Kosovo Serbs () are a recognized ethnic minority community in Kosovo. According to the estimates, the population of ethnic Serbs is 95,000 to 100,000, constituting 5% to 6% of the total population; they are the second-largest ethnic group in Kosovo after Albanians.
The medieval Kingdom of Serbia and the Serbian Empire included parts of the territory of Kosovo until its annexation by the Ottomans following the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, considered one of the most pivotal events in Serbian history. Modern Serbian historiography considers Kosovo in this period to be the political, religious, and cultural core of the medieval Serbian state. In the 16th century, the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć was re-established and its status strengthened. At the end of 18th century, the support of the Patriarchate to the Habsburgs during the Great Turkish War triggered a wave of Serb migrations to areas under the control of the Habsburg monarchy. After the independence of the Principality of Serbia to its north, Kosovo came increasingly to be seen by the mid-19th century as the "cradle of Serb civilization" and called the "Serbian Jerusalem".
Kosovo was annexed by the Kingdom of Serbia in 1912, following the First Balkan War. During the period of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Kosovo experienced the Serb colonisation which aimed to increase the number of Serbs in Kosovo with colonists from Serbia and Montenegro. After World War II, Kosovo became an autonomous province within Serbia under Yugoslavia's socialist federation, with significant cultural and political rights granted to balance Albanian and Serb interests. As a result of the Kosovo War and following by its declaration of independence in 2008 it is partially recognized by the international community. Following the Kosovo War, over half of Kosovo Serb population were expelled, primarily to Serbia.
History Middle Ages Sclaveni raided and settled the western Balkans in the 6th and 7th century. The White Serbs are mentioned in De Administrando Imperio as having settled the Balkans during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641), however, research does not support that the White Serbian tribe was part of this later migration (as held by historiography) rather than migrating with the rest of Early Slavs.
Starting from the first half of the 9th century, and up to the second half of the 10th century, several Byzantine–Bulgarian and Bulgarian–Serbian wars were fought in various regions, including Kosovo, that came under Bulgarian control. During the reign of Byzantine emperor John I Tzimiskes (969–976), Byzantine control was established throughout the region, including Kosovo and up to the Catepanate of Ras.
Byzantine rule in the region was suppressed by Samuel of Bulgaria (976–1014), but later restored by emperor Basil II in 1018. Under Byantine rule, local Eastern Orthodox eparchies of Lipljan and Prizren were placed under the jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Ohrid.
In 1040–1041 a massive Bulgarian rebellion against Byzantine rule broke out, which included Kosovo. Another rebellion broke out in 1072, in which Serbian prince Constantine Bodin was crowned Emperor of Bulgaria at Prizren, however, despite some initial success, he was eventually captured and the rebellion was suppressed. Vukan I, the new independent Serbian Grand Prince, began raiding Byzantine territories during the early 1090s, first in Kosovo, capturing Lipjan, and advancing further towards Skoplje and Vranje. He broke several peace treaties that he personally negotiated with the Byzantine Emperor at Zvečan and Lipjan, until finally submitting in 1106.
In 1166, a Serbian prince, Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the Nemanjić dynasty, asserted independence after an uprising against the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus. Nemanja defeated his brother, Tihomir, at Pantino near Pauni, and drowned him in the Sitnica river. Nemanja was eventually defeated and had to return some of his conquests, and vouched to the Emperor that he would not rebel against him again. In 1183, Stefan Nemanja embarked on a new offensive allied with the Kingdom of Hungary after the death of Manuel I Komnenos in 1180, which marked the end of Byzantine domination over the region of Kosovo. Nemanja's son, Stefan, ruled a realm reaching the river of Lab in the south. Stefan conquered all of Kosovo by 1208, by which time he had conquered Prizren and Lipljan, and moved the border of his realm to the Šar mountain. In 1217, Stefan was crowned King of Serbs, due to which he is known in historiography as Stefan "the First-Crowned".
In 1219, the Serbian Archbishopric was given autocephaly, with Hvosno, Prizren and Lipljan eparchies in the territory of present-day Kosovo. By the end of the 13th century, the centre of the Serbian Church was moved to Peć from Žiča.
Prizren served as the capital of Serbia during the 14th century and was an important trade centre. King Stefan Dušan founded the Monastery of the Holy Archangels near Prizren in 1342–1352. During this period, several grand monasteries were endowed with vast possessions in the regions of Kosovo and Metohija. The Serbian Kingdom was elevated into an Empire in 1345–46. In 1346, the Serbian Archbishopric at Peć was upgraded into a Patriarchate, but it was not recognized until 1375. After the death of Stefan Dušan in 1355, the fall of the Serbian Empire began, with feudal disintegration during the reign of his successor, Stefan Uroš V (r. 1355–1371).
Parts of Kosovo became domains of Vukašin Mrnjavčević, but Vojislav Vojinović expanded his demesne further onto Kosovo. The armies of Vukašin from Pristina and his allies defeated Vojislav's forces in 1369, putting a halt to his advances. After the Battle of Maritsa in 1371 in which the Mrnjavčević brothers lost their lives, Đurađ I Balšić of Zeta took Prizren and Peć in 1372. A part of Kosovo became the demesne of the Prince Lazar.
