Dropull (Albanian definite form: Dropulli; Greek: Δρόπολη or Δερόπολη Dropoli or Deropoli) is a municipality in Gjirokastër County, in southern Albania.

[6] The relevant attestations also include the name Adernoboli, as recorded by the Arab traveler Muhammad al-Idrisi at the end of the 12th century.

[6] Using the available literary evidence (both ancient and medieval), Kyriazis offered the following evolution; Αδριανούπολη (Adrianoúpoli) > Αdernoboli > Δερνόπολη (Dernópoli) > Δερόπολη/Δρόπολη (Derópoli/Drópoli).

[17] During the Middle Helladic period (2100-1550 BC), a double tumulus was dug out in Vodhinë, with strong similarities to the grave circles at Mycenae, showing a common ancestral link with the Myceneans of southern Greece.

The settlement was built on a strategic spot in the valley of the river Drino near the modern village of Sofratikë, 11 kilometers south of Gjirokastër.

Italian and Albanian archaeologists subsequently excavated much of the site, revealing a full amphitheater, Roman baths, and changing rooms.

During the 6th century the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, as part of his fortification plans against barbarian invasions, moved the settlement 4 kilometers southeast in the modern village of Peshkëpi, in order to gain a more secure position.

With the help of the Ottoman forces in 1382 Thomas subdued the Albanian clans of Zenebisi and Zulani in the north of Ioannina and reconquered the provinces of Dropull, Vagenitia and Vella.

[25] In terms of local religious art the end of the 16th century saw the continuation of iconographic motives of the Cretan school as witnessed in the monasteries of Driano (1583) and the Birth of the Theotokos in Dhuvjan (1594–1595).

At that time the population of Lower Dropull welcomed the advancing Greek units and provided them support in matters of food and accommodation.

[34] There is also a presence of the syneresis types, a features also seen at the nearby dialects of Delvine, Saranda, Pogon, Himara and northern Thesprotia,[34] while the uncontracted present tense prevails.

[35] In the Ottoman land-survey register (mufassal defter) of 1520 for Dropull, in the Sanjak of Avlona, the region is divided into two administrative units (nahiye); that of the core territory and the lands of the Iflaklar.

The article didn't include data for eight settlements of Upper Dropull; these are Bularat, Kërrë (Kra), Klishar, Selo, Sotirë, Llongo, Kakavijë and Dritë (Ai-Nikolla).

[38] Duka has emphasized that the task of transliterating different parts from the defter of 1520 was not easy, and required a lot of time and effort; aside of siyāḳat, this was also due to the particular thinness of the script.

Albanian personal names also appear in the Iflaklar (Vlach or Aromanian) settlements (e.g., Koshovicë, Lovinë, Vodhinë), indicating that there was an intense process of assimilation and symbiosis between the two ethno-linguistic groups of the wider region.

[36] There are a number of surnames that are clearly distinguishable as Greek, such as Papdhopullo, Dhespoti, Konturaki, Makrinudhi, Kovrallari, Nikopullo, Papapetro etc.'.

[43] For example, four household heads from Lovinë bore the surname of Zagoriti indicating their origins from the ethnographic region of Zagoria to the north of Dropull.

He attributes the presence of these forms to the significant role of Greek Orthodox Church in southern Albania in general, particularly the area of Dropull.

[45] Demiraj hesitates to favour the possibility of an early Greek presence in the area based on historical indications and onomatological features and points out that further research is needed in this field.

According to him, the only conclusion that can be drawn from such data is that the settlements of Dropull were populated by Orthodox communities, while only Aromanian villages were noticeably separated under the context of Ottoman administration.

[47] Kyriazis (2022) argues that the absence of the suffix -s does not show a lack of the Greek element, as this was quite typical in Ottoman records from areas that were undoubtedly Greek-speaking.

Both Giakoumis and Liço add, that in Ottoman mufassal defterler, such as this one, the names were given in response to the question 'whose household ...' or 'how do you call him', and the interpreter answered in the genitive or accusative cases without the suffix -s.[40][49] According to Liço, the eliding of the suffix -s in Greek names, is further corroborated when we consider undoubtedly Greek surnames in the defter, that also lack it.

[50] Liço, having studied the names of settlements and microtoponyms in the region, concluded that out of the 2,778 in total, 2,324 were Greek, 57 Slavic, 184 Albanian, 90 Turkish, and 123 unidentified.

[42] The same author also pointed to the frequency of anthroponyms that are characteristic of northern Albania (such as the name Martin or the surname Martini), and suggested that the population that bore them could have descended to Dropull from northern Albania during the first centuries of the second millennium, and could have eventually continued further south to form parts of the population of Arvanites; especially when we consider that Dropull has always been a passage from north to south..

[42] Literary evidence provided by Athanasios Psalidas at the beginning of the 19th century mentions that the settlements of Dropull are primarily inhabited by Christian Greeks.

[55] It is vacant since decades, had had only the following incumbent of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank: Josef Freusberg (1953.04.12 – death 1964.04.10), as Auxiliary Bishop of Fulda (Germany) (1953.04.12 – 1964.04.10).