Солтүстік Македониядағы Полог аймағының тарихы мен географиясы

Valley in North Macedonia

Polog (; ), also known as the Polog Valley (; ), is located in the north western part of North Macedonia, near the border with Kosovo. It is divided into Upper and Lower Polog Tetovo and Gostivar are the largest populated towns in this valley and Albanians form an ethnic majority in the region. Polog Statistical Region is named after the valley.

The name Polog is Slavic in origin most likely coming from the Slavic word pole meaning "field".

The Polog Valley and the surrounding regions belonged to the Illyro Dardanian cultural sphere of influence. Throughout antiquity, the Polog valley and its main settlements Oaeneum and Draudacum were ruled and inhabited by the Illyrian Penestae tribe as well as the Dardanians. The Polog region served as a border region between the Dardanians and the lands of the Paeonians. In the period of 800–550 BC, the Dardani broke into Pelagonia via Oaeneum (Tetova) and Draudacum (Gostivar) and pushed the Phrygian Bridges there into the northern hills. However, by 168 BCE, Gentius and Perseus were both defeated by the Romans and the Polog Valley region became a part of the Roman province of Illyricum.

The Polog region remained within Illyricum until Diocletian's reforms, when it became a part of Epirus Nova in the 4th century AD. Christianity spread to the Polog region during the later period of Roman rule and reached the region relatively early. St Paul preached the Gospel in the region.

The earliest references to the division of Polog in what is today "lower" and "upper" can be found in the Alexiad written by Anna Komnene when she mentions two Pologs, and the earliest records to the division of Polog into specifically "lower" and "upper" in the 12th century. Serbian medieval sources also make a distinction between a "lower" and "upper" Polog but most commonly they refer to "the two Pologs", the region was put under firm control of the Serbian state in the reign of King Milutin where the first cases of pronoia in the Serbian state were recorded
Some of the earliest recorded settlements in Polog are from the 11th century with only one having the rank of city, Gradec, other settlements recorded in the 13th century are Tetovo, Banica/i, Rečica, Lisec, Točil, Leskov jane, Nerašte, Radeevo. Of these settlements Htetovo would become the central hub of the region, today known as Tetovo. Because of the famous Holy Mother of God monastery in the vicinity the city will experience rapid progress, while the previously larger cities of Gradec and Lešok would stagnate and become villages. The region including the city of Tetovo would remain under the dominance of the Serbs until the arrival of the Ottomans. Between the years 1348–1353, Albanians are mentioned by Serbian Tsar Stefan Dušan as farmers and soldiers in the district of Tetovo within the Polog region. In 1337, Dušan restored the Monastery of St Mary (Lešok Monastery) and gifted the monastery the local Albanian villages in the region, as well as the Nanov Dol highlands. Dušan barred everyone, particularly the Albanians, from grazing the sheep in these highlands. Voisava Kastrioti, the mother of Skanderbeg, is believed to be the daughter of a minor lord from the Pollog Valley. Polog and its vicinity including the city of Tetovo would be given to Pasha Yigit after its conquest in 1392 alongside Skopje and would be part of the Kalkendelen kaza which was an affiliated kaza of the Skopje Sandjak. After the expulsion of up to 70,000 Albanians from the former Sanjak of Nish in 1877–1878, several families of these Albanian Muhaxhirs settled in the Pollog Valley region. Albanian arrivals from the Upper Reka region in the late Ottoman era began to settle amongst the wider, existent Albanian population of the Pollog Valley; migrants from Upper Reka relocated to the following villages in Upper Pollog: Čegrane, Forino, Korito, Balin Dol, Malo Turčane, Dolna Banjica, Sretkovo, Novo Selo, Rečane, Vrutok, Pečkovo, Zdunje, Vrapčište, Kalište and Gradec. In Lower Pollog, these migrants settled in: Gorno Sedlarce, Rakovec, Žerovjane, Radiovce, Tenovo, Lukovica, Sedlarevo and Gurgurnica.

In 1912–1913, there were 43,230 Albanians living in the Pollog Valley region.