Bajrak

{{short description|Territorial unit of the Ottoman Empire}} {{other uses|Bayrak (disambiguation)}} The '''''bajrak''''' ({{langx|ota|بایراک|Bayrak}}; pronounced {{IPAc-en|b|eɪ|r|ɑː|k|}} or {{IPAc-en|b|aɪ|r|ɑː|k|}}, meaning "banner" or "flag") was an Ottoman territorial unit, consisting of villages in mountainous frontier regions of the Balkans, from which military recruitment was based.<ref>{{cite web|website=The New York Times|author=Malcolm, Noel|title=Kosovo: A Short History|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/malcolm-kosovo.html|date=August 9, 1998|accessdate=December 6, 2016}}</ref> It was introduced in the late 17th century and continued its use until the end of Ottoman rule in Rumelia. The bajrak included one or more clans. It was especially implemented in northern Albania and in parts of Kosovo (Sanjak of Prizren and Sanjak of Scutari), where in the 19th century these regions constituted the frontier with the Principality of Serbia and Principality of Montenegro. These sanjaks had notable communities of Gheg Albanians (Muslims and Catholics), Serbs and Slavic Muslims. The Albanians adopted the system into their clan structure, and bajraks endured during the Kingdom of Serbia (1882–1918) and People's Socialist Republic of Albania (1944–1992).

==Overview== The bajrak was a territorial unit of the Ottoman Empire, consisting of a group of villages,<ref name="Weekes1984">{{cite book|author=Richard V. Weekes|title=Muslim Peoples: A World Ethnographic Survey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-lZIAAAAMAAJ|date=21 December 1984|publisher=Greenwood Pub Group|isbn=978-0-313-23392-0|page=25}}</ref> from which military recruitment was organized – a "territorialized military organization."<ref name="Stahl1986">{{cite book|author=Paul H. Stahl|title=Household, Village and Village Confederation in Southeastern Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yt5mMtE-am0C|year=1986|publisher=Eastern European Monographs|isbn=978-0-88033-094-7}}</ref> The bajrak was composed of one or more clans. Several smaller clans could inhabit a single bajrak while larger clans occupied several bajrak; usually a ''bajraktar'' ("standard-bearer") led a clan, while in some cases a bajraktar led several clans or a single clan had several bajraktars.<ref name="Weekes1984"/> The Ottomans entrusted the bajraktar with providing soldiers from his bajrak in exchange for privileges, and sometimes he performed important administrative and judicial duties. The bajraktar was usually hereditary position, via paternal ancestry appointed by the Ottoman government.<ref name="Weekes1984"/> Bajraks formed loose tribal confederations; for example, the Shala joined the Shoshi.

The bajrak system existed in many mountainous ethnographic regions, such as Lumë.<ref name=Hoxha>{{cite web|last1=HOXHA|first1=Shefqet|title=BAJRAKTARËT E LUMËS|url=http://pashtriku.beepworld.de/files/Histori/histori/bajrakulumesshhoxha101007.htm|website=Pashtriku|accessdate=15 November 2015|quote=Megjithëse deri tani nuk është shpaluar ndonjë akt zyrtar i Perandorisë Osmane që ligjëronte zëvendësimin e sistemit të timarit në malësi me atë të njësive vetëqeverisëse tradicionale dhe si njësi administrative-ushtarake osmane me emrin "bajrak", ky proces mendohet të ketë nisur para shek.XVIII}}</ref>

==Aftermath== ===In Albania=== According to Enke (1955), the Dukagjin highlands was inhabited by the "''six bajraks'', Shala, Shoshi, Kir, Gjaj, Plan, and Toplan,"<ref name=Enke-1955-129-Dukagjin>Enke 1955, p. 129: "In den Bergen des Dukagjin: in Shala, Shoshi, Kir, Gjaj, Plan und Toplan."</ref><ref name=NID-1945>Naval Intelligence Division 1945: "Shala and Shoshi are closely associated, have the same occupations and characteristics, and are sometimes called one bajrak. Shala is also declared part of the Dukagjin 'clan of the six bajraks'"</ref> while according to Prothero (1973), it then included "Pulati, Shala and Shoshi, Dushmani, Toplana, Nikaj, and Merturi."<ref>The Dukajin (in the Wider sense) include the six bairaks of the Pulati, Shala and Shoshi, Dushmani, Toplana, Nikaj, and Merturi. Their territory lies between the Malzia e Mathe and the River Drin. 4. The seven bairaks of the Dukajin (in a stricter ...</ref>

===In Serbia and Yugoslavia=== In Kosovo, after the conquest by Kingdom of Serbia, the Albanians incorporated the ''bajrak'' into their clan system (known as ''fis'').<ref name="Sorensen2009">{{cite book|author=Jens Stilhoff Sorensen|title=State Collapse and Reconstruction in the Periphery: Political Economy, Ethnicity and Development in Yugoslavia, Serbia and Kosovo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V1Vi3XbXCkYC&pg=PA64|date=15 May 2009|publisher=Berghahn Books|isbn=978-1-84545-919-2|pages=64–}}</ref> The Yugoslav authorities tried to break up the feudal relations created through this system.<ref name="Sorensen2009"/><ref name="Jelavich1983">{{cite book|author=Barbara Jelavich|title=History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofbalkans0000jela|url-access=registration|accessdate=10 May 2012|date=29 July 1983|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-27458-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofbalkans0000jela/page/83 83]|quote=The basic unit was the clan, called ''fis'', which was headed by the oldest male. Associated with the fis was a territorial and political counterpart, called a bajrak (standard), which was composed of one or more clans.}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Turkish words and phrases Category:Subdivisions of the Ottoman Empire Category:Ottoman period in the Balkans Category:Military of the Ottoman Empire Category:Military recruitment