Is there any evidence of Kosovo being Serbian before the 12th century ?

[einstein1337]

All the churches and monasteries seem to date between the 12th and 14th century only when they conquered and expanded their power there.

Serbian scriptures mention some Albanians and Vlachs working in these monasteries.

And there were laws for Albanians and Vlachs.

It is mentioned that Serbs were not allowed to marry Vlachs and Vlachs were basically seen as 2nd class citizen. Linguistic and historical evidence regard these Vlachs as Romanians/Aromanians.

There seems to be no evidence that land was ever Serb before this. Those maps on the internet depicting Kosovo as an early homeland are nothing but fake internet maps.
As that also would not explain the division between Serbian and Bulgarian dialect. Timok-Prizren dialect is something that developed only later.

Then of course we have 500 years of Ottoman rule and in 1870's when it became the birthplace and center of the Albanian national movement.

And then we have 1912 and up to World War II when it was by international law illegally occupied, and then we have after
1945 when it was incorporated into a Yugoslav state and where Kosovo served more as a federal republic of Yugoslavia like Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro rather than as a part of Serbia.

So basically, out of the entire history of Kosovo, the only time Kosovo was ever Serb was between 12th and 14th century it seems ? Or up until the 15th century ?

Albania, Greece and Macedonia was colonized by Serbs too. Shkodra in Northern Albania was once a capital of Dusans empire for example. Most people today do not regard these as historically Serb land. Between 900 AD and up to 12th century, Central and Southern Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo fell between Bulgarian and Byzantine rule and in 900 AD these areas gained a large Bulgarian population. At this point Serbs were only in the Rashka region and had expanded their power into Northern Albania.

The battle of Kosovo 1389 was adopted as a national defining moment only in the 19th century, it was never much of an important. After this battle, the Serbian despotate became an Ottoman vassal and they seem to of taken part on the Ottoman side in the 2nd battle of Kosovo 1448 when they ambushed Albanian troops.

 

[einstein1337]

And yes, sure, some Serbs might of possible spread out into
Kosovo before the 12th century (Which there seems to be no evidence for)
And some dialects with Bulgarian influence might of developed (Prizren-Timok dialect is only claimed
to of developed later)

However, that does not mean that Serbs have been in Kosovo since 600 AD or made the main population since 600 AD
which is basically the whole Serbian claim.

For example Kosovo seems to of contained a pre-Slavic population up until 900 AD when it was invaded by Bulgarians, and I quote from Origins: Serbs, Albanians and Vlachs:

Only in the ninth century do we see the expansion of a strong Slav (or quasi-Slav) power into this region. Under a series of ambitious rulers, the Bulgarians - a Slav population which absorbed, linguistically and culturally, its ruling elite of Turkic Bulgars - pushed westwards across modern Macedonia and eastern Serbia, until by the 850s they had taken over Kosovo and were pressing on the borders of Rascia. Soon afterwards they took the western Macedonian town of Ohrid; having recently converted to Christianity, the Bulgar rulers helped to set up a bishopric in Ohrid, which thus became an important centre of Slav culture for the whole region. And at the same time the Bulgarians were pushing on into southern and central Albania, which became thoroughly settled by Bulgarian Slavs during the course of the following century.

​

Bulgarian speakers at that point had also spread out across Albania. At this point the Serbs were still in the Rascia region. Nothing suggests Serbs were ever the main inhabitants at this point.

A Serbian expansion into the area does not seem ot of fully occurred until 12th century, and all the churches and monasteries date between the period of 12th century and 14th century.

It was at this point, in the 610s or 620s, that the Emperor of the day (according to a detailed but somewhat confused account by a later Emperor-cum-historian, Constantine Porphyrogenitus) invited the Croats to come down from central Europe and deal with the Avar threat. [6] This they did, bringing with them their neighbours, the Serbs. Both populations then settled in the territories abandoned by the Avars: the Croats in modern Croatia and western Bosnia, and the Serbs in the Rascia area on the north-western side of Kosovo, and in the region of modern Montenegro. In some of these areas they supervened on an already existing Slav population, which, as a result, must gradually have taken on a 'Croat' or 'Serb' identity. The Serbs did not have anything like a state at this stage, but they developed several small tribal territories, each called a zupa and ruled by a tribal chief known as the zupan. [7]

