Guduscani
The Guduscani (Croatian: Guduščani, Gačani) were a tribe around present-day Gacka (Lika), between upper Kupa river and the Dalmatian coast, or the inhabitants around the river Guduča near the Bribir region.
Etymology
Petar Skok and Radoslav Katičić derived their ethnonym from Proto-Slavic *gъd-, similar to Proto-Prussian gude in the meaning of "forest". Skok, and Petar Šimunović, also derived it from Proto-Slavic *gadъ (<gu-odh-/*guedh-), "snake", or *gatъ, "gap, depth, dam".[1] Constantine VII (905–959) mentioned in his work De Administrando Imperio a županija in Croatia in the 10th century called "Gūtzēkă", which is translated as Gacka. Some tried to connect Gacka as an ethnonym of the Guduscans, but it is not certain that Gacka got its name from the tribe.[2] The view that the Guduscani were Gothic remnants is not widely accepted, as the state of the Goths was in Italy and it ceased to exist in the mid-6th century, while their presence in the former Roman province of Dalmatia and Liburnia was not dominant.[3] They most probably were a mixture of natives and Slavs.[4]
History
In the Frankish Annals, the Guduscani are mentioned as allies to the Carolingians, the Duke Borna is mentioned as "dux Dalmaciae", "dux Dalmatiae et Liburniae" and "dux Guduscanorum".[5] Borna was first titled duke, i.e. prince (dux) of Guduscani, which indicates that the Guduscans could have been the basis of Borna's authority and could have occupied a much larger territory from Bribir (river Guduča, a confluence of Krka river) in Dalmatia to Gacka in Lika,[3][6] south of Lower Pannonia.[5]
In 818 they were part of an envoy of Borna sent with the other South Slavic tribes (nationes) of Timočani and Praedenecenti (possibly an off-shot of Abodrites) to the court of Louis the Pious in Herstal.[7] Some scholars also related them to the Khashānīn (possibly Kashubians) mentioned by Al-Masudi,[8] but the old consideration that the Guduscani originated from the territory of Moesia (present-day Serbia) and that together with the Timočani became allies of the Franks is disputable due to lack of evidence and arguments.[9]
In 819 alongside Borna fought against Ljudevit, the Duke of the Slavs in Lower Pannonia. They were part of the army of Borna against Ljudevit at the Battle of Kupa (819) but deserted before the battle.[5][7] Borna conquered their lands again upon returning from the battle.[5][7]
Depending on the interpretation of the Byzantine and Frankish sources, some historians consider them to be a tribe separate from the Croats and that the emergence of the Croatian political identity and power is not related to the region of Lika yet of Northern Dalmatia.[10] Borna possibly was their gentile chieftain and they represented only one small tribe among others in medieval Croatia.[6] Seemingly only during the time of Mislav or Trpimir was imposed a dynasty with undisputed Croatian identity which legitimized and spread it further.[11]
References
- ^ Gračanin 2012, pp. 54.
- ^ Gračanin 2012, pp. 58–59.
- ^ a b Gračanin 2012, pp. 67–68.
- ^ Budak 2018, pp. 166.
- ^ a b c d Ćošković, Pejo (1998), "Gačani", Croatian Biographical Lexicon (HBL) (in Croatian), Miroslav Krleža Lexicographical Institute
- ^ a b Budak 2018, pp. 108, 166–167.
- ^ a b c "Gačani", Croatian Encyclopaedia, 2020, retrieved 28 December 2020
- ^ Faḍlān, Aḥmad Ibn (2012). Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North. Translated by Lunde, Paul; Stone, Caroline. Penguin. pp. 128, 200. ISBN 978-0-14-045507-6.
- ^ Gračanin 2012, pp. 55–58, 68.
- ^ Dzino 2010, pp. 182.
- ^ Budak 2018, pp. 109, 167–170.
Sources
- Danijel Džino (2010). Becoming Slav, Becoming Croat: Identity Transformations in Post-Roman and Early Medieval Dalmatia. BRILL. pp. 182–186, 200–201. ISBN 978-90-04-18646-0.
- Bernhard Walter Scholz (1970). Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard's Histories. University of Michigan Press. pp. 104–106. ISBN 0-472-06186-0.
- Hrvoje Gračanin (2012). "Guduskani/Guduščani - Gačani: promišljanja o etnonimu Gačani i horonimu Gacka u svjetlu ranosrednjovjekovnih narativa i suvremenih historiografskih tumačenja" [The Guduskani/Guduščani-Gačani: Considerations about the Ethnonym Gačani and the Choronym Gacka in Light of the Early Medieval Narratives and Modern Historiographic Interpretations]. Gacka i Otočac u srednjem vijeku. Institut društvenih znanosti Ivo Pilar. pp. 49–69.
- Budak, Neven (2018). Hrvatska povijest od 550. do 1100 [Croatian history from 550 until 1100]. Leykam international. ISBN 978-953-340-061-7.