Kosovo Myth


The Kosovo Myth, or the Kosovo Cult is a political and historical narrative which emerged in its modern form in 19th-century Serbia and served as an important constitutive element of the national identity of modern Serbia and its politics, particularly after the Congress of Berlin. It has had a large impact on Serbian society, and has served as the most powerful Serbian cultural myth.
The original narratives which were propagagated by the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Ottoman Empire asserted that the Battle of Kosovo symbolizes a martyrdom of the Serbian nation in defense of their honor and Christendom against Turks. The essence of the myth is that during the battle, Serbs, headed by Prince Lazar, lost because they consciously sacrificed the earthly kingdom in order to gain the Kingdom of Heaven. The original function of the myth and the distinction between earthly and heavenly power was to legitimize both the authority of the Serbian Orthodox Church over religious affairs and that of the Ottoman Empire as the state which ruled the region. The Kosovo myth describes Kosovo as the metaphorical cradle of the Serb nation, and the Serbs as a chosen people.
The legend of Kosovo was not created immediately after the battle but evolved from different originators into various versions. The Kosovo Myth existed in the Serbian oral tradition for centuries, until it was recorded by early collectors like Vuk Karadžić and evoked at times of later major historic events such as the Balkan Wars, the First World War and by Slobodan Milošević at the end of the 1980s. Used during the Yugoslavia period to argue for Serb leadership and a Greater Serbia, it was one of the factors that led to the Kosovo War. The Albanian nationalism in Kosovo has its own narratives, that counter with the Serb Kosovo myth. The legend evolved slowly through chronicles and particularly the oral tradition of Serbs. Since the 19th century period of national revivals in Europe, the Kosovo Myth became a structural element of national ideology in Serbia, as well as a crucial element of cultural and political homogenization of Serbs, and later of members of other South Slavic nations. The basic elements of the Kosovo Myth are vengeance, martyrdom, betrayal and glory. This myth dominated political discourse in Serbia until the end of the 20th century. The Kosovo myth is incorporated into the Serb national identity's multifaceted mythomoteur.
Since its establishment, the Kosovo Myth and its poetic, literary, religious, and philosophical exposition was intertwined with political and ideological agendas. The mythologization of the battle occurred shortly after the event.

Overview

The central events in the myth are related to the Battle of Kosovo that took place in 1389, about which numerous details are not actually known. According to legend, the Serbian ruler Lazar, who was referred to as Tsar Lazar, was offered an ultimatum to pay homage to the Ottoman Sultan Murad I, leaving the control of Serbian lands to the sultan and taxation, or to lead his army into the battle on the Kosovo Polje. On the last supper before the battle hosted by Lazar, he told his knights that one of them would betray him. Deceived by Vuk Branković, he accused Miloš Obilić, which Obilić opposed, claiming that he would kill the Sultan Murаd I.
Lazar was visited the night before battle by a grey hawk or falcon from Jerusalem who offered a choice between an “earthly kingdom”, implying victory at the Battle, or the Kingdom of Heaven, where the Serbs would be defeated. It is sometimes said that the Prophet Elijah appeared in the form of a falcon. Lazar chose to die as a martyr, thus achieving a special status for Serbs as a heavenly people. The warriors accepted his words, stating that the Serbs would get freedom in heaven, but that they would never be enslaved. Lazar also cursed those Serbs who refuse to join him on the battlefield. He and the Serbian army recieved communion in the Church of St John the Baptist in Samodreža.
The battle took place on the Christian St. Vitus Day, known in Serbia as Vidovdan. After an agreement with the Sultan, in order to preserve his positions, Vuk Branković withdrew his troops at crucial moments of the battle, thus becoming symbol of a betrayal. Pretending to surrender after the abandon of Lazar, Obilić came to the sultan's tent and and after kneeling to allegedly kiss Murad's feet, took out a dagger and mortally wounded him. The dying sultan ordered Obilić's execution, while this sacrifice showed his loyalty to Lazar and heroism.
is killing Murad I by Anastas Jovanović
On the other hand, Lazar was captured by Ottoman Turks and beheaded. The sacrifice of Lazar and his knights for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven resulted in the defeat of the Serbian army by the Turks, while the Serbs were presented as the chosen people who signed a Covenant with God.
There are also key female characters in the Kosovo Myth, which symbolize the great losses and isolation in which Serbs, especially women, lived during Ottoman rule. Princess Milica, who was referred to as Tsaritsa Milica, was Lazar's wife. She begged Lazar to keep his youngest brother Boško so that one of the nine Jugović brothers would surely survive, which Boško himself refused and then became a flag-bearer during the battle. Their mother died of a broken heart after losing all nine sons in battle. Another female character a Kosovo Maiden, a girl who came to Kosovo Polje the morning after the battle and cared for the wounded Serbian warriors, giving them water and wine.
Defeat in battle was characterized as the downfall of the glorious medieval Serbian state and subsequent a long-lasting Ottoman occupation and slavery. In the Serbian tradition, the red color of the Paeonia peregrina'' has become a symbol of “bloodshed in the Battle of Kosovo”.

