Rascians

Rascians (Serbian: Раши, Рашани / Raši, Rašani; Latin: Rasciani, Natio Rasciana) was a historical term for Serbs. The term was derived from the Latinized name for the central Serbian region of Raška (Latin: Rascia; Serbian Cyrillic: Рашка). In medieval and early modern Western sources, exonym Rascia was often used as a designation for Serbian lands in general, and consequently the term Rasciani became one of the most common designations for Serbs. Because of the increasing migratory concentration of Serbs in the southern Pannonian Plain, since the late 15th century, those regions also became referred to as Rascia, since they were largely inhabited by Rasciani (Rascians). Among those regions, term Rascia (Raška) was most frequently used for territories spanning from western Banat to central Slavonia, including the regions of Syrmia, Bačka, and southern Baranja. From the 16th to the 18th century, those regions were contested between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy, and today they belong to several modern countries (Serbia, Romania, Hungary, Croatia).^[1]

In a wider perspective, the term was also used for some other related South Slavic groups of the Habsburg Monarchy, such as the Catholic Bunjevci and Šokci (designated as "Catholic Rascians").^[2] Although they were certainly mostly Serbs, the term Rascians has wider meaning and includes all southern Slavs except Bulgarians. The reason for this is very mixed terminology of individual nations and ethnic groups immigrated to Hungary. They were distinguished by their religion as the "Catholic Rascians" Dalmatians, or as they are today called Bunjevci (which means they were originally from Dalmatia). People who were called Rascians later mostly self-identified as Serbs. In Hungary some Rascians saw themselves as Croats, mostly in villages of Tököl (Tukulja), Bátya (Baćin) and Dusnok (Dušnok).^[3]