hips in
Yugoslavia, particularly in Croatia and Slovenia was so great and deafening
that it decisively affected the homogenization of the Serbian people around
the new power holders
The raising of the Serbian question in Yugoslavia had the entire
country seething, which soon proved to exceed ideological differences and
shades in the interpretation of Tito's way ', disputes between advocates of
socialism with a human face ' and adherents of the dogmatic line The
ideological screen suddenly collapsed, forbidden political subjects
inundated the press, reexaminations of the interpretations of contemporary
history began, justifications of the existing organization, showing that the
national question was being opened anew on which depended the survival of
the country's present political, ideological and state organization
Serbia found itself in a paradoxical situation, to have its national
interests saved by the communist party - the chief culprit of all its
troubles The process of the growth of the communist leadership into the
patron of the mother nation's national interests had been implemented under
Tito's rule since the late 60's by all the leaderships except the Serbian
one When, because of the conflicts in Kosovo and Metohia, this took place in
Serbia, processes instigated by the detante, Perestroika and Glasnost, which
heralded the advent of the post-communist epoch, were already under way in
Europe. What had not been possible during Tito's reign was being implemented
by Serbian communists seven years since his death: in the still communist
Southeastern and Eastern Europe, political wills and national aspirations
could only be expressed through the communist party. Communism emerged as a
protector of the national interests of the Serbs at a time when, ahead of
growing democratic processes in the entire international public, it must
have appeared anachronous. Thanks to the dangerous identification of the
people and leadership, Serbia, due to measures implemented by the communists
in their protection of the endangered national and human rights of Serbs and
the state territory in Kosovo and Metohia, was soon branded in the
international public opinion as a state of undemocratic and aggressive
communist repression.
The situation in Kosovo continued to deteriorate. Clashes between the
police and ethnic Albanian secessionists did not stop, while the province
institutions, from the police and judiciary, to finances and the economy,
were still controlled by the local ethnic Albanian bureaucracy which,
supported by the other Yugoslav national-communist lites (particularly
Slovenian and Croatian), resisted the demands of "inner Serbia". The
measures undertaken by the new Serbian authorities in Kosovo again proved to
be a neocommunist delusion on the possibility of an ideological partnership
to overcome the existing national conflicts, and that police and economic
measures can stop a strong national movement in which all ideological
differences began to disappear. The former Marxists and Leninists of Enver
Hoxha's type began to adapt to the new political trends in the Eastern and
Southeastern European countries which were paved by the Soviet Perestroika
and Glasnost, endeavoring to win the sympathies of the foreign public by
advocating reforms in socialism and presenting the nationalist conflict in
the light of a struggle for human rights. Every new ethnic Albanian
leadership, appointed with approval from Belgrade, proved unfit to curb and
disinclined to condemn the nationalist movement of its people. Subversions
in Serbia's northern Vojvodina province and in Montenegro, which returned to
its Serbian identity, were directly provoked by the Kosovo and Metohia
question, and the new balance of political forces in the party helped Serbia
retrieve its say in the matter concerning its provinces. The congruity of
these events nearing the 600th anniversary of the battle of Kosovo (1989),
the Serbs' main national holiday, consolidated the authority of the new
leadership in Serbia in which the people, unaccustomed to differences in
political opinion, gave priority to the saving of national territory. With
the disintegration of the Titoist order in Yugoslavia fresh uprisings broke
out in Kosovo and Metohia followed by bloody clashes with the police,
strikes and diversions which, after an attempt by the communist assembly in
Kosovo, in which ethnic
Albanians predominated, resulted in the abolition of the state of
Kosovo and the introduction of a state of emergency, after the proclamation
of the Albanian state of Kosovo in during 1990.
