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Moravian Serbia

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Moravian Serbia ( Serbian : Моравска Србија , romanized :  Moravska Srbija ), the Principality of Moravian Serbia ( Serbian : Кнежевина Моравска Србија , romanized :  Kneževina Moravska Srbija ) or the Realm of Prince Lazar are the names used in historiography for the largest and most powerful Serbian principality to emerge from the ruins of the Serbian Empire (1371). Moravian Serbia was named after Morava , the main river of the region. The independent principality in the region of Morava was established in 1371, and attained its largest extent in 1379 through the military and political activities of its first ruler, prince Lazar Hrebeljanović . In 1402 it was raised to the Serbian Despotate , which would exist until 1459.

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35-405: Lazar Hrebeljanović was born in around 1329 in the fortress of Prilepac , near the town of Novo Brdo in the region of Kosovo , Kingdom of Serbia . Lazar was a courtier at the court of Serbian Tsar Stefan Uroš Dušan , and at the court of Dušan's successor, Tsar Stefan Uroš V (r. 1356–1371). Uroš's reign was characterized by the weakening of the central authority and the gradual disintegration of

70-529: A draw, the mutual heavy losses were devastating only for the Serbs. Lazar was succeeded by his eldest son Stefan Lazarević . As he was still a minor, Moravian Serbia was administered by Lazar's widow, Milica . She was attacked from north, five months after the battle, by troops of the Hungarian King Sigismund. When Turkish forces, moving toward Hungary, reached the borders of Moravian Serbia in

105-554: A kind of moral authority or spiritual power (as opposed to political power), and it is used in this sense several times in the Qur'an . In the early Muslim world , ultimate power and authority was theoretically held by the caliph, who was considered the leader of the caliphate. The increasing political fragmentation of the Muslim world after the 8th century, however, challenged this consensus. Local governors with administrative authority held

140-467: A kind of prince. The best of sultans was elected as khan by people at Kurultai . In a number of post-caliphal states under Mongol or Turkic rule, there was a feudal type of military hierarchy. These administrations were often decimal (mainly in larger empires), using originally princely titles such as khan , malik , amir as mere rank denominations. In the Persian empire , the rank of sultan

175-525: A part of it. With all these territorial gains, Lazar emerged as the most powerful Serbian lord. The state he then created is known in historiography as the Principality of "Moravian Serbia". Moravian Serbia attained its full extent in 1379, when Lazar took Braničevo and Kučevo , ousting the Hungarian vassal Radič Branković Rastislalić from these regions. Lazar's state was larger than the domains of

210-430: A sultan, as well as his office, are referred to as a sultanate ( سلطنة salṭanah ) . The term is distinct from king ( ملك malik ), though both refer to a sovereign ruler. The use of "sultan" is restricted to Muslim countries, where the title carries religious significance, contrasting the more secular king , which is used in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries. Brunei , Malaysia and Oman are

245-542: Is known as Raja Isteri with the title of Pengiran Anak suffixed, should the queen consort also be a royal princess. These are generally secondary titles, either lofty 'poetry' or with a message, e.g.: By the beginning of the 16th century, the title sultan was carried by both men and women of the Ottoman dynasty and was replacing other titles by which prominent members of the imperial family had been known (notably khatun for women and bey for men). This usage underlines

280-566: The Ottoman Turks in the Battle of Maritsa in 1371, after which Lazar took a part of their territory. Lazar and Tvrtko I , the Ban of Bosnia , jointly defeated in 1373 another strong noble, Nikola Altomanović . Most of Altomanović's territory was acquired by Lazar. About that time, Lazar accepted the suzerainty of King Louis I of Hungary , who granted him the region of Mačva , or at least

315-494: The Serbian Despotate in 1402. Fortress of Prilepac 42°32′24.50″N 21°31′16.16″E  /  42.5401389°N 21.5211556°E  / 42.5401389; 21.5211556 Prilepac ( Serbian Cyrillic : Прилепац ), or Prilepnica (Serbian Cyrillic: Прилепница ) was a Serbian medieval fortress near Kosovska Kamenica , Kosovo . It is most famous as the birthplace of Prince Lazar , who

350-540: The Serbian Empire . Powerful Serbian nobles became practically independent in the regions they controlled. Lazar left the court of Tsar Uroš in 1363 or 1365, and became a regional lord. He held the title of prince since at least 1371. His territory initially developed in the shadow of stronger regional lords. The strongest were the Mrnjavčević brothers, Vukašin and Jovan Uglješa . They were defeated and killed by

385-529: The Sultanate of Women , as the position of main consort eroded over the course of the 17th century, with the main consort losing the title of "sultan", which was replaced by "kadin", a title related to the earlier "khatun". Henceforth, the mother of the reigning sultan was the only person of non imperial blood to carry the title "sultan". In Kazakh Khanate a Sultan was a lord from the ruling dynasty (a direct descendants of Genghis Khan ) elected by clans, i.e.

