Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Middle Ages

This is the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Middle Ages, between the ancient and Roman period and the Ottoman period.

The western Balkans had been reconquered from "barbarians" by Byzantine Emperor Justinian (r. 527–565). Sclaveni raided the western Balkans, including Bosnia, in the 6th century. Slavs settled throughout the Balkans, scholarship maintaining that a second wave was invited by Emperor Heraclius to drive the Avars from Dalmatia. In the Early Middle Ages, the bulk of Bosnia proper was a territory between Serb and Croat rule. Bosnia is first mentioned as a land (horion Bosona) in Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus' De Administrando Imperio in the mid 10th century, at the end of a chapter (Chap. 32) entitled "Of the Serbs and the country in which they now dwell". This has been scholarly interpreted in several ways and used especially by the Serb national ideologists to prove Bosnia as originally a "Serb" land. Other scholars have asserted the inclusion of Bosnia into Chapter 32 to merely be the result of Serbian Grand Duke Časlav's temporary rule over Bosnia at the time, while also pointing out that Porphyrogenitus does not say anywhere explicitly that Bosnia is a "Serb land". In fact, the very translation of the critical sentence in which the word Bosona (Bosnia) appears is subject to varying interpretation. Bosnia at that time was located around the river Bosna in the modern-day fields of Sarajevo and of Visoko. This area had previously been the land of the Daesitiates. It included two inhabited cities according to DAI, "Katera" (later Vrhbosna) and "Desnik" (unclear). The Byzantines restored control in the area at the end of the 10th century, while Bulgaria had a short-lived overlordship until 1019 when Basil II restored control.

In time, Bosnia became separated under its own ruler. Bosnia, along with other territories, became part of Duklja in the 11th century, although it retained its own nobility and institutions.Constantine Bodin placed his relative, Stephen, as governor of Bosnia. After Bodin's death in 1101, discords erupted, and by the end of the 12th century, Bosnia would find itself completely detached from Duklja. Some attempts to reunite Bosnia and Duklja were made, especially by king Kočopar (1102–1103) of Duklja who forged an alliance with Bosnia against Rascia and Zahumlje, but utterly failed with his death.

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