1.
Serbia
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Serbia, officially the Republic of Serbia, is a sovereign state situated at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central Balkans. Relative to its territory, it is a diverse country distinguished by a transitional character, situated along cultural, geographic, climatic. Serbia numbers around 7 million residents, and its capital, Belgrade, following the Slavic migrations to the Balkans from the 6th century onwards, Serbs established several states in the early Middle Ages. The Serbian Kingdom obtained recognition by Rome and the Byzantine Empire in 1217, in the early 19th century, the Serbian Revolution established the nation-state as the regions first constitutional monarchy, which subsequently expanded its territory. During the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbia formed a union with Montenegro which dissolved peacefully in 2006, in 2008 the parliament of the province of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, with mixed responses from the international community. Serbia is a member of organizations such as the UN, CoE, OSCE, PfP, BSEC. An EU membership candidate since 2012, Serbia has been negotiating its EU accession since January 2014, the country is acceding to the WTO and is a militarily neutral state. Serbia is an income economy with dominant service sector, followed by the industrial sector. The country ranks high on the Social Progress Index as well as the Global Peace Index, relatively high on the Human Development Index, located at the crossroads between Central and Southern Europe, Serbia is found in the Balkan peninsula and the Pannonian Plain. Serbia lies between latitudes 41° and 47° N, and longitudes 18° and 23° E. The country covers a total of 88,361 km2, which places it at 113th place in the world, with Kosovo excluded, the area is 77,474 km2. Its total border length amounts to 2,027 km, all of Kosovos border with Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro are under control of the Kosovo border police. The Pannonian Plain covers the third of the country while the easternmost tip of Serbia extends into the Wallachian Plain. The terrain of the part of the country, with the region of Šumadija at its heart. Mountains dominate the third of Serbia. Dinaric Alps stretch in the west and the southwest, following the flow of the rivers Drina, the Carpathian Mountains and Balkan Mountains stretch in a north–south direction in eastern Serbia. Ancient mountains in the southeast corner of the country belong to the Rilo-Rhodope Mountain system, elevation ranges from the Midžor peak of the Balkan Mountains at 2,169 metres to the lowest point of just 17 metres near the Danube river at Prahovo. The largest lake is Đerdap Lake and the longest river passing through Serbia is the Danube, the climate of Serbia is under the influences of the landmass of Eurasia and the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea
2.
Grand Principality of Serbia
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This is an archontological list of Serbian monarchs, containing monarchs of the medieval principalities, to heads of state of modern Serbia. The Serbian monarchy dates back to the Early Middle Ages, the Serbian royal titles used include Prince, Grand Prince, King, Emperor and Despot. The Vlastimirović dynasty was the first royal dynasty of the Serb people, the Serbs established several polities by the 10th century, Serbia or Zagorje which consisted of Serbia, and Bosnia, and Pomorje which consisted of Dioclea, Zachlumia, Pagania, Travunia. The Serbian ruler was titled archon, prince, the history of the dynasty starts with the eponymous founder Vlastimir. This era is marked by the Christianization of Serbs, the internal and external wars. The history of this dynasty ends with the annexation of Serbia in 969, the first office-holder was Peter of Diokleia, of which we only have a seal found in the 19th century. The next known is Jovan Vladimir, who became a Bulgarian vassal, Stefan Vojislav succeeds in giving the realm independence, he is the eponymous founder of the Vojislavljevići that ruled Duklja from the early 11th century up to the 1120s. The dynasty may have been a branch of the preceding Vlastimirovićs. In the mid-11th century, Mihailo I had liberated Rascia from Byzantine rule, in 1083, Constantine Bodin appoints brothers Vukan and Marko, sons of Petrislav, as rulers of Rascia. In 1089, the Byzantines capture Bodin, and Vukan retains independence, the Vukanovići quickly claim the following Serbian domains in the following decades, and by 1148, the maritime possessions are united with the inland. The Byzantine Empire at times intervened in the scene. The dynasty ruled until 1165, when a branch is instated by the Byzantines. Stefan Nemanja rebelled against his eldest brother Tihomir in 1166, who fled with his brothers Stracimir, but later on, Stefan Nemanja defeated his Greek army of mercenaries in the same year near the town of Pantino on Kosovo in which poor Tihomir drowned in the River of Sitnica. Nemanja captured his brothers and made peace with them by giving them rule in their former parts of the land to recognise him as the only ruler of Rashka or Serbia. The Nemanjić dynasty was named after Stefan Nemanja and ruled over Serbia until 1371, the Nemanjić dynasty ruled the Serb lands between ca.1166 up to 1371. The crumbling Serbian Empire under Stefan Uroš V was to be of little resistance to the powerful Ottoman Empire. In light of conflicts and decentralization of the realm, the Ottomans defeated the Serbs at the Battle of Maritsa in 1371, making vassals of the governors, soon thereafter. As Uroš was childless and the nobility could not agree on the heir, the Empire was ruled by semi-independent provincial lords
3.
Kingdom of Serbia (medieval)
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The Kingdom of Serbia, or Serbian Kingdom, was a medieval Serbian state that existed from 1217 to 1346, ruled by the Nemanjić dynasty. The Grand Principality of Serbia was elevated with the coronation of Stefan Nemanjić as king by his brother, bishop Sava, after inheriting all territories unified by their father, the kingdom was proclaimed an empire on 16 April 1346. Each province had its own nobility and institutions, and each acquired a member of the Vojislavljevići to head as Župan, the Byzantine Empire launched a campaign on Duklja between 1089 and 1091 and possibly captured Bodin. A civil war broke out in the realm among Bodins relatives, Vukan took the opportunity to assert himself and broke away, claiming the title of Grand Prince of Serbia. Rascia, Bosnia, and Zahumlje all became independent in 1091, up to this point, Duklja had been the center of the Serbian realm, as well as the main resistance to Byzantium in the Balkans. After 1091 Rascia became the most powerful of the Serbian states, under the rule of the Vukanović dynasty, Rascia also replaced Duklja as the main opponent of Byzantine rule in the 12th century. Bodins heirs were forced to recognize Byzantine overlordship, and now only the small territories of Duklja. During the reign of Vukans son Uroš I, the Byzantines invaded Duklja and sought to conquer Rascia as well, Uroš II initially fought the Byzantines, but he gave oaths of servitude to the Emperor after he was defeated in war. Stefan Nemanja was succeeded by his middle son Stefan, whilst his first-born son Vukan was given the rule of the Zeta region, Stefan Nemanjas youngest son Rastko became a monk and took the name Sava, turning all his efforts to spreading religion among his people. In Byzantium, Sava managed to secure autocephaly for the Serbian Church, in the same year Sava published the first constitution in Serbia — St. Savas Nomocanon. The Nomocanon was a compilation of Civil law, based on Roman Law and its basic purpose was to organize the functions of the young Serbian kingdom and the Serbian church. Thus the Serbs acquired both political and religious independence, the next generation of Serbian rulers — the sons of Stefan Prvovenčani, Radoslav, Vladislav, and Uroš I — marked a period of stagnation of the state structure. All three kings were more or less dependent on some of the neighbouring states — Byzantium, Bulgaria, the ties with the Hungarians played a decisive role as Uroš I was succeeded by his son Dragutin, whose wife was a Hungarian princess. Thus, some of these became part of the Serbian state for the first time. His new state was named Kingdom of Srem, in that time the name Srem was a designation for two territories, Upper Srem and Lower Srem. The Kingdom of Srem under the rule of Stefan Dragutin was actually Lower Srem, after Dragutin died in 1316, his son, king Vladislav II, became king and ruled until 1325. Under Dragutins younger brother, King Milutin, Serbia grew stronger despite having to fight wars on three different fronts. King Milutin was an apt diplomat much inclined to the use of a customary medieval diplomatic and dynastic marriages and he was married five times, with Hungarian, Bulgarian, and Byzantine princesses
4.
Serbian Empire
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The Serbian Empire is a historiographical term for the empire in the Balkan peninsula that emerged from the medieval Serbian Kingdom. It was established in 1346 by King Stefan Dušan, known as the Mighty and he also promoted the Serbian Church to an Orthodox patriarchate. His son and successor, Uroš the Weak, lost most of the territory, the Serbian Empire effectively ended with the death of Stefan V in 1371 and the break-up of the Serbian state. Some successors of Stefan V claimed the title of Emperor in parts of Serbia until 1402, Stefan Dušan became King of Serbia by deposing father, Stefan Dečanski. By 1345, Dušan the Mighty had expanded his state to cover half of the Balkans, therefore, in 1345, in Serres, Dušan proclaimed himself Tsar. On 16 April 1346, in Skopje, he had himself crowned Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks, the ceremony was performed by the newly elevated Serbian Patriarch Joanikije II, the Bulgarian Patriarch Simeon, and Nicholas, the Archbishop of Ohrid. Tsar Dušan doubled the size of his kingdom, seizing territories to the south, southeast. Serbia held parts of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moravian Serbia, Kosovo, Zeta, modern Macedonia, modern Albania and he did not fight a single field battle, instead winning his empire by besieging cities. Dušan undertook a campaign against the Byzantine Empire, which was attempting to avert a deteriorating situation after the destruction caused by the Fourth Crusade, Dušan swiftly seized Thessaly, Albania, Epirus, and most of Macedonia. Dušan thus ruled over the almost the entire Balkan peninsula, with only southern Greece, Salonica and he gave sanctuary to the former regent of the Byzantine Empire, John VI Kantakouzenos, in revolt against the government, and agreed to an alliance. In 1349 and 1354, Dušan enacted a set of known as Dušans Code. The Code was based on Roman-Byzantine law and the first Serbian constitution and it was a Civil and Canon law system, based on the Ecumenical Councils, for the functioning of the state and the Serbian Orthodox Church. In 1355, Dušan begin military preparations, assembling an army of 80,000 men, Dušan marched towards Constantinople, capturing Adrianople in a fierce battle. The Serbian army was proceeding to Constantinople, located 40 miles to the east and his expedition ended as well, and the army retreated carrying the dead body of the man who had elevated Serbia to the rank of a great power. Dušan was succeeded by his son, Stefan Uroš V, called the Weak, the combination of sudden conquest, backwards administration, and failure to consolidate its holdings led to the fragmentation of the empire. The period was marked by the rise of a new threat, the Ottoman Turkish sultanate gradually spread from Asia to Europe and conquered first Byzantine Thrace, and then the other Balkan states. Too incompetent to sustain the empire created by his father. The Serbian Empire of Stefan V fragmented into a conglomeration of principalities, Stefan Uroš V died childless on 4 December 1371, after much of the Serbian nobility had been killed by the Ottoman Turks during the Battle of Maritsa
5.
