ILLYRIANS

Serbian Colonisation of Kosovo 1918~1941

2010-11-29T11:21:00.000-08:00

The Serbian Colonisation of Kosovo was a state project implemented by the Kingdom of Yugoslavia during the interwar period (1918-1941).During this colonisation, on Kosovo was settled between 60,000 and 65,000 colonists. Over 90% of the total number of colonists were Serbs.

Parallel with the Yugoslav colonisation, it was carried out the process of forced migration of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo.The colonisation of Kosovo and related events have greatly contributed to Serbian-Albanian conflict.

Colonisation process

Early colonisation of Kosovo began during the Balkan Wars. After the World War I began systematic colonisation as a state project of Yugoslavian Kingdom. The Belgrade government has begun a comprehensive programme of colonisation of Kosovo, giving advantage to former soldiers or members of the Chetnik units. Colonists were regularly supplied with weapons by the government.

Colonists were initially received land that was taken away from its actual owners with regular papers.According to the Kosovo Institute of History, a large number of settlers were moved into the houses of ethnic Albanians who were forcibly evicted.They often moved into the house confiscated from ethnic Albanian rebels. Seizure of Albanian land leads to the revolt of entire villages, and even military intervention.

The Serbian politician Vaso Cubrilovic criticised the gradual colonisation and demanded radical measures. In 1937 he proposed expulsion of the Albanians as a final solution of the "Albanian problem" in Yugoslavia:

"In our examination of colonisation in the south, we hold the view that the only effective means of solving this problem is the mass expulsion of the Albanians. Gradual colonisation has had no success in our country, nor in other countries for that matter. If the state wishes to intervene in favour of its own people in the struggle for land, it can only be successful by acting brutally".[11]
—Vaso Cubrilovic, Memorandum

The table shows total number of registered serb settlers in each Kosovo area
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Regional Centre-----------------Number of Colonists

Uroševac ------------------------ 15,381
Đakovica ------------------------ 15,824
Prizren ------------------------- 3,084
Peć------------------------------ 13,376
Kosovska Mitrovica--------------- 429
Vučitrn ------------------------- 10,169
Total -------------------------- 58,263

Legalisation - Expulsion Through Legal Acts

In the First Balkan War, Serbian and Montenegrin military, apart from the genocide exerted upon the Albanian population, carried out also their forceful expulsion. Thus in the territories of the Albanians villages were burned down and the frightened population ran away pursued by Serbian military, and those who remained there were shot or sent to concentration camps, such as Niš and other places. Only in Prishtina, more than 5,000 Albanians were killed by Serbian military on 22 October, 1912.12 On 27 October, 650 Albanians were sent to the camp in Niš, and on 30 October, 1912, another 700 of them.13 This genocide continued all the time till 1915, when Serbian military and government moved to Corfu as they were defeated in the First World War.
During the period between 1912-1915, parallel to expatriation of the Albanians, their land was populated by Serbian colonists: officials, policemen and others. On 20 February, 1914, Serbian government passed the Law-decree on Agrarian Reforms and Colonisation in the occupied regions.14 The minister of Economy and Forestry formed respective bodies for colonisation. That decree was in effect until 1919.
In the period between 1912-1915, Serbian government colonised the Albanian regions; they took the houses of the Albanians that had been resettled by force; then new colonies were erected, such as the village-colony Tankosic, in the territory of the villages Sllatina, Mirosala, etc. They changed the names of settlements: the town of Ferizaj was named Urosevac (1914). Montenegro acted in a similar way in Dukagjin. The government of Montenegro formed a committee (November, 1912), that was authorised to recognise the ownership of the property to the Albanians only in cases they had papers of more than fifty years ago, verified by the Register (Defterhane) in Istanbul; otherwise their real estate was ordered to get registered as state ownership. The committee was obliged to fix 55,000 acres of land to 5,000 Montenegrins for their colonisation in Dukagjin, by December 1913. On 27 February, 1914, the government passed a law on colonisation of the land ‘annexed' to Montenegro, which was in effect until 1915, when Montenegro was destroyed.
After the end of the First World War and the creation of the Serbian-Croatian-Slovenian Kingdom (SCSK), forceful colonisation in the Albanian land continued. On 25 February, 1919, the government of SCSK passed the Decree ‘Preliminary Regulations on Settlement of Agrarian Relations'15 which was in effect until 1931, when ‘the Law on Agrarian Reform and Colonisation' was passed. This law intended the colonisation of Kosova, expropriation of the Albanians' ownership, ethnic cleansing, forceful emigration and serbianisation of the Albanian regions.
Various genocidal measures were used for the expulsion of the Albanians. In the period between 1913-1939, ‘flying detachments' of military and policemen acted to punish and massacre the population. From 1918 to 1938, the military burned and destroyed 320 villages with Albanian population. Only between 1918-1921, it killed 12,346 persons, put 22,160 people into prison, plundered 50,515 houses and burned down 6,125 houses.16 These facts and others prove of expropriation, plundering the Albanians and expatriating them from their land, on the basis of discriminating laws and a continuous campaign for their extermination.

Expulsion of Albanians (1912-1941)

The forceful expulsion of the Albanians from Kosova, the Sanjac and Macedonia began during the First Balkan War (October, 1912). According to the documents of Serbian diplomacy, 239,807 people were expatriated until March 1914, without accounting the children up to six years old. Albanian families from Kosova, Sanjak and Macedonia were deported through Cavalo of Greece and by the land road to Turkey. This forceful emigration continued. According to the evidence on this matter, the number of the expatriated people amounted to 281,747, without accounting the children up to six years old, till August 1914.17
In the property of the expatriated families, the government of the Serbian Kingdom settled more than 20,000 Serbian families, and Montenegro planned to colonise 5,000 families.18
The emigration caused by violence continued also after the end of the First World War and to the Second World War. According to the evidence of Serbian diplomacy, it was a mass forceful expatriation of the Albanians without the right to return, as the following table can show:
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Year = Persons--------------Year = Persons
1919 = 23500 --------------- 1930 = 13215
1920 = 8532 --------------- 1931 = 29807
1921 = 24532 --------------- 1932 = 6219
1922 = 12307 --------------- 1933 = 3420
1923 = 6389 --------------- 1934 = 4500
1924 = 9630 --------------- 1935 = 9567
1925 = 4315 ----------------1936 = 4252
1926 = 4012 --------------- 1937 = 4234
1927 = 5197 --------------- 1938 = 7251
1928 = 4326 --------------- 1939 = 7255
1929 = 6219 --------------- 1940 = 6729

Albanians: 215,412
Turks: 27,884
Bosnians from Sanjak: 2,582
Total: 255,878
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A number of Albanians from Kosova emigrated forcefully to the territory of reduced Albania of 1912. According to military documents of the Yugoslav Kingdom, from the Albanian territories that Serbia occupied, 4,046 Albanian families from Kosova, Macedonia, Sanjac and Montenegro, emigrated to Albania between 1919-1938. The Albanian government settled those families in the environs of Shkodra, Durrës, Kruja, Kavaja, Berat, Saranda, Koplik, Lushnja, Fier, Tirana, Leskovik and Kukës.20 Besides Turkey and Albania, the Albanians had to emigrate forcefully to other countries of Europe and the world too. In this way the Albanian Diaspora was formed in Europe and America.

