Serbia History Trivia

1. During their migration to Balkans in 6th-7th centuries A.D., Serbs worshipped a pagan cellestial God. What was his name?

From Quiz Serb Cultural History

Answer: Svetovid

At the time of their settlement in Balkans, during 6th and 7th centuries AD, the Serbs were polytheistic pagans, as were other Slavs, too, at that time. Svetovid is the Supreme deity of the Slavic Pantheon of Gods. He is the God of War, Fate and Fertility. ** Perun is the God of the Storm and of Thunder. * Dajbog ('God who gives') is the God of the Sun and the Harvest and Plentitude, and is also the inventor of calendar. * Vesna is the Goddess of Spring.

From Quiz Serbia - East of West and West of East

Answer: 6th and 7th century A.D.

Serb, as well as Croat tribes, inhabited western portions of Byzantine Empire during 6th and 7th century AD, together with other South Slavic peoples and tribes. They were accompanied by Turkish tribe of Avars.

From Quiz Medieval Serbian History

Answer: Nomocanon

Nomocanon was heavily influenced by Byzantine church law, especially by the so-called Iustinianus Codex (Justinian II Rhinotmetus).

From Quiz Serb Cultural History

Answer: Greek

The Cyrillic alphabet, derived from Greek uncial lettres, also became the national script of the Bulgarians, Russians, Belorussians and Ukrainians. Serbo-Croatian language is written in Cyrillic by the Greek Orthodox Serbs and in the Latin alphabet by the Roman Catholic Croats. * Two Hebrew letters, tzade and shin, were adopted in the Cyrillic letters for the sounds ch and sh.

From Quiz Serbia - East of West and West of East

Answer: Constantine Porfirogenitus

Roman Emperor Constantine Porfirogenitus, himself a knowledgeable historian, first mentioned Serbs and Croats in his work 'De administrando imperio' (About Administering the Empire), and delimited their respective areas like this: east of River Cetina (in Dalmatia) and east of river Piva (today in western Bosnia) live Serbs, while west of this line live Croats. ** The others listed are also Byzantine emperors.

From Quiz Medieval Serbian History

Answer: Radoslav

Radoslav (reigned 1228-1234), the son of Stefan Prvovencani, finished the construction of Studenica monestery. He was under the influence of Byzantian Emperor Theodorus Angelos Duca Komnenus, the ruler of Epirus. He was succeeded by his brother Vladislav (reigned 1234-1243).

From Quiz Serb Cultural History

Answer: Miroslav Gospel

The beautifully illuminated Gospel of Duke Miroslav showed unique Serbian, but also Italian and Byzantine cultural influences. Serbian literature developed from the 12th century, mostly as religious literature, producing biblical stories and hagiographies. After the Turkish occupation of Serbia in 1459, literature declined. ** St. Sava' Nomocanon was set of religious laws written by the first Serbian Patriarch, St. Sava. * The Charter of Ban Kulin is the charter of commercial privileges granted to Dubrovnik by ruler of Bosnia, Ban Kulin.

From Quiz Serbia - East of West and West of East

Answer: Cyril and Methodius

Cyril (827-869)and Methodius (825-884, Greek brothers from Thessalonica, christianized the southern Slavs and strongly influenced the cultural development of all Slavic peoples. Both were outstanding scholars, theologians, and linguists. In 863, they started their work among the Slavs, using Slavonic language in the liturgy. They translated the Holy Scriptures into the language later known as Old Church Slavonic and invented a Slavic Alphabet based on Greek capital letters, that became the Cyrillic alphabet today used in Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Russia. ** St Franciscus and St Dominic are Catholic saints. Cirrius and Damaskus is just made up.

From Quiz Serb Cultural History

Answer: Stefan Dusan

Emperor Dusan (reigned 1331-55) introduced the Byzantine system of titles and ranks, and the imperial chancellery was organized on the Byzantine model, as was the uniform organization of local authorities. In the Diets of 1349 and 1354 he promulgated a code containing 201 statutes. The code covered mainly criminal law, the relations between the classes and between the state and mighty feudal landlords. The law was not based on priniples of equality, but on feudal class positions. However it represented a huge improvement for the pesants of feudal society by protecting them from the hitherto unlimited powers of their landlords. Emperor Dusan's law code, which remained in use until the end of the medieval Serbian state, is a valuable source for the study of medieval society. ** The Canon of Leka Dukadjini is Albanian feudal law, dating from 16th century.

