Origin of the Serbs

Serbs are a South Slavic people, living mainly in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. There are opinions that ethnonym Serbs possibly has a different root. Various researchers provided several theories about the origin of the Serb ethnonym and their opinions are based on the data from historical sources that mentioning Serb ethnonym or other Serb-sounding names in other parts of the Old World. However, the connection between modern Serbs in the Balkans and some early historical data related to Serb-sounding names remains largely unproved and controversial.

Contents

Early historical records of the Serb name

Various authors mentioned names of Serbs (Serbian: Srbi / Срби) and Sorbs (Upper Sorbian: Serbja; Lower Sorbian: Serby) in different variants: Surbii, Suurbi, Serbloi, Zeriuani, Sorabi, Surben, Sarbi, Serbii, Serboi, Zirbi, Surbi, Sorben,[1] etc. These authors used these names to refer to Serbs and Sorbs in areas where their historical (or current) presence was/is not disputed (notably in the Balkans and Lusatia), but there are also sources that mention same or similar names in other parts of the World (most notably in the Asiatic Sarmatia in the Caucasus). Attempts of various researchers to connect these names with modern Serbs produced various theories about the origin of the Serb people.

Early historical mentions of the Serb ethnonym in the Caucasus:

Early historical mentions of other Serb-sounding names that some researchers are trying to connect with the Serb people:

Other Serb-sounding names

This is a list of Serb-sounding place names that some researchers are connecting with Serbs:[12]

In Afghanistan and Pakistan there is a tribal group of Pashtuns called Sarbans / Sarbani. Their name is similar to the name of Caucasian tribe named Sarban (Sarbani), which some researchers connected to Serbs.[13]

Some researches are also trying to connect Serb name with other somewhat similar names such are Siberia (region in Russia),[14] Sibiru (island near Sumatra),[15] Seri or Sereri (ancient people in Central Asia),[16] Montes Serrorum (old name for Carpathians), Sarmatia (ancient region in Eastern Europe), Sirmium (city in ancient Pannonia), etc.

Aside from place names in Poland, whose part, together with Lusatia, is seen as area of historical White Serbia, there is no general scientific consensus that any of the mentioned names is related to modern Serbs.

Migration of Serbs to the Balkans

According to the work named "De administrando imperio", written by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (912-959), Balkanic Serbs originating from pagan White Serbs who lived on the other side of Turkey (name used for Hungary), in the area that they called Bojki. Neighbors of White Serbs were Frankish State and pagan Great or White Croatia. Porphyrogennetos claims that after two brothers inherited administration over Serbia (i.e. White Serbia) from their father, one of them, with half of the people, escaped to the Byzantine Empire (i.e. to the Balkans), which was governed by emperor Heraclius (610-641).[17][18][19] According to German historian L. A. Gebhardi, two brothers that inherited administration over White Serbia were sons of prince Dervan.[20]

In the Balkans, Serbs settled around rivers Tara, Ibar, Drina and Lim (in the present-day border region of Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina), and joined with surrounding South Slavic tribes that came to the Balkans earlier (in the 6th century), together with the Avars. Over time, these tribes also adopted Serb name as their own.[21]

Another part of the White Serbs did not migrated southwards, but remained in the Elbe region. Descendants of these White Serbs are the present day Lusatian Serbs (Sorbs), who still live in the Lusatia (Lužica, Lausitz) region of eastern Germany.

There are also opinions that data from "De administrando imperio" that describes Serb migration to the Balkans is not correct and that Serbs came to the Balkans from Eastern Slavic lands, together with other South Slavs.[22][23]

The Emperor Constantine III (641) transferred a part of the Slavs from the Balkans (Vardar region) to Asia Minor. There these migrants founded the city of Gordoservon, the name of which gives grounds for supposing that among its founders there were Serbs.[24] The city was also known under names Gordoserbon and Servochoria.

