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Powered by : mmToolParts. Need Help? Central Serbia was organized as the new military-administrative province of Theme Serbia, administrated by the strategos.

Duklja was subordinated to the Dux of Dyrrachium, while the situation in Travunia is obscure as there are no surviving records. Local Serbian princes remained in power in Zachlumia, but they were integrated into the established Byzantine administrative order. For example, Prince Ljutovid was given the Byzantine title of protospatharios epi tou Chrysotriklinou literally, "first sword-bearer" and at some point was appointed the strategos of Serbia and Zachlumia.

It was first mentioned in the 10th century Byzantine chronicles, which remain the most important sources on Duklja's history in the 11th and 12th century: John Skylitzes, Skylitzes Continuatus , Katakalon Kekaumenos and Anna Komnene in her work The Alexiad. Duklja's prince, Jovan Vladimir, was captured by the Bulgarians during the attempt by the Emperor Samuil to conquer Duklja.

Jovan Vladimir then married Samuil's relative Kosara in the early chronicles she was described as Samuil's daughter and was allowed to return to Duklja and rule as Bulgarian vassal. Jovan Vladimir maintained good relations with the Byzantines, too, which may led to his demise. After Samuil's death in , his son and successor Gavril Radomir was assassinated by his cousin Ivan Vladislav in On 22 May , Ivan Vladislav who was also a cousin-in-law of Jovan Vladimir, assassinated Jovan Vladimir in front of the church in the town of Prespa.

Because of his pious life and martyr's death, Jovan Vladimir was the first Serb who became a saint , [60] while the Byzantine sources described him as a "just man, peaceful and full of virtue". Jovan Vladimir was succeeded by his paternal uncle Dragimir , a local prince, who died in Dragimir was succeeded by his son Stefan Vojislav , who is in the Byzantine sources variously labeled as a Serb, Travunian or Dukljan. However, the rebellion was extinguished in and Stefan Vojislav was captured and taken to Constantinople.

The direct Byzantine rule in Serbia was restored and the new strategos of Serbia was general Theophilos Erotikos. Stefan Vojislav escaped from his captivity in or , returned to Serbia by , expelled Theophilos and then expanded the territory under his rule capturing Duklja and the "Illyiran Coast" cities of Bar, Ulcinj and Scutari , which belonged to the Byzantine Theme of Dyrrhachium. He also began to attack and plunder the imperial ships on the Adriatic in the winter of — This prompted the next emperor, Michael IV the Paphlagonian ruled , to send an expedition against Stefan Vojislav in the spring of , under the command of eunuch Georgios Provatas.

Provatas was heavily defeated: "arriving in the country and entering deep into the gorges, ravines and trackless lands, he lost his entire army, barely saving himself". This encouraged Stefan Vojislav who continued to expand the state and to provoke Byzantine allies. New emperor Constantine IX Monomachos ruled sent a new expedition in the fall of The army was dispatched immediately after the observation of the comet on 6 October Numbering 40, to 60, soldiers, the imperial army was headed by Michael, dux of Dyrrhachium.

Michael was initially successful. He entered deeply into the Stefan Vojislav's state, amassing lots of "plunder and captives" and decided to return. However, Stefan Vojislav organized an ambush in the ravines of the Rumija mountain. The attack began when the Serbs buried the Byzantines under the massive storm of stones and arrows, throwing them from the mountains above, using all possible sorts of launching weapons.

Michael managed to survive, but lost 40, soldiers and 7 strategos. However, Stefan Vojislav officially kept, albeit merely symbolical, vassal relation to the Byzantine Empire. New prince signed a treaty with the emperor Constantine IX Monomachos in c. Though the title wasn't particularly high, it was given to the imperial governors which shows that the symbolic vassal relations were still kept.

Good relations between Duklja and Constantinople lasted until the s. After the massive defeat by the Seljuks at the Battle of Manzikert in and general discontent with the rule of new emperor Michael VII Doukas , the Byzantine Empire abruptly weakened and the internal strife and riots broke.

The rebellion leaders asked Mihailo for help, and he obliged, sending a company of soldiers, headed by his son Constantine Bodin and a commander Vojvoda Petrilo. The allied Bulgarian-Serbian forces gathered in Prizren , where Bodin was proclaimed a Bulgarian emperor and given the name Petar, after the Bulgarian emperor Petar I, son of emperor Simeon. The Byzantine imperial army was sent to crush the rebellion, but they were heavily defeated "horrific battle and even more horrific defeat of the Romans".

Heads of the Byzantine attacking forces, Damian Dalassenos and Lombard mercenary Longibardopoulos , were captured. After this victory and conquest of Skoplje, Bodin split his army in two. He took the command over the group which headed north. Upon the call from Voyteh, Bodin returned to re-conquer Skopje which was retaken by the new imperial army sent from Constantinople, but he was intercepted, defeated and captured in December by the Byzantines at Taonios later Pauni field.

Mihailo sent new regiments to save his son, but they failed. Longibardopoulos, who was taken by Mihailo to his court and even married Mihailo's daughter, was leading one of those rescue missions which consisted of Serbian and Lombard soldiers, but he betrayed his brother-in-law Bodin and switched back to the Byzantine side at Taonios.

