Kosovo and Metohija: history thread

This is the thread about history of areas that now are part of Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija, for the beginning I wrote article about Kosovo and Metohija in the Middle Ages:

First series of historical maps of Mediaeval period showing Kosovo and Metohija as part of Serbia:

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/serbia_boundaries.gif

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:





http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/shepherd/byzantine_empire_1265.jpg

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http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/shepherd/byzantine_empire_1355.jpg

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http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/shepherd_1911/shepherd-c-058-059.jpg

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http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/se_europe.html:South Eastern Europe 900 A.D. (349K) South Eastern Europe 1000 A.D. (349K) South Eastern Europe 1040 A.D. (357K) South Eastern Europe 1105 A.D. (332K) South Eastern Europe 1180 A.D. (374K) South Eastern Europe 1210 A.D. (349K) South Eastern Europe 1340 A.D. (349K) South Eastern Europe 1354 - 1358 A.D. (408K) South Eastern Europe 1401 A.D. (349K) South Eastern Europe 1444 A.D. (323K)

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/shepherd/europe_1360.jpg

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:





http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/shepherd_1911/shepherd-c-057.jpg

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In mediaeval period the region of what is now Kosovo didn't exist in the form of distinctive geographical-political entity, even more there wasn't a single territorial entity with the name of Kosovo. To be precise in Mediaeval times Kosovo ( in it's present borders ) was divided into large numbers of zupa ( counties ) like the rest of Serbia. It seems that northern part of Kosovo ( present day municipalities Leposavic, Kosovska Mitrovica, Zvecan and Zubin Potok ) was part of Serbia during entire mediaeval period. According to Anne Komnene's Alexiad in the late 11th century border between Serbia and Byzantine empire was between Zvecan and Lipljan, leaving substantial part of Kosovo in Serbian hands. With apearance of Stefan Nemanja Serbia managed to overthrow Byzantine suzerainity and to expand it's birders, according to Life of St. Simeon writen by Saint Sava, Stefan Nemanja captured cc1183-1190. regions of Lab, Lipljan, Sitnica, Hvosno, Patkovo, Kostrc, Drskovina and Podrimlje, all of them located in what is now Kosovo. After it's incorporation into Serbian state '' Kosovo '' wasn't formed as distinctive province or region such was the case with other Nemanja's conquest in Zeta ( Dioclitia ), Hum and Trebinje which were organized as provinces and given to Nemanja's brothers and sons. Unlike the mentioned provinces of Zeta, Trebinje and Hum which existed as distinctive entities long before Nemanja's conquest, and were cept as such under the nemanja and his succesors, '' Kosovo '' never existed as distinctive entitie and was incorporated directly into Serbia. Not long after he coconquered '' Kosovo '' , Nemanja granted several villages located there to his newly founded monastery of Hilandar. With his Hilandar charter from 1198. Nemanja donated to Hilandar villages of Trnje, Trnovac, Retivlja, Retivstica and Upper and Lower Hoca with vineyards, all located in present day Metohija region of Kosovo and all with almost unchanged names ( all of them of Serbian origine ). His son Stefan Nemanjic in 1200. wrote his charter to Hilandar and again donated several villges to monastery, again all of them located in Metohija region of Kosovo: Đurđević, Petrović, Kruševo, Knina, Rubač, Potok, Drstnik, Grebnik, Govan, Zaljug as well as '' mountains '' ( pastures ) of Dobri Doli and martket of Kninac. In the fouding charter of Zica monastery from cc. 1220. Stefan Nemanja granted to Zica several villges in Metohija ( Hvosno ) namely: Peć, Črni Vrh, Stlpezi, Trebovitići, Goražda Vas, Nakl Vas with Čelpeci and Labljani, Ljutoglavi with the castle. Latter Serbain kings and emperors donated vast areas in Kosovo and Metohija to various Serbian monasteries, that even led to the point that eastern portion of '' Kosovo '' was called metohija which is term for monastic property. In 1330. king Stefan Decanski founded monastery of Decani and granted it with 89 settlements at '' Kosovo'' and in present day northern Albania.

