Porte for the protection of the Decani laura. He warned that "since the last war until today we are more concerned with armed defense from the perpetual attacks of ethnic Albanians and Turks, and the papists [French Catholic missionaries], luring us by various wiles."2 Attestations of Serbian origin evincing the position of Christian Serbs in Metohia and Kosovo exhibit detailed portrayals of the horrifying pogroms. Attempts to draw attentions to the arduous sufferings of the Serbs with the sultan and the government of the Serbian Principality, the Russian court and the European public were particularly expressed by the learned Archimandrite Hadji Serafim Ristic, prior of the Visoki Decani monastery. When Grand Vizier Kirbizli Mehmed Pasha called on the European provinces of the empire in 1860, establishing order by punishing the insubordinate Christians at the borders, Hadji Serafim, together with local Serbian leaders, submitted to him people's complaints in Pristina. Their hopes that the vizier's visit would wield influence in curbing Albanian anarchy dispersed: the grand vizier saw the Christians only as rebels and malcontents.3 The Prior of Decani, however, did not abate in his attempts to help he people. His petitions to Sultan Abdulaziz, Russian Tzar Alexander II and Serbian Prince Mihailo contained lists of countless brutalities committed by ethnic Albanians upon the Serbian populace in Metohia. In the book Plac Stare Srbija (Wails of Old Serbia, Zemun 1864) - which he dedicated to the British pastor William Denton - aiming to demonstrate "that evil deeds committed by the Turks upon the rayah had gone one step too far", Ristic submitted a complaint to the sultan from 1860, in which he included several hundred examples of violence committed by ethnic Albanians over the Serbs - fires, plunders, murders, blackmail, fleecing, confiscation of property and cattle-raiding, raping of women and children, destroying churches and abusing priests and monks - naming the doers and victims. Addressing the sultan, the Archimandrite of Decani entreated that his quiet complaint "against brutal Albanian oppressors" be heard, for if they were not stopped, the Serbs would be compelled to leave their fatherlands wherever the sultan ordered: "Pec and the Pec nahi indescribably scourged day after day, with increasing evils on the part of ethnic Albanians, with no errors committed, God only knows why, afore the eyes of Your councils and pashas wailing upon their bitter destiny in bondage.'4 Russian diplomat and historian AF. Hilferding, while sojourning Metohia in 1858, penned numerous examples of oppression upon the Serbian inhabitants. He remarked that there were few parishioners in the Gorioc monastery, "all poor men horribly oppressed by the ethnic Albanians". He was convinced that Serbian Christians in Pec endured insults and injuries from the unbridled and hot-tempered ethnic Albanians every day, and that measures undertaken by the township chief (mudir) "who strives to bridle and punish the Albanian obstinacy" had no effect, since his small in number policemen (zaptijas) were drafted from Albanian lines: "What could one man with the best of intentions do against an armed mass ignorant of law and judgment, habituated to unlimited obstinacy and tyranny, in other words, as the local saying goes, one that fears God a bit, the Emperor not at all'."5 Almost exact observations on the position of Serbs in Old Serbia were noted by two Englishwomen, Miss Irby and Miss MacKenzie, in their famous traveling account of the Slavic countries of European Turkey. Their description on the position of ethnic Albanians in Pec reads: Their indifference to authority and the importance of the Porte is as harsh as their insolence and cruelty against the Christians. A Turkish mudir in Vucitrn complained to the two ladies that with a dozen zaptijas there was little he could accomplish against the self-will of ethnic Albanians: there are 200 Christian houses and 400-500 Muslim ones, so the ethnic Albanians do as they please. They seize from the Christians whatever and whenever they desire; so many times they would walk into a man's store, require some goods and then leave by simply saying they would pay another time, and often without saying as much. Even worse in the affair is their wholly savage, stupid and unrestrained living that retains the entire society to a state of barbarism and since the Christians receive no help against them and no education from Constantinople, they