The basic elements of the myth

Ljubinka Trgovčević described the elements and symbolism of the myth:
and Pavle Čortanović; Many parts of the myth are modeled on well-known Christian symbols, such as the Last Supper and Judas' betrayal
Many parts and characters in the myth are modeled on well-known Christian symbols. While Lazar is portrayed as Jesus and faith, the dinner that he headed the night before the battle has the attributes of the biblical Last Supper, including the presence of his disciples and Vuk Branković, the traitor or Judas figure. Like Jesus, Lazar died so that his people could live.
The Kosovo Myth presents the battle as "a titanic contest between Christian Europe and the Islamic East" in which Lazar renounced "the earthly kingdom for a heavenly one". Although Serbia's strategic fall was the Battle of Maritsa in 1371, Kosovo was the spiritual fall of Serbia and a beginning of a new era for the Serbs. The real battle was not as decisive as presented by the myth because the final downfall of medieval Serbia happened 70 years after it, in 1459, when the Ottomans captured Smederevo.
The Kosovo Myth pictures Serbia as Antemurale Christianitatis, similarly to constructions of the other nations in the Balkans. It is sometimes propagated to evoke a sense of pride and national grievance among Serbs. Since the battle on Kosovo Polje, this hill came to be seen as the “cradle of Serbia” and one of the most Serb nation’s most holy places. Sabrina P. Ramet compared the myths about Lazar with the myths about the knighthood of the King Arthur and the martyrdom of Olaf II of Norway, as well as the legends about Stephen I of Hungary.

Development and interpretations

The Kosovo Myth has for a long time been a central subject in Serbian folklore and Serbian literary tradition, and for centuries was cultivated mostly in the form of oral epic poetry and guslar poems. The legend was not fully formed immediately after the battle but evolved from different originators into various versions. According to Miodrag Popović, in Ottoman Serbia of 16th and 17th century the local population was "Turkophilic" in accordance with the general climate of necessary adaptation to Ottoman rule Тhey did not give the legend of the Battle of Kosovo an interpretation unfavorable or hostile to the Ottoman Turks. The myth never referred in those early versions to the "destiny of Serbs as a nation", but to the collapse of Serbian feudal society and its rulers. Philologist Vuk Karadžić collected traditional epic poems related to the topic of the Battle of Kosovo and released the so-called “Kosovo cycle”. Military defeat in the Kosovo Battle was portrayed as moral victory. The centrality of the Kosovo Myth was one of the main causes for merging ethnic and Orthodox Christian religious identity of Serbs. The division of earthly and heavenly power and the choice of the latter by Lazar was meant by the church as a tool of legitimization of Ottoman power among Orthodox Slavs, while at the same time the myth enforced the primacy of the Serbian Orthodox Church over religious affairs.
The scale of interpretations of the Kosovo Myth is undeniably one of the richest. It can be interpreted as "democratic, anti-feudal, with a love for justice and social equality". The myth can be interpreted in different ways in connection with other myths like: myth of military valor, myth of victimhood, myth of salvation and myth of chosen people. It is a myth of Golden Age and Fall. Since its late 19th century ideological construction, the Kosovo myth describes Kosovo as the metaphorical cradle of the Serb nation, and the Serbs as a chosen people. The Kosovo myth is incorporated into the Serb national identity's multifaceted mythomoteur. The idea of Kosovo being the cradle of Serbia has been criticized in terms of historical validity, since the first Slav tribes settled outside the territory of Kosovo in the 7th century, and became central, at least economically and geographically, in the 13th century. Albanian nationalism in Kosovo has its own narratives, that counter with the Serb Kosovo myth.

