Drobnjaci

Drobnjaci
Ethnicity	Serb[1][2] (Montenegrin Serb)[3]
Current region	Montenegro
Information
Place of origin	Central Montenegro
Notable members	Vuk Karadžić Jovan Cvijić Veselin Šljivančanin
Traditions	Slava of Đurđevdan

Drobnjaci (Serbian Cyrillic: Дробњаци, pronounced [dro̞bɲǎːt͡si]) is an Old Herzegovinian clan and region in northern Montenegro (municipalities from Nikšić to Šavnik, Žabljak and Pljevlja). Its unofficial centre is in Boan/Šavnik. The Drobnjaci families are predominantly Serb Orthodox, with a majority declaring as Serbs, the rest as Montenegrins. The Orthodox families have Saint George (Đurđevdan) as their patron saint (Serbian custom "slava") and the majority of Drobnjak churches are devoted to Saint George as well. Families of distant Drobnjak origin exist in Serbia (with Kosovo), Bosnia and Herzegovina and Lika (in Croatia).

History

Origin and early history

The surname Drobnjak ("Bran Drobnjak") is first recorded in 1354, and as a clan (pl. Drobnjaci) in 1390. Drobnjak had a semi-autonomy and preserved its old tribal organization, which was predicated on democratic and universal suffrage, until its annexation to Montenegro. At the head of the tribe was a hereditary knez, and the head of the army commander, who was elected to the tribal Parliament, and confirmed by the Vizier in Travnik. The Parliament was chaired by the knez, who had right to choose all chiefs, who were all carrying weapons. Decisions had to be unanimous.

In the late 16th century, Serbian monks Damjan and Pavle of Mileševa sent a letter to the Pope, explaining "what is Serbia"; Drobnjaci are recognized as one of the old Serb katuns.^[4]

17th and 18th century

On the religious holiday of Đurđevdan (Saint George), 23 April 1604, the Drobnjaci defeated the Ottomans, and all Drobnjak families symbolically became pobratim (blood brothers) and adopted Đurđevdan as their slava and most important feast day. The Vulovići, Đurđići, Kosorići, Tomići and Cerovići settled in the Drobnjak county in the 17th century, originally from Banjani. In 1694, Serb Uskoks, driven out by the Turks from Albania, settled in Drobnjak county.^[5]

In 1789, Ivan Radonjić, the governor of Montenegro, wrote for the second time to the Empress of Russia: "Now, all of us Serbs from Montenegro, Herzegovina, Banjani, Drobnjaci, Kuči, Piperi, Bjelopavlići, Zeta, Klimenti, Vasojevići, Bratonožići, Peć, Kosovo, Prizren, Arbania, Macedonia belong to your Excellency and pray that you, as our kind mother, send over Prince Sofronije Jugović."^[6]

19th century

After Karađorđe Petrović was chosen as leader of the uprising in the Smederevo Sanjak (1804), smaller uprisings also broke out in Drobnjaci (1805), Rovca and Morača.^[7]

Under Prince Nicholas I of Montenegro and the Congress of Berlin recognition (1878), the Serb tribes of Piva, Banjani, Niksici, Saranci, Drobnjaci and a large number of the Rudinjani formed the Old Herzegovina region of the new Montenegrin state.^[8]

Conflict with the Čengić lords

Smail-Aga Čengić, an Ottoman feudal lord, fought frequently with the Drobnjaci clan, and in letters of Njegoš in 1839 it is known that Rustem-Aga, the son of Smail, had often raped local women of the Drobnjaci and Pivljani. The Drobnjaci had enough of the violations of their women, and approached Petar II Njegoš (who had lost eight family members in the Battle of Grahovo), organizing a plot against the Ottoman lords, planning to first kill Smail. The main conspirators were Novica Cerović and Đoko Malović. They started by asking Smail to collect the taxes himself, and in September 1840 the Aga is putting up his tent at Mljetičak, in eastern Drobnjaci. In the night, the force attacks the camp and Smail and a number of Turks are killed. The circumstances are mentioned in a letter to the Russian consul in Dubrovnik: "The notorious criminal, Smail-aga Cengic, the musselim of Gacko, Pljevlja, Kolašin and Drobnjaci, attacked our frontier regions with several thousand men almost every year. This year too he pitched his tent three hours away from our border, and started collecting troops to invade our tribe of the Morača. Our men found out about his evil intention earlier, and gathered about 300-400 men, and they attacked his tent on the morning of September 23rd, cut down the Aga himself and about 40 of his like-minded criminals... This prominent person was more important in these regions that any of the viziers."^[9][10] The events are richly attested in Serb epic poetry.^[11]

20th century

The Drobnjaci supported the White List at the Podgorica Assembly p. 285

In 1927, Drobnjaci had 40 settlements of 2,200 houses with 14,000-15,000 inhabitants. The capital was Šavnik.

