Karađorđe

Nineteenth-century illustration of the Orašac Assembly with Karađorđe at its centre

In 1798, Napoleon invaded Egypt, forcing the Porte to redeploy thousands of regulars from the Balkans in order to resist the French. The janissaries in the Pashalik of Belgrade, known as Dahis (Serbian: Dahije), who had been expelled from the region on Selim's orders nearly a decade earlier, were pardoned and allowed to return to Belgrade on the condition that they obey Mustafa Pasha. The détente between the aging governor and the Dahis did not last long. In 1801, Mustafa Pasha was killed by a Dahi assassin.[23]

The power vacuum caused by Mustafa Pasha's murder resulted in a period of infighting between the Dahis that would last until 1802. By this time, four senior Dahi commanders emerged triumphant and agreed to share power within the Pashalik. The Serbs were stripped of the privileges that they had been granted under Mustafa Pasha. Dahi bands roamed the countryside, killing peasants, looting property and setting homes on fire. Thousands of villagers were displaced and forced to flee into the mountains, where over the next several years, the able-bodied men formed ad hoc guerrilla bands.[10]

In mid-July 1803, Karađorđe obtained arms and munitions from Habsburg Serb merchants in Zemun. Later that month, he dispatched couriers through Šumadija calling for a meeting of Serbian notables to devise a strategy for resisting the Dahis.[27] The flow of arms from the Austrian Empire into the Pashalik, combined with their inability to crush the guerrillas in the countryside, made the Dahi leadership increasingly uneasy.[20] In January and February 1804, the Dahis launched a pre-emptive assault against the Pashalik's Serbian chieftains (known as knezovi, or "princes"), killing between 70 and 150 of them.[26] The killings outraged the Serbian rayah, the Pashalik's tax-paying lower class.[21] By this time, Karađorđe was a well known and well respected figure in Šumadija.[26] He narrowly escaped being killed in the two-month massacre, which came to be known as the Slaughter of the Knezes (Serbian: Seča knezova). Upon killing the chieftains, the Dahis impaled their severed heads on wooden stakes and put them on public display.[5]

On Candlemas, 14 February [O.S. 2 February] 1804, the surviving chieftains assembled in the village of Orašac, near Aranđelovac, to decide on a course of action.[24] They agreed to launch a rebellion against the Dahis and Karađorđe was elected without opposition to lead it.[28] It is said that he twice refused to lead the uprising, arguing that his violent temper would make him unsuitable for the role. Karađorđe's initial refusal only reinforced the chieftains' convictions that he was the only suitable candidate, and eventually, he agreed to lead the rebels.[4][21] This event marked the beginning of the First Serbian Uprising, the opening phase of what would come to be known as the Serbian Revolution.[25]

By the start of the revolt, the Pashalik of Belgrade had a population of about 400,000, 10 percent of which was Muslim.[29] Its Serb population was roughly 250,000.[30] At first, the rebels numbered around 30,000 men.[31] In this initial stage, they were joined by a significant amount of the Pashalik's Muslim population, whom the rebels dubbed the "Good Turks".[32][lower-alpha 4] Karađorđe and his followers appealed to Sultan Selim for assistance against the Dahis, who had since rejected the authority of the Porte. Austria sent weapons and supplies to the rebels, while Russia lobbied on their behalf, encouraging the Porte to grant the Serbs further autonomy following the Dahis' removal. In May, Selim ordered a 7,000-strong army under of the command of Bekir Pasha, the governor of Bosnia, to march into the Pashalik. The Serbs welcomed Bekir Pasha and his men as liberators, and the Dahis were soon defeated through the joint efforts of Bekir Pasha's army and the rebels. By late August, the most prominent Dahi leaders had been captured by Karađorđe's men, beheaded, and their severed heads sent to the Sultan as trophies.[21]

