Sorbs (tribe)

The Sorbs, also known as Serbs or White Serbs in Serbian historiography, were an Early Slavic tribe settled between the Saale-Elbe valley and the Lusatian Neisse (in present-day Saxony and Thuringia). They were part of the Polabian Slavs and Wends group of Early Slavs. In the 7th century CE, the tribe joined Samo's Empire, and some Sorbs emigrated from their homeland (White Serbia) to Southeast Europe. The tribe is last mentioned in the late-10th century, but its descendants can be found among Germanized people of Saxony, among the Slavic ethnic group of the Sorbs in Lusatia, and among the Serbs of Southeastern Europe.

They are mentioned between the 6th and 10th century as Cervetiis (Servetiis), gentis (S)urbiorum, Suurbi, Sorabi, Soraborum, Sorabos, Surpe, Sorabici, Sorabiet, Sarbin, Swrbjn, Servians, Zribia, and Suurbelant.^[1] It is generally considered that their ethnonym *Sŕbъ (plur. *Sŕby) originates from Proto-Slavic language with a appellative meaning of a "family kinship" and "alliance", while other argue a derivation from Iranian-Sarmatian language.^[1][2][3][4]

According to the old theorization by Joachim Herrmann, the Serbian tribe characterized by Rüssen-type of Leipzig group pottery arrived from the Middle Danube in the beginning of the 7th century and settled between Saale and Elbe river, but only since the 10th century their ethnonym was transferred to the Luzici, Milceni and other tribes of Sukow-Dziedzice and Tornow group who supposedly were present from the late 5th and early 6th century (Tornow since 7th; it was also argued that to the West were present some Slavs with Prague-Korchak culture).^[5][6][7] Herrmann also considered that the Sorbs settled and influenced around Magdeburg, Havelland, Thuringia and northeast Bavaria,^[8] and alongside them immigrated Croats and Bulgars from Middle Danube.^[9] However, since the 1980s, Herrmann's theory is outdated and rejected by archaeologists, historians and other scholars because it was found to be completely unfounded and based on wrong data and chronologies among others.^{[10][11][12][13]} Dendrochronology also showed that the wooden building material was from the late 8th to the beginning of the 10th century, while the material from the 6th and 7th century is almost non-existent.^[14] This is also doubting the accuracy of the historical sources and their interpretation.^[14] Peter Heather, in conclusion, stated that it is an "old theory" with seriously erroneous dating of the ceramics and sites, which in reality date to the 8th and 9th century.^[15] The archaeological data and historical sources indicate earliest Slavic migration along the Carpathians and the Alps since the late 6th century with Korchak-type material.^[16][17]

It is considered that their earliest mention is at least from the 6th century or earlier by Vibius Sequester,^[18] who recorded Cervetiis (Servetiis) living on the other part of the river Elbe which divided them from the Suevi (Albis Germaniae Suevos a Cerveciis dividiit).^{[1][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]} According to one theory, the original Serbs were not of Slavic origin and such an early mention is related to possible westward migration of Alanic tribe of Serboi with the Huns who later as an elite subjugated Slavic population giving it their name.^[26][27][28] According to Lubor Niederle, the Serbian district was located somewhere between Magdeburg and Lusatia, and was later mentioned by the Ottonians as Ciervisti, Zerbisti, and Kirvisti.^[29] According to a fringe theory their area of settlement possibly also included part of Chebsko (the northwestern edge of the Czech Republic),^[21][30] but it is a baseless claim without a source, and scholars, including E. Simek proved only Czechs lived there.^[30] Henryk Łowmiański concluded that there's no mention of Sorbs/Serbs living in the territory of Bohemia in Czech and German historical sources.^[30]

