Janko Katić ( sr-cyr, Јанко Катић; fl. 1795–1806†) was a Serbian

voivode Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the ...

and one of the organizers of 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 1 ...

(1804–1813). He participated in the uprising since day one, and was an important ''oborknez'' of the

Šabac Šabac (Serbian Cyrillic: Шабац, ) is a city and the administrative centre of the Mačva District in western Serbia. The traditional centre of the fertile Mačva region, Šabac is located on the right banks of the river Sava. , the city p ...

district, and was one of the most courageous commanders, so influential as a military and political leader that he was held by many as the second only to Karađorđe Petrović, the leader, in

Šumadija Šumadija (, sr-Cyrl, Шумадија) is a geographical region in the central part of Serbia. The area used to be heavily covered with forests, hence the name (from ''šuma'' 'forest'). The city of Kragujevac is the administrative center of th ...

Life

Janko was born in Rogača, beneath the

Kosmaj Kosmaj (Serbian Cyrillic: Космај, ) is a mountain south of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. With an elevation of 626 meters, it is the highest point of the entire Belgrade City area and is nicknamed one of two "Belgrade mountains" (the oth ...

. In his youth, he mostly lived in Belgrade with his sister, who was married to a Turk. In this time he learned Turkish, which would benefit him later on. He, however, came to bad terms with his sister's husband and was forced to leave and return to Rogača. In the region, the

Uprising Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...

was planned and he joined the uprising and was appointed as the '' knez'' of one of the former Ottoman

nahiyah A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...

, and as he was known for being just, prudent and heroic, he quickly became the head commander of the Belgrade nahija. He had a good appearance, and in the assemblies, he was a good speaker, and in the battles, he was a very adaptive, adroit, and heroic chief. He was popular with the people, and his contemporaries called him "prude and heroic Janko". He was one of the most important figures of the First Serbian Uprising. He participated in all battles since the beginning: Belgrade, Požarevac, Rudnik, Vrbica, etc. He,

Vasa Čarapić Vasilije "Vasa" Čarapić, known as the Dragon from Avala ( sr-Cyrl, Василије Васа Чарапић, Змај од Авале; 1768–1806) and Vasso Tscharapitsch was a Serbian ''voivode'' (military commander) that participated in the ...

and Sima Marković commanded 4,000 soldiers that besieged Belgrade.Суботић, p. 103 Karđorđe sent him to the fighting in

Mačva Mačva ( sr-Cyrl, Мачва, ; hu, Macsó) is a geographical and historical region in the northwest of Central Serbia, on a fertile plain between the Sava and Drina rivers. The chief town is Šabac. The modern Mačva District of Serbia is named ...

, in 1806, as help. He showed great skills, and after the burning of the Sovljak village, he killed 65 Turks and took what they had confiscated earlier. He died while fighting the

Ottomans The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

around

, in the village of

Krnić Krnić is a village in the municipality of Vladimirci, Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern an ...

, just before the Battle of Mišar. His death was a huge loss for the Serbian revolutionaries. Although he was a close friend of Karađorđe, he was part of the political group that sought to tackle the Vožd's

autocracy Autocracy is a system of government in which absolute power over a state is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject neither to external legal restraints nor to regularized mechanisms of popular control (except per ...

. Several more revolutionaries came from his family. His brother Jakob Katić was also a freedom fighter, a revolutionary.

References

Sources

* * * *Vojvoda Janko Katić *Michael Boro Petrovich, A history of modern Serbia, 1804-1918: Volume 1; Volume 1, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976 *Војислав Суботић, Memorijali oslobodilačkih ratova Srbije, Book 1, Volume 1, Vlada Republike Srbije, Ministarstvo rada, zapošljavanja i socijalne politike, 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:Katic, Janko 18th-century Serbian nobility 19th-century Serbian nobility Serbian revolutionaries People of the First Serbian Uprising Šumadija 18th-century births 1806 deaths

Life

See also

References

Sources