The Enduring Legacy of the Habsburg Islam Policy: Muslim Communities in Central and Southeast Europe
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Examines contemporary legal and political structures governing Muslim communities in Central and Southeast Europe.
When Otto Habsburg – son of the last emperor of the Austria-Hungarian Empire Karl I – died in 2011, among those who prayed at the funeral was Mustafa Efendi Cerić, the Reis-ul-ulema of Bosnia and Herzegovina – the highest Islamic office in the country. This was to honour the long-lasting relationship between the bygone empire of the Catholic Habsburgs with Bosnian Muslims. The cornerstone of this relationship was the 1912 Islam Act (Islamgesetz) of the Habsburgs, which granted Islam legal recognition and incorporated it into the imperial system. This book explores the legacy of this Act and the ways in which it continues to impact the legal frameworks and political structures governing Islam and Muslim communities in the successor states of Austria-Hungary.
• Explores the cultural and political dynamics that emerged in Central Europe as the home of centuries-old Muslim communities as well as of recent Muslim immigrants
• Maps in detail the diverse trajectories followed by the successor states to the Habsburg Empire with regards to the governance of Islam and Muslim communities
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgements
Note on Transliteration
Introduction: The Habsburg Legacy and the Governance of Muslim Communities in Central and Southeast Europe
Sevgi Adak and Thomas Schmidinger
1. Austro-Hungarian Confessional Politics in Bosnia-Herzegovina: International Law, Muslim Autonomy Movements and the Islam Act of 1912
Jan Kreisky
2. Islam and the Austrian State between Two Islam Acts
Thomas Schmidinger
3. A Hundred Years Later: The Debate on the New Islam Act in Austria
Sevgi Adak and Alev Çakır
4. Double Minorities at the Edges of Islam in Austria: Non-Sunni Muslims and Faith Communities between Orthodoxy, Heterodoxy and Secularism
Alicia Allgäuer and Thomas Schmidinger
5. Islamic Communities in Yugoslav Countries: From their Formation in the Nineteenth Century to the Dissolution of Yugoslavia
Dunja Larise
6. Religion and State in Bosnia Herzegovina
Dino Abazović
7. Bosnian Islam? Islam and Muslims in Bosnia Herzegovina from a Historical Perspective
Esnaf Begić
8. Muslims and the State in Post-Socialist Croatia
Dino Mujadžević
9. Muslim Communities and Religious Freedom in Slovenia
Marinko Banjac and Anja Zalta
10. The Relationship between State and Islam in Hungary: From Empire-Building to Nation-State-Building
Krisztián Csaplár-Degovics
11. Czech and Slovak Muslims: A Long Way to their Own Islam Act
Štěpán Macháček
12. Islam and Muslims in the Successor States of the Austro-Hungarian Empire: The Case of Poland
Konrad Pędziwiatr
About the Contributors
Index
Publication Information
Edinburgh University Press and AKU-ISMC, Edinburgh, 2025
Series
Exploring Muslim Contexts
Volume
13
ISBN
9781399511353
Keywords
Central Europe, Habsburg Empire, Islam in Europe, Muslims in Europe, Post-Habsburg, religious minorities
Recommended Citation
Adak, Sevgi and Thomas Schmidinger, eds (2025), The Beautiful Game on a Muslim Pitch: How Football and Religion are Shaping Identity and Society. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press and AKU-ISMC.
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The title's ebooks are available both as Open Access pdf and epub.