Background: Ottoman conquest of the Raška region During the
Middle Ages,
Raška was one of the central regions of
Medieval Serbia. Incursions by Ottoman Turks began in late 14th century, following the
Battle of Kosovo in 1389 and the creation of the Turkish
frontier march () of
Skopje in 1392. The final conquest of the Raška region occurred in 1455, when
Isa-Beg Isaković, the Ottoman Bosnian governor of Skopje, captured the south-western parts of the
Serbian Despotate. At first, Raška was included in the frontier march of Skopje, the governor of which, Isa-Beg Isaković, decided to create a new stronghold near the old market site of Staro Trgovište (, literally meaning "old market place"). The new site () was therefore called
Novi Pazar (, meaning "new market place"). Isaković built a
mosque here, and also a public bath, a hostel, and a compound. Novi Pazar initially belonged to the Jeleč
vilayet of the
Skopsko Krajište ("Skopje Frontier March"). Other vilayets were Ras and Sjenica. The region of Novi Pazar remained part of the Sanjak of Bosnia until 1864.
Establishment of the Sanjak of Novi Pazar Following the promulgation in 1864 of the
Vilayet Law and the reorganization of the
Eyalet of Bosnia in 1865, the region of Novi Pazar became a separate sanjak with its administrative seat in the city of
Novi Pazar. Initially, it comprised the
kazas (districts) of Yenivaroş, Mitroviça, Gusinye, Trgovište, Akova, Kolaşin, Prepol, and Taşlıca. Initially, the Sanjak of Novi Pazar belonged to the Vilayet of Bosnia, prior to becoming a part of the newly established
Kosovo Vilayet in 1878. It included most of the present day
Sandžak region (named after the Sanjak of Novi Pazar) – also known as
Raška – as well as northeastern parts of Montenegro and some northern parts of Kosovo (around
Mitrovica).
Congress of Berlin (1878) At the
Congress of Berlin in 1878, the
Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister
Andrássy obtained, in addition to the
Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the right to station garrisons in the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, which remained under
Ottoman administration. The Sanjak continued to separate Serbia from Montenegro, and it was envisaged that the Austro-Hungarian garrisons there would open the way for a dash to Salonika aimed at "bring[ing] the western half of the Balkans under permanent Austrian influence." "High [Austro-Hungarian] military authorities desired [an ...] immediate major expedition with Salonika as its objective." Further administrative changes soon followed. In 1880, the entire western part of Novi Pazar Sanjak was reorganized and a separate
Sanjak of Pljevlja was established there, which included the
kazas (districts) of
Pljevlja (its seat),
Prijepolje, and the
mundirate (branch office) in
Priboj: these were the locations of Austro-Hungarian garrisons. The Austro-Hungarian garrisons were withdrawn from the region in 1908, following Austria-Hungary's
formal annexation of the neighbouring
Ottoman vilayet of Bosnia, which had also belonged
de jure to the Ottoman Empire until 1908, but been under
Austro-Hungarian military occupation since the
Treaty of Berlin in 1878.
Balkan Wars (1912–1913) and the end of Ottoman rule In the aftermath of the Ottoman defeat during the
First Balkan War of 1912–1913, the territory of the Ottoman sanjaks of Pljevlja, Sjenica and Pristina were divided between
Serbia and
Montenegro under the terms of the
Treaty of London (1913), with the region of Pljevlja becoming part of Montenegro and those of Sjenica and Novi Pazar, together with the rest of the Priština Sanjak, becoming parts of Serbia. Carlo Papa di Castiglione d'Asti (1869-1955), an Italian major and military attaché in Belgrade and Bucharest from 1908 to 1913, observed the advancing Serbian army. He reported that the army exterminated the Albanian population of
Novi Pazar to facilitate Serbian domination. When Serb troops entered the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, hundreds of civilians were killed. The Ibar Army under General
Mihailo Živković entered the
sanjak and pacified the Albanian population with
"soletudinem faciunt pacem appelant" ("They make a desert and call it peace"). ==Population==