Novi Pazar

Novi Pazar

Novi Pazar (nôˌvē päzärˈ), town (1991 pop. 51,749), SW Serbia, on the Raška River. It is an agricultural trading center with a well-developed textile industry. Known as Raška or Rashka in the 9th cent., it was the capital of Serbia from the 12th to the 14th cent. It was captured by the Turks in 1456 and became an important trade center and the seat of the Turkish sanjak [district] of Novibazar (an older spelling). The sanjak of Novibazar was occupied by Austria from 1879 to 1908, but remained under Turkish civil administration until 1913, when it passed to Serbia. It was part of Yugoslavia from World War I until its disintegration and reconstitution. The region, still known as the Sanjak or Sandžak, is now divided between Serbia and Montenegro and remains home to many Muslims. The town retains much of its Turkish architecture.

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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Novi Pazar

 

an early medieval (second half of the eighth century) burial ground in northeastern Bulgaria, in Shumen District. Novi Pazar was investigated in 1948 and 1949. Forty-two burials, two of which contained the remains of cremated bodies, were uncovered in rectangular pits. The inventory was rich and diversified, especially in the graves of the men. Preserved were bronze buttons, clasps, rings, belt buckles, and remnants of linen clothing. Weapons included an early type of saber, iron battle-axes, spears, and the remains of a bow. Ornaments were few and included temporal rings of copper wire, earrings, and glass beads.

The pottery was made on a potter’s wheel. Especially characteristic were glazed gray pitchers, resembling the pottery of the Saltovo-Maiatskoe culture. Skeletons of horses and the bones of domestic animals and poultry were also found in the graves. The burial ground was left by Turkic-speaking proto-Bulgarian tribes, who maintained ties with the peoples of the Azov Sea area and the northern shore of the Black Sea and had assimilated a number of Sarmatian-Alani cultural traditions.

REFERENCE

Stanchev, S., and S. Ivanov. Nekropol ut do Novi Pazar. Sofia, 1958.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.