Shkreli (tribe)

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Not to be confused with Shkrel.

Shkreli and the Slavic version Škrijelj (Serbian: Шкријељ) is a Northern Albanian tribe and geographical region of Malësia.[1] According to some accounts they came to Northern Albania from Bosnia. With expansion of the Ottoman Empire a part of the tribe migrated from Albania to Rugova in 15th[citation needed] century. Since 1700, after the Great Serb Migration, they continued to migrate to Sandžak region (today in Serbia and Montenegro). Over the time most of them were Slavicized and Islamized and today declare Bosniak ethnicity. Some members of this tribe and their descendants still profess Christian religion (most of those are Catholic while some belong to Eastern Orthodox Church).

A village and municipality Shkrel in northern Albania is named against Albanian part of the tribe while village in Sandžak was named Škrijelj by Bosniak part of the tribe. There are descendants of the members of this tribe in the region of former Yugoslavia and Albania whose last name is derived from the name of this tribe.

History

Tribesman of Shkreli

The name of the tribe was first recorded in 1416 as Shkreli. Some other earlier forms include Scarglieli (1614) or Scrielli (1703).[2]

The geographical region which is also referred to as Shkreli is basically Shkrel village near Shkodra in northern Albania. Like many other tribes of Northern Albania, Shkreli came from the region whose population today speaks one of the Slavic languages.[3] According to one story the ancestors of Skrijelj came from Bosnia around 1600 and populated a village in Northern Albania whose population was killed and church burned. The name of the church was St. Charles (Albanian: Shen Kerli) which became Shkrelli (Skrijelj) a name used to refer to the place and to its inhabitants.[4][5][6]

Before converting to Islam in the 18th century, most of them professed Catholicism, and many have continued professing it until today, especially in Kosovo and southeastern Montenegro (Ulcinj). The descendants of this tribe in Kosovo have mostly maintained the Albanian language as their mother tongue and bear similar varieties to the surname: (predominantly Muslim) and Shkrel/Shkryeli (predominantly Catholic). On the other hand, descendants of the tribe professing the Eastern Orthodox faith have remained until today. According to Marko Miljanov their slava was Saint Nicholas Day.[7] The patron saint of Albanian part of the tribe is Saint Nicholas.[8]

A part of the Shkrel tribe was probably endangered by other tribe in Albania, thus has emigrated to different locations: the Montenegro seaside, to Sandžak and to Rugova gill (located in northwestern Kosovo near Peć). Some of the Rugova Shkrels moved to the territory of Rožaje and Tutin in 1700, after the Great Serb Migration.[9] They founded the village named Škrijelje (as they continued residing in Sandžak, by appropriating the yat vowel from the Slavic languages, the surname deviated from Shkrel to Škrijelj). Later in the century they populated the Lower Pešter region and the city of Novi Pazar. Skrijeljs continued to migrate from Rugova to the territory of Pešter until 19th century.[10] The vast majority of Škrijelji were assimilated by the Slavic population in the Sandžak region. However, in the villages of Boroštica and Gradac at the Upper Pešter plateau, they managed to maintain the original Albanian language until today. After the Second World War and especially with the beginning of the Yugoslav Wars they began migrating to Western Europe, United States of America and Australia.

Geographical Distribution

Today, people bearing the surname Škrijelj live in the following locations:

  • Serbia: Belgrade, Novi Pazar (also in the villages of Požega and Rajčinoviće), Sjenica (also in the villages of Bioc, Kamešnica, Međugor and Ugao), Temerin and Tutin (also in the villages of Boroštica, Crnoča, Gradac, Ljeskova, Naboje, Šaronje and Škrijelje).
  • Macedonia: Skopje (also in the villages of Batinci, Dračevo, Indžikovo, Ljuboš, Ljubin, Kjojlija, Konjare, Petrovec, Ržaničino), Veles (also in the villages of Crkvino and Gradsko), Prilep (also in the villages of Desovo, Lažani and Žitoše) and Tetovo.
  • Turkey: Istanbul, Izmit, Izmir and Sakarya (their surnames are changed into Albayrak, Bayrak, Büyükbayrak, Esen (Šemsović), Sancak, Yener and Yenibayrak).

