Medieval Between 1353 and 1363, Hoti moved from their area of origin in Plav. A group from Hoti seems to have moved in another location in Plav and some in the location of Limaj, near
Peja in
Kosovo. In 1414, Hoti already appears to have settled in mountainous pastoral communities in north-eastern Lake Skadar and in 1415 is found in union with the tribes of
Tuzi and Bitidossi (
Осti, Tusi et Bitidossi). Another Hoti by the same name appears in Venetian archives in 1434 as
Junch Hoth iam dominus in partibus Albaniae and
capitaneus montanee Ottorum (captain of the mountains of Hoti). The enmity between Hoti and Balša III existed since at least 1414 when documents show him as requesting from Venice the extradition of two Hoti leaders who
harmed his lands even though they were nominally his vassals. The Venetial administration of Scutari considering a possible raid by Hoti in their lands and the prospect of alliance with them did not accept his request. Balša as an act of retaliation against Venice burned down the vineyard village of
Kalldrun in December 1415. The latest phase of enmity between Hoti and Balša began after he passed judgment against Hoti in a dispute with the
Mataguzi tribe over pasture lands. Despite Balša's support to Mataguži, Hoti took over the disputed lands and Mataguži retaliated by killing four Hoti tribesmen. The defter of 1485 of Scutari also gives crucial information about the relations with the central Ottoman authorities. The tribal structure of communities like Hoti signified underdeveloped feudal relations of property ownership and also the existence of a close-circuit natural economy. In this framework, the resistance of these communities to pay taxes according to the new timar system forced the Ottomans to accept their settlement as communal entities outside the timar registers. Hoti was exempted from the timar system of land allocation in the early Ottoman Empire and no
timar holders (
timarli sipahi) are found in nahiya of Hoti as communal property organization remained unaffected. Hoti was also exempted from all extraordinary taxes to the new central authorities. Instead they were in the position of
florici and paid one ducat (50
akce) per household as in the pre-Ottoman era. The self-governing rights of northern Albanian tribes like Hoti and
Kelmendi increased when their status changed from
florici to
derbendci, a position which required only nominal recognition of central authority. The Hoti tribe held
derbendci status over the passage from Shkodra to the fortresses of
Medun and Depeduken in the northern
Zeta plain. A few months earlier, his brother
Mariano Bolizza traveled through the
Sanjak of Scutari and compiled a report according to which, Hoti (
Hotti) had 212 households and 600 men-in-arms, commanded by Marash Papa (
Maras Pappa) and Rrapsha, 80 households and 212 men-in-arms commanded by Prenk Kastrati (
Prenc Castrat). In 1613, the Ottomans launched a campaign against the rebel tribes of Montenegro. In response, the tribes of the Vasojevići, Kuči, Bjelopavlići, Piperi, Kastrati, Kelmendi, Shkreli andi Hoti formed a political and military union known as “The Union of the Mountains” or “The Albanian Mountains” . The leaders swore an oath of
besa to resist with all their might any upcoming Ottoman expeditions, thereby protecting their self-government and disallowing the establishment of the authority of the Ottoman Spahis in the northern highlands. Their uprising had a liberating character. With the aim of getting rid of the Ottomans from the Albanian territories Other assemblies like this one were held from the 1620s to the 1650s, in the culmination of the
Cretan War. Such an assembly is reported also in 1658, when the seven tribes of
Kuči,
Vasojevići,
Bratonožići,
Piperi,
Kelmendi, Hoti and
Gruda declared their support for the
Republic of Venice, establishing the so-called "Seven-fold barjak" or "alaj-barjak", against the Ottomans. Similar rebellious events continued until the end of hostilities between Venice and the Ottoman. After the war, in 1671,
Shtjefën Gaspari as apostolic visitor of the Catholic Church passed through the village of
Hot and reported that it had
130 homes and 700 souls. Despite the increase in jizya tax and wars that ravaged the borderlands, Hoti remained Catholic and was organized by the end of the 17th century into two
parishes, one in Rrapsha and the other in Traboin, a division that reflected the territorial division of Hoti settlements. In 1696, Hoti became a
bajrak like other tribes in
Malësia, northern Albania and Montenegro. Thus, Nikë Luca became Mehmet Luca Gjoni, while his brother Vuj Luca remained Catholic. The new brotherhood that was formed as an offshoot of Junçaj, became the only partly Muslim brotherhood of Hoti, the Lucgjonaj.
Çun Mula, bajraktar of Hoti in the 19th century, was a direct descendant of Mehmet Luca.
