In the northern Albanian lands, included in the sancak of Iskenderiyye (modern Shkodër), the Ottoman colonisation did leave some traces. Administratively, the sancak of Shkodra was divided into two vilâyets - Shkodra, with six kazas pertaining to it, and Durrës, with four kazas. The registration of the population and the land in this region involved great difficulties, since the people living here were the independent highlanders  - the Catholic Albanians, who did not allow the sultan's officers into their free territories. Besides, many of the north Albanian clans presented themselves to the central authority as true Muslims, while in reality they observed the Catholic rites, that is they were a typical example of Crypto-Christians. This circumstance further complicated their relations with the Ottoman administration, and in fact it was impossible for the cadastre to describe accurately their religious affiliation. 

Irrespective of the long-standing aspirations of the Empire to fully subjugate the Shkodra region as a strategic area near the Adriatic coast, it may be assumed that in the highlands the Ottoman administration was either not functioning at all, or only formally established. The sancak of Shkodra was administratively formed and officially annexed to the Balkan provinces of the Empire after the fall of the fortress of Rozafat in 1479, and the first detailed register of its lands, was compiled in 1485. In practice, this area was conquered by the Ottomans long before the seizure of the town of Shkodra itself.

The ratio of nearly five thousand Christian households to only sixty-nine Muslim undoubtedly speaks of a very insignificant presence of migrants from Anatolia in this region. It should be noted here, however, that the Ottoman settlers were seeking to get established in compact groups and, whenever possible, to found separate settlements. People's natural desire to feel the safety of their own environment in these alien, conquered by force, territories made it easier for the Ottoman administration, because in case of need it was possible to quickly and easily call the Anatolian Turks to the colours of the sancakbey. Therefore, the dispersion of Muslim households - one, two or three in a village, according to the Ottoman registers, is sooner an evidence of single cases of local people having adopted Islam. Sometimes those Muslims were the representatives appointed by the community or the clans to maintain official contacts with the Ottoman administration, who made an appearance of obedience and loyalty and in fact guaranteed the parallel self-government of the community. 

With regard to the subject discussed, the presence of the following notes found in the Ottoman cadastre of 1485 might be of interest. Entered in the records are ten timars (land holdings) held by Christians who had the title of kaznes before their names.⁴³  It was used both in written documents and in the spoken Albanian language as early as the 14th century with the meaning of elder, voyvoda in the highlands. These Christians were chiefs of katuns  (settlements of a tribal community or of cattle-breeding tribes in the mountainous parts of Northern Albania), and the villages they lived in, which were under their charge, were registered, no doubt on paper alone, as their timars. This was dictated by the wish of the central power to have at least minimum control over and contact with the population of the independent mountain communities by incorporating in some measure the community chiefs into its micro-administrative-governmental system. I focus my attention on this particular structure of power relations with the central authority, because they have been transferred to the modern times, especially in the province of Kosovo. The chief, entered in the register as timar-holder - de jure an Ottoman spahi under direct command, in fact defended the interests of these closed village communities which tolerated no alien presence and interference, and at the same time maintained contacts with the official power, seeing to the prompt collection and payment of taxes and the regular recruitment of soldiers for the Ottoman army. There is no evidence as to how strictly the chiefs fulfilled their duties, but certainly the central administration was unable to hold them responsible in any serious way. . Although this type of feudal estate was legalised as a timar and everywhere in the registers it is specified that the holders are spahis (that is subject to military service to the Empire), this is undoubtedly a specific form of execution of the Ottoman power taking into account the norms of the local customary law, the social and territorial system of the Albanians.