Besa~ The Albanian code of honour

2010-11-28T11:17:00.000-08:00

Besa is an Albanian cultural precept, usually translated as "faith", that means "to keep the promise" and "word of honor".The word's origin can be traced to the Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini, a collection of Albanian traditional customs and cultural practices. Besa is an important part of personal and familial standing and is often used as an example of "Albanianism". Someone who breaks his besa may even be banished from his community. The roots of this code sprouted from the Code of Leke Dukagjini, an Albanian cultural code.

Besa related sayings include:
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* Besa e shqiptarit nuk shitet pazarit (besa of an Albanian can not be sold or bought in a bazaar)
* Shqiptari kur jep fjalen therr djalin (an Albanian can sacrifice his own son in order to keep his word(=besa)
* Shqiptaret vdesin dhe besen nuk e shkelin (Albanians would die rather than break besa)
* Besa e shqiptarit si purteka e arit, etj (the Albanians' besa is worth more than gold)

Besa during the World War II
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Besa also means taking care of those in need and being hospitable. During World War II, Albanians, 70% of whom are Muslim, saved over 2000 Jews from Nazi persecution.Albanians are noted for their lack of religious hatred.Both Albanian Christians and Muslims adhere to the besa code and saved Jews during World War II. Rather than hiding the Jews in attics or the woods, Albanians gave them clothes, gave them Muslim names, and treated them as part of the family. The concept of besa is incorporated into their religion.Before World War II only about 200 Albanians were Jewish. At the end of the war about 2000 Jews were living in Albania.

Patrona Halil

2010-11-27T12:33:00.000-08:00

Patrona Halil was the instigator of an albanian mob uprising in 1730 in Istanbul which replaced Sultan Ahmed III with Mahmud I and ended the Tulip period.

Halil was an Albanian from Macedonia. He became a Janissary and after joining a Janissary rebellion in Niš and leading one in 1720 in Vidin, he moved to the capital. He was known to have engaged in petty trade and crafts like working as a hammam attendant. He spent much of his time at meyhanes of Galata. Halil was known as Horpeşteli Arnavut Halil after his place of birth and nationality but his Albanian compatriots called him Patrona (Vice Admiral).

For weeks after the revolt, the empire was in the hands of the insurgents. Patrona Halil rode with the new sultan to the Mosque of Eyub where the ceremony of girding Mahmud I with the Sword of Osman was performed; many of the chief officers were deposed and successors to them appointed at the dictation of the bold rebel who had served in the ranks of the Janissaries and who appeared before the sultan bare-legged and in his old uniform of a common soldier. A Greek butcher, named Yanaki, had formerly given credit to Patrona and had lent him money during the three days of the insurrection. Patrona showed his gratitude by compelling the Divan to make Yanaki Hospodar of Moldavia. Yanaki however never took charge of this office.

The Khan of the Crimea assisted the Grand Vizier, the Mufti and the Aga of the Janissaries in putting down the rebellion. Patrona was killed in the sultan's presence after a Divan in which he had commanded that war be declared against Russia. His Greek friend, Yanaki, and 7,000 of those who had supported him were also put to death. The jealousy which the officers of the Janissaries felt towards Patrona, and their readiness to aid in his destruction, facilitated the exertions of Mahmud I's supporters in putting an end to the rebellion.

Songs of the Battle of Kosovo

2010-11-23T12:45:00.000-08:00

The Battle of Kosovo, also known as the Battle of Kosovo Polje, which took place north of Prishtina on the morning of 15 June 1389 (28 June old style), was a major event in the Ottoman conquest of the Balkan Peninsula. Much of the factual history surrounding the battle has, however, remained obscure.

According to tradition, Sultan Murad I (r. 1359-1389), who had been occupied pacifying Asia Minor, returned to the Balkans and brought together a huge coalition of forces from among his southern Serbian, Bulgarian and Albanian vassals, many of whom were Christians, such as Constantine Dejanovich and the famed Serb leader Marko Kraljevich, enemy of Lazar. The opposing forces under Prince Lazar of Serbia und King Tvrtko of Bosnia were a coalition including Bosnian troops under Vlatko Vukovich, the Vlach contingents of Voyvode Mircea, the troops of Lazar’s son-in-law Vuk Brankovich and Albanian forces under George Balsha and Demeter Jonima.

Ottoman forces won the day and both leaders, Lazar and Sultan Murad, met their deaths. According to legend, Sultan Murad was assassinated. One version has it that the knight Milosh Obilich or Kobilich, taunted and insulted by Vuk Brankovich, slipped heroically into the imperial tent and stabbed the sultan to death, before being killed by the guards.

The Battle of Kosovo has been a central theme of southern Balkan legendry over the centuries. The splendid Serb songs of the battle are well known. There are, however, also songs preserved in the collective memory of the Albanians, that are less known in the world at large. Some of these Albanian Songs of the Battle of Kosovo are relatively complete, whereas others are sketchy. A representative sample of them is presented here in English.

Here is a synopsis, by Anna Di Lellio, of the legend that serves as a basis for the Songs of the Battle of Kosovo:

The epic tells the story of Murat, son of the first Ottoman sultan Ohran. Murat is a pious man who lives his life according to the law of Islam. One night an unsettling dream wakes him up. He tells his mother that he has seen two eagles perched on his right shoulder, stars fall to earth and the sun and the moon plunge into the ocean. The court interpreter reads this as an announcement of battle and death: the eagles have come to gather the army and conquer Kosovo, where Murat and many of his men will find their death as martyrs.

The Sultan calls on all towns to contribute troops for his campaign, and 70,000 answer the call to fight. He then gives anyone who does not have the heart to leave his family behind, or is not pious enough, permission to go back home. Only half of the men start the long march to Kosovo.

