The Ottoman says: to hell with the Serbs: troublesome coexistence in the mid-nineteenth century Belgrade through the eyes of two contemporaries: Belgrâdî Râşid and Nikola Hristić as spokesmen for respective sides

Official URL: http://192.168.1.20/record=b1304411 (Table of Contents)

The present study introduces the work of Belgrâdî Râşid, an Ottoman Muslim author writing in 19th-century Belgrade. His chronicle Ta'rîh-i Vaq'a-i Hayretnümâ-i Belgrad ve Sırbistân (the second volume) represents a unique source for the history of mid-century Belgrade and the paşalık a decade prior to the final departure of the Ottomans from the city in 1867. Its value becomes even more evident once we acknowledge the fact that the work espouses an Ottoman viewpoint of events which eventually led the Empire to the opposite of a conquest, the abandonment of the city to the Serbs. As a counterpart and a challenge to Râşid's narrative, the ''Memoirs'' of yet another beholder of the time, the Serbian official Nikola Hristić, will be brought in. The possibility to inspect two accounts written by two people, who lived in the same city in the same period, but on opposite sides, renders our task even more appealing. I have divided this study into three chapters. The first chapter, separated into three sections, will acquaint the reader with the subject matter, Râşid's and Hristic's backgrounds, and will provide a (short) literature survey on the topic in question. With a view to providing a better understanding of the period, the second chapter will relate the relevant background information. It aims at summarizing the major political developments of the first four decades of the 19th century and at illustrating aspects of everyday life in Belgrade during that period. Finally, the history of the agitated 1850s in Belgrade, as seen through the eyes of Belgrâdî Râşid and Nikola Hristić, will be illustrated in the last, the third chapter. The emphasis will be put on his depiction of the Muslim-Serbian relations and its repercussions on the everyday life in this period when the roles viable by this time had started changing.