Serres fell to the Ottoman Empire on 19 September 1383, and initially formed a fief of Evrenos Beg, who brought in Yörük settlers from Sarukhan.

[1] In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Serres was an autonomous beylik under a succession of derebeys, within the Sanjak of Salonica.

Drama was created as a separate sanjak centre shortly after, and by 1912, the last year of its existence, the sanjak of Serres encompassed the kazas of Serres proper, Zihne (Nea Zichni), Melnik, Razlik (Razlog), Petrich, Timurhisar (Sidirokastro), Djuma-i Bala (Blagoevgrad) and Nevrekop (Gotse Delchev).

[2] Ethnoconfessional Groups in the Sanjak of Siroz as per the 1881-82 Ottoman Census[3] The province was dissolved when occupied by Bulgarian troops in the First Balkan War.

In 1913, after the Second Balkan War, the town of Serres and the southern half of the sanjak became part of Greece.