Since the Battle of Marica (1371), there has been in the Serbian literature an increasing tendency to recognize "signs" of the fulfillment of pristine prophecies that the Ismaelits would subdue the Christians, that all liturgy would come to an end and such suffering ensue that the living would envy the dead. Prophecies originating from the time of the spread of Islam regained topicality at the time of the spread of the Ottoman power and the breakdown of the Christian states headed by the Byzantine Empire. This pessimistic tenor was only intensified by the belief in the 84 "last years", the years of suffering and sorrow, between the thirteenth 532-year Great Paschal Cycle (6916 = 1st September 1407 — 31st August 1408) and the year 7000 (1st September 1491 — 31st August 1492). .
