Mrkojevići (alternatively Mrkovići, in Montenergin Мркојевићи/Мрковићи, in Albanian Mërkot) is a historical tribal region in southwestern Montenegro, located between the towns of Bar and Ulcinj. The region borders Krajina to the east. The Mrkojevići form a distinct ethno-geographical group with their own dialect of the Serbo-Croatian language, while also exhibiting a degree of bilingualism in Albanian. Their customs are distinct from their neighbouring Slavic and Albanian communities, but they also show influence and contacts with them. In the 400-year Ottoman period, the Mrkojevići converted to Islam, which forms an important aspect of their cultural identity.
Geography
The region is in the southern parts of Bar Municipality and forms one of its communal municipalities. There are nine settlements: Velje Selo, Dabezići, Dobra Voda, Gorana (Mala and Velja), Grdovići, Kunje, Ljeskovac, Pelinkovići and Pečurice. The historical settlements of the tribal region also include Međreč and Mali/Velji Mikulici but as of 2011 they have no inhabitants. Mrkojevići is divided into pravi Mrkojevići (true Mrkojevići or Mrkojevići proper) that is closer the city of Bar and the Gorana sub-region to the south. Dobra Voda, Pečurice, Grdovići, Velje Selo, Dabezići, Ljeskovac, Međreč and Mali/Velji Mikulici belong to pravi Mrkojevići, while Mala/Velja Gorana, Kunje, Pelinkovići to the Gorana sub-region.
History
It is believed that the župa (county) of Prapratna was located in what became the Mrkojevići tribe. Mrkojevići is first mentioned in 1409.
Johann Georg von Hahn recorded one of the first oral traditions about Mrkojevići from a Catholic priest named Gabriel in Shkodër in 1850. According to it the first direct male ancestor of the Mrkojevići was Merkota Keqi, son of the Catholic Albanian Keq , who, fleeing from Ottoman conquest, settled in a Slavic-speaking area that would become the historical Piperi region. His sons, the brothers Lazër Keqi (ancestor of Hoti), Ban Keqi (ancestor of Triepshi), Merkota Keqi, Kaster Keqi (ancestor of Krasniqi) and Vas Keqi (ancestor of Vasojevići) had to abandon the village after committing murder against the locals, but Keq and his younger son Piper Keqi remained there and Piper Keqi became the direct ancestor of the Piperi tribe. Such stories exist in many tribes of northern Albania and southern Montenegro with different details every time in context with the general traditions of each tribe.
Comparative analysis of oral accounts and archival records shows that Mrkojevići is not a tribe of the same patrilineal ancestry, but a community of different ancestries that grouped and were linked to one another over time. Thus, as it is based on common territory and culture, but not kinship relations, it also intermarries within the tribe.
Mrkojevići's first group the pravi Mrkojevići formed the first nucleus, whose name eventually extended to the whole tribal region. In the defter of 1485 of the Sanjak of Scutari we have the first exact population records about Mrkojevići. It formed the nahiya of Merkodlar which is marked as one single settlement with 140 households. In comparison to the demographic data of southern Montenegro and northern Albania whose settlements rarely had more than 100 households at the time, this settlement, which was probable spread around smaller clusters, was one of the biggest settlements in the borderlands of the Ottoman Empire and the Venetian coastal cities. The register of the household heads of pravi Mrkojevići shows that a majority of their names and patronyms were of Orthodox Slavic origin and a minority were Catholic Albanians. In the centuries that followed archival records indicate that they assimilated in the Orthodox majority. Among the Albanians, names whose origin is traced to medieval tribes in the region like the Bukumiri can be found. Slavic anthroponymy in Mrkojevići was frequently followed by the Albanian suffix -za. This phenomenon doesn't appear in such widespread form in any other area of Montenegro except for Crmnica to the north of Mrkojevići. It has been interpreted as the result of gradual, centuries-long adoption of Slavic culture by an Albanian-speaking population. According to Curtis (2012), the Mrkojevići may present a case of an Albanian-speaking population shifting to a Slavic-speaking one.