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Kelmendi is a historicalAlbanian tribe (fis) and region inMalësia (Kelmend municipality) and eastern Montenegro (parts ofGusinje Municipality). It is located in the upper valley of theCem river and its tributaries in theAccursed Mountains range of theDinaric Alps. The Vermosh river springs in thevillage of the same name, which is Albania's northernmost village. Vermosh pours intoLake Plav.
| Kelmendi | |
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| Ghegtribe | |
| Location | Malësia e Madhe,Kelmend,Montenegro,Kosovo,Serbia |
| Descended from | Clement |
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Kelmendi is mentioned as early as the 14th century and as a territorial tribe it developed in the 15th century. In the Balkans, it is widely known historically for its longtime resistance to theOttoman Empire and its extensive battles and raids against the Ottomans which reached as far north as Bosnia and as far east as Bulgaria. By the 17th century, they had grown so much in numbers and strength that their name was sometimes used for all tribes of northern Albania and Montenegro. The Ottomans tried several times to expel them completely from their home territory and forcefully settle them elsewhere, but the community returned to its ancestral lands again and again.
Kelmendi's legacy is found throughout the region. Kelmendi is found beyond the Cem valley (Selcë,Vukël,Nikç and others), Gusinje (in particular, the villagesVusanje, Doli, Martinovići and Gusinje itself) andPlav (Hakaj) to the east inRožaje and thePešter plateau. InKosovo, descendants of Kelmendi live in theRugova Canyon and western Kosovo mainly. In Montenegro, half of the tribe (pleme) of OldCeklin and a part ofKuči which settled there in the 16th century come from Kelmendi. The northernmost settlement from Kelmendi is in the villages ofHrtkovci andNikinci inSyrmia when 1,600 Catholic Albanian refugees settled there in 1737.
A folk etymology explains it as Kol Mendi. The historical origin of the toponym is traced to the Roman fort of Clementiana whichProcopius of Caesarea mentions in the mid 6th century in the road that connectedScodra andPetrizên. As a surname it first appears in 1353 in a Latin document which mentionsdominus Georgius filius Georgii Clementi de Spasso (Lord Georgius, son of Georgius Clementi of Spas) in northern Albania.[1]
The Kelmendi region is located in theDistrict of Malësi e Madhe in northern Albania, situated in the northernmost and most isolated part of the country. It borders the Albanian tribal regions ofGruda to the west,Hoti to the southwest,Boga to the south,Shala to the east, and theMontenegrin tribal regions ofKuči andVasojevići to the north.
There are many theories on the place of origin of the Kelmendi. Before the 20th century, several travellers, historians and clergymen have recorded various oral traditions and presented their own interpretations. In modern times, archival research has provided a more historically grounded approach.Milan Šufflay was the first to find the first mention of the name Kelmendi in the archives of Ragusa, where the name "Georgius filius Georgii Clementi de Spasso" is mentioned in 1353.[2] The publication of the Ottoman defter of the sanjak of Scutari in 1974 marks the publication of the first historical record about the people of Kelmendi, their anthroponymy, toponymy and social organization.
In the early centuries of Kelmendi, in the 15th and 16th centuries the only information that is mentioned about them is their language, ethnic group and religion. As Catholic bishopFrang Bardhi writes in his correspondence with theRoman Curia,they belong to the Albanian nation, speak Albanian, hold our holy Roman Catholic beliefs.[3] The first writing about Kelmendi's area of origin is from Franciscan missionary, Bernardo da Verona who in 1663 wrote thatit is not easy to make comments about Kelmendi's origin, but it has become customary to say that they came fromKuči or one of the neighbouring tribes.. The second commentary about Kelmendi's place of origin comes in 1685 in a letter by Catholic archbishopPjetër Bogdani who writes thataccording to oral stories the progenitor of Kelmendi came from the UpperMorača.[4]
French consul Hyacinte Hecquard (1814–1866), noted that all of the Kelmendi (Clementi) except the families calledOnos believe that they descend from one ancestor,Clemens orClement (Kelment or Kelmend[5] in Albanian).[6] A Franciscan priest in Shkodra, Gabriel recounted a story about a Clemens who was a Venetian who was a priest inVenetian Dalmatia andHerzegovina before taking refuge in Albania.[7] The story went on to say he originated from either of those two provinces, and that he was encountered by a pastor inTriepshi.[7]
Johann Georg von Hahn recorded the most widely spread oral tradition about Kelmendi's origins in 1850. According it a rich herdsman in the region of Triepshi (which administratively in the past fell within Kuci) employed as a herdsman a young man who came to Triepshi from an unknown region. The young man had an affair with Bumçe, the daughter of the rich herdsman. When she became pregnant, the two were married but because their affair was punishable by customary law they left the area and settled to the south in the present Kelmendi area.[8] Their seven sons are the historical ancestors of the settlements of Kelmendi in Albania and theSandžak.[9] Kola, the eldest is the founder ofSelcë. Johan Georg von Hahn placed the settlement of Kelmendi's progenitor in Bestana, southern Kelmend.
