Lale Drekalov (Serbian Cyrillic: Дрекале; Albanian: Lala Drekali) was a vojvoda of the Kuči tribe in eastern Montenegro in the first half of the 17th century.
The memory of the event has been retained in the folk poem and song Pogibija vojvode Drekala i njegova osveta (The death of vojvoda Drekale and his revenge) that was recorded in the 1930s.
The earliest description of him is in the report of the Venetian Mariano Bolizza, who travelled in the lands of modern Montenegro and northern Albania to document possible trade routes to Istanbul.
In his report, Bolizza notes that Lale Drecalou and Nico Raizcou (Niko Rajckov) were the commanders of the Catholic Albanian Kuči (Chuzzi Albanesi) which had 490 households and 1,500 men-in-arms described as very war-like and courageous.
Marko Miljanov, himself a direct descendant of Lale Drekalov through the Popovići brotherhood, mentions that he converted after an agreement with Ruvim III, Metropolitan of Cetinje.
[8][9] As Ruvim III lived after the probable life span of Lale Drekalov, Rufim Njeguš who played a key role in the conversion of Kuči and Bratonožići to Orthodoxy is the more historically grounded alternative as Jovan Erdeljanović and Sima Milutinović Sarajlija have pointed out.
The brotherhood of Ilikovići was further diversified thus the surname disappeared, whilst Vuko because of the dispute with his half-brothers settled in Podgorica and converted to Islam, his descendants being known as Turkovići.