s and 20, 424
Montenegrins (Serbs from Montenegro) moved to Serbia and other regions from
1961 to 1980. After the secessionist revolt of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo
and Metohia in the spring of 1981, another 38,000 Serbs and Montenegrins
moved out under duress. Their emigration has still not been stemmed.
The injuriousness of the policy of narrowing Serbia's sovereignty and
deliberately neutralizing Serbs in communist Yugoslavia is best illustrated
in the case of Kosovo and Metohia, where the Serbs, although formally in
their own state (Republic of Serbia) were forcibly reduced to a minority
with limited civil and national rights. Thanks to the organized actions of
the Province's local administration, which had backing from federal bodies,
the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohia were forced in many cases to leave, owing to
the atmosphere of unsafety, fear and persecution. After almost a decade of
waiting in vain for the federal Yugoslav bodies to stop Kosovo's further
Albanization and halt the exodus from Kosovo and Metohia, a large-scale
Serbian movement erupted, aided by the ecclesiastical circles and the
Belgrade liberal intelligentsia, demanding that the 1974 Constitution be
changed and Kosovo returned to Serbian sovereignty. The movement, which
spread to encompass Serbs from all over Yugoslavia, regardless of their
ideological convictions, emerged (afterwards carefully manipulated by new
leadership in Serbia), prior to the 600th anniversary of the Battle of
Kosovo (1989), heralding, not only symbolically, the return to the eternal
foothold of Serbian national entity - the Kosovo covenant.
1 V. Djuretic, op. cit., pp. 326-335.
2 K. Cavoski, Komunisticka partija Jugoslavije i kosovsko pitanje, in:
Kosovo i Metohija u srpskoj istoriji, pp. 361-375.
3 K. Cavoski, Uspostavljanje i razvoj kosovske autonomije, in: Kosovo i
Metohija u srpskoj istoriji, pp. 379-383
4 V. Djuretic, Kosovo i Metohija u Jugoslaviji, pp. 329-333; More
details in: B. Tonnes, Sonderfall Albanien - Enver Hoxhas "Einiger Weg" und
die historischen Ursprung seiner ideologic, Munchen 1980.
5 V. Djuretic, op. cit., pp. 334-341.
6 Large documentation in: R. Rajovic, Autonomija Kosova.
Istorijsko-pravna studija, Beograd 1985
7 Kosovo. Proslost i sadasnjost, pp. 151-257. Cf. J. Reuter, Die
Albaner in Jugoslawien, Munchen 1982, pp. 43-101; S. K. Pavlowitch, The
Improbable Survivor. Yugoslavia and its Problems 1918-1988, London 1988, pp.
78-93.
8 M Misovic, Ko je trazio republiku Kosovo 1945-1985, Beograd 1987.
PART TWO: THEOCRACY, NATIONALISM, IMPERIALISM
FROM THE SERBIAN REVOLUTION TO THE EASTERN CRISIS: 1804-1875
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohia
lived under extremely unfavorable circumstances. Toward the end of the 18th
century, the general position of Christian subjects in the European
provinces of the Ottoman Empire was becoming worse with authority
deteriorating in the Turkish administration. A country in which affiliation
to Islam marked the foundation of state ideology, Christians were citizens
of a lower order. The empire was overcome by refeudalization. The
timar-sipahi system was turning into the chiflik-sahibi system, thus
affecting mostly Christian farmers. Arrogation of peasant land and the
imposition of additional taxes were carried out by force. The destruction of
free peasant estates, thus constraining farmers to the position of tenant
farmers (chiflik farmers), the evacuation of entire villages and forceful
Islamization made life insufferable for the Christian people of the Balkans.
Uprisings and movements at the beginning of the century announced a struggle
for the restoration of national states on the Balkan Peninsula.1
The unique religious, ethnic and political character had made life more
difficult for the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohia than in other European
provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Aside to the misfortune common to all
Christians of the European parts of the empire (religious intolerance, legal
and economic unprotectedness) was an arduous struggle for physical and
national survival. The Serbs of Kosovo and Metohia had intercepted the path
leading to the biological expansion of the powerful Albanian populace living
in neighboring regions or admixed with the Serbs. The Albanians were an
ethnic element with strong tribal organization only consolidated through
Islam. Sloping the grey mountains circumscribing Kosovo and Metohia on the
south, armed Albanian herdsmen descended to the plains of Kosovo and
Metohia, routing native Serbian inhabitants to make space for the settlement
of their fellow tribesmen. Albanian settlements sprouted in Kosovo and
Metohia like freely growing weeds. Wedging themselves like pegs into compact
Serbian settlements, the armed ethnic Albanians imposed upon the unarmed
Serbs an unequal struggle over the land.
