Bushati

(also known as Bushatli), an Albanian feudal dynasty that ruled from the 15th century to 1831. The Dukagin princes founded the dynasty, one of whose most eminent representatives was Mahmud Pasha, also known as Bushati Mahmud Pasha or Kara Mahmud Pasha, who died Sept. 22, 1796. He reigned from 1775 in Turkey’s Albanian possessions (the Scutari pashalik). Mahmud Pasha attempted to establish an independent Albanian kingdom which would include Montenegro and Dalmatia. The characteristic features of the domestic policy of the Bushati were religious toleration, limitation of feudal civil strife, and the development of commerce and education (for example, the creation of a library in Scutari).