Usage

Serbia

The Kosovo Myth became a central myth of Serbian nationalism used in the 19th century. Like other European nationalisms, the Serbian one searched for a “glorious past” and a “golden age”. Throughout most of the century it didn't carry its later importance, as the Principality of Serbia saw the region of Bosnia as its core, not Kosovo. The Congress of Berlin was the event which caused the elevation of the Kosovo myth in its modern status. The region of Bosnia was effectively handed out to Austria-Hungary and Serbian expansion towards that area was blocked, which in turn left southwards expansion towards Kosovo as the only available geopolitical alternative for the Serbian state. In the 1860s, the Kosovo myth was used as a theme to freedom and democracy among Serbia Liberals and Radicals, while while the ruling Conservatives and the Court used it to compare the opposition with the “treacherous Vuk Branković”. The 500th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo was massively celebrated, with the main commemoration ceremonies in Kruševac, Lazar's former capital, and Ravanica, Lazar's burial place. One year later, Vidovdan became a state holiday. "The Kosovo Myth was used by Serbian nationalists before WWI as an ideological tool in order to argue for a Serbian-led Yugoslavia instead of Yugoslavia as state of all South Slavs equally. After the great losses during World War I which the Serbian army suffered, these ideas further led to confusion among Serbian nationalists between support for a Serbian-led Yugoslavia and Yugoslavia as a state of all South Slavs. In this context, this was the period in which Serbian nationalists began to advance ideas about Serbian ethnic superiority over other South Slavs."
; the red color of flowers has become a symbol of “bloodshed in the Battle of Kosovo”
The Kosovo Myth was used to create a Serbian victimization narrative. This myth and its connection to the Serbian victim-centered position was used to legitimize reincorporation of the whole Kosovo into Serbia. The Kosovo Myth was activated and linked to the metaphors of 'genocide'. Albanians were presented by Serb writers as a treacherous and violent people who were settled in Kosovo to collaborate with Ottoman occupiers and terrorize Christian Serbs. They were at times accused of persecution and genocide of Kosovo Serbs since the Middle Ages. This portrayal included claims of a centuries-long genocide of Serbs continued in the 19th century through the forcible expulsion of up to 150,000 Serbs, and also in Tito's Yugoslavia that 'morally disqualified' Albanians to claim any control of Kosovo at the expense of Serbs. There was little statistical information to support these Serbian claims of genocide, nor was rape as frequent an occurrence there as the Serbian nationalists alleged it to be. This style of paranoid rhetoric demonstartes both the perseverance and versatility of Serbian writers when faced with the reality that Serbs had not been victims of genocide in any conventioal sense. Yugoslav Communist authorities, who downplayed the national histories of the country's communities, worked to suppress the Kosovo myth in Serbia.
The myth was used by the Milošević government and Serbian Orthodox Church to create a narrative of superior Serbdom in conflict with barbarian forces, in order to justify violent actions that were being planned at the time. This way, the myth was utilized as an ideological instrument which fueled policies that led to the Kosovo War along with other political decisions. However, the causes of the war were complex and could not be reduced to the existence of a national myth, but it was used to legitimize Milošević's reign. Vidovdan was also a date that symbolized the rise and fall of Milošević, as he gave a speech in the presence of about а million people in 1989 to mark the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, and later was arrested and extradited to the ICTY on 28 June 2001 to stand trial for charges of war crimes. Kosovo remained high on the agenda of Vojislav Koštunica, who served as the President of FR Yugoslavia and Prime Minister of Serbia. He commented, among other things, that a new fight is being waged for control of Kosovo, this time with the United States, and that “the key question is whether force will prevail over justice in the new Battle of Kosovo”.
In the context of the Kosovo myth, Greater Serbian propagandists have produced various slogans regarding Kosovo in contemporary Serbia. One of the most notable Serbian artists Đura Jakšić wrote and painted inspired by the Kosovo Myth. Serbian scholar and Hellenist Miloš N. Đurić explored some elements of the Kosovo Myth from the standpoint of ethics.