On the plane of political determination, ethnic Albanians were the most
conservative element on the Peninsula, loyal to the shenat. Headed by
illiterate and xenophobic tribal chiefs (krenas) and feudal lords, without
true national awareness, the Albanian highlander was doubly intolerant
toward the Orthodox Serbian. As Islamic believers and representatives of a
privileged class in the state, they defined themselves to the Serbs
confessionally, calling them infidels (djaurs), thus underscoring religious
intolerance and social inequality. Certain racial intolerance was older than
Islamization. ethnic Albanians of all confessions living in regions composed
of an intermingled populace, called the Slavic inhabitants derogatorily Ski,
thus emphasizing an ethnic distinction and their superiority.
In the mid-17th century, when Muslim ethnic Albanians more often occupy
the highest positions in Constantinople, the rise of their fellow tribesmen
to the high military and administrative hierarchy of the Ottoman state
began. Their influence on the policies of the Porte was wielded through the
sultan's personal guard comprised mostly of select ethnic Albanians. From
the second half of the 19th century until the beginning of the 20th century,
mostly during the reign of Sultan Abdulhamid II (1878-1909), they largely
attained eminent positions in the army and administration.
Surrounded by companies of their fellow tribesmen, at times when the
authority exercised by the central government was sinking, Albanian Muslims
became autocratic, hereditary feudal lords, and often sinewy outlaws of the
Turkish authorities. During the Napoleonic wars, the rule of independent and
semi-independent pashas marked the political circumstances in the Ottoman
Empire: beginning with the Belgrade pashalik, where power was usurped by
four dahis, proceeding through Vidine and Janina, where Osman Pasha
Pasvanoglu and the famous All Pasha Tepellena ruled, ending with Syria and
Egypt; provincial governors rose to independent and insubordinate rulers.
The feudal lords of Kosovo and Metohia ruled completely independent of
the central government. Following long struggles for dominion in some
regions, several notable families that gave hereditary regents to the
provinces distinguished themselves. In Pristina and Gnjilane the Dime family
ruled until the end of the 18th century, in the Prizren sanjak the
Rotulovices, originally from Ljuma, and in Pec the powerful Mahmudbegovices,
lords of Metohia from mid-18th century. The ethnic Albanians of Muslim
faith, under the leadership of feudal lords or outlawed regents, were
considered followers of the old regime founded on the sheriat law and
liberal tribal privileges. Their rule was tolerated because they secured
Ottoman legitimacy in regions densely populated by Christian Serbian
inhabitants.2
Independent pashas were also carriers of a proselyte policy in the
central countries of the former Nemanjic state. A surge of religious
intolerance, especially from the end of the 18th century, tossed the
systematic persecution of Christians throughout the Ottoman Empire. When
they grew to heavy pogroms, a large part of the already thinned and deeply
inflamed populace in Kosovo and Metohia adopted Islam to save their bare
existence and family hearths. At the end of the 18th century and the
beginning of the 19th century almost all the Orthodox Serbs from Gora, a
zhupa near Prizren, were compelled to convert to Islam.3
Even though the Serbs always regarded conversion as a temporary and
inevitable evil, the second and third generations were already taking wives
from Muslim Albanian families. Thus Islamization became permanent. Among the
descendants who entered Albanian clans through marriage alliances, accepting
the language and gradually becoming Albanized, old family names were an
admonition of the Serbian past, a token to the glory of the cross. The
ethnic Albanians, as the Orthodox Serbs referred to them, became in time the
most extreme tyrants.4
1 The following works provide a synthetical survey on the life of
Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohia in the 19th and the beginning of the
20th century:
Kosovo nekad i sad (Kosova dikur e sot), chapter: Kosovo pod turskom
vlascu, (H, Kalesi), Beograd 1973, pp. 145-176; Istorija srpskog naroda V/1,
Beograd 1981, pp. 14-16, 133-148 (N. Rakocevic, Dj. Mikic); D. Bogdanovic,
Knjiga o Kosovu, Beograd 1983, pp. 126-195; D. Mikic, Drustveno-politicki
razvoj kosovskih Srba u XIX veku, Glasnik Muzeja Kosova, XIII-XIV (1984),
pp. 231-260. Most informative on the first half of the century is a
monography by V. Stojancevic, Juznoslovenski narodi u Osmanskom Carstvu od
Jedrenskog mira 1829 do Pariskog kongresa 1856 godine, Beograd 1971; On
economy see Dj. Mikic, Drustvene i ekonomske prilike kosovskih Srba u XIX i
pocetkom XX veka, od cifcijstva do bankarstva, Beograd 1988; on territorial
organization in the administrative apparatus see H. Kalesi - H-J. Kornrumpf,
Prizrenski vilajet, Perparimi, 1 (1967), pp. 71-124.
