Pomorià ¡je () is a historical geographical region on the banks of the river Mureà() that in the past has had a sizable ethnic Serb population. The region is mostly divided between Romania and Hungary, with small part of it in northern Serbia. Today, a Serb minority is present in parts of the region that are part of Romania and Hungary.
Pomorià ¡je does not have exactly defined geographical borders and term generally defines areas near the river MureÃÂ. Different definitions would provide different views of how far from the MureàPomorià ¡je might extend. Sometimes, term could refer to areas on both banks of the Mureà(including northern parts of Banat along the southern bank of Mureàand southern parts of CriÃÂana along the northern bank of MureÃÂ), while sometimes it can historically define only the northern bank of the MureÃÂ, therefore, excluding areas that are parts of the Banat.
The region is mostly situated in what is now Arad County of Romania, and the smaller parts of it are situated in the TimiàCounty of Romania and Csongrád County of Hungary. In its wider meaning, it also include Szeged (in the Csongrád County of Hungary) and Novi Kneà ¾evac (in the North Banat District of Serbia), although these areas are rather seen as part of Potisje instead of Pomorià ¡je.
The name Pomorià ¡je means "a land near the river MureÃÂ" in Serbian. Similar names such as Potisje, Podunavlje, Posavina, etc. are used in Serbian as a designation for areas near rivers (Tisa, Danube and Sava, respectively).
Today, most of this region is not home to a significant ethnic Serb population, thus the name Pomorià ¡je is rarely used; however, the Serb communities still inhabit both the Hungarian and Romanian part of Pomorià ¡je, as well as the wider area of Pomorià ¡je that includes Novi Kneà ¾evac municipality in Serbia (nevertheless, since the latter municipality is currently not directly connected to the Mureàriver, inhabitants of this area are generally viewed as living in Potisje — that is, near the river Tisa; Novi Kneà ¾evac municipality was connected to the Mureàbefore 1919-1920, when current state borders were defined). In the Hungarian part of Pomorià ¡je, relatively large Serb communities live in the villages of Deszk, Szà Âreg, etc.
Historically, the population of Pomorià ¡je was mostly composed of Hungarians, Serbs and Romanians. A large Serb population in this region had existed since the 16th century, excluding the mountains south of Lipova where "Rascians" are shown to have been living in the 15th. During the Ottoman rule (16th-17th century), the region belonged to the Province of Temeà Âvar.
After the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699), northern Pomorià ¡je belonged to the Habsburg monarchy, and, between 1702 and 1751, it was part of the Tisa-Mureà(Potisje-Pomorià ¡je) section of the Habsburg Military Frontier. During this period, the Serb population in the region was still significant. In 1720, the population of Arad, the main city of the region, numbered 177 Romanian, 162 Serbian, and 35 Hungarian families. Other important cities in Pomorià ¡je were Lipova, Pecica, NÃÂdlac, Makó, and Szeged. Roughly, the area between Szeged and Arad was mainly populated by Serbs, while area in the east of Arad mainly by Romanians. In 1720, the population of Szeged numbered 193 houses, of which 99 were Serbian. Remainder of Pomorià ¡je was passed from Ottomans to Austrians after Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718.
After the Tisa-Mureàsection of the Military Frontier was abolished, many Serbs from Pomorià ¡je and Potisje left these regions and immigrated to the Russian Empire (notably to New Serbia and Slavo-Serbia) in 1752. The main leaders of this migration were Jovan Albanez and Jovan à  eviÃÂ. In their place, Hungarians, Swabians, Slovaks and Romanians settled in the region. According to the 1910 census in Austria-Hungary, the population of Pomorià ¡je (roughly including municipalities connected to the Mureàriver, together with Szeged and Novi Kneà ¾evac) was 670,726 people, of whom 33,355 were ethnic Serbs.http://www.talmamedia.com/ The southern part of Pomorià ¡je (including the municipalities of northern Banat, together with Novi Kneà ¾evac) had a population of 245,276 people, of whom 29,175 were ethnic Serbs, while the northern part (including Szeged) had a population of 425,450 people, of whom 4,180 were ethnic Serbs.