Old Serbia

Ethnological map issued in Belgrade in 1853 under the title „Serbia and areas where Serbian is spoken". On it Old Serbia encompasses only the territory into the triangle: Novi Pazar-Sofia-Nis. However most of its area (east of the line Nis-Pristina) lies outside the Serbian-speakers region.

Old Serbia (Serbian: Стара Србија, romanized: Stara Srbija) is a Serbian historiographical term[1] that is used to describe the territory that according to the dominant school of Serbian historiography in the late 19th century formed the core of the Serbian Empire in 1346–71.[2][3]

The term does not refer to a defined region but over time in the late 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century it came to include the regions of Raška, Kosovo and Metohija and much of modern North Macedonia.[4][3] The term Old Serbians (Serbian: Старосрбијанци, romanized: Starosrbijanci) were used as designations by Serb authors and later governments for Slavic populations from regions such as Vardar Macedonia.[5] In modern historiography, the concept of Old Serbia as it developed in the 19th century has been criticised as a historical myth, based often on invented or tendentiously interpreted historical events.[3]

  1. ^ Milovan Radovanović (2004). Etnički i demografski procesi na Kosovu i Metohiji. Liber Press. p. 33. ISBN 9788675560180. Archived from the original on 2014-06-29. Retrieved 2016-10-16.
  2. ^ Dedijer, Jevto (2000) [1998]. "Stara Srbija". Давидовић.
  3. ^ a b c Atanasovski 2019, p. 34
  4. ^ Ivo Banač (1988). The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics. Cornell University Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-0801494932. Archived from the original on 2014-06-29. Retrieved 2016-10-16.
  5. ^ Marinov 2013, pp. 275, 324.