Upon reaching the ocean, the Sultan prays for God to separate the water and let the army cross on dry land. Once on the other side, again he addresses his army. He calls once again upon his men to leave behind all regrets or go back home, but also to behave like religious men or abandon the mission. 12,000 renew their vow to fight to their deaths and make their way to Thessaloniki and Skopje. There, they stop by a river to rest.

The next battle at the Kaçanik Gorge takes a heavy toll. Dust and smoke make it impossible for anyone to see the battlefield. Only when the Sultan prays to Allah does the air clear, making it possible to count the dead. Vowing vengeance, the Sultan promises that he will make his men wade knee-deep through a river of enemy blood. He then addresses the troops for the third time and asks whether anyone committed an impious act, thus causing the downfall.

When a soldier confesses to having plucked an apple from a tree, the Sultan redirects his army back to the river in search of the owner of the orchard. The soldiers must ask for his forgiveness or give him a monetary compensation. It turns out that the owner does not want any money, but asks to be appointed Grand Vizier, a demand that the Sultan accepts. The soldiers ready for battle again by performing ablutions and prayers. Arriving in Golesh, they find no water to assuage their thirst. The Sultan asks God for help, and when he strikes a boulder with his fist, water pours out copiously. On the next battle in Ferizaj, God answers the Sultan’s prayers again and makes him victorious.

Once in Prishtina, Murat sees seven fortified castles on the mountain of Çiçavica. He learns from the Grand Vizier that seven bailiffs live there and are always at war with each other. Then, he sends the local lord Millosh Kopiliq a message, in which he demands that all the keys of the castles be surrendered in order to avoid battle. Kopiliq is at first uncertain of what to do. When his wife tries to reassure him that the Sultan would not harm them, he loses his patience, punches her in the jaw, and breaks her teeth. He then sets out to reach Peja and talk to the king.

The king answers the request coming from the Ottoman camp with a vow of defiance. He orders Kopiliq to send thirty maidens to the enemy camp to distract the soldiers and spy on them. Contrary to expectations, the maidens are not robbed or molested; they are given hospitality as the Sultan has ordered. Back home to report to Kopiliq, they tell him of the good reception they have enjoyed, but also of the strength of the enemy army, unmatched by their own. Upon hearing this news, Kopiliq decides that the information needs to be dramatically changed in order not to demoralize the king into surrender. He orders the maidens to complain about mistreatment and describe a weary Ottoman army, struck by the plague.

That message inevitably provokes the king to prepare his army for battle. Kopiliq asks for time and announces his plan to meet the Sultan alone and either establish an allegiance between equals, or kill him. When he reaches the Sultan’s tent, Kopiliq tells the sentries that he wishes an audience and is let inside.

The Sheh Islami advises the Sultan not to give the visitor his hand, but rather kick him and make him grovel at his feet. That decision seals his fate. Kopiliq stabs Murat with his dagger, kills him, and flees the scene. Many Ottoman soldiers try to capture him but to no avail, till they meet an old Slav woman, who reveals the secret of Kopiliq’s seeming invulnerability: the metal armour protecting both the warrior and his horse, whose key lies hidden in Kopiliq’s whiskers.

Following the old woman’s advice, the soldiers lay their sabres on the ground, slash the horse’s ankles, and capture Kopiliq. He is about to be decapitated when he is granted his last wish: he asks for the old woman to be brought to him, so he can tell her of a well-paid job to be done on his behalf. As she approaches, Kopiliq sinks his teeth into her and flings her miles away.

When the soldiers decapitate him, Kopiliq tucks his head under his armpit and flees in the direction of Salabanj. Spotted by a girl who is washing garments in the river with her mother, he drops his head. Before dying, he curses the two women, “Headless I, may you be eyeless!” and blinds them. Had the priests gathered to mourn him managed to build a church before dawn, Kopiliq would have had a chance to come back to life. They almost succeed, but a tile is missing when the rooster crows. Kopiliq is buried where he has fallen, and water with healing powers springs miraculously from this site.

The news of the Sultan’s death reaches the court. His mother curses Kosovo and its people, and then dies heartbroken. Back in Kosovo, people mourn the loss of their homes. A mother and her daughter fleeing Kosovo sigh that they will only return when the Turks are defeated.

Songs of the Battle of Kosova of 1389
(Version One, published in 1923 by Gliša Elezović)