The failure of the Serbian communists in late eighties to comprehend
the extent of the international repercussions of the ethnic strife in
Yugoslavia, and pretentious in the worst Titoistic manner, incapacitated an
active communication of Serbia with the centers of political and economic
power in the world. Due to a negative view of "Serbia's Bolshevik
repression", the aggressive and Orientally brutal ethnic Albanian national
movement in Kosovo and Metohia was able to present its goals as an authentic
and pacific movement of an unusually numerous ethnic minority (it accounts
for 15-20% of Serbia's population) which is striving to realize its
legitimate human and social rights. However, open support extended to the
Democratic Alliance of Kosovo (a party which rallies ethnic Albanians in
Kosovo) by the new communist leader of Albania, Ramiz Aliu (both before and
after the first democratic elections in Albania), with considerable
participation by agents of the Albanian secret service Sigurimi in the
organization of strikes and armed conflicts (some 200-400 Albanian agents
were infiltrated into Yugoslavia in 1990 alone), clearly reveals that a
centuries-long ethnic, national and inter-state conflict cannot be justified
by ideological differences or a human rights struggle. The fact that the
ethnic Albanian question in Kosovo and Metohia is not in reality an issue of
ideological differences and human rights is evident from the stands of
Serbian opposition parties which are waging a bitter struggle with the
former communists and present socialists for the democratization of the
country. They are all willing to negotiate with the leadership of the ethnic
Albanian national movement about all controversial issues except the one on
which the ethnic Albanian side insists: the change of the state borders of
Serbia and Yugoslavia.5 The ethnic Albanians' refusal to take
part in the December 1990 multi-party elections and be registered in the
regular Yugoslav census (April 1991) shows the unwillingness of their
leadership to find a democratic solution.
1 S. Hasani, Kosovo. Istine i zablude, Zagreb 1985, p, 175
2 Cf Albanians and their territories Tirana 1985
3 Sta i kako dalje na Kosovu. Dalja drustveno politicka aktivnost SSRNJ
u realizaciji politicke platforme za akciju SKJ u razvoju socijalistickog
samoupravljana, bratstva i jedinstva i zajednistva na Kosovu Beograd 1985,
Cf documents on Serbian complaints in Noc oporih reci. Kompletan stenogram o
svemu sto se govorilo na zboru u Kosovu Polju u noci izmedju 24. i 25.
aprila 1987. Specijalno izdanje Borba, maj 1987.
4 K. Magnusson The Serbian Reaction Kosovo and Ethnic Mobilization
Among the Serbs Nordic Journal of Soviet & East European Studies vol. 4
3 (1987) pp. 3 30, A Dragnich, The Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia The Omen of
the Upsurge of Serbian Nationalism in East European Quarterly vol. XXIII No
2 (1989) pp. 183 198, Cf A. Jeftic, Od Kosova do Jadovna Beograd 1988; idem,
Stradanja Srba na Kosovu i Metohiji od 1941 do 1990, Pristina 1990; R
Stojanovic, Ziveti s genocidom, Hronika kosovskog bescasca, Beograd 1989; A
Djilas (ed.), Srpsko pitanje, Beograd 1991
5 Demokratija, 3. 08. 1990.
Continuity and discontinuity
Ethnic intolerance between the Albanians and Serbs, deepened by
centuries of confrontation, was expressed through religious intolerance
(Albanians as Moslems and Serbs as Christians in the Ottoman Empire),
acquiring at the turn of the 20th century vague contours of a national
conflict. Unequal degrees of national integration provoked additional
tensions in the old conflict: while the Serbs conceived the renewal of their
state in the 1804 national revolution, and gained independence in 1878
(Serbia and Montenegro), the Albanians were the last in Europe to begin an
organized national movement in 1878 through a small in number national
elite, but even then with deep social and religious differences which were
not surmounted, not even after the proclamation of the Albanian state in
1912, nor in the interwar period. The national integration of the Serbs,
though incomplete, stopped in 1918 with the creation of the Kingdom of
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, in which the majority of Serbs lived in one
state and conceded their national ideology to institutions of Yugoslav
character. Discontinuity in the development of the Serbian national
movement, deepened during the 1941-1945 war, turned under communist rule
into a 50-year-old vacuum whose effects on the protection of primary
national interests proved almost fatal. The Albanian national integration
had continuity, as opposed to the Serbian one. The young, aggressive and
expansive national movement, closed within itself, developed without a
standstill, regardless of whether it was lead by feudal lords, outlaws,
foreign patrons, Albanian or Yugoslav communists. In a society which
harmoniously accepted both in Albania and Yugoslavia the ideological monism
of xenophobic isolation which suited its internal tribal structure and a
certain intolerance that was racial as well as ethnic. After receiving
political asylum in France, the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare pithily
explained the nature of the internal resistance of the Albanian society to
all ideological challenges. "Communism has not really penetrated into the
depths of Albanian society. The Albanians are, as it were, racists: they
consider those who do not share their moral customs amoral, as the classic
Greeks considered other peoples Barbarians. This racism probably played a
role in the Albanian resistance to socialism."1 From this
perspective, the depth of the conflict and the mutual misunderstanding of
Serbs and Albanians is shown in brighter light. However, it is important to
note that in this centuries-old conflict to which their seems no end, in the
second half of the 20th century Albanians in Kosovo and Metohia won crucial
support from Yugoslav communists to the detriment of Serbs.
