Serbian Warriors, Defenders of Christian

Serbian Warriors II
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YTA0SGgGerE&feature=related

SERBIAN REVOLUTION: FIRST AND SECOND UPRISING AGAINST THE OTTOMANS 1804-1811 / 1813-1815
Srpska Revolucija: Prvi i Drugi Srpski Ustanak

The First Serbian Uprising was a Serbian national revolution which lasted one decade (1804-1813), during which Serbia perceived itself as an independent state for the first time after 300 years of Ottoman and short-lasting Austrian occupations. Revolutionary Serbia responded to the Ottoman Massacre of Serbian knights by establishing its separate government (Praviteljstvujusci Sovjet), Serbian Prince, Parliament (Zbor) and University of Belgrade. Even though it was brutally crushed by the Ottomans in 1813, this revolution sparked the Second Serbian Uprising in 1815, which resulted with the creation of modern Serbia, as it gained semi-independence from Ottoman Empire in 1817 (formally in 1829). After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Turkish-Austrian war of 1791, Serbs living under Turkish rule began to realize the potential for success in an uprising against the Ottomans.

Seeing the growing displeasure, the Sultan Selim III proclaimed fermans in 1793 and 1796 which gave more rights to Serbs. Among other things, taxes were to be collected by local Serbian rulers called knezes ("local dukes"), freedom of trade and religion were granted, and, most importantly, the Janissary corps were to leave Belgrade Pashaluk.

However, on January 30, 1799, the Turkish court allowed the Janissaries to return. They and their leaders, the dahias, showed little respect towards any authority, even the central Turkish government. After killing Vizier Hadzi-Mustafa of Belgrade in 1801, they started to rule Serbia on their own. Recently-granted rights were suspended, and dahias exerted unlimited rule over Belgrade Pashaluk. Taxes were drastically increased, land was seized, forced labour (čitlučenje) was introduced, and many citizens fled the Janissaries in fear. Serb leaders began to conspire about starting an uprising against the dahias. When the dahias found out about this, they captured and killed many of the Serbian leaders on February 4, 1804 in an event known today as Seča knezova (Massacre of Serbian knights). This mistake by the Janissaries incited the uprising, as it angered the people and the leaders had nothing to lose.

On February 14, 1804, in the small �umadija village of Ora�ac, the Serbs gathered and decided to undertake an uprising. Karađorđe Petrović (Karadjordje) was elected as the leader of the uprising, which started immediately. That afternoon, a Turkish inn (caravansarai) in Ora�ac was burned and its residents fled or were killed. Similar actions were undertaken in surrounding villages and then spread further. Soon the cities Valjevo and Po�arevac were liberated, and the siege of Belgrade started.

When he was informed about the uprising, Selim III started to negotiate with the rebels. Dahias escaped from Belgrade, but they were captured and killed on the island of Ada Kaleh in the Danube. Eventually, the negotiations failed, and the Sultan organised a military campaign against the uprising.

The first major battle of the uprising was the Battle of Ivankovac in 1805, where Karadjordje defeated the Turkish army and forced it to retreat toward Ni�. The second major battle of the uprising was Battle of Misar in 1806, in which the rebels defeated an Ottoman army from Bosnia led by Kulin Captain. At the same time, the rebels led by Petar Dobrnjac defeated another army sent from the southeast in the Battle of Deligrad. In December 1806, the rebels besieged Belgrade, which was liberated in the beginning of 1807. In 1805 the Serbian rebels organized a basic government for administering Serbia during the combat. Rule was divided between the Narodna Skupstina (People's assembly), the Praviteljstvujusci Sovjet (Ruling Council), and Karadjordje himself. Land was returned, forced labour was abolished, and taxes were reduced. The young state was modernised and by 1808 the Great School was founded, regarded as the foundation of the University of Belgrade.

Some of the leaders of the uprising later abused their privileges for personal gain, such as the reintroduction of forced labour in some places. There was dissent between Karadjordje and other leaders; Karadjordje wanted absolute power, while his voivods wanted to limit it. After the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-12 ended, the Ottoman Empire exploited these circumstances and reconquered Serbia in 1813.

