The battle was fought on theKosovo field in the territory ruled by Serbian noblemanVuk Branković, in what is todayKosovo, about 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) northwest of the modern city ofPristina. The army under Prince Lazar consisted mostly of his own troops, a contingent led by Branković, and a contingent sent fromBosnia by KingTvrtko I, commanded byVlatko Vuković. Additionally, Lazar was also supported by a Christian coalition from various European ethnic groups. Prince Lazar was the ruler ofMoravian Serbia and the most powerful among the Serbian regional lords of the time, while Branković ruled theDistrict of Branković and other areas, recognizing Lazar as his overlord.
Reliable historical accounts of the battle are scarce. The bulk of both armies were wiped out, and Lazar and Murad were killed. Murad's assassination is attributed to a Serbian knight namedMiloš Obilić. The battle marked the only time in history when an Ottoman Sultan was killed in battle. Serbian manpower was depleted and had no capacity to field large armies against future Ottoman campaigns, which relied on new reserve forces from Anatolia. The Serbian principalities that were not already Ottoman vassals, became so in the following years.
Themythologization of the battle and writings began shortly after the event, though the legend was not fully formed immediately after the battle but evolved from different originators into various versions. InSerbian folklore, the Kosovo Myth acquired new meanings and importance during the rise of Serbian nationalism in the 19th century as theSerbian state sought to expand, especially towards Kosovo which was still part of theOttoman Empire. In modern discourse, the battle would come to be seen as integral to Serbian history, tradition and national identity.Vidovdan is celebrated on June 28 and is an important Serbian national and religious holiday as a memorial day for the Battle of Kosovo.[5]
Background
EmperorStefan Uroš IV Dušan "the Mighty" (r. 1331–55) was succeeded by his sonStefan Uroš V "the Weak" (r. 1355–71), whose reign was characterized by the decline of central power and the rise of numerous virtually independent principalities; this period is known as thefall of the Serbian Empire. Uroš V was neither able to sustain the great empire created by his father nor repulse foreign threats and limit the independence of the nobility; he died childless in December 1371,[6][7] after much of theSerbian nobility had been destroyed by the Ottomans in theBattle of Maritsa earlier that year.[8]Prince Lazar, ruler of the northern part of the former empire (ofMoravian Serbia), was aware of the Ottoman threat and began diplomatic and military preparations for a campaign against them.
After the defeat of the Ottomans atPločnik (1386) andBileća (1388),Murad I, the reigning Ottoman sultan, moved his troops fromPhilippoupolis toIhtiman (modern Bulgaria) in the spring of 1388. From there they traveled acrossVelbužd andKratovo (modernNorth Macedonia). Though longer than the alternative route throughSofia and theNišava Valley, this led the Ottoman forces toKosovo, one of the most important crossroads in theBalkans. From Kosovo, they could attack the lands of either Prince Lazar orVuk Branković. Having stayed in Kratovo for a time, Murad and his troops marched throughKumanovo,Preševo, andGjilan toPristina, where he arrived on June 14.
While there is less information about Lazar's preparations, he gathered his troops nearNiš, on the right bank of theSouth Morava. His forces likely remained there until he learned that Murad had moved to Velbužd, whereupon he moved acrossProkuplje to Kosovo. This was the best place he could choose as a battlefield, as it gave him control of all the routes that Murad could take. The historiographical examination of the battle is challenging. No first-hand accounts from participants in the battle exist. Contemporary sources are written from widely diverging points of view and not much is discussed in them about battle tactics, army size and other battleground details.[9]
Army composition
Army size
Many details regarding the Battle of Kosovo are uncertain. The composition of both armies is a matter of scholarly dispute, and there exists no reliable information on the topic.[10][11] Nonetheless, the battle of Kosovo was one of the largest battles of the late medieval times, regardless of the exact army size.[12] Estimates about the sizes of both armies vary, but it is generally believed that the Ottoman army was larger. The leading estimate accepted by Western scholars is that Lazar's army contained 15,000-20,000 troops, whilst Murad's army consisted of 27,000–30,000.[13][12][14] A higher estimate suggests a total of 40,000 troops for the Ottomans and 25,000 for Lazar's coalition.[2]
