The Manatia (also Manatija) are a historical
Albanian tribe
The Albanian tribes () form a historical mode of social organization (''farefisní'') in Albania and the southwestern Balkans characterized by a common culture, often common patrilineal kinship ties and shared social ties. The ''fis'' ( sq-defini ...
(''fis'') and tribal region in the district of
Lezha of 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 ...
. It is one of the four traditional bajraks of the Highlands of Lezha (''Malësia e Lezhës''), alongside the
Kryezezi,
Vela and
Bulgëri.
Geography
Manatia tribal territory is situated in the mountainous Highlands of Lezha, east of the city of
Lezha. It is bordered by the Vela, Kryezezi and Bulgëri tribes to the east, the Mat river to the south, and the
Zadrima
Zadrima is an ethnographic region situated in north-western Albania between the cities of Shkodra and Lezha, located left of the Lower Drin which eventually drains into the Adriatic Sea from near Lezha.
Geography
The Zadrima Plain includes v ...
-Lezha lowlands to the west and north. Their main settlements include Manatia, Grykë-Manati, Lalm-Lukaj and Kapruell (now Prull).
History
The village of Kapruell or Prull (''Kaprul'') is recorded in the
Ottoman ''defter'' of 1467 as a ''
hass-ı mir-liva'' property 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
Dimitri Gjonima. The village had a total of five households represented by the following household heads: ''Mihail Gjonshi'', ''Gjergj Skuçi'', ''Lesh Kaqi'', ''Andrija Kurtisi'', and ''Gjin Shtepko''.
Manatia first appears as the toponym and parish ''Emanatia'' in 1621 in the ecclesiastical report of Benedetto Orsini Ragusino; ''Manatia'' in 1672 and 1866, and ''Manattia'' in 1928. In the 1860s, they had an estimated population of 82 households, and 75 households in 1905. In 1918, they were recorded as having 96 households with 629 inhabitants. They joined the
Mirdita tribe in 1818 along with the other three bajraks of the Lezha Highlands.
Religion
Like the rest of the tribes in the Highlands of Lezha, the Manatia are a Catholic tribe. On the left bank of the Manatia creek above Grykë-Manati, there was a Church of
Saint Michael
Michael, also called Saint Michael the Archangel, Archangel Michael and Saint Michael the Taxiarch is an archangel and the warrior of God in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The earliest surviving mentions of his name are in third- and second- ...
that dated to the early 20th century.
References
Tribes of Albania
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