Imer Shabi

Imer Shabi or Ymer Shaba (c. 1825 - 1938) was an Albanian highlander warrior from Kuči who moved to Gusinje during the Albanian national awakening. In 1878, he fought in the Battle of Novsice. In an interview with the Albanian paper Hylli I Drites in 1938, Shabi, at the time 113 years old, explains how he was related through his mother to Marko Miljanov. Shabi had been killing Montenegrins during the night in the Kuç area and as a result Marko Miljanov had been searching to kill him. In the Battle of Novsice, Shabi witnessed how he and many other fighters arrived on the battlefield to find Jakup Ferri killed with his nose, lips and mustache cut off. A new fight began afterwards with yatagans and buttstrokes. After the battle, they carried with them 300 severed heads of the Montenegrin soldiers and put them on the fences in Gusinje. The following day mourning and ”vajtim” could be heard from the women in Gusinje as many men had not returned home.