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Bosniaks (natively: Bošnjaci), previously known as Ethnical Muslims of Yugoslavia, are Slavs who were converted to Islam during the Ottoman period (15th-19th century). Bosniaks are named after Bosnia, the westernmost Balkan region held by the Turks. Most Muslim inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina declare themselves ethnically Bosniak, and also some Muslims of Serbia and Montenegro (in the Sandžak region).
Note that other Muslims of the Balkans aren't Bosniaks; rather, they're Albanians and Turks.
There are conflicting claims on how the population in Bosnia was converted to Islam. A large segment of Bosnian population at the time were members of an indigenous Bosnian Church (krstjani, "Christians") and were considered heretics by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, and they are said to have willingly embraced Islam.
Many Christian children became Muslims by getting forcibly enrolled as janjičari into the Ottoman army. Janjičari, however, had no right to marry until 1566, and before and after that were used throughout the Ottoman Empire; their descendants do not comprise a major part of Bosniak population.
Economically, at the end of the Ancient Regime, the Bosnian Muslims were the majority of the landlords, with Christians being peasants.
Being part of Europe and influenced not only by the oriental but also by the occidental culture, Bosnian Muslims are considered to be some of the most advanced Islamic peoples of the world. The nation takes pride in the melancholic folk songs sevdalinke, the precious medieval filigree manufactured by old Sarajevo craftsmen, and a wide array of traditional wisdoms that are carried down to newer generations by word of mouth, and in recent years written down in numerous books.
In 1993 Congress of Bosnian Muslim Intellectuals declared that the Muslim name was inappropriate because it denotes a religious rather than ethnical group, and thus the name Bosniaks should be used. Bosniaks became a constitutional cathegory in 1996.