Dukagjin Highlands

Dukagjin Highlands[a] (Albanian: Malsia E Dukagjinit) is a mountainous region in northern Albania, east of Shkodra and north of the Drin.

To the west lies the Malësia tribal region, which includes the tribes of Hoti, Kastrati, Kelmendi and Shkreli.

[5] The important Via de Zenta, a trade route connecting the Adriatic with Nemanjić' Serbia (see Serbian Grand Principality, Kingdom, Empire), crossed this region; It started from the mouth of the Buna, the Shkodër (Skadar) port, (alternatively Bar then Cetinje) along the Drin Valley to Prizren, then to Lipjan, then through Novo Brdo to Vranje and Niš.

On 2 June 1403, the Venetian Senate confirmed Goranin, Damjan and Nenad of the Dushmani family the rule of Pilot.

Visiting Theth in the early 20th century, the traveller Edith Durham said:I think no place where human beings live has given me such an impression of majestic isolation from all the world.

After the Treaty of London in May, 1913, the Great Powers recognized the independence of the Principality of Albania and appointed German Wilhelm Friedrich Heinrich as monarch.

[14][15] According to Prothero (1973), "The Dukagjin (in the Wider sense) include the six bajraks of the Pulati, Shala and Shoshi, Dushmani, Toplana, Nikaj, and Merturi.

[15] Lekë Dukagjini's Kanun, a set of customary laws, are still today applied in the following regions of Albania: Lezha mountains, Mirditë, Shala-Shoshë and Nikaj-Mertur.

[17] A pagan tradition in Dukagjin and Malesia e Vogel was Shen Verbti ("the holy blind one"), the god of hailstorms who lived in the clouds.

Die Dukagjin anerkannten Venedigs Herrschaft über Dagno, und "kamen freudigen Sinnes zu Übergabe und Gehorsam an die Dogenherrschaft von Venedig noch eifriger zu deinen als dem Herrn Leke Zaharia".