The Kosovo curse ( / Kosovska kletva) or Prince's curse ( / Kneà ¾eva kletva), is according to legend, a curse said by Serbian Saint Lazar Hrebeljanoviàbefore the Battle of Kosovo. Lazar curses those Serbs who ignored his call for war against the Ottoman Empire. Constantine of Kostenets recorded that Lazar issued an "invitation and threat" to Serbian states which is preserved in the Serbian epic poetry in the form of a curse.
From 1778 to 1781, Avram Miletiàcomposed a miscellany of 129 songs () which also included the song "A history of MusiàStefan" containing a form of the Kosovo curse. One form of the curse appeared in the 1845 edition of the collection of Serbian folk songs by Vuk Karadà ¾iÃÂ. It is an updated version of a 1813 text by Karadà ¾iàwith stronger nationalist overtones.
Karadà ¾iÃÂ's "Kosovo curse" is inscribed on the Gazimestan monument, where the Battle of Kosovo was fought.