Various theories about origin of the Serbs

The Iranian theory

Theory about Iranian origin of the Serb ethnonym assumes that ancient Serbi / Serboi from north Caucasus (Asiatic Sarmatia) were an Sarmatian (Alanian) tribe.[25] The theory subsequently assumes that Alanian Serbi were subdued by the Huns in the 4th century and that they, as part of the Hunnic army, migrated to the western edge of the Hunnic Empire (in the area of Central Europe near the river Elbe, later designated as White Serbia in what is now Saxony (eastern Germany) and western Poland). After Hunnic leader Attila died (in 453), Alanian Serbi presumably became independent and ruled in the east of the river Saale (in modern day Germany) over local Slavic population.[26][27] Over time, they, it is argued, intermarried with the local Slavic population of the region,[28][29] adopted Slavic language, and transferred their name to the Slavs.[30] According to Tadeuš Sulimirski, similar event could occur in the Balkans or Serbs who settled in the Balkans were Slavs who came from the north and who were ruled by already slavicized Alans.[31]

Deformed human sculls that are connected to the Alans are also discovered in the area that was later designated as "White Serbia".[32] According to Iranian interpretation, different sides of the World are designated with different colors, thus, white color is designation for the west, black color for the north, blue or green color for the east and red color for the south. According to that view, White Serbia and White Croatia were designated as western Serbia and western Croatia, and were situated in the west from some hypothetical lands that had same names and that presumably existed in the east.[33]

It is possible that the Alanian Serbi in Sarmatia, similarly like other Sarmatian/Iranian peoples on the northern Caucasus, originally spoke an Indo-European Iranian language similar to present-day Ossetian. The Ossetian language is a member of Eastern Iranian branch of Iranian languages, along with Pashtun, Yaghnobi and languages of the Pamir. One of the Pashtun tribal groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan is known as Sarbans (Sarbani) and Pashtuns are believed to be of partial Scythian descent[34] (Sarmatian language is also grouped within Scythian branch).

In Polish history, the Polish nobility claimed to be direct descendants of the historic Sarmatian people (see: Sarmatism) and this might be connected with historical White Serbia and White Croatia, which included parts of present-day Poland.

The Caucasian theory

According to some interpretations, Serb ethnonym might be of Caucasian or more notably of Lezgian origin. In the Lezgian language, "ser" would mean "man", while "serbi" would mean "men" or "people".[35]

The Autochthonic theory

This theory assumes that Serbs are an autochthonic people in the Balkans and Podunavlje, where they presumably lived before historical Slavic and Serb migration to the Balkans in the 6th-7th centuries.[36] Proponents of this theory (for example Đura Daničić, Pavel Jozef Šafárik) claimed that Serbs either came to the Balkans long before the 7th century or Serb 7th century migration to the Balkans was only partial and Serbs who, according to "De administrando imperio", came from the north founded in the Balkans other Serbs that already lived there.[37] It is suggested that ancient city of Serbinum in Pannonia was named after these hypothetical autochthonic Serbs.[38]

Although, modern anthropology and genetics are confirming that present-day Balkanic Serbs are partial descendants of slavicized autochthonic Balkanic peoples (Illyrians, Vlachs, etc), there is no generally accepted scientific evidence that ancient inhabitants of the Balkans were Serbs or Slavs.

The Serbo-Slavic theory

In the mid-9th century the so called Bavarian Geographer wrote that people named Zeriuani had so large kingdom that all Slavic peoples originated from there (or from them).[39][40][41] According to one of interpretations, Zeriuani are identified with Serbs, and there are opinions that "Serbs" was an old name of all Slavic peoples.[42] However, according to other opinions, Zeriuani might be a name used for Severians or Sarmatians instead for Serbs.[43]

The Indian theory

There are several authors (for example Miloš S. Milojević, Draško Šćekić), who supported theory that Serbs originating from India. The sole evidence that supporting this theory is an old Serbian folk song named "Sveci blago dijele" ("The saints dividing the treasure"), whose one stanza says: "kad ja idem iz zemlje Inđije" ("when I went from the land of India").[44]

