page_title: Serbo-Montenegrins in Albania
section_title: Medieval Period
hierarchical_section_title: Serbo-Montenegrins in Albania / History / Medieval Period
caption_attribution_description: English: Icon of Saint Jovan Vladimir, from the Ardenica Monastery in Albania. The saint is depicted as sitting on a throne in the central rectangle, surrounded by scenes of his life and miracles, according to his Greek hagiography. Egg tempera on wood, 77.4 cm x 52.7 cm, contains text in Greek. The icon is now kept in the National Museum of Medieval Art, Korcë.
context_page_description: The Serb-Montenegrin community in Albania are one of the recognized national minorities in Albania. In the latest census, citizens had the option to declare as "Montenegrins". The population was concentrated in the region of Vraka, but largely emigrated in the 1990s. Then, estimations ranged between 2,000 according to independent monitoring and 30,000 according to the Serbian government The community is bilingual and by majority adhere to Eastern Orthodoxy, while a minority professes Islam. The majority of the Serbo-Montenegrin community came to Albania from Montenegro during the interwar Zogist period following 1926 and later from 1938 until 1948.
context_section_description: Many towns with historical Serb population derive their name from the early Middle Ages when Slavs ruled Albania.
  With short interruptions, the territory that later became a part of Sanjak of Scutari in the Ottoman Empire, belonged to the Slavic medieval feudal states for many centuries. The South Slavs ("Sklavenoi") began raiding Byzantine territories in the 520s and had conquered Durrës and most of Epirus and Macedonia in 548. According to Emperor Constantine VII (r. 913–959) the early Serbs lived in the former Roman provinces of Dalmatia, Praevalitana and Moesia. During the rule of Časlav Klonimirović (r. 927-960), most of Albania was part of Bulgaria (eastern) and the Byzantine Empire (Dyrrhachium (theme), western maritime). After the Byzantine annexation of Raška, the Serbian principality of Duklja succeeded as the main Serb state and it included much of the land north of Durrës, with Shkodër being an important city. Khan Samuel of Bulgaria (r. 997–1014) had by 997 conquered all of Thessaly, Epirus, Macedonia, and most of modern Albania.
  Jovan Vladimir ruled Duklja during the war between Byzantine Emperor Basil II and Samuel. Vladimir allegedly retreated into Koplik when Samuel invaded Duklja, and was subsequently forced to accept Bulgarian vassalage. Vladimir was later slewn by the Bulgars, and received a cult; Shingjon (the feast of St. Jovan Vladimir), which is celebrated by the Albanian Orthodox Christians. In 1018 Basil II conquered most of the Balkans and established the Archbishopric of Ohrid for the South Slavs. In the 1030s, Stefan Vojislav expelled the last strategos and defeated the Byzantines (1042), then set up Shkodër (Skadar) as his capital.  
  Constantine Bodin accepted the crusaders of the Crusade of 1101 in Shkodër. After the dynastic struggles in the 12th century, Shkodër became part of the Nemanjić Zeta province. In 1330 Stefan Uroš III appointed his son Stefan Dušan as the "Young King" and ruler of Zeta seated in Shkodër. According to the study of a Serbian chrysobull dating 1330, northern Albania was populated by Orthodox Serbs and several town names attest to a prominence of Serbs: Trebo polje, Bajbane, Luzane, Gorane, Buljane etc. According to the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja, several Serbian rulers and members of the Vojislavljević dynasty of Duklja were buried in the Shirgj Church on the Bojana river, founded by Helen of Anjou, queen consort of Serbian Kingdom (1245–1276), such as Constantine Bodin, Mihailo I, Dobroslav, Vladimir and Gradinja.
  During the fall of the Serbian Empire (14th century), Shkodër was taken by the Balšić family of Zeta who surrendered the city to Venice, in order to form protection zone from the Ottoman Empire. During Venetian rule the city adopted the Statutes of Scutari, a civic law written in Venetian, which also contained Albanian elements such as Besa and Gjakmarrja. Principality of Zeta, a former Ottoman vassal, lost its status as an independent state and was largely incorporated into the Sanjak of Scutari in 1499. In 1514, this territory was separated from the Sanjak of Scutari and established as a separate sanjak, under the rule of Skenderbeg Crnojević. When he died in 1528, the Sanjak of Montenegro was reincorporated into the Sanjak of Scutari as a unique administrative unit (vilayet) with certain degree of autonomy. The first Ottoman censuses (1431, 1467 and 1485) show such substantial presence of Slavic toponyms.
caption: Icon from the Ardenica Monastery, with scenes of the Jovan Vladimir's life and miracles according to his Greek hagiography
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