From Quiz Serbia - East of West and West of East

Answer: Stefan Prvovencani

In 1169 Stefan Nemanja became Great zupan of Raska. His son Stefan Prvovencani ('the first-crowned') was the man who layed foundation of Serbian medieval state. He was granted the title of king of Raska by Pope Honorius III in 1217. ** Zupans were regional political and religious leaders. Zupan Vlastimir first acknowledged the suzerainty of the Byzantine Empire, thus opening the Serb lands for conversion to Eastern Orthodox Christianity; the zupan Mutimir was converted about 879.

From Quiz Medieval Serbian History

Answer: Milutin

Milutin (reigned 1281-1321) was married five times. One of his wives was the Byzantine Princess Simonida, who was only six years old when he married her. (Obviously, it was a political marriage).

From Quiz Serb Cultural History

Answer: Mileseva

Mileseva Monastery was built by King Vladislav between 1234 and 1242 near town of Prijepolje. The White Angel of Mileseva, showing the angel on the grave of Christ, overhelms spectator with its beauty. ** The other places listed are also monasteries with very fine frescos. Studenica (built between 1183 and 1196), built by Zupan Stefan Nemanja, is where the first frescoes were painted. Zica (1208/1220) built by king Stefan Prvovencani. Ravanica (1381) was built by Duke Lazar, who died in the Battle of Kosovo (1389).

From Quiz Serbia - East of West and West of East

Answer: Sava

Stefan Nemanja's younger son, Rastko, later canonized as St. Sava, became (1219) the first archbishop of a newly autonomous Serbian Orthodox Church. ** Milutin and Dragutin, sons of Stefan Uros I, were also Serbian kings. Crippled by a fall from his horse, King Dragutin was forced to give up the throne to his younger brother and political rival Milutin. Dragutin then retired to Bosnia with his wife, where he embraced Catholicism. He invited the Pope to send him a mission of Franciscans that he might convert the Orthodox and heretic Bogomils. The harshness of the ensuing Catholic persecutions are given as a major factor in the Bosnians subsequent embrace of Islam. ** Makarius is just made up.

From Quiz Medieval Serbian History

Answer: Bulgarians

Stefan Decanski (reigned 1321-1331) founded the monastery of Visoki Decani on the sacred soil of Kosovo. The monastery is famous for it frescoes, among other thingss.

From Quiz Serb Cultural History

Answer: Oktoih (Book of Psalms)

Oktoih (Book of Psalms), was printed in the printing press of landlord Djuradj Crnojevic in 1494, by monk Makarius. According to tradition, the printing press was in Obod, Cetinje, Montenegro, but no historical source confirms this. The printing press, bought in Venice and in operation between 1493 and 1496, was the first in southeastern Europe. Five books, printed in Cyrillic letters, are still preserved, and they are the first books printed in Cyrillic among South Slavs. In the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Oktoih is a book of liturgical hymns for singing, in eight parts.

From Quiz Serbia - East of West and West of East

Answer: Stefan Decanski

Serbian king Stefan Uros III Decanski (ruled 1321-1331). His father, king Milutin, gave him the city of Zeta to govern, but Decanski joined the rebellion of Zeta's nobility against the crown in 1314. Defeated and partially blinded, Decanski was exiled for seven years to Constantinople, where he lived under the protection of Andronicus II. Before his death, Milutin allowed his son to return. Decanski fended off his family rivals and assumed the throne. He married first a daughter of the Bulgarian Tzar Smilac, and then a noble lady of the Byzantine Palaiologos family. Cruel irony dictated that Decanski put his young son, Stefan Dusan, in command of Zeta, from where he rebelled against his father. Dusan though, succeeded where his father had failed and usurped the throne for himself. ** The monastery he built, Visoki Decani, is a beautiful example of the combination of Serbo-Byzantine church architecture and Italian early Rennaissance architecture. Situated in foothills of Prokletije mountains, (today close to the border of the Serbian province of Kosovo and neighboring Albania) it was a center of religious and spiritual life for centuries to come.

