Slaughter of the Knezes

The Slaughter of the Knezes (Serbian: Сеча кнезова, romanized: Seča knezova) was a campaign of organized murders and assaults of notable Serbs in the Pashalik of Belgrade (Sanjak of Smederevo) by the renegade Janissaries who had seized power in a coup against the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II. Fearing Serbian plans of rebellion, they decided to execute leading Serbs throughout the Sanjak. At least 72 notable Serbs were murdered, their heads put on public display. Notable victims were Aleksa Nenadović and Ilija Birčanin. The event triggered the Serbian Revolution, aimed at putting an end to the centuries of Ottoman occupation.

Slaughter of the Knezes
Tablet at Belgrade Military Museum
Location	Sanjak of Smederevo (now Central Serbia)
Date	Late December 1803–4 February 1804 (six weeks)[1]
Target	Notable Serbs
Attack type	Murders and assaults
Deaths	72+
Perpetrators	Dahije (renegade Janissaries)

Background

Main article: Dahije

Following the Austro-Turkish War (1788–91), the Porte gave amnesty to participants on the Austrian side (including the Serbs) and banned the problematic Janissaries from the Belgrade Pashalik.^[2] The Janissaries had before been part of the backbone of Ottoman military power but had lost their importance in the 18th century, becoming a source of disorder, due to lack of discipline and bad morals.^[3] It was clear that military reforms according to European models needed to be made, thus the Porte decided to banish them.^[3] The Janissaries revolted and briefly occupied Belgrade, but they were expelled by the new Vizier Hadji Mustafa Pasha, who is remembered positively in Serbian history, having improved the situation in the Pashalik through reforms.^[2] His well-trained Serbian militia defeated the invading Janissaries at Kolari, and as a reward the Pashalik's Serbs received self-governing privileges and better socio-economic status.^[2] Violence on Christians was strictly forbidden and measures were taken to distance the rural Muslims and Christians as to not make way for conflict.^[4] The Serbian militia continued to defeat Janissary rebels.^[5] The significant improvement to the Serbs' status did not last long, as new conflicts with Janissaries arose and external threats made the Porte allow for the return of the Janissaries in early 1799.^[4]

The Janissaries renewed terror against the Serbs, plundering and killing in the interior of the Pashalik, then proceeded to capture Belgrade and Mustafa Pasha in July 1801, murdering him in December, then ruled the Pashalik with a Vizier as their puppet.^[6] The Pashalik became a haven for Janissaries and other bandits, coming from Bosnia, Albania and elsewhere in Rumelia.^[7] They came into conflict with the Serbs, sipahi and ordinary Turks.^[7] The Janissaries, called the Dahije, abolished the Serbs' rights, banished unsupportive sipahi and invited Muslims from nearby sanjaks which they used to control the Serbs.^[6]

Hadži-Ðera and Hadži-Ruvim with conspirators.

The banished sipahi and imperial Muslims organized a rebellion against the Janissaries with the support of the Serbs in mid-1802, but it failed, resulting in further oppression.^[6] The Dahije learnt of a conspiracy between the Serbs and Mustafa Pasha's associates (who wanted revenge) to rise against the Dahije, forged in 1803, as well as a letter to the Austrian military in Zemun.^[8] Aleksa Nenadović in Valjevo and Karađorđe in Šumadija, both Free Corps and militia veterans, planned an uprising.^[9]

History

Dahije beheading a Serb knez.

The Dahije began to monitor Serbs after learning of the conspiracy.^[10] They were initially concentrating more on the Valjevo nahiya and were less informed on Karađorđe's plans in Šumadija.^[11] After learning of further talks between Serbian knezovi and imperial Turks in Šumadija at the beginning of 1804, and perhaps receiving threats from the Porte, the Dahije decided to kill Serb leaders in order to thwart a rebellion against them.^[11] It seems that Mehmed-aga Fočić was tasked with overseeing the operation.^[12] The victims were obor-knezes, knezes, buljubašas and other chosen people.^[13] While murders began in December,^[1] most leaders were killed between 23–29 January.^[14]

The Dahije gave orders to their mütesellims and others, such as innkeepers, to kill Serb leaders, but still personally involved themselves.^[15] Mula-Jusuf took the Grocka nahiya, Kučuk-Alija the Jagodina nahiya and Mehmed-aga Fočić the Belgrade, Valjevo and Šabac nahiyas.^[15] Mula-Jusuf burnt down the village of Vrčin, while Kučuk-Alija cleansed the village of Baničina, then "beheaded in secrecy" in Ćuprija and went through the Požarevac nahiya to Belgrade in late December and early January.^[16] Mehmed-aga Fočić left Belgrade on 13 January for Valjevo where none of the Serb leaders awaited him, enraging him, then stayed at the konak (mansion) of the Bogovađa Monastery for two days where he secretly issued further orders of murder.^[17] His escorts, Stanoje and Sima Marković, and the monastery archimandrite Hadži-Ruvim, were unaware of his plans.^[17] Fočić then returned for Valjevo on 16 January, meeting up with Aleksa Nenadović, Ilija Birčanin and Milovan Grbović on a field, from where his 200 Janissaries took them to the dungeon.^[18]

Stanoje Mihailović was killed at his home on 14 January while preparing a meal for three of Fočić's men, sent by Fočić while he stayed at Bogovađa.^[19] Aleksa Nenadović and Ilija Birčanin were executed by beheading on 23 January,^[20] with Fočić reading the intercepted conspiratory letter out loud.^[21] Their severed heads were put on display at Fočić's house.^[20] In the days after this, Karađorđe survived attempts, managing to kill two or more of the attackers according to several accounts.^[22] By 25 January, the Dahije decided that all notable Serbs were to be beaten, so that what was left would become real "rayah, to serve well".^[13] Other Turk lords then began to attack chosen notables in their districts.^[13]

