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Kosovo was part of theOttoman Empire from 1455 to 1913, originally as part of theeyalet of Rumelia, and from 1864 as a separateKosovo vilayet.
During this period several administrative districts (known assanjaks ("banners" or districts) each ruled by asanjakbey (roughly equivalent to "district lord") have included parts of the territory as parts of their territories.
After thebattle of Kosovo in 1389, the rule of the Serbian Empire faded dramatically in the region. Seventy years passed after the Battle of Kosovo before the entire region fell under full Ottoman control. Their hold on Kosovo was gradually established: a Turkish garrison was deployed inZvečan in 1399 to protect the north, and in 1423, an Ottoman court was set up inPristina while customs officials managed the road linking Pristina andNovi Pazar.[1] The conquest was only considered complete in 1455 when the mining town ofNovo Brdo surrendered toSultan Mehmet after a 40-day siege.[1]
During theGreat Turkish War (1683–99), in October 1689, a smallHabsburg force underMargraveLudwig of Baden breached the Ottoman Empire and reached as far as Kosovo, following their earlier capture ofBelgrade.[2] Many Serbs and Albanians pledged their loyalty to theAustrians, some joining Ludwig's army. A massive Ottoman counter-attack the following summer drove the Austrians back to their fortress atNiš, then back toBelgrade, then finally back across theDanube into Austria.[2]
The Ottoman offensive was accompanied by looting and atrocities against the civilian population. This prompted many Serbs – includingArsenije III,Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church – to flee along with the Austrians. This event has been immortalised in Serbian history as theGreat Migrations of the Serbs, regarded as a huge exodus of hundreds of thousands of Serbs from Kosovo and Serbia proper.[2]
During and after theSerbian–Ottoman War of 1876–1878, between 30,000 and 70,000 Muslims, mostly Albanians, wereexpelled by theSerb army from theSanjak of Niš and fled to theKosovo Vilayet.[3][4][5][6]
In 1878, theLeague of Prizren was created by Albanians from four vilayets including theVilayet of Kosovo. The League's purpose was to attain Albanian autonomy within the Ottoman empire for and incursions by the newly emerging Balkan nations.[2]
By 1878 Kosovo (in whole or in part) had become the subject of Albanian, Serbian and Montenegrin irredentism (all alongside other regions relevant to each nation). Kosovo's population from these three groups had begun taking steps to fill the power vacuum created by then-weakening Ottoman central authority in the region.[citation needed]
In 1910, an Albanian-organised insurrection broke out inPristina and soon spread to the entire vilayet of Kosovo, lasting for three months. The Ottoman sultanMehmed V visited Kosovo in June 1911 during peace settlement talks covering all Albanian-inhabited areas.[7]
Despite the imposition ofMuslim rule, large numbers ofChristians continued to live and sometimes even prosper under the Ottomans. A process ofIslamisation began shortly after the beginning of Ottoman rule but it took a considerable amount of time – at least a century – and was concentrated at first on the towns. It appears that many Christian Albanian inhabitants converted directly to Islam, rather than being replaced by Muslims from outside Kosovo. A large part of the reason for the conversion was probably economic and social, as Muslims had considerably more rights and privileges than Christian subjects.[8] Christian religious life nonetheless continued, with churches largely left alone by the Ottomans, but both theSerbian Orthodox andRoman Catholic churches and their congregations suffered from high levels of taxation. The Ottomans appeared to have a more deliberate approach to converting the Roman Catholic population of whom were mostly Albanians as compared to adherents of Eastern Orthodoxy who were mostly Serbs, as they viewed the former less favorably due to its allegiance to Rome, a competing regional power.[9]
Around the 17th century, there is evidence of an increasingly visible Albanian population initially concentrated inDukagjin. It has been claimed this was the result of migrations out of the south-west (i.e. modern Albania), and that the putative migrants brought Islam with them. There is certainly evidence of migration: many Kosovo Albanians have surnames characteristic of inhabitants of the northern Albanian region ofMalësi. However, many others do not. A small number of Slavs – presumably members of the Serbian Orthodox Church – converted to Islam under Ottoman rule. Today, most Slavic Muslims of Serbia live in theSandžak region of southern Serbia, northwest of Kosovo. Some historians believe that there was probably a pre-existing population of Catholic Albanians in Metohia who mostly converted to Islam, but remained strictly a minority in a still largely Serb-inhabited region. According to Austrian data, by the 1890s Kosovo was 70% Muslim (nearly entirely of Albanian descent) and less than 30% non-Muslim (primarily Serbs).[9]
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