THE MEETING AND CONFLICT OF CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM IN DALMATIA FROM THE 16TH TO THE 18TH CENTURY ACCORDING TO NEWLY DISCOVERED TURKISH DOCUMENTS REPRECUTIONS TO THE PRESENT
REPREKUSIJE NA SADAŠNJOST

Since ancient times, the area of ​​Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina has historically been the point of separation between East and West according to the former division of the Roman Empire. Pope Leo X also gave Croatia the title Antemurale Christianitatis (forehead of Christianity) in a letter to Ban Petar Berislavić from 1519. That separation was ultimately, from the 11th century, a separation between the influence of the Catholic Church and the Byzantines on the other. Since the new century, large-scale conflicts have also taken place in this area, namely the one between Christianity and Islam, after the Turks conquered Bosnia in the 15th century. Soon, a good part of Dalmatia will come under Turkish rule, and for several centuries tensions and conflicts will reign over every piece of land. It will be especially uncertain in the border areas where the proximity of danger did not allow special social development, and assumed daily readiness for fights, defenses and attacks. There are still many historical unknowns about life in those times, especially from the 16th century.

The Catholic Faculty of Theology, as the holder of this project, considers it essential from a historical, theological and social perspective to investigate one of the most turbulent periods of Croatian history during the reign of the Turkish government (from the 16th century to the 18th century) as well as the position of Dalmatia between the Ottoman aggression and the Venetian occupation. The main activity of this project is to investigate how the life of the local population in Dalmatia unfolded on the basis of historical sources and a valuable collection of documents from the time of the Ottoman rule, which is kept in the archives of monasteries in the area of ​​Dalmatia and Bosnia, and a very valuable library which is owned by professor emeritus Michael Ursinus (Turkologist, Islamologist and historian) donated to our Faculty. In 2021, the faculty published the first volume in a series, "Turkish sources in central Dalmatia. Selected documents 1548 - 1689", which brings a facsimile of Turkish documents previously unknown to the public, which have been translated into Croatian and English. The second volume is being prepared and will be published in 2024. Scientific research will be conducted from several scientific perspectives. Through the research of the historical, pastoral, liturgical, interreligious dimensions and through the social aspects of this period, a hitherto unknown way of coexistence of Christianity and Islam in the area of ​​Dalmatia is presented.

Expected results of the project:

• Održati međunarodnu konferenciju
• Objaviti zbornik radova
• Organizirati predavanje za srednjoškolce na temu projekta
• Izraditi edukativni materijal za škole