Written by Petrit Latifi
Besim Agić reports that Kurt-aga was an Arnaut who was educated in Sarajevo. At the time when the Arnauts were inciting against the Ottoman Empire. Kurt-aga asked for permission to return to his homeland and to influence the rebellions to calm down. After pacifying the rebels, he married from Đakovica. After that, he received a request to come to Trgovište (Rožaje) and reconcile the feuding Nokića and Dazdarevića in blood. After he settled them, he displaced them from the city to the villages. He stayed to live in Rožaj and had four sons: Adem (Ademagići), Nuha (Kurtagići), Ćat (Ćatovići) and Aga (Agovići).
Agovići tribe
Version I: Since ancient times, there has been a legend that the Rožaje brotherhoods of Agović, Kurtagić, Ademagić and Ćatović had the same father, Aguši Agoli, who came to Rožaje from northern Albania during the Ottoman era with his four sons: Aga, Kurt, Adem and Ćat. In northern Albania, the Kliment tribe, which was Catholic before Islam, was defeated after fierce clashes with the Ottoman army and forced to leave their lands or pay tribute.
They were expelled to the Pešter region plateau that was completely uninhabited and into the sparsely populated Rožaje region, across Peć and Kaluđerski Laz. At that time, Rožaje was called Trgovište. Aguši Agoli (alb. Agush Agolli) and his sons built four houses made of logs and stone.
Ago settled on the left bank of the Ibar in the area of the mouth of the Ibar River, Adem in the area of the mouth of the Lovnička River, and Kurto and Ćato on the right bank of the Ibar River below the Laništa plateau, so these four brothers can be counted as the first founders of the development of the city of Rožaje.
Ago had nine sons, Kurto seven, Adem three and Ćato two sons. All of them were fighting spirited and skilled in handling sabers, and so they quickly found service in the light Ottoman cavalry. Four of Ago’s sons, three of Kurt’s, two of Adem’s and one of Ćato’s sons, acquired the title of aga. The brotherhood’s estates soon expanded, so that even today some bear the names Agov do, Agovska brda, the settlement of Agovići, etc.
According to tradition, some Rožaje residents sent verses to the Sultan about the seizure of the aforementioned estates: “The chicken is chirping from the shell, it must not be carried out, because Ago and his nine sons will eat him too”. Ago’s nine sons built nine houses surrounded by walls that had an entrance gate in the east and an exit gate in the west, which were open until the end of the evening prayer.
Today, the descendants of the above-mentioned brothers bear the surnames: Agovići, Kurtagići, Ademagići and Ćatovići. The first brothers Agovići and Kurtagići performed tasks related to carrying and using weapons, and Ademagići and Ćatovići performed most of the administrative work and maintenance of the military station in Rožaje.
Small and large livestock were collected from the surrounding villages, from Pešteri and Berane to Rožaje, and driven to Istanbul in jelepis. As we have said, armed escorts were mainly provided by Agovići and Kurtagići, while the Čipči were the cattle drivers. The vast green expanses and pastures of Sandžak were used by hundreds of thousands of sheep and cattle, which is why the Rožaje proverb “If Istanbul were to burn down, Rožaje could rebuild it with its natural wealth” was born.
This proverb was used until the Turks left this area. In spring and autumn, Rožaje workers transported dry timber down the swollen Ibar River all the way to present-day Kosovska Mitrovica and Kraljevo. The last Agović in Ottoman service was r. Ćerim-aga Agović, who spent more than thirty years in military service. He married twelve times, but had no children with any of his wives.
Two brothers from the Klimente tribe, Ago and Jonuz, moved from Selce to Rožaje. Ago settled on the left bank of the Ibar River, near Klekovača. They were wealthy and built a tower. The tower provided refuge for the outlaws, so the Pasha of Prizren sent an army. Fierce resistance was offered from the tower, during which 16 Ottoman soldiers were killed. When they finally took the tower, they captured 60 outlaws led by Ago and Jonuz.
The Skadar kadi sentenced the outlaws to 100 years in prison each, and their leaders, Ago and Jonuza, to hanging. However, they were the Pasha’s uncles, so she threatened that the Pasha would poison someone close to him if he executed them. The Pasha issued a new verdict, that Ago and Jonuz must be ransomed with their weight in gold. Ago sold off all his property and was again short of 5 gold coins.
The Pasha forgave him the remaining debt and released him and his brother. Most of the remaining outlaws died in the Skadar dungeons. The Ottomans destroyed the Agović Tower.
History
Livnjak Salih Guso told an interesting story related to the Agići and Čaići, one of whose young men tried to rape a Christian girl in the Livno area around 1840. He also stole the braid from her dress. Zaim Sultanović, the renegade commander of the cavalry cavalry in Livno, decided to punish Agići for this crime: “The group got up and went straight to Ćehajići, where the Agići’s hut was, to punish them for the sin they had committed.
Zaim the harambaš ordered the Arnauts to watch when the gates would be opened. And in the evening, when the shepherds were letting the sheep in, he and his friends broke into the courtyard. There he met a young woman who, with a milking bowl in her hand, had gone to milk the sheep. He warned her to be quiet and, unnoticed, flew up to the ring, where he found the three Agići brothers and their mother.
The group tied the hands of all three of them upside down, and the harambasha ordered the old woman to bring the treasure. She brought some ducats and swore that she had no more. But that didn’t help, because the bandits put a hot iron on her head, and when her hair started to burn, she brought more ducats. The bandits weren’t satisfied with that either, they asked for more, expecting her to bring them the looted braids.
So they repeated their terrible experiment, after which the old Agićka found more money, and there were the braids she had been looking for. Having received the braids, the harambasha asked: Who did this to Rimč’s girl? Two brothers charged at the third, and the Arnauts drew their swords and cut off the heads of one and then the other, and when they were about to attack the third, Toto, furious and with a bare sword in his hand, stood in their way, shouting: Poor things, are you going to destroy the tribe?! With that, Toto saves Agić
tribe, which later died out.
Ismet Azizi writes his theories of the families on Kosovapersanxhakun.com:
“The person tested undoubtedly comes from the Klimenti tribe. They were concentrated in villages in northern Albania along the Sandžak border.“
Read more about the E-Z16988 clan and the Klimenti tribe here: Kurtagići from Rožaje (200 years ago?) Legends: Family tradition:
“Version II – The Kurtagićs are descendants of a soldier who settled in Rožaje from Bosnia.
Besim Agić:
Version III – Kurt-aga was an Arnaut who was educated in Sarajevo. At a time when the Arnauts were stirring up incitements against the Ottoman Empire. Kurt-aga asked for permission to return to his homeland and influence the rebellions to calm down. After he had pacified the rebels, he married a man from Đakovica. After that, he received a request to come to Trgovište (Rožaje) and reconcile the feuding Nokići and Dazdarevići. After he had reconciled them, he moved them from the city to the villages. He remained to live in Rožaje and had four sons: Adema (Ademagići), Nuha (Kurtagići), Ćata (Ćatovići) and Aga (Agovići).”
References
https://kosovapersanxhakun.org/porijeklo-porodice-kurtagic-iz-rozaja/
Balkan Academia 