References

  1. ^ Živko D. Petković, Prve pojave srpskog imena, Beograd, 1996, page 9.
  2. ^ Aleksandar M. Petrović, Arheografija naroda jugoistočne Evrope, Beograd, 2006, page 19.
  3. ^ Aleksandar M. Petrović, Arheografija naroda jugoistočne Evrope, Beograd, 2006, page 19.
  4. ^ De administrando imperio, Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (Emperor of the East), Gyula Moravcsik, Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Görög Filológiai Intézet, 1949, page 115.
  5. ^ Parameśa Caudhurī, India in Kurdistan, Qwality Book Company, 2005, page 79.
  6. ^ The Slavs: their early history and civilization, Francis Dvornik, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1959, page 28.
  7. ^ Constantini Porphyrogenneti... libri duo De ceremoniis aulæ Byzantinæ. Prodeunt nunc primum Græce, cum Latina interpretatione et commentariis. Curarunt Io. Henricus Leichius et Io. Iacobus Reiskius..., VII Constantin, Gleditschius, 1754, page 397.
  8. ^ The early medieval Balkans: a critical survey from the sixth to the late twelfth century, John Van Antwerp Fine, University of Michigan Press, 1991, page 56.
  9. ^ Aleksandar M. Petrović, Arheografija naroda jugoistočne Evrope, Beograd, 2006, page 19.
  10. ^ Aleksandar M. Petrović, Arheografija naroda jugoistočne Evrope, Beograd, 2006, page 20.
  11. ^ Živko D. Petković, Prve pojave srpskog imena, Beograd, 1996, pages 18-19.
  12. ^ Živko D. Petković, Prve pojave srpskog imena, Beograd, 1996, pages 8, 11, 12, 43, 46.
  13. ^ Parameśa Caudhurī, India in Kurdistan, Qwality Book Company, 2005, page 79.
  14. ^ Živko D. Petković, Prve pojave srpskog imena, Beograd, 1996, page 5.
  15. ^ Živko D. Petković, Prve pojave srpskog imena, Beograd, 1996, page 5.
  16. ^ Živko D. Petković, Prve pojave srpskog imena, Beograd, 1996, page 25.
  17. ^ Sava S. Vujić - Bogdan M. Basarić, Severni Srbi (ne)zaboravljeni narod, Beograd, 1998, pages 38-39.
  18. ^ Aleksandar M. Petrović, Kratka arheografija Srba, Novi Sad, 1994, pages 90-91.
  19. ^ Vladimir Ćorović, Ilustrovana istorija Srba, knjiga prva, Beograd, 2005, page 61.
  20. ^ Sava S. Vujić - Bogdan M. Basarić, Severni Srbi (ne)zaboravljeni narod, Beograd, 1998, page 40.
  21. ^ Sava S. Vujić - Bogdan M. Basarić, Severni Srbi (ne)zaboravljeni narod, Beograd, 1998, page 36.
  22. ^ Relja Novaković, Još o poreklu Srba, Beograd, 1992, page 57.
  23. ^ Nikola Jeremić, Srpska zemlja Bojka, Zemun, 1993, page 33.
  24. ^ The Macedonian question: the struggle for southern Serbia, Đoko M. Slijepčević, American Institute for Balkan Affairs, 1958, page 50.
  25. ^ Miodrag Milanović, Srpski stari vek, Beograd, 2008, page 81.
  26. ^ Relja Novaković, Još o poreklu Srba, Beograd, 1992, page 46.
  27. ^ Miodrag Milanović, Srpski stari vek, Beograd, 2008, page 81.
  28. ^ Relja Novaković, Još o poreklu Srba, Beograd, 1992, page 46.
  29. ^ Miodrag Milanović, Srpski stari vek, Beograd, 2008, page 81.
  30. ^ Relja Novaković, Još o poreklu Srba, Beograd, 1992, page 48.
  31. ^ Relja Novaković, Još o poreklu Srba, Beograd, 1992, page 46.
  32. ^ Relja Novaković, Još o poreklu Srba, Beograd, 1992, page 48.
  33. ^ Relja Novaković, Srbi, Zemun, 1993, page 61.
  34. ^ Martial races of undivided India, Vidya Prakash Tyagi, Gyan Publishing House, 2009, page 122.
  35. ^ Sava S. Vujić - Bogdan M. Basarić, Severni Srbi (ne)zaboravljeni narod, Beograd, 1998, page 33.
  36. ^ Aleksandar M. Petrović, Kratka arheografija Srba, Novi Sad, 1994, pages 9-10.
  37. ^ Aleksandar M. Petrović, Kratka arheografija Srba, Novi Sad, 1994, page 10.
  38. ^ Aleksandar M. Petrović, Kratka arheografija Srba, Novi Sad, 1994, page 8.
  39. ^ Lazo M. Kostić, O srpskom imenu, Srbinje - Novi Sad, 2000, pages 38-39.
  40. ^ Aleksandar M. Petrović, Kratka arheografija Srba, Novi Sad, 1994, page 90.
  41. ^ Quaestiones medii aevi, Томови 1-4, Uniwersytet Warszawski. Instytut Historyczny, Polskie Towarzystwo Historyczne. Commission d'histoire médiévale, Éditions de l'Université de Varsovie, 1977, page 31.
  42. ^ Lazo M. Kostić, O srpskom imenu, Srbinje - Novi Sad, 2000, pages 38-39.
  43. ^ Prosvjeta, Том 16, Društvo hrvatskih književnika., 1908, page 216.
  44. ^ Draško Šćekić, Sorabi, Beograd - Podgorica, 1994, page 22.

Further reading

See also