The Activities of the Orthodox Community of Mostar under the Ottoman Rule (Based on Materials from Russian Sources)

Abstract

One of the forms of self-organization of the Orthodox population in the Ottoman Empire were church/church-school communities, which had fairly broad autonomous rights, which was additionally confirmed by the provisions of the Sultan's decree of 1856 on reforms in the Empire. A strong and influential Orthodox community has been functioning in the main city of Herzegovina,´Mostar, since 1835. A special agreement was concluded between the community and the Metropolitan of Herzegovina, which gave the Orthodox Mostarians the right to solve important problems themselves and significantly limited the “power” of the Metropolitan. There is quite a lot of information about the Mostar Orthodox community in the writings of contemporaries: natives  of Mostar Prokopii Čokorilo, Joanikije Pamučina, Jovan Pičeta, as well as the Russian diplomat and traveler Aleksander Hilferding. A lot of information about the situation in the community and its numerous projects is contained in the archival heritage of the Russian diplomatic mission in Mostar and other Russian archives, not all of these materials have been introduced into scientific circulation. The Orthodox community of Mostar had a great influence on the life and appearance of the city: the majestic Orthodox holy Trinity cathedral was erected, men's and women's schools were opened, and a seminary was planned to open. The documents revealed in the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire allow us to study in more detail the history of the implementation of the above-mentioned projects, the problems they faced, financial and diplomatic support provided by Russia to Orthodox Mostarians.