Novi Pazar - History

History

The medieval capital of Serbia (Raška) Ras (ca. 880-960) existed within the borders of modern Novi Pazar. The archaeological complex is situated in Postenj, 2 km north from the city. The Church of St. Apostles Peter and Paul, the oldest church building in Serbia, was founded in the 4th century at the top of a hill within the medieval city (known as Arsa in Byzantine Greek). The first Serbian bishopric, the Eparchy of Ras, was founded by 871 after the Christianization of Serbs during the rule of Prince Mutimir. In 1427, the remnant of Ras (known as Trgovište) was held by Serbian despot Đurađ Branković (r. 1427-1456); one of the markets was called "despotov trg". The region falls into the hands of the Ottoman Empire in 1439, but is retaken by the Serbs in 1444. In the summer of 1455, the Ottomans took Trgovište, which name they translated into Turkish, calling it Eski Bazar (Old Market). It was the seat of the Ras Vilayet until its disestablishment in 1463 following the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia, then it became part of the Jeleč Vilayet.

Novi Pazar was formally founded as a city in its own right in 1461 by Ottoman general Isa-Beg Isaković, who was a born Orthodox Christians with the name Isak Hranić. He decided to establish very new town on the area of Trgovište in much better living condition between rivers Raška and Jošanica, where at first he built a mosque, a public bath, a marketplace, a hostel, and a compound. He was also the founder of other cities, among most notable is the city of Sarajevo. The first written document which mention Novi Pazar dates back to the 15th century, and describes the decision of Ragusan Council to appoint a consul in this town. That reinforces the idea that the town was already developed back then, thanks to its outstanding geographic position, as it was at the intersection of important roads leading to Dubrovnik, Niš, Sofia, Constantinople, Salonica, Sarajevo, Belgrade and Budapest. Many authors wrote about Novi Pazar and Evliya Celebi noted that it was one of the biggest towns in the Balkans in the 17th century.

The city was the capital of the Ottoman Sanjak of Novi Pazar that existed between the 15th and the 20th century as a constitutive unit of Bosnia Eyalet. Nikola Bošković (1642–1721), the father of the famous Ragusan scientist Ruđer Bošković (1711–1787), migrated to Novi Pazar, where he spent the last years of his life.

The name Novi Pazar (then Novi Bazar) entered the world encyclopedias as a synonym for the historical Sandžak region in 1878, the year when the Congress of Berlin designated the entire region as "corpus separatum" named Sanjak of Novi Pazar. The Sanjak of Novi Pazar was occupied and administered by Austria-Hungary from 1878 to 1908. In 1908 it was returned to the Ottoman Empire, which ruled this territory until it was recaptured by Serbia in 1912 during the First Balkan War. After World War I, the town of Novi Pazar rapidly lost its importance. Today, Novi Pazar is the main economic and cultural centre and the largest city in the south Raška region, also known as Sandžak region (followed by Bijelo Polje in Montenegro) and the second economic centre of Raška District, after Kraljevo.