Place:Novi Pazar, Serbia, Serbia and Montenegro

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Novi Pazar (lit. "New Bazaar"; ) is a city located in the Raška District of southwestern Serbia. As of the 2011 census, the urban area has 66,527 inhabitants, while the city administrative area has 100,410 inhabitants.^[1] The city is the cultural center of the Bosniaks in Serbia and the region of Sandžak. A multicultural area of Muslims and Orthodox Christians, many monuments of both religions, like the Altun-Alem Mosque and the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, are found in the region which has a total of 30 protected monuments of culture.

History

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One of the oldest monuments of the area is the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul first built in the Roman era. The capital city of the Principality of Serbia, Ras, which was ruled by the Vlastimirović dynasty from 768 to 980, was near the modern city and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In the next centuries, the region of modern Novi Pazar served as the principal province of the Serbian realm. It was an administrative division, usually under the direct rule of the monarch and sometimes as an appanage. It was the crownland, seat or appanage of various Serbian states throughout the Middle Ages, including the Serbian Kingdom (1217-1345) and the Serbian Empire (1345-1371). In 1427, the region and the remnant of Ras, as part of the Serbian Despotate, was ruled by Serbian despot Đurađ Branković. One of the markets was called "despotov trg" (Despot's square). In 1439, the region was captured by the Ottoman Empire, but was reconquered by the Serbian Despotate in 1444. In the summer of 1455, the Ottomans conquered the region again, and named the settlement of Trgovište Eski Bazar (Old Market). Novi Pazar was formally founded as a city in its own right in 1461 by Ottoman general Isa-Beg Ishaković, the Bosnian governor of the district (sanjak) who also founded Sarajevo. Ishaković decided to establish a new town on the area of Trgovište as an urban center between Raška and Jošanica, where at first he built a mosque, a public bath, a marketplace, a hostel, and a compound.

It was the chief town of the Ras province (vilayet) until its disestablishment in 1463, when it became part of the Jeleč Vilayet. The first written document which mentions Novi Pazar dates from the 15th century, and describes the decision of the Republic of Ragusa to appoint a consul there. The town was well developed by this time, being at the intersection of important routes leading to Dubrovnik, Niš, Sofia, Constantinople, Salonica, Sarajevo, Belgrade and Budapest. The town also remained the capital of the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, which continued until the 20th century as a constitutive unit of Bosnia Eyalet. The sanjak was occupied and administered by Austria-Hungary from 1878. In 1908 it was returned to the Ottoman Empire as part of the Kosovo Vilayet, but taken over by the Kingdom of Serbia in 1912, during the First Balkan War.

The area has traditionally had a large number of Albanians and Muslim Slavs with a different culture from the Orthodox Serbs. A contemporary report stated that when the Serb forces entered the Sandjak of Novi Pazar, they "pacified" the Albanians. In 1913, Novi Pazar officially became part of the Kingdom of Serbia, and as such, became part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1918. From 1929 to 1941, Novi Pazar was part of the Zeta Banovina of the Yugoslavia.

In the Battle for Novi Pazar, fought at the end of 1941 during the Second World War, the Chetniks, initially supported by the Partisans, unsuccessfully tried to capture the city. Following the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević on 5 October 2000, newly elected Prime Minister of Serbia Zoran Đinđić made considerable efforts to help economically the whole area of Novi Pazar. Also, with the help of Đinđić, the International University of Novi Pazar was founded in 2002. He made close relations with the leaders of Bosniaks, as part of his wider plan to reform Serbia. Twelve years following his assassination, the Novi Pazar Assembly decided to rename one street in his name.

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