This document discusses the Kanun, an Albanian customary legal code that has governed social life for centuries. It begins by explaining the etymology and origins of the Kanun, tracing it back to the 15th century teachings of Prince Lekë Dukagjini. The Kanun consists of over 1,200 articles organized around four pillars: honor, hospitality, proper conduct, and kin loyalty. It regulates all aspects of life and is still actively practiced today, especially in northern Albania. The Kanun prioritizes honor and blood feuds, prescribing harsh penalties for crimes affecting honor. While banned under Communism, it survived underground and has seen a resurgence since the fall of Communism.

1. DEPARTMENT OF BALKAN, SLAVIC AND ORIENTAL STUDIES
MASTER’S DEGREE IN
POLITICS AND ECONOMICS OF CONTEMPORARY EASTERN AND SOUTH
EASTERN EUROPE
Instructor : Fotini Tsibiridou
Kanun, the Albanian Unwritten Law
Thessaloniki, May 2013
Postgraduate Student: Chatzipoulidis Nikolaos

2. Contents
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Kanun and its purpose
2.1 Etymology of the word Kanun
2.2 Time and Spatial boundaries
3. The context of the Code
3.1 Pillars and main concepts
3.2 Family
3.3 Marriage
3.4 Blood Feud
4. Conclusions
References

3. Kanun, the Albanian Unwritten Law
Abstract
First of all in order to understand what is Kanun we should say some words about its Origin
and purpose. During this paper will also try to address the very meaning of the word, where it
is applied even today and why. Secondly we will proceed with the examination of the content
its pillars in an effort to point out key concepts deeply engraved in the mentality of the
Albanian Populations.
Key Words: Kanun, Code of Leke, Customary Law, Albanian Populations
1. Introduction
Kanun is a corpus of customary laws which are dominating the lives of the Albanians for
many centuries a legacy which the elders left to younger generations through time in a
Patriarchic strongly hierarchical society organized around the concept of family and tribe
living no space or opportunities for personal initiatives “tying” the individual with its place
and family considering the individuals not as units but as parts of a wider set to whom they
owe subjection.
Kanun was practiced only among Albanian populations and varied from region to region and
from era to era. Although Kanun was banned and its practice was prosecuted during
communism it succeeded to survive and not only revive after the demise of Communist but
also come to the fore in a more radical form.
2. Kanun and its purpose
2.1. Etymology of the word

4. According to Fatos Tarifa (2008), an Albanian sociologist who extensively worked on the
subject, the term kanun comes from the Greek word "κανών" ("canon") . It means rule, norm
or measure. On the other hand Dr Jonas Grutzpalk (2002), professor of the department of
Social Sciences in Bielefeld Germany, believes that the word derives from the “canon” of the
Roman law. In a third interpretation of the word, the anthropologist Stephanie Schwander
argues that the word had Ottoman influence and the research must be focused in more recent
times. At last, Leonard’s Fox (1989) English translation states that the word derives from the
Greek Canon which acquired a legal significance during Byzantine times. The word
transmitted to Albanian language through Ottoman Turkish.
2.2. Time and spatial boundaries
Kanun, or in other words the Kode of Leke Dukagjini, is a body of traditional customary
laws with norms and mores. Doctrines of the Albanian Prince Leke closest friend and battle
companion with the National Albanian hero Kastriot Skanderbeg who unite all the Albanian
Kingdoms to defend against the Ottomans over 600 years ago (Tarifa, 2008.)
His teachings recorded in the memory of that time elder tribal elite and transmitted to the
youngsters by word , an existing tradition up until today. Kanun is a kode that covers all
aspect of life in Albanian society. Its cornerstone is Besa. Some of its meanings are: word of
Honor ,trust, protection, oath. The Key principle is the Personal or Family Honor, a principle
above all others, even life itself.
Kanun was the framework of Regulation and self-governance in Feudal Albanian
Principalities, that lacked unified state apparatus (Doja, 2011; Tarifa, 2008; Mangalakova,
2004).
Although authors address Kanun roots since the bronze age others argue that the code has to
do with more recent times . The etymological origin of the word is debatable, but according
to university of Michigan and Burda (2010) the undisputable is what Kanun refers to :”
Kanun is a common practice in the areas inhabited by Albanian speaking peoples long before
any semblance of a unified Albanian nation-state existed” (Kanun-Wikipedia; Burda, 2010).
The first question that we have to answer is to find the reasons why the Kanun law is
exercised more at the Northern part of Albania and less at Southern or in other areas
inhabited by Albanian populations, such as Montenegro, Kosovo, Tetovo. We take as an
indicative measurement the number of active blood feuds, a key Characteristic of the code in
its attempt to relegate “Honor Crimes”.

