The Sanjak of Viçitrina (Albanian: Sanxhaku i Vushtrrisë; Serbian: Вучитрнски санџак / Vučitrnski sandžak; Turkish: Vulçitrin sancağı), also known as the Pristina Pashaluk (Albanian: Pashallëku i Prishtinës; Serbian: Приштински пашалук / Prištinski pašaluk), was a sanjak (second-level administrative division) of the Ottoman Empire in Rumelia (the Balkans), in present-day Kosovo. It was named after its administrative center Vushtrri.
| Sanjak of Viçitrina Vulçitrin sancağı Sanxhaku i Viçitrinës Вучитрнски санџак | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sanjak of Ottoman Empire | |||||||||
| 1459–1864 | |||||||||
 Coat of arms
| |||||||||
| Capital | Vushtrri | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 1459 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1864 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
History
editVushtrri was captured from the Serbian Despotate by the Ottomans in 1455, it remained under control of the governor of Skopsko Krajište until the definite annexation of the Serbian Despotate in 1459.[1] The first Ottoman records include the territory of the sanjak as Vilayet-i Vlk (Vilayet of Vuk), a reference to Vuk Branković.
According to Ottoman defters of 1525—1561 the sanjak of Vučitrn included the following towns: Vučitrn, Pristina, Janjevo, Novo Brdo, Belasica, Belo Brdo, Koporići, Trepča and Donja Trepča.[2] In 1459-1826 it was part of Rumelia Eyalet, except for a brief period after 1541 when it was included into newly established Budin Eyalet.[3] It was also part of Temeşvar Eyalet briefly before returning to Rumelia Eyalet.
Contemporary documents like the 1566-7 defter of the sanjak show that the c. 1000 villages of the region were mostly inhabited by Christians, with Muslims comprising forty-six households not in compact communities but spread in thirty villages.[4] As in nearby Pristina the rate of conversion of Orthodox Slavs to Islam was low. Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi visited the capital of the sanjak in 1660 and observed that the population spoke "Albanian and Turkish, but not Bosnian".[5] According to Ottoman sources, sanjak was inhabited with Albanians, Vlachs, Slavs, Turks, Gypsies and others, of Muslim, Orthodox and Catholic confessions.[6] Among the Christians a Catholic community also existed as evidenced by a local landmark known as the "Latin cemetery" (Albanian: varrezat latine).[7]
In 1717, during the Austro-Turkish War, an uprising broke out in the sanjak, raised by the Serb rayah. It was brutally suppressed.[8]
In 1864 during the administrative reforms of the era, it was demoted to a kaza of the newly established sanjak of Pristina.[9]
Economy
editA group of mines on the Kopaonik mountain together with those in Novo Brdo and Janjevo belonged to this sanjak.[10]
Governors
edit- Hussein Bey
- Malik Pasha (fl. 1807–1820s)
- Yashar Pasha (fl. 1830–1836)
References
edit- ^ Istorijski Glasnik. Društvo istoričara SR Srbije. 1955. p. 61.
...док је подручје Вучитрна остало и даље под влашћу скопског крајишника све до оснивања засебног Вучитрнског или Приштинског санџака. Када је пало Смедерево онда је Призренско-Крушевачки санџак, тзв. "Лазарева Србија" подељен на два санџака. Вучитрн и Приштина су издвојени из Скопског санџака у посебан Вучитрнски санџак
- ^ Bogdanović, Dimitrije; Radovan Samardžić (1990). Knjiga o Kosovu: razgovori o Kosovu. Književne novine. p. 208. ISBN 978-86-391-0194-7. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
Вучитрнски санџак обухватао је места: Вучитрн, Приштину, Јањево, Ново Брдо, Беласицу, Бело Брдо, Копори- ће, Трепчу и Доњу Трепчу)
- ^ Godišnjak, Volume 4. Istorisko društvo Bosne i Hercegovine. 1954.
- ^ Malcolm, Noel (1998). Kosovo: a short history. Macmillan. p. 106. ISBN 9780333666128. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
- ^ Malcolm, Noel (2009). Eva Frantz (ed.). The "Great Migration" of the Serbs from Kosovo (1690): History, Myth and Ideology. Albanische Geschichte: Stand und Perspektiven der Forschung. Oldenbourg Verlag. p. 230. ISBN 9783486589801. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
- ^ Isuf Ahmeti; (2018) The Administrative System of Cities in Kosovo during the XVI-XVIII centuries p. 79; AAB College. N.1, Vol. 7, Pristina [1]
- ^ Gjini, Gaspër. Ipeshkvia Shkup-Prizren nëpër shekuj (PDF). Diocese of Skopje-Prizren. p. 83.
- ^ Bataković, Dušan T. (1991). Kosovo i Metohija u srpsko-arbanaškim odnosima. Priština: Jedinstvo. p. 25. ISBN 86-7019-071-0.
- ^ Stefanaq Pollo; Kristaq Prifti (2002), Historia e popullit shqiptar në katër vëllime (in Albanian), vol. II, Tiranë
- ^ Precious metals in the age of expansion: papers of the XIVth International Congress of the Historical Sciences. Klett-Cotta. 1981.
As for Serbia, we have data only on Novo Brdo, Janjevo and group of mines on Mount Kopaonik which, all together, belonged to the sanjak of Vucitrn