Ottoman Chronicles

INTRODUCTION

Amongst the abundant holdings that make up Dečani Monastery’s treasury is this collection of legal proceedings in Turkish. Preserved in the Monastery throughout the period of Ottoman rule, these documents were necessary for the survival of the Monastery and its property, and are evidence of the rights and existing order in which the Monastery existed from the very beginning of foreign occupation. From the second half of the 19yh century onwards, and especially since the since the liberation of the region in 1912, these documents became an inexhaustible source of research not only mattters concerning Dečani Monastery, but also for the greater economic-political position and legal status of the Serbian Church under Ottoman rule …