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420-419: The verbal noun سلطة sulṭah , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who claimed almost full sovereignty (i.e., not having dependence on any higher ruler) without claiming the overall caliphate , or to refer to a powerful governor of a province within the caliphate. The adjectival form of the word is "sultanic", and the state and territories ruled by

455-763: The 16th century when the Ottoman Empire conquered the Mamluk Empire and became the indisputable leading Sunni Muslim power across most of the Middle East , North Africa , and Eastern Europe . The 16th-century Ottoman scholar and jurist, Ebüssuûd Mehmet Efendi , recognized the Ottoman sultan ( Suleiman the Magnificent at the time) as the caliph and universal leader of all Muslims. This conflation of sultan and caliph became more clearly emphasized in

490-614: The 19th century during the Ottoman Empire's territorial decline, when Ottoman authorities sought to cast the sultan as the leader of the entire Muslim community in the face of European ( Christian ) colonial expansion . As part of this narrative, it was claimed that when Sultan Selim I captured Cairo in 1517, the last descendant of the Abbasids in Cairo formally passed on the position of caliph to him. This combination thus elevated

525-425: The Ottoman conception of sovereign power as family prerogative. Western tradition knows the Ottoman ruler as "sultan", but Ottomans themselves used "padişah" (emperor) or "hünkar" to refer to their ruler. The emperor's formal title consisted of "sultan" together with "khan" (for example, Sultan Suleiman Khan). In formal address, the sultan's children were also entitled "sultan", with imperial princes (Şehzade) carrying

560-485: The Serbian lands, Lazar's state lay furthest from Ottoman centres, and was least exposed to the ravages of Turkish raiding parties. This circumstance attracted immigrants from Turkish-threatened areas, who built new villages and hamlets in previously poorly inhabited and uncultivated areas of Moravian Serbia. There were also spiritual persons among the immigrants, which stimulated the revival of old ecclesiastical centres and

595-637: The Sunni Muslim world. As protectors of the line of the Abbasid caliphs, the Mamluks recognized themselves as sultans and the Muslim scholar Khalil al-Zahiri argued that only they could hold that title. Nonetheless, in practice, many Muslim rulers of this period were now using the title as well. Mongol rulers (who had since converted to Islam) and other Turkish rulers were among those who did so. The position of sultan and caliph began to blend together in

630-665: The capital of the Abbasid caliphs . The early Seljuk leader Tughril Bey was the first leader to adopt the epithet "sultan" on his coinage . While the Seljuks acknowledged the caliphs in Baghdad formally as the universal leader of the Muslim community , their own political power clearly overshadowed the latter. This led to various Muslim scholars – notably Al-Juwayni and Al-Ghazali – attempting to develop theoretical justifications for

665-567: The crisis that followed the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258, which eliminated the remnants of Abbasid political power. Henceforth, the surviving descendants of the Abbasid caliphs lived in Cairo under the protection of the Mamluks and were still nominally recognized by the latter. However, from this time on they effectively had no authority and were not universally recognized across

700-621: The early evolution of the term is complicated and difficult to establish. The first major figure to clearly grant himself this title was the Ghaznavid ruler Mahmud (r. 998–1030 CE) who controlled an empire over present-day Afghanistan and the surrounding region. Soon after, the Great Seljuks adopted this title after defeating the Ghaznavid Empire and taking control of an even larger territory which included Baghdad ,

735-457: The encounter between the armies of Lazar and Murad at Pločnik, a site southwest of Niš, happened shortly before or after the capture of Niš. Lazar rebuffed Murad at Pločnik. After the death of King Louis in 1382, a civil war broke out in the Kingdom of Hungary . Lazar briefly participated in the war as one of the opponents of Prince Sigismund of Luxemburg , and he sent some troops to fight in

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770-588: The foundation of new ones in Lazar's state. A Turkish raiding party, passing unobstructed through territories of Ottoman vassals, broke into Moravian Serbia in 1381. It was routed by Lazar's nobles Crep Vukoslavić and Vitomir in the Battle of Dubravica, fought near the town of Paraćin . In 1386, the Ottoman Sultan Murad I himself led much larger forces that took Niš from Lazar. It is unclear whether

805-541: The largest Shi'a Muslim state of this era, mainly used the Persian title shah , a tradition which continued under subsequent dynasties. The term sultan , by contrast, was mainly given to provincial governors within their realm. A feminine form of sultan , used by Westerners, is sultana or sultanah and this title has been used legally for some (not all) Muslim women monarchs and sultan's mothers and chief consorts. However, Turkish and Ottoman Turkish also uses sultan for imperial lady, as Turkish grammar uses

