The Kosovo myth of ancient Serb-Muslim enmity is a recent nineteenth-century construction

Evidence

Western policy makers maintain that the conflict in the Balkans is “age old.” Yet contiguous ethnic and religious groups throughout the world have old antagonisms. Armed conflict between Serbs and Croats is confined largely to this century. The conflict between Serbs and Slavic Muslims dates back to the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. However, the development of the Kosovo story in which Slavic Muslims and Serbs are ancient and fated enemies is more recent; it was constructed by nationalist Serbs in the nineteenth century and projected back to the battle of Kosovo in 1389, and then back further, even to the very creation of the universe. It is this rather recent national mythology which was revived in the late 198os in Yugoslavia. — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed, 133

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Hobsbawm’s ‘invented traditions’ literature and to how the author elsewhere treats the mythic framing of contemporary conflict. — connects to: The Kosovo-as-holy-land discourse is a modern nationalist invention, not ancient tradition — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1465; The Serbian-Jerusalem discourse is a product of 1980s Serb nationalism, not ancient tradition — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1498; Sri Lankan ethnic myths served political purposes only since the nineteenth century — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 84
• QUESTION: Worth chasing the specific nationalist texts that first projected the myth back ‘to the very creation of the universe.‘

Related

• The Kosovo-as-holy-land discourse is a modern nationalist invention, not ancient tradition (similarity 0.86)
• The Serbian-Jerusalem discourse is a product of 1980s Serb nationalism, not ancient tradition (similarity 0.84)
• Kosovo’s mythic centrality was imposed by nationalists, not present in the folk canon (similarity 0.81)
• Slavic Muslims were redefined as Turkish invaders through religious nationalism (similarity 0.80)
• The 1989 Kosovo commemoration fused Christ-killer myth with anti-Muslim and anti-Albanian hatred (similarity 0.80)
• Pre-nationalist Serb epic prized a mediator with the Ottomans, not the Kosovo martyr (similarity 0.80)
• A retrieved Serbian tradition could recast Kosovo’s traitor as the genocidaires themselves (similarity 0.80)
• Kosovo mythology transforms religious identity into a racialist ideology (similarity 0.80)
• Serb nationalist ideology fuses religious identity with race-traitor charges against Muslims (similarity 0.78)