Serbs
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The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group that formed in the Balkans. The majority of Serbs inhabit the state of Serbia, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina. They form significant minorities in Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia, there is a large Serb diaspora in Western Europe, and outside Europe there are significant communities in North America and Australia. The Serbs share many traits with the rest of the peoples of Southeast Europe. They are predominantly Eastern Orthodox Christians by religion, the Serbian language is official in Serbia, co-official in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is spoken by the majority in Montenegro. The modern identity of Serbs is rooted in Eastern Orthodoxy and traditions, in the 19th century, the Serbian national identity was manifested, with awareness of history and tradition, medieval heritage, cultural unity, despite living under different empires. When the Principality of Serbia gained independence from the Ottoman Empire, Orthodoxy became crucial in defining the national identity, instead of language which was shared by other South Slavs. The tradition of slava, the family saint feast day, is an important ethnic marker of Serb identity, the origin of the ethnonym is unclear. Serbia has among the tallest people in the world, after Montenegro and Netherlands, Slavs invaded and settled the Balkans in the 6th and 7th centuries. Up until the late 560s their activity was raiding, crossing from the Danube, the Danube and Sava frontier was overwhelmed by large-scale Slavic settlement in the late 6th and early 7th century. What is today central Serbia was an important geo-strategical province, through which the Via Militaris crossed and this area was frequently intruded by barbarians in the 5th and 6th centuries. The numerous Slavs mixed with and assimilated the descendants of the indigenous population, numerous small Serbian states were created, located in modern Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia. With the decline of the Serbian state of Duklja in the late 11th century, Raška separated from it, prince Stefan Nemanja conquered the neighbouring territories of Kosovo, Duklja and Zachlumia. The Nemanjić dynasty ruled over Serbia until the 14th century, over the next 140 years, Serbia expanded its borders. Its cultural model remained Byzantine, despite political ambitions directed against the empire, the medieval power and influence of Serbia culminated in the reign of Stefan Dušan, who ruled the state from 1331 until his death in 1355. Ruling as Emperor from 1346, his territory included Macedonia, northern Greece, Montenegro, when Dušan died, his son Stephen Uroš V became Emperor. With the death of two important Serb leaders in the battle, and with the death of Stephen Uroš that same year, hrebeljanović was subsequently accepted as the titular leader of the Serbs because he was married to a member of the Nemanjić dynasty. In 1389, the Serbs faced the Ottomans at the Battle of Kosovo on the plain of Kosovo Polje, both Lazar and Sultan Murad I were killed in the fighting
6.
Stefan Nemanja
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Stefan Nemanja was the Grand Prince of the Serbian Grand Principality from 1166 to 1196. According to the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Nemanja is also among the most remarkable Serbs for his literary contributions and altruistic attributes. Nemanja ultimately went to Mount Athos, where he became a monk and took the name of Symeon, joining his youngest son, together with his son Sava, Nemanja had built the Serbian Hilandar Monastery at Mount Athos from 1198-1199, and issued the Hilandar Charter. The monastery later became the cradle of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Serbian Orthodox Church canonized Stefan Nemanja shortly after his death under the name Saint Symeon the Myrrh-streaming after numerous miracles. Nemanja was born around the year 1113 AD in Ribnica, Zeta and he was the youngest son of Zavida, a Prince of Zahumlje, who after a conflict with his brothers was sent to Ribnica where he had the title of Lord. Zavida was most probably a son of Uroš I or Vukan, since western Zeta was under Roman Catholic jurisdiction, Nemanja received a Latin baptism, although much of his later life was spent balancing Western and Eastern forms of Christianity. Upon arriving in Ras, the capital of Rascia, Nemanja was re-baptised in the Eastern Orthodox Church, in the Church of St. Apostles Peter, Nemanja met Emperor Manuel in Niš in 1162, who gave him the region of Dubočica to rule over and declared him independent. The Emperor gave him a Byzantine court title as it was important for the Emperor to have the borderlands of the Empire ruled by loyal leaders, Nemanjas Serb squadrons fought in the Imperial Army in 1164 in Srem during the wars against the Kingdom of Hungary. Nemanja ruled independently, he built the Monastery of Saint Nicholas in Kuršumlija and his brothers invited him to a council at Ras, supposedly to resolve the situation, but instead they imprisoned him in a nearby cave. Nemanjas supporters advised church leaders that Tihomir had done this because he disapproved of building, something that would later help Nemanja greatly. A later legend claimed Saint George himself freed Nemanja from the cave, between 1166 and 1168, Prince Nemanja rebelled against his older brother Tihomir, and deposed him and his brothers, Miroslav and Stracimir. The Byzantine Emperor raised an army for Tihomir, made up of Greeks, Francs and Turks. Tihomir drowned in the Sitnica river, and the other brothers surrendered to Nemanja, Nemanja assumed the title of Grand Župan of all Serbia, and took the first name Stefan. Nemanja married a Serbian noblewoman, Ana, with whom he had three sons, Vukan, Stefan and Rastko, Stefan Nemanja built the church of Đurđevi Stupovi in Ras in 1171. According to the legend, this was to thank Saint George for freeing him from the cave in which his brothers had imprisoned him, the same year, Nemanja had his third son - Rastko. In 1171, Grand Župan Stefan Nemanja sided with the Venetian Republic in a dispute with the Byzantine Empire, the Venetians incited the Slavs of the eastern Adriatic littoral to rebel against Byzantine rule. Nemanja joined them, launching an offensive towards the city of Kotor. A German fleet also formed to replace the Venetian navy, and advanced eastwards in the September 1171, Nemanja also made an alliance with the Kingdom of Hungary, and, though the Hungarians, with the Duchy of Austria
7.
Grand Prince
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The title grand prince or great prince ranked in honour below king and emperor and above a sovereign prince. German, Dutch, Slavic and Scandinavian languages do use separate words to express this concept, the title of grand prince was once used for the sovereign of a grand principality. The last titular grand principalities vanished in 1917 and 1918, the territories being united into other monarchies or becoming republics. The last sovereign to reign whose highest title was grand prince was Ivan IV of Moscow in the 16th century, when Ivan IVs pre-tsarist title is referred to in English, however, it is usually as grand duke. Velikiy knjaz is also a Russian courtesy title for members of the family of the Russian tsar, Grand Prince, used in the Slavic and Baltic languages, was the title of a medieval monarch who headed a more-or-less loose confederation whose constituent parts were ruled by lesser princes. Those grand princes title and position was at the time usually translated as king, in fact, the Slavic knjaz and the Baltic kunigaikštis are cognates of king. However, a prince was usually only primus inter pares within a dynasty. All princes of the family were eligible to inherit a crown. Often other members of the dynasty ruled some constituent parts of the monarchy/country, an established use of the title was in the Kievan Rus and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Thus, Veliki Knjaz has been more like high king than grand duke, at least, as these countries expanded territorially and moved towards primogeniture and centralization, their rulers acquired more elevated titles. Grand Prince was the used by contemporary sources to name the leader of the federation of the Hungarian tribes in the 10th century. It was used by Géza and his son and heir Stephen of Hungary, in the Middle Ages, the Serbian veliki župan was the supreme chieftain in the multi-tribal society. The title signifies overlordship, as the leader of lesser chieftains titled župan and it was used by the Serb rulers in the 11th and 12th centuries. In Greek, it was known as archizoupanos, megazoupanos and megalos zoupanos, in the 1090s, Vukan became the veliki župan in Raška. Stefan Nemanja expelled his brother Tihomir in 1168 and assumed the title of veliki župan, a Latin document used mega iupanus for King Stefan the First-Crowned. Afterwards, it was a noble rank with notable holders such as Altoman Vojinović. Later, several princes of nationally important cities, which comprised vassal appanage principalities, from 1328 the Grand Prince of Moscow appeared as the titular head of eastern Rus and slowly centralized power until Ivan IV was crowned tsar in 1547. Since then, the grand prince ceased to be a hereditary office
8.
Duklja
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Between 1043 and 1080, under Mihailo Vojislavljević, and his son, Constantine Bodin, Duklja saw its apogee. Mihailo was given the nominal title King of Slavs by the Pope after having left the Byzantine camp and supported a Slavic uprising in the Balkans, in which his son Bodin played a central part. Having incorporated the Serbian hinterland and installed vassal rulers there, this maritime principality emerged as the most powerful Serb polity, between 1113 and 1149 Duklja was the centre of Serbian–Byzantine conflict, with members of the Vojislavljević as protégés of either fighting each other for power. In historiography, K. Jirechek was the first to use Duklja, Doclea was originally the name of the Roman city on the site of modern Podgorica, built by Roman Emperor Diocletian, who hailed from this region of Roman Dalmatia. The Romanized Illyrian tribe known as Docleatae that inhabited the area derived their name from the city, in later centuries, the Romans hypercorrected the name to Dioclea, wrongly guessing that an i had been lost due to vulgar speech patterns. Duklja is the later Slavic version of the name of this region, the demonym, or tribal name, appearing in De Administrando Imperio was Dioklitianoi. According to De Administrando Imperio, in chapter 35, Diokleia included the large, inhabited cities of Gradetai, Nougrade, Gradetai may have been Starigrad, Nougrad may have been Prevlaka, while the location of Lontodokla is uncertain. Since the 12th century, the term Zeta began to replace the name Duklja, DAI mentions Croats and Serbs having settled the Western Balkans, the Serbs having founded baptized Serbia which included the land of Bosna. The other Serb-inhabited lands that were mentioned in the DAI included the maritime Paganija, Zahumlje and Travunija, all of the maritime lands bordered Serbia to the north. The DAI has been a widely used source in reconstructing the earliest histories of the South Slavic states, the DAI claims that Duklja had been made desolate by the Avars and repopulated in the time of the Emperor Heraclius, just as were Croatia and Serbia, by Slavs. Fine argues given that Serbs settled in regions along its borders, ivo Banac proposed that the DAI mention that a part of the Croats split off and took control of Illyricum and Pannonia after settling northern Dalmatia could be connected to Duklja. The dubious Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja, compiled in 1298–1301 by a Cistercian monk in the service of Paul I Šubić of Bribir, refers to Croats in southern Dalmatia. If this is not mere Byzantine confusion over Serbs and Croats, scholars have debated at length as to the reliability of such sources. Ultimately, the origins of Duklja are not known with certainty, moreover, what actually constituted a people in the Middle Ages has been rigorously debated. There is no evidence that peoples known as Serbs or Croats migrated en masse as coherent nations. Rather, some sort of group identity began to form within the Balkans from the late 7th century as Slavic notables formed a system of alliances and this coincides with the final demise of Avar hegemony over the western Balkans. At the same time, the Byzantines had begun to re-establish some control in parts of the Balkans after the 7th century collapse of imperial control, the establishment of the Byzantine theme of Dyrrhachium facilitated diplomatic contacts between the East Romans and the Adriatic Sclaviniae. There is little evidence that a notion of nation-type ethnicity
9.
