page_title: History of the Serbs
section_title: Middle Ages
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Serbs / Middle Ages
caption_attribution_description: English: Skyllitzes Matritensis, fol. 96r, detail. Miniature: Delegation of Croats and Serbs to the Byzantine Emperor Basil I. Text from the Chronicle of John Skylitzes: "... When the aforementioned races of Scyths, the Croats, Serbs and the rest of them saw what had happened in Dalmatia as a result of Roman intervention, they sent delegates to emperor requesting to be brought into subjection under Roman rule. This seemed to emperor to be a reasonable request; he received them with kindliness, and they all became subjects of the Roman government and were given governors of their own race and kin. ..." (Translated by John Wortley, in: John Skylitzes: A Synopsis of Byzantine History, 811-1057: Translation and Notes, p. 143) References: Ioannis Scylitzae Synopsis Historiarum. Editio Princeps. Rec. Ioannes Thurn, p. 146-147, in: Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae 5 Series Berolinensis, 1973 Tsamakda V.: The illustrated chronicle of Ioannes Skylitzes in Madrid, p. 131-132 Grabar A., Manoussacas M.: L'illustration du manuscript de Skylitzes de Madrid, p. 60 Deutsch: Skyllitzes Matritensis, Fol. 96r, Detail Miniatur: Delegation der Serben und Kroaten beim byzantinschen Kaiser Basileios I.. Text aus der Chronik von Johannes Skylitzes: "... Auch die vorher aufgeführten Skythenstämme, also die Chrobatoi, Serboi und die anderen, nahmen die erfolgreichen Maßnahmen der Rhomäer in Dalmatien wahr. So entsandten sie zum Kaiser Delegierte in der Absicht, sich dem Joch rhomäischer Herrschaft zu beugen. Der Kaiser hörte ihre Bitte an und nahm sie menschenfreundlich auf. Sie alle kehrten unter rhomäischer Botmäßigkeit zurück und empfingen als Häuptlinge vertraute Leute ihrer Nationalität. ..." (Synopsis Historion S. 146-147 übersetzt von Hans Thurn, in: Byzantinische Geschichtsschreiber 15, S. 83)
context_page_description: The History of the Serbs spans from the Early Middle Ages to present. Serbs, a South Slavic people, traditionally live mainly in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and North Macedonia. A Serbian diaspora dispersed people of Serb descent to Western Europe, North America and Australia.
context_section_description: Slavs settled in the Balkans in the 6th and 7th centuries, where they subsequently absorbed the local population (Illyrians, Thracians, Dacians, Romans, Celts). The earliest found mention of the Serbs is from Einhard's Royal Frankish Annals, written in 822, when Ljudevit went from his seat at Sisak to the Serbs (believed to have been somewhere in western Bosnia), with Einhard mentioning "the Serbs, who control the greater part of Dalmatia" (ad Sorabos, quae natio magnam Dalmatiae partem obtinere dicitur). The Serbs created numerous small states located in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia, but scholars like Tibor Živković and Neven Budak doubt their Serbian ethnic identity and rather Emperor Constantine VII's consideration is based on Serbian political rule. One of the most powerful Serbian states during this period was Raška, which separated from the Serbian state of Duklja in the 11th century. Ruled by Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja from 1169 to 1196, Serbia conquered the neighbouring Slavic territories of Kosovo, Duklja and Zachumlje. Subsequently, he created the Nemanjić dynasty, which ruled over Serbia until the 14th century. Nemanja's older son, Stefan Nemanjić, became Serbia's first recognized king, while his younger son, Rastko, founded the Serbian Orthodox Church in the year 1219, and became known as Saint Sava after his death.
  
   
  Over the next 140 years, Serbia expanded its borders. Its cultural model remained Byzantine, despite political ambitions directed against the empire. The medieval power and influence of Serbia culminated in the reign of Stefan Dušan, who ruled the state from 1331 until his death in 1355. Ruling as Emperor from 1346, his territory included Macedonia, northern Greece, Montenegro, and almost all of Albania. When Dušan died, his son Stephen Uroš V became Emperor. With Turkish invaders beginning their conquest of the Balkans in the 1350s, a major conflict ensued between them and the Serbs, the first major battle was the Battle of Maritsa (1371), in which the Serbs were defeated. With the death of two important Serb leaders in the battle, and with the death of Stephen Uroš that same year, the Serbian Empire broke up into several small Serbian domains. These states were ruled by feudal lords, with Zeta controlled by the Balšić family, Raška, Kosovo and northern Macedonia held by the Branković family and Lazar Hrebeljanović holding today's Central Serbia and a portion of Kosovo. Hrebeljanović was subsequently accepted as the titular leader of the Serbs because he was married to a member of the Nemanjić dynasty. In 1389, the Serbs faced the Ottomans at the Battle of Kosovo on the plain of Kosovo Polje, near the town of Pristina. Both Lazar and Sultan Murad I were killed in the fighting. The battle most likely ended in a stalemate, and Serbia did not fall to the Turks until 1459. There exists c. 30 Serbian chronicles from the period between 1390 and 1526.
caption: Basil I with a delegation of Serbs and Croats.
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