Product Code Database
The Vilayet of Scutari, Shkodër or Shkodra ( or Vilayet-i İşkodra; ) was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire that existed from 1867 to 1913, located in parts of what today is Montenegro and Albania. In the late 19th century it reportedly had an area of . Europe by Éliseé Reclus, p. 152 It bordered the Principality of Montenegro, the Kosovo vilayet, the Manastir vilayet, and the Janina vilayet.
In 1867, the Sanjak of Scutari merged with the Sanjak of Skopje and became the Scutari Vilayet. Its sanjaks were Sanjak of Scutari, Prizren, and Sanjak of Dibra. In 1877, Prizren passed to the Kosovo Vilayet and Dibra passed to the Monastir Vilayet, while Durrës (Dıraç) township became the Sanjak of Durrës. After the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) Bar, Podgorica, İşpozi and Zabyak townships were ceded to Montenegro in 1878. Also Ulcinj one was ceded to Montenegro in 1881.
In the late Ottoman period, unlike in other areas of the empire, Albanian Catholics in Scutari vilayet had access to emerging Albanian language schooling, subsidized by Austria-Hungary. Local Catholic clergy were also involved in developing mostly religious Albanian literature, aimed at preserving and strengthening the Roman Catholic faith in the region. Due partly to the location of being near the border with Montenegro the state exempted the townspeople of Scutari from regular military service and unlike other urban dwellers within the empire they paid fewer taxes.
Ottoman control mainly existed in the few urban centres and valleys of the vilayet and was minimal and almost non-existent in the mountains, where Malisors (Albanian highlanders) lived an autonomous existence according to kanun (tribal law) of Lek Dukagjini. Disputes would be solved through tribal law within the framework of vendetta or Gjakmarrja and the activity was widespread among the Malisors, while Ottoman officials strongly disproved of the practice. Nineteen percent of male deaths in Scutari vilayet were caused by murders due to vendetta and blood feuding during the late Ottoman period. Malisors viewed Ottoman officials as a threat to their tribal way of living and left it to their bayraktars (chieftains) to deal with the Ottoman political system.
The Malisors (highlanders) lived in three geographical regions within İşkodra sanjak. Malësia e Madhe (Great Highlands) with its religiously mixed Catholic-Muslim five large tribes (Hoti, Kelmendi, Shkreli, Kastrati and Gruda) and seven smaller tribes; Dukagjin Highlands with seven Catholic tribes such as the Shala, Shoshi, Toplana, Nikaj; and Mirdita (tribe)}Mirdita, which was also a large powerful tribe that could mobilise 5,000 irregular troops. The government estimated the military strength of Malisors in İşkodra sanjak as numbering over 30,000 tribesmen and Ottoman officials were of the view that the highlanders could defeat Montenegro on their own with limited state assistance.
The Dıraç sanjak contained the fertile plain of Zadrima between Mirdita and the Drin river. Political life in the sanjak was dominated by a few powerful Albanian landowners such as the Toptani family, who controlled the area around Kruja and Tirana as a family fiefdom holding around 123,000 acres. To protect economic interests landowning in the area maintained small private armies, numbering between 200 and 500 men, who also served as bodyguards during travel. In the 1880s from an Albanian point of view the sanjaks of İşkodra and Dıraç along with the whole of İşkodra vilayet belonged to the region of Gegënia. In 1912 and beginning of 1913 the vilayet was under the occupation by members of the Balkan League during the First Balkan War. In 1914 the territory of the Scutari Vilayet became a part of the Principality of Albania, established on the basis of peace contract, signed at the conclusion of the London Conference in 1913.
Ottoman-Albanian intellectual Sami Frashëri during the 1880s estimated the population of Shkodër as numbering 37,000 inhabitants that consisted of three-quarters being Muslims and the rest Christians made up of mostly Catholics and a few hundred Orthodox.
|
|