King of Serbia
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This is an archontological list of Serbian monarchs, containing monarchs of the medieval principalities, to heads of state of modern Serbia. The Serbian monarchy dates back to the Early Middle Ages, the Serbian royal titles used include Prince, Grand Prince, King, Emperor and Despot. The Vlastimirović dynasty was the first royal dynasty of the Serb people, the Serbs established several polities by the 10th century, Serbia or Zagorje which consisted of Serbia, and Bosnia, and Pomorje which consisted of Dioclea, Zachlumia, Pagania, Travunia. The Serbian ruler was titled archon, prince, the history of the dynasty starts with the eponymous founder Vlastimir. This era is marked by the Christianization of Serbs, the internal and external wars. The history of this dynasty ends with the annexation of Serbia in 969, the first office-holder was Peter of Diokleia, of which we only have a seal found in the 19th century. The next known is Jovan Vladimir, who became a Bulgarian vassal, Stefan Vojislav succeeds in giving the realm independence, he is the eponymous founder of the Vojislavljevići that ruled Duklja from the early 11th century up to the 1120s. The dynasty may have been a branch of the preceding Vlastimirovićs. In the mid-11th century, Mihailo I had liberated Rascia from Byzantine rule, in 1083, Constantine Bodin appoints brothers Vukan and Marko, sons of Petrislav, as rulers of Rascia. In 1089, the Byzantines capture Bodin, and Vukan retains independence, the Vukanovići quickly claim the following Serbian domains in the following decades, and by 1148, the maritime possessions are united with the inland. The Byzantine Empire at times intervened in the scene. The dynasty ruled until 1165, when a branch is instated by the Byzantines. Stefan Nemanja rebelled against his eldest brother Tihomir in 1166, who fled with his brothers Stracimir, but later on, Stefan Nemanja defeated his Greek army of mercenaries in the same year near the town of Pantino on Kosovo in which poor Tihomir drowned in the River of Sitnica. Nemanja captured his brothers and made peace with them by giving them rule in their former parts of the land to recognise him as the only ruler of Rashka or Serbia. The Nemanjić dynasty was named after Stefan Nemanja and ruled over Serbia until 1371, the Nemanjić dynasty ruled the Serb lands between ca.1166 up to 1371. The crumbling Serbian Empire under Stefan Uroš V was to be of little resistance to the powerful Ottoman Empire. In light of conflicts and decentralization of the realm, the Ottomans defeated the Serbs at the Battle of Maritsa in 1371, making vassals of the governors, soon thereafter. As Uroš was childless and the nobility could not agree on the heir, the Empire was ruled by semi-independent provincial lords
10.
Realm of Stefan Dragutin
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The Realm of Stefan Dragutin was a medieval Serb kingdom. Initially, it was a kingdom of the Kingdom of Hungary. It was ruled by the Serbian kings Stefan Dragutin and his son Stefan Vladislav II, the kingdom was centered in the region of Lower Syrmia and its first capital was Debrc, while residence of the king was later moved to Belgrade. In the Middle Ages, Syrmia was the name for an area around the river Sava. The part in the north of Sava was known as Upper Syrmia, the kingdom was centered in Mačva, but also included Belgrade, part of Šumadija with Rudnik, and the counties of Podrinje, Usora, Soli, Braničevo and Kučevo. According to several Serbian historians, the kingdom also included Upper Syrmia, Stefan Dragutin was initially the king of Serbia from 1276 to 1282. The first capital of his state was Debrc, and later he moved his residence to Belgrade, Dragutin was the first Serb ruler who ruled from Belgrade as the capital. For the first time, that became part of the Serbian state. This action probably caused the war between the Bulgarian despot Shishman of Vidin and Milutin, near the end of his life Stefan Dragutin separated from his Hungarian friends and strengthened his connections in Serbia. He later took monastic vows, and died 1316, buried at the Đurđevi stupovi monastery near Novi Pazar, after king Dragutin died, his son Vladislav assumed his fathers appanage. However, in 1319, Serbian king Milutin, Vladislavs uncle, when Milutin died in 1321, the newly freed Vladislav recovered his fathers lands, with the help of the Hungarians and Stephen II, Ban of Bosnia. After having been beaten again by supporters of Stefan Dečanski, Vladislav retreated to the Kingdom of Hungary in 1324, Vladislavs nephew, Ban Stephen II, reincorporated Soli and Usora into Bosnia. Belgrade and the part of Banate of Macsó along the river Sava remained under the rule of the Kingdom of Hungary, while Braničevo. The kingdoms of Serbia and Hungary would contest Mačva for the next century, Српске земље у средњем веку, историјско-географске студије. The Late Medieval Balkans, A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest, ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press
11.
Emperor of the Serbs
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Between 1345 and 1371, the Serbian monarch was titled emperor, the full title being Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks in Serbian and basileus and autokrator of Serbia and Romania in Greek. The Serbian Empire was ruled by two monarchs, Stefan Dušan and Stefan Uroš V. Two other claimants of the ruled in Thessaly, Central Greece. Following his conquest of Serres, which crowned his conquest of Macedonia, in November or December 1345 Stefan Dušan proclaimed himself emperor, laying claim on the Byzantine imperial inheritance. On 16 April 1346 hewas crowned emperor at Skopje in an assembly attended by the elevated Serbian Patriarch, and also the Bulgarian Patriarch and his imperial title was recognised by Bulgaria and various other neighbors and trading partners but not by the Byzantine Empire. Mount Athos addressed him as Emperor, though rather as Emperor of Serbs than Emperor of Serbs, in Serbian charters, ethnic terms are used – Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks. In Greek, the title was basileus and autokratōr of Serbia, notably, when the Byzantines came around to recognizing Dušans imperial title, it was only for Serbia proper, much as they had done with the Bulgarian Tsar Simeon 400 years earlier. After his coronation, the title of king was dropped, when Stefan Dušan died in 1355, his son Stefan Uroš V succeeded him. Uroš Vs uncle Simeon Uroš in Thessaly claimed the title in rivalry, with the extinction of the main line of the Nemanjić dynasty with the death of heirless Stefan Uroš V in 1371, the imperial title became obsolete. The fall of the Serbian Empire saw the state fragmenting into provinces ruled by magnates, holding various titles, in 1527, a renegade Hungarian-Serbian commander, Jovan Nenad, styled himself Emperor. Stefan Dušan Emperor of Serbs and Greeks, in 1349. in 1349, Emperor of Serbs and Greeks and the Western Provinces, in 1349. Emperor of Serbs, Greeks and Bulgarians, Emperor of Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians and Albanians. Emperor of the Serbs, by the Athonite community, Emperor and Autocrat of Serbia and Romania, from a chrysobull to Iveron Monastery. Emperor of all Serb and Greek lands, the Maritime Region, Arbania, Emperor of Greece and King of All Serb Lands and the Maritime, between 1347–56. Emperor of Serbia and the Maritime Region, between 1347–56, Emperor of Rascia and Romania, Despot of Arta and Count of Vlachia in 1348, after the Serb conquest of Epirus and Thessaly. Stefan Uroš V Emperor of Serbs and Greeks, in 1357. in 1358. in 1357,1360, twice in 1357,1362,1365, and between 1356–67. Dušans Code List of Serbian monarchs Fine, John Van Antwerp, the Late Medieval Balkans, A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, — La Serbie, pouvoir et administration sociale
12.
Tsar
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Tsar /zɑːr/ or /tsɑːr/, also spelled tzar, csar, or czar, is a title used to designate certain Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, occasionally, the word could be used to designate other secular supreme rulers. Simeon II, the last Tsar of Bulgaria, is the last person to have borne the title Tsar, the title Tsar is derived from the Latin title for the Roman emperors, Caesar. In the history of the Greek language, basileus had originally meant something like potentate and it gradually approached the meaning of king in the Hellenistic Period, and it came to designate emperor after the inception in the Roman Empire. Thus, tsar was not only used as an equivalent of Latin imperator but was used to refer to Biblical rulers. From this ambiguity, the development has moved in different directions in the different Slavic languages, thus, the Bulgarian language and Russian language no longer use tsar as an equivalent of the term emperor/imperator as it exists in the West European tradition. Currently, the term refers to native sovereigns, ancient and Biblical rulers, as well as monarchs in fairy tales. The title of king is sometimes perceived as alien and is by some Russian-speakers reserved for European royalty, foreign monarchs of imperial status, both inside and outside of Europe, ancient as well as modern, are generally called imperator, rather than tsar. Biblical rulers in Serbian are called цар and in Croatian kralj, in the Polish language however tsar is always used as imperator, never as king. The term tsar is very used to refer to the Russian rulers after Peter the Great. In 705 Emperor Justinian II named Tervel of Bulgaria Caesar, the first foreigner to receive this title, the sainted Boris I is sometimes retrospectively referred to as tsar, because at his time Bulgaria was converted to Christianity. However, the tsar was actually adopted and used for the first time by his son Simeon I. Since in Byzantine political theory there was place for two emperors, Eastern and Western, the Bulgarian ruler was crowned basileus as a spiritual son of the Byzantian basileus. In Latin sources the Emperor of Bulgaria is sometimes designated Emperor of Zagora, various additional epithets and descriptions apart, the official style read Emperor and autocrat of all Bulgarians and Greeks. During the five-century period of Ottoman rule in Bulgaria, the sultan was referred to as tsar. This may be related to the fact that he had claimed the legacy of the Byzantine Empire or to the fact that the sultan was called Basileus in medieval Greek, after Bulgarias liberation from the Ottomans in 1878, its new monarchs were at first autonomous prince. With the declaration of independence, Ferdinand I of Bulgaria adopted the traditional title tsar in 1908. However, these titles were not generally perceived as equivalents of emperor any longer, in the Bulgarian as in the Greek vernacular, the meaning of the title had shifted
13.
