Old Serbia

Map of Old Serbia within Kingdom of Serbia in 1913 (green)

Old Serbia (Serbian: Stara Srbija, Стара Србија) is a modern name for the territory which was the core of medieval Serbia.^[1] It included Raška (Sandžak), Kosovo and Metohija and the Macedonia. It sometimes includes Montenegro.

It was used by Christian Slavs in these regions of Ottoman Turkey to denote the areas where they live in their native tongue, as well as in Austria and Russia, but completely ignored by the Turks who referred to the region as either Sandžak of, Rumelia or Arnavutluk.^[2]

The Old Serbia had then no political definition, but was determined by the historical association of the regions that were under Ottoman rule. A traveler concludes that the northern border is the Sanjak of Novi Pazar and the region of Kosovo and Metohija.^[2]

The term originated in common speech and was introduced by the refugees of the Great Serb Migrations in Austro-Hungarian regions of Serbs. It reemerged in the aspirations of liberating these areas during the time of the Serbian revolution and later would designate the areas not liberated by 1833. In 1878 Niš and Vranje of South-East Serbia was liberated, it would take until 1913 when Sandžak, Kosovo and Macedonia became part of the Kingdom of Serbia.

Vuk Stefanović Karadžić referred to Old Serbia as the territory of the Serbian people, that was part of medieval Serbia prior to the Ottoman conquest. Spiridon Gopčević published ethnographic works on Old Serbia region (Macedonia, Kosovo).^[3] The "Old Serbia" bank opened in Skopje in 1923 to dominate and accelerate the economy of the region.^[4]

Old Serbia

References, Notes

• Стара Србија Jefto Dedijer

1. ^ Др Јевто Дедијер, Стара Србија
2. ^ ^{a b} http://books.google.se/books?id=-a8WAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA243
3. ^ http://www.archive.org/details/starasrbijaimak00kasugoog
4. ^ http://scindeks.nb.rs/article.aspx?artid=1450-84869901123S