Valjevska Tamnava


Valjevska Tamnava is a historical subregion in Serbian Posavina in west Serbia. It includes villages in the area of Obrenovac, Lajkovac, Ub, Valjevo and Koceljeva. It was a knežina in the Sanjak of Smederevo and a knežina in Revolutionary Serbia.
Further, the Posavina region includes the microregions of Posavina and Posavotamnava.

Geography

Pavlović describes Valjevska Tamnava in the wider sense as stretching from the Kolubara river in the east, Sava river in the north, Vukodraž river in the west, and Vlašić mountain in the south.

History

Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, during the Banate of Macsó of Hungary and the Serbian Despotate, the župa of Beljin, Nepričava, Kolubara, Tamnava and Ub, were mentioned in the 14th- and 15th centuries in the area of Tamnava.

Serbian Revolution

During the First Serbian Uprising, the Valjevska Tamnava area was organized into a knežina of Revolutionary Serbia, belonging to the Valjevo nahiya. The Valjevo nahiya had included three knežina prior to 1804, the Posavina, Jadar, Ljig/Podgor. Prior to the uprising, Free Corps veteran Aleksa Nenadović from Brankovina served as the obor-knez of Posavina–Tamnava. He was executed by the Dahije in the Slaughter of the Knezes in January 1804.
On, Serb notables met at Orašac in the Kragujevac nahiya and decided to rise up under the command of Karađorđe. Aleksa's brother Jakov Nenadović had succeeded as obor-knez of Tamnava, and when hearing that the Kragujevac, Rudnik and most of the Belgrade nahiyas had risen up, he and his nephew, Aleksa's son, the archpriest Matija Nenadović, decided to organize rebellion in the Valjevo nahiya. On, or the following day, the Serb notables of the Valjevo nahiya gathered at the Brankovina height and decided to rise up against the Dahije. Some 700 men were gathered, but they were ill-equipped. Jakov took 300 men of Posavina and Tamnava and went to Beljin and fought with the Šabac Turk detachment on, with many wounded on both sides. The rebels under Matija Nenadović and Nikola Grbović took over Valjevo in March and at the same time, Jakov Nenadović destroyed an enemy unit at Svileuva.
The Valjevska Tamnava rebel unit participated at Svileuva, Beljin, Čučuge, Bratačić, Bukovica, Mišar, Loznica, Lešnica. Among notable leaders, comrades of the Nenadović family of the Valjevo nahiya and Luka Lazarević of the Šabac nahiya, were Isailo Lazić from Krtinska, Petar Erić from Zvečka, priest Leontije Marković from Urovci, Živan Petrović from Kalenić, Vasilj Pavlović from Bajevac, Đura Kostić from Crvena Jabuka, hegumen Jeremija from Grabovica, Milovan Zujalović from Tulari, Živko Dabić from Gola Glava, Jovan Tomić-Belov from Donje Crniljevo, Mihailo Gluvac from Kamenica, Rade Radosavljević from Goločelo, and others.

Notable people

  • Juriša Mihailović was a Serb revolutionary, a captain in the Valjevska Tamnava knežina during the First Serbian Uprising. He was born in Grabovac. Juriša was a merchant, regarded the richest in the Valjevska Tamnava area. Juriša and Petar Erić participated at the Ostružnica Assembly, accompanying archpriest Matija Nenadović, as representatives of the Valjevo nahija. Juriša participated at the Zemun Meeting as one of the 16 Serbian representatives. As one of the representatives of the Valjevo nahija, he signed the April 1805 petition to the Sultan.