Ottoman historianMehmed Neşri, who authored the first detailed report in Ottoman historiography about the battle of Kosovo in 1521, placed the size of the Christian coalition at around 500,000, claiming that it was double the size of the Ottoman army. Neşri was presenting an Ottoman imperial narrative, and considering the fact that an Ottoman Sultan died during the battle, Ottoman sources typically exaggerate the size of the Christian army.[15] According to historianNoel Malcolm, Ottoman writers were most likely eager to build up the size and significance of Lazar's army, which they described as vastly outnumbering Murat's, in order to add to the glory of the "Turkish victory",[16] and it is generally agreed that the Ottoman sources contain exaggerations in favour of the Ottomans.[17] The first known European and Ottoman accounts on the battle in general are strongly influenced by the long-term political consequences of increasing Ottoman conquest, and none of these narratives form a credible basis for the reconstruction of the battle itself, regardless of the author's origins.[11] Contemporary documents were not heavily concerned about the details surrounding the size of both armies, their tactics, their armaments, and the course of the battle, and European reports were mostly focused on the death of Murad and a supposed Christian victory. Additionally, the earliest Serbian sources for the Battle of Kosovo were more so the product of religious rhetoric than historical data, and they are not useful in providing particular details on the battle.[18] Ultimately, every contemporary account of the battle has been composed under various influences of a religious, political, and literary nature, and scholars can only try and distinguish or trace some of the early strands of tradition which were to eventually become part of theKosovo Myth to reach any sort of conclusion.[19]
Ottoman army
The Ottoman army was reinforced by their Muslim vassals and allies fromAnatolia,[20] having been supported by auxiliary troops from the AnatolianTurkomanBeylik of Isfendiyar,[21] Murad's army comprised no more than 2,000Janissaries.[22] Additionally, Murad's army consisted of as many as 8,500 cavalrymen,[23] Both armies contained soldiers of various origins,[24] and the Ottomans were reinforced by their Christian vassals. The Ottoman army likely included a substantial number of non-Turkish contingents, among whom were the forces of two regionalSerbian rulers,Marko Kraljević andKonstantin Dejanović, who governed parts of Macedonia and Bulgaria as Ottoman vassals.[25][20] As a condition of their vassalage, they were obliged to provide troops, and it is generally assumed that they did so and that either one or both rulers personally took part in the battle on the Ottoman side. As suggested by contemporary chronicles and events involvingJohn VII Palaiologos,Greek andGenoese soldiers may also have taken part in the battle as part of the Ottoman army, and it is possible that someAlbanians fought on the Ottoman side as well.[25]
Lazar's coalition
The main forces of Lazar's coalition included the Serbian contingent from his own principality, troops brought by his son-in-law,Vuk Branković, and Bosnian forces underVlatko Vuković, sent by Lazar's allyKing Tvrtko of Bosnia.[26] While the great majority of Lazar's army wereSerbs,[23] it also included a coalition of Albanians, Croatians, Hungarians, Vlachs and Bulgarians.[27][28][24][29] Some contemporary Ottoman sources have also claimed that the Czechs and other western Europeans also fought on Lazar's side.[16] HistorianDejan Djokić initially noted that Bosnians, Bulgarians, Albanians, Vlachs, and Hungarians are believed to have participated in Lazar’s army in addition to the predominantly Serbian forces.[30] He later considered it improbable that Lazar led a broad coalition that included Albanians, Bulgarians, Czechs, Hungarians, Germans, and Vlachs, alongside the Serbian and Bosnian troops.[31] HistorianDaniel Waley has stated that next to nothing can be said with assurance about the numbers and multi-ethnic composition of both armies.[32]
The Hungarians have been suggested as particularly likely participants among the foreign contingents. Lazar’s son-in-law,Nicholas Garai, was one of the most powerful noblemen in Hungary, and probably sent a contingent to join Lazar's coalition.[33][34] According to Malcolm, any senior knight sent by Garai would have held an honoured place.[35] In fact, the mythological figureMiloš Obilić may have been based on a Hungarian knight who is said to have killed Murad, as suggested by some accounts, and this claim is taken seriously by modern scholars.[36][33]