5. In order to answer that question about the present, it is obligatory to put under examination
the past at least since 15th
Century ac (Kanun-Wikipedia).
There is only one Kanun, since the ancient times, commonly referred to the "Kanun of Leke",
from which six later variations eventually evolved. These variations are categorized according
to the area, the personality and their origin: Old Kanun, The Kanun of Leke Dukagjini, The
Kanun of Çermenike, The Kanun of Papa Zhuli, The Kanun of Laberia and the Kanun
of Skandebeg. The names are not personal but geographical, depicting the stronger families
that rule the fragmented into tiny Kingdoms Albanian territory (Kanun-Wikipedia, Boman &
Krasniqi, 2012).
The starting point of the examination is the era that the Kanun was rationalized and codified
by Leke Dukagjini an Albanian Prince and nominator.
Thus, Kanun became a Corpus of oral laws that affect every aspect of the Albanian life, a
Code that is far from being eradicated, even nowadays, regulating the life of the Albanians
(Mangalakova, 2004).
After the placement of a time boundary in the research, it is time to try to apply a spatial one,
with both of them being useful tools in our research.
Kanun or in other words the Canon of Leke Dukagjini is mostly applied at Northern
mountain Villages, the villages of the Albanian highlanders that many folklorists and travelers
described as something exotic and in some cases attributed to them even divine powers.
Populations which are inhabiting the territories north of the Shkumbin River have lived for
many centuries in large clans observing the code of the Kanun (Mangalakova, 2004).
Lekë Dukagjini ruled the territories of Pulati, Puka, Mirdita, Lura, and Luma in northern
Albania. The most notorious city of the region is Shkodër, the city with the most active
vendettas nowadays, with at least 400 families to be in blood feuds, according to data reported
by the Committee for National Reconciliation based in Tirana (Tarifa, 2008).
Taking into account the historical explanation, the Empires that through the ages passed ,
after all didn’t had a serious impact on the way of living. A plausible explanation is that
Empires such as the Ottoman, exercised only nominal authority on these parts of Albanian
territory, as these tribes proved a difficult opponent for the Ottoman army. That happened due
to the fact that both the terrain and the lack of roads were significant obstacles for the
deployment of big armies, which could possibly subdue the local mountaineers (Tarifa, 2008).
The Kanun itself became an expression of independence and autonomy of the northern clans
(Boman & Krasniqi, 2012).
On the other hand, it would be stressed that the populations living at the southern part of

6. Albania had been influenced more by the Ottoman authorities. Many Albanians adopted the
Ottoman legislation and became a vital part of the Ottoman system having fully integrated in
it, holding in many cases prestigious positions both in the army and in administration (Tarifa,
2008).
In order to understand and address the worship of the Kanun and all its repercussions, with
the Blood Feud to be the most severe, it is obligatory to state that the main reason for the
disperse of the phenomenon is not only the external but also the internal migration from the
poor rural north to the richer central and south regions of the country (Mangalakova, 2004).
3. The context of the Code
Kanun is consisted by 1,262 articles and has 4 pillars which are: Honor (Nderi), Hospitality
(Mikpritja), Right Conduct (Sjellja), Kin Loyalty (Fis) (Kanun-Wikipedia)
The code regulates every aspect of the Albanian life and, although it was practicing many
Centuries, firstly rationalized During 15th century and was not published up until 1933.
According to Mangalakova (2004), the text of 1933 was categorized in 12 sections: “Church”,
“The Family”, “Marriage”, “The House cattle and Property”, “Work”, “Loans”, “Pledge”,
”Honor”, “Damages”, “The Kanun against Harm”, “The Kanun of Judgment” and “Exception
and Exceptions”.
The new era made modifications to the code. For example, when the Ottomans introduced the
firearms, making the killing easier, the part that regulates punishment and especially
Vengeance and Vendetta, altered in order to prevent possible mass killings that, instead of
regulation, would led to great loss of lives (Tarifa, 2008).
Reinterpretation of Code was a common phenomenon, if we take into account the fact that the
law was transmitted from mouth to mouth, usually from the village elders or the elders of the
tribe, to the youngsters and that it left open space for personal contributions or interpretations.
3.1. Pillars and main concepts
The cornerstone of the Kanun is the concept of Besa, a term which appear to be very rich in
meaning and uses such as oath, faith, trust, protection, truce, word of honor, or all of them
together. Consequently, we can assume that the Honor, both the personal and family one, is
the ultimate principle, the most valuable asset that someone possesses and that’s above wealth
or other tangible assets that may own.

