Challenging Myth in a Short History of Kosovo

Noel Malcolm. Kosovo: A Short History. New York: New York University Press, 1998. xxxvi + 492 pp. $28.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8147-5598-3. Reviewed by Thomas Emmert Published on HABSBURG (May, 1999) In the conclusion to his new history of Koso‐ of the nation's myths. None of this happened nor vo, Noel Malcolm observes: "Whether Kosovo is is it likely to happen in the near future. brought, in the end, to a peaceful solution, or Perhaps it is somewhat unorthodox to begin a plunged into a conflict potentially even more review with a critique of the author's effort at deadly than that which was created in Bosnia, prophecy in his conclusion, but it is important to will depend to a large extent on the ability of ordi‐ note that Malcolm's essential idea in that conclu‐ nary Serbs to challenge the fxed pattern of sion is critical to the entire study. This is a solid thought which has held them in its grip for so history which is, nevertheless, shaped by the au‐ long ... When ordinary Serbs learn to think more thor's own overriding determination to challenge rationally and humanely about Kosovo, and more Serbian myths. If the author's conclusion as sum‐ critically about some of their national myths, all marized above seems to have a certain Op-Ed the people of Kosovo and Serbia will benefit--not quality to it, one fnds a similar tendency sprin‐ least the Serbs themselves" (pp. 355-56). Clearly kled throughout the book. As one of my students the few months between the publication of Mal‐ remarked last week after fnishing the book, "This colm's history and the terrible tragedy that has is a history with an attitude." That my young stu‐ unfolded in Kosovo these past few weeks were dent is not alone in his assessment of the book is not enough time for Serbs to challenge their suggested by the extensive review and uncomfort‐ "fixed pattern of thought" about Kosovo. But, of ably polemic discussion of the book which pre‐ course, this alone would not have prevented the sented itself in the immediate weeks and months disaster we are witnessing today. For any chal‐ after its publication. lenge to have been effective it would have had to Malcolm is not the frst historian to take on include the removal of Milosevic from power. It the powerful mythology of the Serbs. Serbia's frst would also have had to assume that some opposi‐ critical historians in the late nineteenth century tion fgure in Serbia could lead the new critique (Ruvarac in particular) devoted years of work to H-Net Reviews identifying and verifying historical sources. The structed interpretation of the region's history with medieval Battle of Kosovo and the legendary tra‐ a clear eye on the present. dition which evolved around it were of particular Malcolm suggests that this book needed to be interest to these historians. They tried to separate written even if there had been no crisis in fact from fction, but in the end they were only present-day Kosovo. Given the paucity of books partially successful. In an article in the Belgrade about Kosovo in western European languages, newspaper, Politika, published in 1939 on the one cannot disagree with this conclusion. As an 550th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, the introduction to the history of this loosely defined prominent Serb medievalist, Mihailo Dinic, con‐ region of the Balkans, Malcolm's study is an im‐ cluded that history had not succeeded (and proba‐ pressive and extraordinarily well-written work. bly never would succeed) in separating the histor‐ Unlike many scholars of the former Yugoslavia, ical Kosovo from the legendary.[1] Whatever hap‐ Malcolm is an accomplished polyglot who in‐ pened on the feld of Kosovo in 1389 was so cludes Albanian and Turkish in his linguistic wrapped in legend, symbol, and myth that the quiver. Such expertise is perhaps the least that myth itself had become reality--or at least one ver‐ one should expect from any scholar who is willing sion of that reality. If one had attempted to prove to tackle the thorny issues of state and society in that the battle itself was less significant than the this part of the Balkans in the Ottoman and post- myth would concede or that the outcome was pos‐ Ottoman periods. Unfortunately, most of us col‐ sibly debatable given the extant contemporary ev‐ lapsed from linguistic fatigue after learning Latin, idence, Dinic's compatriots would have dismissed Greek, Old Church Slavonic, and the various Slav‐ such arguments as incompatible with almost six ic tongues of the Balkans. centuries of Serbian oral tradition. National Malcolm's concern for a more inclusive bibli‐ myths clearly have a life and reality of their own, ography is clearly reflected in