thus turn to Serbia for everything - to the Serbia of the past, inspiring themselves to enthusiasm by its memories, and to the Principality for hope, advice and enlightenment.6 Official reports of Yevgeny Timayev, the first Russian consul to Prizren - representative of the power that had been the traditional protector of Orthodox subjects in the Ottoman Empire - complete the picture of the situation in Metohia and the dimensions of suffering endured by the Serbian population in the second half of the sixties. At the end of 1866, Timayev reported on the severity of violences inflicted by ethnic Albanians of the Pec nahi. Devastating about a dozen Serbian villages, they murdered the male progeny and assaulted the women, and even desecrated the graves of their forefathers. In Pec, as cited by Timayev, government representatives aided the ethnic Albanians in their maltreatment of Serbian Christians: "They receive letters from Pec informing me that crimes committed by the ethnic Albanians are countless, that the destruction of the Christians is immeasurable and unexpressible, while the local Turkish authorities give assurance of peace, stating that nothing unusual is happening. These assurances cannot be trusted, by no means, because I have irreprovable evidence of an irregular and disquieting situation in the country."7 Parallel to the extent of oppression, observed Timayev, was the forceful colonization of ethnic Albanians to Old Serbia: "The Albanian people overmastering more and more of the lands they settle, and will perhaps soon play a role in the destiny of Europe, notwithstanding the current illiterate and almost savage condition of the majority. [...] Mass Albanian settlings of the Prizren sanjak meet with no obstacles. The Turkish government, it seems, would be very happy if there were no more Christians in the province, there is no way the Christians could withstand the Albanian deluge, since here they are small in number and very disunited [Orthodox and Catholics]. In normal circumstances one might say that upon one Christian come at least six Muslims ethnic Albanians, except in the western and southern outskirts of the Prizren sanjak."8 Reports of the Russian consul show that the position of Orthodox Serbs did not differ in regions to the other side of Mount Sara, in Tetovo, Debar, Ohrid, Prilep and the vicinity of Bitolj (Monastir). The pogroms of the Serbs in Metohia resulted in the dissipation of the Serbian population. Villages were most often the targets of violent inflictions. According to a research carried out by Ivan Stepanovich Yastrebov, between 1855 and 1860, twenty Serbian villages in the vicinity of Decani contained 165 houses, whereas their number in 1870 diminished to only 50 Serbian homes.9 At the beginning of the 70's, until the opening of the Eastern crisis and the Serbian-Ottoman wars, the position of Serbian inhabitants did not alter drastically. Even though there were no large Albanian moves nor Turkish campaigns, the Christian Serbs were confronted with high taxes, unpaid labor (kuluk), attacks and blackmail. The main targets were usually Serbian girls seized by ethnic Albanians who then forced them accept Islam. Religious intolerance and thirst for land and property were causes for much blackmail, conflagration estates and cattle raids. The custom of the ethnic Albanians was first to warn the Serbian family the property of which was to be arrogated, by leaving a bullet on the hearthrug. The choice was limited to evacuating the entire family, or, in case of resistance, killing the men and kidnapping or Islamizing the girls.10 1 Kosovo nekad i sad, 154; A. Lainovic, Prizrenski pasaluk polovinom XIX veka na osnovu izvestaja francuskih konzula u Skadru, Kosovo, 3 (1974), pp. 3-7. 2 Zaduzbine Kosova, pp. 613. 3 J. Hadzi-Vasiljevic, Srpski narod i turske reforme (1852-1862), Bratstvo, XV (1921), pp. 187-188. 4 Savremenici o Kosovu i Metohiji 1852-1912, pp. 20-21. The plea sent to the Russian tzar in 1859, to help the Decani brotherhood published in Decanski spomenici, Beograd 1864; ibid., pp. 423-426. 5 A. F. Giljferding, Putovanje po Hercegovini, Bosni i Staroj Srbiji, Sarajevo 1972, pp. 154-155,165. 6 Putovanje po slovenskim zemljama Turske u Evropi by G. Mjur Makenzijeve and A. P. Irbijeve, Beograd 1868, pp. 188, 210. 7 M. Seliscev, Slavianskoe naselenie v Albanii, Sofia 1931, pp. 7-10. 8 Ibid., pp. 43-46; D. Bogdanovic, Knjiga o Kosovu, pp. 134-136. 9 I. Jastrebov, Stara Serbia i Albanija, Spomenik SKA, XLI, 36 (1904), pp. 86. 