Bodin was taken to Constantinople and imprisoned in the Saint Sergius Monastery before being moved to Antioch. Mihailo bribed a group of Venetian merchants who saved Bodin from imprisonment and returned him to Duklja. Bodin's participation in the rule of Duklja wasn't mention before, but after his return, the sources say that Mihailo "restored his previous rule", so Bodin apparently was a co-ruler before During this period of breaking ties with the Byzantines, Mihailo turned to Rome.

In this vein, the pope granted the royal title of king to Demetrius Zvonimir of Croatia in and to Mihailo in or , as in a letter from 9 January , the pope addresses Mihailo as the King of the Slavs Michaeli Sclavorum regi This makes Mihailo the first Serbian ruler ever officially proclaimed a king and he was depicted as a king on the fresco from the Church of Saint Michael, his endowment in Ston.

In diplomatic ways of the day, this also meant Duklja was internationally recognized as an independent state. This recognition was soon acknowledged by the Byzantine Empire which referred to Mihailo's successor Bodin as exousiastes as for some other foreign sovereigns , instead of archon , though never referred in that way to Mihailo. Mihailo continued to co-rule with his son Bodin until the mid After this period, only Bodin is mentioned.

For a while, relations with the Byzantine Empire were good again. Historian Anna Komnene wrote that emperor Alexios I Komnenos "made Bodin and Mihailo, exarchs of the Dalmatians, his friends, gained their sympathies through letters and gifts, opening many secret doors to him this way ".

Bodin was granted the Byzantine high title of protosebastos. In the final period of his rule, Mihailo achieved good relations with the Byzantine provinces in southern Italy. As a Norman, Argyritzos supported Norman conquest of southern Italy.

The Normans then made plans to attack Byzantine domain in the Balkans. Headed by Robert Guiscard , the Normans decided to capture Dyrrachium. Bodin initially engaged Normans in several skirmishes and sided with emperor Alexios in the upcoming Battle of Dyrrhachium. The battle occurred on 18 October , however Bodin didn't engage in battle at all. He kept his army aside and when he saw than Normans are winning, he returned to Duklja.

This irremediably spoiled the relations between Alexios and Bodin. The Byzantines regained Dyrrachium in , after they pushed out the Normans, weakened after the death of Robert Guiscard. New governor of Dyrrachium, John Doukas , constantly battled with Bodin and Vukan, managing to capture Bodin in or Queen Jaquinta ruled in his absence but Bodin managed to escape again and to regain throne in or , engaging the Byzantines yet again.

On this occasion, Bodin and Raymund even became pobratimi , or blood brothers. Bodin died in During the reigns of Mihailo and Bodin, Duklja saw its apogee. Having incorporated the Serbian hinterland and installed vassal rulers there, this maritime principality emerged as the most powerful Serb polity, seen in the titles used by its rulers "Prince of Serbia", "of Serbs".

However, its rise was ultimately short-lived. The dates are also approximate as there are no proper historical records from this period. However, Radoslav was succeeded by Mihailo, son of king Vladimir. Some rulers of Duklja in this period were titled princes, while some retained the title of a king. The faith of the final ruler of Duklja, Mihailo, os unknown, but in his wife Desislava is mentioned as being a widow. Marko was never mentioned again in the records, and historians later named this dynasty after Vukan, though technically it was Marko who was a progenitor of the new dynasty, as his son succeeded Vukan.

During the wars with John Doukas, after Byzantine's recapture of Dyrrachium in , Vukan initially lost several fortified cities fighting on the side of his paramount ruler, Bodin.

Vukan broke into the Byzantine-held Kosovo Field in , conquering and burning the town of Lipljan. Emperor Alexios I Komnenos personally headed the army to engage Vukan. The emperor's acceptance points to the importance Vukan apparently had. Vukan seems to be aware of the power he had as he soon broke the truce again, attacking Kosovo again in — Before his death in c.

Before the fighting ended in November of the same year, Vukan once again defeated John Komnenos. Vukan also intervened in the neighboring Duklja. After the death of King Bodin, Vukan participated in the succession wars. He then liberated Dobroslav, as he was a paternal uncle of king Vladimir. During the period of a new Byzantine expansion and growth, known as the century-long Komnenos Renaissance , under the historically unknown circumstances the Byzantines took the Serbian capital Ras and stationed a military crew there.

They restored a vassal rule over Serbia, establishing a tough grip over the Serbs. Though ultimately defeated, the Serbs managed to retake and raze the town of Ras.

John II Komnenos punished the Ras commander who lost the city to the Serbs by forcing him to wear female dress and ride through the streets of Constantinople on a donkey. In the next period, whenever Hungarian army would appear on the Danube to engage the Byzantines in various skirmishes, the Serbs would rebel. As a vassal, he was obliged to send troops to the Byzantines during their wars in Europe or against the Turks in Asia.

Political situation in Europe changed drastically during and after the Second Crusade — Within the scopes of the wider Byzantine-Hungarian fightings, a war between the Serbs and the Byzantines lasted on-and-off from to Emperor Manuel personally headed the army twice as the fierce fighting occurred in and In the late summer of a decisive battle happened, with Serbs being supported by the massive Hungarian detachments.

In the Battle of Tara , small river near modern Valjevo , emperor Manuel I in his second command over the army "fought heroically, leading his army to the great victory". When Manuel appointed him to the Serbian throne in , Desa promised to be loyal as long as he lives and that he would completely withdraw from Dendra, leaving it to the Byzantines. That same year a 5 years long war between Hungary and the Byzantine Empire broke out. Though he appeared as if trying to keep the balance between the two, Desa was more inclined to the Hungarian side, in the lasting effort to secure independence for Serbia from the Byzantines.