Yugoslav anthropologist Andrija Jovićević recorded several similar stories about their origin. One story has it that the founder settled from Lajqit e Hotit, in Hoti, and to Hoti from Fundane, the village of Lopare in Kuči; he was upset with the Hoti and Kuči, and therefore left those tribes. When he lived in Lopare, he married a girl from Triepshi, who followed him. His name was Amati, and his wife's name was Bumçe. According to others, his name was Klement, from where the tribe received its name. Another story, which Jovićević had heard in Selce, was that the founder was from Piperi, a poor man that had worked as a servant for a wealthy Kuči, there he sinned with a girl from a noble family, and left via theCem.[10]
In oral tradition, Bumçe, the wife of Kelmendi came from the Bekaj brotherhood of Triepshi.[11]
The first historical record about Kelmendi is the Ottomandefter of thesanjak of Scutari 1497, which was a supplementary registry to that of 1485. The defter of households and property was initially carried out in 1485, but Kelmendi doesn't appear in the registry as they resisted the entry of the Ottoman soldiers in their lands.[12] It had 152 households in two villages divided in five pastoral communities (katund). The katund of Liçeni lived in the village ofSelçisha, while the other four (Leshoviq, Muriq, Gjonoviq, Kolemadi) lived in the village ofIshpaja.[13] The heads of the five katunds were: Rabjan son Kolë (Liçeni), Marash son of Lazar (Gjonoviq), Stepan son of Ulgash (Muriq), Lulë son Gjergj (Kolemadi).[13] Kelmendi was exempted from almost all taxes to the new central authorities. Of the five katuns of Kelmendi, in four the nameKelmend appears as a patronym (Liçeni, Gjonoviq, Leshoviq, Muriq), an indication of kinship ties between them. The leader of Liçeni in SelcaRabjan of Kola recalls the oral tradition of the son Kelmend, Kola who founded Selca and who had three sons:Vui,Mai andRabin Kola.
The katun that was spelled asKolemadi in the defter belongs to the historical tribe ofGoljemadhi that became part of Kelmendi.
In the Ottoman register of the area ofCorinth (southern Greece), there are two Albanian villages calledKelmendi. Their names indicate that the settlers who founded them came from the region of Kelmendi.[14]
The self-governing rights of northern Albanian tribes like Kelmendi andHoti increased when their status changed fromflorici toderbendci, which required mountain communities to maintain and protect land routes, throughout the countryside, which connected regional urban centres. In return they were exempted from extraordinary taxes. The Kelmendi were to guarantee safe passage to passengers in the route from Shkodra to western Kosovo (Altun-ili) and that which passed throughMedun and reachedPlav.[15][13]
As early as 1538, the Kelmendi rose up against the Ottomans again and appear to have done so also in 1565 as Kuči and Piperi were also in rebellion.[16][17] The 1582–83 defter recorded thenahiya ofClementi with two villages (Selca and Ishpaja) and 70 households.[18] The katunds of the previous century had either settled permanently or moved to other areas like Leshoviq which moved northwards and settled in Kuči.[18] Thus, the population in Kelmendi was less than half in 1582 in comparison to 1497. Anthroponymy remained roughly the same as in 1497 as most names were Albanian and some showed Slavic influence.[18][19] In the mid-1580s, the Kelmendi seemed to have stopped paying taxes to the Ottomans.[16] They had by this time gradually come to dominate all of northernAlbania.[16] They were mobile and went raiding in what is todayKosovo,Bosnia,Serbia and even as far asPlovdiv inBulgaria.[when?][16]
Venetian documents from 1609 mention the Kelmendi, the tribes of theDukagjin highlands and others as being in a conflict with the Ottomans for 4 consecutive years.[20] The local Ottomans were unable to counter them and were thus forced to ask the Bosnian Pasha for help.[20]
Kelmendi was very well known in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries because of it constant rebellion against the Ottomans. This caused the name of Kelmendi to be used as a synonym for all Albanian and Montenegrin tribes of the Ottoman borderlands as they were the best known community of that region to outsiders. Thus,Marino Bizzi (1570–1624), theArchbishop of Bar writes in 1610 thatthe Kelmendi peoples, who are almost entirely Latin, speak Albanian and Dalmatian and are divided in ten katuns: Kelmendi, Gruda, Hoti, Kastrati, Shkreli, Tuzi all Latins and Bjelopavlici, Piperi, Bratonosici, these are Dalmatians and Kuci of whom half are schismatics and half Latin.[21]
