There are numerous historical sources
and maps in European Science and cartography that show the real ethnographical
circumstances in Old Serbia, especially in its central part Kosovo and Metohia. One of
them is the ethnographical map of Serbia, compiled and edited by Alfred Stead, published
in London, in 1909. Until the end of the XVIII century, there was no registered Albanian
ethnic minority in Serbia. They have been settling in Serbia for the last two hundred
years. They came mostly from northern Albania. Beside one part of newly settled Albanians
from northern Albania, the majority of today’s Albanians from Kosovo and Metohia are
Serbs who were islamized under the Turkish rule. They lost their ethnic features during
this period (that is the explanation for a mark “Albanian Serbs” in the legend below
the map). |