Bosnia Province, Ottoman Empire
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The Province of Bosnia was a key Ottoman province, the westernmost one, based on the territory of the present day state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
During the Ottoman times it was both a single sanjak, and after 1580 a pashaluk divided into several sanjaks.
In the mid-17th century, at the peak of its size, the Bosnian pashaluk covered all of today's Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as most of Slavonia, Lika and Dalmatia in present-day Croatia. It encompassed eight sanjaks and 29 captaincies (military outposts):
- sanjak of Požega (2 military captaincies)
- sanjak of Bosnia (7 captaincies)
- sanjak of Bihać (4 captaincies)
- sanjak of Krk or Lika (7 captaincies)
- sanjak of Klis (4 captaincies)
- sanjak of Herzegovina (4 captaincies)
- sanjak of Zvornik
- sanjak of Cernik
However, the Ottoman wars in Europe continued and the province significantly decreased in territory during the same century. After the Treaty of Karlowitz, the province was down to four sanjaks (three of them diminished in size as well) and twelve captaincies. Before the Treaty of Passarowitz, another 28 military captaincies were formed, more than half of them along the frontier. This kind of intensive military administration corresponded to the Austrian Military Frontier on the other side of the same border.