Part ofa series on the
History ofSerbia
By century 9th 10th
Prehistory Paleolithic Mesolithic Neolithic Bronze Age Iron Age
Pre-Roman Illyrians Autariatae Dardani Triballi Moesi Scordisci Dacians
Early Roman Illyricum Pannonia Pannonia Inferior Dalmatia Moesia Moesia Superior Dacia Dacia Aureliana
Late Roman Moesia Prima Dacia Mediterranea Dacia Ripensis Dardania Praevalitana Pannonia Secunda Diocese of Moesia Diocese of Dacia Diocese of Pannonia Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum
Early Middle Ages White Serbia around 600 AD Principality of Serbia Duklja,Travunia,Zachlumia,Narentines,Raška,Bosnia 7th–10th century Catepanate of Ras around 969–976
High Middle Ages Duklja (Zeta) 11th–12th century Theme of Sirmium 1018–1071 Grand Principality 1071–1217 Kingdom of Serbia 1217–1346 King Dragutin's realm 1282–1325 Empire Fall 1346–1371 Lordship of Prilep 1371–1395 Prince Lazar's Serbia 1371–1402 Vuk's Land 1371–1412 Despotate of Serbia 1402–1537
Early Modern Ottoman-ruled Serbia 1459–1804 Jovan Nenad / Radoslav Čelnik 1526–1530 Banate of Lugoj and Caransebeș 16th–17th Habsburg occupation 1686–1699 Great Serb Migrations 1690 and 1737–1739 Military Frontier 1702–1882 Habsburg-ruled Serbia 1718–1739 Koča's frontier 1788–1791
Serbia 1804–1918 Serbian Revolution 1804–1815 Principality of Serbia 1815–1882 Serbian Vojvodina 1848–1849 Serbia and Banat 1849–1860 Kingdom of Serbia 1882–1918
Serbia since 1918 Kingdom of Yugoslavia 1918–1941 Axis occupation 1941–1944 Federal unit of Socialist Yugoslavia 1944–1992 Constituent state with Montenegro 1992–2006 Republic of Serbia 2006–present
Serbia portal
v t e

TheSerbs trace their history to the 6th- and 7th-century migrations ofEarly Slavs to south-eastern Europe. Settling in various parts of theBalkans, Early Slavs assimilated localByzantine populations (primarily descendants of differentpaleo-Balkan peoples) and other formerRoman citizens. Their descendants later coalesced into different Balkan Slavic medieval states.^[1][2]

Various historical authors mentioned names ofSerbs (Serbian:Srbi) andSorbs (Upper Sorbian:Serbja;Lower Sorbian:Serby) in different variants: asCervetiis (Servetiis),gentis (S)urbiorum,Suurbi,Sorabi,Soraborum,Sorabos,Surpe,Sorabici,Sorabiet,Sarbin,Swrbjn,Servians,Sorbi,Sirbia, Sribia, Zirbia, Zribia,Suurbelant,Surbia,Serbulia /Sorbulia among others.^[3][4][5] These authors used these names to refer to Serbs and Sorbs in areas where their historical (or current) presence was/is not disputed (notably in theBalkans andLusatia), but there are also sources that mention the same or similar names in other parts of the World (most notably in theAsiatic Sarmatia in theCaucasus). Attempts of various researchers to connect these names with modern Serbs produced various theories about the origin of the Serb people.

Early historical mentions of an alleged "Serb" ethnonym in the Caucasus

• Pliny the Younger in his workPlinii Caecilii Secundi Historia naturalis from the first century AD (69-75) mentioned people namedSerboi, who lived near theCimmerians, presumably on theBlack Sea and theSea of Azov.^[6]
• In the 2nd century (around 175 AD), theEgyptianGreek scientistClaudius Ptolemy mentioned in hisGeography people namedSerboi or Sirboi, who presumably lived behind theCaucasus, in the hinterland of theCaspian Sea.^[6]

Early historical mentions of other Serb-sounding names that some researchers are trying to connect with the Serb people

• In the same book where he mentioned people namedSerboi,Claudius Ptolemy also mentioned city namedSerbinum inPannonia.^[6]
• Ancient geographerStrabo mentioned that riverXanthos inLycia was formerly namedSirbis.^[7]
• In the 10th century,Byzantine emperorConstantine VII Porphyrogennetos (912-959) mentioned in his bookDe Ceremoniis, apart from the SlavicCroats andSerbs, there were two tribes named Krevatades (Krevatas) andSaṛbanī, which some researches identified as Croats and Serbs.^[8][9] These tribes were located in theCaucasus near the riverTerek, betweenAlania andTsanaria.^[10][11] The Saṛbanī tribe in the Caucasus in the 10th century was also recorded by anArab geographer.^[12]

• 
  People with nameSirbi near the estuary of the riverVolga, on Ptolemaic map from 1552.
• 
  People with nameSirbi near the estuary of the riverVolga, on Ptolemaic map from 1598.
• 
  People with name Serbi (Серби) near the estuary of the riverVolga, according to the map from the book of Jovan Rajić, printed in Vienna in 1794.

According toDe Administrando Imperio (DAI), written by theByzantine emperorConstantine VII (912-959), the Serbs originated from the "White Serbs" who lived on the "other side of Turkey" (name used forHungary), in the area that they called "Boiki" (Bohemia).White Serbia bordered to the Franks andWhite Croatia. DAI claims that after two brothers inherited the rule from their father, one of them took half of the people and migrated to theByzantine Empire (i.e. to theBalkans), which was governed by EmperorHeraclius (610–641).^[13][14][15] According to German historianLudwig Albrecht Gebhardi, the two brothers were sons ofDervan, thedux (duke) of theSurbi (Sorbs).^[16] Another part of the White Serbs did not migrate southwards, but remained in theElbe region. Descendants of these White Serbs with still preserved ethnic identity are the present day Lusatian Serbs (Sorbs), who still live in theLusatia (Lužica, Lausitz) region of easternGermany.

