Free BELGRADE by David Norris Page B

brother Turks! Vezirs and Generals!
Now I must die; the empire falls to you.
Hear what I say; you must obey my words,
So that your rule may last a thousand years.
Do not be cruel to the Serbian folk;
Do right to them, and be considerate.
     
    Sultan Murat is advising his followers to act justly toward the Serbs, but the Dahijas have forgotten these wise words and will pay for their cruelty. The younger hotheads ignore the advice and propose to pool their resources and execute all Serbs who plot against them. Karađorđe is one of their targets but he manages to escape their murderous plans and raises a force to combat them. His rebels come from rural Serbia and go around the villages killing the Turks they find before turning on the towns, the centres of Ottoman power. Karađorđe demands that the Turkish tyrants be handed over to him and his men. The Serbs beat them as they had been beaten, save those who ask for mercy, baptize some, and execute the rest. Those who deserve punishment are punished, justice prevails and Serbia is liberated “from Kosovo to fair Belgrade”.
    The poem, unlike the Kosovo cycle, does not celebrate defeat but victory. It plays on the edges of historical events; some of its details are quite accurate, and others are clear embellishments. It represents one of the last examples in the national tradition of epic ballads; in fact, it appears on the cusp between two eras as the Serbs begin their return to Belgrade.
S ECOND S ERBIAN U PRISING AND M ILOš O BRENOVIĆ
     
    Two years after the defeat of Karađorđe’s rebels, the Serbs in the region of Belgrade rose for a second time against intolerable local conditions, this time led by Miloš Obrenović (1780–1860). He was not a revolutionary patriot, nor was he keen to meet the Ottoman Empire in open battle. Rather, he was pragmatic, open to negotiations and ready to compromise. His situation was helped by the post-Napoleonic international order in which Russia was free once more to meddle in Ottoman affairs. With pressure from Moscow a deal was struck in 1817 that left Miloš as the knez, or prince, of Serbia. The country was not independent but it was invested with more local autonomy on which Miloš could build. Karađorđe returned to Serbia secretly, but his methods and intentions were not what the new leader had in mind. Hearing of his presence in the vicinity, Miloš dispatched some of his men to kill him and, as proof of his loyalty to the sultan, sent his rival’s head to Istanbul.
    The new knez was not only a brutal despot but also a prosperous businessman. The Serbian economy was by now based on the rearing and export of pigs to the lucrative Habsburg market. Miloš was already successful in this regard and intended to use his position to increase his share of exports and control the frontier. He rapidly grew richer and was able to bribe and buy loyalty, but his enterprise relied on keeping local political power in his hands. The sultan lived far away and it was in Miloš’s interests to make himself indispensable to the security of the Ottoman Empire’s border with Austria. Such stability also served to stimulate the very trade on which his economic future depended.

     
    Miloš Obrenović was a shrewd ruler whose political ambitions were largely determined by his personal fortune. With Russian support, he won further concessions from the Ottoman Empire enshrined in the
hattisherif
, or sultan’s edict, of 1830. At a solemn meeting on Tašmajdan this decree was read out to the Serbian leadership. It promised them religious freedom, greater political control over their own affairs and sundry new rights such as their own postal service. It was announced that the Ottoman administration would not interfere in their internal affairs, the territory under Serbian control was enlarged, and Miloš was made hereditary knez. Foreign powers opened consular posts in Belgrade and soon an embryonic diplomatic presence was established with