Dovolan
Village in Dibër, Albania
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dovolan (Macedonian: Доволан/Dovolan) is a village in the former Maqellarë Municipality in Dibër County in northeastern Albania. At the 2015 local government reform it became part of the municipality Dibër.[1] It is located near the Macedonian border, on the mountain Dešat.
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History
Dovolan (Dovoljani) appears in the Ottoman defter of 1467 as a settlement with a total of five households. The anthroponymy attested depicts a mixed character with typical Albanian names appearing alongside more general Christian ones, although Slavic influences and Slavicisation are also present: Gjon Bazovići; Gjure, son of Andrija; Dimitri Koleci; Petka son of Popi; and Gjure, brother of Gjoni.[2]
A demographic study published in 1878, reflecting statistics of the male population from 1873, stated that the village's population consisted of 40 households with 94 Bulgarian Christians and 53 Slavic Muslims.[3]
Two members of the Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps, Kiril Martinov and Kosto Ivanov, were natives of Dovolani.[4]
During the first World War occupying Austro-Hungarian forces conducted a census (1916-1918) of parts of Albania they held and of Dovolan its ethnic demographics they recorded 259 Albanians, 44 Bulgarians, 136 others, 5 Romani while its religious composition was 258 Muslims and 51 Orthodox Christians.[5] Linguists Klaus Steinke and Xhelal Ylli consider the overall census results to be accurate and reflective of much of the ethnic and religious demographics of the area during that time,[5] however noting that the then identity of the Orthodox Slavic speaking populace was fluid as reflected in census declarations.[6] Toward the end of the 1920s the Orthodox Slavic speaking population was located in only two villages of the Maqellarë area, Kërçisht i Epërm and Herebel while in the 1930s the population decline of Orthodox Slavophones continued.[7]
A 1930 report listed the village of Dovolan as having 50 houses.[8]
During the 2000s linguists Klaus Steinke and Xhelal Ylli seeking to corroborate villages cited in past literature as being Slavic speaking carried out fieldwork in villages of the area.[6] Linguists Steinke and Ylli also noted that unlike the Gollobordë region, the villages of the Maqellarë administrative unit area do not have any Muslim Slavic speaking inhabitants.[6]