Late Ottoman The disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in the long 19th century saw the rise of the Balkan states. The establishment of the
Principality of Montenegro and its goal of southwards expansion threatened the borderland autonomy of Hoti, which Montenegro sought to bring under its control. During the early 1860's, members the Hoti ambushed and executed a group of 30 Montenegrin soldiers. They then decapitated them and delivered their heads to
Shkodër. The interests of Great Powers (mainly Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy) in the region further complicated the situation. These events collectively called "
Great Eastern Crisis" led to the
Congress of Berlin that was finalized in the
Treaty of Berlin. Various scenarios in which highland territory was given to Montenegro were being discussed as the Ottoman Empire and Montenegro were preparing to sign the recognition of Montenegro's independence and enlarged borders. In April 1880, Italy suggested that the Ottoman Empire give Montenegro the Tuz district with its Catholic Gruda and Hoti populations that would have left the tribes split between both countries. In relation to Hoti this would have left an additional problem of tensions and instability due to the tribe having precedence by tradition over the other four tribes during peace and war. On April 22, defensive lines were formed in Tuzi against the Montenegrin annexation that was about to happen the following day. Of the 400 initial defenders of Tuzi, many were from Hoti. Ottoman front Austria-Hungary intervened for an armistice to be signed. Then, a punitive expedition was carried out in the Hoti, Gruda and Kastrati regions by the Ottomans under Hafiz Pasha on June 10. After gaining control on June 25, the Ottomans razed Hoti. Despite initial high promises, constitutional rights were never implemented as was hoped and repression towards minorities soon became a central policy of the Young Turks. In Kosovo, hopes rose again with the outbreak of
a revolt in 1910, but it was defeated. This was followed by the ban on Albanian education, arrests and exile of Albanian nationalists and a campaign to disarm the highlanders of Malësia. In the meantime, the highland tribes were in communication with
Nicholas I of Montenegro, who was willing to allow them to enter Montenegro and provide some cover support against the Ottomans in order to exploit the situation for his own ends. The Ottomans called for submission and offered amnesty and a large monetary compensation for any leader who surrendered, but this was refused. Meanwhile, the uprising had gotten international coverage and groups of volunteers were being organized to come in the region to fight. As new fighting broke out, on 23 June 1911, the leaders of the uprising and other Albanian revolutionaries gathered near
Selcë in Kelmend and drafted the
Greçë Memorandum demanding Albanian socio-political and linguistic rights. Schooling in Albanian until then was either offered by the priests and monks of the Catholic Church or in one of the Albanian schools that Austria-Hungary funded under the cultural protectorate over the Ottoman Empire's Catholics. The beginning of the Balkan Wars left much of the agreement unimplemented.
Modern In the Balkan Wars, northern Albanian territories came under a combined Serbo-Montenegrin attack. The five-month
Siege of Scutari was the focal point of the campaign. The city was surrendered after an agreement by
Essad Pasha Toptani and Nicholas I, but the Montenegrin army had suffered 15,000 losses. The long resistance also meant that Montenegrin claims in the region were hampered. The final status of the city was to remain in the new Albanian state in the ensuing
treaty of London in May 1913. By the terms of the treaty, Hoti was to remain entirely within Albania. In June, the second Balkan war broke out. With the defeat of Bulgaria, the victors, including Montenegro, increased their borders and more than half of Hoti was given to Montenegro, as was all of Gruda by the terms of the
treaty of Bucharest in August 1913. Still, the region remained in turmoil and Montenegrin actual control was not established as clashes broke out in the borderlands. Then, the Serbian army intervened and occupied the area. After further intervention from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Serbian army withdrew. In the process, massacres of hundreds of people took place. Under the new treaties, the Serbian army entered Hoti, Gruda and the northern highlands that were given to Montenegro in the treaty of Bucharest, now as part of the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. On December 25, 1919, the Serbian army carried an operation under which it arrested and executed in Hoti at least 72 men. This event was commemorated 100 years later and a monument in the village
Hoti was erected by the descendants of the victims in an event jointly attended by representatives of the municipalities of Malësi e Madhe in Albania and Tuzi in Montenegro. One of the descendants of those killed is Gjon Junçaj, Albanian-American prosecutor and US envoy to Albania. The interwar period was marked by more refugees crossing the border and settling in Albania. They were given arable land and settled in villages that bore the name of their homeland. Thus,
Hoti i Ri (New Hoti) was settled in 1932 by families of refugees that came from Traboin. Yugoslavia's capitulation to Germany in WWII led to a reshaping of borders and Hoti became a part of Albania under Italian and later German hegemony in 1941–4 to win support for the Axis among Albanians. In 1945, the Yugoslav Partisans got control of Hoti and Gruda again. December 15 is the official date for the state celebration of the "day of liberation" of Tuzi. After 1948, the border between Albania and Yugoslavia closed and became heavily militarized. Border regions like Hoti suffered in particular as family members became isolated from one another. In the 1990s, the collapse of the economy led to heavy migration throughout Hoti, Gruda and the northern highlands as was happening throughout the Balkans. == In Literature ==