Several Albanian lords and aristocrats have been suggested as participants in the battle on the side of the Christian coalition, includingTeodor II Muzaka,Đurađ II Balšić, andDhimitër Jonima.[16][37][29][38][39] Of those lords, Teodor II Muzaka verifiably fought and died during the battle, alongside a number of fellow Albanians.[16][40][41][42] Albanian historiography focuses on the role of Albanians in Lazar's coalition, whilst Serbian historiography minimises it or ignores it outright.[16][43] Based on their acceptance of Ottoman sources, Albanian historiography claims that the Albanians under those aforementioned leaders may have accounted for a quarter of Lazar's coalition.[43][44][45] Contemporary Greek authors list among participants northern Albanians, those ofHimarë,Epirus and the coast.[46] Unlike Teodor II Muzaka, the lords Dhimitër Jonima and Đurađ II Balšić are only mentioned in contemporary Ottoman sources.[43][47] Balšić's presence in particular has been contested and denied by multiple scholars, who assert that Balšić was actually inUlcinj at the time of the battle as indicated by a Ragusan invitation,[48] that he was an Ottoman vassal, and that his personal conflicts with Tvrtko I would have made his participation unlikely.[16] Historian Luan Malltezi has argued that although theRagusans sent an invitation to Ulcinj, Balšić did not necessarily have to be there to accept it, and that his response arrived in Ragusa only in the final days of August, two months after the battle.[49]
A group of crusaders linked to theKnights of Rhodes, led byJohn of Palisna, has been suggested as participants on Lazar's side by Croatian historianNeven Budak, who quotes in the ItalianChroniclesAnnales Forolivienses, "Domino Johanne Banno cum Crucesignatis" (Ban John with those marked by a cross).[50] According to Budak, "Domine Johanne Bano" probably refers to John of Palisna the Ban of Croatia,[50] but the writer of the Chronicles could have been honouring someone who was no longer aban, such asJohn Horvat.[51] British historian and Hospitaller scholarAnthony Luttrell disputes Budak’s assumption that "crucesignati" means the Knights Hospitaller, stating, “Hospitallers wore a cross but technically were not crusaders orcrucesignati, how the author of theAnnales Forolivienses understood the term is uncertain.”[52] Budak himself suggests that the term could simply designate warriors who marked a cross on their clothing, a customary practice before going to war against infidels.[51]
Additionally, it has been suggested thatVlach contingents fromVoivode Mircea were also present in Lazar's army.[20]
Troop deployment
Troop disposition
Serbian forces assembled atKosovo Field approximately three miles northwest ofPristina. Prince Lazar led the Serb center,Branković took command of the right, andVuković commanded the left, which also included the foreign contingents.[13] The formidable Serb cavalry took their place at the forefront, with lighter cavalry armed with bows positioned on the flanks.[53]
Murad led the Ottoman center, entrusting his younger son Bayezid and his commander Evrenoz with the European troops on the right wing; Murad's other son, Yakub, led the Anatolian troops on the left.[13][53] The wings were fortified with around 1,000archers, while theJanissaries held the central position, supported by Murad and his cavalry guard standing behind them.[53] Ottoman sources claim that Murat also placed camels in front to scare the Serbian cavalry.[13] One of the Ottoman commanders wasPasha Yiğit Bey.[54]
Battle
Plan of the battle
Serbian and Turkish accounts of the battle differ, making it difficult to reconstruct the course of events. It is believed that the battle commenced with Ottoman archers shooting at Serbian cavalry, who then made ready for the attack. After positioning in a wedge formation,[55] the Serbian cavalry managed to break through the Ottoman left wing, but were not as successful against the center and the right wing.[56]
The Serbs had the initial advantage after their first charge, which significantly damaged the Ottoman wing commanded by Yakub Çelebi.[57] When the knights' charge was finished, light Ottoman cavalry and light infantry counterattacked and the Serbian heavy armor became a disadvantage. In the center, Serbian troops managed to push back Ottoman forces, except for Bayezid's wing, which barely held off the Bosnians commanded byVlatko Vuković, who inflicted disproportionately heavy losses on the Ottomans. The Ottomans, in a ferocious counterattack led by Bayezid, pushed the Serbian forces back and then prevailed later in the day, routing the Serbian infantry. Both flanks still held, with Vuković's Bosnian troops drifting toward the center to compensate for the heavy losses inflicted on the Serbian infantry.
Historical facts say thatVuk Branković saw that there was no hope for victory and fled to save as many men as he could after Lazar was captured. In popular oral tradition, however, Branković is said to have fled and betrayed Lazar, a theory which was first presented by the writerMavro Orbini in a1601 work but is largely seen as unfounded.[58][59][60] Sometime after Branković's retreat from the battle, the remaining Bosnian and Serb forces yielded the field, believing that a victory was no longer possible.
