Kutmichevitsa
Encyclopedia
Kutmichevitsa was an administrative region of the Bulgarian Empire
as well as Byzantine Empire
during much of the Middle Ages, corresponding roughly with the territory of modern southern Albania
, with some parts in present southwestern Macedonia
, commonly taken too be the area included in the triangle Saloniki-Skopje
-Vlora. It had an important impact on the formation, endorsement and development of the Old Church Slavonic
and culture. The Debar–Velich diocese of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church
was created in Kutmichevitsa whose first bishop between 886 and 893 was Clement of Ohrid
, appointed by Knyaz Boris I
.
and the ridge Chermenika (Çermenikë
) which also divide northern from southern Albania and form the border between the Gheg
and Tosk Albanian
; to the east and north-east was separated from Macedonia
by the Lake Ohrid
and Lake Prespa
; to the south and south-east bordered the historical region Epirus
and to the west reached the plains of the Adriatic Sea
known as Myzeqe or Savrovo Pole. The area between the rivers Devoll and Osum
was known in the Middle Ages as Mezhdurechie.
, Old Church Slavonic
language and Eastern Orthodox culture.
It was populated by Slavs as early as the 6th century. By the late 7th century, a group of Bulgars
under Kuber
settled in the area and in neighbouring Macedonia. In 842, during the reign of Khan Presian I
, the region became part of the First Bulgarian Empire
. During the Christianization of Bulgaria
under Presian's son Boris I
, Kutmichevitsa became one of the two most important cultural centers of Bulgaria, the other being the original core of the Bulgarian state around Pliska
and Preslav
. The Ohrid Literary School
produced many works important for the Medieval Bulgarian literature
as well as for all the Slavic peoples
. Kutmichevitsa (or Devol) was probably one of the 10 comitati
(administrative regions) of the Bulgarian Empire, with Devol
/Deabolis as its capital which also served as a seat of the diocese of the name. Other important towns included Glavinitsa (Ballsh
), Belgrad/Velegrada (Berat
) and Chernik. Kutmichevitsa remained in Bulgaria until the fall of the empire under Byzantine rule by the armies of Basil II
in 1018. The last ruler of the First Empire, Presian II
, made his final desperate stand in that region, in the mountain Tomoritsa (Tomorr
). By 1019 the Byzantines captured the last Bulgarian strongholds in Kutmichevitsa.
The population of the region took part in the Uprising of Petar Delyan (1040–1041) and the Uprising of Georgi Voiteh
(1072) against Byzantine rule. Kutmichevitsa was retaken by Kaloyan
of the Second Bulgarian Empire
in 1203. During that time Devol was once again administrative center of a hora (an administrative division of the Second Empire). In the turmoil following the death of Ivan Asen II
in 1241, the region shared the fate of neighbouring Macedonia and was conquered by the Byzantines. It was finally lost to Bulgaria during the Uprising of Ivaylo
.
It remained by Byzantine hands until Stephen Dušan seized it as part of the short-lived Serbian Empire
. After its disintegration the region became part of the Principality of Valona
and was ruled by the niece of the Bulgarian emperor Ivan Alexander
, and later by her daughter from Balša II
, Ruzha. After the battle of Savra
Kutmichevitsa came under Ottoman vassalage and in 1417 was fully conquered by the Ottoman Empire
.
Bulgarian Empire
Bulgarian Empire is a term used to describe two periods in the medieval history of Bulgaria, during which it acted as a key regional power in Europe in general and in Southeastern Europe in particular, rivalling Byzantium...
as well as Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
during much of the Middle Ages, corresponding roughly with the territory of modern southern Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, with some parts in present southwestern Macedonia
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
, commonly taken too be the area included in the triangle Saloniki-Skopje
Skopje
Skopje is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia with about a third of the total population. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre...
