42°26′N 19°27′E / 42.433°N 19.450°E / 42.433; 19.450

Triepshi (originally, Trieshi ) is a historical Albanian tribe (mal) and region (in Montenegrin known as Zatrijebač) in Montenegro above the right bank of the Cem river near the Albanian border in Tuzi Municipality. It is part of the region of Malësia.

Triepshi lies in the municipality of Tuzi on the Albania-Montenegro border as the Cem crosses into Montenegro after Grabom along the river's right bank. It has a total territory of about 30 km² and all of its settlements are in mountainous terrain with little arable land. The settlements of Triepshi are: Nikmarash, Rudinë, Muzheçk, Budëz, Poprat, Stjepoh, Delaj, Bëkaj, Llopar, Cem i Trieshit. In terms of historical territory, Triepshi borders Hoti to the south-west, Kelmendi to the east, Gruda to the west and Koja e Kuçit to the north.

Oral traditions and fragmentary stories were collected and interpreted by writers who travelled in the region in the 19th century about the early history of Triepshi. In the 20th century, an interdisciplinary approach of comparative anthropology in the context of recorded historical material has yielded more historically-grounded accounts.

Triepshi is a fis (tribe) of different original patrilineal ancestries. More than half of Triepshi claims direct patrilineal descent from Ban Keqi, who in oral tradition is the founder of Triepshi and brother of Lazër Keqi, founder of Hoti. Another part of the tribe, Delaj descends from Bythëdosi (Bitidossi), another medieval Albanian tribe in the region. Bekaj is recorded as coming in as a result of blood feud from Rijeka Crnojevića, in the early Ottoman times better known as Rijeka Ivan Beka'.^[1] Edith Durham in High Albania (1908) recorded another story, which placed the original location of Bekaj in Koplik.^[2] In oral tradition, Bumçe, the wife of the progenitor of Kelmendi came from the Bekaj brotherhood.^[3]

Other brotherhoods (Anas) that were already settled in Triepshi at the time of its formation descended from tribes that now are further south in Shkodër County like Plani and Xhani/Xhaj. Thus, within Triepshi, brotherhoods that didn't have the same patrilineal ancestry could intermarry, but they didn't intermarry with tribes with which they shared the same direct ancestor. For example, more than half of Triepshi didn't intermarry with Hoti.

Johann Georg von Hahn recorded one of the first oral traditions about Triepshi from a Catholic priest named Gabriel in Shkodra in 1850. According to it the first direct male ancestor of the Triepshi was Ban Keq, son of a 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 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. In the story, Ban Keqi settled in the same region - that would become Triepshi - with his brother Lazër, who later moved southwards and founded Hoti.^[1] Thus, Ban Keqi became the first direct male ancestor of Triepshi. The patronymic surname of Keq is recorded in differing accounts as Preka, Ponti and Panta. The name of the first ancestor, Keq, which means bad in Albanian, is given in Malësia to only children or to children from families with very few children (due to infant mortality). In those families, an "ugly" name (i çudun) was given as a spoken talisman to protect the child from the "evil eye.^[4]

Bythëdosi (spelled in Venetian archives as Bisdos, Butadossi, Bitidossi, Busadossa) is recorded in 1335 and its leader Paulus Busadosa is recorded. In 1415, they appear in a union with the Hoti and Tuzi tribes (Осti, Tusi et Bitidossi).^[5] In the defter of the Sanjak of Scutari, in the nahiya of Kuči in 1485, the settlement of Bitidosi appears with 11 households from which the brotherhood of Delaj springs.^[6]

The settlement of Bankeq (after the founder Ban Keqi) also appears with 11 households in the defter.^[6] To this original settlement more than half of the brotherhoods of Triepshi trace their ancestry.

Triepshi is remembered for its resistance to Ottoman incursions in the region, in particular in 1717 when they killed 62 Ottoman soldiers. Ottoman forces are said to have after this disaster left the region until 1862. Based on tactical reasons, at this time the Triepshi had good relations with Kuči tribe and the Petrović-Njegoš dynasty, the rulers of Montenegro. Robert Elsie recounts a story about Triepshi men going to Cetinje in order to bring the vladika the heads of Ottomans that they had cut off in battles in return for rewards and gifts.^[7] This had changed by the 19th century with the creation of Montenegro and its southwards expansion against Catholic Albanian communities. In the Montenegrin–Ottoman War (1861–62), Kuči, Piperi and other groups attacked Triepshi and Koja e Kuçit, but that attack was repulsed.^[8]

The area of Triepshi and Koja e Kuçit were formally ceded by the Ottomans to Montenegro in 1878 at a time of the Congress of Berlin, but the border remained vague until the end of WW. Some of the Triepshi then fled to nearby Gruda whereas a part remained in Montenegro.^[7] An agreement was reached around 1900 and they returned back to their villages. As of 2018, Triesh is part of Tuzi Municipality.

Triepshi is Catholic. The ruins of its oldest church are in Budëz, but by the 17th century it was in ruins. Pjetër Bogdani writes in 1672 that the parish has no priest and is need of missionaries and a school teacher.^[9] The church of Triesh (kisha e Trieshit) at that period has a register since 1753, the earliest confirmed date of the building's use. The information about the parish of Triepshi in 1745 is also the earliest exact information on the population figures of the tribe. It had 84 households with 580 Catholic believers.\

The funerary customs of Triepshi as those of Malësia in general include the lamentation (gjamë) of the deceased in a collective manner by a group of men (gjamatarë).^[10]

The noted families of Triesh as recorded by Emile Wiet, the French consul in Shkodër in 1866^[7]