Fall of the Serbian Empire
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The fall of the Serbian Empire was a decades-long period in the late 14th century that marked the end of the once-powerful Serbian Empire. This period is known as the dissolution or the beginning of the fall of the Serbian Empire, between 1366 and 1371 King Vukašin was the co-ruler of Emperor Uroš, ruling the southern half, thus the Empire may be viewed as a de facto diarchy. Before 1371, the nobility were either directly subordinate to Emperor Uroš or to Vukašin, Vukašin died in the Battle of Maritsa against the invading Ottoman Empire, and southern Serbian provinces became nominal Ottoman vassals. The lords could not agree on the ruler, they dismissed Prince Marko, the son of Vukašin. The period after the death of Uroš and Vukašin was marked with the rise and fall of Prince Lazar, Lazar ruled the most powerful Serbian principality – Moravian Serbia. The rule of Lazar ended with his death in the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, when Serbia stood up against invading Ottomans, an event that is deeply rooted in Serbdom. After the battle, and by 1395, most of the provinces were conquered and annexed by the Ottomans. Dušans half brother Simeon Uroš was expelled from Epirus and sought to obtain Serbia and he marched on Serbia in 1357 after he had himself proclaimed Tsar of the Greeks, Serbs, and Albanians at Kastoria in 1356. The forces of Stephen Uroš met the forces of Simeon near Scutari in Zeta, the ransom was paid by the Emperor John V Palaiologos and Matthew was allowed to retire to Morea. Now the lands that remained loyal to Uroš were most of Macedonia, the lands that remained Serbian could be divided into three main parts, the western territories, including Zeta, the central Serbian lands of Uroš and the southern lands. One of the strongest western nobles was Vojislav Vojinović and he quarreled with the Republic of Ragusa in the fall of 1358, when the Serbs, the Hungarians penetrated deep into Serbian territory and the Serbian army retreated to avoid battle with the attackers. Vojislav waited until the Hungarians withdrew in 1359 then he attacked Ragusa, in 1363 the Hungarians and Wallachians were joined by Bosnian and Serbian forces committed to expel the Ottoman Turks from Europe. Caught by surprise near Adrianople, these forces were defeated by the Turks in 1364 on the banks of the Maritsa river, in 1365 Vukašin was proclaimed King of Serbia and co-ruler with Uroš, and Jovan Uglješa was made Despot in the Serbian principality of Serres. There was a far more serious problem for Serbia — and the whole Balkans — than the internal squabbling of the Serbian nobles, followed by their penetration into Thrace, in 1354 they acquired Gallipoli on the European side of the Dardanelles. From there, they expanded into Thrace taking Demotika from the Byzantines in 1361 and Philippopolis from the Bulgarians in 1363, by 1370 Turks had occupied most of Thrace to the Rhodopes and to the Balkan Mountains. As they reached the Rhodopes they collided with Jovan Uglješa who had extended his realm beyond the Mesta into this territory, the offensive against the Turks was originally scheduled for early 1371, but was delayed perhaps because Uglješa had hoped that Bulgaria might also join the coalition. Furthermore, they did not keep their horses or their weapons in readiness, the Ottomans won the battle, as they attacked the Serbian army while they rested. The bodies of the commanders were not found, Prince Marko inherited the royal title of his father, and became the co-ruler of Emperor Uroš
14.
Fojnica Armorial
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The so-called Fojnica Armorial is an early modern roll of arms including heraldry of South Slavic history. The manuscript is named after the Franciscan monastery in Fojnica where it was kept, the presence of the manuscript in the Fojnica monastery is first attested in the year 1800. Alexander Soloviev dated it to in between 1675 and 1688, i. e. in the context of the revolts against Ottoman rule during the Great Turkish War, other scholars have proposed dates of the late 16th or early 17th century. The title page of the armorial itself purports a creation date of 1340, the manuscript contains a total of 139 coats of arms. It begins with a depiction of the Bogorodica, saints Cosmas and Damian, there follows a title page, written in Cyrillic, which attributes the work to one Stanislav Rubčić, in honour of King Stefan Dušan, with the date 1340. There is a note in Latin, dated 1800, which testifies that the manuscript had been kept in Fojnica monastery from time immemorial. Then there is as page showing a coat of arms consisting of eleven parts. Belović, O heraldičkom spomeniku u Fojničkom manastiru, Zastava, 59/1928,100,3,101,3, dubravko Lovrenović, Fojnički grbovnik, ilirska heraldika i bosansko srednjovjekovlje, Bosna Franciscana, br. FOJNIČKI GRBOVNIK = THE FOJNICA ARMORIAL ROLL, Rabic,2005, FOJNIČKI GRBOVNIK - Recommended for concise historical notes for every family coat of arms Fojnica. de Ciode. ca Heraldika Srbija
15.
Double-headed eagle
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In heraldry and vexillology, the double-headed eagle is a charge associated with the concept of Empire. Most modern uses of the symbol are directly or indirectly associated with its use by the Roman/Byzantine Empire, whose use of it represented the Empires dominion over the Near East and the West. But the symbol itself is, in fact, much older, the eagle by itself has long been a symbol of power and dominion. The double-headed eagle motif appears to have its origin in the Ancient Near East. It re-appears in the High Middle Ages, from ca, in a few places, among them the Holy Roman Empire and Russia, the motif was further augmented to create the less prominent triple-headed eagle. Polycephalous mythological beasts are very frequent in the Bronze Age to Iron Age pictorial legacy of the Ancient Near East, especially in the Assyrian sphere, use of the double-headed eagle in Hittite imagery has been interpreted as royal insignia. A monumental Hittite relief of an eagle grasping two hares is found at the eastern pier of the Sphinx Gate at Alaca Hüyük. After the Bronze Age collapse, there is a gap of more than two millennia before the re-appearance of the double-headed eagle motif, the early Byzantine Empire continued to use the imperial eagle motif. A modern theory, forwarded by Zapheiriou, connected the introduction of the motif to Emperor Isaac I Komnenos, Zapheiriou supposed that the Hittite motif of the double-headed bird, associated with the Paphlagonian city of Gangra might have been brought to Byzantium by the Komnenoi. The double-headed eagle motif was adopted in the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm, a royal association of the motif is suggested by its appearance on the keystone of an arch of the citadel built at Ikonion under Kayqubad I. The motif also appears on Turkomen coins of this era, notably on coins minted under Artuqid ruler Nasir al-Din Mahmud of Hasankeyf. The oldest preserved depiction of an eagle in Serbia is the one found in the donor portrait of Miroslav of Hum in the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Bijelo Polje. The double-headed eagle in the Serbian royal coat of arms is attested in the 13th and 14th centuries. An exceptional medieval depiction of a double headed eagle in the west, in Serbia, the Nemanjić dynasty adopted a double-headed eagle by the 14th century. The double-headed eagle was used in coats of arms found in the Illyrian Armorials. The white double-headed eagle on a red shield was used for the Nemanjić dynasty, a Nemanjić eagle was used at the crest of the Hrebeljanović, while a half-white half-red eagle was used at the crest of the Mrnjavčević. Use of the eagle was continued by the modern Karađorđević, Obrenović. The double-headed eagle remained an important motif in the heraldry of the families of Russia
16.
Angelino Dulcert
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He is responsible for two notable 14th-century portolan charts, the Dalorto chart of 1325 and the Dulcert chart of 1339. The latter is the first portolan known to have produced in Palma. He is also believed to be the author of an undated and unsigned chart held in London. Virtually nothing is known of Angelino Dulceti/Dolcet/Dalorto/Dulcert, a common assumption is that he was an Italian of Liguria, who trained in Genoa and subsequently emigrated to Majorca some time in the 1320s or 1330s. Angelino Dalorto was once connected to the notable Genoese Dell Orto family. This implies Angelino originates from Dulceto, or Dulcedo, a small Italian town in Liguria and this reinforces the common assumption that he was an Italian immigrant who settled in Majorca. However, others have noted the existence of the Dolcet surname in earlier Majorcan records, the identity and nationality of Angelino Dulceti/Dolcet/Dalorto/Dulcert has been a longstanding item of contention between scholars, often attenuated by nationalist sentiments. Pujades, touching briefly on the controversy, concludes It strikes me that our protagonist signed his name indiscriminately as Angellinus de Dulceto or Angellinus Dulceti on Latin legends. Whether this was a Latinisation of the Genoese toponym Dulcedo or that of the Catalan surname Dolcet, is a question I shall leave to those who pursue national glory, as far as cartography is concerned, it makes absolutely no difference where he was born. Angelino Dalorto is known for a portolan chart commonly dated 1325 and its signature was traditionally read as Hoc opus fecit Angelinus de Dalorto ano dñi MCCXXV de mense martii composuit hoc. In many ways, the 1325 Dalorto portolan marks a point in European portolans. Indeed, some of Dalortos details here presage the standard Majorcan stylings, among its advances in geographic knowledge, the Dalorto map gives a better picture of northern Europe than its predecessors. The Dalorto chart is also the first to depict the legendary island of Brasil and it is denoted by the caption Insula de monotonis siue de brazile. Angelino Dulcert is known for a chart dated 1339 and held by the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris. Its signature reads, ano MCCCXXXVIIII mense Augusto Angelino Dulcert in civitate Maioricarum composuit, unlike its predecessor, it is composed not on a single vellum, but on two parchment pages, joined together as a single map, measuring 75 ×102 cm. Made in Palma, the Dulcert 1339 map is considered the piece of the Majorcan cartographic school. Although some of its features were already presaged in the Dalorto map, it further in the inland illustrations. In many ways, the Dulcert 1339 map is similar to the 1325 Dalorto map
17.