1 Ismail Kadare Interview in Le Monde, 26. 10. 1990. 34
PART ONE: HISTORY AND IDEOLOGY
KOSOVO AND METOHIA
A HISTORICAL SURVEY
In the thousand year long-history of Serbs, Kosovo and Metohia were for
many centuries the state center and chief religious stronghold, the
heartland of their culture and springwell of its historical traditions. For
a people who lived longer under foreign rule than in their own state, Kosovo
and Metohia are the foundations on which national and state identity were
preserved in times of tribulation and founded in times of freedom .
The Serbian national ideology which emerged out of Kosovo's
tribulations and Kosovo's suffering (wherein the 1389 St. Vitus Day Battle
in Kosovo polje occupies the central place), are the pillars of that grand
edifice that constitutes the Serbian national pantheon. When it is said that
without Kosovo there can be no Serbia or Serbian nation, it's not only the
revived 19th century national romanticism: that implies more than just the
territory which is covered with telling monuments of its culture and
civilization, more than just a feeling of hard won national and state
independence: Kosovo and Metohia are considered the key to the identity of
the Serbs. It is no wonder, then, that the many turning-points in Serbian
history took place in the and around Kosovo and Metohia. When the Serbs on
other Balkan lands fought to preserve their religious freedoms and national
rights, their banners bore as their beacon the Kosovo idea embodied in the
Kosovo covenant which was woven into folk legend and upheld in uprisings
against alien domination. The Kosovo covenant - the choice of freedom in the
celestial empire instead of humiliation and slavery in the temporal world -
although irrational as a collective consciousness, is still the one
permanent connective tissue that imbues the Serbs with the feeling of
national entity and lends meaning to its join efforts.1
1 Cf. D. Slijepcevic, Srpsko-arbanaski odnosi kroz vekove posebnim
osvrtom na novije vreme, (Himelstir 1983); D. Bogdanovic, Knjiga o Kosovu,
Beograd 1985; Zaduzbine Kosova, (Prizren-Beograd 1987); Kosovo i Metohija u
srpskoj istoriji, (Beograd 1989);German translation: Kosovo und Metochien in
der serbishen Geschichte, (Lausanne 1989); Kosovo. Proslost i sadasnjost,
Beograd 1989 English translation: Kosovo. Past and present, (Belgrade 1989).
R. Mihaljcic, The Battle of Kosovo in History and in Popular Tradition,
(Belgrade 1989).
The Age of Ascent
Kosovo and Metohia, land lying in the heart of the Balkans where viutal
trade routes had crossed since ancient times, was settled by Slav tribes
between the 7th and 10th centuries. The Serbian medieval state, which under
the Nemanjic dynasty (12th to 14th century) grew into a major power in the
Balkan peninsula, developed in the nearby mountain regions, in Raska (with
Bosnia) and in Duklja (later Zeta and then Montenegro). The center of the
Nemanjic slate moved to Kosovo and Metohia after the fall of Constantinople
(1204). At its peak, in the early the 14th century, these lands were the
richest and the most densely populated areas, as well as state and its
cultural and administrative centers.1
In his wars with Byzantium, Stefan Nemanja conquered various parts of
what is today Kosovo, and his successors, Stefan the First Crown (became
king in 1217), expanded his state by including Prizren. The entire Kosovo
and Metohia region became a permanent part of the Serbian state by the
beginning of the 13th century. Soon after becoming autocephalous (1219), the
Serbian Orthodox Church moved its seat to Metohia. The heirs of the first
archbishop Saint Sava (prince Rastko Nemanjic) built several additional
temples around the Church of the Holy Apostles, lying the ground for what
was to become the Patriarchate of Pec. The founding of a separate
bishophoric (1220) near Pec was indicative of the region's political
importance growing along with religious influence. With the proclamation of
the empire, the patriarchal throne was permanently established at the Pec
monastery in 1346. Serbia's rulers alotted the fertile valleys between Pec,
Prizren, Mitrovica and Pristina and nearby areas to churches and
monasteries, and the whole region eventually acquired the name Metohia, from
the Greek metoch which mean an estate owned by the church.
