Draft:Marko Todorović (knez)

Marko Todorović was also known as Abdula Marko (Serbian Cyrillic: Марко Тодоровић or Абдула Марко; Gornji Matejevac, 1780 - Požarevac, 1823) was the first knez (prince) of the Požarevac nahija from the time of Prince Miloš Obrenović. He raised a rebellion against Miloš, and after the failure of the rebellion, he was not executed, but Prince Miloš pardoned him. Marko then retired to Požarevac, where he lived until his tragic death.

Biography
Marko was born in 1780 in Gornji Matejevac near Niš. He went to school in Niš, but when he killed a Turkish sentry in his youth with a stone, he ran away in fear of punishment. First he fled to the village of Šiljegovac, under the mountain Jastrebac, then he went to Paraćin, but the Turks spotted him there and he fled from there to Požarevac out of fear. In Požarevac, Marko was engaged in trade, joining forces with Abdul, a Turkified Serb from Dubravica. Marko took part in the First Serbian Uprising, where he distinguished himself in battles, and was soon appointed as a standard bearer. In one battle near Paraćin, he was wounded in the hand and then he was removed from the front. While he was being treated in a military hospital in Ram, he was given a job as a customs officer, and when the uprising failed in 1813, he fled across the Danube.

Second Serbian Uprising
Already in 1815, as soon as he heard about the Takovo Uprising, Marko returned to Serbia. There he participates in the battles around the Požarevac fortress. He was wounded again in the battle and was noticed by Prince Miloš. After the end of the fighting, Prince Miloš made him the first prince of the Požarevac nahija, and named him "Abdula Marko" after his former partner. Thus, the name Abdul stayed with Marko until his death.

For a time, Marko was the knez (prince) of the entire Požarevac nahija, but after Prince Miloš reorganized the principality, under Turkish authority, he appointed Joksa Milosavljević as Great Serdar Podunavski, so that Marko was subordinate to him. Under the persuasion of various dissidents, Marko decided to rebel against Miloš. Even Marashli Ali Pasha fueled such dissatisfaction, and Stevan Dobrnjac (1778—1835), brother of Petar Dobrnjac, joined him.

On 25 March 1821, Marko Abdula and Stevan Dobrnjac started a rebellion, later remembered as Abdula's rebellion, which lasted only until 19 April 1821 and hardly left any traces. Prince Miloš reacted quickly and quelled the rebellion before it developed any further. Marko and Stevan ran away, Marko to the woods and Stevan to the Turks in Leskovac. It didn't take long and Marko returned from the forest hungry and ruined, surrendering to Prince Miloš. Miloš forgave him, pardoned him for the rebellion, but did not return him to the princeship of Pozarevac.

Marko returned to a peaceful life in Požarevac, until the night beforethe day of Saint Sava in 1823, when he was shot and killed in front of his house by an unknown assailant.

Marko Todorović's descendants are still surnamed Abdulići.

Literature

 * Milan Đ. Milićević, Monument of Famous People in the Serbian People of the Modern Age, Serbian Royal Printing House, Belgrade, 1888.