The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous
South Slavic ethnic group
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
native to the
Balkans
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
in
Southeastern Europe
Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (al ...
, who share a common Serbian
ancestry
An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from whom ...
,
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...
,
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
and
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
.
The majority of Serbs live in their
nation state
A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than "country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group.
A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, may inc ...
of
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
, as well as in
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
,
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
,
Montenegro
)
, image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Podgorica
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, official_languages = M ...
, and
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
. They also form significant minorities in
North Macedonia
North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...
and
Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
. There is a large
Serb diaspora
Serb diaspora ( sr, Српска дијаспора/Srpska dijaspora) refers to the diaspora communities of ethnic Serbs. It is not to be confused with the Serbian diaspora, which refers to migrants, regardless of ethnicity, from Serbia. Due to g ...
in
Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
, and outside
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and there are significant communities in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
and
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
The Serbs share many cultural traits with the rest of the peoples of
Southeast Europe
Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (al ...
. They are predominantly
Eastern Orthodox Christians
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...
by religion. The Serbian language (a standardized version of
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and ...
) is official in Serbia, co-official in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is spoken by the plurality in Montenegro.
Ethnology
The identity of Serbs is rooted in
Eastern Orthodoxy
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first m ...
and traditions. In the 19th century, the
Serbian national identity
Serbia is the nation state of the Serbs, who are Serbia's dominant ethnic group. Serbs are also dominant in Republika Srpska, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the 19th century, the Serbian national identity was manifested, with awareness of ...
was manifested, with awareness of history and tradition, medieval heritage, cultural unity, despite living under different empires. Three elements, together with the legacy of the
Nemanjić dynasty
The House of Nemanjić ( sr-Cyrl, Немањић, Немањићи; Nemanjić, Nemanjići, ) was the most prominent dynasty of Serbia in the Middle Ages. This princely, royal, and later imperial house produced twelve Serbian monarchs, who rul ...
, were crucial in forging identity and preservation during foreign domination: the
Serbian Orthodox Church
The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches.
The majori ...
, the
Serbian language
Serbian (, ) is the standardized variety of the Serbo-Croatian language mainly used by Serbs. It is the official and national language of Serbia, one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina and co-official in Montenegro and Kos ...
, and the
Kosovo Myth
The Kosovo Myth ( sr, Косовски мит / ''Kosovski mit''), also known as the Kosovo Cult and the Kosovo Legend, is a Serbian national myth based on legends about events related to the Battle of Kosovo (1389). It has been a subject in Serb ...
. When the
Principality of Serbia
The Principality of Serbia ( sr-Cyrl, Књажество Србија, Knjažestvo Srbija) was an autonomous state in the Balkans that came into existence as a result of the Serbian Revolution, which lasted between 1804 and 1817. Its creation was ...
gained independence from the Ottoman Empire, Orthodoxy became crucial in defining
the national identity, instead of language which was shared by other South Slavs (
Croats
The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, G ...
and
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry ...
).
The tradition of ''
slava
Slava may refer to:
Ships
* ''Slava'' class cruiser, a modern Russian warship
** Soviet cruiser Slava (1979), now Russian cruiser ''Moskva'', a ''Slava'' class guided missile cruiser sunk during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
* Russian ba ...
'', the family saint feast day, is an important ethnic marker of Serb identity,
and is usually regarded their most significant and most solemn
feast day
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...
.
The origin of the
ethnonym
An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...
is unclear. The most prominent theory considers it of Proto-Slavic origin. argued native Slavic provenance of the ethnonym,
claiming that the theory advances a conclusion that the ethnonym has a meaning of a family kinship or alliance, which was also argued by a number of other scholars.
Genetic origins
![PLOS 3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/PLOS_3.PNG)
According to a triple analysis –
autosomal
An autosome is any chromosome that is not a sex chromosome. The members of an autosome pair in a diploid cell have the same morphology, unlike those in allosome, allosomal (sex chromosome) pairs, which may have different structures. The DNA in au ...
,
mitochondrial
A mitochondrion (; ) is an organelle found in the cells of most Eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is use ...
and
paternal
A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...
— of available data from large-scale studies on
Balto
Balto (1919 – March 14, 1933) was a Siberian Husky and sled dog belonging to musher and breeder Leonhard Seppala. He achieved fame when he reportedly led a team of sled dogs driven by Gunnar Kaasen on the final leg of the 1925 serum run to Nom ...
-Slavs and their proximal populations, the whole genome
SNP data situates Serbs with Montenegrins in between two Balkan clusters.
Y-DNA results show that haplogroups
I2a and
R1a together stand for the majority of the makeup, with more than 53 percent. The aforementioned Serbian Y-chromosomes belong to lineages believed to be pre-
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
. Such significant levels are possibly the result of Neolithic migrations encroaching on Paleolithic populations against the Adriatic Sea.
According to several recent studies Serbia's people are among the tallest in the world, with an average
male height of .
History
Arrival of the Slavs
Early Slavs
The early Slavs were a diverse group of tribal societies who lived during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages (approximately the 5th to the 10th centuries AD) in Central and Eastern Europe and established the foundations for the S ...
, especially
Sclaveni
The ' (in Latin) or ' (various forms in Greek, see below) were early Slavic tribes that raided, invaded and settled the Balkans in the Early Middle Ages and eventually became the progenitors of modern South Slavs. They were mentioned by early Byz ...
and
Antae
The Antes, or Antae ( gr, Ἄνται), were an early East Slavic tribal polity of the 6th century CE. They lived on the lower Danube River, in the northwestern Black Sea region (present-day Moldova and central Ukraine), and in the regions aro ...
, including the
White Serbs
The Sorbs, also known as White Serbs in Serbian historiography, were an Early Slavic tribe settled between Saale-Elbe valley up to Lusatian Neisse (in present-day Saxony and Thuringia), and part of the Wends. In the 7th century, the tribe joined ...
, invaded and settled
Southeastern Europe
Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (al ...
in the 6th and 7th century. Up until the late 560s their activity was raiding, crossing from the Danube, though with limited Slavic settlement mainly through Byzantine ''
foederati
''Foederati'' (, singular: ''foederatus'' ) were peoples and cities bound by a treaty, known as ''foedus'', with Rome. During the Roman Republic, the term identified the ''socii'', but during the Roman Empire, it was used to describe foreign stat ...
'' colonies. The
Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
and
Sava
The Sava (; , ; sr-cyr, Сава, hu, Száva) is a river in Central and Southeast Europe, a right-bank and the longest tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia and along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and finally th ...
frontier was overwhelmed by large-scale Slavic settlement in the late 6th and early 7th century. What is today
central Serbia
Central Serbia ( sr, централна Србија / centralna Srbija), also referred to as Serbia proper ( sr, link=no, ужа Србија / uža Srbija), is the region of Serbia lying outside the autonomous province of Vojvodina to the nort ...
was an important geo-strategical province, through which the ''
Via Militaris
Via Militaris or Via Diagonalis was an ancient Roman road, starting from Singidunum (today the Serbian capital Belgrade), passing by Danube coast to Viminacium (modern Požarevac), through Naissus (modern Niš), Serdica (modern Sofia), Philippopo ...
