Albanians in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Albanians of Bosnia and Herzegovina () are people of full or partial Albanian ancestry and heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They are an national minority recognized by the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Albanians came to Bosnia in various historical periods. During Ottoman times many Albanians came to work or rule as pashas, and in modern time they came as seasonal workers, war refugees or sportspeople. Many people descended from earlier waves of Albanian migration bear surnames of linguistically Albanian origin, but do not speak the language and are not considered to be Albanians therefore  the number of 2800 seems a bit lower than expected. Tribes. Burmazi were an Albanian tribe with a presence in Herzegovina. Around 1300, the Burmazi tribe emerged in the region as a semi-nomadic clan in the area near Stolac and Trebinje. History. Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages, Albanians lived in the Dalmatian-Herzegovinian hinterland, along with Vlachs. The Albanians lived as semi-nomadic pastoralists (sheperds) and often lived in non-permanent settlements ("katund"). As time went on, the early Albanian inhabitants were more and more absorbed into the neighboring Slavic population. Srebrenica. Albanian presence is attested in the  region of Srebrenica in the medieval period. This conclusion can be drawn from the presence of Albanian terms along the Drina River all the way to Srebrenica, which have persisted to the current day in the so-called 'banalacki' hidden dialect. Albanians arrived in this region as mercenaries and graziers, herding their cattle to winter grazing grounds. Ottoman rule. Albanians settled in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time of Ottoman rule, with the main causes being economic, political and social. Most of them came from northern Albania. In Bosnia and Herzegovina they lived as shepherds, farmers, craftsmen, border guards, and  soon assimilated with the locals. Many young Albanians married Bosnian women and thus joined the peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The men did not return to their homeland and built a new life in Bosnia. This is also confirmed by the record of the Mount Koritnik's name of the Tragedy. The people of the Kukes region followed the Gurbits up to Koritnik and separated from their grieving relatives there, then continued on to Prizren. Habsburg rule. With the arrival of the Austro-Hungarians the number of Albanians decreased, due to further exile in Europe, whose doors became more open . Thus, in the 1910 census, only 273 Albanian-speaking Bosnian and Herzegovina residents were registered. Kingdom of Yugoslavia. But during the time of the first and especially the second Yugoslavia, again a large number of Albanians, due to the difficult living conditions in the countries in which they lived (Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia), settled in Bosnia and Herzegovina, mainly in the cities: Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zenica, Banja Luka, Doboj, Brcko, Bijelina, Mostar and Trebinje. By 1930 the number of Albanians in Bosnia and Herzegovina had almost quadrupled, and according to the 1991 census, there were about 5,000 Albanians in  Bosnia and Herzegovina. The then Albanian exiles in Bosnia and Herzegovina were mainly engaged in bakery, confectionery, jewelry and other crafts. Socialist Yugoslavia and War in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most Albanians traditionally lived in Sarajevo. In 1970–1981, in Sarajevo, there was a primary school in Albanian, the "Bane Šurbat" school in Grbavica. Demographics. In the 1910 census there were recorded 273 Albanian speaking people Arbanasi people in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the 2013 Bosnian census, there were 2,656 Albanians living in Bosnia, with another 150 people who declared themselves as "Shqiptar", Kosovars, Illyrian-Albanian, Bosnian-Albanian etc. to a total  of 2806 people or 0.08% of total population. The largest religious groups among the Albanians were Muslims.