The information by Vibius Sequester is in accordance with the Frankish 7th-century Chronicle of Fredegar according to which the Surbi lived in the Saale-Elbe valley, having settled in the Thuringian part of Francia at least since the second-half of the 6th century and were vassals of Merovingian dynasty.^[21][31][32] The Saale-Elbe line marked the approximate limit of Slavic westward migration.^[33] Fredegar recounts that under the leadership of dux (duke) Dervan (Dervanus dux gente Surbiorum que ex genere Sclavinorum), they joined the Slavic tribal union of Samo, after Samo's decisive victory against Frankish King Dagobert I in 631.^[31][32] Afterwards, these Slavic tribes continuously raided Thuringia.^[31] The fate of the tribes after Samo's death and dissolution of the union in 658 is undetermined, but it is considered that subsequently returned to Frankish vassalage.^[34]

According to 10th-century source De Administrando Imperio by Constantine VII, writing on the Serbs and their lands previously dwelt in, they lived "since the beginning" in the region called by them as Boiki (Bohemia; a mistake by Constantine VII which should be understood as "near" instead of "in"^[30]) which was a neighbor to Francia, and when two brothers succeeded their father, one of them migrated with half of the people from White Serbia to the Balkans during the rule of Eastern Roman Emperor Heraclius (610–641) in the first half of the 7th century.^[35][36] According to some scholars, the White Serbian Unknown Archon who led them to the Balkans was most likely a son, brother or other relative of Dervan.^{[37][38][39][40]}

This account is related to Fredegar's as the revolt against the Avars after the Siege of Constantinople (626) coincides with the period of Heraclius, when Byzantine Empire was also in crisis and likely used the Slavs against the Avars in the Western frontier of the Empire.^[41] Serbs and Heraclius could have come into contact at the time, and Heraclius knew about those faraway lands, because Heraclius made a treaty in 629 with king Dagobert I of the Franks against the Avars.^[41][42] Francis Dvornik considered that the Serbian migration was caused by the Frankish pressure and conquest of Thuringia, and the Byzantine alliance against the Avars.^[43][42] The migration probably temporarily diminished Serbian and Slavic power in Polabia.^[44] Part of the Serbs who emigrated to the Southeastern Europe arrived as a military and ruling elite, that could not influence "racial and linguistic evolution" of other South Slavs and natives, imposing only their name in a similar fashion as did the Bulgars with the Bulgarians.^[45][46] Dvornik additionally argued that they helped the Croats fighting the Avars.^[47][46] Recent scholars also consider that they arrived as a small military elite which managed to organize other already settled and more numerous Slavs,^[48] but that the Serbs did not fight the Avars as there's no evidence and mention of it in historical sources.^[49][37]

In 782, the Sorbs, inhabiting the region between the Elbe and Saale, plundered Thuringia and Saxony.^[50] Charlemagne sent Adalgis, Worad and Geilo into Saxony, aimed at attacking the Sorbs, however, they met with rebel Saxons who destroyed them.^[51]

In 789, Charlemagne launched a campaign against the Wiltzi; after reaching the Elbe, he went further and successfully "subjected the Slavs".^[52][53] His army also included the Sorbs and Obotrites led by chieftain Witzan.^[52][53] The army reached Dragovit, who surrendered, followed by other Slavic magnates and chieftains who submitted to Charlemagne.^[53]

Charles the Younger launched a campaign against the Slavs in Bohemia in 805, killing their dux, Lecho, and then proceeded crossing the Saale with his army and killed rex (king) Melito (or "Miliduoch") of the Sorabi or Siurbis who "live on the River Elbe" in 806.^{[54][55][56][57]} The region was laid to waste, upon which the other Slavic chieftains submitted and gave hostages.^[58][59] Franks constructed two castles, one on each river.^[54] Ten years later, in 816 the Sorbs rebelled, but their diobedience was suppressed after Saxons and East Franks campaign conquering their cities, and renewing their oaths of submission.^[60][57][61] In 822, the Sorbs sent an embassy with gifts alongside other Slavs (Obodrites, Wilzi, Bohemians, Moravians, Praedenecenti as well as Pannonian Avars) to a Louis the Pious's general assembly at Frankfurt.^[62]

In May 826, at a meeting at Ingelheim, Cedrag of the Obotrites and Tunglo "one of the magnates" of the Sorbs were accused of malpractices; they were ordered to appear in October, and Tunglo surrendered his son as hostage to be allowed to return home.^[63][44][64] The Franks had, sometime before the 830s, established the Sorbian March, comprising eastern Thuringia, in easternmost East Francia.

