Serbian Orthodox Church

519

against the Holy League (see Austria) the patriarch, the head of about 60,000 members of the Serbian Orthodox Church mostly from Kosovo, was driven into exile in the Habsburg domain in Hungary. The mass emigration continued during subsequent wars. The term Serbia appeared for the first time as the name of an administrative region in the newly conquered Habsburg area between the Sava, Danube, and western Morava (171836).
THE ROAD TO AUTONOMY

After 1793, Serbs in the sancak of Smederevo gained a certain level of autonomy, which mostly meant that local knezes (princes, headmen) had the right to collect taxes themselves. The situation in the sancak was tense due to an uprising against the Ottomans by the Janissaries. In 1804 the Janissaries took control of the area by killing the Ottoman governor in Belgrade and executing more than a hundred Serbian notables. This felling of the knezes led to a general uprising mounted on February 14, 1804 and led by Djordje Petrovi, known as Karadjordje. Having succeeded in killing some Janissary officers, and carried away by their initial success, the Serbs refused to lay down their weapons to the regular Ottoman authorities. Encouraged by the Russian-Ottoman war, which began in 1807 and later led to the arrival of Russian troops (see Russo-Ottoman Wars), the Serbs refused all peace proposals and demanded full independence. The Russian-Ottoman Treaty at Bucharest (1812) put an end to all hope of success and the rebellion was crushed the following year. Article 8 of the Bucharest agreement stipulated modest autonomy for the Serbs, but the Ottomans did not accept this provision. The road to autonomy was not opened until April 23, 1815 when the Second Uprising was mounted under the leadership of Knez Milo Obrenovi. Milo opened negotiations in the same year seeking to achieve autonomy gradually, without revolutionary demands. In the Russian-Ottoman Convention of Akkerman (1826), the Ottomans pledged to fulfill the rights guaranteed by the Bucharest treaty. Ottoman imperial rescripts (hatt-i erifs) from 1829 and 1830, issued upon the conclusion of peace in Edirne (1829), granted Serbia autonomy and defined its borders, while Milo was acknowledged as the hereditary prince. Serbia annexed six additional districts or nahiyes and became a de facto principality under Ottoman suzerainty while Russia was granted the status of protector. A fixed lump sum of taxes was paid once a year to Istanbul, the sipahi system was dismantled, and the military presence was limited to small garrisons in several fortresses. Only a few cities continued to have a Muslim population. The Ottomans were forced to withdraw all military personnel from Serbia in 1867. The independence of Ser-

bia was not internationally recognized until the Congress of Berlin (1878). Bowing to public pressure, Serbia went to war with the Ottoman Empire, first in 1876 and then in 187778 following the uprising of the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbia conquered and annexed Ni, Pirot, Vranje, and Leskovac, later ratified by the Congress of Berlin. The final war between Serbia and the Ottoman Empire, the First Balkan War, took place in 1912. Aleksandar Foti Further reading: Colin Imber, The Ottoman Empire, 13001481 (Istanbul: Isis, 1990); B. Jelavich, History of the Balkans, vol. 1, Eighteenth and Nineteenthth Centuries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983); M. B. Petrovich, A History of Modern Serbia, 18041918 (New York and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1976).

Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church was established in 1219 as an autocephalous member of the Orthodox communion, meaning that the Serbian people followed the traditions of Orthodox Christianity but that their church was not subordinate to an external patriarch. Religious books were written in old Serbian-Slavonic, which was also the language of the service. In 1346 when Stefan Dushan (r. 133155) was crowned czar, the Serbian Orthodox Church was raised to the rank of patriarchate with its seat in Pe, Kosovo (for this reason also called the Pe Patriarchate), but the patriarch of Constantinople did not recognize the authority of the Serbian patriarch until 1375. Following the Ottoman annexation of the Brankovi lands in Kosovo (1455), the seat of the church was transferred to Smederevo, the capital of the Ottoman vassal state Serbia. When the Serbian state came under direct Ottoman rule in 1459, the Serbian church organization did not disappear. However, little is known about its history until the mid-16th century. The Serbian autocephalous church, which comprised northern Serbia, Srem, parts of Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro, probably did not disintegrate until the 1520s. After the fall of the Serbian state, the church was weakened, and the wellorganized neighboring autonomous Ohrid archbishopric wanted to take control of as many dioceses as possible. However, most of the Serbian clergy, led by Pavle, the bishop of Smederevo, did not accept the jurisdiction of the Ohrid archdiocese, which never managed to assume control of these territories. The fact that the church hierarchy was ineffective in a larger part of the Serb-inhabited Balkans also meant that there was no proper state control. The Ottoman idea of controlling the empires non-Muslim communities was based on firm and stable church organization, with leaders appointed by the sultans decree. To resolve this problem the Pe Patriarchate was restored in 1557.

