Pirot rebellion

Refugees across the border in Serbia planned the rebellion and rose up together with villagers from the area during a scheduled meeting of the two sides agreed upon by the Serbian Prince Miloš Obrenović, the community protector, and the Vali of Rumelia.

[4] In January 1835, 16 villages in Lower Ponišavlje rose up due to Ottoman zulum; the rebellion was suppressed with the mediation of Prince Miloš.

[9] Due to this, the community leader Hadži-Neša Filipović, a wealthy and respected man, left Pirot for Knjaževac (since 1833 part of Serbia) with a large group of people when complaints to the Vali of Rumelia at Bitola bore no fruit.

[11] Furthermore, Prince Miloš demanded that bishop Hieronymos and Hadji Hasan Efendi, whom ayan Mahmud blamed for everything, be banished (sürgün, exile from the region).

[13] At the beginning of the turmoil, Prince Miloš made the Porte immediately replace ayan Mahmud, and they appointed Nektarios from Lemnos the new bishop.

[14] Prince Miloš recommended that Petronijević work on calming down the rebellion and have the Albanian crew at Pirot replaced by nızamı (a westernized military corps), "Imperial people".

[14] The bazaar was shut down and the Turks went towards the Tijabar neighbourhood, but the Ottoman army from Sofia kept them at the town bridge and refused them to continue.

[14] On 27 June, in the name of citizens of Pirot, Hadži-Neša, Hadži-Ćira Nešović, Viden Jovanović, Cvetko Teodorović, Đorđe Cenović, Mika Krstović, Stamen Caribrodski, Panajot Pop-Jović, Đorđe Jelenić, Živko Stefanović, Ćira Mladžić and Hadži-Pavle with a warm letter thanked Prince Miloš on his commitment to Pirot affairs and prayed that he would not forget them.

[14] A large group of villagers met up at the Temska monastery on 2 August, and in the evening went toward Pirot crossing the Gradašnica river.

[15] It seems that Prince Miloš sought to challenge rebellion as to receive mandate from the Sultan to calm down the rebellious rayah and gain authority upon them, and towards the Porte tried to show himself as a loyal vassal as to remove any possible insinuations.

[8] Thanks to Prince Miloš's relations in the Porte and his influence on some of its officials, the Pirot inhabitants were saved from heavy repression.

[8] Serbian intervention led to Pirot's appointment of a local kocabaşı, amnesty, and notable improvement of tax liability and overall Serbian–Ottoman affairs.

[8] During the Tanzimat period (1839–1876), the Sanjak of Niš was in Ottoman usage included as an area part of "Bulgaristan", and its inhabitants were called Bulgarians.