In 839, the Saxons fought "the Sorabos, called Colodici" at Kesigesburch and won the battle, managing to kill their king Cimusclo (or "Czimislav"), with Kesigesburch and eleven forts being captured.^[57][65] The Sorbs were forced to pay tribute and forfeited territory to the Franks.^[65] The Sorbian tribe of Colodici was furthermore mentioned in 973 (Coledizi pagus, Cholidici), in 975 (Colidiki), and 1015 (Colidici locus).^[66] Besides Colodici other tribes which scholars consider part of the core Sorbian tribes were Glomacze-Daleminzi, Chutici-Chudzicy, Citici-Żytyce, Neletici-Nieletycy, Siusler-Susłowie among others.^[5][67]

According to the Annales Fuldenses, in 849 Thachulf, Duke of Thuringia held also the title "dux of the Sorbian March",^[68] In 851, the Sorbs attacked and raided Frankish border, provoking Louis the German's invasion which "oppressed them severely. He tamed them, after they had lost their harvests and so the hope of food".^[69] In August 856 the Sorbian duces joined king Louis's army in his successful attack on Daleminzi and Duchy of Bohemia.^[70][71] In 857, the brother of Sclavitag/Slavitach son of rebellious Wiztrach dux of Bohemians, found a refuge at the court of Zistibor of Sorbs before was made new dux of Bohemians by the Franks.^[72][71] For summer 858, Thachulf was ordered to attack the Sorbs, as one of three armies dealing with different Slavic frontiers.^[73] It is unclear whether by then, or later in the year, Sorbs killed their dux Zistibor.^[74] In 869, Sorbs (as a tribe, not confederation^[75]) and Siusli (another Sorbic tribe^[75]) "joined with the Bohemians and the other peoples of the region and crossed the old Thuringian border: they laid many places waste and killed some who rashly came together to attack them".^[75] In August of the same year, many Sorbs and Bohemian mercenaries recruited by the Sorbs, were killed and forced to return home or surrender by Louis the Younger, Thuringian and Saxon forces.^[76] After death of Thachulf in August 873, the Sorbs and Siusli rebelled again, but Liutbert (archbishop of Mainz) and new Sorbian March dux Radulf II in January 874 "by pillaging and burning crushed their insolence without battle and reduced them to their former servility".^[77] After the Viking raids in the Rhineland against the Saxons in 880, joint forces of the Sorbs, Daleminzi, Bohemians and other near tribes attacked the Slavs around Saale river "faithful to the Thuringians with plunder and burning. Count Poppo, dux of the Sorbian march, came against them with the Thuringians, and with God's help so defeated them that not one out of a great multitude remained".^[78] The Sorbs in Saxony probably were the Slavs who successfully repelled and killed Arn (bishop of Würzburg) in 892.^[79][80]

It is considered that somewhere in the second-half of the 9th century, Svatopluk I of Moravia (r. 871–894) may have incorporated the Sorbs into Great Moravia,^[33][81] or spread Moravian influence in the region,^[71] because Annales Fuldenses mentions an oath of fidelity mission with gifts by Sorbs in Salz and then Bohemians in Regensburg to king Arnulf in 895/897 (with Bohemians calling the Moravians as "enemies" and "opressors"^[81]),^[81][71][82] while Thietmar of Merseburg in his Chronicon Thietmari speaking about Thuringia wrote that "in the reign of the Duke Svatopluk we were ruled by Bohemian princes. Our ancestors paid him an annual tribute and he had bishops in his country, then called Marierun [Moravia]".^[71]

The mid-9th century Bavarian Geographer mentioned the Surbi having 50 civitates (Iuxta illos est regio, que vocatur Surbi, in qua regione plures sunt, que habent civitates L).^[83][1] Alfred the Great in his Geography of Europe (888–893) relying on Orosius, recorded that "north of the Dalamensians are the Surpe/Servians".^[84][85]

