Kulin issued the first written document in Bosnia in 1189.

Ban Kulin (1163-1204) was a powerful Bosnian monarch who ruled from 1180 to 1204, the second semi-independent Bosnian ban.

His rule is often remembered as Bosnia's golden age, and he is a common hero of national folk tales. With the exception of a single military raid against the Byzantine Empire in 1183, Bosnia was in peace throughout his rule. In Kulin's times, the term Bosnia encompassed roughly the lands of Vrhbosna, Usora, Soli, Donji Kraji and Rama, which is approximately equivalent to most of modern Bosnia.

Kulin was aligned with the Bosnian Church, so much that the duke of Zeta and Duklja Vukan Nemanjić reported him to the Pope in 1199 for the heresy. The Catholic Church had the Kingdom of Hungary pressure Kulin about this matter, and subsequently in 1203 he organized a congress in Bilino Polje where he officially declared his allegiance to the Catholic Church and denounced the heresy.

The Charter of Kulin is a symbolic "birth certificate" of Bosnian statehood, as it is the first written document that talks of Bosnian borders (between the rivers of Drina, Sava and Una) and of the elements of the Bosnian state: its ruler, throne and political organization.

See also

• List of rulers of Bosnia