On April 1, 1945, over thirty conspirators were executed in Šavnik, of whom a large number were of the Karadžići.^[12]

Brotherhoods and families

The most notable brotherhoods (bratstva) of the clan are the Abazović, Cerović, Karadžić, Malović, Čupić, Kosorić, Jauković and Zarubica families. The brotherhoods of Vulovići, Đurđići, Kosorići, Tomići and Cerovići, were established when they settled in the Drobnjak from Banjani in the 17th century. The clan was originally formed by five related brotherhoods: Cerović, Đurđić, Kosorić, Tomić, Vulović and Žugić. The Drobnjaci are Serbian Orthodox in majority, the notably mixed Muslim/Serb family is Kalabic, the Muslim families are Selimovic and Dzigal.

• Abazović
• Cerović
• Čupić
• Drobnjak
• Đukić
• Đurđić
• Đurđević
• Jotić
• Jauković
• Jakšić
• Kankaraš
• Parušić
• Karadžić
• Kosorić
• Maloviċ
• Memedović
• Ninković
• Novaković
• Radojević
• Tomić
• Vujović
  • Selimović
  • Ovčine
• Džigal
• Kalabić
• Grbović
• Janjić
• Janković
• Lasica

The Uskoci and Šaranci clans are also regarded as part of, or kin to, the Drobnjaci.

Notable people

• Novica Cerović (1805-1895), warrior, senator and Drobnjak chief
• Jovan Cvijić (1865–1927), geographer, ethnographer, geologist, anthropologist, and historian, president of the Serbian Royal Academy of Sciences, and rector of the University of Belgrade.
• Milutin "Mima" Karadžić, actor and producer
• Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (1787-1864), Serb linguist, major reformer of the Serbian language
• Radovan Karadžić (b. 1945), former president of Republika Srpska
• Živojin Mišić (1855-1921), general, and participant in all of Serbia's wars from 1876 to 1918, and Chief of the General Staff of Army of The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes 1920-1921
• Veselin Šljivančanin (b. 1953), Yugoslav officer
• Bogdan Memedović-Drobnjak, jurist, writer, and freedom fighter

See also

• Drobnjačka međa, in Banjani, Montenegro
• Drobnjaci, in Skopska Crna Gora, Republic of Macedonia

References

1. ^ Vasa Djeric, O srpskom imenu po zapadnijem krajevima nasega naroda /On the Serbian Name in the Western Lands of our People! (Biograd, 1900), pp.21-22.
2. ^ Dimitrije-Dimo Vujovic, Prilozi izucavanju crnogorskog nacionalnog pitanja /The Research of the Montenegrin Nationality/ (Niksic: Univerzitetska rijec, 1987), p.172.
3. ^ "The South Slav journal , Vol 28, Issue 1–2" (2008), Dositey Obradovich Circle, p. 15
4. ^ The Serbs, p. 131
5. ^ The history of Servia, and the Servian revolution, p. 422
6. ^ Vujovic, op.cit., p. 175.
7. ^ Dimitrije Bogdanović, "Knjiga o Kosovu", Tursko Doba, V, 1. Srpski ustanci i položaj Srba na Kosovu do prvog oslobodilačkog rata 1876.
8. ^ The national question in Yugoslavia: origins, history, politics, by Ivo Banac^{[page needed]}
9. ^ The poetics of Slavdom: the mythopoeic foundations of Yugoslavia, p. 469
10. ^ "Yugoslavia and its Historians, Understanding the war of 1990s" by Wendy Bracewell
11. ^ The Growth of Literature, Chapter IX
12. ^ Milovan Djilas, "Wartime", 1977, p. 156

Litterature

• Константин Јиречек, Историја Срба. I, III;
• Цвијић, Насеља, И;
• Љ. Стојановић, Стари записи и натписи. I, II, III,
• Народна енциклопедија 1927 г., Светозар Томић
• Dimitrije-Dimo Vujovic, Prilozi izucavanju crnogorskog nacionalnog pitanja /The Research of the Montenegrin Nationality/ (Niksic: Univerzitetska rijec, 1987)
• Piva i Pivljani