The Legend of Voivode Korco

[TrueMacedonian]

Not a very good legend to have considering he wiped out his own people in retaliation of the Beg. But that is the life of a bandit.

[osiris]

they look like my amigos from east l.a orole.

[Soldier of Macedon]

Not a very good legend to have considering he wiped out his own people in retaliation of the Beg. But that is the life of a bandit.

I think the massacre was in relation to the townsfolk in Strumica and not the whole population in the area, notice prior to making reference to the event he says that peasant haiduks hated and distrusted cities. Most Macedonians at the end of the 18th century were peasants, the townsfolk would be Turks and, some Macedonians and Vlach Grkomans.

[TrueMacedonian]

Very true SoM I see what you're saying now that I re-read the page. I wonder if anyone has written a book on Macedonia's bandits and the songs themselves. That would be an interesting book. Stories like Korco's are really hidden gems in our history.

[Soldier of Macedon]

Significant for you probably a tad more, given that you're from around there, he's probably your ancestor bre!

[TrueMacedonian]

Significant for you probably a tad more, given that you're from around there, he's probably your ancestor bre!

Maybe so. I think there was a Great great Dedo Korco somewhere in the family line lol.

[Big Bad Sven]

Are those three men on the cover the cover Korco and his men?

If they are I have never seen those types of hats in Macedonia, especially in Ottoman times.

[Soldier of Macedon]

Lol, I think the book is about bandits overall hence the photo of the Amigos, the part posted by TM is a segment related to Balkan bandits I take it.

Or, it could be Karamanlis, Bakoyannis and Speedy Gonzalopolous before they liberated some Albanian village in Attica.

[Soldier of Macedon]

Here is an interesting book relating to banditry that may be related to the topic, I haven't read it alot of it, but caught glimpses of some which I have posted below:

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=ziNYK4t6Z1cC&pg=PA666&lpg=PA666&dq=warlords+in+Macedonia,+Ottoman&source=bl&ots=IlL2tybfvI&sig=-C9S3v0OdD-Lk3-4MyQ0I9GgCTQ&hl=en&ei=NW85S-vYNZX6nAf1naT8CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CBcQ6AEwBA#v=snippet&q=macedonian&f=false

When insecurity of life thus is added to economic insecurity, the result is flight. A good demonstration of this took place on the Danubian frontier with occupied Rumania in the later wars of the century. There, Bulgarian and Macedonian peasants quit their hard-pressed villages and crossed the river in the direction of the newly opened tracts in the Ukraine.

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=ziNYK4t6Z1cC&pg=PA666&lpg=PA666&dq=warlords+in+Macedonia,+Ottoman&source=bl&ots=IlL2tybfvI&sig=-C9S3v0OdD-Lk3-4MyQ0I9GgCTQ&hl=en&ei=NW85S-vYNZX6nAf1naT8CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CBcQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=warlords%20in%20Macedonia%2C%20Ottoman&f=false

The forty years before the enthronement of Mahmud II n 1808 were years of great insecurity for the Bulgarian and Macedonian peoples.....Already by the mid-1760's competition began for domination among the ayans of Seres in Macedonia, and at Vidin on the Danube.....

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=ziNYK4t6Z1cC&pg=PA666&lpg=PA666&dq=warlords+in+Macedonia,+Ottoman&source=bl&ots=IlL2tybfvI&sig=-C9S3v0OdD-Lk3-4MyQ0I9GgCTQ&hl=en&ei=NW85S-vYNZX6nAf1naT8CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CBcQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=warlords%20in%20Macedonia%2C%20Ottoman&f=false

While during much of the 1770's banditry had centred on central and eastern Macedonia, during the 1790's it was much closer to Istanbul, and centered on eastern Thrace........

The state used a whole bag of tricks, all save determination, to dela with the warlords of the time. An ayan chief might be appointed to put down bandits, as was Ismail of Seres in 1793-94, or forgiven, as was Osman Pazvantoglu in 1796, or besieged in vain (1797), or made into a vizier (1799-1801).......

Source: An economic and social history of the Ottoman Empire, Volume II, Suraiya Faroqhi, Halil Inalcik, Donald Quataert.

[Soldier of Macedon]

Very true SoM I see what you're saying now that I re-read the page. I wonder if anyone has written a book on Macedonia's bandits and the songs themselves. That would be an interesting book. Stories like Korco's are really hidden gems in our history.

I think the Miladinov brothers (mid 19th century) had a section in their collection of songs pertaining to bandits or outlaws, I will see if there is anything relevant there.

[Soldier of Macedon]

Here is another book that looks very interesting, but don't have the text for it, from a Croatian writer:

http://www.akademiai.com/content/w8n0j46432t73016/

The ethical norms in macedonian folk ballads about haiduks, by Vesna Matijašević-Pokupec.