Once there was a Sultan Murat.
When he finished his ablutions
And he said his evening prayers,
He then went to bed for sleeping,
Fell asleep and started dreaming,
From his sleep a dream awoke him,
So the sultan stirred and got up
From his bed, and started thinking.
Once again he did ablutions,
Then returned to bed for sleeping,
And again he started dreaming,
From his sleep a dream awoke him,
So the sultan stirred and got up,
To his mother did he call out:
“Mother dear, what can you explain
To me two dreams I’ve been dreaming?”
“Tell the dreams, boy,” said the mother.
“In them did arrive two eagles,
And they perched on my right shoulder,
All the stars fell from the heavens,
Fell to earth and there did gather,
Sun and moon plunged in the ocean.”
“Good news, son,” replied the mother,
When the Lord brought back the morning,
Look how Sultan Murat acted:
“Go and call the dream exegete,
Go and call the Sheh-Islami,
Go and call the Grand Vizier,
Go and call the army general.”
All four of them were awakened,
And they hastened to the sultan,
“What is it you want, oh Father?”
“I have had a dream while sleeping,
You must now explain it to me.”
“Tell your dream,” they urged the sultan,
And the sultan started telling:
“In it there were two white eagles,
And they perched on my right shoulder,
All the stars fell from the heavens,
Fell to earth and there did gather,
Sun and moon plunged in the ocean.”
What replied the dream exegete?
“Those two eagles that arrived and
Settled, perched on your right shoulder
Came to seize the holy banner,
Came to gather up the army,
Came to set out for Kosova,
Came to occupy Kosova,
Came to give their lives in battle.
Sun and moon plunged in the ocean
Came to give their lives in battle.
Sun and moon won’t warm without you.”
Look what Sultan Murat did then:
All the towns he telegraphed with:
“Bring unto me all the army,
Bring unto me all the pashas.”
They assembled all the army,
And amassed before the sultan.
Look what Sultan Murat did then:
Lo, he seized the holy banner,
And he then approached the army:
“Listen, lads, to what I tell you,
I’ve decided I am ready,
Want to march upon Kosova.”
Then he counted all his soldiers,
Seventy thousand men he numbered,
Look what Sultan Murat said then:
“Listen, lads, to what I’m saying,
Should a man here have regrets, or
Should your parents be dear to you,
Should your children be dear to you,
Go back home, you have permission,
I will pay you to return there.”
Many soldiers left the sultan,
Forty thousand did forsake him,
Thirty thousand did stay with him.
On his march the sultan set out,
When he came upon the ocean,
Ships and vessels drew near to him,
Look what Sultan Murat did then.
Putting his men in the vessels,
Did he feel so sorry for them,
Raised his hands to the Almighty:
“Allah, oh thou God of Justice,
Pull the ocean back and let me
O’er dry land lead forth the army,
And the Lord did hear his pleading,
From both sides pulled back the waters,
With his troops he crossed the ocean,
When he reached the other coastline,
Did he pause to rest his army,
Look what Sultan Murat said then:
“Listen, lads, to what I tell you,
Should a man here have regrets, or
Should your parents be dear to you,
Should your children be dear to you,
Go back home, you have permission,
I will pay you to return there.
You who’ve eaten foods forbidden,
You who’ve not prayed for five hours,
I don’t want to have you with me,
Go back home, you have permission,
For with you will fail the fighting,
Go back e’er the waters flood in.”
Many soldiers did return home,
Eighteen thousand homewards ventured.
With the sultan stayed twelve thousand.
Look what Sultan Murat did then.
Raised his hands to the Almighty.
Listen to his exhortation:
“Well, what do you say, my fighters?”
Hear the army, what it answered:
“Listen to us, Father Sultan,
We have no regrets to be here,
May the Lord ne’er separate us,
We’ve not eaten foods forbidden,
We’ve prayed in the last five hours,
We are ready to die with you.”
Look at how the sultan rose up,
Praising Allah with the army.
When they finished their ablutions,
They at once set off for battle,
Nowhere pausing for refreshment,
Till Salonika they entered.
Forward, forward, into battle,
On to Skopje did they travel,
Stopping nowhere on their journey,
Till they entered into Skopje.
There he paused to rest the army.
Close beside them was a river,
There a soldier glimpsed an apple,
And the soldier took the apple,
Only once he bit into it,
Then he stuffed it in his pocket.
“Let’s get going,” so they set off,
One another praising Allah,
Once again they left for battle,
And it was a mighty battle.
Dust and smoke arose around them,
Many soldiers fell in fighting,
When Kaçanik Gorge they entered,
Was the fight there even stronger,
And the sultan could not stop it,
Many fellows died in battle,
Sheh-Islami perished fighting,
Sheh-Islami and his nephew,
Died in fighting the Grand Vizier,
The Grand Vizier and his scion.
Wearied was the army fighting,
Dust and smoke arose around them,
Men could not see one another.
Look what Sultan Murat did then.
Raised his hands to the Almighty:
“Allah, oh thou God of Justice,
Pull back all the smoke around me,
Let me see where stands my army,
All at once the smoke was lifted,
Murat gathered up his army,
“Are you weary, my brave fighters,
Hard-pressed, have we many losses?”
“We’re not weary, Father Sultan,
Of our men have many fallen,
Sheh-Islami is among them,
Sheh-Islami and his nephew,
Died in fighting the Grand Vizier,
The Grand Vizier and his scion.”
Sorry felt the sultan for them,
Swore an oath to the Almighty:
“I will not get through this war till
Blood is flowing round our kneecaps.”
Look what Sultan Murat said then:
“Listen, lads, to what I’m saying,
If some of you fruit have eaten
of your comrades’ toil, then stay here,
For the war’s not going well now.
Those who’ve not prayed for five hours,
Step aside because the fighting
Is not going well among us.”
To him did the army answer:
“No forbidden fruits we’ve eaten,
We’ve prayed in the last five hours.”
Then one soldier did step forward:
“I, oh sultan, saw an apple,
As we rested at the river,
And I plucked and took the apple,
Only once I bit into it,
Here it is, it’s in my pocket.”
Look what Sultan Murat said then:
“To the river, lads,” he cried out,
“Go back down beside the river,
Find for me that apple tree and
Tell what happened to its owner.
Beg forgiveness of the owner
If the man will not forgive you,
Give him money as he wishes.”
Down the hillside to the river
They returned and saw the apple
Tree upon the riverbank and
Found the owner of the orchard.
Look at what they told the owner:
“From this tree we stole an apple
And we now beg your forgiveness.”
“I will not forgive the apple.”
“Ask your price in compensation,
We will pay for it in money.”
“I will sell you nothing, but I
Want to be proclaimed Vizier.”
Look at what they told the sultan:
“He will not forgive the apple,
Nor will he accept your money,
He asks to be Grand Vizier.”
“Go,” the sultan ordered, “and bring
Back that fellow here to see me.”
Off they went and found the owner,
To the sultan did they bring him,
And the sultan made him Vizier,
On his chest he put some medals,
Look at what Murat said to them:
“Gird your weapons, lads,” he told them,
And the troops did gird their weapons.
Then they finished their ablutions,
Asked of one another pardon.
So again they rose to battle,
Nowhere did they Slavs encounter.
When they finally got to Golesh,
Nowhere was there drinking water,
And of thirst the troops were dying.
So they muttered to the sultan:
“We are all so very thirsty,
Nowhere is there drinking water.”
