Breštani
Breštani is a village in the municipality of Centar Župa, North Macedonia.
Demographics
Breštani appears in the Ottoman defter of 1467 as a village in the vilayet of Dulgobrda. The settlement had a total of 11 households and the anthroponyms recorded attest to a mixed Albanian-Slavic character, with instances of Slavicisation. According to Ottoman tahrir defters from the 1520s, 16 villages associated with Kala-i Kodžadžik had no Muslim population. However, the Muslim population increased in subsequent years. This was likely part of the Islamization of Macedonia under Turkish rule. Breštani is again recorded in the Ottoman defter of 1583 as a village in the vilayet of Dulgobrda. The settlement had grown to 107 households with 80 Muslim families. Alongside Muslim anthroponyms, which due to Islamisation sometimes appear in combination with Albanian names, mixed Slavic-Albanian names also appear, with the Albanian anthroponyms often exhibiting instances of Slavicisation.According to Jovan Hadži Vasiljević's work "Muslims of Our Blood in Southern Serbia", the village of Breštani had a population of approximately 900. More than 600 of these were Muslims. Some of the names of parts of the village are: Osoj, Cupuljčica, Asanov Pot, Grbov Kamen, Starci.
Breštani is inhabited by a Turkish speaking population consisting of Turks.
According to the 1942 Albanian census, Breštani was inhabited by 258 Muslim Albanians.
As of the 2021 census, Breštani had 104 residents with the following ethnic composition:
- Turks 101
- Persons for whom data are taken from administrative sources 3
- Turks 120