ABSTRACT
Yugoslav intellectuals, as well as politicians, continue to view the origins of the South Slavs, their settlement patterns, and their political conditions as central to a consideration of the legitimacy of contemporary territorial and political demands. Serb and Croat claimants are currently attempting to carve out their own realms at the expense of the Bosnian Muslims, a national group once relatively unknown except within Yugoslavia. The names Serb and Croat, not used meaningfully by Balkan inhabitants until the nineteenth century, were probably taken from later-arriving, possibly Iranian groups who were assimilated by the Slavs already in the Balkans during the seventh century. The Slavs and Avars gained and retained control of the Pannonian area of the Balkan Peninsula for three centuries, during which time many South Slavs fell into a sedentary existence, settling and cultivating the land. The Slavs had settled widely throughout the Balkans, breaking the land tie between Constantinople and the few remaining Romanized cities in Dalmatia.
