Bajo Pivljanin | |
|---|---|
 Detail fromBajo Pivljanin kills a Turk (1878) | |
| Birth name | Dragojlo Nikolić[a] |
| Born | c. 1630 |
| Died | 7 May 1685 (agedc. 55) Vrtijeljka, nearCetinje,Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro |
| Allegiance |  Republic of Venice |
| Service years | 1656–1685 |
| Rank | |
| Conflicts | |
Bajo Pivljanin (Serbian Cyrillic:Бајо Пивљанинc. 1630 – 7 May 1685), bornDragojlo Nikolić (Serbian Cyrillic:Драгојло Николић), was a Serbianhajduk[b] commander mostly active in the Ottoman territories ofHerzegovina and southernDalmatia. Born inPiva, a Serbian Herzegovinian tribe, at the time part of theOttoman Empire, he was an oxen trader who allegedly left his village after experiencing Ottoman injustice. Mentioned in 1654 as abrigand during theVenetian–Ottoman war, he entered the service of theRepublic of Venice in 1656. The hajduks were used to protectVenetian Dalmatia. He remained a low-rankhajduk for the following decade, participating in some notable operations such as the raid onTrebinje. Between 1665 and 1668 he quickly rose through the ranks to the level ofharambaša ("bandit leader"). After the war, which ended unfavourably for the Venetians, the hajduks were moved out of their haven in theBay of Kotor under Ottoman pressure. Between 1671 and 1684 Pivljanin, along with other hajduks and their families, were refugees in Dalmatia. Uponrenewed conflict, he was returned to the Bay of Kotor and placed in charge of defending the frontier; in 1685 he and his band fell in battle against the advancing Ottoman governor ofScutari. Regarded as one of the most distinguished hajduks of his time, he is praised inSerbian epic poetry.
Dragojlo Nikolić, nicknamed Bajo Pivljanin,[a] was born around 1630 inPiva (modern-day northwesternMontenegro), at that time part of theOttomanSanjak of Herzegovina. According to oral tradition he was born in the village of Rudinice (inPlužine), while there are two versions as to which family he belonged. According to one tradition, found in Kosta Radović's novelVrtijeljka (1922), he was born in the village of Rudinice (now inPlužine) in Piva to his father Nikola and his mother Ruža, of theRuđić brotherhood.[1] Radović claims that he was born on 22 May 1622,[1] while it is estimated that he was born inc. 1630.[2] His godfather, the monk Ivanović, named himDragojlo, while the nicknameBajo (derived frombaja, "snake", a common nickname in Piva which was thought toprotect children from evil[3]) was given to him by his grandfather Simo.[1] This version was also mentioned by Blagojević, who stated that Bajo Pivljanin belonged to the Nikolić family in Gornje Rudinice, descending from the old brotherhood ofRuđić.[4] The Ruđić brotherhood from Rudinice, which later dispersed elsewhere, is one of two family trees in Piva from which many Pivan families descend.[5]
According to the priest Toma Lješević (1897),[6] Bajo was the son of Jovan Ivanović and a mother of theTadić brotherhood;[1] belonging to the Ivanović brotherhood in Donje Rudinice, in a place named after them.[6] This family, as many other families in Piva, either left or was absorbed by other families.[7] In the Ivanovići hamlet of Donje Rudinice, there was akula (tower house) belonging to Pivljanin; this tower house, and the village church, were later destroyed by the Ottomans after his operations became well known.[1] Pivljanin was an oxen trader, a common occupation in the 17th and 18th centuries, and often exported through Risan market, becoming quite wealthy.[8]
According to the epic poemSa šta Pivljanin Bajo ode u uskoke collected byVuk Karadžić, written in the form of a confessional monologue of Pivljanin,[9] he left Piva and became ahajduk (bandit) after he murdered Asan-aga Kopčić, an Ottoman leader in Drobnjaci who had assaulted him.[10] With Limo "Limun" Srdanović from Drobnjaci, another trader whom he met at the start of the Cretan war, he led a band of 30 hajduks.[8]
The hajduks, who were Ottoman subjects, were recruited by theRepublic of Venice as guerilla forces to co-operate in the defence of the Venetian–Ottoman frontier inDalmatia during theCretan War (1645–69). They crossed into Venetian territory from which they conducted raids into Ottoman-controlled lands.[11]
