Krasniqi

Krasniqi is a historical Albanian tribe and region in the Accursed Mountains in northeastern Albania, bordering Kosovo.

Krasniqi stretches from the Valbona river in the north to Lake Fierza in the south and includes the town Bajram Curri.

It borders on the traditional tribal regions of Bugjoni to the south, Gashi to the northeast, Nikaj-Mërtur to the west, and Bytyçi to the east.

[2] The main settlements of the region are the town of Bajram Curri, Bujan, Shoshan, Kocanaj, Dragobia, Bradoshnicë, Degë, Llugaj, Murataj, Margegaj, Lëkurtaj, Bunjaj.

[3] On the Kumanovo side of the Skopska Crna Gora, descendants of the Krasniqi fis were recorded in the villages of Gošince, Slupčane, Alaševce (in Lipkovo) and Ruđince (in Staro Nagoričane) in 1965.

[4] Oral traditions and fragmentary stories were collected and interpreted by writers who travelled in the region in the 19th century about the early history of Krasniqi.

Johann Georg von Hahn recorded the first oral tradition about Krasniqi's origins from a Catholic priest named Gabriel in Shkodra in 1850.

According to this account, the first direct male ancestor of the Krasniqi was Kastër Keqi, son of a Catholic Albanian named Keq who fleeing from Ottoman conquest settled in the Slavic-speaking area that would become the historical Piperi tribal region in what is now Montenegro.

According the story, the ancestors of the Krasniqi are said to have stemmed from Bosnia and migrated through Montenegro to the area of Reç, north of Shkodra.

[8] The name Kastër and its variants correspond to a settlement that appears in the Decani chrysobulls of 1330 as Krastavljane and in the defter of the sanjak of Scutari in 1485 as Hrasto.

[10] These villages were not part of the same community or the same administrative unit as other tribes of northern Albania and Montenegro like Hoti or Piperi which were in the process of their final formation at that time.

[11] The inhabitants of Kolgecaj (renamed to Bajram Curri in 1957), Lëkurtaj and Bunjaj stem from other brotherhoods that were unrelated to the Kolmekshaj, but later were included in the tribe.

[15] The Krasniqi and Nikaj lineages diverge after 1500 CE which is consistent with their origin story from the two brothers Kolë and Nikë Mekshi.

This highlights that oral traditions do not necessarily reflect "real" kinship relations, but are complex social constructs which are influenced by many different factors.