He even tried to make contacts with the Germans and to marry some of the German princesses. Manuel wasn't satisfied with Desa's attitude during the war. After several warnings, the emperor had him seized and exiled to Constantinople, but Desa apparently managed to escape. In the end, Manuel expelled Desa in , who fled to Hungary.

Tihomir was one of four brothers who were all local lords, but emperor Manuel appointed him as the main ruler. The other three brothers were Stracimir , Miroslav and Stefan Nemanja. Tensions grew between the brothers and in , a year after he was appointed, Tihomir was overthrown by Stefan Nemanja who became the sole ruler. Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja succeeded in uniting Serbian lands, gaining independence from the declining Byzantine Empire.

He was succeeded by his middle son Stefan, while his first-born son Vukan was given the rule of the Zeta region present-day Montenegro.

Stefan Nemanja's youngest son Rastko became a monk as Sava , 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 In Byzantium, Sava managed to secure autocephaly independence for the Serbian Church and became the first Serbian archbishop in 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. All three kings were more or less dependent on some of the neighboring states— Byzantium , Bulgaria or Hungary. Thus, some of these territories became part of the Serbian state for the first time. His new state was named Kingdom of Srem. After Dragutin died in , the new ruler of the Kingdom of Srem became his son, king Vladislav II , who ruled this state until Under the rule of Dragutin's younger brother—King Stefan Milutin , Serbia grew stronger despite having to occasionally 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. He was married five times, with Hungarian, Bulgarian and Byzantine princesses. Archangel Church in Jerusalem etc. Because of his endowments, King Milutin has been proclaimed a saint, in spite of his tumultuous life.

In the first half of the 14th century Serbia flourished, becoming one of the most powerful countries in Southeastern Europe. It had a substantial political, economic, and cultural achievements, followed by high ambitions of its new ruler. After conquering Albania, Macedonia and much of Greece, he was crowned Emperor in , after having elevated the Serbian archbishopric into a patriarchate.

They continued to govern as independent rulers, with titles such as gospodin , and despot , given to them during the Empire. He was unable to unite the Serbian magnates, as they were too powerful and pursued their own interests, fighting each other. The period after the Battle of Maritsa saw the rise of a new threat, the Ottoman Turks.

They began raiding Moravian Serbia in , though the actual invasion came later. Another invasion by Ottomans came in the summer of , this time aiming towards Kosovo. On 28 June the two armies met at Kosovo , in a battle that ended in a draw, decimating both armies both Lazar and Murad I fell. Eventually, Serbian nobility became Ottoman vassals. Serbia finally fell under the Ottomans in , and remained under their occupation until , when Serbia finally managed to regain its sovereignty.

Despite the deep-seated impression that Jointer Plane Blade Camber Name the mighty medieval Serbian state perished in one single magnificent battle, as derived from the Kosovo Myth, Serbia survived exactly 70 years after the Battle of Kosovo and perished under the Ottomans gradually languishing and shrinking.

Critical position was enhanced after the crumbling of the unified empire into the separate feudal states and the Battle of Maritsa and Kosovo. The battles reduced the state's territory and diminished its "living force". In this period, Serbia cooperated lots with Hungary. In the second half of the 15th century, the Ottoman conquest became a major issue in the European politics.

Taking Crusades as a mold, both the rulers of the European states and the church leaders forged a myriad of plans for researching and repelling the Turks. However, when the time for the serious preparations would come, the funding would turn out to be a major problem. As the feudal states engaged more and more in the mutual wars, there was no money for the operations on the east of the continent.

Being on the frontline of the Ottoman expansion, Serbia and Hungary formed an alliance. The greatest fruit of this collaboration was the joint campaign which resulted in the liberation of Serbia and its reestablishment as a state after it was conquered by the Ottomans in However, in the times to come, Serbia couldn't rely much on its western allies.

Hungary was in the internal crisis of its own, while European courts and church provided no help, organizing instead a series of fruitless councils in Wiener Neustadt , Frankfurt and Mantua. The downfall of Serbia was accelerated after the Fall of Constantinople in which allowed for the Ottoman sultan Mehmed the Conqueror to turn his efforts to capture the remaining parts of the Balkans and Hungary.

Mehmed tried to capture Belgrade in , which was part of Hungary at time, but was defeated. The Ottomans withdrew and halted the campaigns for a while. The attacks were renewed and by the Ottomans controlled the northern and central Serbia, reducing Serbia only to the strip of land with the capital Smederevo and its surroundings. Ruling class divided in two groups, one of which was for inauguration of a pro-Turkish man in order to appease the Ottomans while the other group was against it.

This has been done in an agreement and with cooperation from Hungary, but the Ottomans were against it, and even tried to capture young prince before he reached Smederevo in However, there was no practical gain from enthroning Stephen as Serbian despot in March , as Bosnian kingdom was in only marginally better position than Serbia at the time.

Instead of resurrecting the state, despot Stephen was the one who negotiated the surrender of Smederevo to the Ottomans, who in turn allowed the Bosnian entourage to leave the fortified city and entered the vacant Smederevo on 20 June , which marks the end the medieval Serbian state. At the time, prince "drew on his shoulders the wrath and contempt of the entire Europe because of the Smederevo surrender, but he atoned himself four years later, when as the Bosnian king was killed during the Turkish conquest of Bosnia".

