Timočani

The Timočani (also Timochani, or Timochans) (Serbian and Bulgarian Cyrillic: Тимочани) were a medieval South Slavic tribe that lived in the territory of present-day eastern Serbia, west of the Timok River, as well as in the regions of Banat, Syrmia and west Moesia.

The Timočani became subjects of the First Bulgarian Empire after Khan Krum conquered the lands of the Eurasian Avars and South Slavs in 805. Timočani settled in the Balkans earlier, before the Bulgarian invasion. In 818 during the rule of Omurtag of Bulgaria (814-836) they, together with other border tribes of the Bulgarian Empire, revolted because of an administrative reform that deprived them of much of their local authority.^[1]

They left the association (societas) of the Bulgarian Empire and sought, together with many other Slavic tribes, protection from Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious in the same year, meeting him at his court at Herstal.^[2] Omurtag decided to settle the matter by means of diplomacy in 824-826, though his letters were not replied to by Louis. This prompted Omurtag to undertake a boat campaign on the Drava in 827 and invade the lands of the Timočani at Sirmium, successfully imposing Bulgarian rule and appointing local governors. Many Timochans fled to Transdanubia, later becoming part of the Balaton Principality.

A prince of the Timočani, Borna became the ruler of the Croats after being forced to save his life by fleeing to exile.

The Timočani have contributed to the ethnogenesis - slavonisation of the Turko-Mongolian Bulgarian^[3] people in the following centuries. Bulgars lost their original names (Khan, Krum, Omurtag, etc.) and language, embedded completely in the Slavic majority. Today, Timočani can be used as an informal name for the inhabitants of the Timok region in Serbia and Bulgaria.^[4]

See also

• List of Medieval Slavic tribes

References