Early western records about Albanians confirm that in Mediaeval period Albanians didn't live in Kosovo, Anomymus from 1308. in his description of Southeastern europe describes Albanians living ( what a surprise ! ) in Albania, again no mentions of '' Kosovo '':

Now we come to speak of Albania, which, on its southern side, is right next to Greece and is situated between Rascia and the land of the Despot (2). Albania is a rather extensive and large region. It has warlike inhabitants indeed, for they make excellent archers and lancers. This whole region is fed by four large rivers: the Ersenta (Erzen), the Mathia (Mat), the Scumpino (Shkumbin) and the Epasa (Osum). The land is productive in meat, cheese and milk; it is not very abundant in bread and wine, though the nobles in particular have enough. They do not have cities, camps, fortifications and farms, but live rather in tents and are constantly on the move from one place to another with the help of their troops and relatives. They do have one city called Duracium (Durrës) which belongs to the Latins and from which they get textiles and other necessities. The Prince of Tarento, son of the King of Sicily (3), now holds sway over part of this kingdom including the city of Durrës. It was the free will of the landowners who, on account of their natural love for the French, spontaneously and freely received him as their lord (4). From Apulia and the city of Brindisi one may cross over to Durrës in one night, and from Durrës one may travel on through Albania to Greece and to Constantinople much more easily and without all the road difficulties and perils of the sea. The Roman emperors of ancient times used this route (5) for it is excessively tedious to transport a large army in such a period of time by sea and by such long roads. The said kingdom of Albania now has no king, the land being divided among the landowners who rule it themselves and who are subject to no one else. This province is called Albania because the inhabitants of this region are born with white (albo) hair. The dogs here are of a huge size (6) and are so wild that they kill like lions. As Pliny mentions, the Albanians sent such a dog to Alexander the Great, which vanquished lions, elephants and bulls in the stadium. They have painted eyes, greyish in the pupils, such that they can see better at night than in the daytime. There are two Albanias, one in Asia near India of which we are not speaking here, and the other in Europe which is part of the Byzantine Empire and of which we are speaking here. It contains two provinces: Clisara (Këlcyra) and Tumurist (7). In addition to these two provinces, it has other provinces next to it: Cumania (8), Stophanatum (9), Polatum (Pult) and Debre (Dibra) which are provinces tributary to the Albanians and more or less subjected to them, for they are active in farming, tend their vineyards and take care of the necessities of life at home. The inhabitants of these provinces do not move from place to place as the aformentioned Albanians do, but live rather in solid mansions and towns, nor are they entirely Catholic or entirely schismatic. Should anyone preach the word of God to them, they would pretend to be true Catholics for it is reported that by nature they have a liking for the Latins. The aforementioned Albanians have a language which is distinct from that of the Latins, Greeks and Slavs such that in no way can they communicate with other peoples. This is enough on Albania.

(1)cf. Elsie, Albania in the 'Anonymi Descriptio...', 1990.(2)i.e. the Despot of Epirus.(3)Philip, Prince of Taranto.(4)cf. Du Cange, Hist. Const. I. 102.(5)Reference here is to the Via Egnatia, the main road of ancient communication between Rome and Constantinople, passing through Durrës, Elbasan and Ohrid.(6)Half a millennium later, the English painter and poet Edward Lear (1812-1888) was to make the same discovery on his travels down the Himaran coast in 1848. In his 'Journal of a landscape painter in Greece and Albania' (London 1851), he records on 22 October 1848 being attacked by "some thirty immense dogs, who bounced out from the most secluded corners and would straightway have breakfasted on me had I not been so aptly rescued; certainly the dogs of Khimára are the most formidable brutes I have yet seen."
(7)Probably in the Myzeqe region around Kavaja. The chronicle of John Musachi speaks of a locality called Tomorista.(8)No doubt Chounavia, formerly the site of an Orthodox diocese, somewhere between Durrës and the Mat region, perhaps on the Ishëm river.(9)No doubt Stephanatum, a diocese of the time somewhere near Durrës.
http://albanianhistory.net/texts15/AH1308.html

