Đorđe Ćurčija

Đorđe Obradović (Serbian Cyrillic: Ђорђе Обрадовић; d. 1804), better known as Đorđe Ćurčija (Ђорђе Ћурчија) or Ćurta (Ћурта), was a commander in the First Serbian Uprising (1804). When he heard of the outbreak against the dahija in Valjevo and Šumadija Obradović was operating as a hajduk (highwayman) and in response he "began to attack the Turks more frequently". He would be purged by his own side before the year was out.

As a child, he moved from his village to the Belgrade pashalik. For a while he worked as a furrier (ćurčija) in Krupanj, hence the sobriquet "Ćurčija" that became his surname. Later, he joined a group of hajduks (highwaymen) and was well-liked by his fellow Serbs but feared by the Turks in Podrinje as an Harambaša, a senior commander of a hajduk band.

When the uprising broke out in 1804, Obradović joined the insurgents, but already in the first days he showed a certain arbitrariness. He did not take part in the Battle of Čokešina (28 April 1804) due to a quarrel with Jakov Nenadović, one of the most prominent leaders of the uprising in western Serbia, but soon after he fought together with others against the Turks near Belgrade and during the capture of Požarevac.

There he again came into conflict with Jakov Nenadović, and also with Karađorđe, so he went to Mačva with his men. He dominated Jadar, Rađevina and the scaffold towards Sremska Mitrovica and from there he led the fight against the Turks on his own.

Undisicplined by nature, his quarrel with Nikola Grbović and Luka Lazarević, as well as an incursion by the Turks from the Drina, hastened the decision to remove him. Ćurčija was suddenly attacked in Novo Selo in the summer of 1804, where he was killed resisting Jakov Nenadović's men.

Đorđe Ćurčija's scribe during 1804 was Vuk Stefanović Karadžić.

See also

• List of Serbian Revolutionaries

References

• Branko Šašić (1998). Znameniti Šapčani i Podrinci. Udruženje Građana Sport u Podrinju.
  • excerpt at "Đorđe Obradović Ćurčija (17xx—1804)".