-Vlora. It had an important impact on the formation, endorsement and development of the Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Church Slavic was the first literary Slavic language, first developed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius who were credited with standardizing the language and using it for translating the Bible and other Ancient Greek...
and culture. The Debar–Velich diocese of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church
Bulgarian Orthodox Church
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church - Bulgarian Patriarchate is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church with some 6.5 million members in the Republic of Bulgaria and between 1.5 and 2.0 million members in a number of European countries, the Americas and Australia...
was created in Kutmichevitsa whose first bishop between 886 and 893 was Clement of Ohrid
Clement of Ohrid
Saint Clement of Ohrid was a medieval Bulgarian saint, scholar, writer and enlightener of the Slavs. He was the most prominent disciple of Saints Cyril and Methodius and is often associated with the creation of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets, especially their popularisation among...
, appointed by Knyaz Boris I
Boris I of Bulgaria
Boris I, also known as Boris-Mihail and Bogoris was the Knyaz of First Bulgarian Empire in 852–889. At the time of his baptism in 864, Boris was named Michael after his godfather, Emperor Michael III...
.
Borders
To the north Kutmichevitsa reached the river ShkumbinShkumbin
Shkumbin is a river in central Albania, flowing into the Adriatic Sea. It is considered the dividing line for the two dialects of the Albanian language: Tosk and Gheg ....
and the ridge Chermenika (Çermenikë
Çermenikë
Çermenikë is an upland in central Albania.-References:...
) which also divide northern from southern Albania and form the border between the Gheg
Gheg Albanian
Gheg is one of the two major varieties of Albanian. The other one is Tosk, on which standard Albanian is based. The dividing line between these two varieties is the Shkumbin River, which winds its way through central Albania....
and Tosk Albanian
Tosk Albanian
Tosk is the southern dialect of the Albanian language. The line of demarcation between Tosk and Gheg is the Shkumbin River. Tosk is the basis of the standard Albanian language.- Tosks :...
; to the east and north-east was separated from Macedonia
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
by the Lake Ohrid
Lake Ohrid
Lake Ohrid straddles the mountainous border between the southwestern Macedonia and eastern Albania. It is one of Europe's deepest and oldest lakes, preserving a unique aquatic ecosystem with more than 200 endemic species that is of worldwide importance...
and Lake Prespa
Lake Prespa
Prespa is the name of two freshwater lakes in southeast Europe, shared by Greece, Albania, and Macedonia. Of the total surface area, belongs to Macedonia, to Greece and to Albania...
; to the south and south-east bordered the historical region Epirus
Epirus
The name Epirus, from the Greek "Ήπειρος" meaning continent may refer to:-Geographical:* Epirus - a historical and geographical region of the southwestern Balkans, straddling modern Greece and Albania...
and to the west reached the plains of the Adriatic Sea
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...
known as Myzeqe or Savrovo Pole. The area between the rivers Devoll and Osum
Osum
The Osum is a river in southern Albania, one of the source rivers of the Seman. Its source is in the southern part of the Korçë District, near the village Vithkuq which rearches at an elevation of . It flows initially south to the Kolonjë District, then west to Çepan, and northwest through...
was known in the Middle Ages as Mezhdurechie.
History
The region is associated with the spreading of the Cyrillic alphabetCyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
, Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Church Slavic was the first literary Slavic language, first developed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius who were credited with standardizing the language and using it for translating the Bible and other Ancient Greek...
language and Eastern Orthodox culture.
It was populated by Slavs as early as the 6th century. By the late 7th century, a group of Bulgars
Bulgars
The Bulgars were a semi-nomadic who flourished in the Pontic Steppe and the Volga basin in the 7th century.The Bulgars emerge after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the 5th century....
under Kuber
Kuber
Khan Kuber was a Bulgar leader, brother of Khan Asparukh and member of the Dulo clan, who according to the Miracles of St Demetrius, in the 670s was the leader of a mixed Christian population of Bulgars, ‘Romans’, Slavs and Germanic people that had been transferred to the Syrmia region in Pannonia...
settled in the area and in neighbouring Macedonia. In 842, during the reign of Khan Presian I
Presian I of Bulgaria
Presian was the Khan of Bulgaria from 836–852. He ruled during an extensive expansion in Macedonia.-Origin:The composite picture of the Byzantine sources indicates that Presian I was the son of Zvinica , who was a son of Omurtag...
