Shala (tribe)
[2] The tribal region is situated in northern Albania, in the valley of the river Shalë, north of the Drin and south of Theth, in the Dukagjin highlands.
Theth is made up of 10 neighbourhoods or quarters (mëhallë or lagje): Okol, Nikgjonaj, Gjelaj, Gjeçaj, Ndreaj, Ulaj, Kolaj, Grunas, Stakaj, and Nën Rreth.
The region is made up of several villages which themselves extend into separate quarters: Gimaj, Nën-Mavriq (also Dakaj), Lekaj, Abat, Nicaj, Pecaj, Breg Lumi, Lotaj, and Vuksanaj which includes Bob.
There are also good numbers of Shala in Peja (Rashiq,Raushiq and Loxhe Village), in Isniq, Lluka e Epërme and Strellç in Ulët near Deçan, in Klina, in Kopiliq near Drenica, in Rakosh and Citak near Istog.
[8] Based on archival research and the study of local oral traditions and legends surrounding the founding of the Shala as a tribe, it can be concluded that they arrived as part of a wider population movement and redistribution of peoples that occurred following the Ottoman conquests of Albanian-speaking territories in the 15th century.
According to one legend, the ancestor of the Shala was one of three brothers originally from the area of Pashtrik on the border of north-eastern Albania and south-western Kosovo.
Likewise, in this tradition the Shala appear as patrilineal kin with the Shoshi and Mirdita, formed by Zog's brothers Mark and Mir Diti.
[11] Another founding story set later on, following the departure of Zog Diti from his brothers, recounts that the sons of the ancestor Pep Vladi based in Shiroka, fell out with their father as he had taken a mistress in his old age and had a child with her outside of wedlock.
The first brotherhood to split off were the Pecnikaj who settled in Gurra e Abatit and expelled the local anas Koprati tribe from Lekajsh and the Koxhobati from Abat.
They are divided between Buçvataj, Dostanishaj, Gagu, Gjelvataj, Kapreja, Marvataj, Niklekaj, Nikushaj, Preklekaj, Xhaferaj, Camaj, Kodër Limaj, Rrogam, Radojë, and Pjeshullaj.
[13] Some oral traditions suggest that there is a distant relation between the Gimaj and Shala, with a potential common ancestor in the figure of Murr Dedi.
[15] For the Shala the process of bloodguilt due to blood feuding was restricted to males of a household that were considered fair game.
In later negotiations with the Ottomans, an amnesty was granted to the tribesmen with promises by the government to build one to two primary schools in the nahiye of Shala and pay the wages of teachers allocated to them.
[22] In 1926, Shala and Shoshi tribe again rebelled but this rebellion was suppressed by the gendarmes led by Muharrem Bajraktari and fighters from Dibra and Mat.
[25] Branislav Nušić recorded that Shala was the poorest tribe of Albania with only small exception of around 400 families who lived in village Isniq, near Deçan.