'' crossed. This area was frequently intruded by
barbarians
A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by some to be less c ...
in the 5th and 6th centuries. The numerous Slavs mixed with and assimilated the descendants of the indigenous population (Illyrians, Thracians, Dacians, Romans, Celts). White Serbs from
White Serbia
White Serbia ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Бела Србија, Bela Srbija; wen, Biеło Srbsko), called also Boiki ( grc, Βοΐκι, Boḯki; sr-Cyrl-Latn, link=no, Бојка, Bojka; wen, links=no, Boika), is the name applied to the assumed homeland of ...
came to
an area near Thessaloniki and then they settled area between Dinaric Alps and Adriatic coast. The region of "Rascia" (
Raška) was the center of Serb settlement and Serb tribes also occupied parts of modern-day
Herzegovina
Herzegovina ( or ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Hercegovina, separator=" / ", Херцеговина, ) is the southern and smaller of two main geographical region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being Bosnia. It has never had strictly defined geogra ...
and
Montenegro
)
, image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Podgorica
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, official_languages = M ...
. Prior to their arrival to the Balkans, Serbs were predominantly involved in agricalture, which is why they settled in areas which were cultivated even during Roman times.
Middle Ages
![Loza nemanjica](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Loza_nemanjica.jpg)
The first Serb states,
Raška and
Duklja
Duklja ( sh-Cyrl, Дукља; el, Διόκλεια, Diokleia; la, Dioclea) was a medieval South Slavic state which roughly encompassed the territories of modern-day southeastern Montenegro, from the Bay of Kotor in the west to the Bojana Ri ...
(825–1120), were formed chiefly under the
Vlastimirović and
Vojislavljević dynasties respectively.
The other Serb-inhabited lands, or principalities, that were mentioned included the "countries" of Paganija, Zahumlje, Travunija. With the decline of the Serbian state of Duklja in the late 11th century, Raška separated from it and replaced it as the most powerful Serbian state. Prince
Stefan Nemanja
Stefan Nemanja (Serbian Cyrillic: , ; – 13 February 1199) was the Grand Prince ( Veliki Župan) of the Serbian Grand Principality (also known as Raška, lat. ) from 1166 to 1196. A member of the Vukanović dynasty, Nemanja founded the Nemanji ...
(r. 1169–96) conquered the neighbouring territories of
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
,
Duklja
Duklja ( sh-Cyrl, Дукља; el, Διόκλεια, Diokleia; la, Dioclea) was a medieval South Slavic state which roughly encompassed the territories of modern-day southeastern Montenegro, from the Bay of Kotor in the west to the Bojana Ri ...
and
Zachlumia
Zachlumia or Zachumlia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Zahumlje, Захумље, ), also Hum, was a medieval principality located in the modern-day regions of Herzegovina and southern Dalmatia (today parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia ...
. The
Nemanjić dynasty
The House of Nemanjić ( sr-Cyrl, Немањић, Немањићи; Nemanjić, Nemanjići, ) was the most prominent dynasty of Serbia in the Middle Ages. This princely, royal, and later imperial house produced twelve Serbian monarchs, who rul ...
ruled over Serbia until the 14th century. Nemanja's older son,
Stefan Nemanjić
Stefan Nemanja II ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Немања II, ), or Stephen the First-Crowned ( sr, / , ; – 24 September 1228), was the Grand Prince of Serbia from 1196 and the King of Serbia from 1217 until his death in 1228. He was the firs ...
, became Serbia's first recognized king, while his younger son, Rastko, founded the
Serbian Orthodox Church
The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches.
The majori ...
in the year 1219, and became known as
Saint Sava
Saint Sava ( sr, Свети Сава, Sveti Sava, ; Old Church Slavonic: ; gr, Άγιος Σάββας; 1169 or 1174 – 14 January 1236), known as the Enlightener, was a Serbian prince and Orthodox monk, the first Archbishop of the autocephalou ...
after his death. Parts of modern-day Montenegro,
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
, and central Serbia would come under the control of Nemanjić.
Over the next 140 years, Serbia expanded its borders, from numerous smaller principalities, reaching to a unified
Serbian Empire
The Serbian Empire ( sr, / , ) was a medieval Serbian state that emerged from the Kingdom of Serbia. It was established in 1346 by Dušan the Mighty, who significantly expanded the state.
Under Dušan's rule, Serbia was the major power in the ...
. Its cultural model remained Byzantine, despite political ambitions directed against the empire. The medieval power and influence of Serbia culminated in the reign of
Stefan Dušan
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Урош IV Душан, ), known as Dušan the Mighty ( sr, / ; circa 1308 – 20 December 1355), was the King of Serbia from 8 September 1331 and Tsar (or Emperor) and autocrat of the Serbs, Gr ...
, who ruled the state from 1331 until his death in 1355. Ruling as Emperor from 1346, his territory included
Macedonia, northern Greece, Montenegro, and almost all of modern
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
. When Dušan died, his son
Stephen Uroš V
Stephen or Steven is a common English given name, first name. It is particularly significant to Christianity, Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Ac ...
became Emperor.
With
Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
*a Turkic language spoken by the Turks
* of or about Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities and mi ...
invaders beginning their conquest of the Balkans in the 1350s, a major conflict ensued between them and the Serbs, the first major battle was the
Battle of Maritsa (1371), in which the Serbs were defeated. With the death of two important Serb leaders in the battle, and with the death of Stephen Uroš that same year, the
Serbian Empire
The Serbian Empire ( sr, / , ) was a medieval Serbian state that emerged from the Kingdom of Serbia. It was established in 1346 by Dušan the Mighty, who significantly expanded the state.
Under Dušan's rule, Serbia was the major power in the ...
broke up into several small Serbian domains. These states were ruled by feudal lords, with Zeta controlled by the
Balšić family, Raška,
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
and northern Macedonia held by the
Branković family and
Lazar Hrebeljanović
Lazar Hrebeljanović ( sr-cyr, Лазар Хребељановић; ca. 1329 – 15 June 1389) was a medieval Serbian ruler who created the largest and most powerful state on the territory of the disintegrated Serbian Empire. Lazar's state, ...
holding today's
Central Serbia
Central Serbia ( sr, централна Србија / centralna Srbija), also referred to as Serbia proper ( sr, link=no, ужа Србија / uža Srbija), is the region of Serbia lying outside the autonomous province of Vojvodina to the nort ...
and a portion of Kosovo. Hrebeljanović was subsequently accepted as the titular leader of the Serbs because he was married to a member of the Nemanjić dynasty. In 1389, the Serbs faced the Ottomans at the
Battle of Kosovo
The Battle of Kosovo ( tr, Kosova Savaşı; sr, Косовска битка) took place on 15 June 1389 between an army led by the Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović and an invading army of the Ottoman Empire under the command of Sultan ...
on the plain of
Kosovo Polje
Fushë Kosova ( sq-definite, Fushë Kosovë), or Kosovo Polje ( sr-Cyrl, Косово Поље, "Kosovo Field"), is a town and municipality located in the District of Pristina in central Kosovo. According to the 2011 census, the town of Fushë Ko ...
