- Banat uprising 1594
The Serb uprising in Banat in
1594 was one of the three largest uprisings in the Serbian history and the largest one before theFirst Serbian Uprising , lead byKarađorđe .In the
Banat region (Then part of the OttomanEyalet of Temeşvar ), in the area aroundVršac , a large uprising began against the rule of the Ottoman. The leader of this uprising wasTeodor Nestorović , the Bishop of Vršac. Other leaders wereSava ban and voivodVelja Mironić .For a short time, the Serb rebels captured several cities in
Banat , includingVršac , Bečkerek, andLipova , as well asTitel andBečej inBačka . The size of this uprising is illustrated by the verse from one Serbian national song: "Sva se butum zemlja pobunila, Šest stotina podiglo se sela, Svak na cara pušku podigao!" ("The whole land has rebelled, a six hundred villages arose, everybody pointed his gun against the emperor").The rebellion had the character of a
holy war , the Serb rebels carrying flags with the image ofSaint Sava . TheSinan Pasha who led the Ottoman army ordered that green flag ofMuhammad should be brought fromDamascus to counter the Serbian flag, and burned the mortal remains of Saint Sava inBelgrade .Eventually, the uprising was crushed, and most of the Serbs from this region, fearing Ottoman retaliation, fled to
Transylvania , leaving the Banat region deserted. The Ottoman authorities, who needed population in this fertile land, promised mercy to all who returned. The Serb population did come back, but the authorities' mercy did not apply to the leader of the rebellion, Bishop Teodor Nestorović, whose skin was striped as a punishment.References
#Dušan Belča, Mala istorija Vršca, Vršac, 1997.
#Dr. Dušan J. Popović, Srbi u Vojvodini, knjige 1-3, Novi Sad, 1990.
#Dr. Drago Njegovan, Prisajedinjenje Vojvodine Srbiji, Novi Sad, 2004.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.