Gjilan is the third largest city in Kosovo and the seat of Gjilan Municipality and Gjilan District.
Mullah is an honorific title for Shia and Sunni Muslim clergy and it is also an honorific title for a Muslim mosque leader. The term is also sometimes used for a person who has higher education in Islamic theology and sharia law.
Viti or Vitina is a town and municipality located in the District of Gjilan in Kosovo. According to the 2011 census, the town of Viti has 4,924 inhabitants, while the municipality has 46,987 inhabitants.
The Albanians of Kosovo, also commonly called Kosovo Albanians, Kosovan Albanians or Kosovars, constitute the largest ethnic group in Kosovo.
Hasan bey Prishtina,, was an Ottoman, later Albanian politician, who served as the 8th prime minister of Albania in December 1921.
Islam in Kosovo has a long-standing tradition dating back to the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. Before the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the entire Balkan region had been Christianized by both the Western and Eastern Roman Empire. From 1389 until 1912, Kosovo was officially governed by the Muslim Ottoman Empire and a high level of Islamization occurred among Catholic and Orthodox Albanians, mainly due to Sufi orders and socio-political opportunism. Both Christian and Muslim Albanians intermarried and some lived as "Laramans", also known as Crypto-Christians. During the time period after World War II, Kosovo was ruled by secular socialist authorities in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). During that period, Kosovars became increasingly secularized. After the end of Communist period religion had a revival in Kosovo. Today, 95.6% of Kosovo's population are Muslims, most of whom are ethnic Albanians. There are also non-Albanian speaking Muslims, who define themselves as Bosniaks, Gorani and Turks.
Albanians in Serbia are a recognized national minority in Serbia. According to the 2022 census, the population of ethnic Albanians in Serbia is 61,687, constituting 0.9% of the total population. The vast majority of them live in the southern part of the country that borders Kosovo and North Macedonia, called the Preševo Valley. Their cultural center is located in Preševo.
Idriz Seferi was an Albanian leader and guerrilla fighter (rebel). During his 56 year military career, he fought in 35 battles. A member of the League of Prizren and League of Peja, he was the right-hand man of Isa Boletini, with whom he organized the 1910 Uprising against the Ottoman Empire in the Kosovo Vilayet. After the suppression of the uprising, Seferi continued warfare, in the 1912 Uprising. In the First Balkan War, Boletini and Seferi rose up against Serbia, with whom they had previously been allies to during the 1910 and 1912 Uprisings, and continued to attack Serbian posts in the subsequent occupation and initial phase of World War I (1913-1915). In the second phase of the war (1916-1918), he led troops against Bulgarian forces.
Skopska Crna Gora or Karadak Mountains, often called simply Crna Gora, is a mountain range and ethnographic region in North Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia. The highest peak is Ramno 1,651 m (5,417 ft) in Macedonia. The largest town on the mountain is Kučevište in North Macedonia.
A muftiate is an administrative territorial entity, mainly in the post-Soviet states, under the supervision of a mufti. In the post-Yugoslavia states, spiritual administrations similar to the muftiate are called riyasat.
Nijazi Ramadani is a Kosovar Albanian poet, novelist and literary critic.
The Islamic Community of Kosovo, is an independent religious organization of Muslims in Kosovo and the Preševo Valley. The community's headquarters are located in Pristina and their current leader, the Grand Mufti, is Naim Tërnava.
The persecution of Eastern Orthodox Christians is the religious persecution which has been faced by the clergy and the adherents of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Eastern Orthodox Christians have been persecuted during various periods in the history of Christianity when they lived under the rule of non-Orthodox Christian political structures. In modern times, anti-religious political movements and regimes in some countries have held an anti-Orthodox stance.
Limon (Aslan) Staneci (1916–1991) was a Journalist, Anti-communist and Balli Kombëtar member, born in Stanevce, Preševo in the Karadak Mountains of Yugoslavia.
Mullah Jakup Kardović was a Muslim cleric and during WWII a commander of a detachment of the Muslim militia in Rožaje, his native region. In November 1941, Kardović distinguished himself during the Battle for Novi Pazar, when he defended the city against the attacking Chetniks.
Kosovo is the birthplace of the Albanian nationalist movement which emerged as a response to the Eastern Crisis of 1878. In the immediate aftermath of the Russo-Ottoman war, the Congress of Berlin proposed partitioning Ottoman Albanian inhabited lands in the Balkans among neighbouring countries. The League of Prizren was formed by Albanians to resist those impositions. For Albanians those events have made Kosovo an important place regarding the emergence of Albanian nationalism. During the remainder of the late Ottoman period various disagreements between Albanian nationalists and the Ottoman Empire over socio-cultural rights culminated in two revolts within Kosovo and adjacent areas. The Balkan Wars (1912–13) ending with Ottoman defeat, Serbian and later Yugoslav sovereignty over the area generated an Albanian nationalism that has become distinct to Kosovo stressing Albanian language, culture, and identity within the context of secession from Serbia. Pan-Albanian sentiments are also present and historically have been achieved only once when part of Kosovo was united by Italian Axis forces to their protectorate of Albania during the Second World War.
The Insurgency in Karadak–Gollak, also known as the War in Eastern Kosovo, was series of Albanian riots in the Karadak and Gollak with spillover into the Anamorava regions directed firstly against the Bulgarian, German and Italian occupation which started in 1941 after the Invasion of Yugoslavia and later against the Yugoslav Partisans, who were trying to take over the region.
Sulë Hotla, was an Albanian rebel, VMRO member and a military leader of Balli Kombëtar, who led the Karadak-Gollak Uprising against Yugoslav and Macedonian Partisans in the Kumanovo Karadak region.
Mulla Jakup Asipi was an Albanian Mullah and commander of the NLA. He was one of the most important religious personalities among the Albanian Muslims. His multimedia appearance in the last 25 years, especially after the 90s, has directly influenced the awareness of the Karadak region, both in terms of the Islamic religious and the national and patriotic aspects.
The FirstBattle of Preševo or Battle of Eid al-Fitr was a battle fought on Eid al-Fitr, on 19 September 1944 during World War II, between Yugoslav Partisans and Balli Kombëtar forces, in the territory of the Kingdom of Bulgaria.
