Lažani (, ), is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

located in a lowland area in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Dolneni Dolneni () is a village in the Municipalities of North Macedonia, municipality of Dolneni Municipality, Dolneni, North Macedonia. It is located at the center of the plain of Prilepsko Pole (Prilep field), 10 km northwest of Prilep city and it ...

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

Demographics

The village is attested in the 1467/68 Ottoman tax registry (defter) for the Nahiyah of Kırçova. The village had a total of 8 houses, excluding bachelors (''mucerred''). On the Ethnographic Map of the Bitola Vilayet of the Cartographic Institute in Sofia from 1901, Lažani appears as a mixed village of Bulgarians, Albanians and Turks in the Prilep Kaza of the Bitola Sandzak with 103 houses.Михајловски, Роберт, уред. (2017). Етнографска карта на Битолскиот вилает (PDF). Каламус. стр. 24. In the second half of the 20th century, Lažani was inhabited by a Torbeš population. "Споменати се четирите торбешки села чие население е со очуван македонски јазик - во Дебреште, Пешталево, Лажани и Трновци." "Во Бродска околија исламизирани Македонци живееле во селата Дебреште, Лажани, Пласница и Преглово." "Селата во кои живеат Торбешите лежат во средина на пространа низина (Лазани и Пешталево) или се на граница од таа низина и повисоко земјиште (Дебреште и Трновци)." During the 1960s, Slavic Muslims from

Sandžak Sandžak (Serbian Cyrillic: ; ) is a historical and geo-political region in the Balkans, located in the southwestern part of Serbia and the eastern part of Montenegro. The Bosnian/ Serbian term ''Sandžak'' derives from the Sanjak of Novi Paza ...

, known as Sandžakli settling in

Debrešte Debrešte (, ) is a village in a highland area in the municipality of Dolneni, North Macedonia. It is the largest settlement in the municipality in terms of population. Demographics On the Ethnographic Map of the Bitola Vilayet of the Cartograph ...

were not well received by the local population which forced them to move to neighboring villages, mainly to Lažani where their numbers are high. "Некаде околу шеесетите години, во с. Дебреште, доселеници од Санџак, познати како Санџаклии, се населиле во селото, но не биле "добро примени" од староседелското население со што биле приморани да се отселат во соседните села, претежно во с. Лажани каде нивниот број е најмногу застапен." Muslim Albanians from the sub-region of

Pešter The Pešter Plateau (), or simply Pešter ( sr-Cyrl, Пештер, ) is a karst plateau in southwestern Serbia, in the Raška (or Sandžak) region. It lies at an altitude of , with the highest point (''Kuljarski vrh'') at 1,492 meters. The terr ...

in Sandžak also settled in Lažani and number 30 households with some families bearing the surname Shkreli. The village in the 21st century has a mixed population consisting of Torbeš, Orthodox Macedonians, Bosniaks (Sandžakli) and Muslim Albanians containing 300 households amidst a population of around 2000 people. Intermarriage between Muslim Albanians and Sandžakli's occurs in the village. p. 208. "Llazhani ka strukturë heterogjene nacionale, aty jetojnë maqedonas, shqiptarë, boshnjak dhe torbeshë. Fshati numëron 300 shtëpi dhe më se dy mijë banorë. Në mesin e tyre ka nja 30 shtëpi, në të cilat jetojnë familje me mbiemrin Shkreli."; p.209. "këtu në Llazhan erdhëm para 30 vjetësh nga Peshteri i Sanxhakut"; p. 210. "edhe këtu në Llazhan me shumicë muslimane boshnjake, andaj fëmijët tanë janë të detyruar të martohen me boshnjake," Torbeši from Lažani refer to the surrounding Christian population as ''Makedonci'' (Macedonians) and those Orthodox Macedonians refer to them as ''Turci'' (Turks) due to they being Muslims. "Така, исламизираните Македонци од селата Дебреште, Лажани, Трновци и Пешталево, Прилепско, околните Македонци ги нарекувале и ги нарекуваат Турци само заради нивното исповедување на муслиманската религија." According to the 2021 census, the village had a total of 1.755 inhabitants. Ethnic groups in the village include:Macedonian Census (2021)
''Book 5 - Total population according to the Ethnic Affiliation, Mother Tongue and Religion''
The State Statistical Office, Skopje, 2021 *

Bosniaks The Bosniaks (, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia (region), Bosnia, today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and who sha ...

901 *

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic of Turkey * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic lang ...

377 * Macedonians 264 *

Albanians The Albanians are an ethnic group native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, Albanian culture, culture, Albanian history, history and Albanian language, language. They are the main ethnic group of Albania and Kosovo, ...

153 *Others 60

Sports

Local football club FK Sloga 1976 plays in the Macedonian Third League.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lazani Villages in Dolneni Municipality Torbeši settlements Albanian communities in North Macedonia