, near the town of
Priština
Pristina, ; sr, / (, ) is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. The city's municipal boundaries in Pristina District form the largest urban center in Kosovo. After Tirana, Pristina has the second largest population of ethnic Albanians an ...
. Both Lazar and
Sultan
Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...
Murad I
Murad I ( ota, مراد اول; tr, I. Murad, Murad-ı Hüdavendigâr (nicknamed ''Hüdavendigâr'', from fa, خداوندگار, translit=Khodāvandgār, lit=the devotee of God – meaning "sovereign" in this context); 29 June 1326 – 15 Jun ...
were killed in the fighting. The battle most likely ended in a stalemate, and afterwards Serbia enjoyed a short period of prosperity under despot
Stefan Lazarević
Stefan Lazarević ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Лазаревић, 1377 – 19 July 1427), also known as Stefan the Tall ( sr, Стефан Високи / ''Stefan Visoki''), was the ruler of Serbia as prince (1389–1402) and despot (1402–1427), ...
and resisted falling to the Turks until 1459.
Early modern period
The Serbs had taken an active part in the wars fought in the Balkans against the Ottoman Empire, and also organized uprisings;
because of this, they suffered persecution and their territories were devastated – major migrations from Serbia into Habsburg territory ensued. After allied Christian forces
had captured Buda from the Ottoman Empire in 1686 during the
Great Turkish War
The Great Turkish War (german: Großer Türkenkrieg), also called the Wars of the Holy League ( tr, Kutsal İttifak Savaşları), was a series of conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League consisting of the Holy Roman Empire, Pola ...
, Serbs from
Pannonian Plain
The Pannonian Basin, or Carpathian Basin, is a large basin situated in south-east Central Europe. The geomorphological term Pannonian Plain is more widely used for roughly the same region though with a somewhat different sense, with only the ...
(present-day
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
,
Slavonia
Slavonia (; hr, Slavonija) is, with Dalmatia, Croatia proper, and Istria, one of the four historical regions of Croatia. Taking up the east of the country, it roughly corresponds with five Croatian counties: Brod-Posavina, Osijek-Baranja ...
region in present-day
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
,
Bačka
Bačka ( sr-cyrl, Бачка, ) or Bácska () is a geographical and historical area within the Pannonian Plain bordered by the river Danube to the west and south, and by the river Tisza to the east. It is divided between Serbia and Hungary ...
and
Banat
Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of T ...
regions in present-day
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
) joined the troops of the Habsburg monarchy as separate units known as
Serbian Militia
The Serbian (Rascian) Militia ( lat, Rascianica militia; sr, Рашка Милиција or ) was a military unit of the Habsburg-Austrian army consisting of Serbs, that existed in ca. 1686–1704.
During the Great Turkish War (1686–99)
Af ...
.
Serbs, as volunteers, massively joined the Austrian side.
Many Serbs were recruited during the
devshirme
Devshirme ( ota, دوشیرمه, devşirme, collecting, usually translated as "child levy"; hy, Մանկահավաք, Mankahavak′. or "blood tax"; hbs-Latn-Cyrl, Danak u krvi, Данак у крви, mk, Данок во крв, Danok vo krv ...
system, a form of
slavery in the Ottoman Empire
Slavery in the Ottoman Empire was a lawful institution and a significant part of the Ottoman Empire's economy and traditional society. The main sources of slaves were wars and politically organized enslavement expeditions in the Caucasus, Easte ...
, in which boys from Balkan Christian families were
forcibly converted to
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
and trained for infantry units of the
Ottoman army
The military of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun silahlı kuvvetleri) was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire.
Army
The military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the ...
known as the
Janissaries
A Janissary ( ota, یڭیچری, yeŋiçeri, , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultan's household troops and the first modern standing army in Europe. The corps was most likely established under sultan Orhan ( ...
. A number of Serbs who converted to Islam occupied high-ranking positions within the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
, such as
Grand Vizier
Grand vizier ( fa, وزيرِ اعظم, vazîr-i aʾzam; ota, صدر اعظم, sadr-ı aʾzam; tr, sadrazam) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world. The office of Grand Vizier was first ...
Sokollu Mehmed Pasha
Sokollu Mehmed Pasha ( ota, صوقوللى محمد پاشا, Ṣoḳollu Meḥmed Pașa, tr, Sokollu Mehmet Paşa; ; ; 1506 – 11 October 1579) was an Ottoman statesman most notable for being the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire. Born in ...
and
Minister of War
A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...
field marshal
Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...
Omar Pasha Latas
Omer Pasha, also known as Omer Pasha Latas ( tr, Ömer Lütfi Paşa, sr, Омер-паша Латас, Omer-paša Latas; 24 September 1806 – 18 April 1871) was an Ottoman field marshal and governor. Born in Austrian territory to Serbian Or ...
.
In 1688,
the Habsburg army took Belgrade and entered the territory of present-day
Central Serbia
Central Serbia ( sr, централна Србија / centralna Srbija), also referred to as Serbia proper ( sr, link=no, ужа Србија / uža Srbija), is the region of Serbia lying outside the autonomous province of Vojvodina to the nort ...
.
Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden
Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden (german: links=no, Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden-Baden; 8 April 1655 – 4 January 1707) was the ruling Margrave of Baden-Baden in Germany and chief commander of the Imperial army. He was also known as ''Türkenl ...
called Serbian Patriarch
Arsenije III Čarnojević Arsenije ( sr-cyr, Арсеније; ) is a Serbian given name, a variant of the Greek name ''Arsenios''. Diminutives of the name include ''Arsen'', ''Arsa'' and ''Arso''. It may refer to:
*Arsenije Sremac (d. 1266), second Archbishop of the Serbi ...
to raise arms against the Turks; the Patriarch accepted and returned to the liberated Peć. As Serbia fell under Habsburg control, Leopold I granted Arsenije nobility and the title of duke. In early November, Arsenije III met with Habsburg commander-in-chief,
General Enea Silvio Piccolomini
Enea Silvio Piccolomini (German: Johann Norbert Piccolomini; Papal States, c. 1650 – Pristina or Skopje, Ottoman Empire, 9 November 1689) was a Sienese nobleman whose lineage included two popes, and who served in the Habsburg army of Leopold ...
in
Prizren
)
, settlement_type = Municipality and city
, image_skyline = Prizren Collage.jpg
, imagesize = 290px
, image_caption = View of Prizren
, image_alt = View of Prizren
, image_flag ...
; after this talk he sent a note to all Serb bishops to come to him and collaborate only with Habsburg forces.
A
Great Migration of the Serbs (1690)
The Great Migrations of the Serbs ( sr, Велике сеобе Срба), also known as the Great Exoduses of the Serbs, refers mainly to two large migrations of Serbs from various territories under the rule of the Ottoman Empire to regions u ...
to Habsburg lands was undertaken by Patriarch Arsenije III. The large community of Serbs concentrated in Banat, southern Hungary and the Military Frontier included merchants and craftsmen in the cities, but mainly refugees that were peasants. Smaller groups of Serbs also migrated to the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
, where they occupied high positions in the military circles.
