Dejan (despot)

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Dejan and his wife Teodora, fresco in the St. John's Church of the Monastery Semen

Dejan ( Serbian - Cyrillic Дејан ; with full name probably Dejan Dragaš ; † probably around 1365) was a Serbian magnate and voivode , who under Tsar Stefan Uroš IV. Dušan carried the high dignity of a sebastocrator and despot .

Life

Dejan's family background is in the dark. The earlier assumption that he was a relative of the Macedonian magnate Jovan Oliver is rejected by current research. Konstantin Jireček considered him to be identical with the voivod Dejan Manjak , who is mentioned in a sales deed from 1333, with which Stefan Dušan officially ceded Ston and Prevlaka to the Republic of Venice .

Dejan was married to Stefan Dušan's sister Teodora Nemanjić . When Dušan was crowned emperor in Skopje in 1346 , he raised his brother-in-law to sebastokrator . Under Dušan Dejan ruled the entire east of Macedonia together with Jovan Oliver and his brother Bogdan . A letter from Pope Innocent VI addressed to him in 1355 proves his prominence also outside of Serbia . who asked for his support in the endeavor to establish a union between the Roman Catholic and Serbian Orthodox Churches .

Among other things, Dejan had the Semen monastery repainted with frescoes and several churches in his province were completely renovated. After he had completed the construction of the church of Arhiljevica , which he had donated in 1354 , he furnished it with some of his villages as metochia . From the imperial donation bull of August 10, 1354 it emerges that the Sebastokrator owned an extensive domain in the region of Kumanovo east of the Skopska Crna Gora . It originally included the old Žegligovo and Preševo counties (with the districts of Sredorek , Kozjačija and most of Pčinja ).

Map of the Serbian Empire in 1360 with the territories of the partial princes

After August 1355 Dejan was elevated to despot, either by Tsar Dušan (who died on December 20, 1355) or by his son and successor Stefan Uroš V. In addition to his extensive domains, Dejan also transferred the upper Strymontal with Welbaschd . In 1362 he was involved as an envoy in peace negotiations with the Republic of Ragusa together with the emperor Grgur Golubić .

It is not known when and under what circumstances Dejan died. His eldest son Jovan Dragaš took over his legacy , who was also granted the title of despot by Tsar Stefan Uroš. While the core area of ​​the Dejans province fell to Vlatko Paskačić , Lord of Slavište , Jovan and his brother Konstantin Dragaš were given most of the domains of the despot Jovan Oliver , although he had left six sons at his death. Jovan and Konstantin Dragaš became vassals of the Ottoman sultan Murad I in 1373 and 1378 respectively .

Dejan's daughter Teodora Dejanović was married to Žarko , the lord of Unter-Zeta , from 1356 and after 1371 to Đurađ I. Balšić .

The Zemen Monastery, one of Dejan's foundations

swell

literature

  • Милош Благојевић: Државна управа у српским средњовековним земљама. Службени лист СРЈ, Београд 2001, ISBN 86-355-0497-6 .
  • Милош Благојевић: Закон господина Константина и царице Јевдокије. In: Зборник радова Византолошког института. Vol. 44, 2007, ISSN  0584-9888 , pp. 447-458 ( PDF file; 116 kB ).
  • Божидар Ферјанчић: Деспоти у Византији и Јужнословенским земљама (= Посебна издашиа .ул. Bd. 336; Византо. Српска академија наука и уметности, Београд 1960, pp. 168–170.
  • Божидар Ферјанчић: Севастократори и кесари у Српском царству. In: Зборник Филозофског факултета. Vol. 10-1, 1970, ISSN  0352-5546 , pp. 255-269 ( digitized version ), here: pp. 259 f.
  • John Van Antwerp Fine: The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI 1994, ISBN 0-472-08260-4 .
  • Constantin Jireček : History of the Serbs. Vol. 1: Until 1371. Perthes, Gotha 1911 (reprinted by Adolf M. Hakkert, Amsterdam 1967), pp. 388, 409.
  • Раде Михаљчић: Крај Српског царства. Београдски издавачко-графички завод, Београд 1975, p. 79 ff.
  • Георгий Острого́рский : Византия и славяне. Просвета, Београд 1970, pp. 43, 271-276, 457-459.
  • Миодраг Рајичић: Севастократор Дејан. In: Историски гласник. Vol. 3-4, 1953, pp. 17-28.
  • Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization . Vol. 2: Baanes-Eznik of Kolb . Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2008, ISBN 978-2-503-52377-4 , p. 321.
  • George Christos Soulis: The Serbs and Byzantium during the Reign of Tsar Stephen Dušan (1331-1355) and his Successors. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington DC 1984, ISBN 0-88402-137-8 .
  • Erich Trapp , Rainer Walther, Hans-Veit Beyer: Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit . 3rd fascicle: Δ ... - Ἡσύχιος (= publications of the Commission for Byzantine Studies . Vol. 1/3). Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1978, ISBN 3-7001-0276-3 , p. 142 No. 6464.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ In Serbian sources he is usually called with his titles Despot Dejan and Sebastokrator Dejan . His son Jovan usually refers to himself as Despot Jovan Dragaš or just Despot Dragaš , while only one document gives Constantine this name. The name Dragaš was thus from Jovan and Konstantin and Helena Dragaš and her son Konstantin XI. used. It is quite possible that Dejan also used this name, although it is not mentioned in any source. See Острого́рский, Византия и славяне, p. 273 f.
  2. ↑ See Михаљчић, Крај, p. 67.
  3. ↑ See Fine, Late Medieval Balkans , p. 358.
  4. ↑ See Михаљчић, Крај, p. 67.
  5. ↑ See Fine, Late Medieval Balkans , p. 310.
  6. ↑ See Soulis, Serbs , p. 101.
  7. ↑ See Soulis, Serbs , p. 53.
  8. ↑ See Благојевић, Закон, p. 448.
  9. ↑ See Soulis, Serbs , p. 190.
  10. ↑ See EPLBHC 2, p. 321.
  11. ↑ See Благојевић, Државна, p. 178.
  12. ↑ See Fine, Late Medieval Balkans , p. 358.
  13. ↑ Chalkokondyles confuses Dejan with Žarko. See Jireček, Geschichte , p. 424.
personal data
SURNAME Dejan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Дејан (Serbian); Dejan Dragaš (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Serbian magnate, voivode, sebastocrator and despot, brother-in-law of Tsar Stefan Dušan
DATE OF BIRTH 13th century or 14th century
DATE OF DEATH uncertain: around 1365