Islamic Heritage

The westernmost region of sustained Muslim presence in Europe. Ottoman rule from 1463 until the Austro-Hungarian occupation of 1878 produced a distinctive Bosniak Muslim culture that joined Ottoman traditions to indigenous Balkan ones.

A corridor between the Levant, Arabia and the Fertile Crescent, and so a route for trade, pilgrimage and armies throughout Islamic history. The Battle of Yarmouk was fought at its northern border in 636, and the Hashemite monarchy holds custodianship of the holy sites of Jerusalem.