[3] Ilija Birčanin is also famous in Serbia because of his appearance in the epic poem "Почетак буне против дахија" ("Onset of the uprising against the dahije").

In this poem, while the Turkish governors (or dahije) are organising the Slaughter of the Dukes, they say how particularly glad they will be to kill Ilija Birčanin because of his cynical behavior.

Ilija Birčanin is described in the poem as "wearing his moustache under his hat".

Birčanin and the Serb chieftain Aleksa Nenadović were brought before a large crowd of Christian and Muslim onlookers in Valjevo, where Nenadovic was publicly accused of conspiring with Austrians against the sultan.

The two were then publicly decapitated and their bodies were dumped in an open meadow by the Kolubara River, causing the residents to panic and flee.