“It wouldn’t be accurate to say that the Bosniaks ‘converted,’ Fiko,” Raif said. “The Bogomil sect had a lot in common with Islam in any case. As you know, the Ottoman Empire was established in the lands of Asia Minor known as Anatolia. Even as the Turks were staging incursions, they’d begun trickling into the Balkans as migrants. In a sense, those first settlers from Anatolia were part of the propaganda efforts for the Ottoman conquest. Before sending in the army, they sent dervishes to win over the local people.”