Pivljanin was first mentioned in 1654 as one of 1,500 hajduks operating from Venetian territory. During the Cretan War he mostly fought in the southern parts of Dalmatia and Herzegovina,[12] where the population was predominantly anti-Ottoman.[13] Pivljanin was a close friend and favourite ofSerbian Orthodoxmetropolitan (bishop)Vasilije (Basil) Jovanović during the war.[c] He is believed to have begun organizing his own band inc. 1655; according to an epic poem, Pivljanin, Cvjetko Vlastelinović and Đurko Kapetanović established a band which operated in Herzegovina.[8]
The hajduk bands carried out one of their most successful operations in Herzegovina in March 1655, raidingTrebinje, taking many slaves and carrying away considerable loot.[14] This raid was commanded by Terzić fromNikšić, and left Herzegovina throughCavtat (part of theRepublic of Ragusa).[14] The raids led to conflict between Ragusa and theBeys ofNovi led by Omer-beg Begzadić, whose villages had suffered the most.[14] In February 1656 the hajduk bands broke throughRijeka Dubrovačka into Herzegovina and returned with more loot.[14] In the same year, Pivljanin began to work for the Venetians.[11] After their defeat atMorača in 1649, and the building of theKolašin fortress (1647–51) by the Ottomans, the Venetians brought offensive operations to a halt.[13] From 1655 to 1657, the Ottomans made several attacks on the Venetian territory aroundGrbalj.[13] The main hajduk centre becamePerast in theBay of Kotor, which they used as base to raid Ottoman territory.[11] By 1658, the hajduks had mastered Herzegovina to the extent that they "forced taxes on all villages towardsGacko".[14] Taxes were collected by groups of 10–12 hajduks, while disobedience was punished.[14] Pivljanin and his hajduks also operated inPopovo andRomanija.[14] Refugees from Ottoman Herzegovina were gladly accepted into the Republic of Venice.[14] According to the historian Ljubo Mihić, the most distinguished of the hajduks in this period were Pivljanin and Stevo Popović.[14]
Pivljanin rose quickly in the hajduk ranks; in 1664 and 1665 he was mentioned simply as "Bajo hajduk" in Ragusan documents, but by 1666 he was referred to as a "buljubaša" (captain), and by 1668 as a "viši (higher) harambaša" (bandit leader).[15]
Pivljanin's tactics included quick raids and destroying bridges as he retreated.[16] For example, the stone bridge on theTara in Šiplje was destroyed after his band had raidedKolašin.[16] In 1664, Pivljanin is mentioned as a hajduk commander active in theRepublic of Ragusa.[16] At the beginning of August 1664, hajduk leaders Stevo and Nikola Popović,Vukosav Puhalović, Pivljanin, Dijete, Čauš, and others, destroyed a merchant caravan on the border with Ragusa, and took 150 cargoes of very expensive goods; Armenian merchants, to whom the goods belonged, complained to theDoge of Venice.[17] The Venetian government warned the hajduks against further provocations of the Ottomans, fearing new attacks fromSohrab Mehmed Pasha, the sanjak-bey of Herzegovina.[17] In ca. 1665, Pivljanin suffered a great defeat by the Ottomans at the village ofGrdijevići, losing most of his band and being forced to leave his home region.[16] One hundred and fifty years later, rebels on the Tara used this event, among others, as justification for a revolt.[16] At the beginning of May 1666, Pivljanin raided a Ragusan ship off the coast ofKoločep that was bound forVenice with merchandise, unloading eight wagons of wax and freeing captured merchants, among whom were four Turks, in return for a high payment and a written statement that the wax and money had been given to him voluntarily.[15] The Ragusans claimed that at the time of the raid, Pivljanin had shouted that theprovveditore (district governor) ofVenetian Dalmatia had given him the order to take all that he came across, both on the sea and the land.[15] Five days later, Pivljanin raided a large and unusually rich caravan carrying Venetian merchandise through Ottoman territory.[15] In September 1666, Pivljanin and Mato Njegošević attacked an Ottoman caravan inMosko then retreated toBanjani.[18]
