Jovan Simić Bobovac (17. August 177526 July 1832) was a Serbian politician, who began his career as knez during the Ottoman period, participated in the Serbian Revolution (1804–17), and served as the President of the Serbian Supreme Court. He was one of the closest collaborators of Prince Miloš Obrenović. Background He was born in 1775 in the village of Bobova (hence Bobovac), in the "Simić Hamlet" (). The Simić brotherhood moved to Valjevo's Podgorina around the beginning of the 18th century from Rudine near Nikšić, from the Drobnjaci tribe. On their way towards the Kingdom of Hungary with other refugees from Old Herzegovina and Old Montenegro, they stopped in Podgorina, at the foot of the Medvednik mountain (probably because the impassable hinterland provided security from the Ottomans). The hill beneath which the "Simić Hamlet" is still located today is called the "Simić peak" (). Early career It is known that he was a buljukbaša (hajduk commander) under the famous obor-knez beneath the Medvednik mountain, Ilija Birčanin. After the Slaughter of the Knezes Milić Kedić from Suvodanje was appointed the new obor-knez. Bobovac remained buljukbaša under Kedić, until the latter's death in 1809, when Bobovac was appointed a knez (a governor of a knežina, "district") in Revolutionary Serbia. The district was called "Bobovac's knežina" (). Principality of Serbia On 6 October 1823 Prince Miloš Obrenović appointed Bobovac the President of the People's Court in Kragujevac (Deed No. 1932) and then president of the Belgrade People's Court (after knez Milosav Zdravković), at which position he remained until 1828, when he was made commander of the Serbian Army on the Drina sent to prevent the surge of Ottoman Bosnians into Mačva. After the liberation of Serbia marked by the first Hatt-i humayun in 1830, Prince Miloš's priority became to settle the Drina Valley with Serb population. But due to the increasingly numerous and violent conflicts between the Muslim occupants and the newcomers from the Dinara region, particularly from Grahovo (now in Montenegro), Prince Miloš sent Bobovac from Belgrade to the region of Azbukovica to join knez Jevrem Obrenović and Petar Vasić in supervising and hastening the relocation of the Muslims who did not accept the provisions of the Hatt-i humayun, which unambiguously ordered the compulsory eviction of Ottomans from Serbia, except those registered in the territories of the garrison posts. This decision was particularly opposed by the Muslims in the villages by the