See also

References

  1. ↑ Robert Elsie (19 March 2010). Historical Dictionary of Albania. Scarecrow Press. p. 415. ISBN 978-0-8108-7380-3. Retrieved 13 May 2013. 
  2. ↑ Elsie, Robert (2010), Historical dictionary of Albania, Lanham: Scarecrow Press, p. 415, ISBN 978-0-8108-7380-3, OCLC 454375231 
  3. ↑ Glasnik Zemaljskog muzeja u Bosni i Hercegovini. Zemaljska štamparija. 1911. p. 374. Retrieved 21 May 2013. "Племена Хоти, Никај, Шкрели, Клементи, Кастрати, и један дио племена Груда потјечу из краја гдје се данас говори словјенски" 
  4. ↑ Carl Coleman Seltzer; Carleton Stevens Coon; Joseph Franklin Ewing (1950). The mountains of giants: a racial and cultural study of the north Albanian mountain Ghegs. The Museum. p. 45. Retrieved 13 May 2013. "The people of Shkrelli, comprising a whole bayrak, are said to have come from Bosnia en masse about 1600 and taken over a valley whose inhabitants had been killed off and whose church, Shen Kerli (St. Charles hence Shkrelli) destroyed" 
  5. ↑ M. Edith Durham (30 June 2009). High Albania. ECHO LIB. p. 466. ISBN 978-1-4068-2855-9. Retrieved 13 May 2013. "Skreli is situated in the valley of the Proni Thaat. It is mainly Catholic, and traces its origin from Bosnia." 
  6. ↑ M. Edith Durham (30 June 2009), High Albania, ECHO LIB, p. 454, 455, ISBN 978-1-4068-2855-9, "All four of these tribe (Skreli, Hoti, Gruda, Kilmeni) tell that their ancestors came from Bosnia or the Herzegovina, precise district unknown....Skreli and Hoti, which say they come from Bosnia" 
  7. ↑ Đerković, Vukale, "P. A. Rovinski i crnogorsko-albanski izvori o stanovništvu slovenskog porijekla u Sjevernoj Albaniji", Stanovništvo slovenskog porijekla u Albaniji : zbornik radova sa međunarodnog naučnog skupa održanog u Cetinju 21, 22. i 23. juna 1990 (in Serbian), Titograd: Istorijski institut SR Crne Gore ; Stručna knj., OCLC 29549273, "U njegovim kučko-arbanaškim narodnim izvorima ...zabilježio je da su sjeverna arbanaška plemena... slovenskog porijekla,... u proslavljanju istih krsnih imena... i da su istoslavljenici istoga roda - Hoti slave Ivanj dan, ... Škrijelji - Nikolj dan, i sl." 
  8. ↑ Balkanistica. 13-14. Slavica Publishers. 2000. p. 41. 
  9. ↑ Mušović, Ejup (1985). Tutin i okolina. Serbian Academy of Science and Arts. p. 27. 
  10. ↑ Glasnik Etnografskog instituta 20. Naučno delo. 1980. p. 74. 

Sources

Dr. Redžep Škrijelj (historian, Turkologist, writer):

  1. Мухаџирската криза и населувањето на Бошњаците во Македонија, Bigoss, Скопје, 2006.
  2. Санџачки Бошњаци у Македонији 1918-1945, Almаnah, Podgorica, 2004.
  3. Bošnjaci Rožajskog kraja u Republici Makedoniji, Rožajski Zbornik br. 10, Rožaje, 2000.
  4. Enklave bošnjačkih muhadžira na Kosovu, Tutinski Zbornik br. 2, Tutin, 2002.
  5. Sakralna kultura Bošnjaka u Republici Makedoniji, Glas Islama, Novi Pazar, 2001.
  6. Bošnjaci u Makedoniji 1945-1999 (unpublished).

Ejup Mušović (historian, ethnologist):

  1. Etnička struktura i etnički procesi stanovništva Novopazarskog kraja, SANU, Beograd, 1979.
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