Studded with more churches and monasteries than any other Serbian land,
Kosovo and Metohia became the spiritual nucleus of Serbs. Lying at the
crossroads of the main Balkan routes connecting the surrounding Serbian
lands of Raska, Bosnia, Zeta and the Scutari littoral with the Macedonia and
the Morava region, Kosovo and Metohia were, geographically speaking, the
ideal place for a state and cultural center. Girfled by mountain gorges and
comparatively safe from outside attacks, Kosovo and Metohia were not chosen
by chance as the site for building religious centers, church mausoleums and
palaces. The rich holdings of Decant monastery provided and economic
underpinning for the wealth of spiritual activities in the area. Learned
monks and religious dignitaries assembled in large monastic communities
(which were well provided for by the rich feudal holdings), strongly
influenced the spiritual shaping of the nation, especially in strengthening
local cults and fostering the Orthodox doctrine.
In the monasteries of Metohia and Kosovo, old theological and literary
writings were transcribed and new ones penned, including the lives of local
saints, from ordinary monks and priors to the archbishops and rulers of the
house of Nemanjic. The libraries and scriptoria were stocked with the best
liturgical and theoretical writings from all over Byzantine commonwealth,
especially with various codes from the monasteries of Mounth Athos with
which close ties were established. The architecture of the churches and
monasteries developed and the artistic value of their frescoes increased as
Serbian medieval culture flourished, and by the end of the 13th century new
ideas applied in architecture and in the technique of fresco painting
surpassed the traditional Byzantine models. With time, especially in
centuries to come, the people came to believe that Kosovo was the center of
Serbian Orthodoxy and the most resistant stronghold of the Serbian
nation.2
The most important buildings to be endowed by the last Nemanjices were
erected in Kosovo and Metohia, where their courts which became their
capitals were situated. From King Milutin to emperor Uros, court life
evolved in the royal residences in southern Kosovo and Prizren. There rulers
summoned the landed gentry, received foreign legates and issued charters.
The court of Svrcin stood on the banks of Lake Sazlia, and it was there that
Stefan Dusan was crowned king in 1331. On the opposite side was the palace
in Pauni, where King Milutin often dwelled. The court in Nerodimlje was the
favourite residence of King Stefan Decanski, and it was at the palace in
Stimlje that emperor Uros issued his charters. Oral tradition, especially
epic poems, usually mention Prizren as emperor Dusan's capital, for he
frequently sojourned there when he was still king.3
Among dozens of churches and monasteries erected in medieval Kosovo and
Metohia by rulers, ecclesiastical dignitaries and the local nobility, Decani
outside of Pec, built by Stefan Uros III Decanski, stands out for its
monumental size and artistic beauty. King Milutin left behind the largest
number of endowments in Kosovo, one of the finest of which is Gracanica
monastery (1321) near Pristina, certainly the most beautiful medieval
monument in the Balkans. The monasteries of Banjska dear Zvecan (early 14th
century) and Our Lady of Ljeviska in Prizren (1307), although devastated
during Ottoman rule, are eloquent examples of the wealth and power of the
Serbian state at the start of the 14th century. Also of artistic importance
is the complex of churches in Juxtaposition to the Patriarchate of Pec. The
biggest of the royal endowments, the Church of the Holy Archangels near
Prizren, erected by Tsar Stefan Dusan in the Bistrica River Canyon, was
destroyed in the 16th century.4
Founding chapter whereby Serbian rulers granted large estates to
monasteries offer a reliable demographic picture of the area. Fertile plains
were largely owned by the large monasteries, from Chilandar in Mount Athos
to Decant in Metohia. The data given in the charters show that during the
period of the political rise of Serbian state, the population gradually
moved from the mountain plateau in the west and north southward to the
fertile valleys of Metohia and Kosovo. The census of monastic estates evince
both a rise in the population and appreciable economic progress. The estates
of the Banjska monastery numbered 83 villages, and those of the Holy
Archangels numbered 77.5
Especially noteworthy is the 1330 Decani Charter, with its detailed
list of households and of chartered villages. The Decant estate was an
extensive area which encompassed parts of what is today northwestern
Albania. Historical analysis and onomastic research reveal that only three
of the 89 settlements were mentioned as being Albanian. Out of the 2,166
farming homesteads and 2,666 houses in cattle-grazing land, 44 were
registrated as Albanian (1,8%). More recent research indicates that apart
from the Slav, i.e. Serbian population in Kosovo and Metohia, the remaining
population of non-Slav origin did not account for more than 2% of the total
population in the 14th century.6
The growing political power, territorial expansion and economic wealth
of the Serbian state had a major impact on ethnic processes. Northern
Albania up to the Mati River was a part of the Serbian Kingdom, but it was
not until the conquest of Tsar Dusan that the entire Albania (with the
exception of Durazzo) entered the Serbian Empire. Fourteenth century records
mention mobile Albanian mobile cattle sheds on mountain slopes in the
imminent vicinity of Metohia, and sources in the first half of the 15th
century note their presence (albeit in smaller number) in the flatland
farming settlements.
