[citation needed] Proper Gegnia (the land of the Gegë) is located north of the Shkumbin river along its right bank and extends up to modern border between Mat and Mirdita, where Leknia begins.

For example, the people of the Dukagjin highlands when asked about their regional appellation would reply na nuk jemi gegë, gegët janë përtej maleve (we are not Gheghs, the Ghegs live beyond the mountains).

According to the writer Arshi Pipa, the term Gegë was initially used for confessional denotation, being used in pre-Ottoman Albania by its Orthodox population when referring to their Catholic neighbors.

[21][22] The Ghegs of Northern Albania are one of only two tribal societies which survived in Europe until the middle of the 20th century (the other being the Montenegrin highlanders in Montenegro and southern Serbia).

[23] The tribal organization was based on the clan system of loyalties, and the dispersed settlement pattern of separate, scattered, mostly fortified homesteads.

[24] There are several distinct tribal groups of Ghegs which include Mirëdita, Kelmendi, Palabardhi, Kuqi, Vasajt, Hoti, Kastrati, Berisha, Krasniqi and Shala.

[24] Among Gheg Malësors (highlanders) the fis (clan) was headed by the oldest male and formed the basic unit of tribal society.

They are characterized by round, hyper-brachycephalic heads, long faces, broad chests, robust builds, convex-shaped noses, and flat skulls.

[22] In areas of Albania where Malësors (highlanders) lived, the empire only posted Ottoman officers who had prior experience of service in other tribal regions of the state like Kurdistan or Yemen that could bridge cultural divides with Gheg tribesmen.

[56] The Great Eastern Crisis resulted in Albanian resistance to partition by neighbouring powers with the formation of the Prizren League (1878) which issued a Kararname (memorandum) that declared both Ghegs and Tosks had made an oath to defend the state and homeland in the name of Islam.

[60] Ottoman officials initially assisted Gheg Albanians in their efforts to resist incorporation of their lands into Serbia, Montenegro or Bulgaria.

[62] Calls for an autonomous united Albania made sultan Abdul Hamid II suppress the League of Prizren movement, especially after Gheg Albanians revolted in 1881 and posed a military challenge to Ottoman authority.

[63] Large parts of Gegënia posed a security problem for the Ottoman Empire, due to the tribalism of Gheg society and limited state control.

[64] Gheg freedoms were tolerated by Abdul Hamid II and he enlisted them in his palace guard, integrated the sons of local notables from urban areas into the bureaucracy and co-opted leaders like Isa Boletini into the Ottoman system.

[64] During the Young Turk Revolution (1908) some Ghegs were one group in Albanian society that gave its support for the restoration of the Ottoman constitution of 1876 to end the Hamidian regime.

[65] Subsequent centralising policies and militarism toward the Albanian Question by the new Young Turk government resulted in four years of local revolts by Ghegs who fought to keep tribal privileges and the defense system of kulas (tower houses).

During World War II, Heinrich Himmler personally oversaw the recruitment of Albanian Muslims into the Waffen-SS, leading to the creation of the 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg.

For this division, Himmler specifically targeted Ghegs, mainly from Kosovo, but also from northern Albania, influenced by claims made during the Italian occupation.

Himmler admired the Ghegs for what he perceived as their toughness, loyalty, and military potential, and saw them as a modern reflection of the elite Bosnian regiments of World War I.

Furthermore, Himmler strongly supported the concept of a “Greater Albania” as it aligned with Nazi geopolitical goals in the Balkans and helped to foster loyalty among Albanian recruits.

[71] At the end of World War II, communist forces predominantly composed of Tosks captured Albania after the retreat of the Wehrmacht.

[76] This change was accompanied by a long-lasting fear that the introduction of "too-liberal" Albanians from Kosovo might disturb the fragile balance between the Tosk and Gheg sub-ethnic groups.

[77][78] After the fall of the communist regime, religion was again the major factor which determined social identity, and rivalry between Ghegs and Tosks re-emerged.

[84] In 1998 Berisha exploited the traditional Gheg—Tosk rivalry when he encouraged armed anti-Government protesters in Shkodër in actions that forced the resignation of prime minister Fatos Nano.