Transformation of the medieval urban landscape: from Serbian Ras to Ottoman Novi Pazar

Abstract

The expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans during the second half of the 14th and in the 15th century led to the disappearance of medieval Christian states and the establishment of a new political regime with Islam as the ruling religion. This resulted in numerous cultural, social, economic and demographic changes. Some of them were drastic and arose immediately upon the arrival of the conquerors, while others were less pronounced or at least initially absent. The least noticeable, especially in the first centuries of Ottoman rule, were changes in the cultural landscape. The exceptions were important urban centers in which certain visual changes were obvious already after the conquest. Namely, cities would, usually im-mediately after falling into Ottoman hands, gain at least one mosque, with which the conqueror would “mark” the newly acquired land. This most expressive symbol of the new ideology would most often be created by converting the largest city's church, that is, the church whose position dominated the urban landscape. This would be followed by the construction of other buildings with the aim of adapting the conquered city to the needs of Muslims and the Ottoman vision of ideally organized urban space. The process of adaptation and transformation of existing urban settlements, especially those with rich layers of Byzantine-Slavic heritage, as well as its scope, occurred at dierent rates depending on local circumstances and the needs of the Ottoman state itself. Thus, some cities underwent minimal changes in spatial organization, while others were completely transformed. Bearing in mind that each city is a case for itself, we decided to analyze in more detail the transformation of medieval Ras into the Ottoman city of Ras, which in the process received another, later the only, name – Novi Pazar.