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Serbs on the Routes of the Crusaders

Summary/Abstract: The Morava area in the middle of the 11th century was described as the Bulgarian desert, and it kept that designation over the next century because of its impenetrability and scarce population. Otherwise, the area between Belgrade and Niš, as part of the Via Militaris, even though it was under the rule of Byzantium, was called Bulgaria in the sources. The term Bulgaria is most likely related to the territory of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, and the people that lived in the territory were called the Bulgarians. As the term Bulgarians was used exclusively in a geographic sense, an analysis of Byzantine sources, primarily John Skylitzes, Skylitzes Continuatus and Kekaumenos, brings us to the conclusion that under that term we should identify also the Serbs, except for the Greeks and Bulgarians in ethnic terms, who were at that time present in this area. The first three Crusades, because of the way taken by the crusader armies, were directly related to the area of the Balkans. However, the later Crusades, though they had no direct connection with the area, certainly in a special way influenced the political, social and cultural history of the Serbs of that period.

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