The Ottoman Empire invaded the realm of Lazar of Serbia on 28 June 1389, at the Battle of Kosovo near Pristina, at Gazimestan. The Serbian army, led by Prince Lazar with 12,000–30,000 men, faced the Ottoman army of 27,000–40,000. Lazar was killed in battle, while Sultan Murad I also lost his life, believed to have been assassinated by Serbian knight Miloš Obilić. The outcome of the battle is deemed inconclusive, with the new Sultan Bayezid I having to retreat to consolidate his power. Vuk Branković came to prominence as the local lord of Kosovo, though he was an Ottoman vassal at times, between 1392 and 1395.
Another battle occurred in 1448 between the Hungarian troops led by regent John Hunyadi and supported by the Albanian ruler Skanderbeg on one side, and Ottoman troops supported by the Branković dynasty in 1448. Skanderbeg's troops, were stopped by Branković's troops, as he was more or less an Ottoman vassal. Hungarians lost the battle after a 2-day fight, but essentially stopped the Ottoman advance northwards. In 1455, southern regions of the Serbian Despotate were invaded again, and the region of Kosovo was finally conquered by the Ottoman Empire and incorporated into the Ottoman administrative system.
Ottoman rule The Ottomans brought islamization with them, particularly in towns, and later also created the Kosovo vilayet as one of the administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire. During the process of Islamisation, many Orthodox churches and holy sites were razed to the ground or converted into mosques. The grand Monastery of the Holy Archangels near Prizren was torn down at the end of the 16th century and the material used to build the Sinan Pasha Mosque, in Prizren, named after an islamized Albanian. Although the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć was officially abolished in 1532, an islamized Serb from Bosnia, Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha influenced the restoration of the Patriarchate in 1557. Special privileges were granted which helped the survival of Serbs and other Christians in Kosovo.
Kosovo was taken by the Austrian forces during the Great Turkish War (1683–1698). In 1690, the Serbian Patriarch Arsenije III, led 37,000 families from Kosovo to escape Ottoman reprisals after the province was retaken by the Ottomans. In 1766, the Ottomans abolished the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć.
During the First Serbian Uprising, Serbs from the northern parts of Kosovo prepared to join the uprising, but an Ottoman army arrived to suppress their efforts before they could partake in the uprising. Ottoman violence resulted in a number of Serbs migrating to central Serbia in order to join rebels led by Karađorđe. The Kelmendi were the only Albanian tribe to fully support Serb rebels.Dj. Mikic drustveno politicki razvoj kosovskih Srba u XIX veku, Glasnik muzeja Kosova XIII-XIV, Pristina 1984 I. Dermaku, Neki aspekti saradnje Srbije i Arbanasa u borbi protiv turskog feudalizma 1804-1868. godine, Glasnik Muzeja Kosova XI, Pristina, 1972, page 238 After the independence of the Principality of Serbia to its north, Kosovo came increasingly to be seen by the mid-19th century as the "cradle of Serb civilization" and called the "Serbian Jerusalem".
The term Arnauti or Arnautaši was coined by 19th and early 20th century Serbian ethnographers to refer to the Kosovo Albanians, which they perceived as Albanised Serbs; Serbs who had converted to Islam and went through a process of Albanisation.Dietmar Müller, Staatsbürger aus Widerruf: Juden und Muslime als Alteritätspartner im rumänischen und serbischen Nationscode: ethnonationale Staatsbürgerschaftskonzepte 1878–1941, p. 183-208. , Religion and the politics of identity in Kosovo, p. 73: see footnotes In modern anthropology, the historical validity of the term has been criticized as well as use as a tool of nation-building and homogenization efforts of the Serbian state.
By the end of the 19th century, Albanians became the dominating nation of Kosovo. In the aftermath of the expulsion of the Albanians in the newly annexed territories of southern Serbia and the resettlements of tens of thousands of Albanians mostly in eastern Kosovo, attacks against Serbs took place, during and after the Serbian–Ottoman War. In 1901, massacres against Serbs were carried out by Albanians in North Kosovo and Pristina. Jovan Cvijić claimed that the Albanians were responsible for forcing an estimated 150,000 Serbs out of Kosovo from 1876 until 1912. Albanians were also accused of conducting a campaign of terror against the Serbian population who remained.
Balkan Wars and World War I
The rising Kingdom of Serbia planned a restoration of its rule in Kosovo as Ottoman might crumbled in the Balkan peninsula by the end of the 19th century. Some historians suggest that Austro-Hungarian emissaries were active in areas where Serbs and Albanians coexisted, deliberately stirring conflicts and divisions between the two ethnicities to advance their state's political interests and influence. During the First Balkan War, the Kingdom of Serbia and the Kingdom of Montenegro fought alongside Greece and Bulgaria as part of the Balkan League to drive the Ottoman forces out of Europe and to incorporate the spoils into their respective states. Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece had acquired the entire Albanian-inhabited territories (with the exception of Vlora) in the hope of achieving recognition with their new borders. Resistance from the Albanians across their entire region in favour of their own proposed independent nation state led to fighting between the Balkan League armies and Albanian forces. To end the conflict, the Treaty of London decreed an independent Principality of Albania (close to its present borders), with bulk of the Kosovo vilayet going to Serbia and the region around Peć awarded to Montenegro.