Pal Kastrioti was an Albanian nobleman attested in 1383 as the lord of two villages, Sina and Lower Gardi. According to Gjon Muzaka Pal had three sons: Konstantin, Alexius and Gjon Kastrioti, the latter who was Skanderbeg's father.
Family
The first person to be mentioned as a Kastriot in historical documents, was a ruler of the Kanina in 1368. which belonged to the Principality of Valona. It is assumed by Ivan Božić that Pal's father received his estates in Albania from Serbian Emperor Dušan after he captured Berat, Valona and Kanina in 1345. Heinrich Kretschmayr asserts that Pal Kastrioti, the father of Gjon Kastrioti and grandfather of Skanderbeg, was in fact Kephale of Kanina in 1368. According to French historian Alain Ducellier and Albanian scholar Fan S. Noli, there is no proof that Kephale Kastriot was the ancestor of Skanderbeg. Noli further notes that, according to Andrea Engjell Flav Komneni, prince of Drisht and Bar, Skanderbeg's great-grandfather and Pal Kastrioti's father was Konstandin Kastrioti. German historian, Franz Babinger, argued in the 1960s that there seems to have been a consensus among scholars that kephale Branilo Kastrioti, Skanderbeg's great-grandfather and the earliest known ancestor of Skanderbeg, was of Serbian origin. Nevertheless, per Harry Hodgkinson that claim is result of a mistaken reading of medieval manuscript written in Serbian by Karl Hopf. Most Albanian historians consider the Kastrioti family as ethnic Albanians from Kastriot in Mat. Pal Kastrioti had three sons: Konstantin, Alexius and Gjon Kastrioti who was Skanderbeg's father. Alexius Kastrioti controlled three villages. Konstantin Kastrioti was protovestiarios of Sina near Durrazo. According to Venetian document discovered by Karl Hopf his title was Lord of Cerüja castle. Gjon Kastrioti was most famous of three brothers. Like many other noblemen from Albania, he became an Ottoman vassal since 1385. He supported Bayezid I in the Battle of Ankara in 1402 and revolted against the Ottomans during the Albanian Revolt of 1432-1436 led by Gjergj Arianiti.
Territory
At the end of 14th century Pal had the title "segnior de Signa et de Gardi-ipostesi", as the holder of the two villages of Sina and Lower Gardi. According to some sources the villages he governed were located on the mountain of Qidhna northwest of Debar. Those two villages were granted to Pal by Balša II, the lord of Zeta around 1383 as a fief. The decline of the Balšić family marked the ascendancy of the Kastrioti family. Gjon Kastrioti managed to expand the territory of Kastrioti's domain consisting of a couple of villages in the region of Debar by capturing the region of Mat. After Gjon's subjugation to the Ottomans his former estates would be surveyed in Ottoman registers as Yuvan-ili. One part of Gjon Kastrioti's domain comprising nine villages became a timar which was governed by Skanderbeg before it was granted to André Karlo in 1438, much to Skanderbeg's dismay.