The fall of the medieval Serbian despotate marked the discontinuation of the free development of society and economy based on the foundations built by the Serbian people since the period of the migration. Those foundations were, like in the rest of the Europe, feudal.

Population was diversified according to the usual divisions of the societies in the period, producing numerous goods and creating huge wealth for the ruling, noble and upper classes. Wealth produced in Serbia was at the time subject of numerous stories which spread both to the east and the west of Europe, though many of them were obviously exaggerated.

Mining was most important in the economy of the state, though it developed only in the 13th century and fully blossomed in the 15th century, amidst the most turbulent period in the state's history. The mining intensified the trading turnover, enhanced the building and expansion of the cities and empowered the citizens' class in them. The new relations and social forces, already turning traditional in the Serbian feudal society were nipped in the bud by the Ottoman destruction of the Serbian state.

For the entire economy, and especially the mining, the period of primitiveness and regression began. With the conquest, Serbia was cut off from the European cultural and political community in which she carved its own place.

Being in the region under the both Byzantine and Italian cultural influence, medieval Serbia developed a significant culture of its own. Comparison of the cultural development of Serbia and the rest of Europe in the 15th and the 19th century, when Serbia regained independence from the Turks, shows the massive loss and lagging behind as a result of the events.

Mining town of Novo Brdo is considered one of the major examples of this. Described by Constantine of Kostenets as a "truly gold town" in the 15th century, gold and silver mine was surrounded by the town which had a population of 40, in more than London, England.

Due to its size and affluence, it was nicknamed majka svih gradova "mother of all towns". Novo Brdo had a sewage system and street lights. Miners worked 6 hours a day, had uniforms, their own mining anthem, music and flag, while two times a year they had right to go on a vacation, in which case they were awarded 3 gold coins "for the road". In that same year, there were different consuls from foreign states and cities residing in Novo Brdo.

Though close to the location of the Battle at Kosovo in , it succumbed to the Ottomans only 66 years later, in Despite greatness and richness, the mine survived only until the late 16th century, when the mining completely stopped. It was resumed only in , [88] while the settlement itself, though seat of a municipality, is statistically a small village with a population of only by the census.

Serbs, and other Slavic tribes encountered the Romanized population in towns after the settlement in the 7th century. The native population at first avoided the new settlers, but in time the trading and cultural ties developed, so as the mixing and blending of the population. As a result, numerous words at that time entered the Serbian language, directly from the Latin language, like the names of the plants bosiljak , "basilicum", basil; kupus "composita", cabbage; lovor , "laurus", laurel; cer , "cerrus", Turkey oak , everyday objects konopac , "canapus", rope; mramor , "marmor", marble; sapun , "sapo", soap; sumpor , "sulphur" sulfur; ulje , "oleum", oil and animals mazga , "muscus", hinny; kresta , "crista", crest.

Slavic deities were later replaced and identified with the Christian saints, passing on them their original attributes. Among the Serbs, probably the best known example is the supreme god Perun , who, as also god of thunder, lightning, storms, etc.

Discovered artifacts from the 7th to the 9th century show developed smithing of the tools. Though probably imported and Frankish in appearance, it is considered one of the most valuable findings from this period in the entire Slavic realm. After settling, the Slavs repopulated some of the abandoned settlements from the Late Antiquity. Apart from the ceramics Mogorjelo, Gornji Vrbljani , Ston , in some larger settlements, the Slavic necropolises were discovered, like in Makljenovac.

This was one of the former forts, repopulated by the Slavs, and they were mostly located at the border of the Pannonian Plain, which became the border zone with the Avars after Slavs split from them. In this period, western parts of the Balkan were partially held, and influenced by the Frankish Empire, leaving largest number of artifacts on the territory of early Croatian state, but also in Zachlumia, which may indicate that it accepted Frankish suzerainty.

In the 9th century, the Byzantine state was very engaged into the cultural and religious expansion among the newly settled people in the Balkans. In they finally succeeded into Christianizing the Bulgarians, thus including them into their cultural sphere. Especially important for the history of the Serbian culture was the missionary work of Saints Cyril and Methodius which operated in Great Moravia since , introducing the original, Slavic alphabet and translating Byzantine religious and political works.

This was the foundation of the Slavic literacy and literature, which soon profoundly influenced the Serbs, leaving major mark in their tradition and culture. First settlements were the typical half-dug houses, present throughout all Slavic areas. They were located in the valleys of the major rivers, close to the water itself. By the 8th and the 9th century, population began to settle close to, and within the abandoned Roman cities and fortresses.

Though the ramparts offered protection, majority of population remained in the traditional, scattered open settlements. One of the first changes among Slavs, which spanned jointly with the acceptance of Christianity during thee centuries, were burial customs. In the 9th and 10th century, the predominant type of burial sites became the "cemeteries with burial in row" groblje na redove. Christian influences included burying of the bodies in the stretched position, with or without a casket , with the head in the west direction, but the graves contained pottery vessels and other burial objects, remnants of the pre-Christian customs.

In time, the latter became less and less present. Various objects, like iron knives, were buried next to some of the urns. At the Trnovica locality, near Zvornik , the urn was buried inside the much older, prehistoric mound.