, the region became part of the First Bulgarian Empire
First Bulgarian Empire
The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state founded in the north-eastern Balkans in c. 680 by the Bulgars, uniting with seven South Slavic tribes...
. During the Christianization of Bulgaria
Christianization of Bulgaria
The Christianization of Bulgaria was the process by which 9th-century medieval Bulgaria converted to Christianity. It was influenced by the khan's shifting political alliances with the kingdom of the East Franks and the Byzantine Empire, as well as his reception by the Pope of the Roman Catholic...
under Presian's son Boris I
Boris I of Bulgaria
Boris I, also known as Boris-Mihail and Bogoris was the Knyaz of First Bulgarian Empire in 852–889. At the time of his baptism in 864, Boris was named Michael after his godfather, Emperor Michael III...
, Kutmichevitsa became one of the two most important cultural centers of Bulgaria, the other being the original core of the Bulgarian state around Pliska
Pliska
Pliska is the name of both the first capital of Danubian Bulgaria and a small town which was renamed after the historical Pliska after its site was determined and excavations began....
and Preslav
Preslav
Preslav was the capital of the First Bulgarian Empire from 893 to 972 and one of the most important cities of medieval Southeastern Europe. The ruins of the city are situated in modern northeastern Bulgaria, some 20 kilometres southwest of the regional capital of Shumen, and are currently a...
. The Ohrid Literary School
Ohrid Literary School
The Ohrid Literary School was one of the two major medieval Bulgarian cultural centres, along with the Preslav Literary School . The school was established in Ohrid in 886 by Saint Clement of Ohrid on orders of Boris I of Bulgaria simultaneously or shortly after the establishment of the Preslav...
produced many works important for the Medieval Bulgarian literature
Medieval Bulgarian literature
The Medieval Bulgarian literature may be defined as the Bulgarian literature in the Middle Ages written in the Bulgarian Empire or outside its borders....
as well as for all the Slavic peoples
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
. Kutmichevitsa (or Devol) was probably one of the 10 comitati
Comitatus
Comitatus may refer to:* Comes, a Latin word with similar meaning* Comitatenses, the Roman late Imperial mobile army...
(administrative regions) of the Bulgarian Empire, with Devol
Devol (Albania)
Devol , also Deabolis or Diabolis) was a medieval fortress and bishopric in western Macedonia, located south of Lake Ohrid in what is today the south-eastern corner of Albania . Its precise location is unknown today, but it is thought to have been located by the river of the same name , and on...
/Deabolis as its capital which also served as a seat of the diocese of the name. Other important towns included Glavinitsa (Ballsh
Ballsh
-Overview:The city's surrounding fields are rich in crude petroleum and are dotted by a series of oil wells established during the communist dictatorship. Only a fraction of these wells are operating today, but the city includes a working refinery, and outputs of naphthas are significant...
), Belgrad/Velegrada (Berat
Berat
Berat is a town located in south-central Albania. As of 2009, the town has an estimated population of around 71,000 people. It is the capital of both the District of Berat and the larger County of Berat...
) and Chernik. Kutmichevitsa remained in Bulgaria until the fall of the empire under Byzantine rule by the armies of Basil II
Basil II
Basil II , known in his time as Basil the Porphyrogenitus and Basil the Young to distinguish him from his ancestor Basil I the Macedonian, was a Byzantine emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who reigned from 10 January 976 to 15 December 1025.The first part of his long reign was dominated...
in 1018. The last ruler of the First Empire, Presian II
Presian II of Bulgaria
Presian II was emperor of Bulgaria for a short time in 1018. The year of his birth may have been 996/997; he may have died in exile in 1060/1061...
, made his final desperate stand in that region, in the mountain Tomoritsa (Tomorr
Tomorr
Mount Tomorr is a large mountain in southern Albania. Its highest peak, called Çuka e Partizanit, reaches a height of . It is located east of the towns of Berat and Poliçan and the river Osum not far from the Canyon of Osum river....
