The ancient serbs were a tribe or tribes of Southern Slavs who settled in the central and western Balkans by the seventh century and perhaps as early as the sixth century c. e. They are ancestral to the serbs presently living in serbia and parts of present-day Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, and neighboring parts of the Balkans.
ORIGINS
A mid-10th-century c. e. account by a Byzantine writer, constantine Porphyrogenitus (Byzantine emperor constantine vii), one of whose informants lived in Dalmatia (Adriatic coastal parts of modern Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia), says that Serbs and Croats settled there in the reign of Heraclius in the first half of the seventh century; Heraclius invited them to migrate there, provided they convert to Christianity, as allies against the Avars. There are several problems with Constantine’s account, however. A settlement of Croats and Serbs at this time would antedate any known slavic archaeological remains in the Balkans. Given the scarcity of any signs at all of the slavs in the Balkans in this century, however, this early settlement by Croats and Serbs is not impossible. Yet there is not enough archaeological evidence of early Serbs to know when and where they lived, and it is still uncertain when they arrived at the territory that would later become the Serbian state.
Some of the material in Porphyrogenitus’s text appears more legend than straightforward account, with elements characteristic of Slavic folktales, such as the tale of the five Croat brothers, and there are duplications suggesting it may have been simply a compilation of earlier material—different versions of the same story as in many medieval annals and histories, which often are collections of oral traditions— with no attempt at verification. Second versions of the story are given for both the Serbs and Croats, and each of these is similar to the other; some sentences of the Serbian account seem to be copies drawn from the Croat account.
Both versions emphasize that the Croats’ and Serbs’ settlement was at the behest of the emperor; this material may be from a Byzantine source, and the emphasis may have been for the purpose of promoting imperial claims of suzerainty over the Croats and Serbs, a political motivation that casts some doubt on the veracity of the account. Each story also locates the homelands of the Serbs and Croats in, respectively, White Serbia and White Croatia, both located near Bavaria on the border of the Frankish kingdom. The Serbian account mentions that the region was called Boiki, which could be Bohemia. However, no such people are known in this area; there was a tribe called the Sorbs north of the Carpathian Mountains in western Poland. White Serbia may be no more than a literary fantasy. If Serbs (or their antecedents not yet calling themselves Serbs)
Seventh century Serbs on the Balkan Peninsula
Early ninth century Serbs found Rascia, first organized Serbian state.
Ninth century Serbs convert to Christianity; kingdom of Doclea founded.
933 Serbs gain independence from Bulgarian khanate.
Mid-10th century Byzantines expand into Balkans.
10th-11th century Doclea gains independence from Serbs. c. 1167 Nemanjic dynastry founded.
1389 Kingdom of Montenegro founded.
Entered the Balkans from near Bavaria, their sojourn in the latter area must have been brief, since Slavic expansion westward from the Lower Danube region into southern Austria toward Bavaria had only begun sometime in the sixth century. It is entirely possible that Serbs and Croats were initially part of this movement, but then for unknown reasons broke away and headed south into the Balkans. The movements of early Slavic groups are too little understood either to rule this out or to provide evidence for it.
In particular there is little archaeological evidence and no consensus on when or where the Serbs’ first settlement in the Balkans took place. It is also unclear when they first settled the later Serbian heartland in the Upper Drina watershed. A number of tribal names in this region are known from Constantine’s time, including the Zachlumianie (in behind the hills); some of these could later have formed a tribal confederacy calling themselves Serbs. Current political considerations—an attempt to legitimize Serbian territorial rights after the Bosnian war—very probably underlie assertions by Serbian scholars that Serbs were invited to this area by a Roman emperor in the fourth century (long before any Slavs at all are thought to have emerged as a distinct ethnic group) or that Serbs constructed early burial mounds (called gromilas) that are found here.
LANGUAGE
The Serbian dialect is part of the South Slavic branch, which includes Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Slovenian. Serbo-Croatian consists of three dialects: Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian.
HISTORY
In the late eighth century c. e. Serbian tribes were united under a grand zhupan (leader) under Byzantine suzerainty, with territory as far north as the Sava River. Cemeteries from the early ninth to 11th centuries provide the first unambiguous evidence of the Serbs. The first organized Serbian state, known as Rascia (or Raska), is thought to have been founded in the early ninth century in the mountains of Bosnia, whence it expanded into Serbia. The expanding influence of the Byzantines and Bulgars, as well as internal disputes, countered Serbian growth. Bulgarian weakness after Khan Simeon’s reign allowed the Serbian tribes to achieve a short-lived independence in 933, but after the collapse of the Bulgarian empire
World History
