Gjilan

Gjilan is a city in eastern Kosovo, around 70km from the capital Pristina, near the borders with North Macedonia and close to the wider region bordering Greece. The city has a predominantly ethnic Albanian, Muslim population, per the 2011 census.

Gjilan’s city population is around 54,000, with the wider municipality at around 90,000. The city is the birthplace of Swiss international footballer Xherdan Shaqiri’s family roots in the region.

Origins of the Name

Ottoman-era travel writer Evliya Çelebi recorded the settlement on his route through the Sanjak of Vushtrri. Albanian sources trace the town’s name to a local landholder, Baba Ali Beg, whose family settled the area in the 18th century, while local tradition also links the name to the Sufi figure Abdul-Qadir Gilani, whose descendants are said to have first settled the area.