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| Dušan Krajina | |
|---|---|
| Name | Dušan Krajina |
| Birth date | 1940s |
| Birth place | Sarajevo, Yugoslavia |
| Occupation | Academic, historian, author |
| Alma mater | University of Sarajevo |
| Employer | University of Sarajevo |
| Known for | Bosnian medieval studies, Ottoman-period archival research |
Dušan Krajina
Dušan Krajina is a Bosnian historian and academic notable for his work on medieval Bosnia, Ottoman-era administration, and archival documentation of Balkan history. He has been affiliated with the University of Sarajevo, contributed to regional historiography alongside scholars at the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Austro-Hungarian Archives, and participated in international collaborations with institutions such as the British Institute at Ankara, the Institute for Balkan Studies, and the International Congress of Byzantine Studies. His scholarship bridges primary-source analysis from the Ottoman Archives with comparative studies referencing the Republic of Ragusa, the Kingdom of Hungary, and the Byzantine Empire.
Krajina was born in Sarajevo within the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia and grew up during the post-war period shaped by the legacies of the Axis occupation and the formation of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He completed secondary schooling during an era when regional intellectual life intersected with institutions such as the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Gazi Husrev-beg Library. Krajina earned degrees at the University of Sarajevo where mentors included leading historians connected to projects with the Yugoslav Historical Society and the Bosnian Cultural Center. His doctoral research drew on archival material from the Ottoman Archives in Istanbul and manuscript collections in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze and the Austrian State Archives in Vienna.
Krajina joined the faculty of the University of Sarajevo in the 1970s, participating in departments that interfaced with the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo and collaborating with scholars from the University of Zagreb, the University of Belgrade, and the Central European University. He served on editorial boards for journals linked to the Institute for History Sarajevo and the Historical Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Throughout his career he took visiting fellowships at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History, and the University of Oxford's research centers, contributing to conferences hosted by the European Association of Southeast Asian Studies and the International Committee of Historical Sciences.
Krajina’s research focused on medieval Bosnian polity, feudal structures, and the transformation of administrative frameworks under the Ottoman Empire. He employed primary sources from the Habsburg Monarchy records, the Dubrovnik State Archives, and the Sanjak registers to analyze land tenure, taxation, and legal pluralism in the Western Balkans. His monographs and articles engaged with topics tied to the Banate of Bosnia, the Kotromanić dynasty, and relations with the Kingdom of Serbia and the Kingdom of Croatia. Krajina published in journals associated with the Slavic Review, the Journal of Ottoman Studies, and regional periodicals produced by the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. His editions of diplomatic correspondence and translated Ottoman documents were used by colleagues at the University of Ljubljana and the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
He contributed chapters to collective volumes on medieval Balkan diplomacy alongside contributions that dialogued with scholarship on the Council of Constance, the Crusades, and Venetian diplomacy involving the Republic of Venice. Krajina’s methodological approach combined paleographic analysis with comparative legal history referencing sources from the Papal Archives, the Imperial Chancery of Vienna, and the Serbian Orthodox Church registers.
As a professor, Krajina supervised doctoral dissertations that examined topics intersecting with archives in Istanbul, Zagreb, and Dubrovnik, mentoring students who later joined faculties at the University of Mostar, the University of Novi Sad, and research institutes like the Centre for Southeast European Studies. His courses covered the histories of the Balkans, Ottoman institutions, and diplomatic relations involving the Habsburgs and the Sultanate of the Ottoman Empire. He organized seminars in collaboration with the British Museum scholars and coordinated fieldwork programs that took students to sites such as Stari Most and medieval fortifications catalogued by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Krajina received recognition from national and regional bodies including honors from the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and awards linked to the Yugoslav Historical Society. He was granted fellowships by institutions such as the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and received research grants from the European Research Council-affiliated projects and cultural programs administered by the Council of Europe. His editorial work earned prizes from publishing houses associated with the University of Sarajevo Press and cross-border acknowledgments from the Croatian Historical Institute.
Krajina lived in Sarajevo through periods marked by the Bosnian War and post-conflict cultural reconstruction, engaging with preservation efforts alongside organizations such as UNESCO and the International Council on Monuments and Sites. His legacy persists in archival editions and in curricula at institutions like the University of Sarajevo and regional history departments, influencing scholarship on medieval Balkan states and Ottoman provincial governance. Students and colleagues remember his emphasis on primary-source rigor and connections to broader European historiographical debates involving figures and entities like the Habsburgs, the Byzantine Empire, and the Republic of Ragusa.
Category:Bosnia and Herzegovina historians Category:University of Sarajevo faculty