Malzi

Malzi
Administrative unit
Malzi is located in Albania
Malzi
Malzi
Location within Albania
Coordinates: 42°5′N 20°17′E / 42.083°N 20.283°E / 42.083; 20.283
Country Albania
CountyKukës
MunicipalityKukës
Population
 (2023)
 • Administrative unit
1,616
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal Code
8512

Malzi (Albanian pronunciation: [malzi]; Albanian definite form: Malziu), historically also known as Mali i Zi, is an administrative unit in Kukës County, northeastern Albania. It comprises the villages of Çam, Dukagjin, Gdheshtë, Kalimash, Kryemadh, Mgullë, Petkaj, Pistë, Shëmri, Shikaj, Shtanë and Spas.[1]

Malzi is also the name of a historical ethnographic and tribal region. It was traditionally one of the seven bajraks of Pukë, although geographically it lies closer to Kukës and the region of Luma.[2]

Etymology

The name Mali i Zi means "black mountain" in Albanian. The name was first recorded in 1444 in the form "opidum Dagni cum Satho et Cerna Gora vel Mali lxii". Later forms included the Italian Montagna Nera in 1515 by Gjon Muzaka, Monte Nero in a 1637 report Frang Bardhi, and Malzi in a 1671 ecclesiastical report by Shtjefën Gaspri.[2][3]

The name is traditionally associated with the black pines which once covered the surrounding mountains. Elsie also notes that it may be a loan translation or calque connected with the South Slavic term Crna Gora, likewise meaning "black mountain". The region should not be confused with Montenegro, which is also called Mali i Zi in Albanian.[2]

History

Robert Elsie records repeated conflicts between the inhabitants of Malzi and the Ottoman authorities over taxation and military conscription. Such conflicts are mentioned in 1565, 1568, 1579, 1580, 1582, 1584, 1588, 1602, 1614, 1638 and 1680.[4]

Frang Bardhi's 1637 visitation report placed Malzi on the route towards Serbia, near Spas, but did not give a population or confessional breakdown for it.[3] More detailed evidence is preserved in a boundary agreement concluded on 20 December 1638 between Benedetto Orsini, bishop of Lezhë, and Bardhi, bishop of Sapa, following instructions issued by the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith on 24 April of that year. The agreement, later printed in the acts of the Arbëni Council, assigned the churches and villages of the "land of Spas", between the rivers named in the source as Gloska and Lumi, to the Diocese of Sapa.[5]

The apostolic visitation conducted by Vicko Zmajević in 1703 recorded Malzi as a Catholic parish of 14 settlements, containing 98 Catholic households and 766 inhabitants. In the report, the parish was described as already being in serious decline: the inhabitants were said to be Christians largely in name, with little knowledge of the faith, and no intact church remained in the parish. During his visitation of the Diocese of Lezhë in 1753, Anton Kryezezi reported that more than 40 years earlier the Christian population had either left Malzi or converted to Islam. He found only the family of Antonio Gjoni and about 100 women remaining Catholic; a priest from Fand occasionally came to Gjoni's house to celebrate Mass.[6]

Later travellers recorded material remains and local memories of the former Catholic population. In a work based on travels made in the early 1870s, Russian diplomat Ivan Jastrebov wrote that Malzi's inhabitants were by then all Muslim, although former church sites were still known. He reported that the Christian cemetery beside the mosque was left undisturbed because local Muslims regarded it as the burial place of their ancestors. Jastrebov was also told that the hoxha of Dukagjin descended from the village's former priests and that priestly vestments were preserved in his house.[7] Austro-Hungarian diplomat Theodor Anton Ippen also recorded a similar local account that a Muslim hoxha still kept vestments and the missal of a former Catholic church.[8]

In 1850, Demë Simoni led fighters from Malzi in an uprising against Jusuf Beg of Pukë. Following an Ottoman punitive expedition in 1894, the region rose again under Rexhep Aga, Tahir Sinani of Kalimash and Hasan Rrahmani of Çam. The insurgents expelled Fejzulla Bey, a representative of the Ottoman government based in Pukë, from their territory.[9]

By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Malzi was a Muslim region forming one bajrak, with a population estimated at about 3,000. Its inhabitants were of mixed or polyphyletic origin. It was therefore an ethnographic region possessing a distinct history and identity rather than a fis whose members claimed descent in the male line from a single common ancestor.[8][4]