On 25 March 1669, Pivljanin, living in Stoliv (near Kotor), was recorded in Kotor as having acknowledged a debt of 62.5real (40groschen being 1real) to Gierolamo Cazalieri.[19] In early April 1669 Pivljanin and Puhalović raised and looted in Herzegovina, and retreated towardsŠipan.[20] According to legend, he burnt down a mosque inNevesinje, and another one inPočitelj.[21] There are accounts recorded by the anthropologistJevto Dedijer that several Muslim families left their homes after cruel treatment by Pivljanin; the Šehović leftKorjenići and moved to south Herzegovina after he and Limun burnt down their house;[22] the Kajtaz and Rorić left Nevesinje and moved toMostar,[23] and a large number of the families ofSlivlja left their homes.[24] The war ended with Ottoman victory in 1669, with Venice being forced to relinquish all of the territory taken over by theuskoks and hajduks during the war, with onlyKlis becoming a new Venetian possession.[25] The Venetian–Ottoman border delineation act was signed on 30 October 1671.[25]
After the war, the southeastern Venetian possessions (the Bay of Kotor) were destituted.[25] War, hunger and frequent epidemics had decreased the population.[25] As soon as the peace had been signed, the uskoks and hajduks became a nuisance to Venice; up until then frontiersmen defending Dalmatia and the Bay of Kotor from Ottoman invasion, they were now a potential cause to new conflicts with the Ottomans, which Venice wanted to avoid.[25] The hajduks were accustomed to living on war booty, thus they had a hard time coping with peacetime.[25] Theprovveditore generale AntonioPriuli, who was very favourable towards the frontiersmen, called uskok and hajduk leaders to Zadar to discuss ways to "create conditions for a normal life".[25]
In December 1669 Antonio Priuli brought from Perast to Venice hajduk leaders including Bajo Pivljanin,Grujica Žeravica,Vukosav Puhalović andbuljubaša Milošević.[25] Earlier, in June, the Venetianprovveditore issued the termination of duty of the "chiefs that protect theKotor area", the first three mentioned, and had them included in the list of soldiers having the right of pay and bread.[25] Pivljanin's bravery and sacrifice to the Republic of Venice is especially outlined.[25] The four leaders asked the Doge if the hajduks could be granted Vrana inRavni Kotari orRisan in the Bay of Kotor as a district for them to settle, and benefits already given toPaštrovići,Grbalj and Perast, due, among other issues, to the fact that "the number of hajduks that fled to the Perast area in 1654 had risen to 1,500, of whom 500 were militarily able, and now, in peacetime, their livelihood was under threat".[26] The issue was finally settled after several months with the arrival ofAntonio Barbaro as the newgenerale provveditore.[27]
In 1670, Barbaro decided that the hajduks would be permitted to settle in Risan and a number of neighbouring villages. Soon after the decision was made, the hajduks and frontier Ottomans came into conflict, resulting in many Ottoman casualties. The Ottoman government then demanded that the Venetian official (bailo) in Constantinople remove the hajduks from Risan.[27] The Venetian government decided to move the hajduks of the Bay of Kotor toIstria on the northern Adriatic coast. Colonisation began in May 1671, with the Venetian captain in charge of Istria being informed of the pending arrival of 1,300 hajduks.[28] By the beginning of June 1671, all hajduks from Risan had been transported by sea to Istria.[27] Istria had been depopulated by epidemics and theUskok War (1615–18); and it therefore made sense to relocate the hajduks to eliminate the frontier clashes between the hajduks and Ottomans, which were disturbing the peace between Venice and the Ottoman Empire. The Venetians also wanted to repopulate Istria, so the Venetian Senate made the decision to resettle the hajduks there.[28] Barbaro guaranteed the hajduks tax exemptions and appropriations, the appointment of four judges to mediate their disputes, and the allocation of livestock and agricultural tools.[28] Apart from Puljština in southern Istria, the hajduks requested grants of land on theBuzet karst.[28] Friction between the hajduks and Venetians was evident in the negotiations between the hajduk leaders and captain Lunardo Mercella; as a significant part of the promised benefits were not forthcoming, four hajduk representatives – Nikola Popović,buljubaša Milošević, Pivljanin and Petar Babić – appealed directly to the Doge of Venice to confirmBarbaro's chapters. Barbaro calmed the hajduks down by regulating their status.[29] The Venetian government initially sought to disperse the hajduks across the Venetian–Ottoman frontier in order to prevent conflict with other Venetian subjects, but they were temporarily settled atPula in Istria.[29]
