Dukagjin Highlands

Baleč and its surroundings were part of the Byzantine Theme of Dyrrhachium until the Serbian ruler Stefan Vojislav (1018–1043) conquered the region and gave Baleč the status of seat of the župa (county) of Barezi as part of Duklja.[3] By the time of the reign of Constantine Bodin (1081–1101), all of northern Albania (north of Drin), and also some fortresses to the south of the Drin, were part of Vojislavljević's realm.[4]

Pilot (Pult), including Dagno, was a county of Serbian Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja (1166-1196).[5] The important Via de Zenta, a trade route connecting the Adriatic with Nemanjić' Serbia (see Serbian Grand Principality, Kingdom, Empire), crossed this region; It started from the mouth of the Bojana, the Shkodër (Skadar) port, (alternatively Bar then Cetinje) along the Drin Valley to Prizren, then to Lipjan, then through Novo Brdo to Vranje and Niš. The Republic of Venice and Ragusa used the road for trade with Serbia and Bulgaria. The road ended its use with the conquering of this part of Serbia by the Ottoman Empire.

Situated further to the south was Arbanon.

With the crowning of Stephen Uroš III Dečanski of Serbia, Stephen Uroš IV Dušan was crowned Young King of Zeta. Žarko held Lower Zeta during the reign of Emperor Dušan the Mighty. In 1360, Balša I and his sons are mentioned as "lords of Skadar", thus, Žarko may have either lost the rule or died.[6] On 18 September 1385, Balša II was killed by the Ottomans at the Battle of Savra, and he was succeeded by his nephew Đurađ II Balšić who inherited the parts of Zeta and northern Albania, including the cities of Shkodër, Drisht and Lezhë, as per the Balšićs' traditional rule of seniority.

On 2 June 1403, the Venetian Senate confirmed Goranin, Damjan and Nenad of the Dushmani family the rule of Pilot.[7]

In Venetian documents, Lekë Dushmani and his relative Damian are mentioned as lords of Pult in 1446.[8] On March 2, 1444, Dushmani became a founding member of the League of Lezhë.[9] According to Fan Noli, Peter Spani who also joined the League, ruled Shala and Shoshi.[10] Pal Dukagjini and Nikola Dukagjini, who also joined the league as vassals to Lekë Zaharia, did not rule this area, but a region farther to the east, which included villages Buba, Salita, Gurichuchi, Baschina.[11][12]

Albanian bajraks (1918).

Visiting Theth in the early 20th century, the traveller Edith Durham said:

I think no place where human beings live has given me such an impression of majestic isolation from all the world.[13]

Edith Durham described Theth as a "bariak" of some 180 houses and also observed that it was almost free from the tradition of blood feud (known in the Albanian language as Gjakmarrja) which so blighted other parts of the Albanian highlands.[13]

In the First Balkan War, the Dukagjin region was occupied by the Principality of Montenegro. After the Treaty of London in May, 1913, the Great Powers recognized the independence of the Principality of Albania and appointed German Wilhelm Friedrich Heinrich as monarch. The Dukagjin region was subsequently included into Albania.

Traveller Edith Durham visited North Albania in the 1900s. She collected the following information about the tribes of Dukagjin, whom she grouped into the Pulati, and then into the two groups of Lower Pulati (or Pulati proper) and those of the Diocese of Pulati. She said that Pulati was hard to define, as the ecclesiastical borders (Diocese of Pulati) extended farther than the Pulati tribes.[19]

Lower Pulati:

• Ghoanni: small Catholic tribe, one bajrak.
• Plani: Catholic tribe, one bariak, tracing origin of three stocks which are intermarriageable. One descends from Kelmendi.
• Mgula: small Catholic tribe, one bajrak.
• Kiri: Catholic tribe, one bajrak.

Diocese of Pulati:

• Shala: very large entirely Catholic tribe, with four bajraks (Thethi, Petsaj, Lothaj and Lekaj). According to legend, all bajraks descend from a common ancestor, one of three brothers who fled Raška after the Ottoman conquest, the two other brothers established Shoshi and Mirdita, respectively. The three tribes reckon they are too nearly related to be intermarriageable. Thethi bariak occupy the head of the valley with 180 houses, all Catholic. Thethi is self-governing, and is almost independent from the rest of the Shala. Petsaj, Lothaj and Lekaj bariaks are said to have separated into three main houses 376 years earlier. Lothaj and Lekaj recently decided they are far enough removed to intermarry. Thethi and Petsaj do not intermarry within the tribe. Shala tells that, when it arrived in the land, there were already small dark people inhabiting it. With these, they intermarried. Eight houses near Abate, lower Shala, trace origin to these earlier folk, the rest emigrated to Deçani.
• Shoshi: origin as above. It lies south of Shala on the right bank of the Shala river.
• Toplana: small Catholic tribe, one bariak, lying east of Shala on the right bank of the Shala river. It is in a very wild district, and has the highest death-rate from gunshot wounds of all the Christian tribes. It tells that it is very old.

The whole district inhabited by the above tribes is called Malsia e vogel ("Little Mountains"). Also included in the diocese of Pulati is:

• Nikaj: This is an offshoot from the Muslim tribe of Krasniqi. Its ancestor Nikola left Krasniqi while Krasniqi was yet Christian. One hundred houses in Nikaj. Nikaj is all Catholic. It is one of the wildest and most poverty-stricken of the tribes.