10 V. Stojancevic, Prvo oslobodjenje Kosova od strane srpske vojske u ratu 1877-1878, in: Srbija u zavrsnoj fazi velike istocne krize (1877-1878), Beograd, 1980, pp. 461-462. J. Muller, Albanien, Rumelien und die Osterreichisch-montenegrinische Granze, Frag 1944; A. Ivic, Rumelijski vilajet u godini 1838, Prilozi za knjizevnost, jezik, istoriju i folklor, XIII, 1-2 (1933), pp. 117-126. An elaborate analysis of data provided by V. Stojancevic, Etnicke, konfesionalne i demografske prilike u Metohiji 1830-ih godina, Zbornik okruglog stola o naucnom istrazivanju Kosova, Beograd 1988, pp. 99-114. Population More detailed information concerning the number, ethnic and religious affiliation of the inhabitants of Kosovo and Metohia is contained in lists dating from the thirties of the 19th century.1 The traveling account of Joseph Muller, based on official Turkish data and personal inquiries, and a detailed roll of the Rumelian vilayet in 1838 from the Kriegsarchiv in Vienna provide a precise demographic and confessional picture of the population in Kosovo and Metohia:2
District Muslims Christians Total
Prizren 49,000 29,000 78,000
Pec 34,000 31,000 65,000
Djakovica 31,000 21,000 52,000
According to Muller, in Pec, 12,000 inhabitants lived in 2,400 houses, of which 130 were Orthodox and 20 Catholic. The Slavs comprised the majority of the population, 62 families were Turkish, 100 Albanian and 28 Tzintzar.3 Almost identical data on the populace in Pec is provided by the list of the War Archives in Vienna.4 Djakovica, according to Muller, had 21,050 inhabitants: 18,000 Muslim, 450 Catholic, 2,600 Orthodox. Among them 17,000 were Albanian, 3,800 were Slavic (Serbian), 180 were Turkish, and a few Tzintzar houses.5 In Prizren, as noted in the same source, 24,950 people inhabited 6,000 houses. Among them 4,000 were Muslim, 2,150 Catholic and 18,000 Orthodox. According to Muller's estimate, Serbs comprised 4/5, ethnic Albanians 1/6, Tzintzars 1/12 and Turks 1/60 with the military company.6 Thus, the ethnic composition, considering many among the Muslims in Metohia were of Serbian origin and spoke the Serbian language, and that among the Christians few were Albanian Catholics, the ethnic picture based on Muller's research would look like the following:
All town-dwelling Serbs All town-dwelling ethnic Albanians
Catholics Muslims Catholics Muslims
Pec 510 10,540 100 400
Djakovica 2,600 1,200 450 16,500
Prizren 16,800 - 2,150 4,000
All: 19,900 11,740 2,700 20,950
Total Serbs: 31,650 ethnic Albanian: 23,650
Based upon Muller's data, V. Stojancevic calculated the total number of village dwellers in three Metohian districts:7
district Muslims Christians
Pec 22,750 30,250
Djakovica 13,000 17,950
Prizren 44,400 8,050
Total: 80,150 56,250
The cited data exhibits that in Metohia, despite being the most endangered from violence, devastation and blackmail, the Serbian populace composed the most numerous ethnic group at the end of the 1830's. Even though no precise data exists on the then demographic situation in Kosovo, considering subsequent rolls, one could suppose that the relationship between the Serbian and Albanian population was at least close to the ethnic disposition in Metohia. A more complete picture of the demographic disposition in Metohia and Kosovo in the first decades of the 19th century could be attained only if the aforesaid data was compared with available information on the evacuation of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohia, from Prince Milos. In keeping with a preserved incomplete documentation of Serbian origin, 180 families moved to Serbia from the Prizren, Pristina, Pec and Scutari pashalik, and another 160 from the northern regions of Kosovo, all in the period between 1815-1837. Most of them were farmers; following were handicraftsmen and several merchants. Keeping in mind the sizes of families, particularly the extended family groups in Metohia (10-30 persons), the number of Serbs fleeing to Serbia was considerable.8 The total number of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohia during the first half of the 19th century is hard to determine. Turkish annual censuses (sal-namas) were generally unreliable, since the real number of family members was concealed due to taxes, and the Muslims especially refused to have their wives and female children listed. Information also varies in the traveling accounts of contemporaries, foreigners mostly. The data is mainly comprised