by Petrit Latifi

Between 1200 to 1424, the Serbian tsars forbade Albanian shepherds and locals from grazing their own meadows and hills in their own lands.

Stefan Vladislav forbids the Albanians from using the lands of Vranina as winter pastures in 1224

“… Whereas 80 years before, according to Miklosic (or 40 according to Novakovic), Vlladisllav, in a letter by which he donated some lands and gave privileges to the monastery of Shen-Koll of Vranina in 1224, mentions the Albanians, whom he forbids to use those lands as winter pastures”¹

This anti-Albanian and anti-Catholic policy continued. In 1234, Tsar Stephen I forbade the Albanians of using the lands of Vranina.²

“The first mention seems to me to be in a charter of Stephen I at the monastery of Saint Nicholas of Vranina on Lake Scutari in 1234. It is established that the Albanians will not be able to winter in this place”.

Queen Helena forbids Albanians from grazing their sheep in 1280

“Such elements can be found in present-day Montenegro since 1280. At that time Queen Helena gave some lands to the monastery of Shen-Koll of Vranina and forbade all big or small gentry and all the local rulers, be they Serbian, Latin, Albanian or Wallachian to use them.”³

Serbian Tsar Dusan also forbade Albanians and Vlachs from grazing their sheep in 1355

“Among such facts we should mention one which is found in a charter of Stefan Dusan which said that he gave different rights and privileges to Hilendar in Krushic and Llapceva of the present region of Llapush (Prekorupe) of their inhabitants and define the mountain boundaries of the church in Ponorc.

These places, according to the charter, were property of the church, therefore Dusan prohibited all big and small gentry, the Wallachians and the Albanians, to graze their sheep in those meadows. Another such fact, which has to do with payment of the tithes on agricultural products by the Albanian population, is found in documents of the year 1355.

In this charter, with which he gave property and privileges to the monastery of Hilendar, apart from other things, Dusan prohibited the Albanians too to graze their sheep in the meadow of the church of Ponorc, Kruscice and Llapceva (see above) and ordered that this population pay the customs duties on the wine it sold on the Knici market {present-day Klinavc)”⁴

The same occured 100 years later, where the Serbian Tsars continued to forbid Albanians from grazing their own lands. In 1424 Albanians were forbidden to graze their sheep on the lands of Vranina.⁵

According to Mary Edith Durham, “High Albania” London 1909, p. 294, Tsar Dusan persecuted Albanians based on racist grounds rather than religious. It remains indubitably clear that already in the 14th century, Tsar Dusan had an openly racist policy against Catholic Albanians.

Reference

https://archive.org/details/TheAlbaniansAndTheirTerritories/page/n135/mode/2up?q=Miklosic

1. imbid. ↩︎
2. https://www.google.se/books/edition/Revue_d_anthropologie/svmbWqgxXMsC?hl=sv&gbpv=1&dq=Albanais+Vranina&pg=PA628&printsec=frontcover ↩︎ ↩︎
3. The Albanians and their Territories, 2015. ↩︎
4. imbid. ↩︎
5. https://www.google.se/books/edition/Revue_d_anthropologie/svmbWqgxXMsC?hl=sv&gbpv=1&dq=Albanais+Vranina&pg=PA628&printsec=frontcover ↩︎ ↩︎