Shkreli (tribe)

By oral tradition, the first Shkreli to settle in this region of Albania was Lek Shkreli, who had four sons: Vrith, Ded, Buzhet and Zog/Zag, hence the names of the four main villages of Shkrel: Vrith, Dedaj, Bzheta and Zagora.

Vrith was the oldest of the sons, his family grew largest, and its people are Bajraktar of Shkreli. Deda, Leka’s second son, had three sons: Çek Deda, Pap Deda and Vulet Deda. Buzheta, his third son had three sons as well: Preknici, Duci and Prekduci. Leke’s fourth son, Zogu, only had two sons: Andrea and Jusuf/Joseph (this son said to be islamized).

When the Shkreli tribe arrived in this region of Albania they found a population that was already there and this population was admitted into the tribe; they are called “Anas”:

1. Xhaj in Xhaj

2. Vukaj or Vukelaj in Preknicaj

3. Kolajt in Zagorë

4. Baushi or Kapllajt in Dedaj

5. Luizi in Grykën e Lugjeve

6. Tuçajt who live in Leskovac

Oral traditions and fragmentary stories were collected and interpreted by writers who travelled in the region in the 19th century and early 20th century about the origins of Shkreli.

French consul in Shkodra, Hyacinthe Hecquard in his 1858 Histoire et description de la haute Albanie ou Guégarie notes that Shkreli descend from an old Albanian family in the region of Pejë, whose chief was called Kerli (Carl).[4] Sixty years later, Edith Durham who travelled in the region wrote in High Albania (1908) that she recorded a story in Shkreli that they came from an unknown region of Bosnia. In her 1928 book Some tribal origins, laws, and customs of the Balkans she also notes that this even must have happened around 1600.[5] Carleton S. Coon in his 1944 Mountains of Giants: A Racial and Cultural Study of the North Albanian Mountain Ghegs adopted her hypothesis and further added that the people of Shkreli 'took over a valley whose population was killed and church burned. The name of the church was St. Charles (Albanian: Shën Kerli) which became Shkreli.[6]

Baron Nopcsa, a well-known scholar of the Albanian fis system, noted that the mention of an unknown region of Bosnia could well mean an area of the Sanjak of Novi Pazar or adjacent to it.[7] This region until the late 19th century was administratively part of the Eyalet of Bosnia. Indeed, Albanian pastoral communities from the Plav area used to move their herds in Bosnia during the winter months and then move back in the spring and summer months to their natural grazing lands.[8]

In the decades that followed analysis of recorded historical material, linguistics and comparative anthropology have provided more historically-grounded accounts. A particularly important work in this respect was the publication of the cadaster of Shkodër of 1416-7 in 1942 and the subsequent registry of names of the cadaster in 1945 by Fulvio Cordignano. The full document was translated into Albanian in 1977. It is the first known historical document that mentions Shkreli both as a settlement and as a family name in 1416. The village of Shkreli appears in the cadaster of Shkodra as a small settlement of eight households headed by a Vlash Shkreli.[9]

In 1416, Shkreli appears as a tribe in the process of formation as the village name is also the surname of most of its households, an indication of the kin organization of the settlement.[3] The fact that about half of the households who bore the surname Shkreli lived outside of the settlement points to the fact that Shkreli in 1416 was closer to being a bashkësi (tribe based on kinship relations but with no communal territorial control) than a fis (a kin community that is also identified with a given communal territory).

Tribesmen visiting the feast of Saint Nicholas at Bzheta in Shkreli territory, Albania, 1908

In 1613, the Ottomans launched a campaign against the rebel tribes of Montenegro. In response, the tribes of the Vasojevići, Kuči, Bjelopavlići, Piperi, Kastrati, Kelmendi, Shkreli and Hoti formed a political and military union known as “The Union of the Mountains” or “The Albanian Mountains” . The leaders swore an oath of besa to resist with all their might any upcoming Ottoman expeditions, thereby protecting their self-government and disallowing the establishment of the authority of the Ottoman Spahis in the northern highlands. Their uprising had a liberating character. With the aim of getting rid of the Ottomans from the Albanian territories[10][11]

Scarglieli was mentioned by Mariano Bolizza in 1614, being part of the Sanjak of Scutari. It was Roman Catholic, had 20 houses, and 43 men at arms commanded by Gjon Poruba.[12] In the late Ottoman period, the tribe of Shkreli consisted of 180 Muslim and 320 Catholic households.[13]

In 1901, in a study conducted by Italian Antonio Baldacci, Shkreli has 4500 Catholic and 750 Muslim citizens.

In years 1916–1918 Franz Seiner observed Shkreli had 415 houses, 2680 individuals: 2300 Catholics and 388 Muslims.

During the Ottoman Empire the Shkreli tribe was in constant warfare with the Empire and enjoyed intermittent autonomy from the Porte. Years at war 1614,1621,1645 (which won them autonomy until 1700), 1803-1817,1834-1840, 1871 war with Turks of Shkodra over mistreatment of local Catholic population of city, Albanian revolts in 1910–1911, etc. Shkreli tribe participated in the League of Prizren 1878-1881 represented by Bajraktar Marash Dashi.

During the Albanian revolt of 1911 on 23 June Albanian tribesmen and other revolutionaries gathered in Montenegro and drafted the Greçë Memorandum demanding Albanian sociopolitical and linguistic rights with four of the signatories being from Shkreli.[14] In later negotiations with the Ottomans, an amnesty was granted to the tribesmen with promises by the government to build one to two primary schools in the nahiye of Shkreli and pay the wages of teachers allocated to them.[14]

Before converting to Islam in the 18th century, most of the Kosovo part of tribe professed Catholicism. The descendants of this tribe in Kosovo have also maintained the Albanian language as their mother tongue. A majority of the Shkreli tribe is Catholic, speaks Albanian and they live in Albania (Shkrel-Shkodër-Lezha-Velipoj) and Montenegro (Ulcinj).[15] The Tribes Patron Saint is St. Nicholas and feast day is celebrated on May 9.