Piperi (tribe)
Its author writes that the Bratonožići, Piperi, Bjelopavlići and Kuči:" nulla di meno essegno quasi tutti del rito serviano, e di lingua Illrica ponno piu presto dirsi Schiavoni, ch' Albanesi " (since almost all of them use the Serbian rite and the Illyric (Slavic) language, soon they should be called Slavs, rather than Albanians).
In the defter of 1497, there are several kin groups in the region of Piperi, which appears as a distinct nahiya divided in three timars under local Christian Ottoman spahis.
The settlements of Piperi in 1497 were Luška Župa (now Crnci),[18] Drezga, Zavala, Dobriko, Mrke, Hrasnica, Bjelice, Duga, Brestica (river near Spuž), Rječica, Strahalić, Moračica, Radušev Do and Drenovica.
Prince-Bishop Petar I (r. 1782-1830) waged a successful campaign against the bey of Bosnia in 1819; the repulse of an Ottoman invasion from Albania during the Russo-Turkish War led to the recognition of Montenegrin sovereignty over Piperi.
[28] A civil war broke out in 1847, in which the Piperi, Kuči, Bjelopavlići and Crmnica sought to confront the growing centralized power of new prince of Montenegro; the secessionists were subdued and their ringleaders shot.
[30] A conspiracy was formed against Danilo, led by his uncles George and Pero, the situation came to its height when the Ottomans stationed troops along the Herzegovinian frontier, provoking the mountaineers.
[30] Some urged an attack on Bar, others raided into Herzegovina, and the discontent of Danilo's subjects grew so much that the Piperi, Kuči and Bjelopavlići, the recent and still unamalgamated acquisitions, proclaimed themselves an independent state in July, 1854.
[30] Petar II Petrović-Njegoš founded the police force (gvardija) throughout the Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro, as part of his transformation from a tribal federation to a proper state; 26 existed in Piperi.
From the 19th century onwards, oral traditions and fragmentary stories were collected by writers and scholars who travelled in the region, about the early history of Piperi.
According to it the first direct male ancestor was a certain Keq, a Catholic Albanian who fled from Ottoman conquest and settled in a Slavic-speaking area that would become the historical Piperi region.
[34] About half a century later, the ethnologist Jovan Erdeljanović travelled to the region and made multiple surveys of the tribe in which he recorded many of its customs and traditions.
According to the oral tradition, after the fall of the Serbian Despotate in the 15th century, one nobleman called Gojko, with his family, left southern Serbia and came to Morača.
Erdeljanović identified that the oral tradition originated from the Lutovci, the most important part of the tribe, and concluded that they were newcomers who stelled in the area after the fall of the Despotate.
[35] Erdeljanović also stated that the four main bratstva (brotherhoods) from the Rogami region, the Rajkovići, Stamatovići, Vučinići and Vukanovići, had become pobratim (blood brothers) and that they all celebrate the slava of Archangel Michael.
[40] However, since the breakup of Yugoslavia, the main part of people living in the Piperi area identify themselves as Montenegrins, with a small majority of them supporting the independence of Montenegro.