From Quiz Serb Cultural History

Answer: Rudjer Boskovic

Rodger Joseph Boscovich (Rudjer Josif Boskovic, as he signed himself, or Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich, in Italian) was born in Dubrovnik in 1711 and died in Milan 1787. His father, Nikola Boskovic, a wealthy Serb trader from the nearby town of Trebinje, married a Ragusan girl of Italian origin, Pavica Betere, and moved to Dubrovnik where he converted from Orthodoxy to Catholicism in order continue in commerce. Rudjer went to Jesuit schools in Dubrovnik, and later studied in Italy. He made valuable scientific contributions in the field of the movement of planetary bodies. His main work was "Theoria philosophiae naturalis" ("The Theory of Natural Philosophy"). Werner Heisenberg (winner of the Nobel prize for physics in 1932) wrote of his work: ' "Theoria philosophiae naturalis" put forward hypotheses which were confirmed only in the course of last fifty years'. He was a member of the Royal Society of London, a member of St.Petersburg Academy, a "membre correspondant" of the French Academie Royale des Sciences, and an honorary professor of many European universities. Very delicate work on repairing the cupola of St. Peter's church in Vatican was entrusted to Boskovic. ** Marin Getaldic was also a Ragusan physicsist and mathematician of the 16-17th centuries. Franciscus Bosniensis is a medieval composer from Bosnia. Giordano Bruno was Italian astronomer.

From Quiz Medieval Serbian History

Answer: Skopje

The second part of the law code followed in 1354. The code had considerable influence on medieval European law codifications.

From Quiz Serb Cultural History

Answer: Dositej

Dositej Obradovic (1742-1811) is the most important Serbian representative of the Enlightenment period. He was a philosopher, writer and linguist, whose writings greatly influenced Serbian literary development. He was, along with Vuk Karadzic, one of two founders of modern Serbian culture. Dositej was the author of a large number of works written in Serbian and other languages, and he established cultural and educational links between the Balkans and Central and Western Europe, creating a basis for the modern Serbian literature.

From Quiz Medieval Serbian History

Answer: Greeks

Stefan Dusan conquered much of the Byzantine teritory and was preparing himself for a campaign against a forthcoming threat he saw in the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

From Quiz Serb Cultural History

Answer: Write as you speak, speak as you write

Vuk Karadzic found that Serbian spoken language contained 30 distinct sounds (phonemes). For six of these, the Cyrillic alphabet had no letters. He introduced new letters for those sounds, at the same time discarded 18 letters for which Serbian had no use. In 1818 he published his "Srpski rjecnik" ("Serbian Lexicon"), a Serbian-German-Latin dictionary containing 26,270 words and many important sidelights on folklore. Though there was strong opposition to his reform from the church and from writers, the Serbian government in 1868 finally adopted Karadzic's amended alphabet. Karadzic's work also influenced some 19th-century Croatian language codifiers.

From Quiz Medieval Serbian History

Answer: Uros Nejaki

During the reign of Uros Nejaki (1355-1371) the Sebian Empire was divided into several weak states which were unable to resist the Ottoman invasion. Serbia finally fell under Ottoman rule in 1459.

From Quiz Serb Cultural History

Answer: Petar Petrovic Njegos

Petar Petrovic Njegos (1813-1851) was the Vladika (prince and bishop) of Montenegro (1830-1851). He was considered an enlightened ruler and a brave warrior. But he is most famous as a poet. His principal works were the philosophical poem "The Ray of the Microcosm," the historical work "The False Tsar Stephen the Small," and especially his epic poem "The Mountain Garland". Written in the ten-syllabic Serb epic tradition, this last formulates the essential Serbian ethos in a highly condensed, aesthetic way. ** Educated, illustrious and liberal, Prince Mihailo Obrenovic was also committed to modernizing and developing Serbia by adopting a more democratic constitution. He founded the national theater in Belgrade in 1868. * Nikolaj Velimirovic was a 20th century priest, essayist and religious philosopher. * Sima Milutinovic - Sarajlija was a Serbian poet from Sarajevo, and Njegos' teacher.

