Peja (
Indefinite
Indefinite may refer to:
* the opposite of definite in grammar
** indefinite article
** indefinite pronoun
* Indefinite integral, another name for the antiderivative
* Indefinite forms in algebra, see definite quadratic forms
* an indefinite matr ...
Albanian
Albanian may refer to:
*Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular:
**Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans
**Albanian language
**Albanian culture
**Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
form: ''Pejë'' ) or Peć ( sr-Cyrl, Пећ ) is the fourth largest
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
of
Kosovo and seat of Peja Municipality and
Peja District
The District of Peja is one of the seven districts (the higher-level administrative divisions) of the Republic of Kosovo. It has its seat in the city of Peja.
Municipalities
The district has three municipalities and 118 other settlements
...
. It is situated in the region of
Rugova on the eastern section of the
Accursed Mountains along
Peja's Lumbardh in the western part of Kosovo.
In medieval times the city, then commonly known under its Serbian name, was the seat of the
Serbian Orthodox Church
The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches.
The majori ...
in 1346. The
Patriarchal monastery of Peć is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the
Medieval Monuments in Kosovo
The Medieval Monuments in Kosovo ( sr, Средњовековни споменици на Косову, Srednjovekovni spomenici na Kosovu; ) are a World Heritage Site consisting of four Serbian Orthodox Christian churches and monasteries which r ...
.
Under Ottoman rule the city, then commonly known under the Turkish name ''İpek'', became a district capital with mosques and civil architecture.
From the end of the nineteenth century until today, the city has been the site of nationalist aspirations and claims for both
ethnic Albanians and
Serbs, often resulting in tense inter-ethnic relations and conflict.
According to the 2011 census, the city of Peja has 48,962 inhabitants, while the municipality has 96,450 inhabitants. The municipality covers an area of , including the city of Peja and 95 villages; it is divided into 28 territorial communities.
Etymology
In
Serbian
Serbian may refer to:
* someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe
* someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people
* Serbian language
* Serbian names
See also
*
*
* Old Serbian (disambiguat ...
, ''peć'' means "furnace" or "cave", and its name is probably connected with nearby caves in the
Rugova Canyon
Rugova Canyon or Rugova Gorge ( sq, Gryka e Rugovës; sr, Руговска клисура, Rugovska klisura, italic=yes) is a river canyon near Peja in Western Kosovo, in the Accursed Mountains, close to the border with Montenegro. With a len ...
which served as hermit cells for Serbian Orthodox monks. In medieval
Ragusan documents, the Serbian name of the city (Peć, lit. "furnace") is sometimes translated as ''Forno'', meaning "furnace" in
Italian. During Ottoman rule, it was known as
Ottoman Turkish
Ottoman Turkish ( ota, لِسانِ عُثمانى, Lisân-ı Osmânî, ; tr, Osmanlı Türkçesi) was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extens ...
''İpek'' (ايپك). The
Albanian
Albanian may refer to:
*Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular:
**Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans
**Albanian language
**Albanian culture
**Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
name's definite form is ''Peja'' and the indefinite ''Pejë''. Other names of the city include
Latin ''Pescium'' and
Greek ''Episkion'' (Επισκιον). The city was first mentioned as Siparantum, by
Ptolemy in his work ''Gheographia''.
History
Early development

The city is located in a strategic position on
Peja's Lumbardh, a tributary of the
White Drin to the east of the
Accursed Mountains. The medieval city was possibly built on the ruins of ''Siparant(um)'', a Roman ''
municipium'' (town or city).
The area has the most unearthed
stelae in all of Kosovo.
Slavs (
Sclaveni and
Antes) settled the Balkans, heavily depopulated by "
Barbarians", in the 6th century. The
Byzantine Empire and the
First Bulgarian Empire
The First Bulgarian Empire ( cu, блъгарьско цѣсарьствиѥ, blagarysko tsesarystviye; bg, Първо българско царство) was a medieval Bulgar- Slavic and later Bulgarian state that existed in Southeastern Europ ...
fought for control of the area until it finally fell under full Serbian control. Between 1180 and 1190, Serbian Grand Prince
Stefan Nemanja annexed Peja with its surrounding ''
župa'' (district) of
Hvosno from the Byzantine Empire, thus establishing Serbian rule over the city of Peja for next 300 years. In 1220, Serbian King
Stefan Nemanjić donated Peja and several surrounding villages to his newly founded monastery of
Žiča. As Žiča was the seat of a Serbian archbishop, Peja came under direct rule of Serbian archbishops and later patriarchs who built their residences and numerous churches in the city starting with the church of Holy Apostles built by archbishop
Saint Arsenije I Sremac. After the Žiča monastery was burned by the
Cumans in the 1290s, the seat of Serbian archbishop was transferred to a more secure location, the
Patriarchal Monastery of Peć.
The city became a major religious center of
medieval Serbia under the Serbian Emperor
Stefan Dušan, who made it the seat of the
Serbian Orthodox Church
The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches.
The majori ...
in 1346. It remained the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church until the abolition of the
Serbian Patriarchate of Peć in 1766.
Ottoman Empire

