Dervan or Derwan ( sr-cyr, Дерван, la, Dervanus) was an early duke of the

Sorbs Sorbs ( hsb, Serbja, dsb, Serby, german: Sorben; also known as Lusatians, Lusatian Serbs and Wends) are a indigenous West Slavic ethnic group predominantly inhabiting the parts of Lusatia located in the German states of Saxony and Brandenb ...

(

fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...

615–636). According to some historians and Emperor

Constantine VII Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe K ...

, Dervan was brother of the

Unknown Archon The term Unnamed Prince of Serbia ( sr, неименовани српски архонт / ''neimenovani srpski arhont''), or the Unknown Prince ( sr, непознати кнез / ''nepoznati knez''), refers to the Serbian prince from the first ha ...

, but some historians also think that Dervan may be his father, which is less likely. According to Serbian academic Tibor Živković, the migration could take place between 629 and 632, before Dervan joined Samo. He is mentioned by

Fredegar The ''Chronicle of Fredegar'' is the conventional title used for a 7th-century Frankish chronicle that was probably written in Burgundy. The author is unknown and the attribution to Fredegar dates only from the 16th century. The chronicle begin ...

in his Latin chronicle as ''dux gente Surbiorum que ex genere Sclavinorum'':Making of the Slavs, page 331 "ruler of the people of the ''Surbi'' (Sorb autonym: ''Serbja'', Serb autonym: ''Srbi'') from the nation of the Sclavenians".Curta, 109. He is the first ruler of the tribe mentioned by name. Fredegar records him being subordinate to the

Franks The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Too ...

for a long time and then joining the Slavic union of

Samo Samo (–) founded the first recorded political union of Slavic tribes, known as Samo's Empire (''realm'', ''kingdom'', or ''tribal union''), stretching from Silesia to present-day Slovakia, ruling from 623 until his death in 658. According t ...

. After the defeat of the Frankish king

Dagobert I Dagobert I ( la, Dagobertus; 605/603 – 19 January 639 AD) was the king of Austrasia (623–634), king of all the Franks (629–634), and king of Neustria and Burgundy (629–639). He has been described as the last king of the Merovingian dyna ...

by king Samo near

Wogastisburg According to the contemporary ''Chronicle of Fredegar'', the Battle of Wogastisburg was a battle between Slavs (''Sclav, cognomento Winidi'') under King Samo and Franks under King Dagobert I in 631. The Frankish armies advanced into the area of th ...

in 631 or 632, Dervan declared independence from the Franks and "placed himself and his people under the rule of Samo".Curta, 331. Dervan joined Samo in his subsequent wars against the Franks. Further reports of Fredegar imply that Dervan and his people lived to the east of the Saxon

Saale The Saale (), also known as the Saxon Saale (german: Sächsische Saale) and Thuringian Saale (german: Thüringische Saale), is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Franconian Saale, ...

. The reference to Dervan in 631/632 is also the first written confirmation of the presence of Slavs north of the Ore Mountains. He was fighting against

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and la ...

631-634 and Dervan was finally defeated by duke Radulf, governor of Thuringia in 636.

References

Further reading