of the inhabitants of towns and surrounding areas. A somewhat more voluminous and reliable source is the traveling account of Russian diplomat and scientist A. F. Hilferding. Conforming to his data and estimates, there were 4,000 Muslim and 800 Christian families in Pec in 1858; in Podrima 3,000 Albanian and 300 Orthodox families; in Orahovac 50 Albanian and 100 Serbian homes; in the Sredska zhupa 200 Albanian and 300 Serbian families; in the Prizren Podgora more than 1,000 Albanian Muslims, 20 Albanian Catholics and around 300 Orthodox homes; in Pristina 1,500 homes with around 1200 Muslim and 300 Orthodox inhabitants, in Vucitrn 250 Muslim and 150 Orthodox houses. Furthermore, Hilferding noted 3,000 Muslim, 900 Orthodox and 100 Catholic families with 12,000 inhabitants.9 The relativity of data provided by the travel writers is demonstrated by the statistics of Austrian consul Johan Georg von Hahn (1863), who relied on official information when he cited that Prizren contained 11,540 houses with 46,000 inhabitants, of whom 8,400 were Muslim, 3,000 Orthodox and 140 Catholic. The salnama of 1874 noted 3,687 homes in Prizren whereas data of the then Russian consul, Ivan Stepanovich Yastrebov, in reference to the same year, recorded 4,089 houses.10 Yastrebov was the most reliable researcher; he spoke Albanian, Turkish and Serbian well, and as consul to Prizren had the opportunity to personally check on official documents and determine the exact results. Between 1867 and 1874 Yastrebov provided information regarding Serbs and ethnic Albanians in Metohia, classifying them in relation to the traditional territorial division between Albanian tribes and religious affiliation:11
bairak villages Albanians Serbs Serbs Albanians
Mala Hoca 24 827 284 - 30
Poluzje 28 434 4 223 22
Suva Reka 42 691 294 - 45
Ostrozub 33 1,052 5 - 45
Sredska 32 502 488 900 -
Opolje 21 985 - - -
Gora 31 - - 2,167 -
Sirinic 15 157 786 - -
Total 226 4,646 1,861 3,740 142
All this data exhibits that, notwithstanding the emigration of the Serbian populace to Serbia, Islamization and Albanization, still in progress (excluding only Gora), the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohia still comprised the largest ethnic group. 1 J. Muller, Albanien, Rumelien und die Osterreichisch-montenegrinische Granze, Frag 1944; A. Ivic, Rumelijski vilajet u godini 1838, Prilozi za knjizevnost, jezik, istoriju i folklor, XIII, 1-2 (1933), pp. 117-126. An elaborate analysis of data provided by V. Stojancevic, Etnicke, konfesionalne i demografske prilike u Metohiji 1830-ih godina, Zbornik okruglog stola o naucnom istrazivanju Kosova, Beograd 1988, pp. 99-114. 2 J. Muller, op. cit,. p. 12; V. Stojancevic, Etnicke, konfesionalne i demografske prilike, p. 102. 3 J. Muller, op. cit., pp. 73-74. 4 A. Ivic, op. cit., pp. 122. 5 J. Muller, op. cit., pp. 77-78; same data stated by the Kriegsarchiv in Vienna (A. Ivic, op. cit., p. 122). 6 J. Muller, op. cit., pp. 82-83; A. Ivic, op. cit., p. 122. 7 V. Stojancevic, Etnicke, konfesionalne i demografske prilike, pp. 104-104. 8 V. Stojancevic, Drzava i drustvo obnovljene Srbije (1815-1839), pp. 45-63. 9 A. F. Giljferding, op. cit, pp. 157,183,193, 214. 10 J. G. Hahn, Putovanje kroz porecinu Drina i Vardara, Beograd 1876, pp. 127-128; I. Jastrebov, op. cit., p. 40. 11 I. Jastrebov, op. cit., pp. 52-91; V. Stojancevic, Juznoslovenski narodi u Osmanskom Carstvu, p. 331. Political Action of Serbia From the Middle Ages, until the First Serbian Insurrection of 1804, the lands comprising Serbia were considered to range from Belgrade to Veles, and from Kladovo to the plateau of Malissia. However, the creation of an insurgent state in north Serbia (1804-1813), brought on a new apprehension of its frontiers. Ever since the downfall of the Insurrection, Milos Obrenovic strove, with patience, perseverance and cunning diplomatic actions, to create an autonomous principality of the subjugated pashalik (of which the foundations for restoring the Serbian state were laid under Karadjordje), within the boundaries of the Bucharest treaty (1812), giving a new name to those Serbian regions remaining beyond its range. Vuk Karadzic united all spacious lands south and southwest of Milos's Serbia, close to the courses of the Drina and Lim rivers, and the river basin of the Juzna Morava (regions that were seats of the Nemanjic state), under a common name - Old Serbia.1 The growing political independence of Serbia, that by 1833 formed an autonomous Principality under