Unique way of burials appeared in time, consisting of stone mounds. With the diameter of 4 m 13 ft or more, and grouped into the collections of several dozens, they are believed to contain cremated remains. Dated from the 8th to the 11th century, only few were examined. Sparse pieces of pottery, jewelry and personal items were discovered but the origin of the practice, and if they indeed were burial sites, remains unanswered.

There is almost complete absence of expensive jewelry and personal items from this period. Those items and artifacts that were discovered, show that economic inequality among the inhabitants of one locality was quite low.

Some personal items distinguished the difference, at least when it comes to the ruling family, like in the case of the Seal of Strojimir. Still, though a quality work, it is an unpretentious and typical artwork of the day. The jewelry was not distinguished from the other Byzantine-influenced Slavs. It was made in the Byzantine artisan shops and in the Byzantine manner, which in turn was Roman in origin.

Main surviving artifacts include female jewelry: earrings, rings, necklaces, pendants, etc. Older pieces were simple and cast from bronze, but in time more sophisticated techniques, like filigree , granulation and gold plating, were used, while the main material switched to silver. Upon settling, Slavs had no writing system , but, according to the 9th century Bulgarian scholar Chernorizets Hrabar , they used "lines and cuts". Modern scholars refer to this marking system as the Slavic runes.

With Christianity, Slavs of the Balkans also adopted new alphabets: in the west Croats , the Latin script was used; in the central parts Serbs , both Greek and Latin; in the east Bulgarians , only Greek letters. The first attested Slavic script, Glagolitic script , was compiled by the Saint Cyril and Methodius in the 9th century. It is believed that the script reached Serbs quite early, in its both early redactions, Great Moravian and Pannonian, since Methodius was appointed to head the Bishopric of Sirmium which had jurisdiction over the Serbian lands in the hinterland.

Methodius was very active in promoting the script among the Slavs, organizing numerous missionary actions with his disciples in the massive effort to spread Christianity as much as possible. The oldest writing which could be originating from to the Serbian speaking region, though also claimed by other Slavic nations, is the Codex Marianus.

The usage of certain letters and marks for certain sounds points to the Serbian language. The codex was written sometime between and , on pages of parchment. It was discovered in the 19th century at the Mount Athos and sent to Saint Petersburg , Russia, where it is still kept today. Examining the language used, just like the later, and much better known Miroslav Gospel , it obviously contains older texts written in Glagolitic and, later compiled, Cyrillic script. This points to the existence of, today unknown, Slavic literacy tradition.

Apart from the initial mix of scripts Latin, Greek, Glagolitic, Cyrillic , there is one apparent historical oddity. Except for the Eastern Slavs, through the Varangian influence, Slavic people didn't use runes, especially not the South Slavs. Despite some theories, there is no universally accepted explanation. After Cyril died in in Rome, Methodius continued their work on his own. He was appointed the Bishop of Pannonia from to and from this period comes the letter from the pope John VIII in which he invited Serbian prince Mutimir to accept the competence of Methodius, in an effort to expand the jurisdiction of Methodius' bishopric.

This was in collision with the strivings of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to place the area under its authority. The appetites especially grew larger when in the entire newly established Christian church in Bulgaria was subdued to Constantinople.

This way, the areas of Belgrade and Morava valley came under the Byzantine religious jurisdiction, and the Metropolis of Morava was formed. First data on the church organization date from the 10th century. During the reign of Bulgarian emperor Peter I — , the Bulgarian Patriarch and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church administered not only the bishoprics in the Morava valley, but also the Bishopric of Ras, the capital of Serbia, in the hinterland of the state.

At the church Councils of Split, in and , bishoprics in the Dalmatian cities of Dubrovnik and Kotor, bordering Serbian territories, are mentioned, so as the bishopric of Ston , which was part of Zachlumia.

Ston was subordinated to the Archbishopric of Split. Though their previous religious affiliation is not known, at this time they were all subordinated to the Metropolis of Dyrrhachium of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

After the Great Schism of , Serbian lands were divided. Hinterland belonged to the Bulgarian church jurisdiction since the midth century. In it came under the administration of the Archbishopric of Ohrid , and thus was under the heavy influence of the Byzantine Orthodox tradition.

Primorje, Travunia and Zachlumia belonged to the Archbishopric of Ragusa of the Church of Rome since the midth century. Duklja was under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitanate of Dyrrachium.

This was accepted and in a letter from 9 January , pope Gregory VII mentions bishop of Bar as being subordinated to the archbishop of Ragusa. Population was obliged to support the church. The tax was called bir "picked", "collected' and originally included only goods, mostly food.

The tax was known as popovski bir or duhovni bir priestly tax, or spiritual tax, respectively. In the 14th century, it was partially, and then fully, replaced with money. The tax survived the Middle Ages. During the Ottoman occupation it reverted fully to being paid in food.

It survived into the modern Serbian state after the liberation, being replaced with money again in the late 19th century. As the basic social unit in Serbia was family, the dominant type of ownership was collective, or familiar, in all the classes.

Furthermore, the house, or the family, was a legal entity, when it dealt with the state. It was represented by one of the family elders. The state, even at its heyday, lacked the proper police-like apparatus. That way, it had to delegate certain law-enforcing powers to the local regional and village chieftains, but only as long as it is in accordance with the code. Additionally, at the time the state was sparsely populated and vast parts of the country had no resident population, so the criminals had a large territory to hide.

