Hoti (tribe)

Hoti is one of the seven ethnic Albanian tribes of Malësia. The tribe is located in southcentral Montenegro, on the northern shores of Lake Scutari.

Origin

The people of modern Hoti trace their genealogy back to the late fifteenth century, when settlers from Herzegovina migrated southward to escape the Ottoman invasions, and interbred (or were assimilated) with the native highlanders (who, by most accounts spoke the Albanian language.

Before 1421, much of the Malësia area was incorporated into the kingdom of Zeta which was ruled by the powerful Balša family (House of Balšić). The Balšas used the highlands of Montenegro as a sanctum for Serbian nobles seeking political asylum (as well as other Balkans who were outlawed or persecuted by the Ottoman conquerors). Sometime between 1356 and 1362 (during the reign of Balša I) and after the Balšić invasion of Shkodra) the indigenous people of Hoti abandoned the Malësia area and settled in areas such as Plav and Limaj (near Peć in the Kosovo province). The residual Hoti population, according to legend, only amounted to about seven houses.

After a long history of conflict with both the Ottomans and their (sometime) Venetian allies, the Balša dynasty went extinct in 1421, after which time a new dynasty was founded in the area by Stefan Crnojević who fixed his capital at Žabljak on the north-eastern side of Lake Scutari, and joined with his relative, the famous Scanderbeg in many campaigns against the Turks.

In the latter half og the fifteenth century (during the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans), the Slavs of Bosnia were pushed ever southward by the Turkish armies, eventually being pushed to Herzegovina by 1463. After the Turkish conquest of Herzegovina in 1476, of Albania in 1478, and the surrender of Shkodër (Skadar) by the Venetians in 1479, according to legend, a man named Keq Preka and his five sons moved southward from the Herzegovinan highlands to escape the mass migration of Slavs.

They and many of the other Albanian-speaking peoples in the Herzegovina area kept moving until they found an area where they found a population that spoke the same language as theirs (presumably a form of Gheg).

The origins of most ethnic Albanian tribes have been transmitted orally through history. There has been much disagreement as to the reliability of oral tradition in determining a people's anthropological roots (not least the debate about Albania's alleged Illyrian roots); however, the reluctance (until recently) of tribesmen to commit these oral histories to writing and the corroboration of certain theories/folktales among several sources indicates that there is at least some reliability.

The Triesh tribe, of Malsia, is considered as the younger brother of Hoti. Both in which derive from one ancestor, Keqi.

The five sons of Keq Preka are Lazar Keqi (Hoti), Piper Keqi (Piperi), the Vaso Keqi (Vasojevići), Ban Keqi (Trieshi) and Kras Keqi (Krasniqi). It is said that when Keq Preka's son, Lazar Keqi, and his son Gheg Lazari moved into the area known as Hoti, they found the area (which had been occupied previously by a tribe of people known by that name) almost completely uninhabited.

Gheg Lazari then settled the area and had four sons, who all of Hoti descends from: Junç Ghega, Gjon Gega, Lajq Ghega, and a half brother Pjeter Ghega (had a different mother). From Junç Ghega descend the Junçaj clan, from Gjon Ghega the Gjonaj clan, from Lajq Ghega the Lajçaj clan, and from Pjetër Ghega the clans of Traboini (Dedvukaj etc...)

Hoti, along with the rest of Malsia, sparked the war for Albanian Independence. At the victorious Battle of Deçiq, Ded Gjo Luli who commander of the Malsor army, was first to raise the Albanian flag on 1911 after the national hero himself, Gjergj Kastrioti.

The people of Hoti, along with the majority of Malësia, are followers of the Roman Catholic faith.

Notable Men

• Ded Gjo Luli, Commander of the Malsor army in the Battle of Deciq.
• Çun Mula
• Mark Miri
• Kolë Miri
• Zef Hoti
• Mark Gjeto Ujka
• Marash Uci
• T'Bijte e Calit
• Mul Delia
• Gjelosh Luli
• Gjelosh Frangu

Surnames of Hoti

• Junçaj
• Gjonaj
• Pepaj
• Lajçaj
• Dedvukaj (Bajraktart)
• Dreshaj
• Camaj- Vuksanlekaj, Sukuruq, Spijë
• Dushaj
• Gojçaj
• Gjelaj
• Nicaj
• Lucgjonaj
• Cunmulaj (Bajraktart)