In one of the earliest accounts of the battle, it is described that twelve Serbian knights, known in Serbian epic poetry as theJugović brothers, successfully breached the Ottoman defense.[61] One of the knights, later identified asMiloš Obilić, pretended to have deserted to the Ottoman forces. When brought before Murad, Obilić pulled out a hidden dagger and killed the Sultan by slashing him. He was then killed by the Sultan's bodyguards.[62][63] There are differing versions of the assassination however, with another version describing Obilić playing dead on the battlefield and stabbing the Sultan as he walked.[53] It is also unclear when the assassination occurred, as some sources suggest it happened once the battle turned against the Serbs or in the immediate aftermath of the battle,[64][65] while others describe it happening early on as Miloš sought to prove his loyalty to Prince Lazar after he was accused of treachery.[62] The battle marked the only time in history an Ottoman Sultan was killed in battle.[66]
The event of the battle quickly became known in Europe. Not much attention was paid to the outcome in these early rumors which circulated, but they all focused on the fact that the Ottoman Sultan had been killed in the battle. Some of the earliest reports about the battle come from the court of Tvrtko of Bosnia who in separate letters to the senate ofTrogir (August 1) and the council ofFlorence claimed that he had defeated the Ottomans in Kosovo.[67] The response of the Florentines to Tvrtko (20 October 1389) is an important historical document as it confirms that Murad was killed during the battle and that it took place on June 28 (St. Vitus day/Vidovdan). The killer is not named, but it was one of 12 Serbian noblemen who managed to break through the Ottoman lines:
Fortunate, most fortunate are those hands of the twelve loyal lords who, having opened their way with the sword and having penetrated the enemy lines and the circle of chained camels, heroically reached the tent of Murat himself. Fortunate above all is that one who so forcefully killed such a strong vojvoda by stabbing him with a sword in the throat and belly. And blessed are all those who gave their lives and blood through the glorious manner of martyrdom as victims of the dead leader over his ugly corpse.[68]
Another Italian account,Mignanelli's work of 1416, asserted that it was Lazar who killed the Ottoman sultan.[69] The earliest detailed Ottoman account of the battle dates to 1512 byNeşri who exaggerated the size of Lazar's army and described the battle as a significant Ottoman victory.[70]
Geopolitical consequences
Both armies were destroyed in the battle.[71] Both Lazar and Murad lost their lives, and the remnants of their armies retreated from the battlefield. Murad's sonBayezid killed his younger brother, Yakub Çelebi, upon hearing of their father's death, thus becoming the sole heir to the Ottoman throne.[72] The Serbs were left with too few men to defend their lands effectively, while the Turks had many more troops in the east.[71] The immediate effect of the depletion of Serbian manpower was a shift in the stance of Hungarian policy towards Serbia. Hungary tried to exploit the effects of battle and expand in northern Serbia, while the Ottomans renewed their campaign in southern Serbia as early as 1390–1391. Domestically, the Serbian feudal class in response to these threats split in two factions. A northern faction supported a conciliatory, pro-Ottoman foreign policy as a means of defence of their lands against Hungary, while a southern faction which was immediately threatened by Ottoman expansion sought to establish a pro-Hungarian foreign policy. Some Serbian feudal lords continued to fight against the Ottomans and others were integrated in the Ottoman feudal hierarchy. Consequently, some of the Serbian principalities that were not already Ottoman vassals became so in the following years.[71] These feudal lords – including the daughter of Prince Lazar – formed marriage ties with the new Sultan Bayezid.[73][74][75]
In the wake of these marriages,Stefan Lazarević, Lazar's son, became a loyal ally of Bayezid, and contributed significant forces to many of Bayezid's future military engagements, including theBattle of Nicopolis, whereVuk Branković another Serbian magnate who ruled in parts of Kosovo had joined the anti-Ottoman coalition. As a reward for his contribution to the Ottoman victory, Lazarević was given a large part of Branković's lands. Branković himself died as an Ottoman prisoner, although in all later "Kosovo myth" narratives first created by Stefan Lazarević, he is portrayed as a betrayer of the Christians. Lazarević's success as an Ottoman vassal was such that eventually his lands encompassed a territory bigger than his father's and matched the territories of the Nemanjic dynasty in the 13th century.[76] AfterMehmed's death in 1421, Lazarević was one of the vassals who strongly supported the coalition against the futureMehmed the Conqueror who ultimately prevailed. This move led Mehmed to punish the Serbian and all other vassals who supported the other claimants to the throne by campaigning against them to directly annex their lands. In a series of campaigns from this era onward Serbia formally became an Ottoman province.[77] The capture ofSmederevo on June 20, 1459 marks the end of medieval Serbian statehood.[78]
