an expedient means of keeping control of the often
restless population. During World War II, Serbians
and Croats massacred Muslims, and the latter
retaliated in kind. Muslims suffered additionally
under the antireligious policies adopted by the
Marxist Yugoslavian regime of Marshall Tito (Josip
Broz, 1892–1980). For a period, mosques were
closed, children were denied religious instruction,
and no teachers of Islam could be trained. In reac-
tion, a Muslim revival was noticeable in the 1960s
identified with nationalistic aspirations as much as
religious sentiments.
The Yugoslavian Federation fell apart in 1991.
Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its indepen-
dence. However, the effort to build a Bosnian state
was opposed by Serbians residing in the north
and eastern parts of the country. In attempting to
avoid the dissolution of the country, the Bosnian
president Alija Izetbegovic (1925–2003) promised
that the new country would not evolve into an
Islamic state (in contradiction to a position he had
earlier advocated) and assured the rights of the
Christian minorities. The guarantees, however,
did not stop Serbians allied with troops of the
former Yugoslav Federation from starting a civil
war. The Bosnian war became one of the bloodi-
est experiences of the region. Serbian forces, with
the support of the government in Belgrade, which
had publicly disavowed its involvement, carried
out a number of massacres in pursuit of a policy
of “ethnic cleansing.” The worst of the massacres
occurred in 1995 in Srebrenica, where thousands
of Muslims were slaughtered. Such actions led to
the postwar arrest of many of the Serbian leaders
as war criminals.
The war ended in December 1995 with the
signing of the Dayton Agreement, which included
a new constitution for the country recognizing
the three distinct groups within its borders and
assigning to each a set of specific rights and repre-
sentations in the new government.
See also christianity and islam; eUrope; otto-
man dynasty.
J. Gordon MeltonFurther reading: Norman Cigar, Genocide in Bosnia:
The Policy of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ (College Station: Texas
A&M University Press, 1995); Robert Donia and John
Fine, Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Tradition Betrayed (New
York: Columbia University Press, 1994); John Fine, The
Bosnian Church: A New Interpretation (Boulder, Colo.:
East European Quarterly, 1975); H. T. Norris, Islam in
the Balkans: Religion and Society between Europe and the
Arab World (Columbia: University of South Carolina
Press, 1993); Mark Pinson, ed., The Muslims of Bosnia-
Herzegovina: Their Historic Development from the Middle
Ages to the Dissolution of Yugoslavia (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1993).Brethren of Purity
The Brethren of Purity (Ikhwan al-safa), or True
Friends, were a group of 10th-century Muslim
intellectuals who compiled a remarkable philo-
sophical and scientific encyclopedia in Arabic
known as Essays of the Brethren of Purity (Rasail
ikhwan al-safa). According to some accounts, the
original author was supposed to be a venerated
figure such as ali ibn abi talib (d. 661) or JaaFar
al-sadiq (d. 765), but scholars are skeptical about
this. Rather, there is general agreement among
scholars that the encyclopedia was the product
of a philosophical movement in Basra, iraq, that
was influenced by Ismaili (Seven-Imam) Shiism
and sUFism. The members of this movement were
from the elite learned class in Abbasid society.
What is most notable about the encyclopedia is
that it contains a synthesis of major traditions of
learning that flourished in the Middle East at the
time when the culture of the abbasid caliphate
(750–1258) was at its height. It combined Islamic
thought with other traditions of knowledge that
had originated in the cultures of the ancient Medi-
terranean region and in ancient India and Persia
and that were later inherited by Muslims. Thus,
the work recognized the previous intellectual and
ethical achievements of Greek, Jewish, Christian,
Hindu, and Buddhist cultures. Because of its
cosmopolitan outlook, conservative Sunni Ulama
condemned it.Brethren of Purity 115 J