The early history of Sanjak and the arrival of the Slavs

Prepared and translated by: Daut Dauti

this book, The Sandžak: A history, is probably the only and the best book that has been published in English and in other languages ​​about Sanjak. As such, this book is history for Bosniaks, Albanians, Serbs and the entire Balkans. Below is a translation from the first chapter of this book: The early history of Sanjak and the arrival of the Slavs.

The earliest signs of the habitation of Sandžak have been found in the Smoluchka cave in the Municipality of Tutini, which is now part of Sandžak of Serbia, dating from the Paleolithic era. Elsewhere archaeologists have discovered evidence of human communities dating from the early Paleolithic period, approximately 20 years BC, and continuing into the Mesolithic (10 years BC), which have been found at Medena Stijëna (Honey Rock). in the canyon of Čehotina and in several other places near Plevle in today's Montenegro.

Three thousand years ago, a people known as the Dardanians, who were part of the group of tribes of the Illyrians or Thracians, settled on the Sjenica plateau and the surrounding region. Traces of their Bërnjica culture (burials with cremation) can still be identified from the c. VIII BC near Sjenica and more broadly in the valley of the rivers Rashka, Ibri and Sitnica.

Around the first millennium BC, different groups of Illyrians developed a common language and culture, which covered the region that is today southeastern Bosnia, southwestern Serbia, the northern half of Albania and Montenegro, extending to Epirus and in northwestern Macedonia. The remains of many small forts at the foot of the hills scattered across the region indicate that there was a martial culture enforced by local tribal leaders where the inhabitants were often forced to seek protection from each other in these fortified settlements.

Between the 6th and 4th centuries BC, members of another Illyrian tribe, the Autariats, settled in the valley of Rashka and the plateau of Peshteri, probably driving the former Dardanians to the south. Research carried out in what appear to be autariat warrior cemeteries in Glogovnik (Montenegro) suggests that this group forms an integral part of the Glasinac culture, which during the Early Iron Age (8th-5th centuries BC) has expanded into a region that has included eastern Bosnia, southwestern Serbia, parts of Montenegro and northern Albania. Near Novi Pazar, archaeologists have located a specimen of the Glasinac culture found in the foundations of the church of the century. IX which is called Petrova Crkva. A tomb, thought to be of a noble warrior from c. VI BC, has been found equipped with gold, silver, bronze ornaments, amber masks, ceramic statues, including black figures of Greek vessels, suggesting that the local population of this time was in contact with Greece.

Justinian's attempt to restore peace and rebuild the empire barely survived during his lifetime, since in the middle of the century VI and again at the beginning of c. VII, the Balkans were once again engulfed by waves of invaders. These were the Slavs who began to migrate from their homeland, somewhere in present-day Ukraine, to the distant regions of the Danube. The Serbs, accompanied by the more warlike Turkish Avars, continued to threaten Constantinople. Under pressure from the Persians and due to internal unrest, the Byzantine Empire was forced to give up its imperial possessions in the interior of the Balkan region.

The Slavs, unlike the Avars, had come to settle and not just to plunder. Therefore, they settled along the Roman transit routes and occupied the fertile regions of the river valleys. Without the protection of the Byzantines and unable to defend themselves, the local population took refuge in remote mountainous regions where they led a pastoral lifestyle and spoke their own language which was a variant of Latin.