2 Istorija srpskog naroda, V/1, A. Urosevic, Etnicki procesi na Kosovu
tokom turske vladavine, Beograd 1987.
3 M. Lutovac, Gora i Opolje, Antropogeografska istrazivanja, Naselja i
poreklo stanovnistva, 35 (1955), pp. 230-279.
4 J. Cvijic, Osnove za geografiju i geologiju Makedonije i Stare
Srbije, III, Beograd 1911, pp. 1162-1166; Todor P. Stankovic, Putne beleske
po Staroj Srbiji 1871-1898, Beograd 1910, pp. 111-140.
The Serbian Insurrection and Pasha-Outlaws
The attempts of Sultan Selim III (1789-1807) to change and modernize
the administrative system of the Ottoman Empire with reforms ended in
failure. Resistance to the reforms was exceptionally strong throughout the
empire. Reform plans to improve the position of Christians turned the
Albanian feudal lords and tribal chiefs of Kosovo against the Orthodox
Serbs - chiflik farmers on their large sipahiliks. Efforts undertaken by the
Sublime Porte to win over support from Albanian lords in Kosovo against
outlawed provincial regents had no apparent effect. Albanian pashas,
availing themselves of a favorable opportunity to greater gain by imposing
new taxes upon the rayah, took no heed to orders from
Constantinople.1
The Serbian Insurrection against the dahis in the Belgrade pashalik in
1804, under the leadership of Karadjordje (Black George), moved the Serbs in
all regions of the Ottoman Empire. Beginning as an uprising against the
dahis, the insurrection soon grew into the first national revolution of
Balkan Christians, opening the perspectives of a total national liberation.
At that moment, the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohia, remote from the Belgrade
pashalik, unarmed and without immediate contact with the leadership of the
insurrection, had no opportunity to rise and join the insurgents. The feudal
lords of Kosovo used the beginning of the Serbian national revolution to
consolidate and expand their power. The Porte needed their assistance both
to curbe the rebelling forces and as a warrant against any moves the Serbs
might make in regions under their control.
Chronic lawlessness, perpetual danger from possible incursions of
Albanian outlaws, religious intolerance and the unbearable clench of feudal
lords all created an impenetrable wall separating the Serbs of Kosovo and
Metohia from rebelling Serbia. Hardly any testimony remains from individual
participants of the Serbian national revolution. Nevertheless, some
documentation was preserved from the boldest among them, whose affairs took
them to Belgrade and the bordering Austrian regions, and who found
themselves in the center of events.2
An important role in preparations for the rebellion was played by
Andrija, a wealthy merchant from Prizren (father of Sima Andrejevic
Igumanov, a renown Serbian benefactor and founder of the Seminary in
Prizren), who had extensive business ties in Belgrade, Pest and Vienna. On
the eve of the uprising against the dahis, he secretly transported gunpowder
from Zemun to Belgrade. When the uprising began, Andrija continued to supply
the rebellious companies with arms and ammunition. Two of his four sons,
Kraguj and Petar, fought in the insurgent lines with several other Serbs
from Prizren, until the fall of the insurrection in 1813.3
Beside Andrija, the most prominent Serbian from Prizren to take part in
the First Serbian Insurrection was Anta Colak Simonovic, who moved to
Belgrade when he was a young man, and dealt in furs. On the eve of the
insurrection, the Belgrade dahis ordered several loads of guns from him.
Colak Anta obtained the arms in Prizren, but on his return he handed them
over to Karadjordje at Topola. When the surrounding Turkish provinces rose
together with Sumadija (regions between the Drina and Tara rivers, the
tribal regions of Drobnjak, Moraca and Albanian Kliments) in 1805, the
number of volunteers joining Karadjordje's troops from Kosovo, Metohia, Old
Raska and other regions increased.