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 ofbesa 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[22][23] Bizzi reported an incident in 1613 in which an Ottoman commander, Arslan Pasha, raided the villages of the Kelmendi and started taking prisoners, until an agreement was reached with the Kelmendi clans. According to the agreement, the Kelmendi would surrender fifteen of their members as slaves, and pay a tribute of 1,000 ducats to the Ottomans. However, as Arslan Pasha waited for the payment of the tribute, the Kelmendi ambushed part of his troops and killed about thirty cavalrymen. After this incident the Ottoman troops retreated toHerceg Novi (Castelnuovo).[24]Mariano Bolizza recorded the "Climenti" in his 1614 report as being aRoman rite village, describing them as "an untiring, valorous and extremely rapacious people", with 178 houses, and 650men in arms commanded by Smail Prentashev and Peda Suka.[25] In 1614, they, along with the tribes ofKuči,Piperi andBjelopavlići, sent a letter to the kings ofSpain andFrance claiming they were independent from Ottoman rule and did not pay tribute to the empire.[26][27]
Clashes with the Ottomans continued through the 1630 and culminate in 1637-38 where the tribe would repel an army of 12,000 (according to some sources 30,000) commanded by Vutsi Pasha of theBosnia Eyalet.
According to Albanian bishopFrang Bardhi writing in 1638, the Kelmendi tribe grew very rich by attacking and stealing merchandise from Christian merchants in Albania, Bosnia and Serbia, killing those who resisted them.[28] After merchants travelled to Constantinople, and representative of the local population of Novi Pazar and northern Kosovo sent a petition, to complain about Klemendi raids and ask for protection,[29][30] the Sultan ordered Vučo Pasha, the Pasha of Bosnia, to lead the1638 Ottoman expedition against Kelmendi.[31]
According to Bardhi after being ambushed by the tribe in the mountains and suffering heavy casualties the Ottoman force returned to Bosnia.[30]Robert Elsie calls Bardhi's report a "glorified text about the Kelmendi tribe".[30] The legend ofNora of Kelmendi would come to life during this epic struggles.[32][failed verification]
According to French historianErnest Lavisse and toFrançois Lenormant, in 1638Sultan Mourad IV asked Doudjé-Pasha, the governor of Bosnia, to lead a punitive expedition, in the heart of winter, against the Kelmendi. The tribe weakened by famine and lacking ammunition, put up a desperate defense, rolling huge blocks of rock from the tops of the mountains onto the Turkish army. The death of their knèze Vokodoud, killed in a fight, and a few days after that of the Voivode Hotasch, whom the Pasha himself surprised by climbing an inaccessible peak with crampons, deprived the Clementi of their best chiefs and determined their submission,[33] the other Kelmendi leaders were decapitated by the Ottomans and their heads sent to the Sultan.[32]
When Pasha of Herzegovina attacked city of Kotor 1657, Albanian tribes of Kelmendi and Bjelopavlići also participated in this battle[34]
In theCretan War the Kelmendi played a tactical role between the Ottomans and the Venetians.[35] In 1664,Evliya Çelebi mentioned Kelmendi Albanians among the "infidel warriors" he saw manning Venetian ships in the harbour ofSplit. The Kelmendi promised support to whichever side would fulfil their requests. in 1666, for instance some of the Kelmendi supported the Ottomans on condition that they be exempted from paying tribute for five years. Some of them also converted toIslam.[36]
In 1651, they aided the army ofAli-paša Čengić, which attackedKotor; the army raided and destroyed many monasteries in the region.[37] In 1658, the seven tribes ofKuči,Vasojevići,Bratonožići,Piperi, Kelmendi,Hoti andGruda allied themselves with theRepublic of Venice, establishing the so-called "Seven-fold barjak" or "alaj-barjak", against the Ottomans.[38]