520 Svres, Treaty of

Sokollu Mehmed Pasha (see Sokollu family), who then occupied the position of third vizier, played an important part in the restoration of the patriarchate, and his cousin Makarije Sokolovi was appointed as the first patriarch. The hierarchical organization of the Pe Patriarchate mirrored that of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople; it operated in the same way and had the same rights and duties. The only difference between the two churches was that services in the Pe Patriarchate were held in the Serbian language. The high clergy was made up of Serbs, although several patriarchs in the 18th century were of Greek descent. The restored Pe Patriarchate covered a large territory, far beyond its original size: It stretched to the farthest Ottoman borders in Dalmatia, Croatia, and Hungary, and included Sofia (Bulgaria) in the east and territories south of Skopje (Macedonia). It also assumed control of dioceses outside the Ottoman Empire, including in Habsburg Croatia and along the Venetian Adriatic coast, which was certainly of great importance to the Porte. The extent of the territory was reflected in the patriarchs full title, patriarch of Serbians, Bulgarians, maritime and northern parts. The Serbs controlled the patriarchate, but in concept it was a supranational organization created to encompass all newly conquered Ottoman territories and the entire population, regardless of national origins and whether or not they were followers of the Orthodox religion. Since the sultans did not want to officially allow the establishment of the Catholic Church, they issued berats (patents of office) granting the Pe patriarch the right to collect duties from the Catholic population but did not give it the right to interfere with the organization of the Catholic religious community and its spiritual work. This caused serious problems, especially in Ottoman Bosnia, which was densely populated by Catholics. The final solution to the problem was postponed for centuries. When Catholic complaints reached the Porte, Istanbul responded by issuing fermans (imperial decrees) demanding that the authorities honor an ancient privilege, meaning that the Orthodox bishops had no right to interfere even with the collection of church taxes from Catholics. The restoration of the patriarchate brought progressnew churches were built, diocese networks were established and strengthened, and religious art, especially painting, flourished. Books, primarily religious, were copied, and for a while some monastery printing shops were in operation. Toward the end of the 17th century the position of the Pe Patriarchate weakened due to the patriarchs open collaboration with Austria during the Ottomans war against the Holy League (168399) and the subsequent Austrian-Ottoman wars. When Ottoman attempts to regain control through the appointment of Greek patri-

archs failed, the Pe Patriarchate was brought under the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1766. The key positions of the Orthodox religious hierarchy in lands inhabited by Serbs, including metropolitan and bishopric seats, were in the hands of Greeks from that time until the autonomous Serbian principality was proclaimed in 1830. Autocephaly was achieved in 1879, a year after Serbia was internationally recognized as an independent state in 1878. Aleksandar Foti Further reading: L. Hadrovics, Le peuple serbe et son glise sous la domination turque (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1947).

Svres, Treaty of (1920) Conceived in the wake of the Ottoman loss in World War I and signed at Svres, France on August 10, 1920, this treaty was designed to abolish the Ottoman Empire and to partition its territories. While much thought and discussion went into negotiating and framing its terms, however, the Treaty of Svres was never accepted by the Turkish national assembly and was thus unenforceable. Concluded between the Allied powers (France, Russia, England, Italy, and the United States) and the government of the Ottoman Empire, the treaty abolished the Ottoman Empire, obliged Turkey to renounce rights over its Arab lands in the Middle East and North Africa, and provided for an independent Armenia and Greek control over the Aegean islands commanding the Dardanelles. These provisions were rejected by the Turkish national assembly, and the Treaty of Svres was replaced in 1923 by the Treaty of Lausanne. World War I ended on the Ottoman front on October 30, 1918 with the signing of the Armistice of Mondros. This agreement might have been an important step toward permanent peace for the Ottoman Empire. However, the Allies wanted the empires of all the defeated partiesGermany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empireto be dissolved. To that end the Allies organized a peace conference in Paris on January 18, 1919. The first item on the agenda at the conference was to force devastating terms on the defeated Germany, resulting in the signing of the notorious Versailles Treaty on June 28, 1919. Meanwhile, the Allies invited the leaders of the defeated Ottoman Empire to the Paris Peace Conference. The Ottoman delegation put forward a memorandum based on the four Wilsonian principles (an international security organization, reductions of national armaments, democracy, and the free flow of goods across national borders). This memorandum was rejected by the Allies. At the same time, a struggle against Allied forces in Anatolia took place under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha (see Kemal Atatrk).

Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire

Copyright 2009 by Gbor goston and Bruce Masters All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data goston, Gbor. Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire / Gbor goston and Bruce Masters. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8160-6259-1 ISBN-10: 0-8160-6259-5 1. TurkeyHistoryOttoman Empire, 12881918Encyclopedias. 2. Turkey CivilizationEncyclopedias. I. Masters, Bruce Alan, 1950 I. Title. DR486.A375 2008 956'.01503dc22 2008020716 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com Text design by Joan M. Toro, Erik Lindstrom Maps by Sholto Ainslie Printed in the United States of America VB Hermitage 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper and contains 30 percent postconsumer recycled content.