The Dahis resisted for another year before they were completely defeated.[33] Karađorđe and his followers then demanded that Serbia be granted autonomous status similar to that enjoyed by neighbouring Wallachia. Selim suspected that Karađorđe's demands for autonomy were but the first step towards complete independence.[34] He responded by declaring a jihad against the rebels.[35] Hafiz Pasha, the Ottoman governor of Niš, was then ordered to march into Šumadija and destroy Karađorđe's army.[34]

The remains of the sconce from the Battle of Deligrad

The rebels first clashed with Ottoman regulars at the Battle of Ivankovac in August 1805, scoring a decisive victory.[36][37] Belgrade was soon besieged by about 16,000 rebel fighters.[38] The rebel leaders used anti-Muslim rhetoric to mobilize the peasantry, calling upon them to rise up and drive the Ottomans "across the blue sea". In order to further galvanize the population, Karađorđe appealed to memories of the Battle of Kosovo of June 1389, which paved the way for the Ottoman conquest of Serbia and the rest of the western Balkans, declaring that Serbia's defeat in the battle needed to be avenged.[39] He sought to further cement his authority by harkening back to symbols of Medieval Serbia, such as the relics of Stefan the First-Crowned, and placing old heraldic symbols on flags and seals to establish continuity between the Serbian Empire and himself.[40][lower-alpha 5] Portraits of Dušan the Mighty, the founder of the Serbian Empire, are said to have hung from the walls of the rebels' headquarters.[42]

Karađorđe was feared by enemies and allies alike because of his volatile temper.[43] He considered executions to be the only way in which military infractions could be rectified, and according to the military historian Brendon A. Rehm, personally killed 125 people.[22] In 1806, he ordered that his brother Marinko be hanged. According to one account, Marinko had been accused of raping a peasant girl.[12] Another suggests that he had been attempting to seduce young women whose husbands were away at the front.[44] Whatever the case, Karađorđe entertained senior rebel leaders in his home while his brother's lifeless body dangled from the front gate—a warning to others to refrain from the behaviour in which Marinko had been engaging.[12] Muslims, combatants and non-combatants alike, were killed unremittingly, as illustrated in this contemporary account describing the capture of the village of Čučuge, near Ub, in April 1806:

In their flight the Turks threw away their arms and clothing in order to run the better, but to no purpose. The Serbs caught up with them and killed them, some with swords, some with knives and some with daggers, while others had their brains beaten out with cudgels and staves. They say that over 2,800 Turks perished and only those got away who had good horses. When our army mustered again at the camp at Ub, I saw that many of our soldiers had blood-stained swords ... and their gun-butts also were smashed and broken; they were laden with every sort of spoil.[45]

Battle of Mišar, painting by Afanasij Šeloumov

Serbs who neglected to join the uprising were brutalized in equal measure. Males who could not produce an adequate excuse for why they were not fighting were killed and their houses torched.[5][46] While most of the rebels were Serbs, the Pashalik's Romani (Gypsy) residents, the majority of whom were Muslim, also fought on the rebel side.[47] Some Albanians also pledged allegiance to Karađorđe and fought on his behalf.[48]

In 1806, the rebels twice dispatched the diplomat Petar Ičko to Constantinople to negotiate with the Porte. The two parties eventually reached an understanding, which came to be known as Ičko's Peace, in which the Ottomans agreed to grant the rebels extensive autonomy. Due to the Balkans' poor communications and transport infrastructure, it took several months for news of the Porte's offer to reach the rebels.[49] In August 1806, the rebels defeated the Ottomans at the Battle of Mišar.[50] Later that month, they scored another victory at the Battle of Deligrad.[51] Smederevo was captured in November and made the capital of Karađorđe's revolutionary state.[52] Belgrade, with the exception of its imposing fortress, fell in early December. The outbreak of the Russo-Ottoman War that month, compounded by Russia's avowal to provide extensive materiel and financial support to the rebels should they continue fighting, convinced Karađorđe not to accept anything short of complete independence. He promptly refused to accept the terms of the agreement negotiated by Ičko.[49]

