Violence and its Impact on Loyalty and Identity Formation in Late Ottoman Kosovo: Muslims and Christians in a Period of Reform and Transformation1

Abstract

In this paper, the interdependency of various forms of violence and identity formation processes in late Ottoman Kosovo will be analysed. The paper will demonstrate that within different contexts of violence, identity and loyalty were constructed and increasingly exclusive forms of identities were fostered. These were, though, not national, but showed rather traditional patterns. Violence shaped everyday life regardless of religion, within the framework of customary law, vendetta, notions of honour and manhood, but also within the framework of everyday violence motivated by economic hardships. More important it strengthened feelings of otherness to a very high degree in religious categories. Here it is possible to distinguish several factors. Religious barriers between the different population groups were enforced by an increase in violence as a consequence of the Ottoman reform policy (tanzimat, late-Hamidian reforms). War related violence constituted the most significant impact on identity formation in Kosovo. Here not only wars that directly touched Kosovo (Russian-Ottoman War 1877–1878, First Balkan War 1912–1913), but also wars outside the region between the Ottoman Empire and Christian states, played an important role.