the research, scope and challenging them is a most audacious endeav‐ and argument of this work. He has consulted sev‐ or. eral critical archives (with the notable and curi‐ Noel Malcolm clearly has that audacity in ous exception of Serbian archives) and has Kosovo: A Short History. Published only four amassed a broad and representative body of sec‐ years after his frst bold step into the murky poli‐ ondary literature. The primary strength of Mal‐ tics and history of the Balkans (Bosnia: A Short colm's study is found in his attempt to understand History [2]), Malcolm perhaps gives hope to all the long centuries of Kosovo history before our historians and other scholars who labor endless own century. Half of the book covers the period years in producing definitive studies of their par‐ before the Serbian revolutions in the early nine‐ ticular regions of the world. Trained as a historian teenth century. In fact, Malcolm leaves the twenti‐ at Cambridge, Malcolm served as foreign editor eth century to the fnal third of his book and only for the Spectator and as a political columnist on investigates the post-Tito era in Kosovo in the last the Daily Telegraph. That experience served him brief chapter of the work. well in this effort to deal with the contemporary In the frst half of the book, Malcolm offers a crisis in Kosovo by tackling its complex and con‐ detailed discussion of the origins of the Albanians troversial history. He has the voice of a journalist, and Serbs (and Vlachs and others who have popu‐ which makes his history highly readable and per‐ lated the region), the place of Kosovo in medieval haps even accessible to the broad public. In spite Serbia, the Battle of Kosovo and the myth which of almost 150 pages of notes, bibliography, and in‐ evolved around it, the character of Ottoman rule dex, this is still a popular work designed to ac‐ in the centuries that followed, the Ottoman-Habs‐ quaint a general audience with a carefully con‐ 2 H-Net Reviews burg war at the end of the seventeenth century Serbian prince who died in the battle and in the and the subsequent Serb migration from Kosovo. evolving oral epic tradition about Kosovo, Mal‐ In his analysis he tries to offer a critical assess‐ colm still argues that it was only in the nineteenth ment of the exaggerated claims of both Serbs and century that the "strands of tradition" were trans‐ Albanians as they construct their own interpreta‐ formed into a national ideology. Certainly the ad‐ tion of the distant past, but he clearly sets his tar‐ vent of nineteenth century nationalism encour‐ get most often on the Serbs (arguing that their aged a renewal of the Kosovo ethos and obvious myths are the most entrenched and inherently embellishments to the tradition, but the Serbs dangerous). Malcolm's command of the subject needed far less invention of tradition to encour‐ and his sources is so excellent that it is surprising age a national consciousness. The Kosovo ethos that he endangers that authority with his trans‐ was well established in the epic tradition and in parent attempt to prove that the main Serbian the narrative "Tale about the Battle of Kosovo" myths are false. Besides the fact that his analysis long before Vuk Karadzic's day. More importantly, will not persuade Serbs and Serb scholars, the during the nineteenth century Serbian national‐ analysis itself is simply not convincing. ism increasingly emphasized the glory of the Ne‐ There appear to be three main targets of his manjid period rather than concentrating on the critique of Serbian myth. First, since Nemanjid defeat and moral victory at Kosovo. This is evi‐ Serbia had its origins to the north of Kosovo, he dent in the late nineteenth century textbooks of refutes the Serbian claim that Kosovo is the "cra‐ the Serbian schools. One has to assume from Mal‐ dle of Serbian civilization." He acknowledges that colm's conclusion that he believes it will be easier it became central to the Serbian state (at least geo‐ for Serbs to think more critically about this myth graphically) in the thirteenth century, but he if they can be convinced that it is something that doubts that that centrality extended to politics, has been created for them in the nineteenth cen‐ culture, and economics. He concedes that moving tury. the seat of the Archbishopric (and then Patriar‐ The third myth that Malcolm tries to debunk chate) to Pec at the end of the fourteenth century is the celebrated migration of thousands of Serbs made Kosovo central to the Serbian Church, but from Kosovo to southern Hungary at the end of he argues that this was only because of an attack the seventeenth century led by their patriarch, on the monastery of Zica by Tatars and Cumans.

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