Stefan Dusan's Empire stretched from the Danube to the Peloponnese and
from Bulgaria to the Albanian littoral. After his death it began to
disintegrate into areas controlled by powerful regional lords. Kosovo and
parts of Metohia came under the rule of King Vukasin Mrnjavcevic, the
co-ruler of the last Nemanjic, Tsar Uros. The earliest clashes with the
Turks, who edged their way into Europe at the start of the 14th century,
were noted during the reign of Stefan Dusan. The 1371 battle of the Marica,
near Crnomen in which Turkish troops rode rougshod over the huge army of the
Mrnjavcevic brothers, the feudal lords of Macedonia, Kosovo and neighboring
regions, heralded the decisive Turkish invasion of Serbian lands. King
Vukasin's successor King Marko (the legendary hero of folk poems, Kralyevich
Marko) recognized the supreme authority of the sultan and as vasal took part
in his campaigns against neighboring Christian states. The Turkish onslaught
is remembered as the apocalypse of the Serbian people, and this tradition
was cherished during the long period of Ottoman rule. During the Battle of
the Marica, a monk wrote that "the worst of all times" had come, when "the
living envied the dead".7
Unaware of the danger that were looming over their lands, the regional
lords tried to take advantage of the new situation and enlarge their
holdings. On the eve of the battle of Kosovo, the northern parts of Kosovo
where in possession of Prince Lazar Hrebeljanovic, and parts of Metohia
belonged to his brother-in-law Vuk Brankovic. By quelling the resistance of
the local landed gentry, Prince Lazar eventually emerged as the most
powerful regional lord and came to dominate the lands of Moravian Serbia.
Tvrtko I Kotromanic, King of Bosnia, Prince Lazar's closest ally, aspired to
the political legacy of the saintly dynasty as descendant of the Nemanjices
and by being crowned with the "dual crown" of Bosnia and Serbia over St.
Sava grave in monastery Mileseva.8
The expected clash with the Turks took place in Kosovo polje, outside
of Pristina, on St. Vitus day, June 15 (28), 1389. The troops of Prince
Lazar, Vuk Brankovic and King Tvrtko I, confronted the army of Emir Murad I,
which included his Christian vassals. Both Prince Lazar and emir Murad were
killed in the head-on collision between the two armies (approximately 30,000
troops on both sides). Contemporaries were especially impressed by the
tidings that twelve Serbian knights (most probably led by legendary hero
Milos Obilic) broke through the tight Turkish ranks and killed the emir in
his tent.9
Military-wise no real victor emerged from the battle. Tvrtko's
emissaries told the courts of Europe that the Christian army had defeated
the infidels, although Prince Lazar's successors, exhausted by their heavy
losses, immediately sought peace and conceded to became vassals to the new
sultan. Vuk Brankovic, unjustly remembered in epic tradition as a traitor
who slipped away from the battle field, resisted them until 1392, when he
was forced to become their vassal. The Turks took Brankovic's lands and gave
them to a more loyal vassal, Prince Stefan Lazarevic, son of Prince Lazar
thereby creating a rift between their heirs. After the battle of Angora in
1402, Prince Stefan took advantage of the chaos in the Ottoman state. In
Constantinople he received the title of despot, and upon returning home,
having defeated Brankovic's relatives he took control over the lands of his
father. Despite frequent internal conflicts and his vassal obligations to
the Turks and Hungarians, despot Stefan revived and economically
consolidated the Serbian state, the center of which was gradually moving
northward. Under his rule Novo Brdo in Kosovo became the economic center of
