[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-143803-en":3,"doc-seo-143803-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":95},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":11,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},143803,1374391975076,"Riley","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/14000253ca4ec9f6853?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1783305029341752051",2,"Literature","The Bridge on the Drina - Introduction by William H. McNeill","William H. McNeill’s introduction frames Ivo Andrić’s The Bridge on the Drina as a uniquely powerful work of twentieth-century fiction, notable for presenting Ottoman civilization without a conventional heroic protagonist. It interprets the bridge as a central symbol for the rise and collapse of Ottoman rule in Bosnia, while sketching the region’s medieval and early-modern religious transformations. The text also outlines historical background—Bosnia’s position between Christendom, Bogomil heritage, Ottoman conquest, and the institutional role of Bosnian Muslims in the empire’s military and administration.","I.C,  \nIVO ANDRIĆ THE BRIDGE ON THE DRINA  \nTranslated from the Serbo-Croat by LOVETT F. EDWARDS  \nWith an Introduction by WILLIAM H. MCNEILL Originally published in 1945  \nTranslation © George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1959 Phoenix Edition /977  \nISBN: 0-226-02045-2  \nPrepared and formatted by nepalifiction, TPB, 2014  \nINTRODUCTION  \nWilliam H. McNeill  \nThe committee that awarded the Nobel prize for literature to Ivo Andric in 1961 cited the epic force of The Bridge on the Drina, first published in Serbo-Croat in 1945, as justification for its award. The award was indeed justified if, as I believe, The Bridge on the Drina is one of the most perceptive, resonant, and well-wrought works of fiction written in the twentieth century. But the epic comparison seems strained. At any rate, if the work is epic, it remains an epic without a hero. The bridge, both in its inception and at its destruction, is central to the book, but can scarcely be called a hero. It is, rather, a symbol of the establishment and the overthrow of a civilization that came forcibly to the Balkans in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries and was no less forcibly overthrown in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. That civilization was Ottoman—radically alien to, and a conscious rival of, both Orthodox Russia and the civilization of western Europe. It was predominantly Turkish and Moslem, but also embraced Christian and Jewish communities, along with such outlaw elements as Gypsies. All find a place in Andric's book; and with an economy of means that is all but magical, he presents the reader with a thoroughly credible portrait of the birth and death of Ottoman civilization as experienced in his native land of Bosnia.  \nNo better introduction to the study of Balkan and Ottoman history exists, nor do I know of any work of fiction that more persuasively introduces the reader to a civilization other than our own. It isan intellectual and emotional adventure to encounter the Ottoman world through Andric's pages in its grandoise beginning and at its tottering finale. Every episode rings true, from the role of terror in fastening the Turkish power firmly on the land to the role of an Austrian army whorehouse in corrupting the old ways. No anthropologist has ever reported the processes of cultural change so sensitively,- no historian has entered so effectively into the minds of the persons with whom he sought to deal. It is, in short, a marvelous work, a masterpiece, and very much sui generis.  \nPerhaps a few remarks about Bosnia and its history may be helpful for readers who approach this work without prior acquaintance with the Balkan scene. Bosnia is a mountainous region in the central part of Yugoslavia. Today it is one of the constituent republics of that federal state. In medieval times it broke away from the Kingdom of Serbia in a.d. 960 and thereafter became more or less independent, though perpetually subject to rival jurisdictional claims because of its borderland position between Orthodox and Latin Christendom. In the twelfth century, the ruler of Bosnia sought to assert a fuller independence by becoming a Bogomil. This was a religion, related to Manichaeism, that spread also to western Europe where it was  \nknown as Albigensianism. Many Bosnians followed their ruler's example, remaining heretics in the eyes of their Christian neighbors until after the Turkish conquest, when nearly all of the Bogomils became Moslem. As a result, about one-third of the population of Bosnia is Moslem today, eventhough they speak a Slavic language, Serbo-Croat, as their ancestors had done back to Bogomil days.  \nThe Turks conquered Bosnia between 1386 and 1463. Conversion to Islam proceeded rather rapidly, especially among the land-owning families of Bosnia; and with religious conversion went a cultural transformation that made Bosnia an outpost of Ottoman civilization. From the fifteenth century onwards, Bosnian military manpower reinforced Ottoman armies. Year after year, Mo","cbCailYqCBczymb8","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCailYqCBczymb8","pdf",2505721,1,324,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Nobel prize context and epic perspective\n## Ottoman civilization in Bosnia\n## Background: Bosnia, Bogomils, and religious change\n## Ottoman conquest, conversions, and institutions\n## The bridge’s construction and historical foundation","[{\"question\":\"Why does McNeill call The Bridge on the Drina an unusually resonant twentieth-century fiction work?\",\"answer\":\"He cites the novel’s epic force and craftsmanship, arguing that it vividly portrays the birth and death of Ottoman civilization in Bosnia through credible episodes and intricate cultural change.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the bridge represent in the book, according to the introduction?\",\"answer\":\"The bridge symbolizes the establishment and overthrow of a civilization—specifically Ottoman civilization in Bosnia—rather than serving as a traditional heroic figure.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the introduction explain Bosnia’s religious and cultural shifts before and after Ottoman rule?\",\"answer\":\"It describes medieval Bosnia’s border position between Orthodox and Latin Christendom, the spread of Bogomilism, and how after the Turkish conquest many Bogomils became Muslim, leading to a lasting Ottoman cultural transformation.\"},{\"question\":\"What historical foundation does McNeill link to the bridge’s construction?\",\"answer\":\"He states that Andrić’s account is historically grounded in the career of Muhammad Sôkôllu (Sokolović), who became grand vizier and governed the empire from 1565 until 1579.\"}]","The Bridge on the Drina - Introduction by William H. 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