page_title: History of Kosovo
section_title: Bulgarian Period
hierarchical_section_title: History of Kosovo / Middle Ages / Bulgarian Period
context_page_description: The history of Kosovo is intertwined with the histories of its neighbouring regions. The name "Kosovo" is derived from the Kosovo Plain, where the Battle of Kosovo was fought between a coalition of Balkan states and the Ottoman Empire. Kosovo's modern history can be traced to the Ottoman Sanjak of Prizren, of which parts were organised into Kosovo Vilayet in 1877. In antiquity, Dardania covered the area, which formed part of the larger Roman province of Moesia in the 1st century AD. In the Middle Ages, the region became part of the Bulgarian Empire, the Byzantine Empire and the Serbian medieval states. It was then conquered by the Ottoman Empire an exact 70 years after the Battle of Kosovo. In 1913 the Kosovo Vilayet was incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbia, which in 1918 formed Yugoslavia. Kosovo gained autonomy in 1963 under Josip Broz Tito's direction, an autonomy which was significantly extended by Yugoslavia's 1974 Constitution, but lost its autonomous institutions in 1990. In 1999 UNMIK stepped in.
  On 17 February 2008 Kosovo's Parliament declared independence, as the Republic of Kosovo, with partial recognition of that declaration.
context_section_description: The region of Kosovo was incorporated into the Bulgarian Empire during the reign of Khan Presian (836–852). Numerous churches and monasteries were constructed after the Christianization in 864. It remained within the borders of Bulgaria for 150 years until 1018, when the country was overrun by the Byzantines after half-century bitter struggle. According to De Administrando Imperio of the 10th century Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII, the Serbian-populated lands lay to the north-west of Kosovo and the region was Bulgarian.
  During the Uprising of Peter Delyan (1040–1041), Kosovo was briefly liberated and during the Uprising of Georgi Voiteh in 1072, Peter III was proclaimed Emperor of Bulgaria in Prizren from where the Bulgarian army marched to Skopje.
  In the beginning of the 13th century, Kosovo was reincorporated in the restored Bulgarian Empire but the Bulgarian control faded after the death of Emperor Ivan Asen II (1218–1241).
caption: Kosovo in the 10th century