125th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Province of Kosovo and the Principality of Serbia

In the month of November, it has been 125 years since Serbia sent its first consul to the Vilayet of Kosovo, that is, to today's capital of Kosovo, Pristina. Wanting to bring readers a broader overview of the events, in this article - which is published with sequels - we have brought together images from Pristina from 1346-1889, including details from various guidebooks. The following parts are devoted to various developments in Pristina, when it was already a diplomatic, political, and cultural center, and these events belong to the years 1880 to the thirties of the XX century. In addition, this paper also includes archival documents, memories, data from the sphere of economy, demography and others, while the central theme of the paper is the 125th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Kosovo (Kosovo Province) and Serbia.

"Piaza de Pristina" and the family of the nobles from Ulcinj Now in medieval Pristina

In one of the letters of Pope Clement VI from 1346, it was inadvertently or intentionally forgotten to mention the Catholic church of the "Blessed Lady" in Pristina, and as can be believed, the error was corrected only three years later, i.e. in 1387. In addition to other things, the leaders of the Prishtina church of the "Blessed Lady" enjoyed immensely the valuable gifts in money but also in gold and silver, which for the rich merchants from Ragusa donated, and their correspondence is proof of this. Among the priests of this church, don Pjetri, don Nikola and don Lesio are mentioned most often. Niksha Cetemani and don Andrea Drinka are also mentioned, but it should be noted that the historical sources about the last personalities are quite poor.

That Pristina was a small country with a pronounced Catholic color and quite charming, is also evidenced by the data of the first half of the 15th century, which are related to the cultural activities in Pristina at that time. "In Pristina every year at Christmas, as a regular celebration of nobles and citizens, the game of breaking the link was organized. This game was organized at the horse racetrack, in a small field outside the settlement. The participants arrived there on horses, fully equipped, with clubs or clubs, swords, bows and arrows. Then, the knights mounted on horses running and with spears outstretched, had to break the link placed on a pole", it is written in these sources.

In addition to church life and various cultural manifestations, Prishtina was at the same time a developed commercial center, and it was particularly distinguished in the plan of local trade development.

In the square of Pristina, known in the world as "Piaza de Pristina", one of the most famous shops was that of Raguznia, Junije Kaliq. However, the expansion of commercial exchanges with other centers of the time raised the imperative need to establish a judicial commission in Pristina in 1399. The commission consisted of two consuls and two judges, who were in charge of resolving potential commercial disputes between Prishtina and Ragusians. Even in these years, the Government of Ragusa had made public the proclamation warning the citizens of Ragusa that if they had stayed in Pristina or Novobërd in 1402, they should immediately leave the city, because in this year in Kosovo, including the aforementioned centers, the plague it had taken many lives.

Ten years later, namely in the year 1412 in Pristina, the Albanian family from Ulcinj, Tani, is distinguished as a noble family, headed by father Mako and sons Marin, Stefani and Juni. The most famous of them was the fourth son of Mako, Kimoja, who for fourteen years, for 130 consecutive times, was elected as a member of the judicial commission. The noble family from Ulcinj Now, even in Pristina, it appears with the third generation with Radojë, the grandson of Mako and Vranesh, the son of Marin. Relying on the sources of the time, both Turkish and Ragusan, on the eve of the fall of Pristina under the Ottoman rule, eleven specialized trades were practiced in today's capital of Kosovo, but it is believed that their number was much larger.

The arrival of the kadi and the nine mahallas of Pristina

The arrival of the kadi in Pristina is recorded in 1421. It is even said that when the well-known general of the Ottoman army, Isa Bey, entered Pristina, all the inhabitants were ordered to come out to meet him. Even all those who did not act like that were later fined, and it was not long before the local Prishtinians gradually began to join the ranks of the new administration. Even though Safvet Beg Bashagiq, a connoisseur of the administration of the Ottoman Empire, wrote that Prishtina was ranked in the third class of kadilkas, together with the kadilkas of Vraja and Tetova, however today's capital of Kosovo was distinguished by the changes in its appearance. which were observed in the next thirty years, when the construction of mosques and other buildings with the taste of the new rulers' architecture began. The sources of this time in Pristina have recorded seven villages, with 351 houses and less than 2000 inhabitants.