The Arab historians and geographers Al-Masudi and Al-Bakri (10th and 11th century) writing on the Saqaliba mentioned the Sarbin or Sernin living between the Germans and the Moravians, a "Slavic people much feared for reasons that it would take too long to explain and whose deeds would need much too detailed an account. They have no particular religious affiliation". They, like other Slavs, "have the custom of burning themselves alive when a king or chieftain dies. They also immolate his horses".^{[86][87][88][89]} In the Hebrew book Josippon (10th century) are listed four Slavic ethnic names from Venice to Saxony; Mwr.wh (Moravians), Krw.tj (Croats), Swrbjn (Sorbs), Lwcnj (Lučané or Lusatians).^[30]

Henry the Fowler had subjected the Stodorani in 928, and in the following year imposed overlordship on the Obotrites and Veletians, and strengthened the grip on the Sorbs and Glomacze.^[90] Between 932 and 963 the Sorbs lost their independence, pressured by Gero, becoming part of Marca Geronis.^[91][92] Since the 940s were built Burgwards in the territory of the Sorbs,^[93] and the Margravate of Meissen and March of Lusatia were established in 965,^[94] remaining part of the Holy Roman Empire, with Otto I founding many Slavic bishoprics (including Bishopric of Merseburg^[95]).^[96] Bishop Boso of St. Emmeram (d. 970), a Slav-speaker, had considerable success in Christianizing the Sorbs.^[97] Although by 994 some Slavic people managed to get independence, only Sorbs remained under Saxon control.^[98]

Cosmas of Prague in his 12th century Chronica Boemorum, speaking about mythical history of Czechs, mentions certain tutor Duringo of Sribia genere and as scelestus Zribin.^[99][100] The chronicle, dealing with real historical events, mentions land of Serbia (Zribiam 1040, 1087, 1088, 1095, 1109, and Sribiae 1113), mainly in regard of being crossed by Saxons to attack Bohemia, or local castles being attacked by Bohemia, from there moved regional princes to Poland and back, or as a land where were banished people from Bohemia.^[100]

Since then the Sorbian tribes mostly disappeared from the political scene. From the 11th to the 15th century, agriculture east of Elbe River developed and colonization by Frankish, Flemish and Saxon settlers intensified. The Slavs were allowed to live mainly in the periphery of the cities, and the military-administrative as well as religious authority was in the hands of the Germans. Despite the long process of Germanization, part of the Slavs living in Lusatia preserved their identity and language until now, and in the early 20th century there lived some 150 thousand Lusatian Sorbs.^[5]

According to Rostyslav Vatseba, "between the Elbe and Saale rivers the heterachical dryht-type state existed during the reign of Miliduch (before 806). The local society of the White Serbs was of clan character, which indicates the beginnings of state formation. The Sorbian 'civitates' are equal to simple chiefdoms, the particular clan regions correspond with complex chiefdoms. The high king ('rex supérbus') had only hegemonic authority over the heads of the clan regions ('ceteri reges'). Later on in the 9th and early 10th century the political unity of the Sorbi region was lost, despite a presumably more hierarchical mode of government in the Colodici's principality of Czimislav (830s). The author suggests that Colodici's 'castellа' served as places of the high prince's dryht members ('witsessen') residence, providing the ability to control the neighbouring clans. Such a system presumably could have persisted to the times of Čestibor".^[101] The peasants were called smerdi, while two other classes were vitaz/vitiezi and zhupans.^[102][103]

The 10th-century Widukind of Corvey in his The Deeds of the Saxons wrote that the "heathens are bad", but their land is rich for cultivation and harvest.^[92] The 12th-century Helmond described the Sorbs of having a "generally innate cruelty", that the pagan people would "tear out the entrails of captured Christians and then wrap them around a stake", while an clergyman stated that the Sorbs and Elbe Slavs are "men without mercy ... rob, murder and kill many with selected tortures".^[92]

Other notable people

• Ludmila of Bohemia (c. 860 – 921)
• Albrecht I of Meissen (12th century)