From the beginning of the uprising, void (supreme leader) Karadjordje
aimed to raise in arms, beside the Belgrade pashalik, as many lands of
Serbia as possible. From 1806, the insurgent army penetrated toward Stari
Vlah, Bosnia and Macedonia. The following year the insurgents reached
Kursumlija, and in 1809, using their alliance with Russia, then at war with
Turkey, the insurgent companies extended to Sjenica, Nova Varos, Prijepolje
and Bijelo Polje. According to the estimates of a French travel writer,
Henri Pouqueville, who passed through Kosovo in 1807, areas around Banjska
were encompassed by the insurrection, while Gerasim, the bishop of Sabac,
left testimony on the area of upper Ibar, on the space between Josanica,
Kopaonik and Vucitrn, where battles were waged with aid from the local
Serbian populace. Historian Stojan Novakovic even believed that the whole
region was under Serbian control until the fall of the Insurrection in
1813.4
Karadjordje's endeavor to establish contact with Montenegrin tribes
through the Sjenica instigated a considerable number of Serbs from Kosovo to
join the insurgent forces and caused fermentation among the Serbs of the
northwestern parts of Kosovo. In the Ibarski Kolasin, a wooded and
impassable area, inhabited mostly by Serbians, a movement was formed to aid
Karadjordje's campaign at the Sjenica. However, the Turks discovered their
intentions and captured the most famous leaders of Kolasin, banishing them
to exile in Egypt.5
Karadjordje's victorious campaign toward Montenegro and Kosovo was
severed by the defeat of Serbian insurgents at the battle of Kamenica near
Nis, in 1809. The army at the southwest of Serbia was forced to retreat
north; the endeavor to expand the uprising to Montenegro and the northern
regions of Kosovo came to an end.
The victories of the Serbian troops during the first years of waging
seriously imperilled the feudal privileges and estates of Albanian pashas in
Metohia and Kosovo, where the rayah was mostly Serbian. When the flame of
the uprising spread to the surrounding countries, commotion arose even among
Albanian leaders in north Albania. The Belgrade dahis and representatives of
the Turkish government in Serbia, of whom a considerable number were ethnic
Albanians, strove since 1804 to win over Albanian pashas in the neighboring
regions for the struggle against a common enemy.
Turkish forces engaged to wage Serbian troops on the southern and
southwestern battlefield were composed mainly of ethnic Albanians lead by
pashas and tribal chiefs. In 1806, the bashibazouk (irregular) troops of the
pashas of Scutari, Leskovac, Vranje, Pristina, Djakovica, Prizren and
Skoplje, a force numbering 33,800 men, assembled at the Morava, at a front
toward the Serbs. Many of them fought Serbian insurgents in the years to
follow. The Turkish army, composed of ethnic Albanians, checked the Serbs at
Prijepolje and Nova Varos. In the battles at the Sjenica and Suvodol in
1809, the decisive role in defeating the Serbs was played by troops
belonging to the pashas of Scutari and Pec. In battles waged at Rozaj, the
pasha od Djakovica was defeated. Muktar Pasha, son of the most influential
independent Albanian feudal lord, Ali Pasha Tepellena of Janina, fought
against the Serbs at Deligrad. Battling together with Albanian feudal lords
against the Serbs were influential tribal chiefs - krenas. At the battle of
Kamenica alone four standard bearers of one clan were killed at Drenica.
Mehmed Pasha Rotulovic and his army took part at the battle of Kamenica and
returned to Prizren with loads of spoil and Serbian slaves -women and
children.6
The hereditary pashas of Kosovo, Metohia and north Albania were a
constant threat to Karadjordje and his successor Knez (Prince) Milos
Obrenovic. When possibilities for resuming the struggle were discussed prior
to the 1813 fall of the Serbian Insurrection, Karadjordje counted on the
possibility of all ethnic Albanians being dispatched to Serbia. He thus
entreated Prince-Bishop Petar I of Montenegro to execute a demonstration on
the Albanian border to compel their neighbors to remain on their land. A
similar entreaty was again sent by prince Milos to the Metropolitan of
Cetinje in 1821, for fear that the uprising in Greece might be followed by a
Turkish preventive incursion on Serbia.