Turkish sovereignty, territorially and politically, revived the hopes of Serbs in Metohia and Kosovo. French travel writer Ami Boue remarked that the Serbs in Metohia, even though oppressed by all sorts of brutalities, looked upon Prince Milos as their messiah who would one day liberate them of the harsh bondage of Turkish rule. The Principality of Serbia, during the first reign of Prince Milos (1830-1839), became an attractive place for all Serbs who lived in lands under Turkish domain.2 Prince Milos never disregarded the severe destiny of Serbs in Kosovo. Even during the reigns of independent pashas, he undertook efforts to mitigate the position of his compatriots through ties with the Rotulovic family of Prizren and the Mahmudbegovic family of Pec. The Prince received and bestowed gifts upon the monks of Old Serbia, gave them permission to collect donations for their monasteries in Serbia, and sent gifts whenever he could to the impoverished fraternities in Metohia and Kosovo. He is to be credited for the restoration of the Visoki Decani palace in 1836. In complaints lodged to him, mostly from Visoki Decani, monks bewailed that ethnic Albanians were arrogating monastic lands, notwithstanding the firmans of former sultans, giving warrant for their estates. They pleaded for him to intermediate with the Porte, requesting that a new firman be issued for the fraternity of Decani. Sultan Abdul Mejid confirmed all monastic estates in 1849, but nothing changed, since in the mountains, no one heeds for the firman".3 During the reign of the constitutionalist and Prince Aleksandar Karadjordjevic (1842-1858), Serbia continued to aid churches, monasteries and schools in Old Serbia, but was unable to improve the position of the unprotected rayah. In the mid-19th century, little was known about the political situation of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohia. Sporadic connections were made through monks and teachers, who drew attention to the unbearable position of the Serbian populace by sending pleas to the Prince, government or metropolitan. The harsh fate of the people in Old Serbia, as far as the public of the Principality and the Serbian intelligentsia in Austria were concerned, fell into a vague picture of hard life under Turkish rule. The mid-19th century saw no solid grounds enabling closer contact with Albanian chiefs in Kosovo and Metohia. The Nacertanije, by Ilija Garasanin (1844), the first modern Serbian national program within the framework of a foreign-policy plan, spoke of "liberating all non-Ottoman people of the Balkan Peninsula from this bitter bondage through a well-conceived plan"; winning over the ethnic Albanians was part of the plan, as a potential to rely on for the entire Christian uprising against the Turks. The aim to secure a free trade route for the future state by way of Ulcinj and Scutari to the Adriatic shores, compelled Garasanin to cooperate with Albanian Catholics in north Albania. Serbian political propaganda in north Albania was administrated by Matija Ban. According to the Ustav politicke propagande (Constitution of Political Propaganda) of 1849, north Albania belonged to the Southern region". Several agents were assigned to work on winning over north Albanian tribes but most of the burden fell upon the Catholic miter bearer, abbot don Caspar Krasnik, of Albanian nationality, who, after his first successes, was named an agent, receiving annual payment of 270 talers from the Serbian government. Owing to his efforts, Bib Doda, heir to the great Catholic tribe Mirdit, had been won over for cooperation with Serbia. At the time, Bib Doda told Krasnik "that he, with the Mirdits, would be ready to join in the rise for liberation, so the Mirdits would have an autonomy and the freedom to practice their religion under Serbian rule". Abbot Krasnik arrived at Belgrade in 1849, informed Garasanin of the situation in north Albania and confirmed the readiness of the Mirdits to start an uprising against the Turks if they were given gunpowder and flints. Due to Garasanin, lord of Montenegro, Prince-Bishop Petar II Petrovic Njegos, established tolerable relations with the Mirdits, there until in hostile relations with Montenegrin tribes. Prince-bishop of Montenegro and Bib Doda contracted an alliance at the end of 1849 for attack and defense against the Turks. In 1851, a relative of Bib Doda, Marko Prokljes, arrived at Cetinje and in Belgrade, promising "the Prince and Serbian government up to 2,000 