In his renowned travelogue Seyahatname, the 17th-century Ottoman explorer Evliya Çelebi visited Vushtrri (Turkish: Vuçitirin; Albanian: Vushtrri) in December 1660 while traveling through Kosovo. His description of the town provides valuable contemporary insight into the linguistic and ethnic situation in this important Kosovo settlement during the mid-Ottoman period.

Çelebi noted that the inhabitants of Vushtrri were “Rumelians” (people of the European part of the Ottoman Empire) and explicitly stated:

“Most of them do not speak Bosnian, but do speak Albanian and Turkish.”

This observation is significant. “Bosnian” in this context refers to the South Slavic language spoken by Serbs, Bosniaks, and other Slavic populations in the region (often called “Serbian” or “Bosnian” in Ottoman sources of the period).

Dominance of Albanian and Turkish

By highlighting that the majority of the population spoke Albanian and Turkish, and that few spoke Slavic (“Bosnian”), Çelebi’s account verifies that Albanian was the primary vernacular of the local population, alongside Turkish as the language of administration, military, and urban elite.

Limited “Slavic” presence

The remark that “most of them do not speak Bosnian” implies that Slavic-speaking communities (Serbs or others) were not dominant in the town itself at that time. If a substantial Slavic population had been present, one would expect Çelebi — known for his detailed ethnographic observations — to have noted it, as he did in other regions.

This 1660 testimony is as evidence that, in the mid-17th century, Vushtrri was primarily an Albanian-speaking town under Ottoman administration, with Turkish serving as the lingua franca of the empire.

Sources

Çelebi, Evliya. Seyahatname. Vol. 5 (or relevant volume covering Kosovo). Ottoman Turkish manuscript, 17th century. Various editions and translations.

Evliya Çelebi. Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa in the Seventeenth Century. Translated by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall. London, 1834–1850. (Standard early English translation.)

“Evliya Çelebi on Vushtrri/Vučitrn (1660).” In scholarly works on Ottoman Kosovo and Albanian history, frequently referenced from the Seyahatname (Book/Voyage covering the Rumelia region).

For the specific passage on language in Vushtrri (Vučitrn), see editions of Seyahatname describing his journey through Kosovo in December 1660.