Written by Dr. QAZIM NAMANI
Translation Petrit Latifi
From 1804 onwards, the number of Muslim residents in the Belgrade suburbs began to decline, although the number of houses remained unchanged. In 1833, out of the 3,000 Muslim houses that had previously existed, 1,000 of them were occupied by Christians. After 1815 and until 1820, there were a total of 120 houses built by Christians in Belgrade, while after 1820 the number of Christian houses reached 500. According to religious affiliation, the population of Belgrade was divided into Muslims, Christians and Jews. The Muslim population by origin consisted of Bosniaks, Albanians and a very small number of true Turks. In 1830, around 2,000 Jews lived in Belgrade, some of whom later moved to Smederevo.
In 1833, 1,530 Jews lived in 210 houses in Belgrade. After Serbia gained autonomy, Prince Miloš Obrenović requested a population census in 1833. According to the census at the time of the second uprising in 1815, there were 473,000 inhabitants in the territory of Serbia, which gained autonomy in 1830. In 1834, a population census was conducted, and at that time Serbia had 678,192 inhabitants. In 1834, the first population census was also conducted in the Belgrade region. It is interesting to note some data from earlier population censuses, according to which
In Belgrade from 1804 to 1830 the number of inhabitants was approximately as follows: In 1804 there were 25,000 inhabitants, in 1808 about 30,000 inhabitants, in 1816 about 30,000 inhabitants, in 1827 about 30,000 inhabitants, and in 1833 about 18,000 inhabitants. As can be seen after the first uprising until Serbia gained autonomy, the number of inhabitants in Belgrade ranged from 25,000 to 30,000 inhabitants.
The number of houses was also the same. Almost all houses in the Belgrade borough in those years were registered as Turkish or Muslim, while the number of houses of Christian merchants was very small. In the 1834 census, according to confession, 40% of the population was made up of Christians and Jews. At this time, the Muslim population was still the majority in numbers. In the 1846 census, the population of Belgrade consisted of those registered as Serbs, Jews, Roma and foreigners who appeared as a compact and rival group to the Muslim population. Muslim houses at this time had about 35% of the total number. According to this census, it was seen that there had been great changes compared to the 1834 census when Serbian and Jewish houses together in Belgrade were 769 or 25% of the total number of houses. In the 1846 census, the number of Serbian and Jewish homes had increased to 1,720 or 45%.
Jewish houses in 1846 were 4%, in 1856 their number increased to 6%, while Roma made up 1% of the total population of the city. Those registered as foreign citizens in Belgrade during the 1846 census were about 7%. According to the 1856 census, the Muslim population made up 31%, while Serbs and Vlachs together made up 61% of the population. The population of Belgrade at this time was divided according to religious affiliation. The number of places of worship at this time was as follows: 11 mosques, 4 tekkes, 2 Proto-Slavic churches for Serbs and Vlachs and 1 synagogue. During this period, the division was also made in schools as follows: 10 primary schools for the Muslim population, 1 Jewish, 1 Greek, 3 Serbian primary schools, a gymnasium, a trade school, a lyceum and a Serbian-language seminary.
In 1854, an attempt was made to differentiate the population in anthropological terms into several groups (types), the Caucasian type as it was called at that time, of Indo-European origin and to which Christians, Serbs, Vlachs, Catholics and Protestants belonged. Jews and Roma were divided into other different types. The Caucasian type constituted 92.4%. The population of Belgrade was always differentiated in religious, ethnic and social terms. In 1867, Muslims were forced to abandon the city, their houses and property were divided among Serbian citizens. Before 1867, Vlach Christians from Macedonia and Orthodox Albanians from the southern regions constituted the largest group of the population and were known as Tosks, who became the main factor in shaping the ethnic profile of the population of Belgrade. The Muslims considered Turks who moved from Belgrade were Bosniaks, Albanians, Muslims from Niš, and very few Ottomans.
In 1862, 8,000 Muslims were deported from Belgrade, and in 1867 another 15,000, so that after this deportation, only 600 Muslims remained in the city. The number of Jews in 1862 had reached 10.4% of the total population. At this time, the population of Belgrade was made up of new groups that came to the city with a heterogeneous ethnic and religious structure. After the migration of Muslims in 1862, a new population came to the city from the central regions. Belgrade at this time was led by different peoples and had no leadership model, which is why it was said that as many houses as there are traditions (customs) and the population spoke the Serbian language with difficulty.
Thus, after 1862, the Serbs slowly began to take control of trade, crafts and culture. In the documents preserved in the historical archive of the city of Belgrade, in literature and in the recorded memories of old citizens, there were quite a few names of citizens that indicated their earlier non-Slavic affiliation.
One of them was Arnautović Ilija, an officer with the rank of officer, who bore this surname because he had come to Belgrade from the south, namely from the Albanian territories. At this time, many other names and surnames are also noted that show that other citizens had also come to Belgrade from the southern regions, such as: Demir Kumanova, Nikoll Kosova and others who were very active in the war against Turkey, more specifically in the displacement of ethnic Albanians from the Sandžak of Niš.
The Zograph brothers had also come to Belgrade from Macedonia, then other Albanians from Kićevo, Dibra, Ohrid, Manastir, Skopje and other cities who had various professions and trades. In 1878, Serbia in the south expanded into four districts (Niš, Pirot, Vranje, and Toplice).
After the expansion, the population census was conducted in 1884 and Serbia now had 1,901,736 inhabitants. The migration of the indigenous population of Albanian and Vlach origin to Belgrade from the south, as well as the arrival of other immigrants from the diaspora, influenced Belgrade to develop in step with other European cities. The process of assimilation of the population of Belgrade developed so rapidly that according to the 1889 census, only 69 citizens were registered as Albanians in Belgrade. According to this census, Belgrade at that time had a total of 55,868 inhabitants, of whom 44,855 were registered as Serbs, while 11,013 were registered as non-Serbs.
In December 1900, the biweekly newspaper “Bratimstvo” (Brotherhood) began to be published in Belgrade, the name of which was also written in Albanian in Cyrillic letters. The owner of this newspaper was Aleksa Bogosavljevic-Berisha of Albanian origin. The data documented above clearly show the need for research and studies in this field in the future, which we believe will be a surprising topic for the historiography of the Balkans if the number of Albanians and Vlachs who were Serbized during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries is studied and described objectively. In the 1921 census, Serbia had 4,819,430 inhabitants. Of these, 439,010 inhabitants lived in Kosovo, while 1,536,994 inhabitants lived in Vojvodina.
Source
Revista Shqiptari Nr. 9. Bukuresht (Bucharest) 2019.