soldiers any time they may require them". Cooperation with the Mirdits soon evolved through Montenegrin ties. At the same time, Krasnik won over Domazen, the Catholic bishop in Scutari.4 International circumstances, especially the political situation on the European side of the empire, would not allow for a great Serbian uprising, nor military cooperation with the Mirdits. The campaigns of Omer Pasha Latas in Walachia, Old Serbia and Bulgaria, from 1849-1851, the great rise of the Serbs in Herzegovina under the leadership of Luka Vukalovic in 1852, and the 1853 war between Montenegro and Turkey, brought on new campaigns and a concentration of Turkish troops in Albania, Old Serbia and at its borders with Montenegro. The Mirdits did not, for the first time in long while, respond to a call to war with Montenegro. The Turks blamed and arrested Abbot Krasnik for this weak response; he evaded penalty due to French intervention. At the same time, in 1853, Ilija Garasanin, the instigator of national action in Turkey, was replaced. Prince Aleksandar Karadjordjevic, pressured by the Porte, which regarded Serbia as the source of all subversive action on the Peninsula, ceased all national action outside the boundaries of the Principality and prohibited public anti-Turkish manifestations. At the beginning of the Crimean War, 1853, the loyalty of Prince Aleksandar to the Porte grew, thus incurring the cessation of all propaganda actions. The Mirdits were compelled to join the Danube Ottoman army.5 Following several years of slowdown, particularly during the reign of Prince Mihailo, when Garasanin occupied the seat of prime minister and minister of foreign affairs (1861-1867), plans revived for the Balkan uprising against the Turks. Garasanin believed, with the cooperation of Montenegro and Greece, that Serbia, as the most powerful Balkan force, should bear the heaviest load in the organization and in preparations for the uprising. Following the plan, Serbia was to encompass, through propaganda, a larger part of Bulgaria, Macedonia, Old Serbia and the northern and mid-regions of Albania. In a memoir addressed to Prince Mihailo in 1860, Garasanin underscored the explicit necessity for the ethnic Albanians to be politically neutralized. The aim was to separate them from the Turks, to prevent them from hindering the Serbian-Greek alliance. He intended to exert influence over their clans and prominent tribal chiefs, warning him that the people were mostly illiterate, had no national center, and were segregated by three religions. Anticipating the creation of a common Serbian-Bulgarian state, Garasanin believed that Albania, after liberating itself from the Turks, as well as Greece, should be an independent country, allied with the new Slavic state for purposes of defending common and special interests. In negotiations with Greece, in 1860, Serbia agreed, in principle, to divide Albania, whereby the northern territories, Durazzo and Elbasan, would be annexed to Serbia, and Berat and Korea, to the Greek state. However, this contract was never signed. The final text of the contract on the alliance between Greece and Serbia (1866) allowed for the creation of an independent Albania, or its annexation to either Serbia or Greece.6 Both Serbian and Greek statesmen observed how important Albanian determination was in case of a total Christian uprising on the Balkans, due to Albania's geopolitical position and the role of Albanian warriors in the Turkish army. According to a belief of the contemporary French minister to Athens, the stand of the ethnic Albanians was a knot in all controversial matters regarding Turkey and the Christian population. The formation of the Balkan alliance for a joint struggle against the Turks helped reestablish contacts with north Albania. Gaspar Krasnik was interned at Constantinople in 1865, so Garasanin assigned a Slovenian priest, Franz Mauri, secretary of the bishop of Scutari, to be the agent instead. However, cooperation was soon severed due to suspicions that he was working for Austria and Turkey. Albania most severely opposed the Forte's reforms; this discontent was thus used for contracting new alliances. In 1866, Djelal Pasha, member of the powerful Zogu clan and influential chief of the Mati region, who was interned at Constantinople, was won over for cooperation. For the first time, contacts, though only in principle, were established with ethnic Albanians of the Muslim faith. Since there were no Serbian settlements in