Derjan is a village and a former municipality in the

Dibër County Dibër County (; ) is one of the 12 counties of the Republic of Albania, spanning a surface area of with the capital in Peshkopi. The county borders on the counties of Durrës, Elbasan, Kukës, Lezhë, Tirana and the country of North Macedonia. ...

, northern

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

. At the 2015 local government reform it became a subdivision of the municipality

Mat A mat is a hard or soft floor covering that generally is placed on a floor or other flat surface. Mats serve a range of purposes including: * serving to clean items passed over it, such as a doormat, which removes dirt from the soles of shoe ...

. The population at the 2011 census was 1,102. It includes the following settlements: Derjan, Urxallë, Barbullej, Dukagjin, Gjoçaj, Lam i Madh, Zall Gjoçaj.

Demographic history

Derjan (''Dirjani'') is recorded in the Ottoman ''

defter A ''defter'' was a type of tax register and land cadastre in the Ottoman Empire. Etymology The term is derived from Greek , literally 'processed animal skin, leather, fur', meaning a book, having pages of goat parchment used along with papyrus ...

'' of 1467 as a settlement belonging to the

timar A timar was a land grant by the sultans of the Ottoman Empire between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, with an annual tax revenue of less than 20,000 akçes. The revenues produced from the land acted as compensation for military service. A ...

of Ali in the

vilayet A vilayet (, "province"), also known by #Names, various other names, was a first-order administrative division of the later Ottoman Empire. It was introduced in the Vilayet Law of 21 January 1867, part of the Tanzimat reform movement initiated b ...

of Mati. The village was relatively small with a total of five households which were represented by the following household heads: ''Pal Balazi'', ''Mihal Divalmi'', ''Andrija Kipota'', ''Gjergj Divalmi'', and ''Gjon Kipota''. In the register, a certain ''Mark

Kastrioti The Kastrioti were an Albanian noble family, active in the 14th and 15th centuries as the rulers of the Principality of Kastrioti. At the beginning of the 15th century, the family controlled a territory in the Mat and Dibra regions. The most not ...

'' from Derjan is attested as a '' yamak'' stationed in the village of ''Shtjaknëz'' (modern Shqefën).

References

Former municipalities in Dibër County Administrative units of Mat (municipality) Villages in Dibër County {{Dibër-geo-stub