TheKosovo Myth has for a long time been a central subject inSerbian folklore and Serbianliterary tradition, and for centuries was cultivated mostly in the form oforal epic poetry andguslar poems.[79][80][81][82] The mythologization of the battle occurred shortly after the event.[81][83] The legend was not fully formed immediately after the battle but evolved from different originators into various versions.[84] The philologistVuk Karadžić collected traditional epic poems related to the topic of the Battle of Kosovo and in the 19th century, he released the so-called "Kosovo cycle", which became the final version of the transformation of the myth.[83][85] The modern narrativization of the legend focuses on three main motifs: sacrifice, betrayal and heroism, exemplified respectively by Prince Lazar choosing a "heavenly kingdom" over an "earthly kingdom", Vuk Branković's supposed desertion and Miloš Obilić's assassination of Murad.[81][86]
In Serbian historiography, the complicated political setting preceding the battle has been simplified in the battle being a clash betweenChristianity andIslam.[87] However,Miodrag Popović notes that in Ottoman Serbia of the 16th and 17th century, the local population was"Turkophilic" in accordance with the general climate of necessary adaptation to Ottoman rule.[85][88] Тhey did not give the legend of the Battle of Kosovo an interpretation unfavorable or hostile to the Ottoman Turks.[88] Perceptions about the Battle of Kosovo in Serbian public discourse changed and were "harnessed in earnest in the rise of Serbian nationalism during the 19th century" and acquired new meanings in the context of theGreater Serbia nationalist project.[87] Many of the elements which came to be seen later in Serbian discourse as crucial elements of Serbian tradition appear to have entered the Serbian corpus about Kosovo just a few decades before 19th century Serbian folklorists recorded them.[84] Throughout most of the 19th century it did not carry its later importance, as thePrincipality of Serbia saw the region of Bosnia as its core, not Kosovo. TheCongress of Berlin (1878) was the event which caused the elevation of the narratives about the Battle of Kosovo ("Kosovo myth") in its modern status. The region of Bosnia was effectively handed out to Austria-Hungary and Serbian expansion towards that area was blocked, which in turn left southwards expansion towards Kosovo as the only available geopolitical alternative for the Serbian state.[89] Today, the Battle of Kosovo has come to be seen in public discourse as "particularly important to Serbian history, tradition andnational identity".[90] The battle has become a force of historical, political, military and artistic inspiration to date.[91]
Epic songs about the battle also exist in Albanian historical folklore and have been preserved in localKosovo Albanian culture.[93][94][95] Albanian versions, which are part of theAlbanian epic poetry ofKosovo, focus on the figure ofMiloš Obilić (known as Millosh Kopiliqi in Albanian), as his birthplace is considered to have been in theDrenica region of Kosovo, where villages which bear the nameKopiliq are located.[96]
Date: Some sources attempt to give the date as June 28 in the New-StyleGregorian calendar, but that was not adopted until 1582, and did not apply retrospectively (but seeProleptic Gregorian calendar). Moreover, the proleptic Gregorian date of the battle is June 23, not 28. Nevertheless, anniversaries of the battle are still celebrated on June 15 Julian (Vidovdan, that is St. Vitus' Day in the calendar of theSerbian Orthodox Church, which is still Julian), which corresponds to June 28 Gregorian in the 20th and 21st centuries.[citation needed]
^abCox 2002, p. 30, The Ottoman army probably numbered between 30,000 and 40,000. They faced something like 15,000 to 25,000 Eastern Orthodox soldiers. [...] Accounts from the period after the battle depict the engagement at Kosovo as anything from a draw to a Christian victory.
^Emmert 1991, p. 3, The historian is faced with a difficult problem when he attempts to discover what occurred in the Battle of Kosovo. There are no eyewitness accounts of the battle, and rather significant differences exist among those contemporary sources which do mention the event.