Mati, no intolerance existed like in Old Serbia. Djelal Pasha was to head the great uprising against the Turks. When it was learnt in Constantinople that the Porte was working on winning over and arming the ethnic Albanians for the Christian uprising, the Serbian government, bolstered by the until then reserved Russian diplomacy, activated its tasks among the ethnic Albanians. In Belgrade in 1868, six Albanian chiefs were sojourning. After being won over by gifts, they were familiarized with the preparations for the uprising and sent to Albania to await the beckon to rise. Cooperation with Dzelal Pasha was not realized for his instability and the unreliability of his nearest retinues. There could be no political nor military organization, for everything depended upon the competence of a handful of chiefs.7 Serbia had high hopes for the Albanian revolt against Turkish authorities, until abandoning the idea of rising in Turkey in 1868. However, Belgrade did not apprehend that the readiness of ethnic Albanians to rise evolved out of the desire to resist Turkish reforms and retain tribal privileges. During the sixties of the 19th century, the ethnic Albanians were void of national awareness, in the modern sense of the word, nor did they comprehend, excepting a small number of educated tribal chiefs, their problems as national, beyond narrow tribal and confessional frameworks. As soon as imminent danger from the introduction of reforms was past, the ethnic Albanians would again respond to calls from the sultan to defend Islam and pay their dues of loyalty with abundant spoils and devastated Christian countries. 1 V. Karadzic, Danica za 1827, Budim 1827. G. J. Jurisic considered the following nahis part of Old Serbia in 1852: Novi Pazar, Pec, Djakovica, Prizren, Skoplje, Kosovo, Pristina, Vucitrn, Vranje, Leskovac and Nis. A. F. Giljferding, nevertheless, included the Novi Pazar nahis with Kosovo and Metohia as part of Old Serbia (More detailed analysis in: V. Stojancevic, Jugoslovenski narodi u Osmanskom Carstvu, p. 327). 2 A. Bou, Recueil d'itinraires dans la Turquie d'Europe, Paris 1854, p. 198. 3 Zaduzbine Kosova, 611-612; V. Stojancevic, Juznoslovenski narodi u Osmanskom Carstvu, p. 235. 4 D. Stranjakovic, Juznoslovenski nacionalni i drzavni program Knezevine Srbije iz 1844. god., Beograd 1931, pp. 3-29; idem, Politicka propaganda Srbije u juznoslovenskim pokrajinama 1844-1858. godine, Beograd 1936, pp. 20-25. 5 V. Stojancevic, Juznoslovenski narodi u Osmanskom Carstvu, pp. 292-293. 6 D. Stranjakovic, Albanija i Srbija u XIX veku, Srpski knjizevni glasnik, 52 (1937), pp. 624-627; G. Jaksic - V. J. Vuckovic, Spoljna politika Srbije za vlade kneza Mihaila. Prvi balkanski savez, Beograd 1963, pp. 137. 7 G. Jaksic, Jedan izvestaj o Albaniji, Arhiv za Arbansku stranu, jezik i etnologiju, II (1924), pp. 169-192; G. Jaksic - V. J. Vuckovicic, op. cit., pp. 240-246, 413-416, 468, Srbija i oslobodilacki pokret na Balkanu od Pariskog mira do Berlinskog kongresa (1856-1878), I (ed: V. Krestic- R. Ljusic), Beograd 1983, pp. 435-444, 558-563. Restoration of Religious and Cultural Life National life evolved under the wing of the church. After the abolishment of the Pec Patriarchate in 1766, gone was the only national institution around which the Serbs congregated; gone was the guider of national living. It was in 1807, by the edict of Sultan Mustafa, that the Serbian Janicije was named metropolitan of the Raska-Prizren Eparchy. Owing to himself and his successor, Hadzi-Zaharije (1819-1830), during the first three decades of the 19th century, the Raska-Prizren Eparchy helped maintain national awareness with the assistance of lower clergy of Serbian nationality, even though remaining under the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The people in Kosovo and Metohia were bound, perhaps more strongly than those in other Serbian lands, to their national heritage. Living memories of the sacred rulers and heroes of Kosovo, of past glory and the unfortunately lost empire were kept alive by priests and monks from the fraternities of medieval endowments. In Visoki Decani and the Pec Patriarchate, in Gracanica and Devic, the most powerful seats of national and spiritual life, the cults of ruler-martyrs, patriarchs and ascetics were cherished. Beside the tradition of the once glorious Serbia under the Nemanjices, the minds of the people were kept alive with the memories of uprisings and migrations of centuries past. The endurance sustaining the Serbs