7. That conclusion came at the surface as we noticed that the penalties to crimes that have
relevance to “Honor” are way more stricter than these applied to common crimes: “blood is
paid for with blood” (Kanun, p 172) (Tarifa, 2008; Burda, 2010)
Many researchers , anthropologists or even common travelers that either examined or just
passed through the region could verify the Albanian Hospitality.
According to Fatos Tarifa (2008), there are many causes, for practical and spiritual reasons.
For example hospitality was sanctified in the Kanun as a basic institution of society. The way
that is expressed and what actually means for those people, which although live a life of
deprivations confronting every day the scarcity of material resources in remote inaccessible
areas, have the pride to provide not only shelter for the traveler but also provide him security
or even avenge for his death, if the guest be killed during that time.(Tarifa, 2008; Hasluck,
1954).
The third pillar, called Right Conduct, in other words the way that Kanun defines as the
appropriate one for the people to behave. Every person has its place. The role of the women,
in this patriarchal system, is devaluated and more or less they spent all their life in service of
the men and of its family, as they are obliged to live with them after their marriage (Kanun
-Wikipedia,Hasluck, 1954).
But, it was not only the women that had their “place”. Every aspect and persons role was
regulated by the Kanun. To begin with, every household had a leader and the leadership
passed to his first son. If he was unable or incapable to fulfill this task, the household had to
decided which man will be the household's next leader. Families consisted the clans of
village and every clan had to elect from its ranks a representative of hers to the council of
elders. The council of elders appoints the headman (Kryeplak) who run the village duties,
which are the maintenance of public order arrangement around, the use of water topics in the
around pasture land or fields, complaints and demands of the villagers (Waal, 2007; Hasluck,
1954).
The fourth pillar, called Kin Loyalty (Fis), a notion with great importance and significance.
Without it, the whole system is doomed to collapse. In more plain English, to be loyal to your
family and Kin is the greater virtue, and if not the leader, more of the time the father had the
right to disinherit a member of the family, most of the times a disobedient son.
Now our analysis will proceed with further examination of the context of Kanun and
especially with some notable sections out of the 12, that form the code, in a try to delineate
the unwritten law. We will study family , marriage , and Blood Feuds.
The reasons for these specific choices are :

8. • The Family is the key component of Albania’s social structure and whole Kanun
regulates the relations both between families and clans but also between the members
of the family
• Marriage symbolizes the birth and the continuation of the family and
• Blood Feud symbolizes the Punishment and Death.
3.2. The Family
According to the Kanun (page 18), family is : a group of human beings who live under the
same roof, whose aim is to increase their number by means of marriage for their
establishment and the evolution of their state, and for the development of their reason and
intellect. There were many cases especially at the past that many families lived under the
same roof. According to the customary law, if a family had many sons, every one at the
proper age should bring a bride and build a new room where he would live with the family
that he would create. There are cases of 70-80 people living in the same roof ( Boman &
Krasniqi, 2012; Hasluck, 1954).
Security was another serious reason for living all together, as that meant that bigger families
had more men and consequently more guns to defend the family, in case of attack or even to
apply their will to other smaller families taking of course the risk of Vendetta. For many
centuries these lands were insecure for many reasons such as : the lack of local police or army
in order to confront bandits, the lack of roads, the inaccessible terrain, the poor
communications or the lack of them, as these little Kingdoms were usually enemies between
each other. But, above all, the lack of a unified state apparatus had led the Kanun to substitute
all these inefficiencies (Hasluck, 1954).
Although nowadays the customary law may look primitive and out of date, we have to admit
that everybody would be quite astonished by its practicality.
The family is divided to its members. The members are called the people of the house and
they are parts of a bigger group called brotherhood. Brotherhoods are parts of kinship groups
and these, in their turn, components of clans. Clans consist the banners and all together
constitute one widespread family called nation, which has one homeland, common blood, a
common language and common customs (kanun p19; Boman & Krasniqi, 2012).
3.3. Marriage