Look what Sultan Murat did then:
Raised his hands to the Almighty:
“Allah, oh thou God of Justice,
Give us but a drop of water!”
With his fist he beat a boulder,
God at once did give them water,
All the army drank their fill and
All the horses gulped the water,
Water flowed and was left over.
Then they finished their ablutions,
And completed all their prayers.
When the soldiers were well rested,
Did they rise again and muster,
Setting off at once for battle,
Nowhere did they Slavs encounter.
When they got to Ferizaj, did
There occur a mighty battle,
To their knees in blood they waded,
Laden mules and donkeys stumbled,
Then the Lord their prayers did answer,
And the sultan won the battle.
When the army reached Prishtina,
There the sultan deigned to come forth,
While the tents were being raised, and
Took his field glass out to have a
Look at yonder Çiçavica,
There he noticed seven towers,
Seven balozes were in them.
At the towers gazed the sultan,
All the towers had their loopholes,
In a line were all the loopholes.
Then the sultan called his Vizier:
“Tell me, what are yonder towers
With the row of loopholes in them?”
To the sultan he did answer:
“Seven balozes are in them,
Fighting one another daily
From the loopholes built into them.”
To his feet arose the sultan,
Millosh Kopiliq informing:
“Send the keys of your nine castles,
All the keys surrender to me,
Or I will with you do battle.”
To Millosh he sent the message.
He received it and did read it.
Then his wife, inquiring, uttered:
“What’s that letter you are reading?”
Millosh told her of the letter:
“To Kosova’s come the sultan
Yearning with us to do battle,
I don’t know what I should do now.”
To Millosh the wife responded:
“Come on, Millosh, do not worry,
For the sultan cannot harm us.”
Millosh was infuriated,
In the jaw he punched his wife and
Eight teeth to the floor did tumble.
To his feet arose then Millosh,
Well his saddle mare he mounted,
Off to Peć then did he gallop,
There he told the king, proclaiming:
“To Prishtina’s come the sultan,
Saying he’ll with us do battle,
What to do now?” he inquired.
To him did the king then answer:
“I to him will not surrender,
Till I run him through, won’t give in,”
Thus the king did give his answer.
“Make you ready thirty maidens,
In fine garments and fine footwear,
Give them many golden ducats
To impress the Turkish army,
To deceive the horde of soldiers.
And to spy upon his forces.”
Thus the maidens were made ready
Thirty of the finest maidens,
Taking many ducats with them:
“Journey to the sultan’s army,
Try to trick the hordes of soldiers.
While the soldiers take your money,
Find out what their army’s good for.”
To their feet did rise the maidens,
Taking pans of ducats with them,
Leaving for the sultan’s army,
Taking three full days for travel.
No one cast his eyes upon them,
No one with his hands did touch them,
No one stole the money from them,
No one sold them food for money.
In three days they told the sultan:
“We have come, the king has sent us,
We are weary of our journey,
No one gave us food for eating,
No one took our money from us.”
Then the sultan bade his soldier:
“Give them food, lads,” he commanded,
“No one rob them of their money.”
Thus they gave food to the maidens,
No one stole their money from them,
So the maidens journeyed homewards,
Went back to report to Millosh.
Millosh turned to them and spoke out:
“How’s the Turk, maids?” he inquired.
To him did the maidens answers:
“Three days did we spend there with them,
No one laid a finger on us,
No one stole our money from us,
No one cast his eyes upon us,
Hordes of soldiers has the sultan,
You’re unequal to oppose him.”
Look how Millosh then responded:
“When we to the king do venture,
You must talk to him and tell him
I will lop all of their heads off,
You just tell the king about a
Mighty plague that struck the army,
Say they’re weary, almost perished,
We were captured by the soldiers,
And the fellows took our money.”
Millosh set off with the maidens
To the king did they all venture.
There the king spoke to the maidens:
“How’s the Turk, maids?” he inquired.
To him did the maidens answer:
“A mighty plague befell the army,
They are weary, almost perished,
We were captured by the soldiers,
And the fellows took our money,
They did not have many soldiers.”
What was it the king then ordered?
Many soldiers did he gather,
Made them ready for the battle.
What was it that Millosh uttered:
“Hold your horses, king,” he ordered,
“For I too am getting ready,
I am off to see the sultan,
If the sultan gives his hand, then
I will gladly pay allegiance,
If the sultan give his leg, then
I will slay him with my dagger.”
Millosh girded on his armour,
Had a pobratim go with him,
“Oh pobratim,” he requested,
“Will you deign to set out with me?”
Thus the two men did make ready,
Well their saddle mares they mounted,
And they set off for the sultan.
Soon the sentries captured Millosh,
“Where’re you going?” did they ask him,
“I am off to see the sultan,
For I have something to tell him.”
So they took him to the sultan,
Look at what the sultan did then:
First he summoned Sheh-Islami,
“How should I react,” he asked him.
“For Millosh has come to see me?
Should I shake his hand in greeting?
Should I do so or withhold it?”
They did counsel Sultan Murat:
“When Millosh arrives, don’t give your
Hand, but rather kick the fellow.
Place him at your feet to grovel.”
To them did the sultan answer:
“Bring in Millosh, let him enter.”
Millosh then approached the sultan,
While the sultan tried to kick him,
Millosh had in hand his dagger,
With the dagger did he stab him,
Thus the sultan fell and perished.
Millosh on the spot departed,
Well his saddle mare he mounted,
Set off swiftly on his journey,
Many soldiers did pursue him,
Many soldiers tried to slay him,
But they could not catch and kill him.
When they got to Babimovci,
There they met an old Slav woman,
And they spoke to that old woman,
“What is wrong, Turks?” she inquired.
They responded, saying to her
That Millosh had slain the sultan,
“We can’t catch and kill the fellow.”
To them spoke the Slavic woman:
“Never will you catch that Millosh
For he’s wearing metal armour,
And his mare is decked in armour,
Lay your sabres on the ground to
Slash the mare above the ankles,
Slash the mare and cut her legs off,
That way you will capture Millosh,
When you’ve got Millosh surrounded,
The armour key is in his whiskers.”
What is it the soldiers did then?
On the ground they laid their sabres
O’er the route Millosh was taking,
And they slashed the horse’s ankles,
Thus the mare did topple over,
And alive they captured Millosh.
First they sought to chop his head off,
What did Millosh utter to them?
“I have one request to make you,
Summon forth that old Slav woman,
For I’m longing to behold her,
I’ve a final wish to give her,
And I have to converse with her.”
Thus they brought the Slavic woman,
Look what Millosh muttered to her:
“Come up closer to me, grandma,
For I’ve got a job to give you,
I’ve got lots of wealth to give you.”
Thus the woman did approach him
“Come yet closer to me for I’ve
Something in your ear to whisper.”
With his teeth did Millosh grab her,
Flung her off to Babimovci.
Swiftly they beheaded Millosh
What then did Millosh Kopiliq?
Tucked his head under his armpit,
Off he went and, fleeing, vanished,
On to Salabanj he travelled.
There a woman and a maiden
Who were busy washing garments
Caught a glimpse of headless Millosh.
What is it the maiden stuttered?
“Mother, mother, look and see that
Man who’s passing us is headless!”
To her did Millosh give answer:
“Headless I, may you be eyeless!”
Thereupon did Millosh perish.