The locals were strongly discouraged from enforcing justice of their own, as taking legal matters in your own hands was also against the law. Though officially judged by the imperial magistrates, the village councils, which were to be elected to start and conduct the criminal proceedings, were the root of the inquisitor-type examinations in Serbia, which were cut with the fall of the state, and failed to develop into similar Western Europe counterpart.

The proceedings were called "general investigation". Stealing was one of the major concern of the code. The council would first have to establish if the person is indeed guilty of stealing and then whether this person is a "well known thief", meaning that he has, in modern terms, "criminal history".

If a village would harbor such a thief, the entire village would be resettled, and the villagers were obliged to pay the damage to the victim. The punishment for professional thieves was blinding. Thieves who were on the "lower level" were punished with some sort of body mutilation: cutting of the pieces of ears, or the entire noses and hands in some harsher or repeated crimes.

Modern crime scholars consider this a rudimentary criminal records: by seeing what was cut on some criminal, you could see how far he progressed in his crimes. As mirrored by modern laws, the crime was divided into individual and organized one. Criminal of the first kind was called tat thief; tatba , robbery , while the latter would be gusar pirate, marauder. The horses used in the raid najezdni konji , raid horses were taken from the gang and divided in two: half for the state that is, emperor and half for the victim of the crime.

As horse was an expensive commodity in medieval Serbia, it was used as a currency for damage payments. The plunderers themselves were hanged upside down.

The state considered organized crime much more threatening to the society. Not solely because of the concern for the population, but for the security of the ruler and the state itself. In this matters especially, the relatively weak internal security system of the state forced the government to cooperate with the local population. As the horses were expensive, regular thieves could rarely organize themselves to conduct horse raids, so the concern came from the acts of the noblemen, who had resources.

They would often plunder the population and take lands that are not theirs and not given to them by the emperor. The ruler didn't want to allow them to control more assets than he gave them, or to let them form their own private armies.

In accordance with this, the punishments for these crimes became harsher in time, including the death penalty as the later amendments to the code recognized the crime as being premeditated. The code was specifically forbidding the noblemen to plunder their own villagers, which was a common thing at one point.

There was one legal institute which was left to the local lawmen to be conducted by their free will, the institute of conciliation. It involved an agreement on resolving the dispute between the plaintiff and the defendant.

Though this institute exists today in numerous legal systems, legal historians consider it a forced result of the state's weakness, that is, of the internal affairs apparatus which wasn't able to conduct proper investigations and produce evidence.

Especially harsh provision were for the crime of betrayal against the state, called nevera unfaithfulness. The complete assets of the person sentenced for betrayal would be transferred to the ruler, as the entire family had to pay for the crimes. In the case of the military betrayal, the punishment was death. As population grew, especially from the 13th century onwards, the forests were massively cut down to clear land for the cultivation, so the natural world looked completely different in Serbia in the 13th than in the 15th century.

In time, the agricultural tools were getting more sophisticated and the use of iron plow and fertilizers spread, which, on the other hand, further accelerated the clearing of the forests.

Onions and radishes were called "hot zelje ". Though expansion of agriculture in time brought more food, and on very good years even peasants and stockbreeders enjoyed abundance of food, years of wars, epidemics, hunger and misery were frequent.

Red-hot stones were used for cooking and boiling. This technique was especially used during the warfare or among those who spent lots of time alone shepherds, later also hajduks etc. Right away after milking sheep, goats, cows , the milk would be poured in the hollowed pumpkin or a wooden container.

The rocks were then heated above the fire and placed in the milk. Good cooks knew how much the stone should be heated for a given amount of milk. Larger pigs and lambs were prepared the same way. The heated stones were placed inside their bellies. When the belly was roasted, the food would be skewered on the spit. The vegetables were cooked in the same way. Heated stones were also used for the preparation of skorup , precursor of the modern kaymak , and rakija brandy.

Additionally, ashes and charcoal were sometimes used instead of the stones. On the other hand, after being killed the poultry was scalded with hot water. Filo dough was being made. It was used for numerous pies, like the zeljanica type of spanakopita.

Cicvara was also made. It is a grains porridge cooked with skorup, which is today made from corn and kaymak. Bread made from the mix of wheat , rye and barley , with added yeast [] was a base of the diet in medieval Serbia. It was also made from oats and buckwheat. Bread dough would be wrapped in the leaves of sorrel or great yellow gentian , placed on the live coal and covered with ashes.

Porridges were often prepared, made from barley, oats and millet. Broths were prepared with the addition of vegetables, red wine or bread soaked in red wine. A whole array of vegetables onions , garlic , beetroot , cabbage , fruits apples , pears , plums , raspberries , hawthorns , blackberries , blueberries , mulberries , cherries , walnuts , grapes , hazelnuts and mushrooms supplemented the everyday diet.

The fruit was often dried apples, plums, apricots. With sour cabbage , skorup is today considered as the only autochthonous Serbian dish.

Vlach sirene was more expensive than any meat. Meat itself was rarely eaten by the common people and was usually consumed during the festivals and religious holidays. The lowest, poorest classes in general had a vegetable oriented diet as the meat was expensive and game hunting was allowed only for the noblemen.

