ioan,.....
there wasnt bogumils in medieval bosnia, but there was a christian sect who called themselves "Krstjani" , which just simply means christians. yes, they were a heretic sect, and have often been confused with the bogumils, but the followers of this sect were made up of bosnian catholic dissidents.
at the time of the "krstjani" sect , medieval bosnia was all catholic, besides the krstjani sect follwers. there were no orthodox there, only catholics and the followers of the krstjani sect, who were originally catholics to begin with.
also it is to note that most of the followers of the krstjani sect mostly converted back to catholicism before the arrival of the turks. those that didnt were the first bosnians to convert to islam upon ottoman arrival.
now,.....
which tribe did the bosnian peoples belong to?......
they belong to the tribe of croats. the whole region of bosnia (not herzegovina) was part of the croatian kingdom for 400 years before the formation of the kingdom of bosnia.
croats settled and ruled bosnia before serbs. serbs at the time were centred around the raska area.
when the kingdom of bosnia formed, it was formed by the inhabitants who were already living there, which were made of catholic locals of the croat tribe. they made their own kingdom in the area of central and eastern bosnia, because the locals didnt want to be under hungarian rule, since a croatian queen married into the hungarian royal family, which therefore caused croatian lands to come under joint hungarian rule, and once she died, direct hungarian rule.
so croats from the area of central and eastern bosnia, formed their own kingdom, because they didnt want to come under hungarian domination, and later their kingdom expanded west and north to aquire more croat populated lands. also the name bosna, came from a river which flowed through the area, and thats why the croat locals at that time called their kingdom as bosna. it wasnt a name for the region before then. before , it was simply just a part of the roman province of dalmatia, which the croat peoples were givwn the right to settle and rule by the byzantines , in reward for defeating the avars.
bosnia = historically croat lands
our famous king tomislav fought with his men, a major battle against bulgarians, and that battleground was in eastern bosnia. the bulgarians were subsequently defeated, and croatian rule was maintained at the time.
serb influence in bosnia came later, well into the time when the bosnian kingdom was already established. they gained influence by serbian nobles and royals from raska, marrying into bosnian royalty and nobility.
also in the later stages of the bosnian kingdom, it became such a strong entity in the region that it aquired lands in duklja/zeta, hercegovina and raska, which were previously under serb control. so because of this, alot of lands where serbs settled, or had been assimilated into serbdom or orthodoxy were now a part of the bosnian kingdom's territory. so that is where the serb equation comes into bosnia.
also to mention, hercegovina and central&southern montenegro were originally catholic croat lands, which was made up of local dukedoms called:
1.) travunija
2.) zahumlije
3.) duklja
4.) paganija or land of the neretljani/narentines or narentania
this lands were known as "crvena hrvatska" or "red croatia"
all of them were catholic , but the neretljani stayed keeping pagan slavic religion for a long time, but eventually accepted catholicism. thats why that land was called paganija, moreso by others than themselves. they just simply called themselves neretljani, named after the neretva river.
so these lands eventually were conquered by raska later, and then there was a subsequent forced conversion to serbian orthodox church and assimilation of the locals.
serbs didnt even migrate to these lands, rather they assimilated the croat locals by force to make them become part of serbdom after conquering these lands.
so with that being said, the serbs real homeland was raska, and central& southern serbia, and parts of macedonia (fyrom)
bosnia was originally croat lands, and the medieval bosnians were catholic and of the croat tribe.
now nationality is a different thing.
i would say that the nationality of bosnians was bosnian, since they were subjects of the bosnian kingdom, that was their nationality, and what they were identied as to differentiate between croats who lived outside the kingdom's borders.
so it wasnt an ethnic identity, but rather a nationality.
it was only made into an ethnic identity today from the muslims of bosnia.
i guess since the muslims accepted ottoman rule and converted to their religion, they did not associate with the other locals who were christians who despised ottoman rule. so the muslims of bosnia felt close only with their masters , the turks, and once the ottoman empire fell, they did not feel like part of the bosnian croat community there, even though they were the same people, nor did they fell part of the serb community in bosnia, so they rather just opted to call themselves bosnians, based on their history and connection with the land.
contrary to what bosnian muslims would like to believe, there was no bosniak tribe/ethnicity that existed. neither slavic, nor illyrian. nor was there any type of identity with bosnia before the bosnian kingdom. the name was just simply a name of a river that flowed through there and nothing else, which was used by the catholic croat locals to name their kingdom. that is all.
ethnic bosniak identity was only made up in the 20th century