# Kriçi

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The Kriči (Serbian Cyrillic: Кричи, Albanian: Kriçi) were an Albanian tribe that inhabited the region around the Tara river, roughly corresponding to the modern region of Mojkovac. Under similar names, the Kriči have been periodically mentioned in historical sources, geographical and ethnological literature. As other pre-Slavic tribes in the region, they eventually assimilated into the Serb ethnos. Some toponyms in Montenegro and surnames are derived from the name of this tribe.

## Etymology

Vladimir Ćorović (1885–1941) and Tatomir Vukanović (1907–1997) argued that the name derived from Thracian krisio, or Illyrian krüsi, which would according to the Albanian term kryeziu mean "dark, dark-haired or swarthy people". In Serbo-Croatian, kričiti and kriknuti means "shouting"; kričak means a "person who shouts". As such, Andrija Luburić and Mitar Pešikan presumed that the Kriči received their name from the Serbs because, supposedly, they "shouted" when they spoke. Aleksandar Loma considered possible derivation from the ethnonym of early Slavic tribe of Krivichs (via weakening of intervocalic in Zeta–Raška dialect).

## History

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Old Montenegro
Goljemadi
Herzegovina - Ragusan hinterland
Burmazi
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Kriči
Epirus/Chameria
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Spata
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Souliotes :
Law code
Kanun (Albanian customary law) :
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Drangue vs Kulshedra
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Epic poetry (Lahutë · Çifteli · Fyelli · Kângë Kreshnikësh)
Kângë majekrahi
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war dances
Sworn virgins
Kulla
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Clothing (Brez · Fustanella · Opinga · Qeleshe · Xhamadan · Xhubleta.·Çorape)
Traditional tattooing :
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They lived in the region of the Tara river, with authors such as Bogumil Hrabak and Petrit Imami including them in a wave of other Albanian pastoral migrant groups, such as the Mataruge, the Žurovići and the Burmazi, who in the 12th and 13th centuries immigrated across the Zeta to the Neretva. It is established that there were "Arbanassi (Albanian) groups" in the Tara region in 1278. During the 14th centuries, the Albanian katuns had been largely assimilated by numerous Vlach communities, who were themselves in a process of Slavicisation.
The name Kričan is mentioned as a region in the 1260 charter of Stefan Uroš I regarding the borders of the village of Prošćenje (near Mojkovac); Kričan borders the village to the north. The toponym may have given its name to the people, or vice versa. In ca. 1300 was mentioned personal name Kričan.
They several times violently fought with Drobnjaci tribe (including Kriči voivode Kalok) and were moved over Tara river. Then inhabited lands from Sutjeska to Kolašin. Their center was in Pljevlja (with local toponym Kričak between it and Bijelo Polje). In his anthropological work Drobnjak (1902), Svetozar Tomić mentioned the Španje and Kričove as the old population of Drobnjak.
Kotor documents mention Lore Kričko (Lore de Criçco) in 1326, and Kriče Vitomirov (Crice Vitomiri) in 1327. Dubrovnik archive mention Dobrija and Đurađ Nenadić from Krički (de Crizche) in 1453. In Ottoman defter from 1477 was recorded nahija Kričak, with 5 džemat (katuns), one by knez Jarosav, another on name Nikola son of Kričko, as well nahija Mataruge with 3 katuns. In 1492, in Poljica in Dalmatia was recorded David Kričković. In 1528, Nikola Grubanović Kričak from village Kruševica transcribed a Church book. In the memorial of Hilandar from 16h or 17th century is mentioned Filip Kričak and several his Kričak relatives. In 1694 in Drniš is mentioned priest Radojica Kričak, while 1762 priest Maksim Kričković.
Their tribal name remained in the anthroponomy (surname Kričković), and toponymy of lands where lived; Kričak and Kričačko polje in Sinjajevina, Kričina near Bribir, village Kričke near Drniš, another two homonymous villages near Pakrac, and Kričići near Jajce.

## Legacy

Various folk traditions have been preserved and recorded on the Kriči and their history. As concluded in Vlahović 1970, folk tradition on the Kriči is very different, although it is clear by tradition and literature that the tribe lived as an independent unit, and once in time included a relatively large area.
According to oral tradition, Kriči inhabited Jezera and Šaranci, and good part of Sinjajevina. According to Mula Joksimović of Bijelo Polje, as recorded by Petar Rudić, a folk tradition transmitted in the Joksimović brotherhood held that the Kriči descended from the Illyrians, "but today there are no more of their direct descendants". Another belief recorded by P. Rudić, likely influenced by literature, was that the Kriči may have been descendants of Saxons (Sasi) that worked in the mines of Brskovo and around Pljevlja. A. Luburić (1891–1944), describes a folk tradition of the Drobnjaci, in which they are recounted as being part of the Mataruge tribe, who after the first onrush of Slavs in Herzegovina, and death of Mataruge king Sumor in the end of the 7th or beginning of the 8th century, retreated to the areas around the Tara. Here, the Serbs gave the tribe the name Kriči, because their speech sounded like "shouting" (kričanje). The tribe accepted the name, and it spread in the middle Potarje. According to M. Peruničić and P. Čabarkapa (born ca. 1880) and confirmed by a similar tradition by B. Ćorović (born ca. 1894) and younger S. Bojović of Pljevlja, the Kriči were once a numerous tribe, living in the region of Kričak (southeast of Kosanica, while the Mataruge had only comprised one of its many brotherhood This tradition is "supported" by the fact that the region of Mataruge is smaller and taken as a peripheral part of the larger, in widest sense, Kričak region. Conversely, folk tradition in Polimlje and Potarje hold the Mataruge as unrelated to the Kriči. The locals of the Kričak region call the village of Kričak, Krčak, because it allegedly was the place of a "Greek warrior settlement".

## Annotations

* ^ Sometimes referred to as Kričkovi, Kričovi, Kričkovići or Kričani.