The boundary between the domains of the Kosača and the Branković south of the Tara river

Abstract

With the partitioning in 1373 of the domain of Nikola Altomanović, a Serbian feudal lord, the old political core of the Serbian heartland was shattered and the feudal Bosnian state considerably extended to the east. The region was crossed by the Tara river, mostly along the southeast-northwest "Dinaric course". Although the line along which Altomanović’s domain was partitioned has been discussed on several occasions and over a comparatively long period, analyses show that the identification of its section south of the Tara is still burdened by a number of unanswered questions, which are the topic of this paper. An accurate identification of this historical boundary is of interest not only to historiography, but also to archaeology ethnology, philology (the history of language and dialectology in particular) and other related disciplines. The charters of Alphonse V and Friedrich III concerning the domain of herceg Stefan Vukčić Kosača, and other historical sources relating to the estates of the Kosača cannot reliably confirm that the župa of Morača belonged to the Kosača domain. The castrum Moratsky and the civitate Morachij from the two charters stand for the fortress near the village of Gornje Morakovo in the župa of Nikšić known as Mrakovac in the nineteenth century, and as Jerinin Grad/Jerina’s Castle in recent times. The župa of Morača, as well as the neighbouring Župa of Brskovo in the Tara river valley, belonged to the domain of the Branković from the moment the territory of župan Nikola Altomanović was partitioned until 1455, when the Turks finally conquered the region thereby ending the 60-year period of dual, Serbian-Turkish, rule. Out of the domain of the Branković the Turks created two temporary territorial units: Krajište of Issa-bey Ishaković and the Vlk district (the latter subsequently became the sançak of Vučitrn). The župa of Morača became part of Issa-bey Ishaković’s domain, and was registered as such, although the fact is more difficult to see from the surviving Turkish cadastral record. The župa of Morača did not belong to the vilayet of Hersek, originally established by the Turks within their temporary vilayet system after most of the Kosača domain had been seized. It was only with the establishing of the Sançak of Herzegovina that three nahiyes which formerly constituted the Župa of Morača (Donja/Lower Morača, Gornja/Upper Morača and Rovci) were detached from Issa-bey’s territory and included into the Sançak of Hercegovina. It was then that they were registered as part of that Sançak and began to be regarded as being part of Herzegovina.

Podelom oblasti srpskoga feudalnog gospodara Nikole Altomanovića 1373. godine razbijeno je staro političko jezgro matičnih srpskih zemalja, a granice bosanske feudalne države pomaknute su daleko na istok. Tu oblast presecala je reka Tara pretežno "dinarskim pravcem" jugoistok-severozapad. Iako je o linijama podele Altomanovićeve oblasti raspravljano u raznim prilikama i u relativno dugom periodu, izvršene analize pokazuju da identifikovanje dela te granice južno od reke Tare prati niz još nedovoljno razjašnjenih pitanja o kojima je upravo reč u ovom radu. A valjano identifikovanja ove istorijske granice od značaja ne samo za istoriografiju već i za arheologiju etnologiju, filologiju (naročito za istoriju jezika i dijalektologiju) i druge srodne naučne discipline.