Lower classes, in general, had only two meals a day: one around and another in the evening. Unlike rest of the population, all sorts of meat were abundant in the houses of the nobility or the royal court itself. Especially popular were game meat , fish, ram's meat , poultry, dried meat and bacon. Salted meat was also much used. Region of Pomorje provided sea fish, octopuses and salted ikra. All monasteries had to be supplied with fish and even during the Great Fast , in Hilandar Monastery octopuses, polyps and jellied sea fish were served.

Later, salt was purchased in Hungary and Wallachia. Through Pomorje, the court was supplied with other condiments, like pepper , wild thyme , common yarrow , mint , basil , saffron , cinnamon , clove and dill. Beer production was apparently important as it was mentioned in various royal documents: king Stefan Vladislav 's letter to the Bistrica Monastery [ sr ] , the St. The beer production completely ceased after the Ottoman conquest. Byzantine statesmen Theodore Metochites describes the rich lunch prepared at the court of King Milutin, which consisted of the fish from the Danube, boar meat, venison , and bird meat.

Aromatic wines and spring water were served, too. Dessert consisted of apples, pears, black and white grapes, figs both fresh and dried and watermelons , kept in the pit trap , to stay cool. Tableware was diverse, influenced by the different regions and social status of the population.

The food was served at the table or at sinija , also known as sofra , a short round or square table made of wood.

In oldest periods, people were eating sitting on the ground. Later, people would sit around on the small logs, tripod stools or on a cloth, but the poorest continued to sit on earth.

The tables in the homes of the gentry were covered with tablecloths. Different sources list golden, gold-plated and silver glasses. Cutlery consisted of spoons, forks and knives, made of iron, corals, silver or being gold-plated. It was imported but also manufactured in Serbia. First dishes and tableware were made of wood. Later, the clay and stone came into use. Originally, both the rich and the poor were using wooden spoons. It is known that at the court of king Vladislav, in the first half of the 13th century, quite simple cutlery was used, both in the sense of the materials used and the craft of making it.

Half a century later, during the reign of king Milutin, the tableware was already made from silver and gold. At first, the wooden spoon was used only by the head of the housem while the rest of the household members were using fingers for eating. Fork came into use much later. The clergy declared the fork a "sinful debauchery" in the 12th century. Even the wooden ones were considered a sin. Only in the 16th century the clergy allowed the usage of fork.

The grapes were originally cultivated in Primorje, Macedonia and Metohija. Center of wine making in the Primorje was the town of Kotor, which was the center of the Saint Tryphon festivity, who is even today celebrated as the protector of wine makers. Both the white and red wine were produced and the malvasia variety was among the most popular. It originated on Peloponnese but Venetians spread it along the Adriatic coast.

As wine is essential for the church rituals, monasteries had their own vineyards which were frequently mentioned in the charters.

Only wine produced in the city metochion was freed from taxes and, apart from money collecting, the tribute served as a protective measure for the domicile wine production. After the expansion in the 14th century, the majority production moved to the central, Moravian Serbia.

Vast patches of land were turned into the vineyards. Turkish defters , after the Ottoman occupation in the midth century, show how much the vineyards were spread and how much taxes were collected on wine and must. Special class of the commoners were ulijars. They were the bee keepers and collectors of the bee products on the feudal lordships. Ulijar had a duty to take care of the apiaries ulijanik which belonged to rulers, monasteries, churches or lords, and was relieved of all other feudal duties.

It is recorded that during the establishment of the monasteries, the rulers would sometimes, among other gifts, donate ulijaniks with ulijars to take care of them. The bee keepers were much sought in this period as need for the bee products, especially the wax needed for the churches, was great and growing all the time.

Also, honey and wax were expensive export goods. The Hilandar Monastery administered 15 apiaries throughout the state. Ulijars mostly lived within the agricultural settlements or outside of the villages, on the monastic properties suitable for the bee keeping, but a rare, small settlements consisting solely of the bee keepers also existed.

However, as the state weakened, the right was granted to local rulers, cities, church, etc. Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church also minted coins, so as some of the cities Prizren , Skopje. Main ore mines and minting centers were Novo Brdo, Rudnik and Prizren. There were three possibilities to get educated: with priests, with monks in the monastery or with the private tutors. The surviving sources can't point to which of this possibilities was the most spread.

The modern idea of the school as the central institution in the educational system differs greatly from the education in the Middle Ages. The schools developed on specific locations, where the continual meeting of the students and teachers was possible. Each school was an educational entity for itself and the level was dependent on the qualifications and training of the teacher. Some traditional educational elements, however, were applied in different schools throughout the state.

Byzantine historians left testimonies about musicians, singers and players trumpet, strings among the South Slavs. Remains of the medieval tradition can be found in the songs and dances of the customs of dodola. After Saints Cyril and Methodius introduced the church service in the Slavic language, Slavic church music began to develop.

Serbian music evolved within the Byzantine musical culture, from the 12th to the 15th century, but also continued to develop on the same basis during the later Ottoman occupation. The chanting was performed in one voice, both choral and solistic. The conductor, called domestik , pointed to the melodic flow with his hands. The main singer, protopsalt , was singing the shortened melodic preparation of the song at the beginning, which was the formula for the entire musical work.

