Gjakova

Gjakova (pronounced [ɟakova]) or Đakovica (Serbian Cyrillic: Ђаковица, pronounced [ˈdʑakoʋitsa]) is the sixth largest city in Kosovo and seat of the Gjakova Municipality and the Gjakova District. According to the 2024 census, the municipality of Gjakova has 78,699 inhabitants.

Geographically, it is located in the south-western part of Kosovo, about halfway between the cities of Peja and Prizren. It is approximately 100 km (62 mi) inland from the Adriatic Sea. The city is situated some 208 kilometres (129 mi) north-east of Tirana, 145 kilometres (90 mi) north-west of Skopje, 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of the capital Pristina, 435 kilometres (270 mi) south of Belgrade and 263 kilometres (163 mi) east of Podgorica.

The city of Gjakova has been populated since the prehistoric era.^{[citation needed]} During the Ottoman period, Gjakova served as a trading centre on the route between Shkodra and Constantinople. It was also one of the most developed trade centres at that time in the Balkans.

The Albanian name for the city is Gjakova. There are several theories on the origin of the village name, such as from the personal name Jakov, a variant of Jacob; the Serbian word đak (pupil); or from the Albanian word for "blood" (gjak).

The "Jakov theory" derives its name from Jakov, a little known nobleman in the service of lord Vuk Branković who founded and ruled the city, and whose coins have been found, signed "Jakov". According to local Albanians, the name was derived from the name Jak (Jakov), with the village name meaning "Jakov's field".

Gjakova was mentioned as a village with a market in the 1485 Ottoman defter, and had 54 households. The local Albanians developed it into a town in the 16th century. It has been a settlement with an ethnic Albanian majority since its foundation, having grown around the founding structures built by Hadim Suleyman Efendi, a politically important local Albanian. Edith Durham noted that Gjakova was founded by members of the Albanian Mërturi tribe in the 15th-16th centuries, specifically by the families of two men descended from Bitush Mërturi - Vula and Mërtur. The descendants of the Vula family were still present during the time of her visit to Albania in the first decade of the 20th century.

In the Ottoman defter (tax registry) of 1485, Gjakova was a village with 67 households. In the 17th century, Katip Çelebi and Evliya Çelebi mention this place as Jakovičse, with 2000 houses and 300 shops. During the early period of Ottoman rule, Gjakova and the Gjakova Municipality were part of the Nahiya of Altun-ili. Most of the villages in the Nahiya of Altun-ili, along with the villages between Gjakova and Prizren were dominated by inhabitants with Albanian anthroponomy. This is seen by Selami Pulaha as an indication that during the 15th century (as supported by Ottoman defters), the lands between Junik and Gjakova were inhabited by a dominant ethnic Albanian majority. In the 1571 and 1591 Ottoman defters, the majority of the inhabitants of Gjakova as a settlement itself were recorded with Albanian anthroponomy; Albanian onomastics prevailed over Slavic onomastics.

In the year 1638, the Archbishop of Bar, Gjergj Bardhi, reported that Gjakova had 320 Muslim homes, 20 Catholic homes and 20 Orthodox homes, and wrote that the region is inhabited by Albanians and that the Albanian language is spoken there.