Bilisht was part of the Ottoman Empire for several centuries. Muslims in the kaza (district) of Bilisht owned tenet farms (baștina) in the late 16th century. Bilisht became an important centre for the Sufi Halveti order and maintained two or three tekkes in the town that were reliant on its tekke in Ohrid. During the Great Eastern Crisis, the Treaty of San Stefano nearly placed Albanian areas such as Bilisht in a proposed large Bulgarian state. Shortly thereafter it was superseded by the Treaty of Berlin that left the town and its surrounding area in the Ottoman Empire. In the late Ottoman period, the nahiya (sub-district) of Bilisht was a centre of revolutionary activity for Albanian and Aromanian cheta groups, whom collectively numbered some 150-200 individuals. Until the early twentieth century, Bilisht experienced population growth from the surrounding rural area, as it was a centre for artisan activities and trade located on important transport lines. It also made the town vulnerable in times of crisis to robberies and war. A Greek language school was already operating in Bilisht in 1888, while Greek education was still presented during the 1912-1914 period.