Islam Grčki

Geography

Islam Grčki is located in the Ravni Kotari area, 23 kilometers away from Benkovac and 20 km away from Zadar. The village is also only 3 kilometers away from the Adriatic Sea but it does not play a major role in the villages economy.

Name

The original name of the village was Saddislam, meaning "The wall of Islam" in Turkish which marked the final frontier of the Ottoman Empire.

In the 18th century, when the village split in two, the name changed to Islam Grčki. While Islam stayed from the original name, the adjective Grčki (meaning "Greek") stands for the religion of the villagers - Orthodoxy. The other part of the split up village, Islam Latinski, got its name from the religious belief of its settlers - Roman Catholicism.

History

The history of Islam Grčki goes back to the Middle Ages. The village was an Uskok stronghold in the 16th and 17th century. The most notable Uskok leader Stojan Janković got possession of the village after the Cretan War. He built the villages most notable object - the Janković Kula.

During World War II the village, a Serb enclave surrounded by Croatian villages, was a firm Chetnik militia stronghold. Some villagers also joined the Italian collaborationist Anti-Communist Volunteer Militia.

After World War II the village became part of the Socialist Republic of Croatia. During the Croatian war of independence the village was one of the first areas under Krajina Serb control. The village was partly destroyed by shelling during the Croatian-led Operation Maslenica and was taken back by the Croatian forces on 22 January 1993.

A big part of the villages population fled during the war and the village itself suffered a lot material damage. Janković Kula, for instance, was destroyed in the shelling of 1993 but was being rebuilt as of 2012.

Demographics

The village is predominantly Serb, and as of 2011 has 146 inhabitants.