[citation needed] The descendants of those Muslim Croats established their Croatian Islamic Centre in Australia in 36 Studley St. Maidstone, Victoria[4] and the Croatian Mosque in Toronto, which is now named Bosnian Islamic Centre,[5] headed by Mr. Kerim Reis.

Permanent warfare during the Hundred Years' Croatian–Ottoman War (1493–1593) drastically reduced Croatian population in affected southeastern regions.

A part of the Croatian population managed to flee though, settling down in the northwestern regions of the country or abroad, in the neighbouring Hungary or Austria.

From the 16th to 19th century Turkish Croatia bordered Croatian Military Frontier (Croatian: Hrvatska vojna Krajina, German: Kroatische Militärgrenze), a Habsburg Empire-controlled part of Croatia, which was administered directly from Vienna's military headquarters.

[11] In 1553, Antun Vrančić, Roman cardinal, and Franjo Zay, a diplomat, visited Istanbul as envoys of the Croatian-Hungarian king to discuss a peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire.

During the initial ceremonial greetings they had with Rüstem Pasha Hrvat (a Croat) the conversation led in Turkish with an official interpreter was suddenly interrupted.

[citation needed] In 1585, a traveler and writer Marco A. Pigaffetta, in his Itinerario published in London, states: In Constantinople it is customary to speak Croatian, a language which is understood by almost all official Turks, especially military men.

Crucially though, the lingua franca at the time among Slavic elites in the Ottoman Empire was still Old Church Slavonic.

[13] The Ustaše recognized both Roman Catholicism and Islam as the national religions of the Croatian people while rejecting Orthodox Christianity as incompatible with their objectives[14] (with the exception of the Croatian Orthodox Church intended mainly to assimilate the Serb minority).

[16] Džafer-beg Kulenović was a Muslim who later became the vice-president of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) on 8 November 1941 and held the position until the war's end.