The Greeks and the Serbs as an integrated society in Zemun during the eighteenth century : a contribution to the history of Greek and Serbian collaboration in the spititual and cultural fields

Abstract

In the eighteenth century many Greeks fled from their Turkishdominated
homeland and settled in the Serbian town of Zemun, which
was an important centre for commerce between East and West. These
Greek immigrants lived harmoniously with the town’s Serbian inhabitants
almost until the end of the eighteenth century, and both
nationalities worked together in close collaboration in the spiritual
and cultural fields.
Unfortunately, these harmonious relations and close collaboration
have not received the attention they deserve from Greek and Serbian
historians, and consequently a wide variety of problems in this general
area still remain to be solved. It is the aim of this study to provide
answers to some of these problems.
Chiefly on the basis of unpublished historical data, the writer
begins by investigating the Greeks’ and Serbians’ collaboration over
the foundation of the Churches of St Nicholas (in 1752 ) and the Birth
of the Virgin Mary (in 1780) in Zemun. He then examines the general
functioning of the Orthodox school at which the Greeks and Serbs of
the town educated their children. Lastly, the writer treats in depth
the translations produced by the Greek scholar Dimitrios N. Darvaris
of Zemun; works which made a notable constribution to the intellectual
life of the Serbs.