Contrary to the general consideration in science, there are also opinions that the data fromDe administrando imperio that describes Serb migration to the Balkans is not correct and that the Serbs came to the Balkans from Eastern Europe, together with other South Slavs.^[17][18]

In theBalkans,Serbs settled firstan area near Thessaloniki and then area around riversTara,Ibar,Drina andLim (in the present-day border region ofSerbia,Montenegro andBosnia and Herzegovina), and joined with surroundingSouth Slavic tribes that came to the Balkans earlier (in the 6th century) and theByzantine population consisting from different people and tribes. Over time, the South Slavic mixed with the Serbs and also adopted Serb name as their own.^[19][20]

The EmperorConstantine III (641) transferred a part of theSlavs from theBalkans (Vardar region) toAsia Minor. There these migrants founded the city ofGordoservon, the name of which gives grounds for supposing that among its founders there wereSerbs, and was also known under names Gordoserbon and Servochoria.^[21]

Theory about Iranian origin of the Serb ethnonym assumes that ancientSerbi / Serboi from northCaucasus (Asiatic Sarmatia) were aSarmatian (Alanian) tribe.^[22] The theory subsequently assumes that Alanian Serbi were subdued by theHuns in the 4th century and that they, as part of the Hunnic army, migrated to the western edge of theHunnic Empire (in the area ofCentral Europe near the riverElbe, later designated asWhite Serbia in what is nowSaxony andThuringia (easternGermany), recorded byVibius Sequester asCervetiis (Servetiis).^[23] After the Hunnic leaderAttila died (in 453), Alanian Serbi presumably became independent and ruled in the east of the riverSaale (in modern-dayGermany) over the localSlavic population.^[23][22][24] Over time, they, it is argued, intermarried with the localSlavic population of the region,^[22][24] adoptedSlavic language, and transferred their name to the Slavs.^[23][25] According toTadeusz Sulimirski, similar event could occur in theBalkansSerbia, settled bySlavs who came from the north and who were ruled by alreadyslavicized Serboi.^[23][24]

Deformed human skulls that are connected to the Alans are also discovered in the area that was later designated as "White Serbia".^[23][25] According to Indo-European interpretation, different sides of theWorld are designated with different colors, thus, white color is a designation for the west, black color for the north, blue or green color for the east and red color for the south. According to that view,White Serbia andWhite Croatia were designated as western Serbia and western Croatia, and were situated in the west from some hypothetical lands that had same names and that presumably existed in the east.^[26]

This theory assumes that Serbs are anautochthonic people in theBalkans andPodunavlje, where they presumably lived before historical Slavic and Serb migration to the Balkans in the 6th–7th centuries.^[27] Proponents of this theory (for exampleJovan I. Deretić,Olga Luković Pjanović ^[sr],Miloš Milojević) claimed that Serbs either came to the Balkans long before the 7th century or Serb 7th-century migration to the Balkans was only partial and Serbs who, according toDe Administrando Imperio, came from the north found in the Balkans other Serbs that already lived there.^[27] It is suggested that the ancient city ofSerbinum inPannonia was named after these hypothetical autochthonic Serbs. In mainstream historiography, this is considered to be afringe theory, and the methods used by its proponents are consideredpseudoscientific.^[28]

• Sporoi (Greek:Σπόροι) was according to Eastern Roman scholarProcopius (500–560) the old name of theAntae andSclaveni, twoEarly Slavic branches. Procopius stated that the Sclavenes and Antesspoke the same language, but did not trace their common origin back to theVenethi but to a people he called "Sporoi".^[29] He derived the name to Greekσπείρω ("I scatter grain"), because "they populated the land with scattered settlements".^[30] According to Bohemian historianJosef Dobrovský (1753–1829) and Slovak historianPavel Jozef Šafárik (1795–1861) it was a corruption ofSrbi (Serbs).^{[citation needed]} Šafárik deemed that it was the oldest generic name of the Slavs.^[31]
• In the mid-9th century the so-calledBavarian Geographer wrote that people namedZeriuani had so large kingdom that allSlavic peoples originated from there (or from them).^[32][33] According to one of interpretations, Zeriuani are identified with Serbs, and there are opinions that "Serbs" was an old name of all Slavic peoples.^[34] However, according to other opinions, Zeriuani might be a name used forSeverians orSarmatians instead for Serbs.^[35]

• Genetic studies on Serbs
• Names of the Serbs and Serbia

• Novaković, Relja (1992).Još o poreklu Srba. Miroslav.
• Janković, Đorđe (2004)."The Slavs in the 6th Century North Illyricum".Гласник Српског археолошког друштва.20:39–61.
• Petrović, Aleksandar M. (1997).Kratka arheografija Srba: (Srbi prema spisima drevnih povesnica). Nevkoš.
• Petković, Živko D. (1926).Prve pojave srpskog imena. Štampa Tucović.

• History of the Serbs
• Origin hypotheses of ethnic groups

• CS1: long volume value
• CS1 Polish-language sources (pl)
• CS1 Serbian-language sources (sr)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing Serbian-language text
• Pages using Lang-xx templates
• Articles containing Upper Sorbian-language text
• Articles containing Lower Sorbian-language text
• Articles containing Greek-language text
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from November 2023