The history of the Shala tribe

By: Robert Elsie (part of the work Albanian tribes: History, society and culture, p. 181-189)

The position of the tribe's territory

The tribal lands of Shala were located in the area of ​​Dukagjin, north of the Drin River, in the current Shkodra District in northern Albania. The Shaljans live in the highest part of the Shalë river valley, around the village of Theth, where the valley ends, and is surrounded by high mountains on all sides. Shala is bordered, according to the traditional region of the tribe, to the West by Boga, Shkreli, and Plan across the mountains, to the North by Kelmendi across the mountains, to the east by Krasniqe and Nikaj across the mountains, and to the south by Shoshi. The main settlements of Shala are: Abat, Bregluma, Gimaj, Lekaj, Lotaj, Nderlysa, Nënmavriq, Pecaj, Thethin and Vuksanaj.

Population

The name Shala is found in the Italian language in the ecclesiastical report of Bonaventura di Palacolo from Vercelli Piedmont in 1634. He called this region Sciala. In his ecclesiastical report of 1671, the papal visitor to Albania, Pjetro Stefano Gasparini, used the word Sala and noted:

On this side of Agri mountain, at the end of Upper Pulat, there is the village of Shala, which consists of 32 houses and 20 people. They are strong and armed, both in physical condition and in their position they are completely independent. They incessantly attack the neighboring Turkish regions and almost always return as vassals.

On the 1688 map of the Venetian cartographer Francesco Maria Coronelli, the region was called Scialia. It also appears as "Scialia" in 1821, on the map of the French diplomat Hugues Pouqueville. It is said that this term has to do with the Albanian word šalë, shalesienia, which means "barren and dry land". But, this explanation is not so convincing from the etymological point of view, because Shala is one of the few places in the northern mountains that is fertile and not dry.

Shala is a tribe that consists of a community that is aware of the common ties of blood, history and ancestry.

Shala has close ties with the Shoshi tribe. Both tribes are mainly Catholic and have not allowed any Muslims to settle in the valley. The patron saint of Shala is Saint John the Evangelist, whose feast day is celebrated on December 27. However, as was the case with the Nikaj tribe, many members of the tribe have given their children Muslim names. The Catholic parish of Shala was founded in 1763, although it has been abandoned several times throughout history. The Theth tribe became an independent parish in 1892.

Shala also celebrates the feast of St. Michael, on September 29, by cutting and roasting a ram on a spit. Before dinner, on the eve of the feast of St. Michael, a candle is lit in the mass and after the prayers, dinner is served in honor of the saint. Someone from the family must stand guard all night until the next day, to ensure that the candle does not go out.

If the candle goes out, then evil fate will tarnish the whole family. IN Brief information about the tribes of northern Albania, especially the independent Highlands, published in 1841, Nicholas, Prince of the Vasojevićs, states that Shala has a population of 4 inhabitants, of whom 000 are armed men. Hajsint Hekardi, in the first half of the nineteenth century, reported that Shala had 1 houses and 000 inhabitants. At the end of the nineteenth century, it is said that this town had 275 inhabitants.

The Austrian engineer, Karl Steinmetz, who visited the Shala region in August 1903, made this remark:

Shala is the strongest and most popular tribe in the Catholic Highlands. It consists of 500 houses and nearly 4500 people. The members of this tribe adhere with great precision to the old bloodlines and lands. The best evidence for this is the collapsed buildings that I saw while passing the road through this territory. This tribe has close ties with the Shoshi tribe, which lives in the southern part of the valley. There are three missionaries in this entire valley: one is in Abat, the other in Shosh and the last one, since last year, in Theth. The Bajraktari of Shala lives in Pecaj, in Abati's land.

In the first most reliable census made in Albania in 1918 under the administration of the Austro-Hungarians, the population statistics of the Shale tribe are: 431 houses with a total of 2 inhabitants. This region also includes settlements in the surroundings of Abati, Lekaj, Lotaj, Nenmarviqi, Nicaj, Pecaj and Thethi.

The members of the Shala tribe are known as shepherds, farmers and cuba. The valley is rich in water and good pastures. Maize is usually the staple food, while wheat is used for domestic use.

Many families from Shala have emigrated to the region of Peja, in western Kosovo. The village of Isniq, near Deçan, is said to be inhabited entirely by the people of Shalajan. Johann Georg von Hahn, who in 1858 traveled through Kosovo, which he called Dardane Albania, had also noticed the presence of the Shalians in the outskirts of Vushtrri, in Northeastern Kosovo:

The Shala make up the main population of the Vučiterna region and are related to the Catholic Shala of the Albanian Alps in the north, which they consider to be the mother tribe.

