02 — The Rise of Nemanja

The origins of Stefan Nemanja: his birth around 1113/1114 at Ribnica in coastal Zeta, the confessionally charged question of his two baptisms, and his climb through the quarrelsome world of the Serbian appanages to the throne of Grand Župan of Raška — a climb that ran through civil war with his own brothers.

Tradition: Serbian Orthodox

Contents

• Birth and the Two Baptisms — birth at Ribnica c. 1113/1114; the Latin baptism in infancy and the later Orthodox baptism at Ras, exactly what the Lives say and why it matters confessionally.
• The Path to Grand Župan — Nemanja’s appanage under his brothers, his rise to the grand-župan’s throne around 1166, and the war against his brothers culminating at the Battle of Pantino.

See Also

• Serbia Before Nemanja — the divided world he was born into
• The Unifier — the reign that followed his rise
• The Sources — the Lives through which his origins reach us