Dıraç sanjak contained the fertile plain of Zadrima between Mirdita and the Drin river. Political life in the sanjak was dominated by a few powerful Albanian landowners such as the Toptani family who controlled the area around Kruja and Tirana as a personal fiefdom with family holdings amounting to some 123,000 acres. To protect economic interests landowning beys in the area maintained small private armies numbering between 200-500 men that also served as bodyguards during travel. In the 1880s from an Albanian point of view the sanjaks of İşkodra and Dıraç along with the whole of İşkodra vilayet belonged to the region of Gegënia.