Bosnia Province, Ottoman Empire

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This article is about a Province of Bosnia. For other uses of the term Bosnia, see Bosnia (disambiguation).

The Province of Bosnia was a key Ottoman province, the westernmost one, based on the territory of the present day state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

During the Ottoman times it was both a single sanjak, and after 1580 a pashaluk divided into several sanjaks.

In the mid-17th century, at the peak of its size, the Bosnian pashaluk covered all of today's Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as most of Slavonia, Lika and Dalmatia in present-day Croatia. It encompassed eight sanjaks and 29 captaincies (military outposts):

Ottoman Province of Bosnia in 1606

sanjak of Požega (2 military captaincies)
sanjak of Bosnia (7 captaincies)
sanjak of Bihać (4 captaincies)
sanjak of Krk or Lika (7 captaincies)
sanjak of Klis (4 captaincies)
sanjak of Herzegovina (4 captaincies)
sanjak of Zvornik
sanjak of Cernik, Croatia

However, the Ottoman wars in Europe continued and the province significantly decreased in territory during the same century. After the Treaty of Karlowitz, the province was down to four sanjaks (three of them diminished in size as well) and twelve captaincies. Before the Treaty of Passarowitz, another 28 military captaincies were formed, more than half of them along the frontier. This kind of intensive military administration corresponded to the Austrian Military Frontier on the other side of the same border. Province of Bosnia's first center was Sarajevo (Saraybosna) between 1463 and 1583 again 1851 and 1878, after Banjaluka (Banyaluka or Banaluka) between 1583 and 1686; and Travnik between 1686 and 1851.