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The Mataruge (alternatively, Mataruga or Motoruga) were a medieval Albanian tribe which originally lived in Old Herzegovina and southern Dalmatia. Their name is attested in historical record for the first time in 1222 in the Pelješac peninsula of Dalmatia. Throughout the 20th century, they were considered to have stopped existing as a separate community during the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans in the 15th century. Modern research in the Ottoman archives showed that they had dispersed throughout the western Balkans following Ottoman conquest and formed settlements in other areas. By 1477, a part of them lived in the kaza of Prijepolje, where they formed their own distinct community (nahiye) with 10 villages (katund). One of their leaders appears in the defter to have been a Vojko Arbanash.[1] Other Mataruga communities had moved in central Croatia and Bosnia.[2] Over time they became culturally integrated in the surrounding communities of their new homelands. Families who trace their origin to the tribe are found today in all countries of the western Balkans.
- ^ Rexha, Iljaz. "SHTRIRJA DHE SLLAVIZIMI I VLLAZËRIVE ALBANE MESJETARE, BURMAZI DHE MATARUGA NË AREALIN E TREKËNDËSHIT TË KUFIJVE TË BOSNJËS E HERCEGOVINËS, MALIT TË ZI DHE SERBISË (SIPAS DY DEFTERËVE TË SANXHAKUT TË HERCEGOVINËS TË SHEK. XV) [Geography and Slavicization of the Albanian brotherhoods of Burmazi and Mataruga in the border area between Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia according to two defters of the 15th century]".
- ^ SGZ 1962, p. 7.