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.
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.
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 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.
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
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:
Based upon Muller's data, V. Stojancevic calculated the total number of
village dwellers in three Metohian districts:7
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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