Serbian Cyrillic alphabet
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The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet is an adaptation of the Cyrillic script for the Serbian language, developed in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two used to write standard modern Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin, the other being Latin. During the same period, Croatian linguists led by Ljudevit Gaj adapted the Latin alphabet, in use in western South Slavic areas, using the same principles. As a result of this joint effort, Cyrillic and Latin alphabets for Serbo-Croatian have a complete one-to-one congruence, with the Latin digraphs Lj, Nj, and Dž counting as single letters. Vuks Cyrillic alphabet was adopted in Serbia in 1868, and was in exclusive use in the country up to the inter-war period. Both alphabets were co-official in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and later in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in Serbia, Cyrillic is seen as being more traditional, and has the official status. It is also a script in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro, along with Latin. The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet was used as a basis for the Macedonian alphabet with the work of Krste Misirkov, Cyrillic is in official use in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Serbian language in Croatia is officially recognized as a minority language, however, Cyrillic is an important symbol of Serbian identity. In Serbia, official documents are printed in Cyrillic only even though, according to a 2014 survey, Glagolitic appears to be older, predating the introduction of Christianity, only formalized by Cyril and expanded to cover non-Greek sounds. Cyrillic was created by the orders of Boris I of Bulgaria by Cyrils disciples, the earliest form of Cyrillic was the ustav, based on Greek uncial script, augmented by ligatures and letters from the Glagolitic alphabet for consonants not found in Greek. There was no distinction between capital and lowercase letters, the literary Slavic language was based on the Bulgarian dialect of Thessaloniki. Part of the Serbian literary heritage of the Middle Ages are works such as Vukan Gospels, St. Savas Nomocanon, Dušans Code, Munich Serbian Psalter, the first printed book in Serbian was the Cetinje Octoechos. Vuk Stefanović Karadžić fled Serbia during the Serbian Revolution in 1813, there he met Jernej Kopitar, a linguist with interest in slavistics. Kopitar and Sava Mrkalj helped Vuk to reform the Serbian language and he finalized the alphabet in 1818 with the Serbian Dictionary. Karadžić also translated the New Testament into Serbian, which was published in 1868 and he wrote several books, Mala prostonarodna slaveno-serbska pesnarica and Pismenica serbskoga jezika in 1814, and two more in 1815 and 1818, all with the alphabet still in progress. In his letters from 1815-1818 he used, Ю, я, Ы and Ѳ, in his 1815 song book he dropped the Ѣ. The alphabet was adopted in 1868, four years after his death
18.
Dynasty
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A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, however, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance. It is also extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights. In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
19.
Serbia in the Middle Ages
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Тhe medieval history of Serbia begins in the 6th century with the Slavic invasion of the Balkans, and lasts until the Ottoman occupation of 1540. Sclaveni raided and settled the western Balkans in the 6th and 7th century, through linguistical studies, it is concluded that the Early South Slavs were made up of a western and eastern branch, of parallel streams, roughly divided in the Timok–Osogovo–Šar line. The DAI drew information on the Serbs from, among others, the first capital was Ras, in Raška. The other Serb-inhabited lands that were mentioned included the countries of Paganija, Zahumlje and Travunija and these polities bordered Serbia to the north. The exact borders of the early Serbian state are unclear, the Serbian ruler was titled Prince of the Serbs. The DAI mentions that the Serbian throne is inherited by the son, i. e. the first-born, his descendants succeeded him, between 1043 and 1080, under Mihailo Vojislavljević, and his son, Constantine Bodin, Duklja saw its apogee. Mihailo was given the nominal title King of Slavs by the Pope after having left the Byzantine camp and supported a Slavic uprising in the Balkans, in which his son Bodin played a central part. Having incorporated the Serbian hinterland and installed vassal rulers there, this maritime principality emerged as the most powerful Serb polity, between 1113 and 1149 Duklja was the centre of Serbian–Byzantine conflict, with members of the Vojislavljević as protégés of either fighting each other for power. The Serbian Grand Principality, also known as Rascia, was founded in 1090, when Bodin had died, Rascia became the strongest entity, in which the Serbian realm would be seated, in hands of the Vukanović dynasty. Uroš I, the son of Vukan, ruled Serbia when the Byzantines invaded Duklja, and Rascia would be next in line, Uroš II initially fought the Byzantines, but after a defeat soon gives oaths of servitude to the Emperor. Desa, the brother of Uroš II and an initial Byzantine ally, turned to Hungarian support, but was deposed in 1163, Stefan Nemanja was succeeded by his middle son Stefan, while his first-born son Vukan was given the rule of the Zeta region. Stefan Nemanjas youngest son Rastko became a monk, turning all his efforts to spread religion among his people, since the Catholic Church already had ambitions to spread its influence to the Balkans as well, Stefan took advantage and obtained the royal crown from the Pope in 1217. In Byzantium, Sava managed to secure autocephaly for the Serbian Church, in the same year Sava issued the first constitution in Serbia, the Zakonopravilo. Thus the medieval Serbian state acquired both forms of independence, political and religious, the next generation of Serbian rulers, the sons of King Stefan, Stefan Radoslav, Stefan Vladislav and Stefan Uroš I, marked a period of stagnation of the state structure. All three kings were more or less dependent on some of the neighbouring states—Byzantium, Bulgaria or Hungary, the ties with the Hungarians played a decisive role in the fact that Uroš I was succeeded by his son Stefan Dragutin, whose wife was a Hungarian princess. Thus, some of these became part of the Serbian state for the first time. His new state was named Kingdom of Srem, in that time the name Srem was a designation for two territories, Upper Srem and Lower Srem. Kingdom of Srem under the rule of Stefan Dragutin was actually Lower Srem, after Dragutin died, the new ruler of the Kingdom of Srem became his son, king Vladislav II, who ruled this state until 1325
20.
Stephen (honorific)
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The name Stephen is derived from Greek Stephanos, meaning crown. It has had hundreds of variants in Serbo-Croatian language, most of which are hypocoristics that can now only be deduced from surnames. The Serbian Orthodox Church, however, retained the pronunciation in its liturgy. The Swiss Slavist Robert Zett noted that the usage of Stefan indicated social hierarchy, being a rather than a regnal name, while Uroš I used Stefan. Uroš IV Dušan signed as Stefan but humbly used Stepan in a prayer book, some Serbian kings minted coins with St. Stephen called Stefan on the obverse and themselves called Stepan on the reverse. The name Stephen enjoyed great popularity among medieval South Slavic rulers, with the Christianization of South Slavs, Christian names begin to appear in rulers, in the generation after Serbian ruler Mutimir, Stephen and Peter are found. Several members of the Trpimirović kings of Croatia had the name, such as Stephen Držislav, Stephen I, several bans of Bosnia also held it, Stephen Vojislavljević, Stephen Kulinić and the Kotromanić bans Stephen I and Stephen II. The royal tradition of using the name Stefan as an honorific added to the original Slavic name began with the Serbian grand prince Nemanja. His son Stephen had himself crowned king, and all the subsequent Nemanjić kings of Serbia took the honorific Stephen in addition to their Slavic name upon their accession. The veneration of Saint Stephen was so important that he was depicted on the reverse of the seals of the early Nemanjić rulers. Historians such as Dušan J. Popović and John Van Antwerp Fine, Jr. maintain that to Serbian rulers, according to Sima Ćirković, it had a special symbolical meaning to the Serbian state. When the Nemanjić line went extinct with the death of Stephen Uroš V in 1371, Serbias throne became vacant and the country disintegrated. The Bosnian ban Tvrtko I, a cognatic great-grandson of Stephen Dragutin, in an effort to emulate the Nemanjić, Tvrtko added the name Stephen to his own and at times even omitted his real name, using only the royal honorific. The last of them, Stephen Tomašević, having been christened with the name, the kings of Bosnia were not the only to claim the title Stephen. They were never accepted as suzerains by the lords of petty states that following the disintegration of the Serbian Empire. Lazar Hrebeljanović and his son-in-law Vuk Branković, who ruled two of these states, at times called themselves Stefan although they never claimed the kingship
21.
Stefan the First-Crowned
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Stefan Nemanjić or Stefan the First-Crowned was Grand Prince of Serbia from 1196, and the King of Serbia from 1217 until his death in 1228. Stefans literary opus is modest but of high quality and he wrote The Life of Stefan Nemanja a biography of his father. Stefan Nemanjić was the second-eldest son of Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja and Anastasija and his older brother and heir apparent, Vukan, ruled over Zeta and the neighbouring provinces while his younger brother Rastko ruled over Hum. The Byzantines attacked Serbia in 1191, raiding the banks of South Morava, Nemanja had a tactical advantage, and began to raid the Byzantine armies. Isaac II Angelus summoned a peace treaty, and the marriage of Nemanjas son Stefan to Eudokia Angelina, Stefan Nemanjić received the title of sebastokrator. In an inscription dated 1195 in the church of St. Luke in Kotor, Vukan is titled as King of Duklja, Dalmatia, Travunia, Toplica and Hvosno. Although Vukan was Nemanjas eldest son, Nemanja preferred to see Stefan II on the Serbian throne mostly because Stefan was married to Byzantine princess Eudokia and it seems that Vukan reacted on this change in succession by declaring himself King of Duklja. Although he assumed a royal title, Vukan remained under his fathers authority. On 25 March 1196, Stefan Nemanja summoned a Council in Ras and this decision was not in accordance with the traditional right of primogeniture, according to which Vukan should inherited the throne. This was not accepted lightly by Vukan, Nemanja took monastic vows in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul and adopted the monastic name of Simeon. Simeon subsequently retired to his Studenica monastery and Anastasia retired to the Monastery of the Mother of Christ in Kuršumlija, after numerous pleas by Sava, Simeon left to the Mount Athos, and joined Sava in 1197 in the Vatopedi monastery. In 1199, the two rebuilt the ruined Eastern Orthodox Monastery of Hilandar given to the Serbian people by the Byzantine Emperor. Simeon died on 13 February 1199, while Nemanja was alive Vukan didnt oppose Stefans rule but as soon as Nemanja died, he started to plot against him in order to become Grand Prince. He found aid in Hungarian king Emeric who at the time fought against the Second Bulgarian Empire, with the help of Hungarian troops in 1202, Vukan managed to overthrow Stefan, who fled into Bulgaria. Vukan was left to rule Serbia, in an inscription dating to 1202–1203, Vukan is titled as Grand Župan Vukan, Ruler of all Serbian land, Zeta, maritime towns and land of Nišava. In return for Hungarian help, Vukan became a Hungarian vassal, however, as a Hungarian vassal, Vukan soon got involved in the conflict with Bulgaria. In 1203 the Bulgarian army attacked Vukan, annexing Niš, in the chaos that followed, and using Vukanss sympaties for Catholicism against him, Stefan managed to return to Serbia and overthrow Vukan in 1204 becoming ruler again. Vukan was pushed into his holdings of Zeta, in the meantime, Bishop Sava, had success on Mount Athos, founding the cradle of Serbian Christianity
22.