* * *

All the priests for him did gather,
In their scriptures was it written:
If a church you can construct there
By the morning e’er the cocks crow,
Millosh will be resurrected.
Thus they started with the building,
Had the whole thing almost finished,
On the walls one tile was missing
When the cocks crowed in the morning.
At that place Millosh was buried,
The Almighty gave them water,
Water which had healing powers.

* * *

What did Sultan Murat’s mother
When she heard about the sultan
Who by Millosh had been slaughtered?
Greatly did the mother mourn him:
“Oh Kosova,” did she cry out,
“Damn Kosova,” did she cry out,
“That has left me without children,
Even though you harvest plenty,
May none there be blessed with fortune,
May there be no bloodless marriage!”
Having said this, did she perish.

* * *

What did say the mother’s daughter?
“Mother, where can we now go to?”
“We must flee the Turks,” she answered.
“When will we be back here, mother?”
“When the Turks, like us, are beaten.”
Çiçavica’s cut off from them,
As it is for us departing,
Then we’ll take back our Kosova.”

Songs of the Battle of Kosova of 1389
(Version Two, recorded in 1931 by Margaret Hasluck)

Once there was a Sultan Murad
Who had finished his ablution.
Then he said his evening prayers,
On his right side did he lie down,
And while resting started dreaming,
Dreaming of two doves a-flying,
On his right arm perched a black dove,
Of the dream did he say nothing.
Then he finished his ablutions,
And he said his morning prayers,
Then the Lord did make it evening,
And he finished his ablutions,
And he said his evening prayers,
On his right side did he lie down,
And again he started dreaming,
Dreaming of two doves a-flying,
On his left arm perched a white dove,
And again he went on dreaming,
In the morning he arose and
Said his morning prayers as always,
Yet the dream he told to no one.
Then the Lord did make it evening,
And he finished his ablutions,
On his right side did he lie down,
And again he started dreaming,
Dreaming of two doves a-flying,
On his left arm perched a white dove,
On his right arm perched a black dove.
In the morn what did the sultan?
Summoned, called the Grand Vizier,
Summoned, called the Sheh-Islami,
Summoned, called up all the imams,
Summoned, called the dream exegete.
To them he the dream narrated,
“If you can’t explain it to me,
I will have the heads chopped off you.”
“All the best, Sire,” they responded,
So the sultan did narrate it,
“This,” he said, “is what I dreamt of,
Towards me were two doves a-flying,
On my left arm perched a white dove,
On my right arm perched a black dove,
Through the air there flew black jackdaws.”
“All the best, Sire,” did they chorus,
“We will now the dream interpret,
Time’s come to invade Kosova,
And Kosova you will conquer,
But you’ll leave this life and perish.”
“May it be so,” he responded,
“I intend to go to battle.”
To his mother did he speak then:
“Mother, I am off to battle.”
“Why, dear son, for war’s depressing?
You’ve got Mecca and Medina,
You possess holy Damascus,
Which grows dates and rice and coffee.”
“Mother dear, what can I tell you?
When my mind dwells on Kosova,
I can’t get a wink of sleep and
Have no appetite for dinner.
Kosova grows wondrous wheat and
Seven dirhams weighs a kernel,
Think of all the mountain pastures,
With the flocks and shepherds roaming,
All those sheep bells clanking, ringing,
Milk and snow the shepherds relish,
Three score thirteen fountains flowing,
Think of all the peaks surrounding,
And the one called Çiçavica,
When I ponder on these things I
Almost lose my mind and reason.”
“All the best, son,” did she answer,
To all towns he sends forth criers,
Gathered full twelve thousand fighters,
“All ye who are faithful Muslims,
Gather ’round me for the battle,
If you’ve got your parents’ blessing.”
Thus he mustered all his army,
All the troops amassed before him,
Line by line he went and asked them,
“If you’ve not your parents’ blessing,
I will give you leave to go home.”
Not a man did him abandon.
When they came up to a river,
Could the army not traverse it,
All the soldiers gathered ’round him,
To the Lord a prayer he offered:
“Oh, Almighty, who are righteous,
If I am indeed the sultan,
Ford a path here through the water.”
And the Lord his prayer did answer.
Him a path cleft through the water.
Line by line the soldiers gathered,
Once again the sultan asked them:
“All those who regret their coming,
Skirt the path here through the water,
I will give them leave to go home.”
Not a single soldier gave up.
“We came with our parents’ blessing
We are ready now for battle.”
“Listen to me, all my soldiers,
If there’s anything you’ve need of,
You must come to me to get it,
I will give you all you’re lacking.
Only swear by the Almighty
That for gold you’ll not betray me,
That you’ll touch no fruits forbidden,
That you’ll touch not other men’s wives.”
All the army then responded,
Giving him their word of honour.
“All of us are men of honour,
And will touch nothing we shouldn’t,
And will nothing do forbidden,
Pious we leave on this journey.”
Then they set out for the battle,
Nowhere could their foes resist them,
They arrived in Salonika
Salonika did they conquer,
They continued on to Skopje,
Skopje also did they conquer.
When they got to Kaçanik
A soldier who’d been led astray
Did stretch his hand out, stole an apple,
Though he did not eat the apple,
And he put it in his kit-bag.
From that time went wrong the fighting,
Though for three days they did battle,
Kaçanik could not be taken.
So the sultan turned and called them,
Gathered ’round him all his army,
Hear what Sultan Murad uttered:
“Listen to me, oh my children,
All your sins do I forgive you,
Now I beg you, tell me truly,
Who has done a thing forbidden?
All your sins will I forgive you.”
One man did a step take forward,
Grabbed the apple from his kit-bag,
Gave the apple to the sultan,
“As we wandered through a garden,
I reached out and took this apple
From the man Jovan the Gardener.”
See how Sultan Murad acted:
Sultan Murad took the apple
Gave it to the Grand Vizier,
“Go and see Jovan the Gardener.”
With a guard they went together,
Gave the apple to its owner,
“Please forgive us for this apple.”
“I cannot forgive the deed for
For all the gold you wish to give me,
All the ducats you may offer,
I cannot forgive the apple,
Stick the apple where you found it
Or make me your Grand Vizier.”
To the sultan went the answer,
“You must make him your Vizier
Then he will forgive the apple.”
So the sultan made him Vizier,
And they ventured off to battle.
No one this time could resist them,
Kaçanik they took and conquered.
At Kosova’s plain they gathered,
See how Sultan Murad acted:
Raised a tent for every soldier,
Tents Kosova’s plain did cover.
How did all the kings react now?
Word they sent to one another,
“With the Turks we can’t do battle.”
They in Peja did assemble,
All to Peja then did hasten.
Always Peja has been crafty.
“Royal monarchs, listen to me,
With the Turk we can’t do battle,
For he has too many forces,
We will play a trick upon him.”
We’ll get ready thirty maidens,
We will dress them up in ducats,
In addition, give them money,
Send them to the Turkish army.
If our maidens they dishonour,
And they try to take their money,
We will then do battle with them.”
They got ready thirty maidens,
Dressed them up in golden ducats,
In addition, gave them money.
To the border did they send them,
To the Turkish camp the maids went,
Through the field camp did they wander
No one cast his eyes upon them.
Through the camp two days they wandered,
Till they’d almost died of hunger.
Word was sent to tell the sultan,
Tell the sultan of the maidens.
“Give them food, don’t take their money!”
Food they gave them, took no money.
So the maidens journeyed homewards,
Went their way back home to Peja,
When they got there, did they utter:
“No one cast an eye upon us.”
Then the kings spoke up, announcing:
We’ve decided to surrender,
With the Turks we can’t do battle.”
Millosh Kopiliqi spoke up:
“When we go to face the sultan,
I will be the first to enter,
If he offers me his right hand,
I will take it in submission,
If it is his foot he offers,
I will slay him with my dagger.”
With this did the leaders set off.
When they reached Kosova’s plain, they
Send a message to the sultan:
“We, the kings, will now surrender.”
“Let them enter,” bade the sultan,
And the way was led by Millosh.
As he entered the red tent, the
Sultan his left foot did offer,
With one hand did Millosh take it,
With the other thrust his dagger,
And the sultan fell and perished.
With their guns they shot at Millosh,
With their swords they tried to smite him,
But they could accomplish nothing,
He was clad in body armour.
Then spoke up an ancient woman:
“Lay your swords down,” did she cry out,
“For their blades will wound the hooves and
Then his steeds will fall and tumble,
He will fall and you will catch him.”
On the ground they spread their sabres
And the horse did fall and tumble,
After Millosh did they hasten,
Brandishing their swords to slay him.
“No, your swords will never wound him,”
Cried to them the ancient woman,
“In his bears the armour key hides,
With it you undo the armour,
Then his head you’ll get to chop off,”
Swiftly they removed his armour,
Got the head for chopping ready,
“Turks, I beg you, grant me respite,
On your souls may God have mercy,
For I have one son, my scion,
Want to give him all my money,
Bring that ancient woman to me,
I will tell her of the money.”
The old crone went up to see him,
By the nose he grabbed and seized her,
Flung her off away three hours.
On that spot they built a bridge, the
‘Ancient Woman’s Bridge’ they called it.
Bosnia turned Turk and with it
Everyone received a message,
Bidding them to talk in Bosnian.

