bosnia and Herzegovina that man was Tvrtko I. Not that the lead up to his crowning was uneventful or easy; on the contrary, Tvrtko overcame enormous odds sandwiched between two great powers to wrest away the wild and mountainous …
Empires have to begin and end somewhere, and in Europe the Balkans are the beginning and ending of East and West, and North and South. Within the Balkans, it is Bosnia where everything comes crashing together. As Saint Sava said in the thirteenth century, “…we are doomed by fate to be the East in the …
War produces monuments and detritus; which is which often depends on which side of the line you are standing on after the end of the war. The Greek and Italians famously repurposed old monuments, treating them as detritus which went into building their homes. Many old villas are built from the remains of older monuments …
This morning, in the middle of summer, the snow fell, heavy and wet Weeping astonished gardens, I record it and keep quiet because I’m used to miracles. I see, through the shop windows, worried passages of faces, and mute Where will he end up, God, who knows everything? I am not blaspheming, I received this …