^Sedlar 2013, p. 244, Nearly the entire Serbian fighting force (between 12,000 and 20,000 men) had been present at Kosovo, while the Ottomans (with 27,000 to 30,000 on the battlefield) retained numerous reserves in Anatolia.
^Emmert, Thomas A."The Battle of Kosovo: Early Reports of Victory and Defeat"(PDF). Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 1 March 2023.It is only in 1512 that a highly detailed description of the Battle of Kosovo appeared among the Turks. This account by Mehmed Nesri, however, would become the major resource for subsequent descriptions of the battle, not only in the Ottoman world but in Western Europe as well. (..) He clearly intended to describe a significant Ottoman victory at Kosovo and thus exaggerated much of his narrative in order to magnify the success of the Turks. We can easily summarize its content:(..) since the Christian forces had three times as many men as the Turks.
^Kortüm, Hans-Henning (2006).Transcultural wars from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. Akademie. p. 231.ISBN978-3-05-004131-5.But having been established under Murad I (1362–1389), essentially as a bodyguard, the Janissaries cannot have been present in large numbers at Nicopolis (there were no more than 2,000 at Kosovo in 1389)
^abTucker, Spencer (2010-11-11).Battles that Changed History: An Encyclopedia of World Conflict. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 137.ISBN978-1-59884-429-0.Much of the information about the resulting Battle of Kosovo is speculative. Murad's army, including its mercenaries, probably numbered 27,000–40,000 men, with as many as 8,500 of them cavalry. Lazar's force was smaller, probably only 12,000–30,000 men, with the Serbs constituting the great majority. Lazar had only several thousand cavalry. Lazar commanded the bulk of the Serbia contingent, with the remainder headed by Serbian noblemen Vuk Brankovic and Vlatko Vukovic
^abHumphreys 2013, p. 46:Both armies – and this is a fact that is ignored by the hagiographic telling – contained soldiers of various origins; Bosnians, Albanians, Hungarians, Greeks, Bulgars, perhaps even Catalans (on the Ottoman side).
^Emmert 1991, p. 3, Given the divisiveness among Serbian lords which generally characterized the decades following Dusan's death, the fact that Lazar, Vuk, and Tvrtko were able to conclude an alliance against the Turks was reason for at least some optimism.
^Petritsch, Wolfgang; Kaser, Karl; Pichler, Robert (1999).Kosovo - Kosova: Mythen, Daten, Fakten (in German) (2. Aufl ed.). Klagenfurt: Wieser. pp. 32–33.ISBN9783851293043.... geantwortet haben und sich mit einer Armee von 6.000 Mann nach Kosova aufgemacht haben soll. An der Schlacht auf dem Amselfeld nahmen auch andere mäch- tige albanische Fürsten teil : Demeter Jonima , dessen Reich sich über die..
^Petta 2000, p. 123, Giovanni Musacchi esule in Italia, provano la contemporanea presenza di rami cristiani e musulmanio; e accadde anzi che i figli di un Teodoro Musacchi, caduto nel 1389 sul campo di battaglia di Kosovo, dove aveva combattuto a fianco dei serbi, divenissero musulmani, e che uno di loro, già sangiacco di Albania, cadesse nel 1442 combattendo contro gli ungheresi.
^Xhufi, Pëllumb (2011)."La Macédoine Occidentale dans l'histoire des Albanais du VIIe au XVe siècle".Studia Albanica (in French) (2):3–21.ISSN0585-5047.Cette faiblesse a été cependant passagère, car au XIVe siècle, on mentionne de nouveau comme maître de cette aire Andrea Gropa, qui a participé en 1389 à la bataille de la Plaine du Kosovo, aux côtés de Théodore Muzaka.
^abcLellio, Anna di (2009-07-15).The Battle of Kosovo 1389: An Albanian Epic. I.B. Tauris.ISBN978-1-84885-094-1.A more elaborate representation of the Battle, based on Ottoman sources, attributes to the Albanian leaders Balsha, Jonima and Muzaka an organized Albanian contingent as numerous as one-fourth of the entire Balkan coalition... That Balsha and Jonima were in Kosovo is confirmed only by Ottoman Sources. The Albanian historiography relies mostly on Ottoman Sources, all including Albanian contingents in Lazar's army, together with many others. (p.13) (..) There is no doubt among Albanian historians for whom Albanian participation in the Battle on the Balkan side against the Sultan is an established fact. They have avoided a scholarly debate on alternative possibilities to the Ottoman historical records and fully embraced Nesri's narrative of the battle of Kosovo.
