Islamic communities in post-Yugoslav countries: The legacies of the islam act of 1912

Between 1880 and 1912 Austrian Empire issued several legal Acts regarding the terms by which the Muslims of the newly adjunct territories in Bosnia and Herzegovina were to settle their religious and community-related affairs within the framework of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. These Acts laid fundaments for the establishment of the first autonomous Islamic religious institutions in the Austrian Empire. The present article argues that institutions established during that time remained the most conspicuous legacy of the Austrian juristic regulation of Islamic affairs, not only in Bosnia and Herzegovina but in all successor states of the former Yugoslavia as well as in present time Austria itself.