Other western souce from 1610. points river Drin as border 'tween Serbia and Albania and areas of
'' Kosovo '' as part of Serbia:

Thus, as mentioned above, after having our luggage and some of our retinue returned, we advanced quickly from Trush to Barbullush which is situated on the banks of the Drin, a river larger than the Tiber. This river flows with many bends down from Lake Ohrid, dividing the northern part of Albania from Serbia
...The next morning, September 10th, we mounted our horses and set off to ford the Drin. The river was two miles away and divides Albania from Serbia...
On the other side of the Drin, they accompanied us for quite a ways to the bank of the Lesser Drin, which flows from Serbia into the Greater Drin.

description of Prizren and surounding area:

There are many schismatics in the city. They much exceed the number of the Latins, who have at their disposal only two churches out of the 80 they once had.
I consecrated some little altars for this and other churches, confirmed a little more than 25 souls and offered communion to almost all the people, who indeed go to church every day with great devotion.
In this region of Serbia they speak the Dalmatian language although the province penetrates partially into Albania, which has its own language. As we could understand one another without an interpreter,, I spoke to them...

note: writer is catholic priest from the island of Rab in Dalmatia ( Croatia ), as a Croat he could understand the Serbs in Prizren without interpreter, marking both Serbian and Croatian language as Dalmatian:

As we could understand one another without an interpreter, I spoke to them...

note: as Catholic priest writer calles Orthodox Serbs shizmatics while he calls catholics ( Ragusans( people from Dubrovnik ), Albanians and Bosnians ) '' Latins ''
example:

The Latins in Prokuplje did not have a church but did have a chapel in the house of the chaplain who celebrated mass and administered the sacraments. At that time it was Peter Dragisa of Dubrovnik under the authority of his superiors. The Latins in that town consist of no more than 12 households, traders from Dubrovnik for the most part, who had settled there not long ago. These individuals, Albanians, Bosnians and people from Dubrovnik, had emigrated there like all the rest of the Latins in Serbia.

mention of Janjevo, town in Kosovo:

We finally arrived at Kolsh that evening where we spent the night at the home of the priest, Dom Athanasius, chaplain of Janjeva in Serbia.

mention of Trepca with Serbian Orthodox bishop and monastery:

Trepça is a town of 500 hearths with forty or less Latin households. It has over 200 schismatic households which have their own bishop who resides in a monastery of Orthodox monks outside the town

http://albanianhistory.net/texts16-18/AH1610.html


The name of Kosovo was first time recorded only after the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. as a simple field where battle took place. After the Ottoman conquest of Serbia the region of present Kosovo was named Vlk's land ie lands of Vuk ( Vlk ) Brankovic by Ottomans and latter territory was named Sandjak of Vucitrn, after the Vuk Brankovic's capital Vucitrn ( Serbian: wolf's torn ), again no mentions of Kosovo as territorial entity.

On the other hand Albanians from Kosovo came from northern Albania during the Ottoman rule, even the so called president of the so called state of Kosovo Ibrahim Rugova has his origin from Albania not from Kosovo

Ibrahim Rugova was born on 2 December 1944 in Crnce, Kosovo near the end of World War II, to a family that is a branch of the Kelmendi Albanian clan.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Rugova

Kelmend (or Klementi, Serbian: Клименти, Klimenti) is an Albanian Region, known as the Klementi Mountain, (Albanian: Mali i Kelmenit) originating from Malesia, now known as the Malësi e Madhe District in Albania

Map of Malesi e Madhe District from which Kelemend, Skhrel and Kastrati and other Albanian clans trace their lineage:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malesi_e_Madhe