The
Serbian Revolution
The Serbian Revolution ( sr, Српска револуција / ''Srpska revolucija'') was a national uprising and constitutional change in Serbia that took place between 1804 and 1835, during which this territory evolved from an Ottoman prov ...
for independence from the Ottoman Empire lasted eleven years, from 1804 until 1815. The revolution comprised two separate uprisings which gained autonomy from the Ottoman Empire that eventually evolved towards full independence (1835–1867).
During the
First Serbian Uprising
The First Serbian Uprising ( sr, Prvi srpski ustanak, italics=yes, sr-Cyrl, Први српски устанак; tr, Birinci Sırp Ayaklanması) was an uprising of Serbs in the Sanjak of Smederevo against the Ottoman Empire from 14 February 18 ...
, led by Duke
Karađorđe Petrović
Đorđe Petrović ( sr-Cyrl, Ђорђе Петровић, ), better known by the sobriquet Karađorđe ( sr-Cyrl, Карађорђе, lit=Black George, ; – ), was a Serbian revolutionary who led the struggle for his country's independ ...
, Serbia was independent for almost a decade before the Ottoman army was able to reoccupy the country. Shortly after this, the
Second Serbian Uprising
The Second Serbian Uprising ( sr, Други српски устанак / ''Drugi srpski ustanak'', tr, İkinci Sırp Ayaklanması) was the second phase of the Serbian Revolution against the Ottoman Empire, which erupted shortly after the re ...
began. Led by
Miloš Obrenović
Miloš, Milos, Miłosz or spelling variations thereof is a masculine given name and a surname. It may refer to:
Given name
Sportsmen
* Miłosz Bernatajtys, Polish rower
* Miloš Bogunović, Serbian footballer
* Miloš Budaković, Serbian f ...
, it ended in 1815 with a compromise between Serbian revolutionaries and Ottoman authorities. Likewise, Serbia was one of the first nations in the Balkans to abolish
feudalism
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...
. Serbs are among the first ethnic groups in Europe to form a
nation
A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...
and a clear sense of national identity.
Modern period
In the early 1830s, Serbia gained autonomy and its borders were recognized, with
Miloš Obrenović
Miloš, Milos, Miłosz or spelling variations thereof is a masculine given name and a surname. It may refer to:
Given name
Sportsmen
* Miłosz Bernatajtys, Polish rower
* Miloš Bogunović, Serbian footballer
* Miloš Budaković, Serbian f ...
being recognized as its ruler. Serbia is the fourth modern-day European country, after France, Austria and the Netherlands, to have a codified legal system, as of 1844. The last Ottoman troops withdrew from Serbia in 1867, although Serbia's and Montenegro's independence was not recognized internationally until the
Congress of Berlin
The Congress of Berlin (13 June – 13 July 1878) was a diplomatic conference to reorganise the states in the Balkan Peninsula after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, which had been won by Russia against the Ottoman Empire. Represented at th ...
in 1878.
![Gavrilo Princip, cell, headshot](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Gavrilo_Princip%2C_cell%2C_headshot.jpg)
Serbia fought in the
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...
of 1912–13, which forced the Ottomans out of the Balkans and doubled the territory and population of the Kingdom of Serbia. In 1914, a young Bosnian Serb student named Gavrilo Princip Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, which directly contributed to the outbreak of World War I. In the fighting that ensued, Serbia was invaded by Austria-Hungary. Despite being outnumbered, the Serbs defeated the Austro-Hungarians at the Battle of Cer, which marked the first Allies of World War I, Allied victory over the Central Powers in the war. Further victories at the battles of Battle of Kolubara, Kolubara and the Battle of the Drina, Drina meant that Serbia remained unconquered as the war entered its second year. However, an invasion by the forces of German Empire, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Kingdom of Bulgaria, Bulgaria overwhelmed the Serbs in the winter of 1915, and a subsequent withdrawal by the Serbian Army through Albania took the lives of more than 240,000 Serbs. Serb forces spent the remaining years of the war fighting on the Salonika front in Greece, before liberating Serbia from Austro-Hungarian occupation of Serbia, Austro-Hungarian occupation in November 1918. Serbia suffered World War I casualties, the biggest casualty rate in World War I.
Following the victory in WWI Serbs subsequently formed the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes with other South Slavic peoples. The country was later renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and was led from 1921 to 1934 by King Alexander I of Yugoslavia, Alexander I of the Serbian Karađorđević dynasty. During World War II, Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers in April 1941. The country was subsequently divided into many pieces, with Serbia being directly occupied by the Germans. Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) were targeted for extermination as part of Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia, genocide by the Croatian ultra-nationalist, fascist Ustaše. The Ustaše view of national and racial identity, as well as the theory of Serbs as an racism, inferior race, was under the influence of Croatian nationalism, Croatian nationalists and intellectuals from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Jasenovac concentration camp, Jasenovac camp was notorious for the barbaric practices which occurred in it. Sisak children's concentration camp, Sisak and Jastrebarsko children's camp, Jastrebarsko concentration camp were specially Children in the Holocaust, formed for children.
Serbs in the NDH suffered among the highest casualty rates in Europe during the World War II, while the NDH was one of the most lethal regimes in the 20th century. Diana Budisavljević, a humanitarian of Austrian descent, carried out rescue operations from Ustaše camps and saved more than 15,000 children, mostly Serbs.
![Jasenovac HDR D](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Jasenovac_HDR_D.jpg)
More than half a million Serbs were killed in the territory of Yugoslavia during World War II. Serbs in occupied Yugoslavia subsequently formed a resistance movement known as the Chetniks, Yugoslav Army in the Homeland, or the Chetniks. The Chetniks had the official support of the Allies of World War II, Allies until 1943, when Allied support shifted to the Communist Yugoslav Partisans, a multi-ethnic force, formed in 1941, which also had a large majority of Serbs in its ranks in the first two years of war. Over the entirety of the war, the ethnic composition of the Partisans was 53 percent Serb. During the entire course of the WWII in Yugoslavia, 64.1% of all Bosnian Partisans were Serbs.
Later, after the fall of Italy in September 1943, other ethnic groups joined Partisans in larger numbers.
At the end of the war, the Partisans, led by Josip Broz Tito, emerged victorious. Yugoslavia subsequently became a Communist state. Tito died in 1980, and his death saw Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia plunge into economic turmoil. Yugoslavia Breakup of Yugoslavia, disintegrated in the early 1990s, and a Yugoslav Wars, series of wars resulted in the creation of five new states. The heaviest fighting occurred in
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
,
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
, whose Serb populations rebelled and declared independence. The Croatian War of Independence, war in Croatia ended in August 1995, with a Croatian military offensive known as Operation Storm put a stop to the Croatian Serb rebellion and causing as many as 200,000 Serbs to flee the country. The Bosnian War ended that same year, with the Dayton Agreement dividing the country along ethnic lines. In 1998–99, a Kosovo War, conflict in Kosovo between the Yugoslav Army and Albanians seeking independence erupted into full-out war, resulting in a 78-day-long NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, NATO bombing campaign which effectively drove Yugoslav security forces from Kosovo. Subsequently, more than 200,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians fled the province. On 5 October 2000, Yugoslav President of Serbia and Montenegro, President Slobodan Milosević was overthrown in a bloodless revolt after he refused to admit defeat in the Yugoslavian general election, 2000, 2000 Yugoslav general election.
