At the Crossroads of Two Epochs: Continuity and Changes of the 15th Century Braničevo Social Structure Cover Image

На раскршћу две епохе: континуитет и промене друштвене структуре у Браничеву у 15. веку
At the Crossroads of Two Epochs: Continuity and Changes of the 15th Century Braničevo Social Structure

Author(s): Ema Miljković, Aleksandar Krstić
Subject(s): History
Published by: Istorijski institut, Beograd
Keywords: Branicevo; Serbia; Ottoman empire; 15. century; social history

Summary/Abstract: The Ottoman conquest of Serbia in 1459 was the crucial event in the history of the Serb people, but in the area of social relations, changes in many aspects occurred slowly and gradually. Accepting into their governing system many local specificities and institutions, from Christian spahiyas, through particular social classes like the Vlachs, elements of military organization (like voynuks, šajkaši), mining legislature, local customs and measurement systems, to regulating of the status of the Serb Orthodox Church and occasionally rather loose application of the strict Shari'a Law to Christian population, the Ottoman state facilitated the adjustment of the local population into the new order, thus strengthening its authority. Therefore, this paper aims to, using the example of Braničevo, and combining local and Ottoman sources, show currents, relations and changes that occurred immediately following the Ottoman rule, as well as in the following several decades.

  • Issue Year: 2008
  • Issue No: 56
  • Page Range: 279-304
  • Page Count: 26
  • Language: Serbian