Serbia where in he issued a Law of Mines in 1412.10
Stefan appointed as his successor his nephew despot Djuradj Brankovic,
whose rule was marked by fresh conflicts and finally the fall of Kosovo and
Metohia to the Turks. The campaign of the Christian army led by Hungarian
nobleman Janos Hunyadi ended in 1448 in heavy defeat in a clash with Murad
II's forces, again in Kosovo Polje. This was the last concertive attempt in
the Middle Ages to rout the Turks out of this part of Europe.11
After the Fall of Constantinople (1453), Mehmed II the Conqueror
advanced onto Despotate of Serbia. For some time voivode Nikola Skobaljic
offered valiant resistance in Kosovo, but after a series of consecutive
campaigns and lengthy sieges in 1455, the economic center of Serbia, Novo
Brdo fell. The Turks then proceeded to conquer other towns in Kosovo and
Metohia four years before the entire Serbian Despotate collapsed with the
fall of new capital Smederevo. Turkish onslaught, marked by frequent
military raids, the plunder and devastation of entire regions, the
destruction of monasteries and churches, gradually narrowed down Serbian
state territories, triggering off a large-scale migration northwards, to
regions beyond reach to the conquerors. The biggest migration took place
from 1480-1481, when a large part of the population of northern Serbia moved
to Hungary and Transylvania, to bordering region along the Sava and Danube
rivers, where the descendants of the fleeing despots of Smederevo resisted
the Turks for several decades to come.12
1 For a more complete picture of Kosovo and Metohia's medieval past
see: D. Kojic-Kovacevic, Kosovo od sredine XII do sredine XV veka, in:
Kosovo nekad i sad (Kosova dikur e sot), (Beograd 1973), pp. 109-128; S.
Cirkovic, Kosovo i Metohija u srednjem veku, in: Kosovo i Metohija u srpskoj
istoriji, pp. 21-45 (with earlier bibliography)
2 R. Samardzic, Kosovo i Metohija: uspon i propadanje srpskog naroda,
in: Kosovo i Metohija u srpskoj istoriji, pp. 6-10; D. Bogdanovic, Rukopisno
nasledje Kosova in: Zbornik okruglog stola o naucnom istrazivanju Kosova,
Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, Naucni skupovi, vol. XLII, Belgrade
1988, pp. 73-80. For more details see: Istorija srpskog naroda, vol. I
(Belgrade 1981).
3 S. Cirkovic, Vladarski dvorci oko jezera na Kosovu, in: Zbornik
Matice srpske za likovne umetnosti, 20 (1984), pp. 72-77.
4 V. S. Jovanovic, Arheoloska istrazivanja srednjovekovnih spomenika i
nalazista na Kosovu, in: Zbomik okruglog stola o naucnom istrazivanju
Kosova, pp. 17-66.
5 D. Bogdanovic, Knjiga o Kosovu, pp. 34-39; Zaduzbine Kosova, pp.
313-358.
6 D. Bogdanovic, Knjiga o Kosovu, pp. 39-41; S. Cirkovic, Kosovo i
Metohija u srednjem veku, pp. 34-36. More details in: B. Ferjancic, Les
Albanais dans les sources byzantines, in: Iliri i Albanci, Serbian Academy
of Sciences and Arts, Naucni skupovi vol. XXXDC (Belgrade 1988), pp.
303-322; S. Cirkovic, Les Albanais la lumiere des sources historiques des
Slaves du Sud, ill: Iliri i Albanci, pp. 341-359.
7 D. Bogdanovic, Knjiga o Kosovu, pp. 75. More details in: R.
Mihaljcic, Kraj Srpskog Carstva, Boj na Kosovu II, (Belgrade 1989).
8 S. Cirkovic, Istorija srednjovekovne bosanske drzave, (Beograd 1964),
pp. 133-140.
9 S. Cirkovic, Kosovo i Metohija u srednjem veku, pp. 39-41.
10 M. Purkovic, Knez i despot Stefan Lazarevic, (Beograd 1978).
11 Ibid. More details: R. Mihaljcic, Lazar Hrebeljanovic. Istorija,
kult, predanje, Boj na Kosovu II, (Belgrade 1989).
12 Istorija srpskog naroda, vol. II (Beograd 1982), pp. 260-265; D.
Bogdanovic, op. cit. p. 72.
The Age of Tribulation
For the Serbs as Christians, their loss of state independence and fall
to the Ottoman Empire's kind of theocratic state, was a terrible misfortune.
