Commemorating and Identifying in the Ottoman Central Balkans

This paper examines the identifications of Orthodox Christians in the Central Balkans as articulated in two commemorative practices: the veneration of saints and history writing. Drawing attention to the term Central Balkans allows us to step away from equating the names and categories of identifications (such as the territory) from the sources and their present meanings. Namely, since the middle of the 15th century, categories, and with it, communities, became objects of (re-)imagination, thereby rendering processes of identifications increasingly complex. In this context, the Central Balkans refers to the part of the Ottoman Patriarchate of Peć that once was a medieval Serbian state, as well as the region of Srem.