Serboi

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"Serbi" (Serboi) located near the mouth of the Volga, based on Greek literary sources, in a map printed in London, ca 1770

Serboi is the name of the ancient Sarmatian tribe that could be the possible predecessors of the present-day Slavic Serbs and Sorbs.

1 Early references to "Serboi"
2 Origin of Serboi
3 Traces and possible migrations of Serboi
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Early references to "Serboi"

The tribal designation Serboi first appears in the 1st century, in the works of the historian Tacitus (ca. 50 AD) and geographer Pliny (Plinius) (69-75 AD), and also in the 2nd century in the Geography of Ptolemy (book 5, 9.21) to designate a tribe dwelling in Sarmatia, probably on the Lower Volga River.

The name reappears in the 10th century scholar-emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos' advice on running an empire, De administrando imperio (32.1-16), and in the continuation of Theophanes' history, the Theophanes Continuatus (288.17-20), usually in the same context as the Croatians, Zachlumians, and other peoples of Pannonia and Dalmatia.

[edit] Origin of Serboi

The Serboi were probably Sarmatian (Iranian) tribe, who lived in Eastern Europe (Sarmatia Asiatica), to the north of the Caucasus. The earliest historical records about Serboi dates from the 1st century, in the works of the historian Tacitus (ca. 50 AD) and geographer Pliny (Plinius) (69-75 AD).

In the fourth century, Serboi, together with Huns and Alans, moved to Central Europe, and were found dwelling near the Elbe, in a region designated as White Serbia, in what is now Sachsen (eastern Germany) and western Poland. The Serboi, it is argued, intermarried with the indigenous Slavs of the region, adopted their language, and transferred their name to the Slavs. Since the white colour was designation for the west, name 'White Serbia' actually could mean 'Western Serbia'.

It is possible that the Serboi in Sarmatia were similar to other Sarmatian/Iranian peoples on the northern Caucasus, such as the Alans, and spoke an Indo-European Iranian language similar to present-day Ossetian. At some point in the history of the Serboi, this Old Sarmatian language stood side by side with the Slavic language in White Serbia (mentioned by the Byzantine emperor, Constantine Porphyrogenitus), and likely even in the first 300 years leading up to the formation of the Serb state in the Balkans in the 9th century. Even to this day, the modern-day Slavic Serbian language in the Balkans has at least a third as many words in its vocabulary than other Slavic languages. This is because of the influence of Sarmatian and Illyrian as well as Turkish on the Slavic language spoken by the Balkan Serbs today.

One of the possible routes of the migration of Serboi

Since the modern Ossetian language derived from ancient Sarmatian, we can search for the origin of Serboi and Sarmatians if we compare relationships between languages of Iranian stock. The Ossetian language is a member of Eastern Iranian branch of Iranian languages, along with Pashtun, Yaghnobi and languages of the Pamir. The original homeland of the Sarmatians was probably in the region where these eastern Iranian languages are spoken today, somewhere between Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan.

The Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos, in his Book Of Ceremonies66, calls the Croats and Serboi "Krevatas and Sarban", who were located between Alania and Tsanaria. The information that Serboi were mentioned under the name Sarban is important because there is a Pashtun tribal group in Afghanistan named Sarbans, and that could mean that these Pashtun Sarbans are ancestors or relatives of Sarmatian Serboi. There is an old Pashtun legend which say that father Pathan (Pashtun) had 4 sons: Sarban (Serb), Batan, Ghurghusht and Karan (Croat?). This legend could suggest that Sarmatian Serboi and Croats were actually descendants of Pashtun tribes.

[edit] Traces and possible migrations of Serboi

The Serboi were mentioned by Plinius the Younger in the first century AD (69-75) as living on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov in his Geographica. In the 2nd century, Herodotus writes in his Persian Wars that Serboi (Serboi, Sirboi - Serboi, Sirboi) live behind the Caucasus, near the hinterland of the Black Sea. In the fourth century the Carpathians are mentioned as Montes Serrorum (Serboi mountains?) by the Roman emperor Licinius.

In the Caucasus, the homeland of the Serboi, they left their traces around the river Volga (Araxes in Greek). In modern Georgian, that river is called "Rashki". This name was used by Balkan Serbs as a name for their first state and is found wherever the name Serb is found in clusters indicating settlements. It is often used to designate hydronyms and likely meant 'river' or 'water' in Old Serboi language.

The Serboi possible migrated in two directions from the Caucasus, northwest and northeast. Those who went northwest became overlords to the Slavs. There they established a mighty empire and became slavicized. Konstantine Porfirogenitus called this "White Serbia". Their descendants are known as Lusatian Serbs/Sorbs today and despite immense Germanization, there are still a few thousand left. These are called 'White Serbs'.

There is theory that the other branch of Serboi maybe moved northeast to the southern base of the Urals, settled there for a period of time. We can call them 'Volga Serbs'. They possible moved to the east and went deep into Siberia and left its traces in the names of cities and towns along the coast of the Sea of Japan. They faded out with onslaught from the Mongols. These we can call 'Siberian Serbs'. It seems likely that Siberia was named after this Old Serboi tribe.

White Serbs were probably completely Slavicized by the 6th century. The descendants of these Slavicized White Serbs are today's Lusatian Sorbs. One branch of these White Serbs have left White Serbia, and according to Porfirogenitus, came to the Balkans (7th century), invited by Heracleus, defeated the Avars and were given Macedonia to inhabit. There they took the already settled Slavs (who began arriving in the 5th and 6th centuries) under their control and mixed with them to form modern Serb nation in the Balkans.