Serbian Orthodox Church
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The Serbian Orthodox Church is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Christian churches. It is the second oldest Slavic Orthodox Church in the world, the Serbian Orthodox Church comprises the majority of population in Serbia, Montenegro, and the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is organized into metropolises and eparchies located primarily in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia, the Serbian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous, or ecclesiastically independent, member of the Orthodox communion. Serbian Patriarch serves as first among equals in his church, the current patriarch is Irinej, the Church achieved autocephalous status in 1219 under the leadership of St. Sava, becoming independent Archbishopric of Žiča. Its status was elevated to that of a patriarchate in 1346 and this patriarchate was abolished by the Ottoman Turks in 1766. The modern Serbian Orthodox Church was re-established in 1920 after the unification of the Patriarchate of Karlovci, the Metropolitanate of Belgrade, Christianity spread to the Balkans beginning in the 1st century. Florus and Laurus are venerated as Christian martyrs of the 2nd century, Constantine the Great, born in Niš, was the first Christian Roman Emperor. Several bishops seated in what is today Serbia participated in the First Council of Nicaea, in 380, Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius decreed that his subjects would be Christians according to the Council of Nicea formula. Greek was used in the Byzantine church, while the Roman church used Latin, with the definite split in 395, the line in Europe ran south along the Drina river. Tim Judah says that the Roman split resulted in that Serbs are Orthodox, among old Christian heritage is the Archbishopric of Justiniana Prima, established in 535, which had jurisdiction over the whole of present-day Serbia. However, the Archbishopric did not last, as the Slavs and Avars destroyed the region sometime after 602, in 731 Leo III attached Illyricum and Southern Italy to Patriarch Anastasius of Constantinople, transferring the papal authority to the Eastern Church. Slavs invaded and settled the Balkans in the 6th and 7th centuries, the history of the early medieval Serbian Principality is recorded in the work De Administrando Imperio, compiled by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. The DAI drew information on the Serbs from, among others, the Serbs were said to have received the protection of Emperor Heraclius, and Porphyrogenitus stressed that the Serbs had always been under Imperial rule. The Christianization was due partly to Byzantine and subsequent Bulgarian influence, at least during the rule of Kocel in Pannonia, communications between Serbia and Great Moravia, where Methodius was active, must have been possible. This fact, the pope was presumably aware of, when planning Methodius diocese as well as that of the Dalmatian coast, there is a possibility that some Cyrillomethodian pupils reached Serbia in the 870s, perhaps even sent by Methodius himself. Serbia was accounted Christian as of about 870, the first Serbian bishopric was founded at Ras, near modern Novi Pazar on the Ibar river. According to Vlasto, the affiliation is uncertain, it may have been under the subordination of either Split or Durazzo. The early Ras church can be dated to the 9th–10th century, the names of Serbian rulers through Mutimir are Slavic dithematic names, per the Old Slavic tradition
23.
Sclaveni
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The Sclaveni or Sklavenoi were early South Slavic tribes that raided, invaded and settled the Balkans in the Early Middle Ages. They were mentioned by early Byzantine chroniclers as barbarians having appeared at the Byzantine borders along with the Antes, the Sclaveni were differentiated from the Antes and Wends, however, described as kin. Eventually, most South Slavic tribes accepted Byzantine suzerainty, and came under Byzantine cultural influence, the term, along with the term Sklavinia was widely used until the emergance of separate tribal names by the 10th century. The Byzantines broadly grouped the numerous Slav tribes living in proximity with the Eastern Roman Empire into two groups, the Sklavenoi and the Antes, the Sclaveni were called as such by Procopius, and as Sclavi by Jordanes and Pseudo-Maurice. The derived Greek term Sklavinia is interpreted as Slav lands in Byzantium and these Slavic settlements were initially out of Byzantine control and independent. By 800, however, the term referred specifically to Slavic mobile military colonists who settled as allies within the territories of the Byzantine Empire. Slavic military settlements appeared in the Peloponnese, Asia Minor, Procopius gives the most detail about the Sclaveni and Antes. The Sclaveni are also mentioned by Jordanes, Pseudo-Caesarius, Menander Protector, Strategikon, the first Slavic raid south of the Danube was recorded by Procopius, who mentions an attack of the Antes, who dwell close to the Sclaveni, probably in 518. Scholar M. Kazanski identified the 6th-century Prague culture and Sukow-Dziedzice group as Sclaveni archaeological cultures, in the 530s, Emperor Justinian seems to have used divide and conquer and the Sclaveni and Antes are mentioned as fighting each other. Sclaveni are first mentioned in the context of the policy on the Danube frontier of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. In 537,1,600 cavalry, made up of mostly Sclaveni, sometime between 533–34 and 545, there was a conflict between the Antes and Sclaveni in Eastern Europe. Procopius noted that the two became hostile to one another and engaged in battle until a Sclaveni victory, the conflict was likely aided or initiated by the Byzantines. In the same period, the Antes raided Thrace, the Romans also recruited mounted mercenaries from both tribes against the Ostrogoths. The two tribes were at peace by 545, notably, one of the captured Antes claimed to be Roman general Chilbudius. He was sold to the Antes and freed and he revealed his true identity but was pressured and continued to claim that he was Chilbudius. The Antes are last mentioned as anti-Byzantine belligerents in 545, the Antes became Roman allies by treaty in 545. Between 545 and 549, the Sclaveni raided deep into Roman territory, in 547,300 Antes fought the Ostrogoths in Lucania. In the summer of 550, the Sclaveni came close to Naissus, and were seen as a threat, however, their intent on capturing Thessaloniki
24.
Principality of Serbia (medieval)
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Its first ruler known by name was Višeslav. In 822, the Serbs were said to rule the greater part of Dalmatia, Vlastimir defeated the Bulgar army in a three-year-war, and the two powers lived in peace for some decades. Serbia was annexed by the Bulgars for three years, until the return of the political hostage Prince Časlav, who united several provinces, becoming the most powerful of the Vlastimirović. An important event was the establishment of Christianity as state-religion in 869 AD, and the founding of the first Serbian eparchy, the information of the Vlastimirović dynasty ends with De Administrando Imperio. Serbia was annexed by the Byzantines in 969 and ruled as the Catepanate of Ras, Slavs settled the Balkans in the 6th century. The Serbian ruler was titled Prince of the Serbs, the DAI mentions that the Serbian throne is inherited by the son, i. e. the first-born. His descendants succeeded him, but their names are unknown until the coming of Višeslav, the first ruler of the dynasty known by name was Višeslav who began his rule around 780, being a contemporary of Charlemagne. The first capital of the Serbs was Ras, in Raška, the other Serb-inhabited lands that were mentioned included the countries of Paganija, Zahumlje and Travunija, while the land of Duklja was held by the Byzantines. These polities bordered Serbia to the north, the exact borders of the early Serbian state are unclear. The Bulgars were defeated in 774, after Constantine V learnt of their planned raid, in 783, a large Slavic uprising took place in the Byzantine Empire, stretching from Macedonia to the Peloponnese, which was subsequently quelled by Byzantine patrikios Staurakios. In Pannonia, to the north of Serbia, Charlemagne started his offensive against the Avars, višeslavs great-grandson Vlastimir began his rule in c. 830, and he is the oldest Serbian ruler of which there is data on. In the east, the Bulgarian Empire grew strong, in 805, khan Krum conquered the Braničevci, Timočani and Obotrites, to the east of Serbia, and banished their tribal chiefs and replaced them with administrators appointed by the central government. In 815, the Bulgarians and Byzantines signed a 30-year peace treaty, the Timočani migrated into Frankish territory, somewhere in Lower Pannonia, and were last mentioned in 819, when they were persuaded by Ljudevit to join him in fighting the Franks. The Danubian Obotrites stayed in Banat, and resisted the Bulgars until 824, the khan sent envoys to the Franks and requested that the precise boundary be demarcated between them, and negotiations lasted until 826, when the Franks neglected him. The Bulgars answered with attacking the Slavs that lived in Pannonia, and subjugated them, then sent ships up the Drava river. There was more fighting in 829, as well, and by this time, Vlastimir succeeded his father, Prosigoj, in c. He united the Serbian tribes in the vicinity, Emperor Theophilos was recognized as the nominal suzerain of the Serbs, and most likely encouraged them to thwart the Bulgars
25.
Adriatic Sea
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The Adriatic Sea /ˌeɪdriˈætᵻk/ is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula and the Apennine Mountains from the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto to the northwest, the countries with coasts on the Adriatic are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro and Slovenia. The Adriatic contains over 1,300 islands, mostly located along its eastern, Croatian and it is divided into three basins, the northern being the shallowest and the southern being the deepest, with a maximum depth of 1,233 metres. The Otranto Sill, a ridge, is located at the border between the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. The prevailing currents flow counterclockwise from the Strait of Otranto, along the eastern coast, tidal movements in the Adriatic are slight, although larger amplitudes are known to occur occasionally. The Adriatics salinity is lower than the Mediterraneans because the Adriatic collects a third of the water flowing into the Mediterranean. The surface water temperatures range from 30 °C in summer to 12 °C in winter. The Adriatic Sea sits on the Apulian or Adriatic Microplate, which separated from the African Plate in the Mesozoic era, the plates movement contributed to the formation of the surrounding mountain chains and Apennine tectonic uplift after its collision with the Eurasian plate. In the Late Oligocene, the Apennine Peninsula first formed, separating the Adriatic Basin from the rest of the Mediterranean, all types of sediment are found in the Adriatic, with the bulk of the material transported by the Po and other rivers on the western coast. The western coast is alluvial or terraced, while the eastern coast is indented with pronounced karstification. There are dozens of protected areas in the Adriatic, designed to protect the seas karst habitats. The sea is abundant in flora and fauna—more than 7,000 species are identified as native to the Adriatic, many of them endemic, rare and threatened ones. The Adriatics shores are populated by more than 3.5 million people, the earliest settlements on the Adriatic shores were Etruscan, Illyrian, and Greek. By the 2nd century BC, the shores were under Romes control, following Italian unification, the Kingdom of Italy started an eastward expansion that lasted until the 20th century. Following World War I and the collapse of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, the former disintegrated during the 1990s, resulting in four new states on the Adriatic coast. Italy and Albania agreed on their maritime boundary in 1992, Fisheries and tourism are significant sources of income all along the Adriatic coast. Adriatic Croatias tourism industry has grown faster economically than the rest of the Adriatic Basins, maritime transport is also a significant branch of the areas economy—there are 19 seaports in the Adriatic that each handle more than a million tonnes of cargo per year. The largest Adriatic seaport by annual cargo turnover is the Port of Trieste, in the southeast, the Adriatic Sea connects to the Ionian Sea at the 72-kilometre wide Strait of Otranto
26.