Monument and the Cemetery to the Liberators of Belgrade 1806 in Karađorđe's Park

In March 1807, Karađorđe issued a promise to Suleiman Pasha, the Governor of Belgrade, that he and his garrison would be granted safe passage if they vacated the city's besieged fortress. When Suleiman and his garrison emerged from the fortress, they were ambushed.[53] Adult men were killed on the spot, women and girls were forcibly converted to Orthodox Christianity and made to marry their captors, and young children were placed in the care of Orthodox Christian families.[54][55] One contemporary account suggests that as many as 3,000 non-Christians – mostly Muslims, but also Jews – were forced to convert to Orthodox Christianity.[54] Jews that resisted conversion were either killed or expelled.[56] Belgrade's mosques were either destroyed or turned into churches.[57]

As the revolution progressed, rebel strength peaked at around 50,000 fighters.[38] Despite their initial successes, the rebel leaders were seldom on good terms, and constant infighting plagued their camp. In the western part of the country, Jakov Nenadović was the principal figure. In the east, Milenko Stojković and Petar Dobrnjac held sway. The latter two opposed Karađorđe's attempts to create a centralized state, fearing that this would result in their own power being diminished.[26] Others, such as Nenadović, complained that Karađorđe was becoming too authoritarian. Nenadović suggested that the rebels establish a central council to rein in Karađorđe's power and write a constitution based on the rule of law.[58] Karađorđe balked at the possibility. "It's easy for this sovereign law of yours to rule in a warm room, behind this table", he responded, "but let us see tomorrow, when the Turks strike, who will meet them and beat them."[59][60]

Detail of Skull Tower

In May 1809, the rebels captured Sjenica. They repulsed an Ottoman attack on the village of Suvodol in early June, and seized Novi Pazar later that month, but failed to take its fortress.[61] Minor clashes also took place in the north of Kosovo.[48] Lacking numbers and adequate military training, the rebels failed to establish a corridor to Montenegro and gain access to the Adriatic Sea, which Karađorđe had described as one of his key aims.[61] The rebels experienced further setbacks in Niš, where 3,000 were surrounded at Čegar Hill in May–June 1809. Knowing that he and his men would be impaled if captured, rebel commander Stevan Sinđelić fired at his entrenchment's gun powder magazine, setting off a massive explosion that killed him and everyone else in the vicinity. On the site of the battle, the Ottoman commander Hurshid Pasha built a stone tower with the skulls of Sinđelić and his fighters embedded in its walls as a warning to others who wished to rebel.[61][62]

The fall of Čegar allowed the Ottomans to establish a land corridor extending along the Morava River valley from Niš to the Danube. Their advance was brought to a halt after the Russians crossed the Danube in September 1809 and attacked the Ottomans in northern Bulgaria, offering the rebels temporary respite. The rebels soon recaptured all the land they had lost but were exhausted by the fighting.[63] Henceforth, they were continuously on the defensive.[64] The rebel leaders quarrelled amongst themselves, blaming each other for the recent defeats. Karađorđe blamed the Russians for not intervening earlier on the rebels' behalf.[61] He subsequently wrote Napoleon seeking military assistance, and in 1810, dispatched an emissary to France.[65] Nothing came of these requests, as the French did not believe that the rebels had the military capacity to dislodge the Ottomans from the Balkans.[66] As his battlefield setbacks mounted, Karađorđe's behaviour became more volatile. In late 1809, he shot and wounded one of his commanders, Petar Jokić, for making a poor military decision in the vicinity of Ćuprija.[12][44]

A map of Revolutionary Serbia in 1809 (left) and 1813 (right)

