Shalë lies about 25 km west of Lipjan, in Upper Drenica. At the locality known as Gjyteti, ruins associated with an old fortification survive, while the place-name Kisha and other traces indicate earlier layers of life in the area.
The settlement is mentioned in a document from 1348 and later in late-19th-century Kosovo Vilayet yearbooks. In Serbian administration the name was translated as Sedllari, while the name Shala belongs to the settlement's Albanian naming tradition. In the 1930s the authorities placed a colonist family in the house of a resident who had emigrated to Turkey.
In 1998 the village had 320 houses and 2,320 Albanian residents, with around 520 more living abroad. During Serbian offensives in August–September 1998 more than 152 houses were burned, destroyed or damaged; in spring 1999 another 67 houses and buildings were hit. The school, local office, clinic and library were destroyed, while the mosque was damaged.
Source
Source and further reading
Principal source: Prof. Dr. Jusuf Osmani, Vendbanimet e Kosovës 5 — Lypjani, Prishtinë, 2003.
Source entry: SHALA
This page presents a selected summary from the published study of the settlement. For complete archival references, family histories, microtoponymy and the full treatment, consult the original volume.
Other retained references
Volume 15 — SHALA (Sedllari), p. 271