In the summer of 1671 amalaria epidemic broke out, leading to additional complications.[29] The epidemic was devastating to numerous hajduk families, the natives being more resistant to malaria; thus, part of the settlers moved toLižnjan andPremantura, while others left to return to Dalmatia.[29] Pivljanin and Njegošević lived in Premantura.[30] In 1673, Pivljanin and his followers included 34 households, 18 of which lived in towns; 8 in Premantura (Promontore), 8 in Mutvoran (Momorano) and one inPeroj (Peroi); his followers consisted of a total of 157 individuals, 89 adults and 68 minors, 75 males and 82 females.[31]
Financial aid and incentives did not deliver the expected results for the hajduks, as they did not wish to settle in the assigned lands.[29] Conflicts ensued between the hajduks and local people in Puljština, with kidnappings, hajduk attacks on fishermen and boats, and also revenge killings.[29] The hajduks were enraged, and could not cope with the Istrian climate.[27] Many of them moved toSenj, where theUskoks were still active.[27] During this time, Pivljanin and Njegošević were the most active in moving hajduks into theHabsburg monarchy, and they travelled toKarlovac to negotiate.[27] Some hajduks independently returned to the Bay of Kotor, where theprovveditore of Kotor put some on galleys, imprisoned some atKlis, and exiled some, after killing others using old convictions as a pretext.[27] Whenharambaša Njegošević was persecuted, the hajduks again sent Pivljanin to Venice as their envoy.[27] In his plea to the Doge of Venice, dated 27 March 1673, Pivljanin asked that the persecution of hajduks cease, stating that they had all been pardoned by an amnesty issued by Barbaro.[27] The request was partly met, and some hajduks were freed.[27]
Pivljanin, Jovo Sikimić, and Njegošević settled Zadar in 1674, where they "came into contact with Serb leaders of the [Ravni] kotariuskoks (rebels)",[27] but many hajduks remained in Istria.[27] During 1675 the issues in Istria decreased, and by the next year, as more hajduks left the area, there are no further records regarding hajduks in Istria.[29] While in Zadar, Pivljanin befriendedStojan Janković, a veteran hajduk from Ravni Kotari, who had been active in Dalmatia during the Cretan War.[32] On 17 January 1675, Pivljanin's brother Dimitrije married Ana (Anna Giacovichi, also called Anka[32] and Janja[33][34]), Stojan Janković's sister.[27] In a letter to the Venetian government dated 3 December 1675, Pivljanin offered to receive and hold the goods of Omer Mustafa Čehajić, which were part of a dispute with Vučić Kajić, and suggested Stojan Janković as a guarantor.[35] On 5 February 1676, the birth of Pivljanin's son Simeon by his wife Manda was registered in the Orthodox parish.[36] According to the historian M. Jačov, Pivljanin's wife was another sister of Stojan Janković.[37] The godmother of Pivljanin's son Simeon was Mato Njegošević's wife Ana.[38] Dimitrije's baby son Nikola was baptized on 1 October 1677.[39] On 3 May 1680,provveditore G. Cornaro prohibited some Venetian subjects to cause damage to the meadow inSuhovare rented by Pivljanin from Turks.[40] On 9 January 1680, Dimitrije's wife Ana fell and broke her neck, being 25 years old at the time of death.[34]
After the Ottoman failure at theBattle of Vienna (11–12 September 1683), the people of Ravni Kotari andKninska Krajina assembled under the leadership of Stojan's brotherIlija Janković and attacked the Ottomans.[32] Pivljanin and his brother joined the band.[32] The Venetians, in order to avoid a war, recalled Stojan Janković to Venice in October, calming Ilija, who is described as very restless and unmanageable.[32] Dalmatianprovveditore Lorenzo Dona sent colonel Ivan Radoš to the hajduks to calm them down and return them home.[41] Radoš informed Dona on 10 November 1683 that he had met with Pivljanin, Vid Kalinić and Andrija Gilim atKula Atlagića, who asked him to forward their request of forgiveness to theprovveditore, then summoned Ilija Janković and Jovan Baljak.[41] They all promised to follow Dona's command and stop hostility against Ottomans.[41] When the hajduks calmed down – by which time much of northern Dalmatia was in their hands – the Venetians returned Stojan to Ravni Kotari in December.[32] In a letter dated 8 December 1683,provveditore Dona forgave Pivljanin for desertion, and ordered his return in the list of cavalry bands which he had been part of, and gave him back wages for the intervening time.[42]
