„ARNAUTASHI“ – A SEPARATE POPULATION GROUP OF THE SAR MOUNTAIN

Abstract

The Sar mountain massif (Tito's peak – 2748m) stretches from the north-east, that is from the Kossovo-Metohia valley, towards the south-west, where it is bordered off by the long Polog valley. In the transversal direction the massif is particularily indented by the Prizrenska Bistrica river valley, on the north-western side, and by the Tetovska Bistrica on the south-eastern one. It is along these river valleys that the large Sar mountain massif is easily passable, in the transversal direction, aspecially between the towns of Prizren and Tetovo. This was the path of both a rather well developed pedestral and caravan traffic, and of significant migrational currents. One Moslem-Albanian current coming from the north-west, passed the Sar mountain saddle and settled in the Tetovska Bistrica basin. However, this initial movement of the Albanians has caused the change of the entire former ethnic structure in some parts of the Sar mountain region. Many Christian Orthodox Serbs living on the north-western side of the mountain converted to Islam, thus becoming equal to the Albanians in respect to their religious affiliation. Further, male members of the Serbian group begen to speak Albanian language, while their weives and children continued to speak Serbian at home. These are the so called „Arnautashi“ who are the subject of investigation in this paper.