Besides Debar, the territory of the Sanjak of Dibra included part of northern Albania, namely Krujë and areas between the Mat and Black Drin rivers.

These tribes, known as malësorët (highlanders), were mostly Muslim, and governed themselves according to the Kanun, a set of traditional Albanian laws codified by Skanderbeg.

One of the most prominent of the Mati families were the Zogolli, who are most notable for being the clan from which Ahmed Zogu, future king of Albania, was descended.

[11] The sanjak became well-connected with the rest of the Monastir Vilayet, and in period before its dissolution, more than half of its imports came from Skopje and a quarter from Bitola.

Despite this, in 1912 Independent Albania was declared at the All-Albanian Congress, and it petitioned the London Conference of 1913 for recognition on the basis of the ethnic rights of Albanians, but its claims of wider sovereignty were ignored.