page_title: Gusinje
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Gusinje / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Towns of Gusinje (front) and Plav (background) in Southeastern Montenegro as seen from an airplane looking east. Lake Plav in the shadow of a clowd.
context_page_description: Gusinje is a small town in north-eastern Montenegro. According to the 2011 census, the town has a population of 1,673 and is the administrative center of Gusinje Municipality.
context_section_description: It is known that a medieval settlement was located in the territory of present-day Gusinje. Gusinje was mentioned as a caravan station on the Ragusa-Cattaro–Scutari–Peć route, in the 14th century. In historical record, Gusinje appears in 1485 in the defter of the sanjak of Scutari as a village in the vilayet of Plav, a hass-ı hümayun (imperial domain) that stood directly under the Ottoman Sultan. It had 96 households, 21 unmarried men and four widows. This is was a big settlement compared to other villages in Montenegro and northern Albania.
  Gusinje stood at the intersection of the Ottoman trade routes between northern Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo. Thus, the trade that passed through Gusinje generated much wealth for the Sultan and the Ottoman officials who were granted taxing rights. This made the trade route a constant target for the Albanian tribal community (fis) of Kelmendi, which lived along the route as they were in rebellion against the Ottomans and was plundering their trade routes. Venetian diplomat Mariano Bolizza who travelled in the region reported that at the end of 1612 the building of the fortress of Gusinje - near which the modern town developed - was completed. The location was chosen because it stands at the convergence of pathways from Kelmendi. The original location of the fort was near the village of Grnćar/Gërnçar. Modern Gusinje stands ~6 km to the west and ~10 km to the north of the routes from the Kelmendi mountains (malet e Kelmendit) to modern Sandzak. The surrounding villages to the west and south (Vusanje) are Kelmendi settlements. The fortress was built at the reguest of Sem Zaus, the Ottoman bey of Podgorica who wanted to stop the attacks of Kelmendi and to be able to travel freely in his domain. In 1614, Mariano Bolizza reported that the village had 100 households and a garrisson of 237 men under Belo Juvanin. The fortress was also designed to stop the movement of the Kuči and Triepshi tribes in the Upper Lim valley.
  In time despite Ottoman expeditions and relocations of these communities in Sandzak, Kelmendi and other tribes like Kuči, Triepshi and Shala came to form many of the historical neighbourhoods (mahalla) of Gusinje of today. Their descendants although initially Christian, willingly or forcefully converted to Islam, largely by the middle 18th century. An important family - which later developed into a brotherhood - in the development of Gusinje is that of the Omeragaj (today known as Omeragić)  from Shala who appeared in the village in the early 18th century . The different mosques of Gusinje today represent the different brotherhoods that built them. For example, the Cekaj mosque (Čekića džamija/xhamia e Cekajve) was built by the Cekaj brotherhood from Triepshi in 1687, while the New Mosque built in 1899 is known as Radončića after the Radončići brotherhood from Kuči. At the beginning of the 18th century, Gusinje was the seat of the local kadiluk. In terms of military administration, the captaincy of Gusinje was part of the Bosnia Eyalet in 1724. Central Ottoman administration collapsed in the decades to come and the Pashalik of Shkodra emerged as a regional power. The Vezir's mosque, built by Kara Mahmud Bushati in 1765 in the town center is a symbol of the Pashalik's influence in the upper Lim valley. Its downfall in 1831 brought back actual Ottoman rule. In 1852, in the register of the Kosovo Vilayet, Gusinje is recorded with 1,500 households. It was a developing town that had 350 shops, eight madrasas and five mosques. The captaincy of Gusinje in 1869 was part of the sanjak of Prizren.
  As the Ottoman Empire disintegrated in the long 19th century already in the Treaty of San Stefano, Gusinje and Plav were awarded to the independent Principality of Montenegro. Gusinje was developing as a commercial town at the time, but still remained outside properly established rule of Ottoman law. Gun ownership was widespread and Ottoman rule was difficult to enforce. This environment allowed for the existence of an effective resistance against annexation. The Albanians of Gusinje oppose
caption: Towns of Gusinje (front) and Plav (background), aerial view.
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