NOVIBAZAR, Novipazar, or Yenipazar (i.e., New Market), on the Rashka, a tributary of the Ibar and subtributary of the Danube, is the chief town of a sanjak in the Turkish vilayet of Bosnia (formerly of Kossovo), which was occupied by Austria-Hungary in 1879 in accordance with the terms of the treaty of Berlin. Owing to the configuration of the country it is a point of great strategical importance, commanding the lines of communication between Bosnia and Rumelia, and between Servia and Montenegro. The site was formerly occupied by the old Servian town of Rassia mentioned by Byzantine writers in the 9th century. In the neighbourhood is the old church of St Peter and St Paul, the metropolitan church of the bishopric of Rassia, in which Stephen Nemanya passed from the Roman to the Greek Church in 1143. According to Dr Blau, the sanjak had a male population of 83,983 in 1871, that of the town is estimated at from 9000 to 12,000.