Prior to the introduction of Islam to the Balkans, the Bosnian church was famous for burying their dead under stecci (seen right). According to Nenad Djurdjević, “Stećaks are massive above ground monuments made of rock, which are placed above an entire grave in the shape of a slab or coffin” (p.5). Tens of thousands of these curious stone crypts appear all over Bosnia and Herzegovina and usually date back to the Middle Ages.  While seemingly pagan in nature, some have been found boasting the form of cross and crescent, potentially indicating the influence of both Christianity and Islam in the founding of Sarajevo by the Ottomans in 1461.

    Once control over the Balkans was relinquished to the Ottomans, cemeteries were religiously segregated and typically found in small walled off lots by mosques and churches as well as on the heights surrounding the city. Rather than bury their loved ones in rows, as is the custom in most other parts of the world, the Sarajevan burial custom stressed the individuality of the dead. In Sarajevo Marlboro, Miljenko Jergović notes that in an attempt to differentiate each burial, graves were sporadically lotted off to accentuate the individual significance of those buried (2004: p. 97).

    This tradition would change during the mid-1990’s as the war progressed. The numbers of the dead would strain both the mental fortitude of the inhabitants and the burial space available to a city under siege. Sarajevans were soon forced by necessity to burry their dead in rows losing the centuries old traditions focused on individual significance.