With the advent of the Turks and establishment of their rule, the lands of
Serbs were forcibly excluded from the circle of progressive European states
wherein they occupied a prominent place precisely owing to the Byzantine
civilisation, which was enhanced by local qualities and strong influences of
the neighboring Mediterranean states. Being Christians, the Serbs became
second-class citizens in Islamic state. Apart from religious discrimination,
which was evident in all spheres of everyday life, this status of rayah also
implied social dependence, as most of the Serbs were landless peasants who
paid the prescribed feudal taxes. Of the many dues paid in money, labor and
kind, the hardest for the Serbs was having their children taken as tribute
under a law that had the healthy boys, taken from their parents, converted
to Islam and trained to serve in the janissary corps of the Turkish army.
An analyse of the earliest Turkish censuses, defters, shows that the
ethnic picture of Kosovo and Metohia did not alter much during the 14th and
15th centuries. The small-in-number Turkish population consisted largely of
people from the administration and military that were essential in
maintaining order, whereas Christians continued to predominate in the rural
areas. Kosovo and parts of Metohia were registrated in 1455 under the name
Vilayeti Vlk, after Vuk Brankovic who once ruled over them. Some 75,000
inhabitants lived in 590 registrated villages. An onomastic analysis of
approximately 8,500 personal names shows that Slav and Christian names were
heavily predominant.1
Along with the Decani Charter, the register of the Brankovic region
shows a clear division between old-Serbian and old-ethnic Albanian
onomastics, allowing one to say, with some certainty which registrated
settlement was Serbian, and which ethnically mixed. Ethnic designations
(ethnic Albanian, Bulgarian, Armenian, Greek) appeared repeatedly next to
the names of settlers in the region. More thorough onomastic research has
shown that from the mid-14th to the 15th centuries, individual Albanian
settlements appeared on the fringes of Metohia, in-between what had until
then been a density of Serbian villages. This was probably due to the
devastation wrought by Turks who destroyed the old landed estates, thus
allowing for the mobile among the population, including ethnic Albanian
cattlemen, to settle on the abandoned land and establish their settlements,
which were neither big nor heavily populated.2
A summary census of the houses and religious affiliations of
inhabitants in the Vucitrn district (sanjak), which encompassed the one-time
Brankovic lands, was drawn in 1487, showed that the ethnic situation had not
altered much. Christian households predominated (totalling 16,729, out of
which 412 were in Pristina and Vucitrn): there were 117 Muslim households
(94 in Pristina and 83 in rural areas). A comprehensive census of the
Scutari district offers the following picture: in Pec (Ipek) there were 33
Muslim and 121 Christian households, while in Suho Grlo, also in Metohia,
Christians alone lived in 131 households. The number of Christians (6,124)
versus Muslim (55) homes in the rural areas shows that 1% of the entire
population bowed to the faith of the conqueror. An analysis of the names
shows that those of Slav origin predominated among the Christians. In Pec,
68% of the population bore Slav names, in the Suho Grlo region 52%, in Donja
Klina region 50% and around monastery of Decani 64%.
Ethnic Albanian settlements where people had characteristic names did
not appear until one reached areas outside the borders of what is today
Metohia, i.e. west of Djakovica. According to Turkish sources, in the period
from 1520 to 1535 only 700 of the total number of 19,614 households in the
Vucitrn district were Muslim (about 3,5%), and 359 (2%)in Prizren district.
In regions extending beyond the geographic borders of Kosovo and
Metohia, in the Scutari and Dukagjin districts, Muslims accounted for 4,6%
of the population. According to an analysis of the names in the Dukagjin
district's census, ethnic Albanian settlements did not predominate until one
reached regions south of Djakovica, and the ethnic picture in the 16th
century in Prizren and the neighboring areas remained basically
unchanged.3
A look at the religious affiliation of the urban population shows a
rise in the Turkish and local Islamized population. In Prizren, Kosovo's
biggest city, Muslims accounted for 56% of the households, of which the
Islamized population accounted for 21%. The ratio was similar in Pristina,
where out of the 54% Muslim population 16% were converts. Pec also had a
Muslim majority (90%), as did Vucitrn (72%). The Christians compromised the
majority of the population in the mining centers of Novo Brdo (62%), Trepca
(77%), Donja Trepca and Belasica (85%). Among the Christians was a
smattering of Catholics. The Christian names were largely from the calendar,
and to a lesser extent Slav (Voja, Dabiziv, Cvetko, Mladen, Stojko), and
there were some that were typically ethnic Albanian (Prend, Don, Din,
Zoti).4
After the fall of Serbia in 1459, the Pec Patriarchate soon ceased to
work and the Serbian eparchies came under the jurisdiction of the Hellenic
Ochrid Archbishophoric. In the first decade following Turkish conquest, many
large endowments and wealthier churches were pillaged and destroyed, while
some turned into mosques. The Our Lady of Ljeviska Cathedral in Prizren was
probably converted into a mosque right immediately following the conquest of
the town; Banjska, one of the grandest monasteries dating from the age of
King Milutin, suffered the same fate. The Church of the Holy Archangels near
Prizren, Stefan Dusan's chief endowment was turned into ruins. Most of the
monasteries and churches were left unrenewed after being devastated, and
many village churches were abandoned. Many were not restored until after the
liberation of Kosovo and Metohia in 1912. Archeological findings have shown
that some 1,300 monasteries, churches and other monuments existed in the
Kosovo and Metohia area. The magnitude of the havoc wrought can be seen from
the earliest Turkish censuses: In the 15th and 16th centuries there were ten
to fourteen active places of Christian worship. At first the great
monasteries like Decani and Gracanica, were exempt from destruction, but
their wealthy estates were reduced to a handfull of surrounding villages.
