Muhaxhir (Albanians)

rdf:langString Muhaxhir (Albanians)

rdf:langString Muhaxhir and Muhaxher (plural: Muhaxhirë and Muhaxherë, meaning "Muslim refugees") are terms borrowed from Ottoman Turkish: muhacir and derived from Arabic muhajir. The term Muhaxhir(ë) refers to Ottoman Albanian communities that left their homes as refugees or were transferred, from Greece, Serbia and Montenegro to Albania, Kosovo and to a lesser extent North Macedonia during and following various wars. The term is used for Muslims (including Turks, Bosniaks, Circassians and Romani) and Muslim Albanians whom were expelled by the Serb army from most parts of the Sanjak of Niş and fled to the Kosovo Vilayet during and after the Serbian–Ottoman War (1876–78), that is by 1881. An estimated 60–70,000 to as low as 30,000, or anywhere between 30 and 70% of local Albanians and Muslims were killed or expelled by Serbian army. Today, only a fraction of Albanians remain is Southern Serbia, most of them in Preševo valley. With the establishment of the Republic of Albania in 1912, a large influx of Albanians, as well as other Muslims, from Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Greece, Egypt, Bulgaria and Serbia continued to arrive in the region, most of which settled in north and central Albania.Today, between a third and a quarter of Albania's and Kosovo's population have ancestry from these Muhaxhirs.