Peja came under
Ottoman rule after its capture in 1455. In Turkish, the town was known as ''İpek''. The town became the center of the
Sanjak of İpek (or Dukagjin), governed by Mahmut Pasha Dukagjini as its first ''
sanjakbey'' (lord). The Sanjak of Dukagjin had four ''
kazas'': Peja,
Gjakova,
Gusinje and
Berane.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, Orthodox
Albanians
The Albanians (; sq, Shqiptarët ) are an ethnic group and nation native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, culture, history and language. They primarily live in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Se ...
formed the majority of the region's population whereas
Slavs
Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...
formed a minority. The Slavs had arrived during the period of
Serbian rule in Kosovo through the
Middle Ages as colonists from Slavic regions north of
Kosovo or as a stratum of the ruling class. In the Ottoman defters of the time, there existed a designation for new arrivals to the region; in the region of Peja and Suhogërla, new arrivals existed within about a third of the villages, with their anthroponomy indicating that only 4 of these new 180 arrivals had Albanian names, whereas the rest had characteristically Slavic names. This suggests that an arrival of a Slavic element to the northeast of the
Sanjak of Shkodra
The Sanjak of Scutari or Sanjak of Shkodra ( sq, Sanxhaku i Shkodrës; sr, Скадарски санџак; tr, İskenderiye Sancağı or ''İşkodra Sancağı'') was one of the sanjaks of the Ottoman Empire. It was established after the Otto ...
occurred during the 15th-16th centuries, and the absence of this trend in the rest of the Sanjak of Shkodra indicates that these Slav populations hailed from Slavic-inhabited regions outside of Peja itself. In 1582, Ottoman cadastral records indicated that 23 villages in the Nahiya of Peja were inhabited by an Albanian majority due to the dominance of Albanian anthroponomy amongst its inhabitants; 85 villages had mixed Albanian-Slavic anthroponomy, and the rest contained almost exclusively Slavic anthroponomy. The villages with a certain Albanian majority were ''Osak (Usak), Kramor, Ljepovaç, Trakagjin, Strelec, Romaniça, Sredna Çirna Goi, Nivokas, Temshenica, Trepova pole, Novasel, Dobri Lipari, Boshanica, Brestovac, Baç (Beç), Tokina pole, Novasel (another Novasel), Dujak, Dobroshi i Madh, Vraniq, Mraç or Çirna Potok, Dolina Çirna Goi'' and ''Preloniça''. The documentation of Albanians in Peja at the end of the 15th centuries - which coincides with the very beginning of
Ottoman rule in Kosovo - presupposes that the Albanians of Peja were early inhabitants of the region. By the 1582
Defter
A ''defter'' (plural: ''defterler'') was a type of tax register and land cadastre in the Ottoman Empire.
Description
The information collected could vary, but ''tahrir defterleri'' typically included details of villages, dwellings, household ...
, the city of Peja itself had been significantly Islamised - several cases exist where Muslim inhabitants have a blend of Islamic and Albanian anthroponomy (such as the widespread Deda family - ''Rizvan Deda, Haxhi Deda, Ali Deda...''). The Muslim neighbourhoods include ''Xhamia Sherif, Sinan Vojvoda, Piri bej, Ahmed Bej, Hysein, Hasan Çelebi, Mustafa bej, Mahmud Kadi, Orman, Kapishniça, Mesxhidi Haxhi Mahmud, Bali bej'' and ''Çeribash''. The Christian neighbourhoods include ''Gjura Papuxhi, Nikolla (abandoned), Nikolla Vukman (abandoned), Andrija (abandoned)'' and ''Olivir''. The inhabitants of the two Christian neighbourhoods - ''Olivir'' and ''Gjura Papuxhi'' - had a blend of characteristically Albanian and Slavic/Orthodox anthroponomy.
In 1835 the Albanian population supported by other Albanian rebels from Shkodra took over the town from the Ottomans.
The Albanian nationalist organization
League of Peja established in 1899 was based in the city. The organization, led by
Haxhi Zeka, adopted the character of the earlier
League of Prizren to defend the rights of Ottoman Albanians and seek autonomous status within the empire. After an armed clash with Ottoman forces in 1900 the organization ended its operations.
Modern period

Ottoman rule came to an end in the
First Balkan War of 1912–13, when
Montenegro took control of the city on 28 October 1912. On 8 January 1916, during
World War I,
Austria-Hungary took the city. Peja was taken by Serbian forces on 17 October 1918. After World War I, the city became part of
Yugoslavia (at first officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes). Between 1931 and 1941 the city was part of
Zeta Banovina.
During
World War II Peja was occupied by the Italian puppet state of