Seven tribes of Malesia, ancestors of Albanians living in Kosovo:

Hoti Hoti is a Catholic Albanian village that is the brother village of Trieshi. Geographically, Hoti lies the border separating Albania and Montenegro, on the north shore of Lake Scutari. Hoti is regarded as the leaders (bajraktar) of Malësia e Madhe.
Gruda is a village of Malësia that, along with Hoti was instrumental during the Ottoman resistance. The mountain of Dechiq (Dečić), where the famed battle against the Ottoman conquerors took place, is located here, as is Tuzi, the de facto "capital" of Malësia. Gruda is mostly Roman Catholic but with a sizeable Muslim minority (20-30%). The Church of Gruda, known as Prifti, is the oldest church in the region, and it is not only an Albanian landmark, but it, having been built in 1528, provides the most concrete date for tracing back ancestry.
Kelmendi is located in the northern-most region of Albania (on the eastern shores of Lake Scutari. The village is mostly Roman Catholic although there are some sizable Muslim populations on the outskirts of Kelmendi, such as in Rugova (located in Kosovo) or in the Vuthaj and Martinaj regions (located in Montenegro)
Kastrati, lies entirely within the political borders of Montenegro. It traces its descent from the famous fighting stock, Drekalović of Kuči, which in turn derives from Berisha, by tradition one of the oldest of all Albanian surnames. The people of Kastrati are Catholic and Muslim; and though they retain their Slavic names (most notably Popović) it is generally accepted that they are of Albanian origin.
Shkreli The largest of Malesia e Madhe. Shkreli led Malesia e Madhe in the resistance against communism, with their leader Major Marash Lleshi, during World War II. Shkreli is all Roman catholic (population seized). Other examples of famous Shkrelsman are Bec Patani, Marash Mani and Qek Deda.
Triesh is commonly considered the "younger brother" of Hoti, as they share a common ancestor, Keq Preka of Herzegovina. The people of Triesh were, along with their Hoti brethren, known for their role during the Ottoman resistance. Specifically, they are said never to have given in to political or religious suppression by the Ottomans; and, as a result, they not only retained an overwhelmingly Catholic population, but they never willingly paid any taxes or tribute to the Ottoman pashas. Gjon Gjeka, Malote Gjeka, Maluk Vata, Mal Vuksani, Dode Smajli, Luc Gjoni and Zef and Dede Mali are all examples of famous Trieshjan.
Koja e Kuçit, is a Catholic Albanian village near the MontenegrinKuči tribe. The people of Koja have been praised for their resistance to the Slavic expansion, guarding their borders with life and blood from advancing Slavs into the Albanian Malesia region. Not one house in Koja was converted to Islam after nearly 500 years of the Ottoman occupation in the region. Pretash Zeka Ulaj the bajraktari Kojes was honored by the leaders of the other Six Malesia tribes and given the Albanian flag to mount on top of Deqic as a symbol of unity amongst the seven villages after finally defeating the Ottoman Turks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mal%C3%ABsia#The_Seven_Tribes

From those north Albanian clans come Nekibe Kelmendi,so called minister of justice of Kososvo, deputies of the so called Kosovo Assembly Kole Berisha and Sala Berisha-Shala come from northern Albanian Berisha clan, Jakup Krasniqi, Mark Krasniqi and Memli Krasniqi come from Krasniqi clan, Hajredin Kuci from Kuci clan etc, etc...

linguistic and toponomastic evidence:

many of the places in Kosovo have names that suggest ancient Slavic origine, for example town of Decani ( localy called Decane ) bears a name of old Czech tribe of same name, as well as nearby village Locane which was called Lucane in 14th century:

LEGENDA:
1 Hbané
2 Sedličané
3 Lučané
4 Děčané
5 Litoměřici
6 Lemúzi
7 Pšované
8 Charvátci
9 Charváti
10 Zličané
11 Čechové
12 Doudlebi
13 Tuhošť
14 Záhvozd

http://www.moraviamagna.cz/mapky/m_ckmeny.htm

and this get's even more interesting cause some 50 km's northern from Decane and Lucane there's also village called Dulebi, just as old Czech tribe. There is also town in Czech called Vrchlabi at the spring of river Laba ( '' the top/spring of the river Laba '' ) and there is also a village in Kosovo called Vrhlab with same meaning as in Czech and at exactly same position, at the spring of river Lab. Vrhlab was one of the residencies of Serbian mediaeval kings and was first time recorded in charter of...