The privileges granted the monastic brotherhoods by the sultans obliged them
to perform the service of falconry as well.5
The restoration of the Pec Patriarchate in 1557 (thanks to Mehmed-pasha
Sokolovic, a Serb by origin, at the time the third vizier at the Porte)
marked a major turn and helped revive the spiritual life of the Serbs,
especially in Kosovo and Metohia. Mehmed-pasha Sokolovic (Turkish:
Sokollu) enthroned his relative Makarije Sokolovic on the patriarchal
throne. Like the great reform movements in 16th century Europe, the
restoration of the Serbian Orthodox Church meant the rediscovery of lost
spiritual strongholds. Thanks to the Patriarchate, Kosovo and Metohia were
for the next two centuries again the spiritual and political center of the
Serbs. On an area vaster than the Nemanjic empire, high-ranking
ecclesiastical dignitaries revived old and created new eparchies endeavoring
to reinforce the Orthodox faith which had been undermined by influences
alien (particularly by Islamic Bekteshi order of dervishes) to its authentic
teachings.
Based on the tradition of the medieval Serbian state, the Pec
Patriarchate revived old and established new cults of the holy rulers,
archbishops, martyrs and warriors, lending life to the Nemanjic heritage.
The feeling of religious and ethnic solidarity was enhanced by joint
deliberation at church assemblies attended by the higher and lower clergy,
village chiefs and hajduk leaders, and by stepping up a morale on the
traditions of Saint Sava but suited to the new conditions and strong
patriarchal customs renewed after the Turkish conquest in the village
communities.
The spiritual rebirth was reflected in the restoration of deserted
churches and monasteries: some twenty new churches were built in Kosovo and
Metohia alone, inclusive of printing houses (the most important one was at
Gracanica): many old and abandoned churches were redecorated with
frescoes.6
Serbian patriarchs and bishops gradually took over the role of the
one-time rulers, endeavoring with assistance from the neighboring Christian
states of Habsburg Empire and the Venetian Republic, to incite the people to
rebel. Plans for overthrowing the Turks and re-establishing an independent
Serbian state sprang throughout the lands from the Adriatic to the Danube.
The patriarchs of Pec, often learned men and able politicians, were usually
the ones who initiated and coordinated efforts at launching popular
uprisings when the right moment came. Patriarch Jovan failed to instigate a
major rebellion against the Turks, seeking the alliance of the European
Christian powers assembled around Pope Clement VII. Patriarch Jovan was
assassinated in Constantinople in 1614. Patriarch Gavrilo Rajic lived the
same fate in 1659 after going to Russia to seek help in instigating a
revolt.
The least auspicious conditions for an uprising were actually in Kosovo
and Metohia itself. In the fertile plains, the non-Muslim masses labored
under the yoke of the local Turkish administrators, continually threatened
by marauding tribes from the Albanian highlands. The crisis that overcome
the Ottoman Empire in the late 16th century further aggrovated the position
of the Serbs in Kosovo, Metohia and neighboring regions. Rebellions fomented
by cattle-raising tribes in Albania and Montenegro, and the punitive
expeditions sent to deal with them turned Kosovo and Metohia into a bloody
terrain where Albanian tribes, kept clashing with detachments of the local
authorities, plundered Christian villages along the way. Hardened by
constant clashes with the Turks, Montenegro gradually picked