Forty years after the arrival of the kadi in Pristina, in 1467, 303 Christian families were registered in the city. The relevant century, i.e. the 30th century, simultaneously marks the involvement in conversions of a certain number of Timarlinj Spahians from the ranks of Christians in some areas of Kosovo, Albania, but also in today's North Macedonia. Their number was quite large, even in some cases 50 to 2 percent of the Spahis in those areas were from the ranks of Christians, and this number only ten years later in all Nahis has fallen from 3-XNUMX percent.

The atmosphere of Pristina during the phase of conversion of Pristina residents into future Muslims was described by the Frenchman Jean Palerne Forézien (1557 - 1592).

"On August 16, 1582, I arrived in Pristina. Prishtina is a beautiful town with mosques and caravanserais where we spent the night. The next day, August 17, we set off and after eight miles, we reached a small town where the tomb of Sultan Murat is located, who, as we were told, had been killed by Milosh Komneni in his tent with five or six of his men..." , wrote the French Forézien. While in 1596, there were only 103 Christian families left in Pristina. However, compared to other centers such as Shkodra where it was already Islamized, Peja with 90 percent Islamized, Vushtrri 80 percent, Elbasan 79 percent, Tetova 71 percent, Prishtina was only 60 percent Islamized.

Despite the fact that the converted Prishtinians were obliged to submit to the new regime in their daily lives in terms of religious, cultural and political life, this center, like many others, could not avoid various epidemics of time.

Evidence for this has been provided by a young British doctor, named Edwrad Brown, who, upon completing his medical studies, undertook a long journey in the years 1668-1669. In the autumn of 1669 he arrived in Pristina.

"We continued to Pristina, which is a beautiful town where we hoped to find a good place to settle down. But when we entered a beautiful room, in it lay a man sick with the plague. Taking care of ourselves, we didn't stay there long. With a Roma as a guide, we set out for a settlement that was sparsely inhabited, but prosperous and beautiful. We had a bit of fun eating cherries that were abundant near the road. We were lucky that the plague had not spread to other places than the big city of Pristina in Kosovo", wrote Brown.

The people of Pristina, their help for the Jerusalem church and the genesis of nationalist propaganda

While one of the Sultan's requests dated December 1, 1767 will undoubtedly have evoked longing for the former Christian faith in the old Prishtinians. The decree reached the hands of the Qadi of Pristina on December 1, 1767 (9 Rexhep 1181) informed him that in the borders of the Kasa of Prishtina, alms should be given (sadaka) since the Patriarch of Jerusalem (Kudusi Sherif) had previously addressed the Sultan with a letter informing him that the condition of the carpenters in Jerusalem was difficult, since they had not determined a place where they would receive their wages. Therefore, the callogers of Jerusalem were obliged to live on the alms of the Byzantine Christian subjects of the protected provinces. For this purpose, priest Manaskije, together with a group of people, will stay in prisons in Pristina, Pejë, Vushtrri, etc.".

But, exactly 55 years later, namely in the summer of 1822 in Pristina, there will be a manifestation of the stance against the government, namely against Malik Pasha, the mayor of Pristina.

At this time, the independent governance of some Albanian feudal lords began in some Albanian provinces, therefore, seeing the weakening of the central power, Sultan Selimi III (1789-1809) undertook the reforms that he called radical but also hoped to be such.

"The residents of these districts (the petition, in addition to the residents of Pristina, have also been signed by those of the districts of Vushtrri and Novobërda) that are part of the Skopje nazaret (administration) are grateful to the Sultan that based on their prayer and according to his mercy has transferred Malik Pasha from Prishtina to Sofia", it is stated in the petition dated August 16, 1822 (27 zilkade 1237). The petition in Pristina was signed by 111 influential personalities, among them 23 religious officials. The first signatory was the madrasa professor Muhameti, while the last was the farmer Hysamedini. But, as is well known, despite the fact that Malik Pasha first moved to Sofia, and about 3000 residents of the above-mentioned districts taught him in Istanbul, he returned to Pristina with the decision of the Sultan, managing to stabilize his power.

Not being disappointed with the results of the petition and the protests of the people of Pristina, however, taking into account the structure of the personalities who threw their signatures against Malik Pasha, it seems clear that Prishtina in the early 19th century had an elite of profile people. different.