The number of armed men under the command of Albanian pashas displayed
the dimensions of their military capabilities, as well as deep fear [or the
possibility of the insurrection expanding to their regions. The victories of
the insurgents caused the exertion of great pressure upon the subjugated
Serbian populace under Albanian lords. Lord Malic Pasha Dzinic of the
Pristina region, moved Serbian chiflik farmers from the northern areas of
Lab, and settled ethnic Albanians to secure the boundaries of his territory
from incursions of insurgent Serbian companies. Passing in 1807 through
Pristina, estimating around 1,500 homes in it, Henri Pouqueville noted:
"From its narrow and muddy streets, poor trade, wretched people and the
bloodthirsty rule of Malic Pasha, who then commanded, a distinct aura of
terror and woe emanated. It did not seem appropriate to pay a visit to the
Albanian, a sworn mortal enemy of the Christians".7
Anarchy created through the rule of independent pashas was favorable to
the raiding parties of Albanian outlaws. They attacked passengers and
merchant caravans from their hideouts, plundered and blackmailed the
Christian rayah, assaulted and dishonored their wives and daughters. In
Gnjilane, Pouqueville saw passengers raided by outlaws and learnt that some
merchants were killed just at the entrance to the town. As a result, at
orders given by pashas, entire forests were burnt in spaces between
Pristina, Gnjilane, Novo Brdo and Kumanovo, where the outlaws
hid.8
The position of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohia did not change even
when comparative peace prevailed in Serbia. Kosovo was governed by Jashar
Pasha, nephew of Malic Pasha, inviolable lord of the Pristina sanjak during
the second and third decades of the 19th century. He was engraved in the
memory of the people on account of his merciless persecution of the Serbs,
the destruction of their free estates, confiscation of church and monastic
lands, and, above all, for demolishing Serbian villages. For less than a
decade, Jashar Pasha succeeded in destroying or evacuating 32 Serbian
villages in the Pristina nahi, 22 in the Vucitrn nahi, and another 25
settlements in other parts of Kosovo. Jashar Pasha distributed a large
amount of the seized lands among newcome Albanian settlers and local Muslims
of Serbian origin, while also appropriating some himself. The newcome ethnic
Albanians, mainly herdsmen, had no experience in farming so the fertile
plains of Kosovo soon became neglected pastures.9
Faced with the terror of the Pristina pasha, the Serbs fled to the
nearby sanjaks of Vranje or Leskovac, or crossed over to Serbia under the
wing of knez Milos. Similar examples where deliberate change in the
demographic picture of certain Turkish provinces were carried out existed in
southern Albania and northwestern Greece, where the brutal Ali Pasha of
Janina mercilessly destroyed Christian villages, forcefully executed
Islamization and reduced farmers to tenant, chiflik farmers. During the
twenties of the 19th century (1821-1825), armies of feudal lords utterly
devastated vast lands from Moreja to Epirus and Thessaly while fighting
Greek insurgents.10
The reform action of Sultan Mahmud II (1808-1839), the introduction of
a regular army and abolition of the Janissary Corps (1826) infuriated the
independent pashas in Metohia and Kosovo. Intentions to grant certain rights
to the Christians inflamed the hatred of Muslim ethnic Albanians. Anarchy,
marking a period of unlimited power for independent pashas, suited many
outlaws. "During the reigns of these pashas, any Muhammedan could, if he
desired, murder any Serb without due consequence, only if he sought refuge
under a mosque or tekke. In those days, Prizren, Kosovo, Pec, Djakovica and
Scutari were governed by harshest oppression."11
To survive, the Serbs turned to collective mimicry. The men wore
Albanian clothes, and the women veiled their faces. Jashar Pasha attacked
Serbian churches, especially the Gracanica monastery and the Samodreza
church. He demolished four Serbian churches (in Batus, Skulanovac, Rujan and
Slovinja and the Lipljan church parvis) and built a bridge from their stone
over the Sitnica river near Lipljan. The clergy also bore the brunt of
independent pashas. In 1820, two monks from the Decani monastery were hanged
in Novi Pazar, and one in Pristina.12
As soon as imminent danger from the expansion of the Serbian, and then
Greek insurrection was past, rivalry among Albanian lords for dominion over
the surrounding territories revived. The Serbs were the greatest victims:
they were compelled to receive them for overnight stay, supply food and
provide field trains for the armies of warring provincial regents. In these
campaigns, requisition, imposition of additional taxes and the looting of
Christian villages, through which the army passed, was habitual. At the end
of the conflict, the Christians would be overwhelmed by both the rage of the
defeated and the plunder of the victorious.
In March 1827, a small provincial war began, when regent of Scutari,
Mustafa Pasha Bushatli (the so-called Shkodra Pasha), ventured to subjugate
Numan Pasha of Pec. The clash spread when the regents of neighboring regions
were hauled into it, being troubled, like Jashar Pasha, by insubordinate
tribes in their own regions.13
The need for fresh forces was imposed by the Russo-Turkish war
(1828-1829), in which the sultan's troops on the battleground of the
Bulgarian Danube Basin, were faced with great temptations. The Porte granted
Mustafa Pasha of Scutari dominion over Scutari, Elbasan, Debar and Dukadjin,
expecting him, in return, to muster and dispatch a large army to the Danube
front. Meanwhile, Prince Milos acquired through money and sage advice, a
considerable number of admirers among north Albanian tribal chiefs, and
strove to dissuade the powerful Scutari pasha from sending 60,000 warriors
to assist the sultan's army. The Prince warned him that the reforms of
Mahmud II were directed mainly against hereditary pashas. However, the
belligerent disposition of his fellow tribesmen compelled Mustafa Pasha to
dispatch his army to the Russian front, but instead of 60,000, he sent only
2,000 warriors. The powerful Scutari pasha was then able to establish his
rule in Metohia.14
The Peace Treaty of Edime, signed in 1829, under conditions extremely
unfavorable for the Ottoman Empire, deepened its internal crisis. The
Christian populace, the uprisings of which, owing to Russia's support,
developed into movements for national liberation, was faced with novel
temptations. In Kosovo and Metohia, where conflicts between provincial
regents were frequent, and autocracy toward the Christians was acquiring a
more immediate physical and fiscal pressure, anarchy was widely expanding
its dimensions.