Ballaban's campaign (1465)

2010-11-23T12:12:00.000-08:00

Ballaban Badera (also known as Ballaban Pasha) was a battle-hardened and experienced Albanian commander who fought for the Ottoman Empire.

Ballaban Badera was born in Mat, Albania. He was a product of the Devshirme system (just as was Skanderbeg) and one of the best generals of the Ottoman Army under Sultan Mehmed II.

Ballaban fought Skanderbeg in April 1465 close to Ohrid. The Albanians were once more victorious, but a great many officers were lost, and among them Moisi Arianit Golemi of Dibra. They were sent to Constantinople, where they suffered an ignominious death after Mehmet II had failed in his attempts to turn them against Scanderbeg. These officers were subsequently skinned alive publicly in Istanbul.

Ballaban Pasha received further help from the Sultan and was sent against Skanderbeg once more, this time near Upper Dibra, in the Valley of Vajkal where he was again defeated.

He later came as a commanding general of the army under Mehmet II during the Second Siege of Krujë (1466), where he kept the city besieged for just under a year. In that battle Badera was killed by an arquebus shot to the neck by Gjergj Aleksi, a defender of the city and a hunter in his civilian life. After his death the army lost its unity and was soon defeated.

Ballaban's campaign (1465)
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On June 1465, Ballaban Badera, an Albanian-born janissary launched his fourth but largest campaign against Skanderbeg. He was defeated in both battles of Ohrid and Vajkal the year before. Ballaban was the only Ottoman commander to inflict severe casualties on the Albanian side and soon received high favor from Mehmet II. He soon appointed Ballaban and Jakup Arnauti—both Albanian peasants by birth—to lead a joint-campaign against Skanderbeg's forces. According to some scholars, this act of inclusion by the Sultan was a promotion of a social revolution within Albania to wean forces away from Skanderbeg.

Whatever the motives, the Ottoman army marched forth with two separate forces: one from the south under Arnauti and the other, under Ballaban's personal command, from the east. Applying a pincer movement the goal of this action was to meet in central Albania in full force, storming what was supposed to be a hesitant Albanian defense. Skanderbeg, however, defeated both armies thoroughly by marching against Ballaban's column first, defeating it and engaging Arnauti's column afterwards with the same result. The victory brought great joy and relief to the Albanian people who had been expecting a serious defeat. Despite the tremendous results, the indomitable Sultan marched forth again the next year, bringing great devastation to the country.

Campaigns of 1464

Ballaban Badera had been given command of two separate forces to march against Skanderbeg in 1465. The first was defeated at Vaikal. But the Albanian victory came to a great cost. Many of Skanderbeg's most trusted lieutenants had been captured and sent to Istanbul. They were given the choice of converting to Islam or of dying. All of them chose the latter and their bodies were mutilated and thrown to the dogs.

A new army was assembled and sent again to Albania. This time it was defeated near Oranik but at great risk to Skanderbeg's life. He found himself cut off from the rest of his troops (except for his personal bodyguard) and was cut down by a Turkish soldier. The Albanian army began to panic but Skanderbeg rose and managed to cut his way out despite his heavy wounds.[3] Ballaban, after suffering his second consecutive defeat, returned to Istanbul where the Sultan continued to support him due to what Ballaban called the "will of the stars".

Prelude to the campaign

Before he began his campaign, Ballaban offered Skanderbeg several gifts. Instead of accepting them, Skanderbeg sent back a pickax and a plough to remind Ballaban of his origins as a peasant, showing that it would have been more noble to have stayed so than to turn against one's own people. Ballaban was offended and made an oath of vengeance. Ballaban planned to march two armies into Albania. Ballaban's force of 24,000 men was to march from Dibra and Jakup Arnauti's force of 16,000 men from Berat. The plan was to march onto Kruja and take it after Skanderbeg would have moved against one of the two armies. From there, the other would move into Skanderbeg's rear and hopefully annihilate his army.