). By 1019 the Byzantines captured the last Bulgarian strongholds in Kutmichevitsa.
The population of the region took part in the Uprising of Petar Delyan (1040–1041) and the Uprising of Georgi Voiteh
Uprising of Georgi Voiteh
The Uprising of Georgi Voiteh was a Bulgarian uprising against the Byzantine Empire in 1072. It was the second major attempt to restore the Bulgarian Empire after the Uprising of Peter Delyan in 1040-1041....
(1072) against Byzantine rule. Kutmichevitsa was retaken by Kaloyan
Kaloyan of Bulgaria
Kaloyan the Romanslayer , Ivan II , ruled as emperor of Bulgaria 1197-1207. He is the third and youngest brother of Peter IV and Ivan Asen I who managed to restore the Bulgarian Empire...
of the Second Bulgarian Empire
Second Bulgarian Empire
The Second Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state which existed between 1185 and 1396 . A successor of the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th-early 15th century...
in 1203. During that time Devol was once again administrative center of a hora (an administrative division of the Second Empire). In the turmoil following the death of Ivan Asen II
Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria
-Early rule:He was a son of Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria and Elena . Elena, who survived until after 1235, is sometimes alleged to be a daughter of Stefan Nemanja of Serbia, but this relationship is questionable and would have caused various canonical impediments to marriages between various descendants...
in 1241, the region shared the fate of neighbouring Macedonia and was conquered by the Byzantines. It was finally lost to Bulgaria during the Uprising of Ivaylo
Uprising of Ivaylo
The Uprising of Ivaylo was an uprising of the Bulgarian peasantry against the Emperor Constantine Tikh and the Bulgarian nobility. The revolt was fuelled by resentment at the beginning feudalization of the Bulgarian Empire, as well as by the failure to confront the Mongol menace over north-eastern...
.
It remained by Byzantine hands until Stephen Dušan seized it as part of the short-lived Serbian Empire
Serbian Empire
The Serbian Empire was a short-lived medieval empire in the Balkans that emerged from the Serbian Kingdom. Stephen Uroš IV Dušan was crowned Emperor of Serbs and Greeks on 16 April, 1346, a title signifying a successorship to the Eastern Roman Empire...
. After its disintegration the region became part of the Principality of Valona
Principality of Valona
The Principality of Valona was a medieval principality in Albania, roughly encompassing the territories of the modern counties of Vlorë , Fier, and Berat...
and was ruled by the niece of the Bulgarian emperor Ivan Alexander
Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria
Ivan Alexander , also known as John Alexander, ruled as Emperor of Bulgaria from 1331 to 1371, during the Second Bulgarian Empire. The date of his birth is unknown. He died on February 17, 1371. The long reign of Ivan Alexander is considered a transitional period in Bulgarian medieval history...
, and later by her daughter from Balša II
Balša II
Balša II Balšić was a 14th-century nobleman, the Lord of Zeta from 1378 to 1385. He managed to expand his borders towards the south; defeating the Albanian Duke Karl Thopia....
, Ruzha. After the battle of Savra
Battle of Savra
The Battle of the Saurian Field was fought on 18 September 1385 between Ottoman and much smaller Serbian forces. The Ottomans were victorious and most of the local Serbian and Albanian lords became vassals....
Kutmichevitsa came under Ottoman vassalage and in 1417 was fully conquered by the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
.
See also
- Albania under the Bulgarian EmpireAlbania under the Bulgarian EmpireThe territory of modern Albania was part of the Bulgarian Empire during certain periods in the Middle Ages and some parts in what is now eastern Albania were populated and ruled by the Bulgarians for centuries. Most of Albania became part of the First Empire in the early 840s during the reign of...
- First Bulgarian EmpireFirst Bulgarian EmpireThe First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state founded in the north-eastern Balkans in c. 680 by the Bulgars, uniting with seven South Slavic tribes...
- Second Bulgarian EmpireSecond Bulgarian EmpireThe Second Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state which existed between 1185 and 1396 . A successor of the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th-early 15th century...