Bimbaša


Bimbaša was a military rank of the Serbian Army during the First Serbian Uprising, adopted from Ottoman usage, traditionally used among the hajduks for commanders. In the initial years, it was lesser in rank than vojvoda and higher than buljubaša. The ranks of kapetan and podvojvoda were then introduced, among others, and the ranks of bimbaša and buljubaša subsequently were removed from usage by the end of the uprising.

History

Free Corps and militia

The rank was traditionally used among the hajduks for commanders, and was thus used in the Serbian Free Corps that fought in central Serbia during the Austro-Turkish War (1788–1791). It was then used in the Serbian militia of the Sanjak of Smederevo that aided Vizier Hadji Mustafa Pasha against the renegade Janissaries and Pazvantoglu in the 1790s. This militia allegedly numbered up to 16,000, mostly composed of rayah and also some Free Corps veterans. Of them, every fifty people had their buljubaša, over a hundred there was a harambaša and over a thousand bimbaša, adopted from the Ottoman Turkish military ranks. The knezes of the knežina mustered this militia, led by several buljubaša, all commanded by Stanko Arambašić as bimbaša.

First Serbian Uprising

Following the outbreak of the uprising, Milenko Stojković, a former militia buljubaša, self-styled himself bimbaša. Milenko Stojković and Petar Dobrnjac were the leading commanders in the Požarevac nahiya, the latter serving as buljubaša of the former; through distinction, Dobrnjac was acknowledged as bimbaša by the Serbian Governing Council by late 1805.
Vuk Karadžić wrote an anecdote about how Hajduk Veljko, while only officially ranked a buljubaša, after setting out to Crna Reka in early 1807, sent a bimbaša as his representative with a bag of looted coins to the Governing Council; confused, the Council asked "if you are a bimbaša, what is Hajduk Veljko?", receiving the answer "he is the gospodar ".

Holders

;Serbian Revolution