Demographics
![SerbsInYugoslavia1992-1995](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/SerbsInYugoslavia1992-1995.png)
Modern demographic distribution of ethnic Serbs throughout homeland and native regions, as well as in Serbs in diaspora, Serbian ethnic diaspora, represents an outcome of several historical and demographic processes, shaped both by economic migrations and forced displacements during the recent Yugoslav Wars (1991–1999).
Balkans
There are nearly 8 million Serbs living in their native homelands, within the geographical borders of former Yugoslavia. In Serbia itself, around 6 million people identify themselves as ethnic Serbs, and constitute about 83% of the population. More than a million live in Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina (predominantly in the Republika Srpska), where they are one of the three Nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, constituent ethnic groups. Serbs in Serbs in Croatia, Croatia and Serbs of Montenegro, Montenegro also have recognized collective rights, and number some 186,000 and 178,000 people, respectively, while another estimated 96,000 live in the disputed area of Serbs of Kosovo, Kosovo.
Smaller minorities exist in Serbs in Slovenia, Slovenia and Serbs of North Macedonia, North Macedonia, some 36,000 and 39,000 people, respectively.
Outside of the former Yugoslavia, but within their historical and migratory areal, Serbs are officially recognized as national minority in Serbs in Albania, Albania, Serbs in Romania, Romania (18,000), Serbs in Hungary, Hungary (7,000), as well as in the Czech Republic and Serbs of Slovakia, Slovakia.
Diaspora
There are over 2 million Serbs in diaspora throughout the world; some sources put that figure as high as 4 million. There is a large diaspora in Western Europe, particularly in Serbs in Germany, Germany, Serbs in Austria, Austria, Immigration from the former Yugoslavia to Switzerland, Switzerland, Serbs in France, France, Serbs in Italy, Italy, Swedish Serbs, Sweden and Serbs in the United Kingdom, United Kingdom. Outside Europe, there are significant Serb communities in the Serbian American, United States, Serbian Canadians, Canada, Serbian Australian, Australia, South America and Southern Africa. The existence of a large diaspora is mainly a consequence of either economic or political (coercion or expulsions) reasons. There were several waves of Serb emigration:
* The first wave took place since the end of the 19th century and lasted until World War II and was caused by economic reasons; particularly large numbers of Serbs (mainly from peripheral ethnic areas such as
Herzegovina
Herzegovina ( or ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Hercegovina, separator=" / ", Херцеговина, ) is the southern and smaller of two main geographical region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being Bosnia. It has never had strictly defined geogra ...
,
Montenegro
)
, image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Podgorica
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, official_languages = M ...
, Dalmatia, and Lika) emigrated to the United States.
* The second wave took place after the end of World War II. At this time, members of royalist Chetniks and other political opponents of communist regime fled the country mainly going overseas (United States and
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
) and, to a lesser degree, United Kingdom.
* The third wave, by far the largest, consisted of economic emigration beginning in the 1960s when several Western European countries signed bilateral agreements with Yugoslavia, allowing the recruitment of industrial workers to those countries; this lasted until the end of the 1980s. The major destinations for migrants were West Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and to a lesser extent France and Sweden. That generation of diaspora is collectively known as ''gastarbajteri'', after German ''gastarbeiter'' ("guest-worker"), since most of the emigrants headed for German-speaking countries. These migrations left some parts of Serbia sparsely populated.
* Later emigration took place during the 1990s, and was caused by both political and economic reasons. The Yugoslav wars caused many Serbs from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to leave their countries in the first half of the 1990s. The Sanctions against Yugoslavia, economic sanctions imposed on Serbia caused an economic collapse with an estimated 300,000 people leaving Serbia during that period, 20% of which had a higher education.
Language
Serbs speak Serbian, a member of the Slavic languages, South Slavic group of languages, specifically the Southwestern group. Standard Serbian is a standardized Variety (linguistics)#Standard varieties, variety of
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and ...
, and therefore mutually intelligible with Standard Croatian language, Croatian, Standard Montenegrin language, Montenegrin, and Standard Bosnian language, Bosnian (see Differences in standard Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian), which are all based on the Shtokavian dialect.
![Vuk Karadzic Kriehuber cropped](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Vuk_Karadzic_Kriehuber_cropped.jpg)
Serbian is an official language in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and is a recognized minority language in Montenegro (although spoken by a plurality of population), Croatia, North Macedonia, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Older forms of literary Serbian are Church Slavonic of the Serbian recension, which is still used for ecclesiastical purposes, and Slavonic-Serbian—a mixture of Serbian, Church Slavonic and Russian language, Russian used from the mid-18th century to the first decades of the 19th century.
Serbian has active digraphia, using both Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, Cyrillic and Gaj's Latin alphabet, Latin alphabets. Serbian Cyrillic was devised in 1814 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić, who created the alphabet on phonemic principles. Serbian Latin was created by Ljudevit Gaj and published in 1830. His alphabet mapped completely on Serbian Cyrillic which had been standardized by Vuk Karadžić a few years before.
Loanwords in the Serbian language besides common internationalisms are mostly from Greek language, Greek, German
[Лексикон страних речи и израза / Милан Вујаклија, Просвета, Београд (1954) ] and Italian, while words of Hungarian language, Hungarian origin are present mostly in the north. There are some Turkish loanwords used (but mostly in rural areas) and they are mostly related to food. A considerable number of those words are actually Persian in origin but entered Serbian through Ottomans and are therefore considered ''Turkisms''. There is considerable usage of French words as well, especially in military related terms.
One Serbian word that is used in many of the world's languages is "vampire" (''vampir'').
Culture
![Gusle on kelim rug](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Gusle_on_kelim_rug.JPG)
Literature of Serbia, Literature, icon painting, music, dance and medieval architecture are the artistic forms for which Serbia is best known. Traditional Art of Serbia, Serbian visual art (specifically frescoes, and to some extent icons), as well as ecclesiastical architecture, are highly reflective of Byzantine traditions, with some Mediterranean and Western influence.
Many Serbian monuments and works of art have been lost forever due to various wars and peacetime marginalizations.
In modern times (since the 19th century) Serbs also have a noteworthy classical music and works of philosophy. Notable philosophers include Svetozar Marković, Branislav Petronijević, Ksenija Atanasijević, Radomir Konstantinović, Nikola Milošević (politician), Nikola Milošević, Mihailo Marković, Justin Popović and Mihailo Đurić.
Art, music, theatre, and cinema
![Kosovo Maiden, Uroš Predić, 1919](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Kosovo_Maiden%2C_Uro%C5%A1_Predi%C4%87%2C_1919.jpg)
During the 12th and 13th centuries, many icons, wall paintings and manuscript miniatures came into existence, as many Serbian Orthodox monasteries and churches such as Hilandar, Žiča, Studenica monastery, Studenica, Sopoćani, Mileševa Monastery, Mileševa, Gračanica monastery, Gračanica and Visoki Dečani were built. The architecture of some of these monasteries is world-famous. Prominent architectural styles in the Middle Ages were Raška architectural school, Morava architectural school and Serbo-Byzantine architecture, Serbo-Byzantin architectural style. During the same period UNESCO World Heritage Site, UNESCO protected Stećak monumental medieval tombstones were built. The Independence of Serbia in the 19th century was soon followed with Serbo-Byzantine Revival in architecture.
