The earliest written document that marks the beginning of Arbanasi's history is a royal decree by the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent from 1538, according to which the sultan offered the lands of the modern localities of Arbanasi, Lyaskovets, Gorna Oryahovitsa and Dolna Oryahovitsa to his son-in-law Grand Vizier Rustem Pasha as a gift. The four villages are united under the name "Arnaud Kariyeleri" ("the Albanian villages") in the document, and the first settlers may have been Albanians and Greeks from Epirus; although Albanian-sounding names could be found in the Ottoman tax registers, Orthodox and Slavic names already prevailed.