By: Nehat Hyseni.

Abstract

This article examines the historical category of the “Latins” in the region of Vranje as described in 19th–20th century Serbian historiography, particularly in the works of Jovan Hadži-Vasiljević. Through historical, onomastic, and comparative analysis, it argues that the so-called “Latins” were not a vague religious group, but Catholic Albanians who constituted an autochthonous population predating the consolidation of the Serbian Orthodox element in the area. The study demonstrates that their disappearance resulted from gradual religious, linguistic, and onomastic assimilation, intensified by state and church pressure, especially after 1878. The “Latins” thus represent a lost Albanian ethnic stratum in southern Serbia, indirectly acknowledged even in Serbian scholarly sources.

The Latins of Vranje

In Serbian historiography of the 19th–20th centuries, the term “Latins” is used to identify the Catholic population, in contrast to the Orthodox one.

In the context of Vranje and its surrounding area, Jovan Hadži-Vasiljević employs this term for a stratum of “old inhabitants”, who did not belong to the Serbian Orthodox tradition but were present prior to the consolidation of the Serbian element in this region (Hadži-Vasiljević, Vranje).

Historical, onomastic, and comparative analysis shows that these “Latins” were Catholic Albanians, part of the Albanian (Arbërian) trunk of southern Serbia.

Hadži-Vasiljević writes explicitly about this category of population:

“The Latins lived earlier in the very town of Vranje and in its surroundings.”

This description is of fundamental importance, because historically Serbs have not been Catholics, and in the Balkans the term Latins primarily refers to Catholic Albanians. Their presence in these geographical areas is attested long before the 18th century.

The autochthony of Catholic Albanians in Vranje, according to Hadži-Vasiljević, lies in the fact that he describes the Latins as “old” (stari)—a term he uses for an ancestral population, not for new settlers:

“These are old houses, which later disappeared or merged into the surrounding population.”

This formulation demonstrates their autochthony, their gradual assimilation—rather than immediate removal—from this local space, as well as the disappearance of their identity through Serbian Orthodox cultural and religious pressure.

The ethnic origin of the Latins, in comparative analysis with Presheva, Bujanovac, Eastern Kosovo, and Masurica, indicates that Catholic Albanians were spread across this entire territorial belt (Hadži-Vasiljević, Preševo, Bujanovac i Vranje).

Typical family names associated with this stratum include: Bogdan (Bogdani/Bogdanović), Gjin/Gjon/Gjonović, Lekë/Lekić, Marku/Marko/Marković, Pjetër/Petar/Petrović, Pren/Prenković, Deda/Dedić/Dedović, etc.

These names are onomastically Albanian, but in later records they appear Slavicized through the suffixes -ović / -ić.

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How did the “Latins” disappear from Vranje and its surroundings?

From Hadži-Vasiljević’s own descriptions, the main mechanisms of the disappearance of Catholic Albanians can be reconstructed:

• Religious assimilation – conversion from Catholicism to Orthodoxy through the Serbian Orthodox Church;

• Linguistic assimilation – transition from Albanian to Slavic languages and the loss of the Albanian mother tongue within 2–3 generations;

• Onomastic assimilation – Gjin → Jovan/Jovanović; Lekë → Luka/Lekić; Pjetër → Petar/Petrović; Pren → Predrag, etc.;

• Administrative and state pressure, especially after 1878, with the incorporation of Vranje into the Serbian state.

The Latins constitute evidence of a pre-Serbian Albanian stratum, and Hadži-Vasiljević himself acknowledges that they:

• were present before the Serbs,

• were not Slavs,

• disappeared as an identity.

This makes the category “Latins” a key historical testimony to the Albanian presence prior to the Serbs in Vranje.

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Comparison with analogous cases in the Balkans

The phenomenon of the Latins of Vranje is comparable to the Catholic Albanians of Niš, Toplica, as well as to Catholic Albanians of Eastern Kosovo and the Presheva Valley. In all these cases, the same historical pattern appears: presence – pressure – assimilation – disappearance (Hadži-Vasiljević, Južna Srbija).

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Conclusion

An analysis of the term “Latins” in the work of Jovan Hadži-Vasiljević clearly shows that it refers to Catholic Albanians, autochthonous in Vranje, who disappeared through a deliberate process of assimilation. Serbian historiography later absorbed them as “old Serbs.”

Therefore, the Latins of Vranje are not a neutral religious category, but rather a lost Albanian ethnic stratum, indirectly documented even by Serbian sources themselves.