Neretva
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The Neretva, also known as the Narenta, is the largest river of the eastern part of the Adriatic basin. Four HE power-plants with large dams provide flood protection, power and water storage and it is still recognized for its natural beauty and diversity of its landscape. Freshwater ecosystems have suffered from a population and the associated development pressures. One of the most valuable resources of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia is its freshwater resource, contained by an abundant wellspring. Situated between the major rivers the Neretva basin contains the most significant source of drinking water. The Neretva is notable among rivers of the Dinaric Alps region, especially regarding its diverse ecosystems and habitats, flora and fauna, cultural, the Neretva flows through Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia until reaching the Adriatic Sea. It is the largest karst river in the Dinaric Alps in the part of the Adriatic basin/watershed. Its total length is 230 kilometres, of which 208 kilometres are in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Trebišnjica River basin is included in the Neretva watershed due to a physical link of the two basins by the porous karst terrain. The hydrological parameters of Neretva are regularly monitored in Croatia at Metković, geographically and hydrologically the Neretva is divided into three sections. Its source and headwaters gorge are situated deep in the Dinaric Alps at the base of the Zelengora and Lebršnik mountains, the river source is at 1,227 meters above sea level. 2%. Right below Konjic, the Neretva briefly expands into a valley which provides fertile agricultural land. The large Jablaničko Lake was artificially formed after construction of a dam near Jablanica, the second section begins from the confluence of the Neretva and the Rama between Konjic and Jablanica where the Neretva suddenly takes a southern course. From Jablanica, the Neretva enters the largest canyons of its course, running through the steep mountains of Prenj, Čvrsnica. Three hydroelectric dams operate between Jablanica and Mostar, when the Neretva expands for the second and final time, it reaches its third section. This area is called the Bosnian and Herzegovinian California. The last 30 kilometres form a delta, before the river empties into the Adriatic Sea. The biggest town on the Neretva River is Mostar in Bosnia, the upper course of the Neretva river is simply called the Upper Neretva. The Upper Neretva has water of Class I purity and is almost certainly the coldest river water in the world, rising from the base of the Zelengora and Lebršnik Mountain, Neretva headwaters run in undisturbed rapids and waterfalls, carving steep gorges reaching 600–800 metres in depth
27.
Sava
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The Sava is a river in Central and Southeastern Europe, a right tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia, along the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its central part is a border of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. The Sava forms the border of the Balkan Peninsula. The Sava is 990 kilometres long, including the 45-kilometre Sava Dolinka headwater rising in Zelenci and it is the greatest tributary of the Danube by volume of water, and second-largest after Tisza in terms of catchment area and length. It drains a significant portion of the Dinaric Alps region, through the tributaries of Drina, Bosna, Kupa, Una, Vrbas, Lonja, Kolubara, Bosut. The Sava is one of the longest rivers in Europe and among a handful of European rivers of that length that do not drain directly into a sea. The population in the Sava River basin is estimated at 8,176,000, the Sava is navigable for larger vessels from the confluence of the Kupa River in Sisak, Croatia, approximately two-thirds of its length. The Sava River is formed from the Sava Dolinka and the Sava Bohinjka headwaters in northwest Slovenia, the Sava Dolinka rises at the Zelenci Pools near Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, in a valley separating the Julian Alps from the Karavanke mountain range. The spring is located near the Slovene-Italian border at 833 metres above sea level, the Sava Dolinka spring is fed by groundwater possibly exhibiting bifurcation of source karst aquifer to the Sava and Soča basins. Nadiža creek, a losing stream flowing nearby, is the source of Zelenci Pools water. The Sava Dolinka is considered the Savas initial, 45-kilometre segment, the Sava Bohinjka originates in Ribčev Laz, at the confluence of the Jezernica, a short watercourse flowing out from Lake Bohinj and the Mostnica River. The watercourse flows 41 kilometres —including the length of the Savica—east to Radovljica, downstream from the confluence, the river is referred to as the Sava. The Sava is located in Southeast Europe, flowing through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and its total length is 990 kilometres, including the 45-kilometre Sava Dolinka and the 945-kilometre Sava proper. As a right tributary of the Danube, the river belongs to the Black Sea drainage basin and it is also the largest tributary of the Danube by discharge. The river course is used to describe the northern boundary of the Balkans. Before the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, the river was located completely inside Yugoslav borders, downstream of Radovljica, the Sava proceeds southeast towards Kranj. Between Kranj and Medvode, its course comprises the Lake Trboje and the Lake Zbilje reservoirs, built for the Mavčiče, the Sava then flows through the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana, where another reservoir is located on the river, adjacent to the Tacen Whitewater Course
28.
Morava Valley
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The Morava Valley, is a general term which in its widest sense marks valleys of any of three Morava rivers in Serbia, the West Morava, the South Morava and the Great Morava. In the narrow sense, the term is applied only to the Great Morava Valley, the Serbian term follows the general manner of coining river valley names in Serbian using the prefix po- and suffix -je, meaning literally along the Morava. The West Morava Valley is the valley of the West Morava and it is the southernmost Peripannonic region of Serbia. It is parallel, latitudinally elongated, in the west-to-east direction, opposed to the meridian, south-to-north direction of South Morava Valley and Great Morava Valley. It occupies and area of 5,220 square kilometers and generally corresponds to the valley of the West Morava River and sections of its watershed around the rivers of Skrapež, Đetinja, sections include, The Požega Depression - starting point of the West Morava Valley. Tašti field is a place where rivers of Skrapež, Đetinja, Depression is located between the mountains of Krstac on the east, Blagaja on the south, Crna Kosa on the north-west and Loret on the north-east. Depression is known for frequent fogs, due to the abundance in water sources, Central settlement is the town of Požega and smaller settlements are Lučani and Gorobilje. The Ovčar-Kablar Gorge - a narrow of the West Morava valley, the gorge is a meandering and 15 kilometers long. Epigynous in nature, it is a crucial for the genesis of the entire West Morava Valley, the gorge is a location of Ovčar Spa and 10 Serbian Orthodox monasteries, which is why the gorge has been nicknamed Serbian Mount Athos. There are two electrical power plants with artificial lakes, Ovčar and Međuvršje. The Čačak-Kraljevo Depression - the largest tectonic-erosive depression of all in the valley and it covers an area of 270 square kilometers and is elongated for 40 kilometers. Despite being this long, it is located only three mountains, Kotlenik on the north and Jelica and Stolovi on the south. West Morava receives many tributaries in this area, apart from Ibar river, the longest tributary to West Morava, and Gruža, most of them are short and include Dičina, Lađevačka reka, Ribnica, etc. Main settlements are the towns of Čačak, the most populous settlement in the entire West Morava Valley, other smaller settlements include Preljina, Mrčajevci, Ribnica, Adrani, Konarevo, Žiča, etc. most of them suburbs of either Čačak or Kraljevo. The Vrnjci Depression - widening at the confluence of the small Vrnjačka and Lipovačka rivers, area, located between the mountains of Gledić on the north and Goč on the south, is rich in mineral springs. The most popular Serbian mineral spa, Vrnjačka Banja is located in the depression, other settlements include Vrnjci, Gračac and Novo Selo. The Trstenik Depression - depression centered around the town of Trstenik, agricultural area, other settlements include larger villages of Medveđa and Velika Drenova. The Kruševac Depression - final section of the West Morava Valley, itself, extends into the south in the valley of the Rasina River and it is bounded by the Jastrebac mountain on the south
29.
Lake Skadar
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Lake Skadar — also called Lake Scutari, Lake Shkodër and Lake Shkodra — lies on the border of Albania and Montenegro, the largest lake in the Southern Europe. It is named after the city of Shkodër in northern Albania, Lake Skadar is the largest lake in the Balkan Peninsula with a surface area that seasonally fluctuates between 370 km2 to 530 km2. Lake Skadar itself is located on the western Balkan with approximately two-third of its belonging to Montenegro. The lake’s water level also varies seasonally from 4.7 to 9.8 m above sea level, the lake extends in the NW-SE direction, and it is approximately 44 km long. The Bojana River connects the lake with the Adriatic Sea, the lake is a cryptodepression, filled by the river Morača and drained into the Adriatic by the 41 km long Bojana, which forms the international border on the lower half of its length. The largest inflow is from the Morača, which provides about 62% of the lake’s water, total drainage area is 5490 km2. There are additionally some fresh water sources at the lake bottom, a characteristic feature of Lake Skadar’s water balance is the high inflow from a number of temporary and permanent karstic springs, some of which are sublacustrine in cryptodepressians. The Southern and southwestern sides of the lake are rocky, barren and steep, on the northern side there is an enormous inundated area, the boundaries of which change as water levels fluctuate. Some small islands like Beška, with two churches on it and Grmožur, a fortress and prison can be found on the southwest side of the lake. The climate type is hot-summer Mediterranean climate with dry summers, under Köppen climate classification, the Montenegrin part of the lake and its surrounding area were declared a national park in 1983. The Albanian part has been designated as a Managed Nature Reserve, in 1996, by Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, it was included in the Ramsar list of wetlands of international importance. Near the mouth of Rijeka Crnojevića,11 m below the surface of the water there is a well preserved wreck of the steamboat Skanderbeg sank by Partisans in 1942, Lake Skadar is presumably an ancient lake, although it is a relatively young ancient lake. Most authors agree that the Lake Skadar basin is of tectonic origin which had formed due to the complex folding and faulting within north eastern wing of Old Montenegro anticlynorium. These movements took place during the Cenozoic period, the Lake basin has been formed as the result of sinking of blocks in the Neogene period or even in Paleogene. Radoman pointed out that sea must have destroyed all the populations on this plane. The connection of Lake Skadar with the sea was interrupted during the younger Pliocene, the question of the origin of its water is of particular interest for biologists as these waters may have provided its first species and been the basis for its present high degree of endemism. The Lake Skadar system is a hotspot of freshwater biodiversity. Lake Skadar is one of the largest bird reserves in Europe, having 270 bird species, among which are some of the last pelicans in Europe, the lake also contains habitats of seagulls and herons
30.