After that, he would began to sing a sing, in one voice, accompanied by the choir. In the case of melismatic melodies, the task of the choir was only to keep its drone tone , ison. The most used materials among the lower classes were wool , flax and hemp. Rich ones used silk, velvet and taffeta which were imported from Italy, Greece and Flanders via Dubrovnik. In time, the weaving workshops began to open in Serbia itself. In time, the colored embroidery developed as the main characteristics of the Serbian medieval attire.

The trade and custom inspection of the cloths and textiles were precisely described in the inscriptions so as a fact that they were often being given as a gift or the caravans were being looted.

According to the sources, the most expensive fabric was aksamit. It was type of a brocade , interwoven with gold, having a contrast basic colors of the warp and weft.

Also considered valuable, it was often ornamented with the golden two-headed eagles. The expensive fabrics were especially handy as gifts during the diplomatic meetings. That way, some exotic fabrics reached Serbia, like hamuha or kamha , Middle Eastern, whole-colored fabric made of the sea silk , the threads produced by the pen shells. Olovera was a purple material, sometimes decorated with lion motifs.

Pandaur included a batch of gold-woven textiles, while often mentioned faustan was a thin, cotton material for summer dresses. Influence of the Byzantine Empire was the strongest, Western influence penetrated later, while the Ottoman impact became evident from the 15th century. There are no evidence that the luxury was forbidden, but there were instructions which ornaments and colors could be used at the court.

Fur and animal skins were also used as a currency, up to the 16th century. There are issues with the rural garment from this period as the written and artistic sources differ visually but also show the garment from different parts of the state and from different times.

Girls would be allowed to wear ponjava only when they turn 15 after reaching maturity and acknowledging that they have understood they are grown up. A special ceremony was held in presence of the parents, cousins and friends. A girl would get on a bench, and mother would held a skirt saying to her daughter to jump into it if she understands that she is grown up. A girl would pretend to hesitate for a while, and then say ponjala "I understood" and jump into the skirt.

That way, the girl would announce she is ready to get married. Additionally, men were wearing trousers. They were made from hemp or flax with some reaching the lengths of the calves , some of the knees and some would cover only the thighs. They were cut in different fashions and the most simple was klinara or cjelara. It had clothespins klin over the both front and back sides, straight cut, untailored sleeves and knee length. It could be with or without sleeves, and was covered with the wool or kostret coarse goat hairs dress.

That top dress was used in the mountains even during the summer. After the cloth which was used sukno and the way it was prepared, it was called suknja if the fabric was woven or gunj if it was rolled.

It was of different lengths. In modern Serbian language, suknja is named for the women's skirt, while gunj is a thick, leather or fur, wool-padded vest which was often decorated with silver buttons. Sheep fur and leather were the most common so as some sorts of capes, blue or green. Footwear consisted of some rudimental type of opanak.

They wear long dresses, tall, bubble-shaped hats klobuk while some have insignia sticks. As they were symbol of a nobility, it appears that the top level of the citizen class were equaled with the nobility when it comes to the attire. Basic attire was similar to the rural attire. Both were taken from the Byzantine fashion. Women from the cities were dressed equally to the noblewomen. The most widespread clothing among the nobles was kavadion or kavad , a type of tunic. It was a tightly tailored long dress, with either long or short, narrow sleeves.

It was buttoned in front, and usually had gold-woven ribbons on the collar and along the entire length. A nobleman, standing next to the episcop , is depicted in blue attire with the golden waistband and next to him is a young man in the long, red kavadion, of simple tailoring and with long sleeves.

On the sides, from the shoulders to the waist, the dress is hemmed with the golden ribbon, so as along the neckline. Next to him is a nobleman in the lower red dress with golden bracelets.

He wears an upper blue dress, cut on both sides below the armpits, and is probably some kind of a cape , worn over the kavadion. Influenced by the Byzantines fashion, the attire was largely oriental in appearance, but in time Western influences also shaped it. The dress was long to the ankles or heels. The kavadion was in general richly embellished with the embroidery like the silk or silver threads srma , while the puffy waistband, which was falling down on the hips, was sometimes adorned with pearls and gemstones.

Across the tunic, a cape ornamented with the embroidery was worn. In front, it was held with needles, but often with very expensive fibulas. By the early 15th century, the dress became shorter, wider and hemmed with the fur, made from the luxury Italian and Flemish fabrics while the expensive furs, like ermine , became popular. The hats were tall, mitre -like, bedecked with the costly gemstones. The main footwear in this period were boots.

Lances were decorated and the elite's swords were embroidered with gemstones. Production of the precious jewelry in Serbia dates from the early 13th century. It was influenced both by the East and the West. Originally, the western influence was prevalent, but by the end of the 13th century, the Byzantine influence became dominant.

Byzantine impact included the filigree technique, which became quite common in Serbian goldsmithing. The best example of the mixed influences is the ring of Stefan the First-Crowned , the first Serbian king. Filigree was part of the national medieval heritage which became the most used technique in working with gold and silver after Serbia was conquered by the Ottomans. Trading caravans called turma , connecting West and East, were crisscrossing the state, importing salt, spices, medicines, arms, expensive fabrics, rare furs and citrus fruit, and exporting leather, honey, cheese and wax.

The main trading route was from Dubrovnik, but merchants travelling Serbia included Arabs, Venetians, Greeks, and more traders from towns of Kotor and Bar. Trade agreements with Dubrovnik included the full protection for the merchants, freedom of trade, reimbursement in case of theft but also obligatory taxes and tariffs.

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