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34-641: The Kosovo Maiden or Maiden of the Blackbird's Field ( Serbian Cyrillic : Косовка девојка , romanized :  Kosovka devojka ) is the central figure of a poem with the same name, part of the Kosovo cycle in the Serbian epic poetry . In it, a young beauty searches the battlefield for her betrothed fiancé and helps wounded Serbian warriors with water, wine and bread after the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 between Serbia and

68-706: A much larger area than modern Kosovo, as it also included the Sanjak of Novi Pazar , the Sanjak of Niş (until 1878), the region around Plav and Gusinje as well as the Dibra region. These regions had belonged to the former Eyalet of Niş , the Eyalet of Üsküb and, after 1865, the Danube Vilayet . In 1868 the Vilayet of Prizren was created with the sanjaks of Prizren, Dibra, Skopje and Nis, but it ceased to exist in 1877. During and after

102-412: A sizable Serbian population with some local Serbs supporting a future incorporation of the province into a Greater Serbia . Serb schools in the province also attracted some Muslim Albanians as students. Several thousand Aromanians inhabited Kosovo vilayet. Bulgarians lived in the southern half of Kosovo vilayet. There have been a number of estimates about the ethnicity and religious affiliation of

136-402: A version of Kosovo Maiden. Kosovo field The large karst field is directed northwest–south. The plain stretches from Mitrovica southwards including Obiliq , Kosovo Polje (which lies in the centre), Lipjan , and almost to Kaçanik . The region of Kosovo stretches roughly from Ferizaj to Vushtrri . It is situated 500–600 m above sea level. In the central part, to the west,

170-455: Is the Drenica valley. The region was an economic hub of the early Eastern Roman Empire in the province of Dardania . Praevalitana ( the region before the valley ), a province that bordered Dardania was named after the fact that it was located directly to the west of the field. A reference to the field may appear in the early Christian cult of Florus and Laurus of the fourth century AD, which

204-447: Is your fortune! If I, a wretch, were to grasp a green pine, Even the green pine would wither." The poem became very popular as a symbol of womanly compassion and charity. Serbian painter Uroš Predić took up the theme in 1919 with an oil painting of the same title. In 1907, Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović created a marble relief of the subject as a part of his Kosovo cycle . Another Croatian artist, painter Mirko Rački , painted

238-571: The Catholic faith . Similar to their counterparts in İşkodra Vilayet , Kosovar Malësors (highlanders) had privileges where by doing military service as irregular troops they paid no taxes and avoided military conscription. Ottoman rule among the highlanders was minimal to non-existent and government officials would ally themselves with local power holders to exert any form of authority. Kosovar Albanian Malësors settled disputes among themselves through their mountain law and Ottoman officials disapproved of

272-679: The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (its successor in the Breakup of Yugoslavia ) managed Kosovo up until the Kosovo War in 1998–1999, at the conclusion of which the forces of Milosevic left the field and the region was overseen by the UN with the installation of an interim government. During the war, the Kosovo Liberation Army and FR Yugoslavia forces actively battled around the region, especially

306-588: The Kingdom of Serbia conquered the Vilayet. During World War I, the army of the Kingdom of Serbia retreated to the Kosovo plain by November 1915. Then, under attack from both sides, the army withdrew across the mountains into Albania . The Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918-1941) controlled Kosovo Field and its residents. Kosovo and Vojvodina , another formerly autonomous region of Serbia, had practically comparable status with

340-455: The Kukës municipality and surrounding region in present-day northern Albania . Between 1881 and 1912 (its final chapter), it was internally expanded to include other regions of present-day Republic of North Macedonia, including larger urban settlements such as Štip ( İştip ), Kumanovo ( Kumanova ) and Kratovo ( Kratova ) ( see map ). The Vilayet of Kosovo was created in 1877, and consisted of

374-479: The Ottoman Empire . She finally finds the wounded and dying warrior Pavle Orlović who tells her that her fiancé Milan Toplica and his blood-brothers Miloš Obilić and Ivan Kosančić are dead. Before the battle they had given her a cloak, golden ring and veil for the wedding as a promise of safe return, but they were slain and Pavle pointed to the direction of the bodies. The poem finishes with: "O wretch! Evil

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408-489: The Sanjak of Pljevlja (Taşlica) with kazas: Pljevlja , Prijepolje and Priboj . In 1902, kazas of Mitrovica and Novi Pazar were transferred to Sanjak of Pristina, and kazas of Berane and Rožaje to Sanjak of Ipek. In the same time, Sanjak of Sjenica (Seniçe) was created with kazas: Sjenica , Nova Varoš , Bijelo Polje and Lower Kolašin . In 1910, an Albanian-organised insurrection broke out in Pristina and soon spread to

