Identifier: turkhislostprovi00curt ()
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med—thosewho have merited death because of unbelief, but havepurchased permission to live by paying tribute.Western Christians do not appreciate the religiousheroism which the poor peasants, not of Bosnia only,but of Bulgaria, Macedonia and other parts of theBalkans, have displayed during all the centuries thatthey have suffered from the persecution of the Turks.They have lived in daily dread of martyrdom, for theMohammedans consider that they do no wrong whenthey kill a Christian. Nevertheless the Greeks andthe Roman Catholics clung to their faith when theymight at any moment have secured safety, prosperityand position by recanting and accepting the religionof their oppressors. The same may be said of theJews, who actually increased in numbers under persecu-tion because emigrants came from Roumania, wherethey suffered even more from the Christians than inBosnia from the Turks. Since the Austrian occupation there has been a largeinvasion of Jewish traders, who have been attracted by
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AN EXAMPLE OF ADMINISTRATION 299 the commercial opportunities. But, curiously enough,the old Jewish families will have nothing to do withthe newcomers. They are descendants of the Jewswho were driven out of Spain in 1574 and obtainedpermission from the Sultan of Turkey to settle inBosnia and Servia. They number altogether about7,000, and at least 3,000 live in Sarajevo. Theyspeak Spanish among themselves and have preservedtheir ancient customs and habits. Their burial-groundin a suburb of the city, on the slope of the MountainTrebevic, is an interesting place. Unhewn bouldersare used for tombstones, a practice which originatedwhen the Jews were too poor to buy anything better. The Bosnian Jews claim exemption from the perse-cution imposed upon the rest of their race on theground that they are descended from a member of theSanhedrin of Pilate, who voted against the crucifixionof Christ. The same claim is made by the Jews ofToledo, Spain. It is the prevailing impression that the Turks a

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