page_title: Religion in Kosovo
section_title: Islam
hierarchical_section_title: Religion in Kosovo / History / Islam
context_page_description: Religion in Kosovo is separated from the state. The Constitution establishes Kosovo as a secular state that is neutral in matters of religious beliefs and where everyone is equal before the law and freedom to belief, conscience and religion is guaranteed.
context_section_description: After victory at the Battle of Kosovo (1389), the Ottoman Empire imposed Islamic rule on the region. Conversion was not obligatory, but had several financial, social and political benefits. Until the sixteenth century the degree of Islamisation in Kosovo was minimal, and largely confined to urban centres. The pace of conversions to Islam only increased significantly in the second half of the sixteenth century, possibly because converts thus became exempt from the cizje, a tax levied only on non-Muslims. By 1634, the majority of Kosovo Albanians had converted to Islam, although a minority remained Catholic. Besides the ethnic Albanians, and the ruling Turks who settled in Kosovo, the Roma and some part of the Slavic-speaking population (later called the Bosniaks and/or Gorani, to distinguish them from the Orthodox Serbs) also became Muslims, by far most of them Sunni, although small a minority of Shia Muslims formed in the countryside. By the end of the 17th century, the Islamic population started to outnumber the Christians.
caption: The Sinan Pasha Mosque in Prizren was completed in 1615.
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