The Manatia (also Manatija) are a historical Albanian tribe (''fis'') and tribal region in the district of Lezha of northern

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

. It is one of the four traditional bajraks of the Highlands of Lezha (''Malësia e Lezhës''), alongside the

Kryezezi The Kryezezi are a historical Albanian tribe (''fis'') and tribal region in the districts of Lezha and Mirdita of northern Albania. It is one of the four traditional bajraks of the Highlands of Lezha (''Malësia e Lezhës''), alongside the Bul ...

, Vela and

Bulgëri The Bulgëri are a historical Albanian tribe (''fis'') and tribal region in the districts of Lezha and Mirdita of northern Albania. It is one of the four traditional bajraks of the Highlands of Lezha (''Malësia e Lezhës''), alongside the Krye ...

Geography

Manatia tribal territory is situated in the mountainous Highlands of Lezha, east of the city of Lezha. It is bordered by the Vela, Kryezezi and Bulgëri tribes to the east, the Mat river to the south, and the

Zadrima Zadrima is an ethnographic region situated in north-western Albania between the cities of Shkodra and Lezha, located left of the Lower Drin which eventually drains into the Adriatic Sea from near Lezha. Geography The Zadrima Plain includes vi ...

-Lezha lowlands to the west and north. Their main settlements include Manatia, Grykë-Manati, Lalm-Lukaj and Kapruell (now Prull).

History

The village of Kapruell or Prull (''Kaprul'') is recorded in the Ottoman ''defter'' of 1467 as a '' hass-ı mir-liva'' property in the

vilayet A vilayet ( ota, , "province"), also known by various other names, was a first-order administrative division of the later Ottoman Empire. It was introduced in the Vilayet Law of 21 January 1867, part of the Tanzimat reform movement initiated ...

of Dimitri Gjonima. The village had a total of five households represented by the following household heads: ''Mihail Gjonshi'', ''Gjergj Skuçi'', ''Lesh Kaqi'', ''Andrija Kurtisi'', and ''Gjin Shtepko''. Manatia first appears as the toponym and parish ''Emanatia'' in 1621 in the ecclesiastical report of Benedetto Orsini Ragusino; ''Manatia'' in 1672 and 1866, and ''Manattia'' in 1928. In the 1860s, they had an estimated population of 82 households, and 75 households in 1905. In 1918, they were recorded as having 96 households with 629 inhabitants. They joined the Mirdita tribe in 1818 along with the other three bajraks of the Lezha Highlands.

Religion

Like the rest of the tribes in the Highlands of Lezha, the Manatia are a Catholic tribe. On the left bank of the Manatia creek above Grykë-Manati, there was a Church of

Saint Michael Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...

that dated to the early 20th century.

References

Tribes of Albania {{Europe-ethno-group-stub