The news that Prince Milos intended to establish the borders of his
recently recognized Principality (Knezevina) in 1830, according to the
decrees of the Bucharest Peace Treaty of 1812, disturbed the pashas and beys
of six nahis, formerly under Karadjordje's rule. Jashar Pasha of Pristina
secured the borders of his regions from the territorial pretensions of the
Serbian Prince by compelling the evacuation of Serbs through terror. He
settled ethnic Albanians from Malissia, Metohia and the vicinity of Scutari
in their place.15
When the imminent danger of new wars was past, Mahmud II was determined
to intercept the obstinacy and disloyalty of hereditary pashas. The educated
Sultan particularly disliked Albanian chiefs, followers of the conservative
Islamic order, who hindered the realization of his aspirations to end feudal
anarchy and create a modern, centralized state. His reforms anticipated the
abolition of all feudal and tribal autonomies, the formation of a regular
army, introduction of military duties, equation of tax payments and
improvement in the position of Christians.
Strongest objection to the reforms came from Bosnia, Albania, Metohia
and Kosovo. The ethnic Albanians saw in these reforms a most serious threat
to their privileges. The Porte counted on their objection beforehand, since
they could easily turn against Turkish authorities armed to the full. The
most difficult part was compelling them to join the regular army. Thus the
most important reform task for the ethnic Albanians was crushing the power
of numerous independent pashas who would not recognize central government,
and by refusing to acknowledge modern judiciary, remained loyal to the
common law according to the Law of Leka Dukagjinit.
Albanian leaders were not only against the introduction of novel
reforms but requested of the Porte to recognize all their benefits and
tribal independence: "The new army was introduced to destroy the old feudal
one. The regular army and the prohibition to carry arms - aimed to destroy
Albanian condottieres enabling ethnic Albanians to attain privileged
positions in Turkey - since, like military castes, they had a free hand
concerning the Christian tribes they brutally exploited without bearing any
legal consequences. Thus, the reform deeply cleaved Albanian tribal
relations [...]".16
The Albanian pashas objected to the orders of the Porte to surrender
their arms. In 1831, a large assembly of Albanian leaders, ulems and tribal
chiefs in Scutari, rejected the Sultan's decrees as contrary to Islamic law,
determined to defend the existing system by force. Mustafa Pasha refused to
obey the sultan's order to receive a garrison of a regular army in Scutari
and to submit territories granted him during the war for governing over to
the grand vizier. He was supported by independent pashas in Prizren, Pec,
Djakovica, Pristina, Debar, Vranje, Tetovo, Skoplje and Leskovac, who had
every reason to be worried about their positions if the reforms were to be
implemented. Mustafa Pasha, the last Bushatii, found new allies in Bosnia
where the beys decidedly opposed the introduction of reforms.
The empire was so endangered that Grand Vizier Mahmud Reshid Pasha lead
his army against the ethnic Albanians in person. A large number of Albanian
leaders from south Albania were killed upon encountering him at Bitolj in
1830. At orders from the Porte, the grand vizier introduced "many beneficial
decrees" in Pristina and Vucitrn in summer 1832, thus improving the up till
then insufferable position of the Serbian Christian rayah in villages
throughout Kosovo.
In 1835-1836, after crushing the power of insubordinate Bosnian
captains, the Turkish army finally eliminated the independent pashas of Old
Serbia - Mahmud Pasha Rotulovic of Prizren, Arslan Pasha of Pec, Seifudin
Pasha of Djakovica, and finally the heirs to the Pristina Dinices, by
warring rebellious tribes in mid and south Albania, on whose side the feudal
lords of Pec, Debar and Djakovica fought. The law on the timar system was
abrogated. The administration was entrusted to army commanders, and measures
were implemented to centralize the administration and tax system. The
sanjaks of Scutari, Prizren and Pec were under the control of the Rumehan
vilayet seated at Bitolj. The established regime was considerably more
endurable for the Serbian rayah than the brutal reign of independent
pashas.17
1 D. Mikic, Drustveno-politicki razvoj kosovskih Srba u XIX veku, p.
231.
