Avram Miletić

Avram Miletić
Native name	Аврам Милетић
Born	1755 Kać, Military Frontier, Habsburg Monarchy (today Serbia)
Died	after 1826
Nationality	Serbian
Occupation	merchant
Known for	writing the earliest collection of urban lyric poetry on Serbian language

Avram Miletić (Serbian: Аврам Милетић) (1755 – after 1826) was a merchant and songwriter who is best known for writing the earliest collection of urban lyric poetry in Serbian language.

Family

Miletić was born in Kać, Military Frontier, Habsburg Monarchy. Miletić's grandfather was Mileta Zavišić who came to Bačka from Kostajnica where he led a company of three hundred men and fought against Ottomans for thirty two years. Since Ottomans wanted to punish him after they signed a peace treaty with Austrians, Mileta emigrated to Bačka and changed his last name to Miletić. Mileta's son Sima, who was a merchant educated in Novi Sad, had fifteen sons and three daughters. Avram Miletić was the oldest Sima's son. The second son of Avram Miletić, also Sima like his grandfather, was a boot-maker and a father of Svetozar Miletić the political leader of Serbs in Vojvodina.

Biography

Avram Miletić completed his merchant's education, first in Vidin and later in Novi Sad. In period 1785—1787 Avram Miletić has been a teacher in two schools in two different villages, Lok and Vilovo, at the same time (he lectured in one school in the morning and another in the afternoon). He married a local priest's daughter and opened a general store in Mošorin.

Work

In period 1778—1781 Avram Miletić composed a miscellany of 129 songs (Serbian: Песмарица, Pesmarica). It contains many Serbian language lyric poems and four folk epic poems: "A history of Prince Lazar from Kosovo and from Tzar Murat", "A history of Musić Stefan", "A history of the Duke Momčilo" and "A history of the Young Prodanović", which have been noted down around thirty years before Vuk Karadžić started recording epic poems. Miletić named all folk epic songs he recorded as histories because they have been considered as histories in the form of poems. Epic song "History of the Young Prodanović" is in fact well known song "Serbs in Donauwörth" (Serbian: Срби у Донаверту, Srbi u Donavertu) recorded in 1744 by Hristofor Zhefarovich.

Miletić's micellany is considered as the oldest known songbook of urban poetry. Miletić has recorded a famous ballad "Omer and Merima" only five or six years after Alberto Fortis recorded it for the first time. He has also recorded a text of the poem Pašhalija composed by Jovan Avakumović in 1775.