It used to be an empire

There are few personalities, not only in our country but also in the world, whose name has been mentioned throughout history for centuries. Stefan Dušan (1308–1355) is one of them. Born from the medieval Nemanjić state-building dynasty, Dušan's personality has remained a symbol of power in the collective memory of the Serbian people to this day.

The Nemanjić dynasty ruled Serbia for two centuries, from 1169 to 1371. In eight generations, as many as there were in the male line, more than sixty members of the dynasty are known by name, while nineteen of them were declared saints by the Serbian Orthodox Church. The founder of the Serbian medieval state and the progenitor of the dynasty was the great Raš prefect Stevan Nemanja.

When inheriting, Nemanjići will not respect the rule of primogeniture, so Nemanja will be succeeded by his middle son Stevan. The royal branch of Nemanjić begins with Stevan (Prvovenčani is added to his name), followed by kings: Radoslav, Vladislav, Uroš I, Dragutin, Milutin and Stefan Dečanski.

But Nemanja founded not only the Serbian state but also the Serbian church. In this activity, he will be succeeded and surpassed by his son Rastko, the latter Saint Sava, who made the Serbian Church independent (1219) and became its first archbishop.

EMPIRE: Medieval Serbia reached the zenith of state power during the reign of Emperor Dušan (1331–1355). Having previously expanded the state - it stretched from the Sava to the Ionian and Aegean seas, including Mount Athos - Stefan Dečanski's son declared himself emperor (at the end of 1345), and was ceremonially crowned in Skopje, on Easter, April 16, 1346. The preparation for the coronation also included the elevation of the Serbian autocephalous archbishopric to the rank of patriarchy, so Dušan received the imperial crown and blessing from the first Serbian patriarch Ioaniki.

Dušan died in full strength, suddenly, under unknown circumstances, on December 20, 1355, before reaching his fifth decade of life. He failed to achieve his ultimate imperial goal, the conquest of Constantinople. He left the Serbian state the largest territorially in its history, but the heir, son Uroš, named after the folk singer Nejaki, failed to preserve it. Uroš died at the age of thirty-three, on December 4, 1371, which is considered the year of the fall of the Serbian empire.

CODE: Emperor Dušan bequeathed us the most important written monument of medieval Serbia - named after him Dušanov code. For the ruler, it was a confirmation of power and the right to the imperial crown, but, above all, it was supposed to serve the purpose of strengthening and stabilizing the greatly expanded state.

The first part of the Code was adopted at the state assembly in Skopje on May 21, 1349. Its 135 members were based on Byzantine law because Dušan, declaring himself the emperor of the Serbs and Greeks, also emphasized his claim to legitimate rule over all the subjects of the Byzantine Empire. The dynamic development of a powerful state caused new situations, so already in 1354, the Code was supplemented with another 66 articles, so there were 201 in total.

The Code primarily regulated the position of the church, after the ruler the most influential factor in the empire. The state protected the church, while it, in return, through its influence on the believers ensured obedience to the state authority, to which it prescribed divine origin in its sermons. Also, the Code contained a number of provisions that prevented the effect of the aggressive policy of the Catholic Church towards the East. The protection of Orthodoxy was a priority of the emperor himself, so it never happened that the emperor and the patriarch found themselves on opposite sides. At this point, it is important to mention something that will happen later: during centuries of slavery under the Turks, the Serbian people partly adopted customs, language, costumes, and even mentality from foreigners, but that is why the faith remained completely pure - not a single one the element of Islam never entered Orthodoxy.

Next in terms of influence in Dušan's empire was the noble, who was in rivalry with the ruler: the ruler aspired to a strong central authority, while the noble wanted to strengthen his power and increase his possessions. With the provisions of the Code, Dušan managed to limit the nobleman in her plans.

Civil and inheritance law were represented by a small number of provisions in Dušan's Code, probably because the legal relations of that time were, in many cases, governed by customary law.

A large number of articles of the Code referred to criminal law or "sinners". Punishments were in accordance with the degree of guilt, from fines in money or livestock, through beatings and mutilations (that part of the body with which the crime was committed), to the death penalty. Corporal and death sentences were carried out publicly, as a warning to the citizens and to make the humiliation of the guilty as great as possible.

LOST PA FOUND: The original manuscript of Dušan's code has not been preserved, but around 20 copies from the period from the 9th to the 1935th century were found. The fate of the Prizren copy is particularly interesting. Namely, during the First World War, a German soldier saved the manuscript, along with other archival documents, from a burning train near Kruševac. He took the manuscript to Germany and after a few years decided to sell it. A good connoisseur of antiquities noticed the manuscript in an antique shop, and soon after it was in the possession of the German government. At an appropriate ceremony held in Belgrade on September XNUMX, XNUMX, the German representative in Belgrade, Von Herren, handed over the copy of the Code to Milan Kašanin, the director of the Prince Pavle Museum.

Dušan's Code, the most important written monument of medieval Serbia, is today preserved in the National Museum in Belgrade, while its creator and the first Serbian emperor rests in the Church of St. Mark, also in Belgrade.

Zorica Janković