Albanian tribes

The old man (plaku) of Shoshi by Edith Durham.

Among Gheg Malësors (highlanders) the fis (clan), is headed by the oldest male (kryeplak) and formed the basic unit of tribal society.[14][15] The governing councils consist of elders (pleknit, singular: plak). The idea of law administration is so closely related to the "old age", that "to arbitrate" is me pleknue, and plekní means both "seniority" and "arbitration".[15] The fis is divided into a group of closely related houses called mehala, and the house (shpi). The head of mehala is the krye (lit. "head"), while the head of the house is the zoti i shpis ("the lord of the house"). A house may be composed by two or three other houses with property in common under one zot.[16]

A political and territorial unit consisting of several clans was the bajrak (standard, banner).[14] The leader of a bajrak, whose position was hereditary, was referred to as bajraktar (standard bearer).[14] Several bajraks composed a tribe, which was led by a man from a notable family, while major issues were decided by the tribe assembly whose members were male members of the tribe.[17][14] The Ottomans implemented the bayraktar system within northern Albanian tribes, and granted some privileges to the bayraktars (banner chieftains) in exchange for their obligation to mobilize local fighters to support military actions of the Ottoman forces.[9][18] Those privileges also entailed Albanian tribesmen to pay no taxes and were excluded from military conscription in return for military service as irregular troops however few served in that capacity.[18] Malisors viewed Ottoman officials as a threat to their tribal way of living and left it to their bajraktars to deal with the Ottoman political system.[19] Officials of the late Ottoman period noted that Malisors preferred their children learn use of a weapon and refused to send them to government schools that taught Turkish which were viewed as forms of state control.[20] Most Albanian Malisors were illiterate.[19]

In southern Albania, the social system is based on the house (shpi or shtëpi) and the fis, consisting of a patrilineal kinship group and an exogamous unit composed by members with some property in common.[21] The patrilineal kinship ties are defined by the concept of "blood" (gjak) also implying physical and moral characteristics, which are shared by all the members of a fis.[21] The fis generally consists of three or four related generations, meaning that they have a common ancestor three or four generations ago, while the tribe is called fara or gjeri, which is much smaller than a northern Albanian fis.[22] The members of a fara know that they have a common ancestor who is the eponymos founder of the village.[23] The political organization is communal, that is, every neighbourhood send a representing elder (plak), to the governing council of the village (pleqësi), who elect the head of the village (kryeplak).[24]

Malisor society used tribal law and participated in the custom of bloodfeuding.[25] Ottoman control mainly existed in the few urban centres and valleys of northern Albania and was minimal to almost non-existent in the mountains, where Malisors lived an autonomous existence according to kanun (tribal law) of Lek Dukagjini.[26] At the same time Western Kosovo was also an area where Ottoman rule among highlanders was minimal to non-existent and government officials would ally themselves with local power holders to exert any form of authority.[27] Western Kosovo was dominated by the Albanian tribal system where Kosovar Malisors settled disputes among themselves through their mountain law.[27] In period without stable state control the tribe trialed its members. The usual punishments were fines, exile or disarmament. The house of the exiled member of the tribe would be burned. Disarmament was regarded as the most embarrassing verdict.[28]

Shala men. Photo taken by Edith Durham before 1909.

The Law of Lek Dukagjini (kanun) was named after a medieval prince Lekë Dukagjini from the fifteenth century who ruled in northern Albania and codified the customary laws of the highlands.[19] Albanian tribes from the Dibra region governed themselves according to the Law of Skanderbeg (kanun), named after a fifteenth century warrior who fought the Ottomans.[13] Disputes would be solved through tribal law within the framework of vendetta or blood feuding and the activity was widespread among the Malisors.[29] In situations of murder tribal law stipulated the principle of koka për kokë (head for a head) where relatives of the victim are obliged to seek gjakmarrja (blood vengeance).[19] Nineteen percent of male deaths in İşkodra vilayet and 600 fatalities per year in Western Kosovo were from murders caused by vendetta and blood feuding during the late Ottoman period.[30]

