Isa Boletini Biography

Isa Boletini[a] (15 January 1864 – 23 (24) January 1916) was a Kosovo Albanian nationalist figure and guerrilla fighter in the Ottoman Kosovo Vilayet. As a young man, he joined the Albanian nationalist League of Prizren and participated in a battle against Ottoman forces. After this, he was loyal to the Ottoman sultan and built a power base in the Mitrovica area, where he is said to have seized property from fellow Muslims and overlooked atrocities on local Serbs. He served as the commander of Ottoman palace guards in Istanbul for four years (1902–06), returning with a land grant, officer rank and the command of the local militia. In 1909 he and other Kosovo Albanian chieftains revolted against the Young Turk imposition of taxes on Muslims. Next, he took an important role in the 1910 revolt against Ottoman rule, while in the First Balkan War (1912) negotiated with both sides, then fought against the Montenegrin and Serbian armies in Kosovo. He participated in the Albanian Declaration of Independence in Vlorë (November 1912), and was then assigned as a diplomatic agent to the British (1913), and bodyguard of Prince William of Albania (1914). He was killed during a shoot-out in Podgorica under unclear circumstances in January 1916.