White Serbia

White Serbia (Serbian: Белa Србиja; Archaic: Бојка, Greek: Boiki), is the mythical homeland of the ancestors of the Serbs, the White Serbs (Serbian: Бели Срби, Beli Srbi). In De Administrando Imperio the homeland is also called Bojka (Бојка, Greek: Boiki).

The area adjacent to White Serbia was known as White Croatia, where the Croats trace their origin. White Serbia and its ethnic designates, the White Serbs, could be interpreted through attributes such as "the unbaptized" or "pagan" (Pre-Christian), according to the De administrando imperio.

Location

White Serbia under Dervan (Dzierżoń) in the 7th century

Serbian principality under Dervan, as part of Samo's realm in 631.

File:Migration of Serbs.png

Theory on migration from Lusatia/northern Bohemia

The location of White Serbia has been disputed. It has been described as:

• North of the Danube and the Carpathians
• The area of the Czech Republic
• Bohemia
• Between the Elbe and Saale Rivers
• The area of Poland
• The area of Red Ruthenia (now western Ukraine)
• The island of Rügen (near northern seashore of Germany), once consecrated to Slavonic god Svantevit
• Lusatia, a triangle formed by parts of Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland
• P. J. Šafařík classified the White Serbs as a Polabian Slavonic tribe

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  Locations of White Serbia and White Croatia (around 560), according to the book of Francis Dvornik.

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  Migration of Serbs from White Serbia.

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  Other (unrelated) migration routes of Serbs.

History

Main articles: History of the Serbs and Medieval Serbia

De Administrando Imperio

"The Serbs are descended from the unbaptized Serbs, also called 'white', who live beyond Turkey in a place called by them Boiki, where their neighbour is Francia, as is also Great Croatia, the unbaptized, also called 'white': in this place, then, these Serbs also originally dwelt. But when two brothers succeeded their father in the rule of Serbia, one of them, taking a moiety of the folk, claimed the protection of Heraclius, the emperor of the Romans, and the same emperor Heraclius received him and gave him a place in the province of Thessalonica to settle in, namely Serbia, which from that time has acquired this denomination."... ..."Now, after some time these same Serbs decided to depart to their own homes, and the emperor sent them off. But when they had crossed the river Danube, they changed their minds and sent a request to the emperor Heraclius, through the military governor then governing Belgrade, that he would grant them other land to settle in."... ..."And since what is now Serbia and Pagania and the so-called country of the Zachlumi and Trebounia and the country of the Kanalites were under the dominion of the emperor of the Romans, and since these countries had been made desolate by the Avars (for they had expelled from those parts the Romans who now live in Dalmatia and Dyrrachium), therefore the emperor settled these same Serbs in these countries, and they were subject to the emperor of the Romans; and the emperor brought elders from Rome and baptized them and taught them fairly to perform the works of piety and expounded to them the faith of the Christians."... ..."And since Bulgaria was beneath the dominion of the Romans * * * when, therefore, that same Serbian prince died who had claimed the emperor's protection, his son ruled in succession, and thereafter his grandson, and in like manner the succeeding princes from his family"...

-De Administrando Imperio chapter 31, Constantine VII

See also

• List of Medieval Slavic tribes
• South Slavs
• White Croatia, neighbouring Slavic tribe
• Sorbs

References

Secondary sources

• Petar Vlahovic, Projekat Rastko Cetinje, "The Serbian Origin of the Montenegrins"