442-702: The Serbian–Ottoman War of 1876–78, between 30,000 and 70,000 Muslims, mostly Albanians, were expelled by the Serb army from the Sanjak of Niș and fled to the Kosovo Vilayet. In 1878, the League of Prizren was created by Albanians from four vilayets including the Vilayet of Kosovo. The League's purpose was to resist Ottoman rule and incursions by the newly emerging Balkan nations. The Kumanovo Uprising took place in early 1878 organized by an assembly of chiefs of

476-568: The Treaty of Berlin . Üsküb ( Skopje ) functioned as the capital of the province and the midway point between Istanbul and its European provinces. Üsküb's population of 32,000 made it the largest city in the province, followed by Prizren , also numbering at 30,000. The vilayet stood as a microcosm of Ottoman society; incorporated within its boundaries were diverse groups of peoples and religions: Albanians , Serbs , Bosniaks ; Muslims and Christians , both Eastern Orthodox and Catholic. The province

510-550: The Treaty of London in 1913. The Ottoman Empire finally recognised the new borders following a peace deal with the Kingdom of Serbia on 14 March 1914. Sanjaks of the Vilayet: Üsküp was the administrative capital of the vilayet and other important towns included Priştine (10,000 inhabitants), İpek, Mitroviçe and Prizren. Kosovo vilayet encompassed the Sandžak region cutting into present-day Central Serbia and Montenegro along with

544-519: The other six Yugoslav republics according to constitutional revisions made in 1971. The provinces were granted the opportunity to create their own constitutions and were granted equal status under a new Yugoslav constitution that was adopted in 1974 . When Slobodan Milošević came to power in 1989, the provinces' autonomy was removed and Belgrade gained political control. Thus, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (ended 1992) and

578-525: The 1890s and provided the state when needed with auxiliary troops. In the northern half of Kosovo vilayet Orthodox Serbs were the largest Christian group and formed a majority within the eastern areas. Orthodox Serbs were under the ecclesiastical authority of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and a metropolitan, often of Greek ethnicity, lived in Priştine and presided over the affairs of

612-586: The Orthodox population in the province. A seminary existed in Prizren with 100 resident seminarians with many originating from Montenegro . From the 1860s onward, Serbia pursued an active policy of supporting Serbs in Kosovo that entailed sending teachers to the vilayet, supplying subsidies to assist Serb schools and providing scholarships to study in Belgrade. Serb cultural clubs were active in major urban centres containing

646-472: The Ottoman army. It is for this field, and the battle, that the Kosovo region and contemporary Kosovo , and in turn the historical Kosovo Vilayet and Yugoslav Kosovo and Metohija is named. The modern city of Kosovo Polje is also named after the field. Serbian ruler Stefan Lazarević (1389–1427) erected a marble column with inscriptions on the field, in memory of his father. The Second Battle of Kosovo

680-565: The Sanjak of Novi Pazar, fell under Austro-Hungarian occupation in accord with the Berlin treaty which also allowed the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (remaining as such until 1908). Two major administrative changes happened in 1880 and 1902. In order to counter Austro-Hungarian military presence in western parts of the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, a new province was created in 1880:

714-599: The autonomy they exercised. In the 1880s from an Albanian point of view the sanjaks of İpek, Prizren, Priştine, Üsküp and Yenipazar within Kosovo vilayet belonged to the region of Gegënia . Muslim Bosniaks whose native language was Slavic formed a sizable number of Kosovo vilayet's population and were concentrated mainly in Yenipazar sanjak that contained several prominent Bosniak landowners. Circassian refugees who came from Russia were resettled by Ottoman authorities within Kosovo vilayet in 1864, numbering some 6,000 people by

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748-635: The districts (Ottoman kaza ) of Kumanovo , Kriva Palanka and Kratovo in the Vilayet of Kosovo (in modern-day northern Republic of North Macedonia ) seeking to liberate the region from the hands of the Ottoman Empire and unify it with the Principality of Serbia , which was at war with the Ottomans at that time . With the Serbian Army's liberation of Niš (11 January 1878) and Vranje (31 January 1878),

782-509: The entire vilayet of Kosovo, lasting for three months. The Ottoman sultan visited Kosovo in June 1911 during peace settlement talks covering all Albanian-inhabited areas. Kosovo vilayet contained a diverse population that was split along religious and ethnic lines, with Albanians, Bulgarians, Bosniaks, and Serbs making the bulk of its population. Muslim Albanians formed the majority of the population in Kosovo vilayet that included an important part of

