The Španji was a medieval people that inhabited the region of Nikšić and valley of river Zeta in modern-day Montenegro. According to legends, they were the most ancient tribe in this region. Legends also say that many other tribes were actually part of the Španji tribe. P. Rovinski recorded some legends that Španji were in conflict with other ancient tribes like Macure, Lužani and Bukumiri. The Lužani, the first Serb tribe to arrive in Upper Zeta, assimilated the Španji in what would later become Pješivci. The Lužani that lived in the region of rivers Tara and Lim were traditionally held as a mixture of Španji and Slav immigrants. In Bjelopavlići it is held that the Španji were the oldest inhabitants, after which came the Lužani and then the Bjelopavlići themselves. They are commonly treated as one of the non-Slavic, "Old Balkanic" peoples that were assimilated into the Serb ethnos. Serbianization of Španji and other tribes in the region began in the 6th and 7th centuries and according to M. Radovanović was completed when Serbs from surrounding regions retreated to the mountains of Montenegro and Herzegovina because of the 14th- and 15th century Ottoman invasion. Another theory is that the Španji were in fact Avars. The name has been connected to the Spanish name, while N. Đonović noted that there was a possibility that the Španji were remnants of Hispanian cohorts and soldiers in the Balkans. V. Ćorović etymologically related them with the Albanian tribeSpana mentioned around Shkodër and Drivastin the beginning of 14th century. Georgije Span from Lješ was town pharmacist in Kotor, then Ragusa, and again in Kotor where he died in 1458. Toponyms Španjska gradina and Španjsko katunište on mount Vražegrmac derive from the tribal name. Š. Kulišić derived their name from Old Greekspanios, meaning "naked", which might have been used by Greeks for the Illyrian inhabitants of the "naked" karst mountains; similarly, the name Pješivciderives from Slavic plješiv meaning "bald", and could have been attributed to the inhabitants of those "naked" mountains. Legends also say that they were beardless.