^Di Lellio, Anna (2006).The Case for Kosova: Passage to Independence. Anthem. p. 32.ISBN1-84331-245-X.Far from arriving in the 'enemies' trucks' the Albanian population, from the lake of Shkodra to Kosova, were one with the other Christian populations At the time of the Ottoman invasion of 1389, Greek authors mention, after the Serbs and the Bulgarians, the Northern Albanians, those of Himarë, Epyrus and the coast.
^Gelcich, Giuseppe (2009).Zeta dhe dinastia e Balshajve (in Albanian). Shtëpia botuese "55".ISBN978-99943-56-53-9.(translated) "... on July 7, 1389, the Ragusans sent an armed galley to Budva to invite Gjergj Strazimir II to stay with them for a few days. This invitation, in a way, had an important political background... And Gjergj II Strazimir Balsha on the day of the breaking of Kosovo was exactly in Ulqin"
^Çelebi, Evliya; Šabanović, Hazim (1996).Putopisi: odlomci o jugoslovenskim zemljama (in Bosnian). Sarajevo-Publishing. p. 280. Retrieved26 July 2013.Paša Jigit- -beg, koji se prvi put pominje kao jedan između turskih komandanata u kosovskoj bici.
^Nastasijevic, Slavomir (1987).Vitezi Kneza Lazara (in Serbian). Narodna Knjiga Beograd. p. 187.ISBN8633100150. [Serbian heavy cavalry took V wedge shape charge position breaking through Ottoman infantry and light cavalry.]
^Rogers, Clifford J., ed. (2010)."Battle of Kosovo Polje".The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology, Volume 1. Oxford University Press. p. 471.ISBN9780195334036.
^Emmert, Thomas A."The Battle of Kosovo: Early Reports of Victory and Defeat"(PDF). Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 1 March 2023.It is only in 1512 that a highly detailed description of the Battle of Kosovo appeared among the Turks. This account by Mehmed Nesri, however, would become the major resource for subsequent descriptions of the battle, not only in the Ottoman world but in Western Europe as well. (..) He clearly intended to describe a significant Ottoman victory at Kosovo and thus exaggerated much of his narrative in order to magnify the success of the Turks. We can easily summarize its content:(..) since the Christian forces had three times as many men as the Turks.
^Shaw, Stanford J. (2002).History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 1: Empire of the Gazis: the rise and decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1280–1808. Cambridge University Press. p. 24.ISBN978-0-521-29163-7.24
^Djokić 2023, p. 131:In terms of political and economic significance and its territorial extent, the Lazarević-Branković despotate matched the thirteenth-century Nemanjić kingdom.
^Jakica, Lara (2010–2011). "The problem of resurrection of Kosovo mythology in Serbian popular culture".Transcultural Studies.6/7:161–170.doi:10.1163/23751606-00601011.
^Gantheret, Fiana; Guibert, Nolwenn; Stolk, Sofia (2023).Art and Human Rights: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Contemporary Issues. Edward Elgar. p. 148.ISBN978-1-80220-814-6.
^Manfried Rauchensteiner,Der Erste Weltkrieg und das Ende der Habsburgermonarchie 1914–1918, 2013, p. 87
^Lord, Albert Bates (1984). Arshi Pipa; Sami Repishti (eds.).The Battle of Kosovo in Albanian and Serbocroatian Oral Epic Songs. Studies on Kosova. Columbia University Press. pp. 65–83.
^Di Lellio 2013, p. 155:Kopiliq is believed to hail from a village by the same name in Drenica, a central and rural area of Kosovo, famous for its rebelliousness. He plays the role, together with historical characters from the same region, of establishing an uninterrupted genealogy of heroes through history.
Emmert, Thomas (1991). "The Battle of Kosovo: Early Reports of Victory and Defeat". In Vucinich, Wayne; Emmert, Thomas (eds.).Kosovo: Legacy of a Medieval Battle(PDF). University of Minnesota Press.ISBN99922-875-5-1. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2023-03-01. Retrieved2021-06-30.