The Kelmendi appear in a report of 1671 written by theapostolic visitor Stefano Gaspari. According to the report, the Kelmendi had constructed a church dedicated toSaint Clement in the settlement ofSpeia di Clementi (Ishpaja) 20 years earlier in 1651, that was used by the entire tribal community to attendmass and receive theholy sacrament. Gaspari also reports that the Kelmendi were primarily concentrated in the following villages:Morichi (Muriqi) with six households and 40 inhabitants;Genovich (Gjonoviq or Gjenoviq) with seven households and 60 inhabitants;Lesovich (Leshoviq) with 15 households and 120 inhabitants;Melossi with seven households and 40 inhabitants;Vucli (Vukël) with 32 households and 200 inhabitants;Rvesti with six households and 30 inhabitants;Zecca (Zeka) with seven households and 40 inhabitants;Selza di Clementi (Selcë) with 28 households and 250 inhabitants; and the villages ofRabiena andRadenina which, together, had 60 households and 400 inhabitants. However, it is also reported that the Kelmendi had come to occupy and absorb the plateau ofNixi (Nikç) andRoiochi, which collectively had 112 households and 660 inhabitants, following a series of incursions and attacks on the local population.[39]
In 1685,Süleyman, sanjak-bey of Scutari, annihilated the bands ofBajo Pivljanin that supported Venice at theBattle on Vrtijeljka.[40] Süleyman was said to have been aided by theBrđani (including the Kelmendi[37]), who were in feud with the Montenegrin tribes.[41] The Kelmendi lived off of plundering.Plav,Gusinje, and the Orthodox population in those regions suffered the most from the Kelmendi's attacks.[41] The Kelmendi also raided thePejë area, and they were so powerful there that some villages and small towns paid them tribute.[41] In March 1688, Süleyman attacked theKuči tribe;[42] the Kuči, with help from Kelmendi andPiperi, destroyed the army of Süleyman twice, took overMedun and got their hands of large quantities of weapons and equipment.[38] In 1692, Süleyman defeated the Montenegrins at Cetinje, once again with the help of the Brđani.[41]
In 1689 the Kelmendi volunteered in theImperial Army of the Holy Roman Empire during the Kosovo campaign. Initially they were serving Süleyman, but after negotiations with a Venetian official, they abandoned the Ottoman ranks.[43] In October 1689,Arsenije III Čarnojević allied himself with the Habsburgs, gaining the title ofDuke. He met up withSilvio Piccolomini in November, and put under his wings a large army of Serbs, including some Kelmendi. However, Noel Malcolm does not support this statement at all since he has found sources which confirms that, Arsenje III Čarnojevíc, did not meet with General Piccolomini in Kosovo, but instead Pjeter Bogdani did since he was there in the name of the Kelmendi army, he was then given the name Patriarch of Kelmendi, by the Habsburgs. Yet Noel Malcolm debates it further and comes to the conclusion that the Albanians in kosovo were kosovars, however the Kelmendi did fight at Bijelo Polje when the Austrian troops were going back north and joined their troops to Habsburgs, to raide the ottomans at their weakest the[44][45]
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In 1700, the pasha ofPejë,Hudaverdi Mahmut Begolli, resolved to take action against the continuing Kelmendi depredations in westernKosovo. With the help of other mountain tribes, he managed to block the Kelmendi in their homelands, the gorge of the upperCem river, from three sides and advanced on them with his own army fromGusinje, In 1702, having worn them down by starvation, he forced the majority of them to move to thePeshter plateau. Only the people ofSelcë were allowed to stay in their homes. Their chief had converted to Islam, and promised to convert his people to. A total of 251 Kelmendi households (1,987 people) were resettled in the Pešter area on that occasion. Other were resettled inGjilan,Kosovo. However five years later the exiled Kelmendi managed to fight their way back to their homeland, and in 1711 they sent out a large raiding force to bring back some other from Pešter too.[36]
In the 18th century, Hoti and Kelmendi assisted theKuči andVasojevići in the battles against the Ottomans; after that unsuccessful war, a part of the Kelmendi fled their lands.[46] After the defeat in 1737, under ArchbishopArsenije IV Jovanović Šakabenta, a significant number of Serbs and Kelmendis retreated into the north, Habsburg territory.[47] Around 1,600 of them settled in the villages ofNikinci andHrtkovci, where they later adopted a Croat identity.[48]