Baroque and rococo trends in Serbian art emerged in the 18th century and are mostly represented in icon painting and portraits. Most of the Baroque authors were from the territory of Habsburg monarchy, Austrian Empire, such as Nikola Nešković, Teodor Kračun, Teodor Ilić Češljar, Zaharije Orfelin and Jakov Orfelin. Serbian painting showed the influence of Biedermeier and Neoclassicism as seen in works by Konstantin Danil and Pavel Đurković. Many painters followed the artistic trends set in the 19th century Romanticism, notably Đura Jakšić, Stevan Todorović, Katarina Ivanović and Novak Radonić. Since the mid-1800s, Serbia has produced a number of famous painters who are representative of general European artistic trends. One of the most prominent of these was Paja Jovanović, who painted massive canvases on historical themes such as the ''Migration of the Serbs (painting), Migration of the Serbs'' (1896). Painter Uroš Predić was also prominent in the field of Serbian art, painting the ''Kosovo Maiden'' and ''Happy Brothers''. While Jovanović and Predić were both Realism (arts), realist painters, artist Nadežda Petrović was an Impressionism, impressionist and Fauvism, fauvist and Sava Šumanović was an accomplished Cubist. Painters Petar Lubarda, Vladimir Veličković and Ljubomir Popović were famous for their surrealism. Marina Abramović is a world-renowned performance artist, writer, and art filmmaker.
Traditional Serbian music includes various kinds of bagpipes, flutes, French horn, horns, trumpets, lutes, psalteries, drums and cymbals. The kolo (dance), kolo is the traditional collective folk dance, which has a number of varieties throughout the regions. The first Serbian composers started working in the 14th and 15th century, like Kir Stefan the Serb. Composer and musicology, musicologist Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac is considered one of the most important founders of modern Serbian music. Other noted classical composers include Kornelije Stanković, Stanislav Binički, Petar Konjović, Miloje Milojević, Stevan Hristić, Josif Marinković, Luigi von Kunits, Ljubica Marić and Vasilije Mokranjac. Well-known musicians include Zdravko Čolić, Arsen Dedić, Predrag Gojković-Cune, Toma Zdravković, Milan Mladenović, Radomir Mihailović, Radomir Mihailović Točak, Bora Đorđević, Momčilo Bajagić Bajaga, Đorđe Balašević, Ceca (singer), Ceca and others.
Serbia has produced many talented filmmakers, the most famous of whom are Slavko Vorkapić, Dušan Makavejev, Živojin Pavlović, Slobodan Šijan, Goran Marković, Goran Paskaljević, Emir Kusturica, Želimir Žilnik, Srđan Dragojević, Srdan Golubović and Mila Turajlić. Žilnik and Stefan Arsenijević won the Golden Bear award at Berlinale, while Mila Turajlić won the main award at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, IDFA. Kusturica became world-renowned after winning the Palme d'Or twice at the Cannes Film Festival, numerous other prizes, and is a UNICEF National Ambassador for Serbia. Several Americans of Serb origin have been featured prominently in Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood. The most notable of these are Academy Award winners Karl Malden, Steve Tesich, Peter Bogdanovich, Tony Award, Tony-winning theatre director Darko Tresnjak, Emmy Award, Emmy-winning director Marina Zenovich and actors Iván Petrovich, Brad Dexter, Lolita Davidovich, Milla Jovovich and Stana Katic.
Literature
Most literature written by early Serbs was about religious themes. The founders of the
Serbian Orthodox Church
The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches.
The majori ...
wrote various gospels, psalters, menologies, hagiographies, along with essays and sermons. At the end of the 12th century, two of the most important pieces of Serbian medieval literature were created– the Miroslav Gospels and the Vukan Gospels, which combined handwritten Biblical texts with painted initials and small pictures. The Crnojević printing house was the first printing house in Southeastern Europe and is considered an important part of Serbian cultural history.
Notable Baroque-influenced authors were Andrija Zmajević, Gavril Stefanović Venclović, Jovan Rajić, Zaharije Orfelin and others. Dositej Obradović was the most prominent figure of the Age of Enlightenment, while the most notable Classicist writer was Jovan Sterija Popović, although his works also contained elements of Romanticism. Modern Serbian literature began with Vuk Karadžić's collections of folk songs in the 19th century, and the writings of Petar II Petrović-Njegoš, Njegoš and Branko Radičević. The first prominent representative of Serbian literature in the 20th century was Jovan Skerlić, who wrote in pre–World War I Belgrade and helped introduce Serbian writers to literary modernism. The most important Serbian writer in the inter-war period was Miloš Crnjanski.
The first Serb authors who appeared after World War II were Mihailo Lalić and Dobrica Ćosić. Other notable post-war Yugoslav authors such as Ivo Andrić and Meša Selimović were assimilated to Serbian culture, and both identified as Serbs. Andrić went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961. Danilo Kiš, another popular Serbian writer, was known for writing ''A Tomb for Boris Davidovich'', as well as several acclaimed novels. Amongst contemporary Serbian writers, Milorad Pavić (writer), Milorad Pavić stands out as being the most critically acclaimed, with his novels ''Dictionary of the Khazars'', ''Landscape Painted with Tea'' and ''The Inner Side of the Wind'' bringing him international recognition. Highly revered in Europe and in South America, Pavić is considered one of the most intriguing writers from the beginning of the 21st century. Charles Simic is a notable contemporary Serbian-American poet, former United States Poet Laureate and a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Pulitzer Prize winner. Contemporary writer Zoran Živković (writer), Zoran Živković authored more than 20 prose books and is best-known for his Science fiction, SF works which have been published in 23 countries.
Education and science
Many Serbs have contributed to the field of science and technology. There are more Serbian scientists and scholars working abroad than in the Balkans. At least 7000 Serbs who have a PhD are working abroad.
Serbian American scientist, inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla is regarded as one of the most important inventors in history. He is renowned for his contributions to the discipline of electricity and magnetism in the late 19th and early 20th century. Seven Serbian American engineers and scientists known as ''Serbo 7'' took part in construction of the Apollo (spacecraft), Apollo spaceship. Physicist and physical chemist Mihajlo Pupin is best known for his landmark theory of modern electrical filters as well as for his numerous patents, while Milutin Milanković is best known for his theory of long-term climate change (general concept), climate change caused by changes in the position of the Earth in comparison to the Sun, now known as Milankovitch cycles. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic is a Serbian American biomedical engineer focusing on engineering human tissues for regenerative medicine, stem cell research and modeling of disease. She is one of the most highly cited scientists of all times.