• Origin hypotheses of the Serbs
• Genetic studies on Serbs

Primary sources

• Chronicle of Fredegar, 642
• Royal Frankish Annals, 829
  • Scholz, Bernhard Walter; Rogers, Barbara (1970). Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard's Histories. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 9780472061860.
• Bavarian Geographer, mid-9th-century
• Annales Fuldenses, 901
  • Reuter, Timothy (1992). The Annals of Fulda: Ninth-century Histories, Volume II. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719034589.
• Cosmas of Prague (1923). Bertold Bretholz (ed.). Die Chronik der Böhmen des Cosmas von Prague. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung.

Secondary sources

• Barford, Paul M. (2001). The Early Slavs: Culture and Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801439773.
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• Brather, Sebastian (2004). "The beginnings of Slavic settlement east of the river Elbe". Antiquity. 78 (300): 314–329. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00112980.
• S. Brather (2011). "The Western Slavs of the Seventh to the Eleventh Century – An Archaeological Perspective". History Compass, 9(6), pp. 454–473
• S. Brather (2020). "Germanic or Slavic? Reconstructing the Transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages in East Central Europe". Interrogating the “Germanic”, De Gruyter, pp. 211–224, ISBN 9783110699760
• Bury, J.B. (2011). The Cambridge Medieval History Series volumes 1-5. Plantagenet Publishing. GGKEY:G636GD76LW7.
• Dvornik, Francis (1949). The Making of Central and Eastern Europe. London: Polish Research Centre Ltd.
• Dvornik, Francis (1956). The Slavs: Their Early History and Civilization. Boston: American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• Francis Dvornik; Romilly Jenkins; Bernard Lewis; Gyula Moravcsik; Dimitri Obolensky; Steven Runciman (1962). Jenkins, Romilly (ed.). De Administrando Imperio: Volume II Commentary. London: The Athlone Press, University of London. ISBN 978-0-88402-021-9.
• Fine, John Van Antwerp Jr. (1991) [1983]. The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0472081497.
• Havlíková, Lubomíra (2016). "What was the location of Serbia mentioned in the Cosmas Chronicle of the Czechs?". In Srđan Rudić (ed.). Spomenica dr Tibora Živkovića: Homage to Tibor Živković. Institute of History Belgrade. pp. 185–191. ISBN 9788677431174.
• Heather, Peter (2010). Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-974163-2.
• Herrmann, Joachim (1970). Die Slawen in Deutschland: Geschichte und Kultur der slawischen Stämme westlich von Oder und Neisse vom 6. bis 12. Jahrhundert (in German). Berlin: Akademie-Verlag GmbH.
• Kunstmann, Heinrich (1987). Beiträge zur Geschichte der Besiedlung Nord- und Mitteldeutschlands mit Balkanslaven. Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler Verlag Der Wissenschaften. ISBN 9783876903859.
• Pech, Edmund (2015). "Milzener, Lusizer und Glomaci-Daleminzer Kontroversen zur frühen Geschichte der Sorben" [Milceni, Luzici and Glomaci-Daleminci. Controversies concerning the early History of the Sorbs]. LĚTOPIS. Zeitschrift für sorbische Sprache, Geschichte und Kultur. Časopis za rěč, stawizny a kulturu Łužiskich Serbow (2): 119–132.
• Roslund, Mats (2007). Guests in the House: Cultural Transmission between Slavs and Scandinavians 900 to 1300 AD. BRILL. ISBN 9789047421856.
• Reuter, Timothy (2014) [1991]. Germany in the Early Middle Ages, C. 800-1056. Routledge. ISBN 9781317872399.
• Vlasto, A. P. (1970). The Entry of the Slavs Into Christendom: An Introduction to the Medieval History of the Slavs. CUP Archive. pp. 142–147. ISBN 978-0-521-07459-9.
• Verbruggen, J. F. (1997). The Art of Warfare in Western Europe During the Middle Ages: From the Eighth Century to 1340. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-0-85115-570-8.