page_title: Tetovo
section_title: Ottoman Period
hierarchical_section_title: Tetovo / History / Ottoman Period
caption_attribution_description: English: Sarena Dzamija
context_page_description: Tetovo is a city in the northwestern part of North Macedonia, built on the foothills of Šar Mountain and divided by the Pena River. The municipality of Tetovo covers an area of 1,080 km² at 468 meters above sea level, with a population of 52,915. The city of Tetovo is the seat of Tetovo Municipality.
  In antiquity, Tetovo was a Penestae fortress-town in eastern Illyria, called Oaeneon, in Latin Oaeneum, located on the pass between mount Scardos and river Artatos, a tributary to the Vardar river. This was a territory where the Illyrian tribe Penestae lived, and it included the fortress-towns Draudacum, Uskana, Divra and Styberra in northern Pelagonia.
  Based on archaeological findings in the area, the city was first inhabited thousands of years ago. Archaeological findings include a Mycenaean sword and a bronze statuette of the 6th c. BCE. Subsequently, Oaeneon was ruled by many ethnic groups; the Illyrian Genthius of the Labeatae, by King Perseus of Macedonia, by the Romans, by the Byzantines, by the Slavs, by the Bulgarians, and by Skanderbeg of Kastrioti.
  In the 15th c. AD, Oaeneum came under Ottoman rule for about five centuries.
context_section_description: Tetovo was founded in the early 14th century as a small medieval settlement around the Sveta Bogorodica (Holy Mother of God) church. At the end of that century, Tetovo and the surrounding area fell under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.
  According to the 1455 defter records, Tetovo had an Albanian presence. official Ottoman statistics of Nahiya Tetovo, in 1452 there were 146 Christian households and 60 Muslim, 1453 the population consists of 153 Christian and 56 Muslim families, and in 1468 – 180 Christian and 41 Muslim families, in 1545 there were 99 Christian and 101 Muslim families (38 were islamicised), in 1568 there were 108 Christian and 329 Muslim (184 islamicised).
  During the Ottoman period, the town was known as Kalkandelen, which means Shield Penetrator, in honor of the local weapon-smiths. Their superior craftsmanship extended to the advent of small firearms and cannons, which were traded all over the Balkans. The small hill above the town, near the present-day village of Lavce, has been fortified since Paeonian times and the Ottomans also built a substantial fortress there, known as the Baltepes fortress. A number of mosques were built, such as The Colored or Painted Mosque (Aladzha or Sharena Dzamija), also known as the Pasha Mosque, was built in 1459 by the Ottoman Turks; and in the 16th century, the Bektashi order also settled in Tetovo, where they remain at the Bektashi Teke. Tetovo under Ottoman tutelage became an important trade center for the local farmers and craftsmen, as well as an important military fortification. Haci Halife in the 17th century noted in his writings that Kalkandelen was expanding at an amazing rate in its lowland areas.
  During the early 19th century, Abdurrahman Pasha, a prominent Albanian landowner, beautified the city of Kalkandelen, refurbishing many estates including the notable landmarks such as the Colored Mosque, the Teke and the Baltepe fortress.
  In the 19th century, the Russian diplomat Ivan Jastrebov spoke highly of Kalkandelen's climate, liking the mild snowy winters, sunny and comfortably warm summers. The traveler Ami Bue described Kalkandelen as a very clean city.
  By the 19th century, when the population of Kalkandelen began to increase with settlement from the surrounding villages, the French traveler Ami Boue noted that the population had reached about 4,500 people, which are Bulgarians and Albanians.  The total population of the Pashalik of Kalkandelen (Tetovo) is 30,000–40,000 and consists of Bulgarians who are Orthodox and of Albanian who are Muslims.  According to British diplomat and traveller Aubrey Herbert, and English traveller Austen Henry Layard, the majority of the inhabitants of Kalkandelen were Albanian. Turkish sources cite that three-quarters of the population of Kalkandelen during the Ottoman period were Albanian. According to the statistics of the Bulgarian ethnographer Vasil Kanchov in 1900 the population of Kalkandelen consists of 8,500 Bulgarians, 9,000 Turks, 500 Arnauts and 1,200 Romani.
  According to the statistics of the secretary of the Bulgarian Exarchate Dimitar Mishev in 1905 the population of the town consists of 7,408 Bulgarians and 30 Roma.
  In the Ottoman Empire, Kalkandelen came under the Vilayet of Kosovo and was orientated towards Albanians and the Albanian struggle for independence from Ottoman rule. In 1843, the Uprising of Dervish Cara led to Albanians revolting against the Sultan due their disagreement with the Tanzimat reforms. Kalkandelen was liberated by Dervish Cara from January 1844 until September 1844, where Omar Pasha defeated the rebel forces and Kalkandelen remained within the Ottoman Empire.
caption: Šarena Džamija, built in the early 15th century