Though ultimately unsuccessful, the First Serbian Uprising paved the way for the Second Serbian Uprising of 1815, which eventually succeeded in securing Serbian autonomy.

It's been many years ago since I read this, but I remember that Byzantines had asked the Serbs to protect the empire from invading Goths as well. Does anyone has an idea of the source of this?

The wars in the Balkans were not defined by simplistic terms especially not by Christian versus Muslim. The Ottomans were a rather inclusive state in this time period and Christian citizens with potential could attain spahi status just like their Muslim compatriots. Finkle's book Osman's Dream outlines this early era very well. The "jihadis" as pronounced in another thread with similar context is a wrong terminology. "Jihadis' would not include Christians and vice versa.

Originally posted by Reginmund Originally posted by es_bih The wars in the Balkans were not defined by simplistic terms especially not by Christian versus Muslim. That's not entirely true. I don't know how the Ottomans saw it, but from the Christian point of view at least there was a persistent element of crusading ideology involved in the wars against the Ottomans. Often you would find Christians allying with the Ottomans to fight other Christians, just like in the Crusader states, yet this does not mean the Christians ever forgot about the greater conflict at hand.

The Ottomans were employing both Muslim and Christian Spahis, and alotting lands to loyal Christian clients. The more Islamic oriented Empire was created in the 1600s.

The Ottoman armies in this period were not large. They were composed of conscripts, spahis, and janssiaries who were a rather small force still.

Cowley, Robert. The Reader's Companion to Military History. Houghton Mifflin Books, 249. �On June 28, 1389, an Ottoman army of between thirty thousand and forty thousand under the command of Sultan Murad I defeated an army of Balkan allies numbering twenty-five thousand to thirty thousand under the command of Prince Lazar of Serbia at Kosovo Polije (Blackbird's Field) in the central Balkans.� 

And the Anatolian Irish

Originally posted by Brian J Checco That whole region was widely contested. One could say that the Greeks, Albanians, Serbs, Croats, Hungarians, Germans, Venetians, Romanians, Transylvanians, Poles, Wallachians, Montenegrins, Bulgarians, Lithuanians, etc were all "defenders of Christianity."

Indeed, that's how they saw themselves; defending the frontier of Christendom against the infidel hordes that sourrounded it on all sides, it was a cliche of medieval crusading ideology.

Originally posted by es bih Either way the Serbian heavy cavalry was lethal: Nikopolis proved that point.

I'm sure they were, but Nikopolis really doesn't prove that point. All they accomplished there was ride down a group of exhausted and dismounted knights who were fighting an uphill (literally) battle.

"The French, mostly clad in superior armour uniforms, charged towards the Ottoman vanguard, but soon realized they would have to dismount when they reached the line of stakes. They did so, and began to remove the stakes, while under fire from the Ottoman archers. When this was accomplished, the unarmoured Ottoman infantry met the now horseless but well-armoured knights, who had the upper hand in close fighting. The French rushed forward to attack the cavalry and were again successful. Although they were still without their horses, the French pursued the retreating Ottomans all the way back to the hill. However, upon reaching the top, the now exhausted French forces discovered the main Ottoman army awaiting them. In the ensuing fight, the French were completely defeated." <- The wiki article doesn't say so explicitly, but this is where the Serbian cavalry played their decisive part.

After the french knights had had been defeated, the main christian forces begun a second attack. This crashed the ottoman cavalry, but cc. 5000 serbian heavy armoured riders under Lazarevic (the same unit fought in Ankara, too) chased the hungarians, Johannits etc. into the Danube.

Edited by Tar Szer�nd - 07-Dec-2007 at 14:45

Originally posted by Tar Szer�nd The original christian battle plan was made by the hungarian barones. They wanted to fight after the traditional hungarian art-so just with cavalry, with mounted archers in the firs line, middle armoured units in the second, and the third line, the heavy hungarian, french etc cavalry should had made the final stroke. But the french knights wanted to begin the battle.