The Sanjak of Novi Pazar

[Dave Monroe]

The Sandzak of Novi Pazar (Yeni Pazar Sancak) became well-known for a
while when it became a part of the game played by the Great Powers
before World War I. Bosnia and other Balkan areas were still much more
important. Their importance entered literature as well. In “Gravity’s
Rainbow,” Thomas Pynchon mentioned a minor character, Lord Blatherard
Osmo, who “occupied the Novi Pazar desk at the Foreign Office … for on
this obscure sanjak had once hinged the entire fate of Europe.”

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-276304-small-sandzak-divided-within-itself-by-hajrudin-somun*.html

Novi Pazar

The sanjak (district) of Novi Pazar is a primarily Moslem town in
southwest Serbia; "Who'd ever think-it, could start such a flap? [...]
the san-jak of Novi Pazar" 14-15; See also Balkan Intrigues

http://www.thomaspynchon.com/gravitys-rainbow/alpha/n.html#sanjak

The Congress of Berlin, by an agreement signed July 13, 1878 by the
six great powers (Austro-Hungary, France, Italy, Germany [represented
by Bismarck], Russia and Great Britain) on one side and the Ottoman
Empire on the other, changed the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano:
(1) Bulgaria was divided into thirds with only the territory north of
the Balkan Mountains retaining the autonomy granted under the Treaty
of San Stefano; (2) Bosnia and Hercegovino were placed under Austrian
control; (3) Serbia and Montenegro were recognized as independent; (4)
the sanjak of Novi Pazar, in SW Serbia, was under Austrian control;
(5) Macedonia was left under Turkish control; (6) Russia annexed
Bessarabia; (7) Britain controlled Cyprus; (8) Crete, Thessaly and
parts of Macedonia went to Greece.

http://www.thomaspynchon.com/gravitys-rainbow/extra/intrigue.html#novi

Novi Pazar

809; city and municipality located in the Raška District of Serbia at
43.15° North, 20.52"° East, in the geographical region of Sandžak. The
name Novi Pazar (then Novibazar) entered the world encyclopædias as a
synonym for the Sandžak region in 1878, the year when the Congress of
Berlin designated the entire region as "corpus separatum" named Sanjak
of Novi Pazar. The Sanjak of Novi Pazar was occupied and administered
by Austria-Hungary from 1878 to 1908. In 1908 it was returned to the
Ottoman Empire, which ruled this territory until it was lost to Serbia
in 1912 during the First Balkan War. After World War I, the town of
Novi Pazar rapidly lost its importance.

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=N