Dr. Emir O. Filipovic´ from the University of Sarajevo will give a guest lecture about the history of Bosnia by a title ”Frontiers in the History of a Typical Frontier Region: Bosnia between East and West”. Ever since its conception as a small territorial unit in the middle of the tenth century, the history of Bosnia was shaped and defined by its geographical location. Situated roughly on the line where the Roman Empire was divided into its eastern and western parts during the reign of Emperor Diocletian (r. 284-305), Bosnia remained sandwiched between the dominant traditions of Western Latin and Eastern Greek Christendom. In that way this mountainous country remained on the periphery of both of those distinct worlds throughout the medieval period, forming in itself a particular frontier region where both traditions combined to create an almost unique culture. Furthermore, with its political development and the subsequent territorial expansion, Bosnia established firm borders of its own. They were mostly defined by natural markers, such as mountain ranges and rivers, and they influenced the shaping of the Bosnian state and identity in the later Middle Ages.

The event is organised by TUCEMEMS (Turku Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies).

Picture: Dennis Jarvis from Halifax, Canada [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons