from the 9th century One of the oldest monuments of the area is the
Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul first built in the Roman era and reconstructed in the 9th century. Over many centuries the city area of
Stari Ras was a borderline contested by the
First Bulgarian Empire,
Serbian Principality and
Byzantine Empire. Since the late-12th century, the region of modern Novi Pazar served as the principal province of the Serbian realm. It was an
administrative division, usually under the direct rule of the monarch and sometimes as an
appanage. It was the
crownland, seat or appanage of various Serbian states throughout the Middle Ages, including the
Serbian Kingdom (1217–1345) and the
Serbian Empire (1345–1371). In 1427, the region and the remnant of Ras, as part of the
Serbian Despotate, was ruled by
Serbian despot Đurađ Branković. One of the markets was called "despotov trg" (Despot's square). In 1439, the region was captured by the
Ottoman Empire, but was reconquered by the Serbian Despotate in 1444. In the summer of 1455, the Ottomans conquered the region again, and named the settlement of Trgovište
Eski Bazar (Old Market). Novi Pazar was formally founded as a city in its own right in 1461 by Ottoman general
Isa-Beg Ishaković, the Bosnian governor of the district (
sanjak) who also founded
Sarajevo. Ishaković decided to establish a new town on the area of Trgovište as an urban center between
Raška and Jošanica, where at first he built a mosque, a public bath, a marketplace, a hostel, and a compound. The town was the capital of the
Sanjak of Novi Pazar during Ottoman rule. From 1878 to 1908, it was controlled by
Austria-Hungary, and from 1908 to 1913, it was again part of the Ottoman empire under the
Kosovo vilayet. It became part of the
Kingdom of Serbia during the
First Balkan War in 1912, and then in 1918 the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The area has traditionally had a large number of Albanians and Muslim Slavs with a different culture from the Orthodox Serbs. In May 1901, Albanians pillaged and partially burned the cities of Novi Pazar, Sjenica and Prishtina, and
massacred Serbs in the area of Ibar Kolašin. A contemporary report stated that when the Serb forces entered the Sandjak of Novi Pazar, they "pacified" the Albanians. In the
Battle for Novi Pazar, fought at the end of 1941 during the
Second World War, the
Chetniks, initially supported by the
Partisans, unsuccessfully tried to capture the city. Following the
overthrow of Slobodan Milošević on 5 October 2000, newly elected
Prime Minister of Serbia Zoran Đinđić made considerable efforts to help economically the whole area of Novi Pazar. Also, with the help of Đinđić, the
International University of Novi Pazar was founded in 2002. He made close relations with the leaders of
Bosniaks, as part of his wider plan to reform Serbia. Twelve years following his
assassination, the Novi Pazar Assembly decided to rename one street in his name. ==Demographics==