White Serbs
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The White Serb tribe is mentioned in De Administrando Imperio, a work by the tenth century Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. The work reports that the Balkan Serbs "come from the non-Christianized Serbs, called the White Serbs, living beyond the Turks (Hungary) in the area which they call Bojki (Bohemia). The Franks and Great Croats i.e. non-Christianized Croats, also called White Croats, are their neighbours. There, then, have these Serbs lived from olden times."

According to the account, the White Serbs initially settled around the region of Thessaloniki, Greece. Not to their liking, they instead settled a region farther north¹. In the former Roman province of Illyricum, they formed several statelets- Neretva, Zahumlje, Konavli and Tribenje and Duklja along the coast, whilst a large inland territory (which included part of Bosnia retained the old name of Serbia, often called Baptised Serbia by the Byzantines, because it was Christianized (unlike the still pagan White Serbs in northern Europe)².

Constantine's work, De Administrando Imperio, has attracted intense academic debate. On the one hand, some scholars hold it to be a true account of the situation, thus concluding that Neretvians, Zachlumians, Dukljians, Travunians and southeastern Bosnians are descendents of Serbs that took on new tribal names, and due to geographical and political factors developed an often independent history from Raska, the region of Serbia proper that became synonymous with the name Serbia from the 12th century onwards ³. Others argue that Constantine's account is a semi-mythological description regarding the origin of Serbs (and Croats). Moreover, Constantine's description of Serb occupied territory may have been a reflection of the political situation during his time (ie the 10th century⁴ - whereby his liege Caslav Klonimirovic wielded command over the various Slavic lands south of the Cetina and Vrbljas rivers. Moreover, although possible, there is little archaeological evidence supporting a long-distance Serb migration from White Serbia⁵, and no evidence exists to support the notion that political entities known as White Serbia and White Croatia actually existed⁶. There were a few South Slavic tribes in the Middle Ages that had contemporary name-sakes amongst Western and Eastern Slavic tribes, such as the Serbs, Croats, Severians and Abodrites. We do not know whether it actually represented a shared identity.

Serbs and their neighbours, c. 800 AD

Rather than a Polish origin, Florin Curta suggests that the Serbs may have been a clan of Slavic-speaking warriors who became enobled, perhaps under Frankish, Byzantine and Avar influence. As they became increasingly powerful, they spread their name and culture over their surrounding neighbours. That is, they underwent ethnogenesis in the Balkans. ⁷

References

1. ^ Sima Cirkovic. The Serbs
2. ^ The early Medieval Balkans. John V A Fine
3. ^ The Serbian Origin of Montenegrins
4. ^ Fine
5. ^ Florin Curta. The Making of the Slavs
6. ^ Florin Curta. Southeastern Europe in the Early Middle Ages
7. ^ Florin Curta. Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages

See also

• White Croats, the neighbours of the Serbs in two different European regions