840-515: The only sovereign states which retain the title "sultan" for their monarchs. In recent years, the title has been gradually replaced by "king" by contemporary hereditary rulers who wish to emphasize their secular authority under the rule of law. A notable example is Morocco , whose monarch changed his title from sultan to king in 1957. The word derives from the Arabic and Semitic root salaṭa "to be hard, strong". The noun sulṭān initially designated

875-703: The other lords on the territory of the former Serbian Empire. It also had a better organized government and army. The state comprised the basins of the Great Morava , West Morava , and South Morava Rivers, extending from the source of South Morava northward to the Danube and Sava Rivers. Its north-western border ran along the Drina River . Besides the capital Kruševac , the state included important towns of Niš and Užice , as well as Novo Brdo and Rudnik , two richest mining centres of medieval Serbia. Of all

910-460: The political authority of the Seljuk sultans within the framework of the formal supreme authority of the recognized caliphs. In general, the theories maintained that all legitimate authority derived from the caliph, but that it was delegated to sovereign rulers whom the caliph recognized. Al-Ghazali, for example, argued that while the caliph was the guarantor of Islamic law ( shari'a ), coercive power

945-403: The regions of Belgrade and Syrmia . These fights ended with no territorial gains for Lazar, who made peace with Sigismund in 1387. In the Battle of Kosovo fought on 15 June 1389, Lazar led the army which confronted a massive invading army of the Ottoman Empire commanded by Sultan Murad I . Both Prince Lazar and Sultan Murad lost their lives in the battle. Although the battle was tactically

980-533: The same words for both women and men (such as Hurrem Sultan and Sultan Suleiman Han ( Suleiman the Magnificent )). The female leaders in Muslim history are correctly known as "sultanas". However, the wife of the sultan in the Sultanate of Sulu is styled as the "panguian" while the sultan's chief wife in many sultanates of Indonesia and Malaysia are known as "permaisuri", "Tunku Ampuan", "Raja Perempuan", or "Tengku Ampuan". The queen consort in Brunei especially

1015-579: The sultan's religious or spiritual authority, in addition to his formal political authority. During this later period, the title of sultan was still used outside the Ottoman Empire as well, as with the examples of the Somali aristocrats , Malay nobles and the sultans of Morocco (such as the Alaouite dynasty founded in the 17th century). It was, however, not used as a sovereign title by Shi'a Muslim rulers. The Safavid dynasty of Iran , who controlled

1050-489: The summer of 1390, Milica accepted Ottoman suzerainty. Stefan Lazarević participated as an Ottoman vassal in the Battle of Karanovasa in 1394, the Battle of Rovine in 1395, the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, and in the Battle of Angora in 1402. After Angora, he visited Constantinople , the capital city of the Byzantine Empire , where he was given the title of Despot , and since then his state became known as

1085-559: The title before their given name, and imperial princesses carrying it after. For example: Şehzade Sultan Mehmed and Mihrimah Sultan , son and daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent. Like imperial princesses, the living mother and main consort of the reigning sultan also carried the title after their given names, for example: Hafsa Sultan , Suleiman's mother and first valide sultan , and Hürrem Sultan , Suleiman's chief consort and first haseki sultan . The evolving usage of this title reflected power shifts among imperial women, especially between

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1120-474: The title of amīr ( أمير , traditionally "commander" or " emir ", later also "prince") and were appointed by the caliph, but in the 9th century some of these became de facto independent rulers who founded their own dynasties, such as the Aghlabids and Tulunids . Towards the late 10th century, the term "sultan" begins to be used to denote an individual ruler with practically sovereign authority, although

1155-432: Was born c.  1329 . This military base or fortification article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Sultan Sultan ( / ˈ s ʌ l t ən / ; Arabic : سلطان sulṭān , pronounced [sʊlˈtˤɑːn, solˈtˤɑːn] ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from

1190-537: Was required to enforce the law in practice and the leader who exercised that power directly was the sultan. The position of sultan continued to grow in importance during the period of the crusades , when leaders who held the title of "sultan" (such as Salah ad-Din and the Ayyubid dynasty ) led the confrontation against the crusader states in the Levant . Views about the office of the sultan further developed during

1225-630: Was roughly equivalent to that of a modern-day captain in the West; socially in the fifth-rank class, styled ' Ali Jah . Apparently derived from the Arabic malik , this was the alternative native style of the sultans of the Kilwa Sultanate in Tanganyika (presently the continental part of Tanzania). Mfalume is the (Ki) Swahili title of various native Muslim rulers, generally rendered in Arabic and in western languages as Sultan: This

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