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Serbian invasion of Northern Albania in 900 AD:

By the mid-seventh century, Serbs (or Serb-led Slavs) were penetrating from the coastal lands of Montenegro into northern Albania. Major ports and towns such as Durres and Shkodra held out against them, but much of the countryside was Slavicized, and some Slav settlers moved up the valleys into the Malesi. By the ninth century, Slav-speaking people were an important element of the population in much of northern Albania, excluding the towns and the higher mountainous areas (especially the mountains in the eastern part of the Malesi, towards Kosovo). [8] Slav-speaking people lived in the lowlands of this area, gradually becoming a major component of the urban population too, until the end of the Middle Ages

​

Kosovo did not fall within the Serb territory of Rascia, which was further to the north-west: the Serbian expansion into Kosovo began in earnest only in the late twelfth century.

​

Noel Malcolm, Michiel De Vaan and many other linguists and historians regard the Vlachs as the original inhabitants of Kosovo and not Serbs nor Slavs.




Yet the whole Serbian claim is that they are:

The most ancient inhabitants of Kosovo
They lived there 600 AD and made the main population since 600 AD
They assimilated all the natives early on
And that Kosovo is historically a Serbian old aged territory





Many of these claims seem to not be historically accurate.

 

[einstein1337]

Kosovo Vilajet (which included a bigger territory encompassing Kosovo, Southern Serbia and Macedonia) became the birthplace and center of the Albanian national movement and where it was the center of several Albanian revolts against the Ottomans such as the Albanian revolt of 1912. The revolt ended in an Albanian victory. Initially the revolt was for greater rights for Albanians within the Ottoman empire but seemed to of weakened the Empire so much paving the way for other Balkan nations for an anti-Ottoman war.

At this point (and from 1870's) all the demographics seem to show Serbs as a minority within Kosovo itself. Demographics from the 1600's show Albanians as the majority in the Western part, Serbian speakers in the Eastern part. In 1689, both sides seem to of taken part on the Austrian Habsburg side against the Ottomans.

It is also claimed the Kosovo conflict started from ancient hatreds, yet before the 19th century there seems to be no evidence of any kind of ethnic conflict.

Historian Noel Malcolm claims Serbia started laying claim to Kosovo only in the 19th century and where the first battle of Kosovo 1389 was adopted as a national defining moment, 500 years after the battle.

In the second battle of Kosovo 1448 , the Serbian despotate seems to of become an Ottoman vassal, deserting the Christian cause:

Scanderbeg intended to go “peronalmente” with an army to assist Hunyadi, but was prevented from doing so by Branković, whose lands he ravaged as punishment for the Serbian desertion of the Christian cause.

​

 

[einstein1337]

Krajina was Croatian territory settled by Serbs. Vojvodina seems to of been a Hungarian land.
Republika Srpska seems to mainly be a 90's creation invented after all the Muslims were expelled. Does not seem historically to be a thing before the 90's.

How come the Serbs want independence in these areas yet wont acknowledge it to the Kosovo Albanians ? When we look at the historical evidence we see Kosovo historically has more right to self rule than any of these areas.

 

[einstein1337]

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Kosovo was not, as Serbs claim, the "birthplace" or "cradle" of the Serb nation, and it came under Serb rule for only the last part of the medieval period. Since then it has been excluded from any Serb or Yugoslav state for more than 400 out of the last 500 years. It was conquered (but not legally annexed) by Serbia in 1912, against the wishes of the local Albanian majority population, and it became part of a Yugoslav kingdom (not a Serbian one) after 1918. In other words, out of the entire span of modern history, Kosovo has been ruled from Belgrade for less than a single lifetime.
Of course it is true that the national mythology of Serbia--a mythology developed largely by nineteenth-century ideologists--sets great store by the historic importance of Kosovo, thanks to the site of the famous battle of 1389 and the presence of some important medieval monasteries, including the Patriarchate. But modern political geography cannot be determined by old battlefields, however symbolically charged they may be by the defeats incurred at them; if that were so, France would claim Waterloo, and Germany Stalingrad. Similarly, if modern borders had to bow to religious history, Kiev would be part of Russia and Istanbul part of Greece. Any independence deal for Kosovo would naturally have to include guarantees on the protection of cultural and religious sites; but that is a separate issue, and not such a hard one to resolve.