In ca. 1897, the Boga would become a fully integratedbajrak of the Kelmendi tribe.[49]
During theAlbanian revolt of 1911 on 23 June Albanian tribesmen and other revolutionaries gathered in Montenegro and drafted theGreçë Memorandum demanding Albanian sociopolitical and linguistic rights with three of the signatories being from Kelmendi.[50] 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 thenahiye of Kelmendi and pay the wages of teachers allocated to them.[50]
On May 26, 1913, 130 leaders ofGruda,Hoti, Kelmendi,Kastrati andShkreli sent a petition toCecil Burney in Shkodër against the incorporation of their territories into Montenegro.[51] BaronFranz Nopcsa, in 1920, puts the Kelmendi as the first of the Albanian clans, as the most frequently mentioned of all.[52]
By the end of the Second World War, the Albanian Communists sent its army to northern Albania to destroy their rivals, the nationalist forces. The communist forces met open resistance in Nikaj-Mertur, Dukagjin and Kelmend, which were anti-communist. Kelmend was headed byPrek Cali. On January 15, 1945, a battle between the Albanian 1st Brigade and nationalist forces was fought at the Tamara Bridge. Communist forces lost 52 soldiers, while in their retaliation about 150 people in Kelmend people were brutally killed.[53][better source needed] Their leader Prek Cali was executed.
This event was the starting point of other dramas, which took place during Enver Hoxha's dictatorship. Class struggle was strictly applied, human freedom and human rights were denied, Kelmend was isolated both by the border and by lack of roads for other 20 years, agricultural cooperative brought about economic backwardness, life became a physical blowing action etc. Many Kelmendi people fled, some others froze by bullets and ice when trying to pass the border.[54]
During Easter processions in Selcë and Vukël thekore, a child-eating demon, was burnt symbolically.[55] In Christmas timealms were placed upon ancestors' graves. As in other northern Albanian clans theKanun (customary law) that is applied in Kelmend is that ofThe Mountains (Albanian:Kanuni i Maleve).
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The region consists of six primary villages:Boga,Nikç,Selcë,Tamarë,Vermosh andVukël, all part of the Kelmend municipality. In terms of historical regions, Kelmendi neighbours andHoti neighbours areKuči, to the west, and theVasojevići to the north. In the late Ottoman period, the tribe of Kelmendi consisted of 500 Catholic and 50 Muslim households.[56] The following lists are of families in the Kelmend region by village of origin (they may live in more than one village):
The families of Dobanovići, Popovići and Perovići inSeoca inCrmnica hail from Kelmend.[57] Other families hailing from Kelmend include the Mujzići in Ćirjan, Džaferovići inBesa, and the Velovići, Odžići and Selmanovići in Donji Murići.[58] The Mari and Gorvoki families, constituting the main element of theKoći brotherhood ofKuči, hail from Vukël.[59]
InRugova,Kosovo, the majority of the modern Albanian population descends from the Kelmendi. The Kelmendifis in Rugova also include immigrant Shkreli, Kastrati and Shala families, but later is confirmed that Shala brotherhood is not related to that tribe, indeed they came from the Vukel brotherhood. A number of families of Kelmendi descent also live inPrizren andLipjan. The oldest Kelmendi families in Rugova, the Lajqi, claim descent from a Nika who settled there.[60]
Дрногорци су пристали уз Турке против Клемената и њихових савезника Врћана20), а седамдесет и две године касније, 1685. год., СулеЈман паша Бушатлија успео је да продре на Цетиње само уз припо- моћ Брђана, који су били у завади с Црногорцима.*7! То исто догодило се 1692. год., кад је Сулејман-пагаа поново изишао на Цетиње, те одатле одагнао Млечиће и умирио Црну Гору, коЈ"а је била пристала под заштиту млетачке републике.*8) 0 вери Бр- ђани су мало водили рачуна, да не нападају на своје саплеме- нике, јер им је плен био главна сврха. Од клементашких пак напада нарочито највише су патили Плаво, Гусиње и православнн живаљ у тим крајевима. Горе сам напоменуо да су се ови спуштали и у пећки крај,и тамо су били толико силни, да су им поједина села и паланке морали плаћати данак.
Марта мјесеца 1688 напао је Сулејман-паша на Куче
