The League of Prizren was established with Ottoman support in 1878, after the Congress of Berlin decided to cede the towns of Plav and Gusinje, which were notably Muslim Albanian-inhabited, to the Principality of Montenegro. Ali Pasha, whose lands were part of the proposed cessations to Montenegro hosted a gathering of local Albanian leaders and mobilized Albanians of the area into a military force to resist and prevent territorial losses. He became one of League's founders and military commanders in the region of Plav and Gusinje. He was one of the commanders of irregulars mobilized by the League having assembled some 10,000-20,000 Albanian men and defeated Montenegrin troops in the Battle of Novšiće with his forces bringing back some sixty heads to Gusinje. He later used his forces against the Ottoman Empire. In the early phases of the attack against Mehmed Ali Pasha he commanded the volunteer troops that blocked the routes from Đakovica to the Ottoman-Montenegrin border.