This article deals with Serbian culture and its various aspects during the Ottoman period, focusing in particular on the transformation of Serbian local practices and socio-cultural patterns in the early period when the Ottoman Empire displayed a certain pragmatic attitude towards its Christian subjects. The Ottoman Empire was able to adapt the non-Muslim subjects in the Balkans, consisting of Serbs, to its feudal-administrative and socio-political structure, at the risk of enacting policies that would contradict its own administrative culture, and thus to perpetuate its sovereign influence. The Ottoman state put forth this administrative reflex first and foremost in order to preserve its own political, cultural and social continuity. The article also focuses on the phenomenon of cultural and religious syncretism in Serbian society that emerged in the process of becoming Ottoman subjects and analyzes it in relation to phenomena associated with anti-syncretist tendencies. On the other hand, the main aim of this article is to show the impact of Serbian culture on the process of building a common multi- ethnic, multi-religious and multi-lingual culture that developed in Ottoman Rumelia. The findings obtained for this purpose show that the Serbian community became a balancing factor in the ongoing relations between the local principalities and the Ottoman rulers, and with this state of affairs, they gained the opportunity to contribute to the defense of the empire by serving at various levels in the Ottoman army. This situation gave Serbs a dynamic structure in terms of religion-society-administration interaction and further integrated them into the Ottoman state structure.