Notable Serb mathematicians include Mihailo Petrović, Jovan Karamata and Đuro Kurepa. Mihailo Petrović is known for having contributed significantly to differential equations and phenomenology, as well as inventing one of the first prototypes of an analog computer. Roger Joseph Boscovich was a Ragusan physicist, astronomer, mathematician and polymath of paternal Serbian origin
(although there are competing claims for Bošković's nationality) who produced a precursor of atomic theory and made many contributions to astronomy and also discovered the Atmosphere of the Moon, absence of atmosphere on the Moon. Jovan Cvijić founded modern geography in Serbia and made pioneering research on the geography of the Balkan Peninsula, Dinaric race and karst. Josif Pančić made contributions to botany and discovered a number of new floral species including the Serbian spruce. Biologist and physiologist Ivan Đaja performed research in the role of the adrenal glands in thermoregulation, as well as pioneering work in hypothermia.
Valtazar Bogišić is considered to be a pioneer in the sociology of law and sociological jurisprudence.
Names
![Front view of a resting Canis lupus ssp](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Front_view_of_a_resting_Canis_lupus_ssp.jpg)
There are several different layers of Serbian names. Serbian given names largely originate from Slavic names, Slavic roots:
e.g., Vuk (name), Vuk, Bojan, Goran (Slavic name), Goran, Zoran, Dragan, Milan (given name), Milan, Miroslav (given name), Miroslav, Vladimir (name), Vladimir, Slobodan, Dušan, Milica, Nevena, Vesna (name), Vesna, Radmila. Other names are of Christian origin, originating from the bible (Hebrew language, Hebrew, through Greek), such as Lazar (name), Lazar, Mihailo, Ivan (name), Ivan, Jovan (given name), Jovan, Ilija (given name), Ilija, Maria (given name), Marija, Anna (given name), Ana, Ivana. Along similar lines of non-Slavic Christian names are Greeks, Greek ones such as: Stefan (given name), Stefan, Nikola, Aleksandar, Philip (name), Filip, Đorđe, Andrej, Jelena (disambiguation), Jelena, Katarina (given name), Katarina, Vasilije, Todor, while those of Latin origin include: Marko (given name), Marko, Anthony (given name), Antonije, Srđan, Marina (given name), Marina, Petar, Paul (name), Pavle, Natalia (given name), Natalija, Igor (given name), Igor (through Russian).
Most Serbian surnames are paternal, maternal, occupational or derived from personal traits. It is estimated that over two thirds of all Serbian surnames have the suffix ''-ić'' (-ић) (), a Slavic diminutive, originally functioning to create patronymics. Thus the surname Petrović means the "son of Petar" (from a male progenitor, the root is extended with possessive ''-ov'' or ''-ev''). Due to limited use of international typewriters and unicode computer encoding, the suffix may be simplified to ''-ic'', historically transcribed with a phonetic ending, ''-ich'' or ''-itch'' in foreign languages. Other common surname suffixes found among Serbian surnames are ''-
ov'', ''-
ev'', ''-
in'' and ''-
ski'' (without ''-ić'') which is the Slavic genitive case, possessive case suffix, thus Nikola's son becomes Nikolin, Petar's son Petrov, and Jovan's son Jovanov. Other, less common suffices are ''-alj/olj/elj'', ''-ija'', ''-ica'', ''-ar/ac/an''. The ten most common surnames in Serbia, in order, are Jovanović, Petrović, Nikolić, Marković, Đorđević, Stojanović, Ilić, Stanković, Pavlović and Milošević.
Religion
Serbs are predominantly Eastern Orthodox Church, Orthodox Christians. The autocephaly of the
Serbian Orthodox Church
The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches.
The majori ...
, was established in 1219, as an Archbishopric, and raised to the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć, Patriarchate in 1346. It is led by the List of heads of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Serbian Patriarch, and consists of three archbishoprics, six metropolitanates and thirty-one eparchies, having around 10 million adherents. Followers of the church form the largest religious group in Serbia and Montenegro, and the second-largest in
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
and
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
. The church has an archbishopric in
North Macedonia
North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...
and dioceses in Western Europe, North America, South America and Australia.
The identity of ethnic Serbs was historically largely based on Orthodox Christianity and on the Serbian Church in particular. The conversion of the South Slavs from paganism to Christianity took place before the East–West Schism, Great Schism. After the Schism, those who lived under the Orthodox sphere of influence became Orthodox and those who lived under the Catholic sphere of influence became Catholic.
With the arrival of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
, some Serbs converted to
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
. This was particularly, but not wholly, the case in Ottoman Bosnia, Bosnia. Since the second half of the 19th century, a small number of Serbs converted to Protestantism, while historically some Serbs were Catholics (especially in Bay of Kotor and Dalmatia; e.g. Serb-Catholic movement in Dubrovnik).
In a personal correspondence with author and critic dr. Milan Šević in 1932, Marko Murat complained that Orthodox Serbs are not acknowledging the Catholic Serb community on the basis of their faith. The remainder of Serbs remain predominantly Serbian Orthodox Christians.
Symbols
![The Takovo Uprising, by Vinzenz Katzler, 1882](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/The_Takovo_Uprising%2C_by_Vinzenz_Katzler%2C_1882.jpg)
Among the most notable national and ethnic symbols are the flag of Serbia and the coat of arms of Serbia. The flag consists of a red-blue-white tricolour (flag), tricolour, rooted in Pan-Slavism, and has been used since the 19th century. Apart from being the national flag, it is also used officially in Republika Srpska (by Bosnian Serbs) and as the official ethnic Flag of Serbs of Croatia. The coat of arms, which includes both the Serbian eagle and Serbian cross, has also been officially used since the 19th century, its elements dating back to the Middle Ages, showing Byzantine and Christian heritage. These symbols are used by various Serb organisations, political parties and institutions. The Three-finger salute (Serbian), Three-finger salute, also called the "Serb salute", is a popular expression for ethnic Serbs and Serbia, originally expressing Serbian Orthodox Church, Serbian Orthodoxy and today simply being a symbol for ethnic Serbs and the Serbian nation, made by extending the thumb, index, and middle fingers of one or both hands.
Traditions and customs
![Sveti Jovan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Sveti_Jovan.jpg)
Traditional clothing varies due to diverse geography and climate of the territory inhabited by the Serbs. The traditional footwear, ''opanak, opanci'', is worn throughout the Balkans. The most common Serbian national costume, folk costume of Serbia is that of Šumadija, a region in central Serbia,
which includes the national hat, the Šajkača. Older villagers still wear their traditional costumes.
[ The traditional dance is the circle dance, called ''kolo (dance), kolo''. Zmijanje embroidery is a specific technique of embroidery practised by the women of villages in area Zmijanje on mountain Manjača and as such is a part of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists, UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Pirot carpet is a variety of flat tapestry woven rug traditionally produced in Pirot, a town in southeastern Serbia.
''Slava (tradition), Slava'' is the family's annual ceremony and veneration of their patron saint, a social event in which the family is together at the house of the patriarch. The tradition is an important ethnic marker of Serb identity.] Serbs usually regard the Slava as their most significant and most solemn feast day
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...
.
