White Serbia

Бојка
Unknown–610 →
Map
Capital Not specified
Language(s) Slavic
Religion Slavic paganism (Polyteism)
Government Tribal
Historical era Early Middle Ages
 - Established Unknown
 - Disestablished 610

White Serbia or Bojka (Serbian: Белa Србиja; Archaic: Бојка, Greek: Boiki), is the mythical homeland of the ancestors of the Serbs, of the White Serbs (Serbian: Бели Срби, Beli Srbi).[1][2]

The area adjacent to White Serbia was known as White Croatia, where the Croats trace their origin. White Serbia and its ethnic designates, the White Serbs, could be interpreted through attributes such as "the unbaptized" or "pagan" (Pre- Christian), according to the De administrando imperio.[1]

Contents

Etymology

The term White Serbia (Bela Srbija) is connected with that of Belarus (White Rus), in this case it may refer to it being an unbaptized land, in relation to the Serbs of the Balkans who were Christian.

Bojka, (Boiki, derived from the Proto-Slavic *bojь. = battle, war, fight) may be connected with the ethnographic group of Ukrainians, the Boyko, and the Celtic tribe of Boii, who in the 2nd century BC dwelled around the Danube.

Location

The location of White Serbia has been disputed. It has been described as:

History

Main articles: History of the Serbs and Medieval Serbia

The White Serbs were a Polabian Slav[10] tribe that lived in Central Europe, adjacent to White Croatia.

"The Serbs are descended from the unbaptized Serbs, also called 'white', who live beyond Turkey in a place called by them Boiki, where their neighbour is Francia, as is also Great Croatia, the unbaptized, also called 'white': in this place, then, these Serbs also originally dwelt. But when two brothers succeeded their father in the rule of Serbia, one of them, taking a moiety of the folk, claimed the protection of Heraclius, the emperor of the Romans, and the same emperor Heraclius received him and gave him a place in the province of Thessalonica to settle in, namely Serbia, which from that time has acquired this denomination."...
..."Now, after some time these same Serbs decided to depart to their own homes, and the emperor sent them off. But when they had crossed the river Danube, they changed their minds and sent a request to the emperor Heraclius, through the military governor then governing Belgrade, that he would grant them other land to settle in."...
..."And since what is now Rascia (Serbia) and Pagania and the so-called country of the Zachlumi and Trebounia and the country of the Kanalites were under the dominion of the emperor of the Romans, and since these countries had been made desolate by the Avars (for they had expelled from those parts the Romans who now live in Dalmatia and Dyrrachium), therefore the emperor settled these same Serbs in these countries, and they were subject to the emperor of the Romans; and the emperor brought elders from Rome and baptized them and taught them fairly to perform the works of piety and expounded to them the faith of the Christians."...
..."And since Bulgaria was beneath the dominion of the Romans * * * when, therefore, that same Serbian prince died who had claimed the emperor's protection, his son ruled in succession, and thereafter his grandson, and in like manner the succeeding princes from his family"...
-De Administrando Imperio chapter 31, Constantine VII[1]

The tribe was ruled by an archont, who was succeeded by two sons, one of them, the Unknown Archont, led a part of his tribe against Byzantine lands during Emperor Heraclius rule (610-641). While Heraclius had fought the Persians, the Avars became a great threat in the frontiers of the Byzantine Empire, capturing cities: Singidunum (Belgrade), Viminacium (Kostolac), Naissus (Niš), Sardica (Sofia), and destroying Salona in 614. At this time the Serbs had come into connection with the Emperor. The White Serbs were first given the area of Servia (Σέρβια, transliteration: Serbia) in the province of Thessalonica by the Roman emperor Heraclius as a gift following their victory against the Avars of Dalmatia. They soon contact the Byzantine stratēgos of Singidunum (modern Belgrade) and settle down in the Serbian lands, today's Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia, administrated into župas; Pagania, Rascia, Travunia, Doclea, Bosnia and Zachlumia, all incorporated in the 14th-century Serbian Empire.

The descendants of the White Serbs (proto-Serbs) are thus the Serbs and the Sorbs of Lusatia (Sorbian language: Serbja).[7][11]

The Serbs in Lusatia (Sorbs)

The name Dervan (DERVANUS) is mentioned by Fredegar in his Latin chronicle as "dux gente Surbiorum que ex genere Sclavinorum:[12] "ruler of the people of the Serbs (Sorb autonym: Serby, Serb autonym: Srbi) from the nation of the Slavs".[13] He is the first ruler of the tribe mentioned by name. Fredegar says that he had been subordinate to the Franks for a long time. After the defeat of the Frankish king Dagobert I by the Slavic king Samo near Wogastisburg in 631 or 632, Dervan declared independence from the Franks and "placed himself and his people under the rule of Samo". Dervan joined Samo in his subsequent wars against the Franks. Further reports of Fredegar imply that Dervan and his people lived to the east of the Saxon Saale. The reference to Dervan in 631/632 is also the first written confirmation of the presence of Slavs north of the Ore Mountains. He was fighting against Thuringia 631-634 and Derwan was finally defeated by duke Randulf, governor of Thuringia (636). The next mention of Sorb statehood is of Miliduch and his duke Nussito, who liberated the Sorbs from Frankish rule, but were subsequently killed during Frankish campaigns in 806 by Charles the Younger.

People

See also

Part of a series of articles on
Serbs

References

  1. ^ a b c De Administrando Imperio -Constantine Porphyrogenitus
  2. ^ Petar Vlahovic, Projekat Rastko Cetinje, "The Serbian Origin of the Montenegrins"
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ [2]
  5. ^ [3]
  6. ^ [4]
  7. ^ a b The Serbs
  8. ^ [5]
  9. ^ a b [6]
  10. ^ [7]
  11. ^ Tomasz Kamusella, "The Politics of Language and Nationalism in Modern Central Europe"
  12. ^ Making of the Slavs, page 331
  13. ^ Curta, 109.