Reka (region)

{{Short description|Geographical region in Macedonia}} {{For|the region in Metohija|Reka (Metohija)}} '''Reka''' ({{langx|mk|Река}}, {{Langx|sq|Reka}}) is a geographical region in Macedonia, which encompasses a quadrangle with Albania in the west, the town of Debar and the Mavrovo mountain, and Kičevo in North Macedonia in the east. The region is home to a demographically mixed population of Mijaks (Macedonians; Torbeši or Macedonian Muslims) and Albanians.<ref name="Bechev2009">{{cite book|author=Dimitar Bechev|title=Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ilGfCIF4Ao4C&pg=PA188|date=13 April 2009|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-6295-1|pages=188–}}</ref> The sub-regions (ethnographic/geographic regions) of Reka are ''Mala'' (Small), ''Dolna'' (Lower) and ''Golema'' (Large) or ''Gorna'' (Upper).<ref name=CTME>{{cite book|author1=Dimitrije Bužarovski|author2=Rumena Bužarovska|title=Contemporary Trends in Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Third Struga Conference|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l7v_AAAAMAAJ|year=2004|publisher=University "Sts.Kiril i Metodij", School of music, Institute for research and archiving of music (IRAM)|page=46|isbn=9789989986598}}</ref> The name '''''Reka''''' is Slavic in origin meaning "river".{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

The adjacent Lower Reka region is inhabited by Macedonian Muslims (known as "Torbeši" or "Turks" i.e. ''Muslims''), whereas a minority are Orthodox Macedonians.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} Small Reka, meanwhile, is inhabited solely by Orthodox Macedonians and the populations of Small and Lower Reka belong to the Slavic ethnographic group of Mijaks, who speak the Macedonian Reka dialect.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} In Upper Reka, Muslim Albanians have become its remaining population, after the Albanian speaking Orthodox Christians, who in the modern period self identify as Macedonians, migrated from the region.<ref name=Bechev188>{{cite book|last=Bechev|first=Dimitar|title=Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia|year=2009|location=Lanham|publisher=Scarecrow Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ilGfCIF4Ao4C&pg=PA188|page=188|isbn=9780810862951}} "Several villages in the Upper Reka subregion were, in the past, populated by Orthodox Albanian speakers who have been largely assimilated by the Slavic Macedonians."</ref><ref name=Pieroni12>{{cite journal|last1=Pieroni|first1=Andrea|last2=Rexhepi|first2=Besnik|last3=Nedelcheva|first3=Anely|last4=Hajdari|first4=Avni|last5=Mustafa |first5=Behxhet|last6=Kolosova|first6=Valeria|title=One century later: the folk botanical knowledge of the last remaining Albanians of the upper Reka Valley, Mount Korab, Western Macedonia|journal=Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine|volume=9|issue=1|year=2013|pages=2–3|doi=10.1186/1746-4269-9-22|pmid=23578063|pmc=3648429 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

In the west of Reka is the region of Lumë, which extends in both Kosovo and Albania.<ref name="Gjabri">Fejzulla Gjabri (Department of Culture of Albania), Information about the Heroic Epos in the Province of Luma</ref>

==References== {{Commons category|Reka}} {{Reflist}}

Category:Geography of Macedonia (region) Category:Debar Municipality Category:Kičevo Municipality Category:Albanian ethnographic regions