Venice entered into an alliance with Austria and declared war on the Ottomans in the spring of 1684.[32] When hostilities began,[43] Pivljanin was again in active Venetian service, finally returning to the Bay of Kotor.[44]
Between January and the end of April 1684, the Republic of Venice accepted 4,200 families as settlers on the Venetian–Ottoman frontier, including 20,000 warriors. The Venetians provided them with food and 1,800 rifles, and their leaders were given monthly pay. The families were settled in the territory of Zadar andŠibenik, and aroundKlis.[45] Pivljanin and his brother Dimitrije served in the cavalry bands in Zadar until Antonio Zeno, the extraordinaryprovveditore of Kotor, requested that they be sent for service in the Bay of Kotor. This was approved byLorenzo Donà, theprovveditore of Dalmatia, on 12 April 1684.[46] In September 1684 Pivljanin was documented as having been with his band inHerceg Novi, and in October in the area ofLivno.[47] The Venetian Senate thanked Pivljanin and Jovan Sikimić for their victory at Jezero, and approved Zeno's decision to reward them medals andsequins, on 12 October 1684.[48] Marino Mikiel, a Venetiancommissary, writing of the state of the Venetian cavalry in Dalmatia on 26 January 1685, highlighted that Stojan Janković and Pivljanin received the wages of cavalry soldiers due to their merit and by grace of the state, without having to effectively serve as soldiers.[48] In March 1685 Pivljanin informed the Venetian extraordinaryprovveditore about his band's operations in the territory of theRepublic of Ragusa; his band numbered 130 fighters and had threeharambašas: Miho Kolumbara; Miloš Lepirić; and Božo Lučić.[49] In February, they had captured a caravan with wheat inZupci, stolen some cattle and burnt down the village ofGlavska, attackedCavtat and returned toTrebinje.[50]
Süleyman, the Ottoman sanjak-bey of Scutari sent word to theMontenegrin people that, "due to their relations withMorlachs (Venetian irregular troops) and hajduks", he would exterminate them all.[51] Historiography is divided as to whether the Montenegrins really betrayed the hajduks in the ensuing battle;[52] some believe that in order to avoid retaliation, the Montenegrins promised the head of Pivljanin,[51] then betrayed the hajduks on the battlefield.[52] The Ottoman forces under Süleyman approachedCetinje, and the two forces met at the hill ofVrtijeljka on 7 May 1685.[53]
The hajduk force consisted ofc. 1200 fighters, including also Montenegrins,Mainjani andPrimorci, commanded by over-intendant Bošković,harambaša Pivljanin, and theguvernadur ofGrbalj.[54] The large Ottoman force crossed theMorača and headed towards Cetinje.[54] The hajduks carried awar flag with Venetian symbols.[52] The hajduks were defeated by the Ottomans, and Pivljanin was killed in battle.[52] Süleyman had Pivljanin's head sent to the Ottoman Sultan,Mehmed IV, as a greatwar trophy.[53] The importance of the battle is evident in the fact that the heads of Pivljanin and his hajduks decorated the entrance hall of theseraglio in Constantinople, and that Süleyman was elevated topasha following the victory.[55] The severed heads were taken to Constantinople as proof of finishing the task and that the enemy was triumphally defeated.[56] Only heads of worthy, more prominent outlaws, of names and work that was well-known, had this treatment.[56] Heads of hajduks were otherwise put on townpalisades or on poles beside the road or crossroads.[56] The fact that multiple other hajduk heads were sent to Constantinople along with Pivljanin's could primarily be explained as that the Ottomans wanted to visibly display the defeat of a notable movement, which had brought much grief to them.[56] The news of the battle was recorded in Rome on 27 May 1685, in this way: "two courageous leaders, one named Bajo, friend of captain Janko, and the other, captain Vuković the Arbanas, died"; the source states that the defeat was due to a betrayal by Montenegrins in the battle.[52]