Even the highly biased authors such as Tim Judah and Noel Malcolm don't deny that in Mediaeval period most of the population of Kosovo was Serbian:

By the time of Serbian Nemanjic rule in Kosovo and Metohija, to give the region its full Serbian name, the majority of its population was most probably Serbian. As the British historian Noel Malcolm has written, 'all the evidence suggests that they [Albanians] were only a minority in medieval Kosovo.'6 Albanian historians dispute this claiming they were in the majority while Serbian historians claim that, if there were any Albanians in Kosovo at all, only insignificant numbers were present. Whatever the true proportions, difficult to assess anyway because of assimilation and the more fluid nature of identities then, things began to change after the Ottoman conquest and especially after the great Serbian migrations of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. During this period the movement of Albanians, mostly Muslim converts, into Kosovo began to change the region's ethnic make-up,leading inexorably to a situation by which Serbs were eventually to become a small minority.

from:Tim Judah, The Serbs : History, Myth, and the Destruction of Yugoslavia, Yale University Press, 2000, p.22-23.

as always,nice work clan

Impressive work. I'm anxious to get involved in this discussion, unfortunately not before late October, when I finish working - 'till then, I can only drop in to read trough ....

It's especially important today to be able to distinguish between different regions that in 1945. have been incorporated into the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija by Joseph Bross aka Tito, whose Commparty shaped the administrative borders of the province as they are today.

So I'll focus on that aspect when I return to discussion.

For now, just a few links to illustrate a sad fact - how what is now the province of K&M first came to exsist as a distinctive territoriall/administrative unit in the XX cent. - when Axis powers first created the region, merging parts of 3 different "Banovinas" (admin. regions of Kingdom of Yugoslavija) Zetska, Moravska and Vardarska (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...anovine_kj.jpg) into "Kosovo region" and handing it over to the facsist regime in Tirana, to become part of "Greater Albania".

For that exact reason, majority of Sqiptars still celebrate the year of 1941. as:
Giovanni Armillotta - The first liberation of Kosova: April 1941

here's how the "liberation" actually took place:

http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/004.shtml

Here's the map to compare the borders of "Hitlers Kosovo" with those of "Tito's Kosovo" (contemporary AP K&M):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=15914925

I'll post more about the historical regions comprising the contemporary AP of Kosmet when I come back

Let's hope that new USA created '' Kosovo '' will last as long as the Nazi one and have the same faith. Anyway communists did pretty good anti-Serb job back then, they collected all areas with relative Albanian majority and created brend new province for them at the expense of the Serbs living there, just as the Italy and Germany did in WW II.

Well communists did consider serb history and culture the greatest danger to Yugoslavia.So they put albanians in charge of all institutions in Kosovo.

They used "my enemies enemy is my friend"...

I am just re-posting the link for the Czech documentary about Kosovo for those who haven't seen it in the other thread or overlooked it. It's worth watching, I recommend it.

Code:

http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1998140/3876006/

Btw for those who don't have a Demonoid account, feel free to PM me and I will send you a code for invitation.

Nice work Clandestino, very nice. That historical material you presented is of great importance!