9. The role of marriage, as Kanun depicts, is only a mean in order to be born children, with
purpose to increase the workforce of the household. As Burda (2010) states : “customary law
was extremely misogynistic, and brutally repressed the lives of females”. The women cannot
choose their own husbands. The parents are arranging the marriage. In order a marriage to be
arranged, a relative of the man's or woman's family, called the matchmaker, has the right to
speak with both parents of the future couple. According to the Kanun, “a girl does not
become a bride without a matchmaker” (Kanun §40; Boman & Krasniqi, 2012). The women
could not resent with the decisions of theirs husbands, especially in front of others, that would
be a sign of disobedience and the man would be dishonored. That kind of behavior would had
negative consequences. If the woman had to say something, she had to wait until the couple
was alone. That was happening only in their room, as they had dinner separately, and was
inappropriate to spend much time together during day time. If the man was spending much
time with his wife, he was accused as effeminate and both of them would be punished
(Hasluck, 1954).
Although the kanun under communism was banned, as it was perceived by the central
authorities as an opposition act to Communism, the younger generations not only are not
ignorant of Kanun rules, but, on the contrary, they had detailed knowledge of it, a fact that
contributed in its resurgence, after the demise of Communism (Waal, 2007)
3.4. Blood Feud
In the last part of this paper will deal with the issue of blood feud and the role of
Reconciliator, a part of Kanun law which gave him great publicity around scientific circles,
outside Albania.
As we already stated, at the beginning of this paper, the Kanun is back in the lives of the
Albanians and since 1990 approximately 2500 -3000 families are detained in their homes, as
they are in Vendetta with one or more families. According to the law, you cannot kill a man in
his home, but nevertheless, since many centuries ago, the houses in Albanian countryside had
the windows above the heads of the inhabitants, in order outsiders to not be able to see what
they are doing and consequently shoot them (Tarifa, 2008; Hasluck, 1954).
Except that, many houses in Albanian rural areas are, even today, surrounded by tall walls
residue of earlier times when the houses even had turrets and loopholes.
As it have been stated, Kanun reappeared in a different form more violent. Many violent
crimes, after the demise of Communism, are affiliated with it, for example, in the adultery
cases the man can kill both his woman and the other man and no one must not seek for

10. revenge. Many blood feuds had began when the inviolable term of not killing women and
children, as reprisal acts, finally broke (Mangalakova, 2004).
Another case is when somebody uses Kanun in order to do other illegal activities as keeping
ganster killing scores, taking revenge for cases that have to do with drugs , trafficking etc,
misusing Kanun not for the restoration of Honor but for personal gain (Mangalakova, 2004).
The role of Reconciliator is a vital one he is the intermediate among the two opposite sides. A
blood feud ends with the compromise of the two opposite sides. They sign a sort of “Treaty”
stating that they are no longer enemies and no one will take the guns against each other,
neither now nor in the future.
4. Conclusions
In a broader sense knowing about Kanun is hint for the outsider in order to address behaviors
that otherwise would look primitive unreasonable and would led consequently the “outsider”
of this equation to reproduce stereotypes about them classifying these people as something
totally different from him. Its not in my intentions to criticize the law but on the other hand i
will argue that the Kanun wouldn’t have been so popular in some areas if the state was an
important actor in the area, especially among people that inherited a different mentality acting
and taking decisions at the local level functioning as closed societies. In order this situation to
change and this parallel law application system to be curtailed, the state has to regain peoples
trust and respect, acting as a responsible institution of security and justice.
So a set of new principles must be applied in the region, principles which although will not
openly confront with Kanun on the other hand will introduce different values in an effort to
promote the democratization of the Region. Values totally different from the Patriarchic and
hierarchical social structure that Kanun preaches.

11. References
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Albanians in Sweden. Sweden: Malmoe University (Master Thesis).
Burda, E. (2010). Customary Law and the Nation: The Significance of Kanun in the
Emergence and Development of Albanian Nationalist Discourse. Michigan:
University of Michigan, Russian and Easter European Studies. Pp. 12-26
Doja, A. (2011). Customary Laws, Folk Culture, and Social Lifeworlds: Albanian
Studies in Critical Perspective. Luka Breneselovic (ed.), Beograd: Sluzbeni, vol. 2,
pp. 183–199.
Fox L. (1989) “Introduction.” In Gjeçov Shtjefën, The Code of Lekë Dukagjini.
Trans. New York: Gjonlekaj Publishing Company. pp. xvi-xix.
Fox, Leonard, “Introduction” and “Note on Translation” in Kanuni i Lekë Dukagjinit,
The Code of Lekë Dukagjini, Arranged by Gjeçov, Shtjefën, Gjonlekaj Publishing
Company, New York, 1989, pp xvi-xx
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Durkheims Theories. doi: 10.1177/1468795X02002002854 , Journal of Classical
Sociology July 2002 vol. 2 no. 2 115-134
Hasluck, M. (1954). The Unwritten Law in Albania. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanun
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Montenegro. Sofia: International Centre for Minority Studies and Intercultural
Relations (IMIR).
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12. Waal, C. de (2007). Albania today. A pertrait of Post-Communist Turbulence.
London: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd.