42°20′N 19°38′E / 42.333°N 19.633°E
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Shkreli is a historical Albanian tribe and region in the Malësia Madhe region of northern Albania and is majority Catholic. With the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, part of the tribe migrated to Rugova in Western Kosovo beginning around 1700, after which they continued to migrate into the Lower Pešter and Sandžak regions (today in Serbia and Montenegro).
The Shkreli tribe that migrated to Kosovo converted to Islam in the 18th century and maintained the Albanian language as their mother tongue.
Some members of the Shkreli within the Pešter region and in Sandžak (known as Škrijelj/Serbian: Шкријељ) converted to Islam and became Slavophones by the 20th century, which as of today they now self-identify as part of the Bosniak ethnicity, although in the Pešter plateau they partly utilized the Albanian language until the middle of the 20th century.[1] The Shkreli in Albania and Montenegro are predominantly Catholic.
The Shkreli tribe's patron saint is St. Nicholas (Shënkoll).
- ^ Robert Elsie (30 May 2015). The Tribes of Albania: History, Society and Culture. I.B.Tauris. p. 81. ISBN 978-1-78453-401-1.