However, the central government will hardly have time to deal with the disputes of its citizens who belonged to the same nation, as in the case of the Albanian Malik Pasha and the Albanian residents of the districts of Pristina, Vushtrri and Novobërda. It was the situation of the Christians within the Ottoman Empire that would concern the international factors of the time, and according to them it had to change in favor of the Christians as Ottoman subjects. So, it is about the time of the Tanzimat that started with Hati Humayun in 1839. According to the well-known Turkish historian Halil İnalcık (1916 – 2016) "the aim of the Tanzimat reforms was to connect the Christian raja with the Ottoman identity through the principle of equality as well as to preserve and strengthen the unity of the empire". According to him, such a policy found support in the Western countries, which at the same time influenced the growth of the prestige of the Ottoman state in the international arena. However, the revolutions that took place in Europe in 1848 and their reflections in the Ottoman state had an impact on encouraging the action of the Christian masses in the Ottoman Empire against the government. And as is often the case throughout history, the spirit of the revolutions of 1848 spread to the then Austria, which at first had an indirect influence and later also directly, therefore this spirit influenced the opening of new paths of activity. of ethnic elements within Ottoman society. The first to take advantage of the situation created by the revolutions was Russia, which "jumped into action immediately with the aim of securing benefits from the Ottoman state. Thus, in the course of organizing efforts in the new circumstances after the Tanzimat and the European revolutions, in a collaboration of the Serbo-Croatian leaders, the nationalists, Ilija Garashanin (1812 - 1874) and the Croatian Matija Ban (1812 - 1903), in the spring of 1849 compiled the "Constitution of Political Propaganda" which provided for the exercise of political propaganda in the "Slavic lands - Turkish'. After the blessing that the constitution received from the head of Serbia and in order for the propaganda to be more efficient, it is understood that the nationalist propaganda should precede the armed uprisings, the lands where the nationalist spirit would spread were divided into provinces and in the future the payees of the respective government would act. Thus, the southern province consisted of Dalmatia, Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania, while the northern province included: Bosnia, Sanjak of Novi Pazar, South Serbia and southwestern Bulgaria. In the course of raising the cells up to the level of nahis, in May 1850 the organization of political propaganda was extended to all the above-mentioned provinces. Relying on the 'Constitution of Political Propaganda', the agent of the Rashka area was paid 60 thalers for his activities, since this area was once considered the most important. One of the key districts for the spread of political propaganda was foreseen to be that of Prizren, since from this district it soon penetrated to Gjakovë, Pejë, Bihor, Novi Pazar but also to the province of Mirdita. Meanwhile, in the city of Pristina, the merchant Vasa Djorgjevic had already been appointed as responsible for the development and dissemination of nationalist propaganda.

However, it should not be forgotten that the activities of the development of Serbo-Croatian political propaganda almost coincide with the anti-Ottoman uprisings of the Albanians that had already developed in the eastern countries, known as Dervish Cara's uprisings. Let's remember that these uprisings in their beginnings had a social character. "One of the leaders of Dervish Cara, Soliman Toli (Tërnoca), in October 1843, in the villages around Vraja, Prizren and Pristina, spoke with particular severity against all taxes, convincing the villagers not to pay anymore more than 5 piastres per year", it was said in a diplomatic report of the time.

"In the early spring and summer of 1844, a serious uprising against Turkish rule had occurred in Northern Albania. It was reported that the Albanian insurgents had managed to defeat the Ottoman troops in several battles and they had succeeded in driving the Ottoman authorities out of the province", wrote Sir Austen Henry Layard, (1817-18949 ambassador to the British ambassador in Constantinople, who would later be the main negotiator between the leader of the Albanian uprising, Dervish Cara, and the Ottoman authorities.

"Omar Pasha proposed me to meet with Dervish Cara and try to convince him", wrote Sir Austen Henry Layard in his memoirs. The demands of the insurgents were: that the Ottoman army withdraw from the Albanian territories, then the Albanians refused to submit to the new laws of the Tanzimat and the other demand of the Albanians was that the Albanian recruits should not be included in the ranks of the Nizams.

"After we got up, my conversation started the previous night with Dervish Cara and the other leaders... I saw that it was useless to insist more, so I mentioned to them the treatment of the Christians and the cruelties which they had asked, referring to the reports that had reached Constantinople. The Albanian leaders protested with indignation, because they felt that there was nothing true in these reports, which, as they claimed, had been invented by their enemies".