Besa is a word in the Albanian language meaning "pledge of honour.[31] The besa was an important institution within the tribal society of the Albanian Malisors.[13] Albanian tribes swore oaths to jointly fight against the government and in this aspect the besa served to uphold tribal autonomy.[13] The besa was used toward regulating tribal affairs both between and within tribes.[13] The Ottoman government used the besa as a way to co-opt Albanian tribes in supporting state policies or to seal agreements.[13]

During the Ottoman period, the besa would be cited in government reports regarding Albanian unrest, especially in relation to the tribes.[32] The besa formed a central place within Albanian society in relation to generating military and political power.[33] Besas held Albanians together, united them and would wane when the will to enforce them dissipated.[34] In times of revolt against the Ottomans by Albanians, the besa functioned as a link among different groups and tribes.[34]

During the Great Eastern Crisis, Prenk Bib Doda, hereditary chieftain of Mirdita initiated a rebellion in mid-April 1877 against government control and the Ottoman Empire sent troops to put it down.[39] Montenegro attempted to gain support from among the Malisors even though it lacked religious or ethnic links with the Albanian tribesmen.[40] Amidst the Eastern Crisis and subsequent border negotiations Italy suggested in April 1880 for the Ottoman Empire to give Montenegro the Tuz district containing mainly Catholic Gruda and Hoti populations which would have left the tribes split between both countries.[41] With Hoti this would have left an additional problem of tensions and instability due to the tribe having precedence by tradition over the other four tribes during peace and war.[41] The tribes affected by the negotiations swore a besa (pledge) to resist any reduction of their lands and sent telegrams to surrounding regions for military assistance.[41]

During the late Ottoman period Ghegs often lacked education and integration within the Ottoman system, while they had autonomy and military capabilities.[29] Those factors gave the area of Gegënia an importance within the empire that differed from Toskëria.[29] Still many Ottoman officers thought that Ghegs, in particular the highlanders were often a liability instead of an asset for the state being commonly referred to as "wild" (Turkish: vahşi) or a backward people that lived in poverty and ignorance for 500 years being hostile to civilisation and progress.[42] In areas of Albania were Malisors lived, the empire only posted Ottoman officers who had prior experience of service in other tribal regions of the state like Kurdistan or Yemen that could bridge cultural divides with Gheg tribesmen.[43]

Albanian Malisors in an early 20th postcard.

Sultan Abdul Hamid II, Ottoman officials posted to Albanian populated lands and some Albanians strongly disproved of blood feuding viewing it as inhumane, uncivilised and an unnecessary waste of life that created social disruption, lawlessness and economic dislocation.[44] To resolve disputes and clamp down on the practice the Ottoman state addressed the problem directly by sending Blood Feud Reconciliation Commissions (musalaha-ı dem komisyonları) that produced results with limited success.[32] In the late Ottoman period, due to the influence of Catholic Franciscan priests some changes to blood feuding practices occurred among Albanian highlanders such as guilt being restricted to the offender or their household and even one tribe accepting the razing of the offender's home as compensation for the offense.[32] Ottoman officials were of the view that violence committed by Malisors in the 1880s-1890s was of a tribal nature not related to nationalism or religion.[25] They also noted that Albanian tribesmen who identified with Islam did so in name only and lacked knowledge of the religion.[45]

Men of the Shkreli tribe at the feast of Saint Nicholas at Bzheta in Shkreli territory, 1908.

