Draft:Jovan Mitrović Demir

Jovan Mitrović Demir (Serbian Cyrillic: Јован Митровић Демир; Lisina from Piva, Old Herzegovina, 1756 - Dražinovići, Užice, Principality of Serbia, 1852) was captain of the Principality of Požega and one of the elders of the Užice Nahija at the time of the First and Second Serbian Uprising. He was a famous hero in the Užice region during the almost decade-long rule of Karađorđe's Serbia. He survived both uprisings. In the period from 1824 to 1835, Jovan Mitrović Demir is mentioned above all as a member of the Užice magistrate at a time of Miloš Obrenović.

Biography

Jovan Mitrović Demir was born in Hercegovina and during the First Serbian Uprising on 26 May 1811 he was appointed boluk-bashi and captain of the Požega-Užice infantry and later captain of Podgorje, under the command of the duke of the principality Nikola Karamarković (Karađorđe's son-in-law, then captain of the Montenegrin principality, and a prince in the Užice nahija). In 1825 Jovan Demir was a member of the Užice district court. Later, he was a magistrate of the district court in Užice, where he lived in the village of Dražinovići.

After being pensioned as a judge, he lived to be 96 years old before he died in 1852 and was buried in Dražinovići.

Background

The sister of Prince Maksim Rašković was married to the captain of the Požega principality, Jovan Mitrović Demir, a member of the Užice District Court, a native of Lisina from Piva in Old Herzegovina, and further back from Kosovo. His older surname is Adžić, and before that, according to tradition, Zečević. Before the First Serbian Uprising, he was a hajduk in Romania. Owing to his heroism, he was nicknamed Demir or "iron" in Turkish. The son of his cousin Joko Adžić is Duke Vule Hadžić, who died in the Herzegovinian uprising in 1875 together with his cousin officer Drek Hadžić. Adžićs are immigrants from Kosovo and Metohija or Kosovo who came via Banjani to Piva, and their origin is from Lisina in Piva.

Jovan Mitrović Demir ("Iron") and his wife (the sister of the old prince and duke Maksim Rašković of the Old Vlah in the First Serbian Uprising) had two sons (Miloš and Andrija) and two daughters (Jovanka and Milica).

Sources

• Morison, W. A. (2012) [1942]. The Revolt of the Serbs Against the Turks: (1804-1813). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-67606-0.
• Petrovich, Michael Boro (1976). A history of modern Serbia, 1804-1918. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ISBN 978-0-15-140950-1.
• Ranke, Leopold von (1847). History of Servia, and the Servian Revolution: From Original Mss. and Documents. J. Murray.