Classification of Displacees among Croats during The Ottoman Peril (from 1463 till 1593)

• Main Author: Ivan Jurković
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies 2003-09-01
• Series: Migracijske i Etniĉke Teme
• Subjects: Ottoman threat; zones of war peril; Croatian displacees; fugitives; refugees; exiles
• Online Access: http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/11912
• ISSN: 1333-2546; 1848-9184

After a brief survey of war circumstances in Croatian medieval lands following Bosnia’s surrender to Ottoman rule in 1463, basic sociological typology of displaced persons and findings revealed by historical scholarship regarding the Croatian Diaspora resulting from the Ottoman war threat, the author highlights the fact that the basic classification of the migrant population into different types of displacees was made according to the levels of war peril to which they had been exposed in their domicile areas. He states that the endangered, not excluding the already occupied area, may be divided into three levels of war peril, which in different ways influenced the behaviour of the threatened population and their decision to abandon domicile territory during the extended period of Ottoman pressure on medieval Croatian lands. The exact moment of departure often depended on the interest and will of each individual to defend spiritual values, social positions, and inherited wealth. The author emphasises that it was this ever-present threat upon the indigenous population which contributed to the creation of a very refined glossary of different terms for displacees in the Croatian language. By the end of the 16th century, this glossary differentiates between four basic groups of displaced persons: fugitives, refugees, exiles, and renegades. Moreover, the author points to the fact that the thesaurus of terms for displacees in the languages of those nations giving shelter to the displacees, was developed exactly from such origin and was, as a rule, very simple in comparison to the mere descriptive vocabulary used by the displacees themselves. Similar to the 16th century German thesaurus, which used only two different terms (Fluchtig for a refugee and Vertrieben for a displaced person), a modern terminology of international institutions taking care of people displaced by force is limited to only two terms (refugees and displacees).