In the aftermath of the Young Turk Revolution in 1908 the new Young Turk government established the Commissions for the Reconciliation of Blood Feuds that focused on the regions such as İpek (Pejë) and Prizren.[46] The commissions sentenced Albanians who had participated in blood feud killing and the Council of Ministers allowed them to continue their work in the provinces until May 1909.[46] After the Young Turk Revolution and subsequent restoration of the Ottoman constitution, the Hoti, Shala, Shoshi and Kastati tribes made a besa (pledge) to support the document and to stop blood feuding with other tribes until November 6, 1908.[47] The Albanian tribes showing sentiments of enthusiasm however had little knowledge of what the constitution would do for them.[48]

During the Albanian revolt of 1910, Malisors such as the Shala tribe fought against Ottoman troops that were sent to quell the uprising, disarm the population by collecting guns, and replace the Law of Lek with state courts and laws.[49] Malisors instead planned further resistance and Albanian tribes living near the border fled into Montenegro while negotiating terms with the Ottomans for their return.[49] The Ottoman commander Mahmud Shevket involved in military operations concluded that the bajraktars had become Albanian nationalists and posed a danger to the empire when compared to previous uprisings.[50]

The Albanian revolt of 1911 was begun during March by Catholic Albanian tribesmen after they returned from exile in Montenegro.[51] The Ottoman government sent 8,000 troops to quell the uprising and ordered that tribal chieftains would need to stand trial for leading the rebellion.[51] During the revolt, Terenzio Tocci, an Italo-Albanian lawyer gathered the Mirditë chieftains on 26/27 April 1911 in Orosh and proclaimed the independence of Albania, raised the flag of Albania and declared a provisional government.[49] After Ottoman troops entered the area to put down the rebellion, Tocci fled the empire abandoning his activities.[52] On 23 June 1911 Albanian Malisors and other revolutionaries gathered in Montenegro and drafted the Greçë Memorandum demanding Albanian sociopolitical and linguistic rights with signatories being from the Hoti, Gruda, Shkreli, Kelmendi and Kastrati tribes.[51] In later negotiations with the Ottomans, an amnesty was granted to the tribesmen with promises by the government to build roads and schools in tribal areas, pay wages of teachers, limit military service to the Istanbul and Shkodër areas, right to carry weapons in the countryside but not in urban areas, the appointment of bajraktars relatives to certain administrative positions and compensate Malisors with money and food arriving back from Montenegro.[51] The final agreement was signed in Podgorica by both the Ottomans and Malisors during August 1912 and the highlanders had managed to thwart the centralist tendencies of the Young Turk government in relation to their interests.[51]

The last tribal system of Europe located in northern Albania stayed intact until 1944 when Albanian communists seized power and ruled the country for half a century.[3] During that time the tribal system was weakened and eradicated by the communists.[3] After the collapse of communism in the early 1990s, northern Albania underwent demographic changes in areas associated with the tribes becoming in many instances depopulated.[53] Much of the population seeking a better life has moved either abroad or to Albanian cities such as Tiranë, Durrës or Shkodër and populations historically stemming from the tribes have become scattered.[53] Locals that remained in northern Albanian areas associated with the tribes have maintained an awareness of their tribal identity.[53]

Malësia e Madhe, in the Northern Albanian Alps between Albania and Montenegro, historically has been the land of ten bigger and three smaller tribal regions.[54] Two of them, Suma and Tuzi, came together to form Gruda in the 15th-to-16th century. The people of this area are commonly called "highlanders" (Albanian: malësorë).

There are six tribes of the Dukagjin region.[65]

Another division is that of the Dukagjin highlands, in which Shala, Shoshi, Kiri, Xhani, Plani and Toplana are included.[72]

There are six tribes of the Gjakova highlands (Albanian: Malësia e Gjakovës) also known as Malësia e Vogël (Lesser Malësia):[73]

The "seven tribes of Puka" (Albanian: shtatë bajrakët e Pukës), inhabit the Puka region.[79] Durham said of them: "Puka group ... sometimes reckoned a large tribe of seven bairaks. Sometimes as a group of tribes".[80]

• Tuzi
• Suma
• Lazori (as of 1485 part of Kuçi)
• Bua
• Bushati
• Bukumiri
• Burmazi
• Kryethi
• Lalët
• Lohja
• Macure
• Malonšići
• Mataguzi
• Mataruge
• Malakasioi
• Pamalioti
• Prekali