Pivljanin's importance is evident in Antonio Zeno's evaluation: "since the death of harambaša Bajo, the frontier is left without leaders able to control the hajduks bands".[55] It has been claimed that Pivljanin was buried by theVlah Church in Cetinje.[57] In 1685, Pivljanin's brother Dimitrije, on behalf of Pivljanin's widow and two sons, requested that Pivljanin's pay be transferred to one of the sons. The request highlighted that Pivljanin had left his home in Herzegovina to fight for the Republic of Venice, to whom he had great value as a fighter.[58]
It was decided on 20 September 1689 that his brother Dimitrije and two sons be admitted into the Venetian cavalry. Mentioning Pivljanin as having "proved himself worthy", dealt "damage to the Turks", and suffered "many received wounds", the decision was made to carry out an earlier plan that Pivljanin's sons be admitted into the cavalry.[59] As Pivljanin had died, his brother Dimitrije, who had "given proofs of righteousness and loyalty on several occasions", and his two mature sons, Vuk and Sima (Simeun[33]), were admitted into the band of Soliman inHerceg Novi, "thus, every one of them received wages of a soldier in the cavalry".[60]
There are many epic poems and stories about his life.[43] MetropolitanPetar II Petrović-Njegoš included aeulogy to him inThe Mountain Wreath (1847).[61] Serbian Orthodox priest and historianIlarion Ruvarac (1832–1905) called him a "glorious knight".[62]
The village ofBajovo Polje ("Bajo's field") was named after Bajo Pivljanin, it is said, after he killed his first Turk at the field.[63] The poet Vukašin Gagović used the alias Bajo Pivljanin.[64] AYugoslav Partisan battalion was named after him.[65] There are streets in cities and towns in former Yugoslavia named after him,[d] as well as a Montenegrin futsal club,KMF Bajo Pivljanin.
There are several brotherhoods and families that claim ancestry or kinship with him or his brothers.The Bajovići, having theslava (patron saint day) of St. Nicholas, with tens of houses in Bezuje, and one house in their original village of Rudinice (1971), have several versions of their origin: the first that they descend from a brother of Bajo Pivljanin; the second, from a villager called Čepur that took over Bajo Pivljanin's estate after the family left; the third, that the Bajovići who were really called Čepuri until 1887 descend from a branch of a family tree also including the Vračari and Taušani, closely related to the Gagovići, in line with theirslava in common.[66] Based on the presumed connection with Pivljanin, King Nikola I accepted member Đorđija Bajović into officer school.[66] WhenS. Tomić did field research in Piva in 1912–13 and 1924,[67] however, he recorded the Bajovići, called Čepuri in Gornje Rudinice with two houses, as hailing from Bajovo Polje and being direct descendants of Bajo Nikolić Pivljanin.[68] Meanwhile, Tomić had recorded four[69] or six[70] houses of Bajovići in Bezuje that belonged to the Vračari brotherhood, itself descending from the Gagovići brotherhood.[69]
Other families claiming descent from his nephews are spread throughStara Raška andŠumadija in Serbia.[71] There was a tale that Pivljanin put a curse on his family after seven of his brothers and cousins declined to join him in the hajduks.[71] The Markovići brotherhood inLjuljaci, Serbia, with theslava of St. John, settled in the first half of the 18th century, descending from one of Pivljanin's children.[72][71] The Bajić brotherhood inTakovo, with theslava ofSt. George, numbering 30 households in 1960, also claim descent from him.[73]
The Cretan War is considered an "epical period of Serb history".[74]Vuk Karadžić (1787–1864), the Serbian philologist and linguist, recorded several poems which mention Pivljanin which he published in his folklore collections.[75][76] The poems fall into what is known as the "hajduk epic cycle".[77]
славни витез Бајо Пивљанин
Бајо Пивљанин
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