Malzi was occupied by Serbian forces in November and December 1912 during the First Balkan War. Severe fighting was reported at Spas and Flet, with losses on both sides.[9] During further fighting in spring 1913, local defenders reportedly used a cannon constructed from pear wood which fired three rounds against Serbian forces. The action was associated with Halil Mustafa, and 24 fighters from Malzi were reportedly killed.[9]

Geography

The historical region of Malzi lies on the southern side of the Drin along the former trade route between Shkodër and Prizren, west of the city of Kukës. It bordered the traditional territory of Thaçi to the northwest, Has across the Drin to the northeast, Luma to the east, Fan to the south, and Spaçi to the west.[2]

Before Albania's 2015 local government reform, Malzi was a separate commune, with Shëmri serving as its administrative centre. Under the reform Malzi became an administrative unit of the municipality of Kukës.[1]

Geology

An early geological survey of the area was conducted by Austro-Hungarian geologist Franz Nopcsa during journeys in 1903 and 1904. Around Spas and the Goska valley, Nopcsa recorded diorite, serpentinite and hornstone-bearing rocks, as well as terraces beside the Drin. He interpreted gravel deposits near Sakat, at an elevation of about 500 metres (1,600 ft), as the remains of an older river terrace.[10]

Demographics

The Austro-Hungarian census of 1918 recorded 357 inhabited dwellings, 385 households and 2,528 inhabitants in the historical tribal territory of Mali i Zi.[11]

The Albanian census of 1923 recorded 3,310 inhabitants and 576 houses in the administrative district of Mali i Zi, which then comprised 17 villages.[12]

A compilation of village-level returns from Albania's 1989 census gives 6,917 inhabitants for the territory of the later Malzi administrative unit.[13] A later academic demographic study gives a population of 5,017 at the 2001 census.[14]

In the 2011 Albanian census, the former municipality (commune) had 3,072 residents.[15] By the 2023 census the resident population had declined to 1,616, a decrease of approximately 47.4 per cent from 2011.[16]

Recorded population
YearPopulation
19182,528
19233,310
19896,917
20015,017
20113,072
20231,616

The historical figures are not strictly comparable with the modern census figures because the territorial groupings used in 1918, 1923 and by the later administrative unit differed.[11][12][1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Ligj nr. 115/2014 për ndarjen administrativo-territoriale të njësive të qeverisjes vendore në Republikën e Shqipërisë" [Law no. 115/2014 on the administrative-territorial division of local government units in the Republic of Albania] (PDF). Fletorja Zyrtare e Republikës së Shqipërisë (in Albanian). 31 July 2014. p. 6373. Retrieved 28 August 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Elsie 2015, p. 193
  3. 1 2 Bardhi, Frang (June 1637). "Report on a Visit to Puka". Texts and Documents of Albanian History. Translated by Elsie, Robert. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  4. 1 2 Elsie 2015, p. 194
  5. ↑ Concilium Provinciale sive Nationale Albanum habitum anno MDCCIII, Clemente XI Pont. Max. Albano (in Latin). Rome: Typis Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide. 1706. pp. 104–109.
  6. ↑ Bartl, Peter. "Die Kirchenzustände im türkischen Albanien: Ein geistlicher Visitationsbericht über die Diözese Alessio aus dem Jahre 1753" (PDF). Albanisches Institut (in German). p. 9. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  7. ↑ Jastrebov 1904, pp. 207–211
  8. 1 2 Ippen 1908, pp. 38–39
  9. 1 2 3 Elsie 2015, pp. 194–195
  10. ↑ Nopcsa, Franz (1905). "Zur Geologie von Nordalbanien" (PDF). Jahrbuch der k. k. geologischen Reichsanstalt (in German). 55 (1): 85–86, 121–123. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  11. 1 2 Seiner 1922, p. 111
  12. 1 2 Selenica 1923, p. 12
  13. ↑ Bespyatov, Tim. "Albania: population of administrative divisions and settlements, 1989–2023". Population Statistics of Eastern Europe and the former USSR. Retrieved 28 August 2026.
  14. ↑ Avdia, Blerta; Ngjeci, Klementina (2019). "Migracioni rruga e vetme e integrimit në botën e globalizuar—rasti Bashkia Kukës" (PDF). Studime Gjeografike (in Albanian). 21. University of Tirana, Faculty of History and Philology: 234.
  15. ↑ Population and Housing Census 2011: Kukës (PDF) (Report). INSTAT. 2013. pp. 20, 85. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  16. ↑ Albania Population and Housing Census 2023: Kukësi (PDF) (Report). INSTAT. 2024. p. 107. Retrieved 8 November 2024.

Sources

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