Well 2 things i want to say;

1. y is serbia called servia? i never heard of it

2. U cant just blame the communists for kosovo. The serbs had the power to change things in kosovo. Perhaps by creating by creating social and economic policies (mainly social) perhaps to spread the population or control it but now ist too late. But think about it. China controls its birth rates. Australia(classic example) spread and mix populations perhaps like 40% Others 60% arab or something. And even here we have many racial problems esspecially from arabs both muslims and christians. Just imagine if they full control of the place like city or something, they probably proclaim independence. And i noticed that are growing in numbers as well around other nearby areas.

1. y is serbia called servia? i never heard of it

It's a Latin translation of Serbia/Сербиа ... contemporary historian Božidar Mitrović / Божидар Митровић argues that the letter B is maliciously replaced with a V to degrade the entire people by labeling them as "servus" : "slaves"

2. U cant just blame the communists for kosovo. The serbs had the power to change things in kosovo. Perhaps by creating by creating social and economic policies (mainly social) perhaps to spread the population or control it but now ist too late.

Well, if we're talking about the responsibility of Belgrade authorities from 1912 onward - the blame for mishandling the situation can be put partially on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and on SFR Yug. - proportionally 20% to 80% in "favour" of the Communists (and within the Commie corpus I will also count in Slobodan Milošević).

This is an issue that would take days to elaborate in detail, unfortunately I can only give it some 10minutes - so in short:

The flaw of the Royal authority from 1912 to 1914 was the fact that they never incorporated the Old Serbia/territories liberated from 1912-13 into the Constitutional system from the beginning - instead they had placed that entire land under the military admin. They did had a good excuse though - the ongoing Balkan wars that were instantly followed by WW1. So from 1912 to 1918 - there was simply no time to devise and implement a far reaching strategy.... But the fatal "error" came with the adopting of the "Naisus declaration" during WW1 - and then also during WW1 - elimination of the "Black Hand" hardliners in the military that paved the way ford the king Alexander I to create his South Slavic utopia - Yugoslavian Kingdom; thus degrading the Serbian national issue into a secondary question. The main job for the court in BG was now to forge a make-believe Yugoslavian identity, while the intent of his Slavic brothers Croats and Slovenians and Albanians alike was only to use this monster-state as a vessel for future independence; their interests were actively protected by the King himself, while the Serbs were denied a national state they had payed for in the ocean of their own blood.

The king did came to his senses around 1930's - and started plotting secession of Serbia within the borderlines proposed by the London accord from 1915 - but it was already too late. He was assasinated in 1934. by Croat and Albanian fascists before he was able to realize his plans... part of which included a "swap of peoples" with his Freemason brother, Kemal Ataurk of Turkey - Albanians of Yugoslavia in exchange for the Armenians of Turkey!

Now, while Alexanders errors were made partially out of arrogance and folly and partially under foreign pressure (unofficial and of obscure character) - Tito's post 1945 politics were conscientiously aimed at creating a quasi-Republic for the Albanians of SFRY. His and Party's ideology can be summed up with a popular catch phrase of the time "Weak Serbia - strong Yugolavia" : Hence the creation of 2 Autonomous provinces within Serbia, while other SFRY republics were firmly centralized, hence the fall of Ranković, hence the 1974 Constitution of SFRY that promoted the Serbian AP's into de-facto republics - while administratively a part of Serbia.

Milošević's move to amend the 1974 Constitution was actually a common-sense motivated move that has actually saved Serbia from total tripartite dissolution in the dawn of SFRY breakup - unfortunately, his latter moves were very much short sighted, anational in essence, and motivated mostly by his urge to stay in power - which ultimately led to him being back-stabbed by his western "partners" and brought against the wall in 1999.

As for the "social policies" - - it was never about that - Albanians had their own lil paradise under Tito - but they still rebelled on several occasions - pushing for a de-jure republic status (as a step closer to secession) - and under Milošević, they rejected every aspect of social life from the very start - while more than 80% of them actively boycotting the state and her organs....

Nice work with the maps Clandestino. They should be used in the VV and Mudpit when we have those heated debates with our "friends" over there.

svaka ti cast brate clan....

Jest stvarno, super je uradio ovo sa mapama.