Yugoslavia and other South Slavic state

There was a deep belief among Montenegrin people that they descended from Serb knights who fled after the battle and settled in the unreachable mountains. The Kosovo Myth was present among the people in Montenegro before the time of Petar II Petrović-Njegoš, in the form of folk legends and especially folk songs. Petrović-Njegoš, Prince-Bishop of Montenegro, introduced the traditional Montenegrin cap with the aim of strengthening the presence of the Kosovo Myth in everyday life and emphasizing the direct connection with medieval Serbia. He is also well known for his epic poem The Mountain Wreath that covers a fictional struggle to extermination against converted Muslim Slavs, often referring to Kosovo. Nicholas I of Montenegro successfully used the motives of the Kosovo Myth with the aim of strengthening Montenegrin patriotism, dreaming of restoring the Serbian Empire.
The messages of the Kosovo Myth were also used for the idea of Yugoslav unity. The commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo was held in Croatia despite restrictions imposed by the Habsburg authorities. On Vidovdan in 1914, Gavrilo Princip, the Bosnian Serb member of Young Bosnia, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria which initiated the July Crisis and led to the outbreak of World War I. Princip and other members of the Young Bosnia were inspired by the heroism of Miloš Obilić, reenacting the Kosovo Myth.
At the beginning of the 20th century, with the Yugoslav idea spreading, the Kosovo Myth also became a trope in common culture of Croats and Slovenes. Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović contributed to the Myth when in 1907–11, he was commissioned to design the Vidovdan Temple as "the eternal ideal of heroism, loyalty and sacrifice, from which our race draws its faith and moral strength" and "collective ideal of the Serbian people". The temple's actual construction on the Field of Kosovo was postponed because of the Balkan Wars, World War I, World War II, and eventually shelved. Mirko Rački, also adopted the mythos and painted numerous paintings within Kosovo cycle, including The Mother of the Jugović, Nine Jugović brothers, Kosovo Maiden and Miloš Obilić. In 1916, the Yugoslav Committee declared Vidovdan as a national holiday of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The Myth was used by main advocates of the Yugoslav ideology as a pan-Yugoslav myth in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1920, Vidovdan became one of the three public holidays called “St. Vitus’ Day Heroes”, aimg to the symbolic integration of the member of the ‘nation with three names’, while on 28 June 1921, the Vidovdan Constitution was adopted.
The Kosovo Myth also played a role and ideologically shaped the coup d'état provoked by the Yugoslav accession to the Tripartite Pact. Gavrilo V, the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, who strongly opposed the signing, used the motives of the Kosovo Myth in his radio speech. Following the SFR Yugoslavia's expulsion from the Cominform on Vidovdan in 1948, a government minister Milovan Đilas commented that the expelling resolution “cut into the minds and hearts of all us Serbs” and noted “the coincidence in dates between ancient calamities and living threats and onslaughts”.
Works of Ivo Andrić, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961, are sometimes associated with the Kosovo Myth. He wrote an essay about Petrović Njegoš called the “Tragic hero of Kosovo thought”. The martyrdom of Radisav, a character from Andrić's most famous novel The Bridge on the Drina, has been described by some scholars as the reworking of Kosovo legacy and a founding myth of the Serbian nation. Although Andrićgrad, founded in Višegrad in 2014 by the two-time winner of the Palme d'Or filmmaker Emir Kusturica, is named after Ivo Andrić, it is believed that its purpose is to maintain the Kosovo myth and the Serbian national consciousness. The main church of Andrićgrad is a copy of the Visoki Dečani in Kosovo and is dedicated to the Holy Emperor Lazar and the Kosovo martyrs.
Leading up to the Kosovo War, the contemporary Kosovo Albanian political mythology clashed with the Kosovo Myth.

Western

Kosovo was particularly present in the public opinion of Britain during the First World War where 28 June was proclaimed "Kossovo Day". Manifestations were held across the country. The Kosovo cycle epic folk poems were several times published in France during the war while some French authors emphasized that Kosovo Myth is important to strengthen "the energy for revenge". In 1915, the French government ordered schools to hold lessons on Serbia and Serbian history, while posters in support of Serbia were pasted in Paris and London, including calls for prayer during the Kossovo Day.
The Kosovo Committee was established in London in 1916, headed by Elsie Inglis, and its members included Robert Seton-Watson, Arthur Evans and Charles Oman. They organized a gathering in the St Paul's Cathedral in London. Historian and the University of Belgrade proffesor Pavle Popović gave a speech at the celebration at the celebration in Cambridge. Seton Watson’s essay about Serbia was read in schools across the Britain, while eminent historians have contributed to the pro-Serbian narrative in the country, often recalling the Kosovo Myth. Pro-Serbian events and the Kossovo Day were also held in the United States, and in his speech James M. Beck referred to Lazar and the Battle of Kosovo.

Gazimestan