In 1810, Dobrnjac mutinied against Karađorđe and nearly succeeded in dislodging him. He was joined in his revolt by Milenko Stojković.[67] In June 1810, Russian troops entered Serbia for a second time, distributing weapons and supplies to Karađorđe and his followers. Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov took part in planning joint actions against both the Ottomans and the mutineers.[64] By the following year, Dobrnjac and Stojković were defeated.[67] Karađorđe attempted to placate the mutineers. In January 1811, he established the People's Governing Council (Serbian: Praviteljstvujušči Sovjet), a cabinet consisting of members who supported Karađorđe as well as those who opposed him.[68] It consisted of twelve members, one for each of the nahije (districts) of rebel Serbia.[58] Karađorđe appointed Stojković as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nenadović as the Minister of the Interior, and Dobrnjac as the Minister of Justice. Also inducted into Karađorđe's cabinet were Mladen Milovanović, as the Minister of War; Dositej Obradović, as the Minister of Education; and Sima Marković, as the Minister of Finance. Dobrnjac and Stojković refused to accept the posts that were offered to them, fearing that their acceptance would legitimize Karađorđe and undermine their own position. Karađorđe accused them of insubordination and exiled them to Wallachia, replacing them with loyalists.[68] The Governing Council soon recognized Karađorđe as Serbia's hereditary leader and pledged allegiance to his "lawful heirs".[58]

In mid-1812, Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Bucharest, bringing the Russo-Ottoman War to a close. For his efforts, Karađorđe received the Order of Saint Anna from the Russians. The Governing Council scrambled to take an oath of loyalty to Russia in the hope that this would garner them further protection, to no avail.[69] The Russian Emperor, Alexander, was aware of Napoleon's plans to invade Russia and desperately sought to return as many Russian soldiers as possible in order to repel the attack.[64][70] As part of the Treaty of Bucharest, the Russians and Ottomans agreed that Serbian fortifications built after 1804 were to be destroyed, while cities and forts from which the Ottomans had been expelled over the course of the uprising were to be reoccupied and garrisoned by Ottoman troops. In exchange, the Ottomans agreed to declare a general amnesty for former rebels, as well as to grant the Serbs of the Pashalik of Belgrade some degree of autonomy. As part of the agreement, the Russians agreed to withdraw their forces from Serbia, as well as from Wallachia and Moldavia. The Russians encouraged Karađorđe and his followers to negotiate directly with the Porte regarding the minutiae of the handover of cities and fortifications to the Ottomans. Trepidation filled the rebel camp once it became clear that there was nothing to prevent the Ottomans from exacting reprisals against the Pashalik's Serb population after the Russians withdrew. Karađorđe thus refused to abide by the terms of the Treaty of Bucharest and fighting continued.[71]

Deprived of foreign assistance, the rebels were quickly routed by the Ottomans, whose units were manned primarily by Albanians and Bosnian Muslims.[66][72] In early October, Karađorđe fled to the Austrian Empire.[73] He was joined by around 100,000 other Serbs fleeing the Ottoman advance, including 50,000 from Belgrade and its environs alone.[74] Belgrade fell later that month.[66][75] The city's fall marked the end of the First Serbian Uprising.[71] The Ottomans singled out men and boys over the age of 15 for execution, and sold women and children into slavery. Torture was used extensively and executions were particularly brutal.[66] "Men were roasted alive, hanged by their feet over smoking straw until they asphyxiated, castrated, crushed with stones, and bastinadoed," one eyewitness wrote. "Their women and children were raped and sometimes taken by force to harems. Outside Stambul Gate in Belgrade, there were always on view the corpses of impaled Serbs being gnawed by packs of dogs."[76][77] Another account relays how infants and toddlers were boiled alive.[78] In one day alone, 1,800 women and children were sold into slavery at a Belgrade market.[79] Churches across the city were destroyed and mosques that had been converted into churches following the city's capture in 1806 were returned to their original use.[57] Others were deliberately torched by the Ottomans for the purpose of inflicting suffering on the city's inhabitants. In one instance, several dozen Serb refugees seeking shelter in a mosque were burned alive inside.[78]

In late October 1813, Hurshid Pasha declared a general amnesty for the rebels that had survived, though Karađorđe and some senior Orthodox clerics were specifically exempted.[66] Many rebel leaders agreed to lay down their arms, the most notable of these being Miloš Obrenović, the rebel commander in Užice.[80] A large number of Serb refugees subsequently returned to their homes, as did many of the Muslims that had been displaced in the fighting.[30]