Serbia Religious Records

Europe Serbia

History
In the 15th century, during the Ottoman rule of the Balkans, Sunni Islam established itself in the territories of Serbia, mainly in southern regions of Raška, Preševo, and Bujanovac, as well as in the disputed territory of Kosovo and Metohija. The Muslims in Serbia are mostly ethnic Bosniaks and Albanians. There were, according to the 2011 census, 228,658 Muslims in Serbia, comprising about 3% of the total population, excluding Kosovo.

Record Types and Contents
Muslims did not record vital events, except perhaps deaths, on an religious level. Little information is available on their record keeping practices. It is likely that the only vital records for Muslims were civil records. These records were usually kept by the Sharia Courts. Muslims usually kept civil records of marriages, but records of births and deaths may also have been kept. Very probably one would find the oldest such records in Bosnia-Herzegovina. When the Yugoslav state was founded in 1918, church registers were recognized as valid records for the state; only for Muslims was civil registration conducted. Further information on Muslim registration has yet to be investigated.