816-714: The female population, but balanced the numbers against the male population, though it is a well known fact that the number of male heads exceeded the number of female heads throughout this period not only in those lands but in Serbia Proper as well. British journalist H. Brailsford estimated in 1906 that two-thirds of the population of Kosovo was Albanian and one-third Serbian. The most populous western districts of Gjakova and Peja were said to have between 20,000 and 25,000 Albanian households, as against some 5,000 Serbian ones. A map of Alfred Stead , published in 1909, shows that similar numbers of Serbs and Albanians were living in

850-524: The modified Treaty of Berlin the same year which split the Ottoman Empire, Kosovo became the first line of defense for the Ottoman Empire, with large garrisons of Ottoman troops being stationed in the province. Before the First Balkan War in 1912, the province's shape and location denied Serbia and Montenegro a common land border. After the war, the major part of the vilayet was divided between Montenegro and Serbia. These borders were all ratified at

884-684: The parts in which many Albanians resided. In the 21st century, plans have been made to establish multiple coal mines around the Kosovo field. Kosovo plain (Rrafshi i Kosovés), which lies 500–600 in above sea level, and is characterised by a longtime annual precipitation of 640 mm year", and a longtime annual mean temperature of 10°C. 42°43′03″N 21°05′06″E  /  42.71750°N 21.08500°E  / 42.71750; 21.08500 Kosovo Vilayet The Vilayet of Kosovo ( Ottoman Turkish : ولايت قوصوه , Vilâyet-i Kosova ; Turkish : Kosova Vilayeti ; Albanian : Vilajeti i Kosovës ; Serbian : Косовски вилајет , Kosovski vilajet )

918-480: The population of the heterogeneous province. According to the Ottoman General Census of 1881/82-1893 the population of the vilayet is as follows: Ottoman provincial records for 1887 estimated that Albanians formed more than half of Kosovo vilayet's population concentrated in the sanjaks of İpek, Prizren and Priştine. In the sanjaks of Yenipazar, Taşlica and Üsküp, Albanians formed a smaller proportion of

952-522: The population. An Austrian statistics published in 1899 estimated: According to Ottoman yearbooks, in 1901, the Kosovo vilayet which encompassed five sanjaks: Skopje, Pristina, Prizren, Novi Pazar, and Pljevlja had 964,657 inhabitants; two thirds were Muslims and one third was Christian. The Muslims were primarily Albanians and the Christians were mostly Serbs. The yearbooks, however, are deemed unreliable sources as they, in some districts, did not register

986-622: The rebellion had been activated during the latter event with guerrilla fighting. The rebels received secret aid from the Serbian government, though the uprising only lasted four months, until its suppression by the Ottomans. The province's boundaries shifted as the Ottoman Empire lost territory to neighboring states in the Treaty of Berlin following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and parts were also internally transferred to Monastir Vilayet and from Salonica Vilayet . In 1879, western parts of

1020-519: The urban-professional and landowning classes of major towns. Western Kosovo was composed of 50,000 inhabitants and an area dominated by the Albanian tribal system with 600 Albanians dying per year from blood feuding . The Yakova (Gjakovë) highlands contained 8 tribes that were mainly Muslim and in the Luma area near Prizren there were 5 tribes, mostly Muslim. The town of İpek had crypto-Christians who were of

1054-565: Was a first-level administrative division ( vilayet ) of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkan Peninsula which included the modern-day territory of Kosovo and the north-western part of the Republic of North Macedonia . The areas today comprising Sandžak (Raška) region of Serbia and Montenegro , although de jure under Ottoman control, were de facto under Austro-Hungarian occupation from 1878 until 1909, as provided under Article 25 of

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1088-517: Was fought between the Ottoman Empire and Kingdom of Hungary in 1448 . The Ottoman cadastral tax census ( defter ) of 1455 in the District of Branković took place in the Kosovo field which is in a part of eastern Kosovo In 1877, the Kosovo Vilayet was established by the Ottoman Empire a first-level administrative division. This area included the majority of the modern Kosovo . In 1912-13

1122-576: Was recorded no earlier than the sixth century AD. In the recorded version in Constantinople , the geographical location of Ulpiana , which was a settlement in the field of Kosovo, is described in Greek as Eucharis Koilas (the Gracious Valley). The Kosovo field was the site of the Battle of Kosovo in June 1389, the battlefield northwest of Pristina where an army led by Prince Lazar of Serbia fought

1156-455: Was renowned for its craftsmen and important cities such as İpek (today's Peja , Serbian: Peć ), where distinct Ottoman architecture and public baths were erected, some of which can still be seen today. The birthplace of the Albanian national identity was first articulated in Prizren , by the League of Prizren members in 1878. As a result, firstly of the Treaty of San Stefano in 1878, then of

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