For quite some time now Ive been meaning to start writing a book about 14th century Serbia. I grew up being taught Serbian history and reading Serbian Epic poetry. I’m passionate about the history of my people and would consider my historic knowledge quite substantial. My plan is to write an in depth historical fiction book, split upon 50 year increments of the Serbian history from the 7th century to the end of ww2. Ive done alot of research especially concerning the 7th century to the First World War. The problem being is that I’m swamped with so much information. And this is just the beginning! One doesn’t realise just how complex history really is unless they look at the big picture. To understand the history of one nation, you must also have a very good understanding on the neighbouring countries as well. In Serbia’s case it would be Bulgaria, Hungary, The Byzantine Empire, Bosnia and the Ottoman Turks. Serbia had for the most part been split up into many principalities, and land has shifted between the occupation of different people over the time. You must also take in consideration the different minorities of people living within the Serbian kingdom, and eventually the Serbian Empire. From the 7th century, the migration from whats a region southwest of today’s Ukraine and eastern Poland, to the Balkans to the Serbian defeat to the Ottoman Turks in the mid 15th century is the historical period I’ve concentrated mostly on so far. But still information is quite obscure about the period from the 6th to the 9th century. As much information as there i still a huge amount of historical data id need to begin writing a comprehensive book. Id like to know better about the social structure of that time, cuisine, music, fashion, culture, military, economy, law, and the way the different ethnic groups coexisted.

The first book dealing with medieval Serbia will be concentrated on Emperor Dusan’s life and rule. A time frame spanning the early to mid 14thcentury. It was time Serbia became an Empire and encompassed most of the Byzantine Empire. It was the zenith of the Serbian civilisation, and the turning point in which the empire gradually split into multiple principalities, and eventually succumbed to the Turkish hoard. To be exact ill be concentrating on the short life of King Stefan Dusan, later crowned Emperor Stefan Uroš IV Dušan Silni (’the mighty’), Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks. A time covering Emperor Dusan’s birth at 1308 to his death in 1355. Emperor Dusan’s reign was (1331-1346) as the Serbian King, and (1346-1355) as Emperor of the Serbs and Greek. In total barely 50 years of history, but a time which defined the Serbs as one of the leading nation in Europe at the time.