Sultan Selim III had given complete command of the Sanjak of Smederevo and Belgrade to battle-hardened Janissaries that had fought Christian forces during the Austro-Turkish War and many other conflicts.

[5] In the summer of 1797 the sultan appointed Mustafa Pasha on position of beglerbeg of Rumelia Eyalet and he left Serbia for Plovdiv to fight against the Vidin rebels of Pazvantoğlu.

[12] They immediately suspended the Serbian autonomy and drastically increased taxes, land was seized, forced labour (čitlučenje) was introduced, and many Serbs fled the janissaries in fear.

[11] According to contemporary sources from Valjevo, the severed heads of the murdered leaders were put on public display in the central square to serve as an example to those who might plot against the rule of the dahije.

[11] This enraged the Serbs, who led their families into the woods and started murdering the subaşi (village overseers) that had been employed by the dahije, and also attacking Ottoman forces.

[14] The dahije sent out the most diplomatic, Aganlija, with a strong force to frighten and calm them down, in order to avoid escalation into armed conflict which would be hard for the janissaries to manage, but to no avail.

[12] On 14 February 1804, in the small village of Orašac near Aranđelovac, leading Serbs gathered and decided to undertake an uprising, choosing Karađorđe Petrović as their leader.

[15] Alija Gušanac, the janissary commander of Belgrade, faced by both Serbs and Imperial authority, decided to let Bekir Pasha into the city in July 1804.

The janissaries chose four of their leading chiefs (Kučuk Alija, Aganlija, Mula Jusuf and Mehmed-aga Fočić) to rule the sanjak after the murder of Mustafa Pasha.

Pred sam Božić stigoše u pomoć valjevski Srbi i sa njihovom pomoću turska gradska posada odbi napadače i očisti grad.