Now, in Kosovo, members of the Shala tribe are mainly concentrated in the surroundings of Mitrovica and Trepça, in the hilly region they call Shala e Bajgora. Bajgora is their largest settlement, as it has 37 settlements. They are divided into four clans or brotherhoods: Gima, Peci, Maleti (related to the Lotaj tribe in Albania) and Lopçi. Likewise, there is a significant number of members of the Shala tribe in Isniq, in Lluka e Eperme and in Strellcin e Ulët near Deçan, in Ujmira east of Klina, in Kopilić e Eperm in Drenica, in Rakosh and Çitak in Podgor, and in some other villages of the upper valley of Lepenci. What is the truth, in smaller numbers, they are present all over Kosovo. Most of them have preserved the sense of tribal belonging.

Legends about the tribe, ancestors and history

The legendary great-grandfather of the Shala tribe was called Zog Diti, son of Dit Murri and grandson of Murr Deti, also known as Murr Dedi. Zog Diti's brother, Mark Diti, was the great-grandfather of Shoshi's related tribe, while his brother, Mir Diti, was considered the first of Mirdita's tribe.

According to another oral tradition, similar to this, Shala's first great-grandfather was called Nik Gjeku, the son of Gjek Murres and the grandson of Murr Dedid. Nik Gjeku had four sons: Pec Nika, Lot Nika, Lek Nika, and Ded Nika. The first three founded settlements in Pecaj, Lotaj and Lekaj. Descendants of Pec Nika, later, founded several settlements with the slightly changed name, Nicaj.

However, although this tradition is not so well known, oral tradition describes Shala as descended from an individual named Bal Shiroka.

Together with the neighbor Shoshi, Shala has had close historical relations with Mirdita. Thus, it seems that they reached the Saddle Valley from the south. Edith Durhami thinks that their arrival in the valley of Upper Shala took place in 1430. As for the relations with Mirdita, Baron Nopça has mentioned that, in the first years of the twentieth century, long before this time, the people of Shala still wore dalama , which is a type of apron that reaches to the knees and is the characteristic clothing of the tribes of Mirdita. In the eighteenth century, the Shalians lived in caves, ignoring religious obligations and did not work the fields. They were undoubtedly among the poorest tribes of the north, but at the same time also the most powerful defenders of the old docks. This is exactly where the Canon of Lek Dukagjini was applied.

The Russian scholar, Julia Vladimirovna Ivanova (1922 – 2006), who in 1956 and 1958 did some scientific research in northern Albania, managed to collect some interesting information on the early history of Shala:

At the end of the fourteenth century, there was an influx of population to Mount Pashtrik, this region near Prizren. A part of the population went to the northern part of the Dukagjini plateau (Metohija). Another group, including the family of Murr Det, went and settled in the mountains of Puka, on the left side of the river Drin. This region is also known as Old Dukagjini. Here, in the fifteenth or seventeenth century, another migration took place. A part of the population moved over the Lok Pass and settled in the region that is now called Mirdita. Another part of the population (of Shala) moved and settled on the southeastern shores of Lake Shkodra and from there continued their migration northward, up to the valley of Shala. When they got there, they found the local population called Mavriqi. [Morinasi – according to an article by Nikoll Kimza in 1937, published in the magazine Hylli i Drita e called Investigations into the antiquity and history of Dera Gjomarkaj and Mirdita, the Morina tribe was also called Marin - were a tribe in the classical sense, that is, a community that is aware of common blood ties and of common history reaching back to a common male ancestor, and, according to oral tradition, they seem to have a common origin with other tribes such as the Mirditors, the Shala tribe and with the Shoshi region who also trace their origin to Mount Pashtriku on the Kosovo-Albania border, not far from the territory of Morina - St. of the Telegraph.]

Shala consists of four bajraqs: Thethi, Pecaj, Lothaj and Lekaj; the three bajraqs were divided around the year 1530. Others divide Shala into three bajraqs: Shala itself east of the bank of the Leshnica river, Gimaj and Thethi: these last two tribes are sometimes considered as independent tribes. Edith Durhami, by the way, writes that the bajrak of Theth consists of 180 houses. Even the Bajrak of Gimaj was usually considered part of Shala, but from time to time it considered itself independent.

The Shaljans are known among the mountain tribes for cunning and trickery, as the popular saying goes:

Gashi's hand, Krasniqe's eye, Berisha's anger, Kelmen's bravery, Shaljani's cunning, Thaçi's snake.

/Telegraph/