Gashi (tribe)
Gashi is an Albanian surname, the name of one of the major historical tribes of northern Albania and historical tribal region situated in the District of Tropojë, or more specifically, the Highlands of Gjakova.[1][2] The Gashi tribe is known to follow the Kanuni i Malësisë së Madhë, a variant of the Kanun.[3]
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History
Legends and oral tradition about origins
The Gashi are centred in the historical region of the Highlands of Gjakova (Albanian: Malësia e Gjakovës), which spans the District of Tropojë in Albania and the Gjakova Municipality in Kosovo. They are thought to be related to the Toplana.[4] According to tradition, recorded by Baron Nopcsa in 1907, the ancestor of Shllaku was named "Can Gabeti", one of four brothers (the others were the founder of the Gashi, Toplana and Megulla).[5] The four brothers lived in the Shllaku region where they divided up their possessions. The Gashi and Toplana eventually moved eastwards, with the Gashi first settling in Serma between the Nikaj and Leshnica rivers. Their settlement in Serma was short-lived, and they moved to their current location at around 1660 after Catholic members of the tribe killed 2 imams. Begolli Bey of Peja had his troops surround the tribe and force them to move to a new region (the Highlands of Gjakova) where the native population called Anas lived.[4] The title 'Anas' is used in several Albanian tribal historiographies, as it is an Albanian term that refers to the indigenous peoples of a region. Anas does not refer to Slavic populations.[6]
Nonetheless, the Gashi are thought to have been the first tribe in the region of Tropoja, i.e. before the Krasniqja. Historical reference is made to another ancestral father of the Gashi called Leka, the son of Pjetër Spani, who lived in the settlement of Selimaj (Gegëhysen) in the second half of the fifteenth century. [7]
Gabeti, said to have been an Orthodox Christian from Montenegro, came across the original native population who were the ancestors of the Kolë Pep Fura family and whose last male descendant died about 1900.[8]
Scholarly theories about the origin
According to Robert Elsie, the first mention of this tribe in historical documents was in 1634 as Gaasi in the ecclesiastical report of the Franciscan priest Bonaventura di Palazzolo.[9] Robert Elsie emphasized that Gashi were first northern Albanian tribe that lived in the region of Tropojë.[10]
One branch of the Gashi tribe, the Bardhët (English: the white ones) descends from Kuči.[11] The Kuči were originally an Albanian tribe,[12][13][14] but they have assimilated into a Serbo-Montenegrin identity.
Edith Durham in "Concerns of the Balkans" writes that the Gashi tribe was once located in Toplana - which is situated in the surroundings of Shkodër - and that due to conflict, they left and settled in Botushë. This may be partially true due to the arrival of the Bardhët to the Highlands of Gjakovë, after which, according to the academic Xheladin Gosturani, the Bardhët, the Shipshani and the Luzha joined together to form the Gashi tribe at around 1600-1650CE. This is plausible as Albanian tribes would often form unions in reaction to foreign invasions.[15]
Distribution
Since the last decade of the 17th century the region of Kosovo and north-western Macedonia was settled by families belonging to Albanian tribes.[16] The most intensive phase of this migration was between the middle of 18th century until the 1840s.[17] This led to division of many tribes including Gashi.[18]
The region of Leskovac was home to branches of the Gashi tribe, who inhabited six villages in the district and once had a chieftain called Latif Aga who was famed for his bravery. The Gashi were also found in Masurica region, which was located on the right side of the Great Morava.[19][20]
Relations with other tribes
Shala tribe was in conflict with Gashi tribe until they made peace in August 1879, based on sultan's order.[21]
Settlements
Notable People
- Vjosa Osmani, current President of Kosovo[22]
- Shote Galica, guerilla fighter
- Azem Hajdari, politician
- Sylejman Selimi, commander of KLA, politician
- Jashar Salihu, Hero of Kosovo recipient, Albanian diplomat, activist and general
- Ibrahim Gashi, Kosovar Albanian academic and philosopher
- Shkelzen Gashi, professional footballer
- Gashi, Albanian-American rapper
References
- (Elsie 2015, p. 6)
- (Elsie 2005, p. 420)
- Sellers, Mortimer; Tomaszewski, Tadeusz (23 July 2010). The Rule of Law in Comparative Perspective. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 210. ISBN 9789048137497.
- Elsie 2015, p. 168.
- Elsie 2015, pp. 133, 145, 168.
- "High Albania".
- Elsie 2015, p. 169.
- Elsie 2015, p. 133.
- (Elsie 2015, p. 167)
- (Elsie 2015, p. 6)
- (Elsie 2015, p. 169)
- (Elsie 2015, p. 169)
- Calic, Marie-Janine (2019). The Great Cauldron: A History of Southeastern Europe. Harvard University Press. p. 63-64. ISBN 9780674239104.
- Mulić, Jusuf (2005). "O nekim posebnostima vezanim za postupak prihataanja Islama u Bosni i netačnostima koje mu se pripisuju." Anali Gazi Husrev-begove biblioteke. 23-24: 184. "U popisima, Arbanasi su iskazivani zajedno s Vlasima. To otežava uvid u moguće razlike kod prihvatanja islama od strane Vlaha i Arbanasa. Jedino se kod plemena za koja se izrijekom zna da su arbanaška, mogla utvrditi pojavnost u prihvatanju islama (Bjelopavlići, Burmazi, Grude, Hoti, Klimente/Koeljmend, Kuči, Macure, Maine, Malonšići/Malonze, Mataruge/Mataronge i Škrijelji). [In the lists, Albanians are reported together with Vlachs. This makes studying the possible differences in the acceptance of Islam by Vlachs and Albanians. Only with the tribes that are specifically known to be Albanian, could establish the occurrence of the acceptance of Islam (Bjelopavlići, Burmazi, Grude, Hoti, Klimenta / Koeljmend, Maine, Macura, Maine, Malonšići/Malonzo, Mataruge/Mataronge and Škrijelj).]"
- "Dukagjinët dhe spanët si krahët e shqipes për Gjergj Kastriotin".
- (Kaser 2012, p. 124)
- (Kaser 2012, p. 124)
- (Kaser 2012, p. 124)
- Jagodić, Miloš (1 December 1998). "The Emigration of Muslims from the New Serbian Regions 1877/1878". Balkanologie. 2 (2). doi:10.4000/balkanologie.265.
- Hahn, J. G. von (2015). The discovery of Albania : travel writing and anthropology in the nineteenth-century Balkans. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781350154681.
- Đorđe Mikić (1988). Društvene i ekonomske prilike kosovskih srba u XIX i početkom XX veka. Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti. p. 40. ISBN 9788670250772. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
- Vjosa Osmani (2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp0M18nGxg4&ab_channel=PodujevaPRESS. Her origin is from village Llapashtica of Podujevo. All the villagers of both Llapashticas are blood relatives and belong to the Gashi tribe. https://www.poreklo.rs/2020/04/11/poreklo-prezimena-selo-gornja-lapastica-podujevo/ https://www.poreklo.rs/2020/04/09/poreklo-prezimena-selo-donja-lapastica-podujevo/
Sources
- Elsie, Robert (30 May 2015). The Tribes of Albania: History, Society and Culture. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-78453-401-1.
- Fishta, Gjergj; Elsie, Robert (2005). The Highland Lute. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-118-2.
- Kaser, Karl (2012). Household and Family in the Balkans: Two Decades of Historical Family Research at University of Graz. LIT Verlag Münster. ISBN 978-3-643-50406-7.