despite all their miseries, evolved out of a profound attachment to the spiritual and national heritage of the medieval Serbian state. Not with standing the raging anarchy that shook Old Serbia, waning only from time to time, the Serbs in Metohia and Kosovo were able to organize and restore their spiritual and educational lives with assistance from official Serbia. Continuity of work, with periodical suspensions during times of turbulence, was maintained by monastic schools in the Pec Patriarchate, Visoki Decani, Devic and Gracanica (containing a press at one time). Here pupils from different areas of Serbia under Turkish rule were being taught the clergyman's vocation. The first more deeply felt financial support given to the monastic schools, began to arrive from Prince Milos during the third decade. During the reign of Prince Aleksandar Karadjordjevic and the constitutionalist regime in Serbia (1842-1858), financial aid began to arrive more regularly for the restoration of churches and the maintenance of monasteries, and gifts were sent in books for religious service. Excluding the most renown medieval endowments, aid from the Serbian government also arrived to fraternities of the monasteries St. Marko and the Holy Trinity near Prizren, the Holy Transfiguration near Pec, and to priests of the Prizren and Djakovica churches. Since the mid-18th century, Serbian church-school communities operated in Metohia and Kosovo, founded first in towns and then in village parishes, the cores of township and village self-government. Until the Rasko-Prizren metropolitans were of Serbian nationality, they nominated members for the governing bodies of church-school communities, usually for no limited time. The selection was limited to the most noted priests, wealthy merchants and guild representatives. Communities saw to the maintenance of religious schools and the education of monastic progeny, strove to establish contact with Serbia and effect relations with Turkish authorities, both on religious and educational grounds, and when possible, on economic ones, too. Members of church-school boards collected contributions for the repairement of monasteries and churches. Beside many monasteries and churches (Gracanica, Visoki Decani, Devic, Duboki Potok, Vracevo, Draganac), palaces were built for the operation of monastic or religious schools, and subsequently secular ones. At the beginning of the 19th century, the inauguration of schools was urged by Raska-Prizren Metropolitans Janicije and Hadzi Zaharije. When the bishopric chair was taken over in 1830 by Greek bishops, endeavors were undertaken, especially during Metropolitan Ignjatije's time (1840-1849), to open Tzintzar schools where lessons in Greek would also be attended by Serbian children.1 The Phanariot bishops strove to sustain the subjugation and ignorance of the Serbian clergy, so as to facilitate their manipulation of The flock. Some of them sold their clerical positions for money and fined the people with large church taxes. Being of open anti-Serbian determination, they impeded or hampered the restoration or construction of new churches, attempted to Hellenize the populace by imposing the celebration of the name-day feast, instead of the Slava (Serbian family feast for its patron saint), a definitely Serbian custom.2 In the first half of the 19th century, religious schools existed in all major towns (Pristina, Pec, Mitrovica, Vucitrn, Gnjilane, Djakovica) and in some villages (Musutiste, Vitina, Korminjan). Private schools were opened usually under the name of a notable leader who was to finance its operation, but the burden of maintenance usually fell upon church-school communities and guilds. Private schools provided lessons in subjects both religious and secular. The best among them were at Prizren, Vucitrn, Mitrovica, and the Donja Jasenovo and Kovaci villages. The inauguration of new private schools falls with the Turkish reforms at the middle of the century. Merchant and craftsmen guilds in Pec, Prizren and Gnjilane introduced funds for opening new schools and obtaining better teaching staff. The constitutionalist government sent the schools money, books and other facilities through merchants and other members of church boards. According to available data, several dozens of schools in Metohia and Kosovo were attended by around 1,300 pupils during the sixties. The oldest and most renown Serbian church-school community was in Prizren, the economical center of Serbs in Metohia, w