Pomorje

Pomorje or Primorje (literary meaning: by the sea, seaside, maritime or coastlands) is a term used in historical contexts to describe one of the two geographical divisions that constituted Serbia in the Middle Ages. It had parts of present-day Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia.

It included most of modern Montenegro, the southern halves of Herzegovina and Dalmatia, while the other geographical division, the Zagorje (hinterlands or behind the hills) included most of modern Bosnia, the western half of the modern Kingdom of Serbia, and the northern portions of Montenegro and Herzegovina. Croatia lay to the north of Pomorje and Zagorje, covering all the country between the Pomorje and Sava.

The term was used in royal and religious titles; Serbian monarchs and their heirs (Uroš I, styled himself "King in Christ, God faithful, King of Serbia and Maritime Lands", and Patriarchs (Saint Sava III, "Archbishop of All Serbian and Maritime Lands")

History

The terms are first used in the De Administrando Imperio, a work by Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII (l. 905-959) dedicated to his son, Romanus II, as a domestic and foreign policy manual.

• Duklja
• Travunia
• Zahumlje
• Pagania

Use in royal titles

• Desa, styled himself "Prince of Pomorje (Maritime Lands)"
• Vladislav, styled himself "King of all the Serbian and Maritime Lands"
• Uroš I, styled himself "King in Christ, God faithful, King of Serbia and Maritime Lands"
• Uroš IV Dušan, "King of all the Serbian and Maritime Lands"
• In 1377 Tvrtko I crowned himself King of "Serbia, Bosnia, Pomorje, and the Western lands."

References

Sources

• Vladimir Ćorović, Ilustrovana istorija Srba, knjige 1–6, Beograd, 2005–2006.
• Sima M. Ćirković, Srbi među evropskim narodima, Beograd, 2004.
• Tim Judah, The Serbs, Belgrade, 2000/2003
• Fine, John Van Antwerp (1991), The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century, University of Michigan Press, ISBN 978-0-472-08149-3
• Fine, Jr., John V.A. (2006), When Ethnicity did not matter in the Balkans. A study of Identity in pre-Nationalist Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia in the Medieval and Early-Modern Periods, University of Michigan Press, ISBN 0-472-11414-X
• Hupchik, Dennis P. (2002), The Balkans. From Constantinople to Communism., Palgrave MacMillan, ISBN 1-4039-6417-3
• Stephenson, Paul (2003), The Legend of Basil the Bulgar -Slayer, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-81530-4
• Curta, Florin (2006), Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-81539-0
• Moravcsik, Gyula (1967), De Administrando Imperio, Library of Congress Catalogue
• Whittow, Mark (1996), The Making of Byzantium, 600–1025, MacMillan Press, ISBN 0-520-20496-4

Bibliography

• Đorđe Janković, 2007, Serbian maritime from 7th to 10th century, Serbian archeological Society and Regional Museum of Herceg Novi (in Serbian), English summary