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DOI: 10.34298/9788677431488059

UDC: 94:711.61(497.11)“14/15“

pp. 59–76

language: serbian

Aleksandar Jakovljević

MARKET-PLACE KONAREVO IN THE NAHIYE OF MAGLIČ, 15TH–16TH CENTURIES – MEDIEVAL MARKET-PLACE IN THE EARLY OTTOMAN SOURCES

Summary

The main purpose of this article is to emphasise the fact that the place Konarevo, near today’s city of Kraljevo, was mentioned as a market-place in the early Ottoman tapu tahrir registers from 15th–16th centuries. Although we have at our disposal text of Žiča charters, with the first data of Konarevo in historical sources from the first half of the 13th century, it has not been confırmed as a trading-place in existing medieval sources. It is known that early Ottoman sources provide an insight into the phenomena of the late Middle Ages, for which we usually do not have at our disposal preserved, authentic source materials. Additionally, early Ottoman defters indicate the existence of annual fair in Konarevo with its mass gathering of population which was the target of the strategic and sudden attacks of Hungarian armies in 1476 during the war with Ottomans.

Having in mind the appearance of the market-place in Konarevo with its annual fairs, further questions were raised in the second part of this article leading to establishment of the main preconditions which enabled such phenomena. Road communications that connected the area of Maglič with the southern and northern parts of the Serbian state, combined with beginning of the mining activities in medieval Serbian kingdom during the 13th century, established favourable background for general development of trade during 14th–15th centuries. Above all, the spatial position of Konarevo in the immediate surroundings of the Žiča monastery as the seat of the Serbian church, to whom it belonged, was of particular importance in the framework of monastery’s economy and its development. Similarities were observed comparing it with the case of the second church’s seat in Peć, also attested as marked-place with its fairs at the beginning of the 15th century.

Key words: Konarevo, Maglič, Žiča, market-place, fairs, defters, 15–16th century.