Scutari vilayet
The Vilayet of Scutari, Shkodër or Shkodra was a first-level administrative division of the Ottoman Empire that existed from 1867 to 1913, located in parts of what today is Montenegro and Albania. In the late 19th century it reportedly had an area of. It bordered the Principality of Montenegro, the Kosovo vilayet, the Manastir vilayet, and the Janina vilayet.
History
The Scutari Vilayet was established in 1867. The Sanjak of Scutari was established when Ottoman Empire acquired Shkodra after the Siege of Shkodra in 1478–79. A big part of Principality of Zeta was added to territory of Sanjak of Scutari in 1499. In 1514 this territory was separated from the Sanjak of Scutari and established as separate Sanjak of Montenegro, under the rule of Skenderbeg Crnojević. When he died in 1528, the Sanjak of Montenegro was merged into the Sanjak of Scutari, as a unique administrative unit and with a certain degree of autonomy.In 1867, the Sanjak of Scutari merged with the Sanjak of Skopje and became the Scutari Vilayet. Its sanjaks were Sanjak of Scutari, Prizren, and Sanjak of Dibra. In 1877, Prizren passed to the Kosovo Vilayet and Dibra passed to the Monastir Vilayet, while Durrës township became the Sanjak of Durrës. After the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) Bar, Podgorica, İşpozi and Zabyak townships were ceded to Montenegro in 1878. Also Ülgün one was ceded to Montenegro in 1881.
In the late Ottoman period, unlike in other areas of the empire, Albanian Catholics in Scutari vilayet had access to emerging Albanian language schooling, subsidized by Austria-Hungary. Local Catholic clergy were also involved in developing mostly religious Albanian literature, aimed at preserving and strengthening the Roman Catholic faith in the region. Due partly to the location of being near the border with Montenegro the state exempted the townspeople of Scutari from regular military service and unlike other urban dwellers within the empire they paid fewer taxes.
Ottoman control mainly existed in the few urban centres and valleys of the vilayet and was minimal and almost non-existent in the mountains, where Malisors lived an autonomous existence according to kanun (tribal law) of Lek Dukagjini. Disputes would be solved through tribal law within the framework of vendetta or gjakmarrja (blood feuding) and the activity was widespread among the Malisors, while Ottoman officials strongly disproved of the practice. Nineteen percent of male deaths in Scutari vilayet were caused by murders due to vendetta and blood feuding during the late Ottoman period. Malisors viewed Ottoman officials as a threat to their tribal way of living and left it to their bayraktars to deal with the Ottoman political system.
The Malisors lived in three geographical regions within İşkodra sanjak. Malësia e Madhe with its religiously mixed Catholic-Muslim five large tribes and seven smaller tribes; Dukagjin Highlands with seven Catholic tribes such as the Shala, Shoshi, Toplana, Nikaj; and Mirdita
Administrative divisions
Sanjaks of the Vilayet:Demographics
During the 1880s, the population of İşkodra vilayet ranged between 200,000 and 300,000 people, split between the two sanjaks of İşkodra and Dıraç. Albanians were the main ethnicity in the vilayet consisting more than 90 percent of the population.Ottoman-Albanian intellectual Sami Frashëri during the 1880s estimated the population of Shkodër as numbering 37,000 inhabitants that consisted of three-quarters being Muslims and the rest Christians made up of mostly Catholics and a few hundred Orthodox.