2 D. Mikic, Oslobodilacka aktivnost kosovskih Srba u svetlosti srpske
revolucije 1804-1813, Obelezja, 11 (1981), pp. 39-46; idem.,
Drustveno-politicki razvoj kosovskih Srba u XIX veku, pp. 231-232.
3 D. Mikic, Drustveno-politicki razvoj kosovskih Srba u XIX veku, p.
232.
4 St. Novakovic, Manastir Banjska u srpskoj istoriji, Beograd 1892, pp.
35-41; A. Popovic, Ustanak u gornjem Ibru i Kopaoniku 1806-1813, Godisnjica
Nikole Cupica, 27 1908), p. 229.
5 Several years hence only few people of Kolasin returned from exile in
Egypt. M. Lutovac, Ibarski Kolasin, Naselja i poreklo stanovnistva, 34
(1958), pp. 8-10.
6 Albanians of Catholic and Orthodox faith fought against the Turkish
authorities at the time. The Catholic Albanian tribe Kliment fought with
Montenegrin tribes Kuci, Piper and Bjelopavlici against vizier of Scutari,
Ibrahim Pasha in 1805. South, the Toskas - Orthodox Albanians, fought with
the Greeks and Tzintzars against Ali Pasha of Janina. See D. Mikic,
Drustveno-politicki razvoj kosovskih Srba u XIX veku, 234; I. Dermaku, Neki
aspekti saradnje Srbije i Albanaca u borbi protiv turskog feudalizma od
1804-1868. godine Glasnik Muzeja Kosova, XI (1971-1972), pp. 236-238.
7 S. Novakovic, Iz godine 1807. srpske istorije, Iz belezaka s
putovanja H. Pukvilja kroz Bosnu i Staru Srbiju, Godisnjica Nikole Cupica, 2
(1878), p. 275.
8 Ibid., pp. 276-277.
9 V. Stojancevic, Juznoslovenski narodi u Osmanskom Carstvu, pp.
115-117.
10 V. Stojancevic, Drzava i drustveno obnovljenje Srbije (1815-1839),
Beograd 1986, pp. 38.
11 Savremenici o Kosovu i Metohiji 1852-1912, fed. D. T. Batakovic),
Beograd 1988,300.
12 V. R. Petkovic - D. Boskovic, Visoki Decani, I, Beograd 1941,p. 16;
J. Popovic, Zivot Srba na Kosovu 1812-1912, Beograd 1987, p. 220.
13 V. Stojancevic, Juznoslovenski narodi u Osmanskom Carstvu, pp.
45-46.
14 Mustafa Pasha's army included 150 Montenegrins from the Vasojevic
tribe, headed by voivode Sima Lakic (ibid., pp. 46-47.)
15 V. Stojancevic, Juznoslovenski narodi u Osmanskom Carstvu, pp. 46,
332.
16 D. M. Pavlovic, Pokret u Bosni i Albaniji protivu reforama Mahmuda
II, Beograd 1913, pp. 73-74.
17 Ibid., pp. 80-89; V. Stojancevic, Juznoslovenski narodi u Osmanskom
Carstvu, pp. 117-128.
Time of Reforms in Turkey
The successor to Mahmud II, Sultan Abdul Mejid (1839-1861) issued, in
1839, the famous Hattisherif of Gulhane that was to become some sort of a
"charter of freedom" for subjects of the Ottoman Empire. The Christians were
officially equated with the Muslims. The imperial letter warranted their
lives, protection, honor and property. It anticipated the introduction to a
regular military obligation, centralization of government and fiscal
reorganization, as well as the Europeanization of judiciary and education.
In Kosovo, Metohia and Albania, however, the Tanzimat reforms were
never effected to the full. At the beginning of the reforms, the mainly
Serbian populace was left without its self-governing community, previously
renewed by the firmans of erstwhile sultans, but it benefited from the calm
by renewing devastated fields. The reforms brought the revival of business
for the merchants and handicraftsmen in towns throughout Kosovo, and the
right to erect churches and schools. The comparatively quiet years brought
some relief to the Serbs, but not for long.
Discontent growing in Bosnia and Rumelia due to the reforms, encroached
Kosovo and Albania. The ethnic Albanians would not concede to centralization
and the abolition of their feudal and tribal privileges. In 1839, the ethnic
Albanians of Prizren rebelled, routing the local sanjak-bey.
The aggravated position of Serbs in Turkey incited a great Christian
insurrection in the Nis sanjak in spring, 1841. The insurrection,
preparations of which were known in Belgrade, spread to southern Serbia and
western Bulgaria. Kosovo and Metohia did not have the conditions to rise
although some preparations were made in the Prizren, Djakovica and Pec
regions. The insurrection was brutally suppressed by Albanian Muslims.