From Quiz Serbia - East of West and West of East

Answer: Arsenije III Carnojevic

In hope of liberation, Serbs joined Austrian forces under general Prince Eugene of Savoy in their war against Turkey. Having lost the war, vast masses of Serbs fled from Serbia proper in 1689 from Turkish reprisals, and settled mostly in what was then southern Hungary, today autonomous region of Vojvodina. ** Skenderbey (also known as Skanderbeg) was Albanian national hero leading the struggle against Ottoman Turkey. His mother was a Serbian princess. Marko Kraljevic is a Serbian landowner from Macedonia, the legendary hero of struggle against the Turks.

From Quiz Serbia - East of West and West of East

Answer: Orasac

It was the first uprising of Balkan Christians against Turkey that on religious basis deprived them of very basic human and economic rights. Soon Greeks followed, and then Bulgarians and Romanians. In period 1804-1813, Karadjordje managed to free big areas of central Serbia. Threatened by Napoleonic invasion in 1812, Russian Tsar Alexander I concluded a treaty with the Turks, so the withdrawal of Russia left the Serbs open to Ottoman reprisals. When the uprising was crashed in 1813 by superior Ottoman armies, and Karadjordje fled to Hungary.

From Quiz Serb Cultural History

Answer: The Belgrade Surrealist Group

Oskar Davico, Milan Dedinac, Djordje Jovanovic, Marko Ristic and Koca Popovic were prominent members of the influential group of artists called The Belgrade Surrealist group. Serbian writers of the interwar period continued to follow major European literary movements. The influential Belgrade Surrealist group introduced a note of radical, left-wing politics into literature, and some of its members later turned to the style of Socialist Realism. The "Surrealist Manifesto" appeared the liteary alamach "Nemoguce" ("Impossible") in 1930.

From Quiz Serbia - East of West and West of East

Answer: Balkan League

The league planned a coordinated war against the Turks, but the assassination of Prince Michael Obrenovic (June 10, 1868) derailed the plans and destroyed the league. Educated and illustrious, Prince Mihailo Obrenovic also committed to modernizing and developing Serbia by adopting a more democratic constitution. He founded the national theater in Belgrade in 1868. He was a liberal monarch. However he was killed by unknown assassin on June 10th, 1868.

From Quiz Serbia - East of West and West of East

Answer: Draga Masin

Contemporary sources indicate that both Austria-Hungary and Russia were deeply dissatisfied with the rule of the irresponsible Alexander, so they favoured the change of dynasty. After the assasination in 1903, Peter I Karadjordjevic became king; he reigned as king of Serbia from 1903 to 1918 and then as king of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes until his death in 1921. ** Cvijeta Zuzoric was rich patron of the arts in Rennaissance Dubrovnik. Kneginja Milica was Duke Milos's wife, a woman respected by the people. Cucuk Stana was wife of Hajduk Veljko, Serbian national hero during wars of independence against Turkey. She was also very popular.

From Quiz Serb Cultural History

Answer: Milutin Milankovich

The astronomical theory of climatic change was developed in 1920 by the Serbian scientist Milutin Milankovitch (1879-1958). The theory also explained climatic fluctuations of Pleistocene times. The theory is based on the fact that the orbit of the Earth around the Sun varies in three ways (precession, nutation). All of the variations are small, but, especially when they reinforce one another, they are sufficient to cause significant redistributions of solar heating between latitude belts or hemispheres. Various astronomical features in the Solar System are named after Milankovich. ** Tsiolkovsky - a Russian research scientist in aeronautics and astronautics who pioneered rocket and space research and the development and use of wind tunnels for aerodynamic studies. He was also among the first to work out the theoretical problems of rocket travel in space. Mendeleyev was a Russian scientist that formulated the periodic law of elements. Giordano Bruno was an Italian philosopher, astronomer and mathematician.

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