obor-knez

The knežina (Serbian: кнежина, from knez) was a rural self-governing institution among Serbs in the Belgrade Pashalik (now central Serbia) of the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century. As a Christian (rayah) institution supervised by the Ottoman nahiye officials, it had very limited authority and rights. Two organs constituted the knežina, the assembly as per customary law, which cared for important local issues, such as judicial disputes, monasteries and roads, and the obor-knez (обор-кнез), a representative of a group of villages and intermediary between these and the government, who had basic tasks as collecting taxes and maintaining peace and order. The knežina became instrumental in the onset of the First Serbian Uprising as an organization for uprising and maintaining it. In Revolutiona...