Chapter 6 TOWARDS SECULARITY Autonomy and Modernization of Bosnian Islamic Institutions under Austro-Hungarian Administration d Zora Hesová Bosnian Islam has been intensely debated as a possible model for a future Islam of Europe. Te idea arises from the fact that Bosnian Muslims belong to the communities with the longest history in Europe, but even more so, it is rooted in the Bosnian Muslim tradition, which is seen by some – Bosniaks and other Europeans alike – as a source of inspiration for nascent Muslim communities in Europe (Bougarel 2007, van Dijk Bartels 2012, Alibašić 2010). Te peculiarity of Bosnian Islam lies not only in Bosniaks’ status as the only autonomous Slavic Muslim community on European soil but, above all, it can be found in the Bos- nian version of religious modernity: Bosnian Islamic representatives consistently claim the possibility of (and even the desirability of ) leading Islamic religious life within a modern secular state. One of the sources of such a claim is the histori- cal legacy of Bosnia and Hercegovina’s first encounter with European modernity within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Between 1878 and 1918, the Habsburg Monarchy not only brought about the rapid modernization of the administra- tion, infrastructure and economy of the province, but it also sought to regulate its relations with the Bosnian Muslims by institutionalizing the Islamic community as well as its economic, legal and educational systems. Moreover, the Austro- Hungarian occupation led to a two-way process in which the nascent Bosnian