Contrary to earlier depictions of an Islamic city as religiously isolated and economically stagnant, Sarajevo's emergence as in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is emblematic of a unified new Muslim community whose conversion to Islam and booming socio-economic growth unified both the city and its hinterland. Primarily based on a wide array of Ottoman administrative sources, this dissertation builds on earlier studies of Sarajevo and other Ottoman cities to pursue two inter-related themes: the nature of popular conversion to Islam and the economic viability of the new faith community.;Acknowledging that the area's conversion to Islam may be partially explained by religious predisposition to Islam, the syncretic appeal of the Sufis, and the establishment of new religious institutions, this dissertation posits that social and economic incentives were also used. Numerous references to slaves can be found among Sarajevo's pious foundation, were largely responsible for promoting the city's rapid growth. A significant number of the slaves converted to Islam and later were manumitted. Many of these members held hereditary posts in the pious foundations, thus becoming part of the urban elite. In the countryside, Muslims pre-dominated rural elites from the initial Ottoman conquest onwards. The peasants and petty nobility converted much more gradually. Their steady conversion can be partially tied to the practice of disproportionately distributing bastina, a category of privately-held arable land to Muslims and Muslim converts.;Unsurprisingly, these new converts became critical participants in the city's newly emerging economy. The manumitted slaves who staffed the pious foundations often distributed cash credit at interest to the merchantry and urban notables, helping fuel further development. Bastina holders often used their privileges to sell their lands to the highest bidder. The state, which often sanctioned such purchases helped promote higher grain production and the expansion of urban elites into the countryside.;This picture of dynamic religious and socio-economic change reveals that Sarajevo was at least one case where the model of the Islamic city did not apply. Thus, this study is a basis for future comparisons to other cities in the Middle East and, perhaps, Central Europe.
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