Saint Sava
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Saint Sava, known as The Enlightener, was a Serbian prince and Orthodox monk, the first Archbishop of the autocephalous Serbian Church, the founder of Serbian law, and a diplomat. Sava, born Rastko, was the youngest son of Serbian Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja and he then left for Mount Athos where he became a monk, with the name Sava. At Athos, he established the monastery of Hilandar, which one of the most important cultural. Sava is regarded the founder of Serbian medieval literature and he is widely considered as one of the most important figures of Serbian history. Saint Sava is canonized and venerated by the Serbian Orthodox Church, as its founder and his life has been interpreted in many artistic works from the Middle Ages to modern times. He is the saint of Serbia, Serbs, and Serbian education. Rastko Nemanjić was born in 1169 or 1174, in Deževa, as the youngest son of Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja and Ana, he was part of the first generation of the Nemanjić dynasty, alongside his brothers Vukan and Stefan. At the Serbian court the brothers received an education in the Byzantine tradition. Rastko showed himself serious and ascetic, as the youngest son, he was made Prince of Hum at an early age, Hum was a province between Neretva and Dubrovnik. Teodosije the Hilandarian said that Rastko, as a ruler, was mild and gentle, kind to everyone, loving the poor as few others and he showed no interested in fame, wealth, or the throne. The governance of Hum had previously held by his uncle Miroslav of Hum. After two years, in autumn 1192 or shortly afterwards, Rastko left Hum for Mount Athos, Miroslav may have continued as ruler of Hum after Rastko had left. Athonite monks were frequent visitors to the Serbian court – lectures perhaps made him determined to leave, upon arriving at Athos, he entered the Russian St. He then entered the Greek Vatopedi monastery and his father tried to persuade him to return to Serbia. Sava replied to his father, You have accomplished all that a Christian sovereign should do, come now, Stefan Nemanja took his sons advice – he summoned the assembly at Studenica and abdicated on March 25,1196, giving the throne to his middle son, Stefan. The next day, Nemanja and his wife Ana took monastic vows, Nemanja took monastic vows under the name Simeon, and stayed in Studenica until leaving for Mount Athos in fall 1197. The arrival of Nemanja was greatly pleasing to Sava and the Athonite community, the Emperor approved, and sent a special letter and much gold to his friend Stefan Nemanja. Sava then addressed the Protos of Athos, asking them to support the effort that the monastery of Hilandar becomes the haven of the Serb monks, the restoration of Hilandar quickly began and Grand Prince Stefan sent money and other necessarities
31.
Constitution
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A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i. e. constitute, some constitutions are uncodified, but written in numerous fundamental Acts of a legislature, court cases or treaties. Constitutions concern different levels of organizations, from states to companies. A treaty which establishes an international organization is also its constitution, within states, a constitution defines the principles upon which the state is based, the procedure in which laws are made and by whom. Some constitutions, especially codified constitutions, also act as limiters of state power, by establishing lines which a states rulers cannot cross, the term constitution comes through French from the Latin word constitutio, used for regulations and orders, such as the imperial enactments. Later, the term was used in canon law for an important determination, especially a decree issued by the Pope. The Latin term ultra vires describes activities of officials within an organization or polity that fall outside the constitutional or statutory authority of those officials. Ultra vires gives a justification for the forced cessation of such action. A violation of rights by an official would be ultra vires because a right is a restriction on the powers of government, and therefore that official would be exercising powers they do not have. It was never law, even though, if it had been a statute or statutory provision, in such a case, only the application may be ruled unconstitutional. Historically, the remedy for such violations have been petitions for common law writs, excavations in modern-day Iraq by Ernest de Sarzec in 1877 found evidence of the earliest known code of justice, issued by the Sumerian king Urukagina of Lagash ca 2300 BC. Perhaps the earliest prototype for a law of government, this document itself has not yet been discovered, for example, it is known that it relieved tax for widows and orphans, and protected the poor from the usury of the rich. After that, many governments ruled by codes of written laws. The oldest such document still known to exist seems to be the Code of Ur-Nammu of Ur, some of the better-known ancient law codes include the code of Lipit-Ishtar of Isin, the code of Hammurabi of Babylonia, the Hittite code, the Assyrian code and Mosaic law. In 621 BC a scribe named Draco codified the cruel oral laws of the city-state of Athens, in 594 BC Solon, the ruler of Athens, created the new Solonian Constitution. It eased the burden of the workers, and determined that membership of the class was to be based on wealth. Cleisthenes again reformed the Athenian constitution and set it on a footing in 508 BC. The most basic definition he used to describe a constitution in general terms was the arrangement of the offices in a state
32.
Zakonopravilo
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The Nomocanon of Saint Sava, known in Serbian as Zakonopravilo was the first Serbian constitution and the highest code in the Serbian Orthodox Church, finished in 1219. This legal act was well developed, during the Nemanjić dynasty, the Serbian medieval state flourished in the spheres of politics, religion and culture. A large number of monasteries were built, far more than in previous centuries, the country was expanding between three seas and urban life became highly developed. Trade, mining and manufacturing were significantly expanded, Serbia and the Nemanjić dynasty became well known and respected. The ruling family, despite becoming prosperous, was known for piety. Formal establishment of a kingdom and religious independence came after extensive political efforts by Stefan Nemanja and his sons, Stefan Nemanjić, to create a lasting foundation for this independent state it was necessary to produce a legal system that established regulations for the Serbian kingdom and Serbian church. During this period, only the tsar could establish legal acts and laws, as the state developed, so too did industry develop, and thus the legal system had to regulate various relations. Therefore, with the development of an economy, Roman Law was adopted. It is important to note prior to the Nemanjić era, Serbia was not ruled by a Tsar, so its ruler could not create a code of laws which would regulate the relations in the state. Serbian rulers reigned with single legal acts and decrees, in order to overcome this problem and organize the legal system after acquiring religious independence, Saint Sava finished his Zakonopravilo in 1219. Zakonopravilo is inseparably connected with gaining the religious independence, Saint Sava, probably, brought to Nicaea already written nomocanon, when he went there in 1219 to request independence for the Serbian church from the Patriarch of Constantinople. It is hardly to believe that Patriarch would have accepted the creation of Serbian independent church, after that, on his way back to Serbia, Saint Sava spent short time in Thessaloniki where he completed the nomocanon. Zakonopravilo was a new compilation of civil and religious regulations, taken from Byzantine sources. Beside decrees that organized the life of church, there are various norms regarding civil life, legal transplants of Roman-Byzantine law became the basis of Serbian medieval law and Serbia became the part of European and Christian civilization. Zakonopravilo was accepted in Bulgaria, Romania and Russia and it was printed in Moscow in the 17th century. So, Roman-Byzantine law was transplanting among East Europe through Zakonopravilo, in Serbia, it was considered as the code of the divine law and it was implemented into Dušans code. It was the only code among Serbs in the time of the Ottoman reign, during the Serbian Revolution priest Mateja Nenadović established Zakonopravilo as the code of the liberated Serbia. It was also implemented in Serbian civil code, Zakonopravilo is still used in the Russian, Bulgarian, and Serbian Orthodox Church as the highest church code
33.
Byzantine Empire
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It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
34.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
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Balkans
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The Balkan Peninsula, or the Balkans, is a peninsula and a cultural area in Eastern and Southeastern Europe with various and disputed borders. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch from the Serbia-Bulgaria border to the Black Sea, the highest point of the Balkans is Mount Musala 2,925 metres in the Rila mountain range. In Turkish, Balkan means a chain of wooded mountains, the name is still preserved in Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary and the Balkan Province of Turkmenistan. A less popular hypothesis regarding its etymology is that it derived from the Persian Balā-Khāna, from Antiquity through the Middle Ages, the Balkan Mountains had been called by the local Thracian name Haemus. According to Greek mythology, the Thracian king Haemus was turned into a mountain by Zeus as a punishment, a reverse name scheme has also been suggested. D. Dechev considers that Haemus is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, a third possibility is that Haemus derives from the Greek word haema meaning blood. The myth relates to a fight between Zeus and the monster/titan Typhon, Zeus injured Typhon with a thunder bolt and Typhons blood fell on the mountains, from which they got their name. The earliest mention of the name appears in an early 14th-century Arab map, the Ottomans first mention it in a document dated from 1565. There has been no other documented usage of the word to refer to the region before that, there is also a claim about an earlier Bulgar Turkic origin of the word popular in Bulgaria, however it is only an unscholarly assertion. The word was used by the Ottomans in Rumelia in its meaning of mountain, as in Kod̲j̲a-Balkan, Čatal-Balkan, and Ungurus-Balkani̊. The concept of the Balkans was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808, during the 1820s, Balkan became the preferred although not yet exclusive term alongside Haemus among British travelers. Among Russian travelers not so burdened by classical toponymy, Balkan was the preferred term, zeunes goal was to have a geographical parallel term to the Italic and Iberian Peninsula, and seemingly nothing more. The gradually acquired political connotations are newer and, to a large extent, after the dissolution of Yugoslavia beginning in June 1991, the term Balkans again received a negative meaning, especially in Croatia and Slovenia, even in casual usage. A European Union initiative of 1999 is called the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, and its northern boundary is often given as the Danube, Sava and Kupa Rivers. The Balkan Peninsula has an area of about 470,000 km2. It is more or less identical to the known as Southeastern Europe. As of 1920 until World War II, Italy included Istria, the current territory of Italy includes only the small area around Trieste inside the Balkan Peninsula. However, the regions of Trieste and Istria are not usually considered part of the Balkans by Italian geographers, the Western Balkans is a neologism coined to describe the countries of ex-Yugoslavia and Albania
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