Metropolitan Leontius invited Hadži-Ruvim to Belgrade and asked him of the state of the people, to which he answered that no words could describe the discontent and suffering, and advised the Metropolitan that the two cross into Austria, as the people planned an uprising against the Dahije.^[23] The Metropolitan then informed the Dahije of their discussion, and the Dahije arrested Hadži-Ruvim and brought him to Kučuk-Alija on 28 January, then tortured him to death the next day.^[24]

At the end of January Fočić stayed at Šabac then secretly and quickly returned to Belgrade by boat where he and his associates discussed how to calm down the people after the murders.^[25] By 4 February, 72 severed heads had been brought to Belgrade.^[12]

Victims

Although most murders took place in January 1804, the Dahije began killing people already in December 1803.^[15] The murders of notables stretched from the end of December 1803 to the first days of February 1804, some six weeks, culminating in January.^[1]

The total number of victims was still unknown at the start of the 20th century.^[26] Notes regarding the beginning of the First Serbian Uprising included in Oestr. militärische Zeitschrift (1821) noted that 95 of "most distinguished were killed in 14 days".^[25] A letter of Archpriest Pajić mentions 72 knezovi and other chosen people killed until 4 February,^[25] 72 being the number of heads which were brought to Belgrade.^[12] Serbian historian Andra Gavrilović (1864–1929) found more information of those killed which he published.^[27]

• Stevan Andrejević Palalija, knez of Begaljica in the Grocka nahiya. Lured and killed.^[28]
• Marko Čarapić, knez of Beli Potok in the Grocka nahiya. Killed at a wedding in Kaluđerica.^[29][30]
• Janko Gagić, kmet and buljubaša, from Boleč in the Grocka nahiya. Killed after giving himself up to save his kidnapped son.^[19]
• Stanoje Mihailović, knez from Zeoke, killed at his home by three of Mehmed-aga Fočić's men on 14 January.^[19]
• Aleksa Nenadović, knez of Tamnava in the Valjevo nahiya. Beheaded on order of Mehmed-aga Fočić on 23 January.^[31][20]
• Ilija Birčanin, knez of Podgor in the Valjevo nahiya. Beheaded on order of Mehmed-aga Fočić on 23 January.^[31]
• Hadži-Ruvim, archimandrite of Bogovađa in the Valjevo nahiya. Tortured to death at the hands of Kučuk-Alija on 28–29 January.^[32][33]
• Three priests from the Šabac nahiya, Živko, Maksim, and an unnamed protosynkellos of the Bishop of Šabac, were killed in Šabac in the later phase. The former two were stabbed, the latter cut into pieces in the town center (čaršija).^[34]
• Radosav Kalabić, knez of Jadar in the Zvornik nahiya, and his friend priest Vilip, by impalement.^[35]
• Hadži-Ðera, hegumen of the Moravci Monastery [sr] in the Rudnik nahiya. Killed in the monastery.^[36]
• Gavrilo Buđevac, buljubaša, from the Rudnik nahiya.^[37]
• Mata, buljubaša, from Lipovac in the Kragujevac nahiya. Cut down by the Kragujevac mutesellim or Kučuk-Husejin.^[37]
• Jovica from Knić in the Kragujevac nahiya. Cut down by the Kragujevac mutesellim.^[37]
• Nikola Ćirjanić from Orašje in the Kragujevac nahiya. Beaten to death by the Kragujevac mutesellim.^[37]
• Petar, obor-knez from Gložane in Ćuprija nahiya, lured to Ćuprija and killed by Kučuk-Alija.^[37]
• Rajica, knez from Zabrđe, priest Milosav, and Staniša, lured to Ćuprija and killed by Kučuk-Alija.^[38]
• Teofan, knez from Orašje in the Smederevo nahiya.^[38]
• Jovan, knez from Landovo in the Smederevo nahiya.^[38]
• Maksim, knez from Selevac in the Smederevo nahiya.^[38] His relative, priest Milovan was also killed, likely together with Maksim.^[39]
• Vrčin village in Grocka nahiya burnt down by Mula-Jusuf.^[40]
• Jovo Carić, merchant from Skela in the Valjevo nahiya, stabbed.^[41]
• A momak of Mladen Milovanović, killed in Botunje.^[41]
• Spasoje Ilić, knez of Lapovo, an old and respected man killed in broad daylight in Batočina.^[39]
• A bricklayer in Žabari.^[39]
• Several people in Plana, relatives of hajduk Milovan.^[39]
• A sister who hid her brother "in a village" in Smederevo nahiya.^[39]
• Livadica village in Požarevac nahiya was burnt down and people were killed.^[39]
• The wife of merchant Koda in Provo in Požarevac nahiya was killed, a relative of hajduk Stevo.^[42]
• Several people in Mlava area.^[43]
• Stevan Katić, obor-knez from Ragača by Kosmaj.^[44]
• Miloje and Marko, both obor-knez from Guberevci by Kosmaj.^[44]
• Marko, obor-knez from Kaluđerica.^[44]

Many of the important people of the coming uprising were spared mostly by luck. Among those on the lists were Sima Marković, Janko Katić, Vasa Čarapić, Jakov Nenadović, Nikola Grbović, Cincar-Janko, Melentije Stevanović, Milenko Stojković and most notably, Karađorđe.^[45]

Aftermath

See also: Uprising against the Dahije, First Serbian Uprising, and Serbian Revolution

The economic hardships, evil administration, violence and "Slaughter of the Knezes" led to the uprising against the Dahije in 1804.^[46]

Legacy

Memorial in Valjevo.

Grave of knez Stevan Andrejević Palalija of Begaljica, on the Rajinovac monastery cemetery.

See also

• Eliticide