Written by: Fahri Xharra.
Serbian Shajkaqa and the origin of Serbs
Dr. Skender Rizaj asks and answers: “Who are the Serbs?” “Judging by the historical sources known so far, it can be said that Serbs by origin are not Slavs, just as they are not indigenous to the Balkans, much less in Kosovo. Even though almost the whole world talks about this, especially science does not know them.
“For the origin of a people, be they Slavs, the auxiliary sciences of history have a special role, especially: Archaeology and pottery and filigree, weapons and burial methods of the Illyrians, Cyrillic paleography, of the Slavs, diplomacy (especially documents in Latin and Greek, chronology, seragistry, heraldry, genealogy, bibliography, archival studies, toponymy, phytonomy, etc., in general, of peoples, etc.
“Serbs actually have Turkish origin. They are descended from the Turko-Avar tribe”. Around the 7th century, they, with many other Turkish tribes, crossed the Danube River and settled on the right bank of the Smederevo area. They were, like all Turkish tribes, nomads and knights.
Mr. Rizaj emphasizes: “Not even the name Serbian has Slavic origin”, it is a professional name with Iranian-Turkish etymology”. He then adds: “The Serbs, before settling in the Balkans, were mercenaries in the service of the Iranian rulers, and as mercenaries they came to this region. This status of these Avar knights in the new Balkan environment was also guaranteed by the Byzantine emperors.”
“According to the studies of the Russian historians Artamanov and Pletnev as well as the Serbian ones Jovan Deretic, Mihajlo Stanishic; some Albanian tribes, sometime between the 8th and 9th centuries, after the pressure of their Caucasian neighbors the Khazars, left their eastern territory on the shores of the Caspian Sea (in today’s Azerbaijan and Dagestan), and with the help of the Arabs arrived in southern Italy. ” These are what the Serbs say about us. We did not come from those parts.
One thing that I have found during my studies of the Serbs is that their entire “history” written by them and their friends is nothing more than a history stolen from us, a change of names and an adaptation to cover their historical void with something that was never theirs.
“Serbs are actually of Turkish origin. They are descended from the Turko-Avar tribes” originating from the lands of Persia, present-day Iran. Modern tools of the time enable us to reach spectacular conclusions about the origins of the Serbs, the self-proclaimed “alien people”.
In the conference called “Pre-Slavic Ethnic Elements in the Balkans and the Ethnogenesis of the South Slavs” (1968) it was concluded that “to this day archaeology has not been able to provide us with a document for a massive influx of Slavs into the Balkan peninsula during the 6th century. But they were simply Turko-Avars.
” Today, Slovenes, Croats, Bosnians and Serbs are ultimately only speakers of Slavic languages, but for their ancestors it can be asked what they were: Avars, Turks, Bulgarians or something else (Denis Bašić The roots of the religious, Ethnic and National Identity of SSBH)
“The civilization of Persia has left deep traces in the culture and ideas of the Serbs. Their tribes lived on horses, while their dwelling was a cart pulled by oxen. According to clothing, customs, culture, they were indistinguishable from the nomadic Persian tribes. The famous Serbian hood – šajkača (šajkaqa) – also originated from their hood” (Miodrag Milanović: Srpski stari vek- etnogeneza Srba).
The difference between today’s Serbs and “former Serbs” is very great, says the Serbian historian Sima Čirković in his book “Serbs in the Middle Ages”.
A similarity or origin of the Serbs with the present-day Qashqai tribe of Iran.? Who are these Qashqai (Persian قشقایی)? An agglomeration of nomads who today live in the provinces of Fars, Khuzestan and Isfahan. They speak two languages, Persian and Qashqai, a Turkic language. The Qashqai were and still are a nomadic pastoral people.
Every year they move their herds from the summer mountain pastures north of Shiraz to their winter pastures in the warm lowlands near the Persian Gulf. (Hawley, Walter A. (1913) Oriental Rugs Antique & Modern. Reprint: Dover Publications, New York)
The tribes of Central Asia, driven by wars, intertribal strife and floods, were forced to leave their steppes in order to seek “new” lands for themselves, as the Huns, Visigoths, and the Bulgars invaded India and Europe. The Turkic races, abandoning their lands where they had grown for centuries, began to move early between the Altai Mountains and the Caspian Sea.
A Qashqai writes: “We are a Turkic race and of the Turkic language; some say that we are descendants of the Ogur Turkic tribe, known for their fierceness and beastly behavior, and our name Qashqai is derived from the Turkic Kashka, which means “Horse with a white star on its forehead.” We come from Kashgar.
They are known for their woolen clothes.
Every historical course, in its own way, is a testimony not only of its own development and destiny, but also of the course of its civilization and the currents through which a people has passed; the same goes for its clothing.” Likewise, the šajkača, which has its place in Serbian folk clothing, and for Serbs is valued as something national with a special emphasis on the history it has gone through and at the same time as a reminder of the history and destiny of a people and at the same time as a synonym for Serbia (Mile Nedeljković ŠAJKAČA poreklo i značaj srpske kape)”
“When the Serbs volunteered to join the Austrian Christian army in the war against Islam, at the same time dreaming of liberating their country from the Turks (Mile Nedeljković, ibid.) then the Serbs received the uniform prepared by the Austro-Hungarians for free. Of particular importance in this was the “shajkaqa” hood that the Serbian army wore on its head in the wars of 1876-1878.” Why did Austria, when designing the uniform of the Serbian soldier, also include the shajkaqa? To show them their origin or something else?
From studies on the shajkaqa, dilemmas are seen in the opinions of Serbian historians about Serbian “pride”. Some absolutely disagree with this pride. “The civilization of Persia has left deep traces in the culture and ideas of the Serbs. Their tribes lived on horses, while their dwelling was a cart pulled by oxen.
According to clothing, customs, culture, they were indistinguishable from the nomadic Persian tribes. The famous Serbian hood also originates from their hood – šajkača (šajkaqa)” (Miodrag Milanović: Srpski stari vek- etnogeneza Srba). So, from their desire to show “autochthonousness” in these lands, they do not agree that someone should highlight their past and true origin.
There are many things that provide evidence of their Turko-Avar origin, but it needs to be studied. The nature of my writing today does not allow me to expand too much, but here is another example. The Serbian name “Gospodar” for “Lord” derives from the Altaic people who borrowed the word from the Persian “Gospanddar” which once meant “owner of sheep”.
The Serbs were converted to Orthodox Christianity by order of Heraclius, in order to alleviate the chaos brought by the Avar-Turkic-Slavs to the lands of Illyricum through religion. (Books that show the Turco-Avar origin of the Serbs are “Balkan worlds: the first and last Europe”
Traian Stoianovich; “The Cambridge Medieval History Series “volumes 1-5 By JB Bury; “The Roots of the Religious, Ethnic, and National Identity of the Bosnian … Denis Bašić; “In Search of the Lost Tribe: The Origins and Making of the Croation Nation” Osman Karatay etc. etc.)
Articles
https://gazetadielli.com/shajkaqa-serbe-dhe-origjina-e-serbeve/
Sources
Balkan worlds: the first and last Europe.
Traian Stoianovich; “The Cambridge Medieval History Series “volumes 1-5 By J.B. Bury;
“The Roots of the Religious, Ethnic, and National Identity of the Bosnian SSBH”.
Denis Bašić; “In Search of the Lost Tribe: The Origins and Making of the Croation Nation“ Osman Karatay.