Serbs have Serbian Christmas traditions, their own customs regarding Christmas, which includes the sacral tree, the ''Badnjak (Serbian), badnjak'', a young oak. On Orthodox Easter, Serbs have the tradition of Egg decorating in Slavic culture, Slavic Egg decorating. Čuvari Hristovog groba is a religious/cultural practice of guarding a representation of Jesus, Christ's grave on Good Friday in the Church of St. Nicholas, Vrlika, Church of St. Nicholas by the Serbian Orthodox Church, Serbian Orthodox inhabitants in the town of Vrlika.
Cuisine
Serbian cuisine is largely heterogeneous, with heavy Oriental, Central European and Mediterranean influences. Despite this, it has evolved and achieved its own culinary identity. Food is very important in Serbian social life, particularly during religious holidays such as Christmas, Easter and feast days, i.e., ''slava''. Staples of the Serbian diet include bread, meat, fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. Traditionally, three meals are consumed per day. Breakfast generally consists of eggs, meat and bread. Lunch is considered the main meal, and is normally eaten in the afternoon. Traditionally, Turkish coffee, Domestic or turkish coffee is prepared after a meal, and is served in small cups. Bread is the basis of all Serbian meals, and it plays an important role in Serbian cuisine and can be found in religious rituals. A traditional Serbian welcome is to offer bread and salt to guests, and also ''slatko'' (fruit preserve). Meat is widely consumed, as is fish. Serbian specialties include ''kajmak'' (a dairy product similar to clotted cream), ''proja'' (cornbread), ''kačamak'' (corn-flour porridge), and ''gibanica'' (cheese and kajmak pie). Ćevapčići, caseless grilled and seasoned sausages made of minced meat, is the national dish of Serbia.
Slivovitz#Serbia, Šljivovica (Slivovitz) is the national drink of Serbia in domestic production for centuries, and plum is the national fruit. The international name ''Slivovitz'' is derived from Serbian. Plum and its products are of great importance to Serbs and part of numerous customs. A Serbian meal usually starts or ends with plum products and Šljivovica is served as an aperitif.[ A saying goes that the best place to build a house is where a plum tree grows best.][ Traditionally, Šljivovica (commonly referred to as "rakija") is connected to Serbian culture as a drink used at all important rites of passage (birth, baptism, military service, marriage, death, etc.), and in the Serbian Orthodox patron saint celebration (''slava'').][ It is used in numerous folk remedies, and is given certain degree of respect above all other alcoholic drinks. The fertile region of Šumadija in central Serbia is particularly known for its plums and Šljivovica. Serbia is the largest exporter of Slivovitz in the world, and second largest plum producer in the world. Winemaking tradition in modern-day Serbia dates back to the Roman times in the 3rd century, while Serbs have been involved in winemaking since the 8th century.
]
Sport
Serbs are known for their sporting achievements, and have produced a number of talented athletes.
The Hungarians, Hungarian citizen Momčilo Tapavica was the first Slavs, Slav and Serb to win an Olympic medal, in the 1896 Summer Olympics.
Over the years Serbia has been home to many internationally successful football players such as Dragan Džajić (officially recognized as "the best Serbian footballer of all times" by Football Association of Serbia; 1968 Ballon d'Or third place), Rajko Mitić, Dragoslav Šekularac and more recent likes of Dragan Stojković, Dejan Stanković, Nemanja Vidić (two-time Premier League Player of the Season and member of FIFPro World XI), Branislav Ivanović (Serbia's most capped player) and Nemanja Matić. Radomir Antić is a notable football coach, best known for his work with Serbia national football team, the national team, Real Madrid C.F. and FC Barcelona. Serbia has developed a reputation as one of the world's biggest exporters of expat footballers.
A total of 22 Serbian players have played in the National Basketball Association, NBA in the last two decades, including three-time List of NBA All-Stars, NBA All-Star Peja Stojaković, Predrag "Peja" Stojaković, NBA All-Star and both FIBA Hall of Fame, FIBA and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, NBA Hall of Fame inductee Vlade Divac, and the 2020–21 NBA season, 2020–21–2021–22 NBA season, 2022 NBA Most Valuable Player Award winner Nikola Jokić. Serbian players that made a great impact in Europe include four members of the FIBA Hall of Fame from the 1960s and 1970s – Dragan Kićanović, Dražen Dalipagić, Radivoj Korać, and Zoran Slavnić – as well as recent stars such as Dejan Bodiroga (2002 All-Europe Player of the Year), Aleksandar Đorđević (1994 and 1995 Mr. Europa), Miloš Teodosić (2009–10 Euroleague MVP), Nemanja Bjelica (2014–15 Euroleague MVP), and Vasilije Micić (2020–21 Euroleague MVP). The "Serbian coaching school" produced many of the most successful European coaches of all times, such as Željko Obradović (a record nine Euroleague titles), Božidar Maljković (four Euroleague titles), Aleksandar Nikolić (three Euroleague titles), Dušan Ivković (two Euroleague titles), and Svetislav Pešić (one Euroleague title).
The most notable Serbian Tennis, tennis player is Novak Djokovic. He is a twenty-one-time Grand Slam (tennis), major champion, a four-time Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsman of the Year, Laureus Sportsman of the Year, and has been year-end World No. 1 on a record seven occasions.
Ana Ivanovic (champion of 2008 French Open) and Jelena Janković were both ranked No. 1 in the WTA rankings, while Nenad Zimonjić and Slobodan Živojinović were ranked No. 1 in doubles.
Notable Serbia men's national water polo team, water polo players are Vladimir Vujasinović, Aleksandar Šapić, Vanja Udovičić, Andrija Prlainović and Filip Filipović (water polo), Filip Filipović.
Other noted Serbian athletes, including Olympic and world champions and medalists, are: swimmer Milorad Čavić, volleyball player Nikola Grbić, handball player Svetlana Kitić, long-jumper Ivana Španović, shooter Jasna Šekarić, Canoe sprint, sprint canoer Marko Tomićević, judoka Nemanja Majdov and taekwondoist Milica Mandić.
A number of sportspeople of Serb origin represented other nations, such as tennis players Daniel Nestor, Jelena Dokic, Milos Raonic and Kristina Mladenovic, NHL player Milan Lucic, NBA All-star Pete Maravich, wrestler Jim Trifunov, sprint canoer Natasa Dusev-Janics, soccer player Miodrag Belodedici, artistic gymnast Lavinia Miloșovici, racquetball player Rhonda Rajsich and racing driver Bill Vukovich.
Historiography
See also
* List of Serbs
Notes
References
Sources
Primary sources
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External links
Byzantine Illiricum - The Slavs Settlement (History of Balkan, part 1, Official chanel)
Byzantine Dalmatian – The Arrival of Serbs (History of Balkan, part 1, Official chanel)
Project Rastko – Serbian cultural and historical research society
{{Authority control
Serb people,
Ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Ethnic groups in Croatia
Ethnic groups in Hungary
Ethnic groups in Montenegro
Ethnic groups in Romania
Ethnic groups in Serbia,
Ethnic groups in Slovenia
Ethnic groups in North Macedonia
Serbian people,
Society of Serbia
Slavic ethnic groups
South Slavs
Ethnoreligious groups in Europe
Ethnic groups in the Balkans