After Eugene of Savoy sacked Sarajevo in 1697, the city had a very rough century-and-a-half. Nearly all the wooden buildings had been burned to the ground and many of the stone buildings had suffered significant damage. The city’s Catholic population had fled in fear of retribution, following the Austrian army which had specifically targeted Muslim …
“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 …
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 …