Representatives of Great Powers, especially Russia and France, surprised at
the dimensions of violence, requested from the Porte information on the
position of Serbs in rebelling regions.1
Again fermentation swarmed over Kosovo in 1843 with the collection of
taxes and regular military recruits. The Albanian insurrection against the
Turkish authorities began in 1844, broke out in Pristina and soon spread to
Prizren, Djakovica, Skoplje and Tetovo. It was seated at Skoplje and headed
by Dervish Tzara. At the beginning, the insurgents overmastered part of
Kosovo, occupied Skoplje, Tetovo, Pristina, Veles and the vicinity of
Bitolj. The Turkish army managed to suppress the insurrection in summer
1844, after several severe clashes.
During the insurrection, the Serbs were cleaved between the ethnic
Albanians and Turkish troops, like they had been so many times before. In
Vranje, the rebels roasted Serbian youths on fire only because they took
part in the construction of a new church. After driving out the state tax
collector (muhasil) in Pristina, 1841, the ethnic Albanians exacted taxes
from the Serbs by employing weapons, even though they were explicitly
forbidden to do so under the firman. In the vicinity of Pec, according to
the testimony of Gedeon Josif Jurisic, a monk from the Decani monastery, the
highlanders of Malissia were public outlaws. Supported by local district
chiefs (zabits), they wreaked terror upon the Serbs without any
disturbance.2
In a complaint lodged to the French consul at Belgrade, sent by 19
leaders of the Pristina and Vucitrn kaza in the name of the Serbs, seven
points include many examples of suffering due to Albanian violence. In a
petition to the Russian Tzar Nicholas I, official protector of Orthodox
inhabitants in the Ottoman Empire, the Serbs of Prizren entreated, at the
end of 1844, for protection against innumerable oppressions: "Allow not, you
most Honored liberator, for heaven's sake, allow not us paupers and people
to become Turkized, and flee to lands unknown! Our children were Turkized,
our wives and daughters dishonored, raped; our brothers gunned down in
uncountable numbers, treading on our law [faith], and dishonoring our
priests, pulling them by their beards. Fleecing us immeasurably, each in his
own manner; the pasha fleeces, the bey fleeces, and the sipahi, the master
and sub-pasha, the qadi and oppressors - all fleece!"3
Devastation and murder did not bypass the monasteries Visoki Decani and
the Pec Patriarchate, where Albanian outlaws murdered several monks.
1 Istorija srpskog naroda, V/1, pp. 241-243.
2 Savremenici o Kosovu i Metohiji 1852-1912, pp. 6-7.
3 Zaduzbine Kosova, Prizren - Beograd, 1987, pp. 612-613; D. Mikic,
Drustvene i ekonomske prilike kosovskih Srba, pp. 21.
Pogroms in Metohia
The fifties of the 19th centuries passed in the dispersion of anarchy,
while the sixties marked new Albanian revolts in the political scene of
Kosovo and Metohia, with new Serbian suffering. When Serbia endeavored to
prepare a widespread uprising of Balkan Christians against the Turks, Kosovo
and Metohia were totally out of reach to Serbian national and political
propaganda. The control of Muslim ethnic Albanians over Serbian inhabitants
excluded any possible cooperation with Serbia. Periodical Albanian revolts
against the new measures of the Porte in the Pristina region in 1855, in the
area of Djakovica 1866, in the Prizren, Pec and Djakovica region in
1866-1867, again in Pec in 1869, and operations carried out by the Ottoman
army against them, resulted in heavy pogroms of the Serbian populace.
1
After the Crimean War (1853-1856), anti-Orthodox and anti-Serbian
feelings in the southwestern parts of the Ottoman Empire culminated;
Serbian pogroms attained wider dimensions. Albanization of the Serbs,
stimulated by independent pashas during the first decades of the 19th
century, reached their peak during the Crimean War. The Albanian language
was then accepted in many Islamized Serbian villages. The Cherkezes,
colonized then in Kosovo, surpassed in the devastations and murders of the
Christian populace.
The monastic fraternities of Visoki Decani and the Pec Patriarchate
lodged a complaint to the Serbian government and church dignitaries of the
Principality of Serbia, warning them of the dimensions of violence and the
frequency of banditry. The monks of Decani entreated the Serbian government
in 1856 to somehow intermediate with the Turkish authorities to put an end
to the violence. Archimandrite Hadji Serafim Ristic of Decani entreated
Prince Milos in 1859 to aid the monastery and intercede to the