He also built several captaincy towers in the wider region of Gacko and Eastern Herzegovina, as well as many villas and houses in Mala Gračanica, Srđevići, Lukovice, Fojnica and Cernica.

[1][6][7] In 1835, Smail-aga and the pasha of Pljevlja agreed to murder the Drobnjak Serbian Orthodox priest Milutin Cerović; he was killed by the Turks in the centre of the town, and beheaded.

Recognizing the need for outside assistance, the tribesmen declared that they were subjects of Petar II Petrović Njegoš and thus invoked the support of Montenegro.

As honour demanded, the Montenegrins, under the command of Njegoš's brother Joko and eight close kinsmen, gathered several hundred men to launch a counter-attack in an attempt to rescue the captives.

Although initially successful in rescuing the local tribal chieftain and his men, the Montenegrins were quickly overrun by the cavalry of the feared Ottoman commander Smail-aga Čengić, while they skirmished with the combined forces of Rizvanbegović and Ali-paša Resulbegović of Trebinje.

In total, nine members of the Petrović-Njegoš clan perished in the battle, and it is believed that Smail-aga personally killed Njegoš's teenage brother, Joko.

[10] In late September 1840, Montenegrins attracted Čengić and his army deep into their territory, organized an ambush and killed them by attacking their camp during the night.

Čengić was a true Slav and his murderers pathetic, cowardly scum.Vuk Stefanović Karadžić was contemporary of Smail, and he met him several times on his journeys across Bosnia and Herzegovina.

These songs tell us their palace and fortress stands in Zagorije, however Smail-aga seat was in village Lipnik near Gacko, where his sons still dwell today.