Many Albanian princes allied to Skanderbeg—most notably Moisi Golemi -- began to advocate a purely defensive campaign to thwart the Turkish invasion. But Skanderbeg felt that he must, at all costs, prevent the linking up of the two armies sent against him, especially now that he had received fresh troops and supplies from King Ferdinand I of Naples, bringing his forces' numbers to 12,000 men. He therefore marched against Ballaban first.

Battle of Vajkal

Skanderbeg bivouacked his forces near Oranik, in the fields of Vajkal, where Ballaban was to march. Ballaban, before moving into the fields, sent out men to Skanderbeg's posts to bribe them into not going out to guard during a late hour. Skanderbeg, however, expected such a stratagem and surreptitiously moved his forces into the wooded areas around the area where Ballaban's army would be moved to; 8,000 cavalrymen and 4,000 infantry were set up on both sides. He marched out for eight miles to find Ballaban's army and upon seeing Skanderbeg, the latter ordered all of his forces out to capture Skanderbeg and defeat his army afterwards. After reaching his men, Skanderbeg exhorted them to fight bravely in order to finish off the Turks. He soon split up his forces into four groups: this first to Tanush Thopia; the second to Pal Engjelli's brother in-law who ruled over Durrës; the third to Zaharia Gropa; and the last to himself.

The Ottoman forces who were wary of following him so with his own group he continually harassed the Turkish soldiers until they were driven into his chosen field of battle. Once the Turks had neared, all of the Albanian forces sprang out of their positions, encircling the Turks. The latter attempted to hold out, but they could not resist and so they took to flight, leaving many dead and wounded behind. Ballaban, however, managed to escape by hiding out in a secure place with a portion of his forces, waiting to escape as soon as the Albanians marched off. Ballaban got his opportunity when Skanderbeg received news from his sister that Jakup Arnauti's forces had reached central Albania, destroying much of the land they marched through. Skanderbeg immediately set off and Ballaban returned to the Sultan defeated.

Battle of Kashari

Arnauti marched into Albania expecting to meet his colleague, Ballaban, but he instead was about to meet Skanderbeg. Before he set off for the march, Skanderbeg exhorted to his men that since they had already beaten an army twice their size, they should expect a quick victory over an army of only 16,000 men. The Albanians moved toward Kashari, near little Tirana, where Arnauti's forces were waiting. Upon reaching the place, Skanderbeg sent out 500 cavalrymen to provoke Arnauti into making a rash decision. Skanderbeg's intentions were fulfilled and Arnauti split his forces into three in order to surround and defeat the Albanian cavalrymen who continued to be chased without being stopped. When the Turkish forces were spotted by the Albanians, a powerful charge was launched onto the unsuspecting Turks resulting in an initially fierce battle. Here, Jakup Arnauti was spotted by Skanderbeg in battle and the latter struck the former with his spear right below the chin. Arnauti's death devastated Turkish morale, resulting in most of the force fleeing and being pursued by the Albanians who inflicted heavy casualties.

Aftermath

Turkish casualties were very heavy with estimates of the time going upwards of 24,000 dead, wounded, and captured. As usual, Skanderbeg authorized the taking of loot. The victorious army marched into Kruja, where the doubting populace greeted them with great cheer. Skanderbeg notified ambassadors who were nearby of his victory, allotting much of the loot captured by his army to them.The next year, Mehmed II marched into Albania with a great number and again besieged Kruja. Ballaban would be left with much of the Sultan's forces since the latter went to build the Elbasan fortress. Skanderbeg, again, managed to extricate himself, this time managing to bring about the death of his rival.

Tringe Smajl Martini~Albanian Joan of Arc

2010-11-22T12:24:00.000-08:00

Tringe Smajl Martini Ivezaj (or simply Tringe Smajli) was an Albanian young girl from the region of Grudë, within Malësia in southern Montenegro, who went to war against the Ottoman Empire army after her father Smajl Martini, the clan leader was kidnapped in 1911 at the Battle of Vranje, his body was never recovered.

Her legend lives on throughout the Balkans as one of the most heroic women warriors in the history of the region. She never married, never had children, and did not have any siblings. She is buried in an unmarked grave covered with ordinary field stones at the ancestral burial grounds of her family in the mountains of Gruda withiin the village of Ksheve, Montenegro.

In 1911 the New York Times described Tringe Smajli as the "Albanian Joan of Arc".

ALBANIAN JOAN OF ARC.; Handsome Heroine Takes Father's Place and Vanquishes Turks.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CETTINJE, May 9. -- A young girl, whose first name corresponds to that of the given name of the Maid of Orleans, is now being sung in the songs of the Montenegrin bards in the inns and coffee houses of Podgogritsa. When at the battle of Vranye last week her father, the hereditary commander of his clan, fell, she immediately stepped to his place and led the Martinais to victory against the Turks. Aside from the romantic phase of the affair, for Yanitza Martinay is very beautiful, the battle is important as showing that the Montenegrins on the frontier had joined with the Albanians.

According to a person who is well acquainted with her, this new Joan of Arc is not yet 22 years of age, and is "a tall, handsome, well-developed young woman. All the Albanian women are brave, and are trained from their girlhood to the use of firearms, and in times of war, as there are no mules, they carry the provisions and ammunition for their soldiers and go into the firing line to distribute them."

"And are sometimes killed?"

"Yes, often that happens."

"Yanitza would probably have carried a Martini rifle; or, as many of the Martinis were collected last year by the Turks, her weapon may perhaps have been one of the old-fashioned Albanian rifles, which are handsomely decorated with silver and have very long, narrow barrels."

Shooting is almost the only amusement of the young men and women in Albania. Both boys and girls learn to shoot when they are 12 years old. At weddings and parties amuse themselves by dancing and shooting; at christenings shooting again is the principal amusement -- firing at targets for some little prize -- and at festivals there is shooting all day long. It is one of the great difficulties that Turks have to contend with, for it is part of the national life; the people use their rifles by day and sleep with them at their side by night. The custom has grown up with the prevailing insecurity from vandettas at home and border troubles abroad.

Physically, the Albanians are the finest race in Europe. Their women are handsome, with dark hair, though their eyes are sometimes gray. To see them walk is a delight. We like to see the ballet is Servia. The first time I saw the Albanians walk it gave me just the same pleasure. Their movements are so graceful, elegance and strength together.

Yes, they are a very fine and a very gifted race. They are like the Scots in the seventeenth century, and they will be by and by the finest race, intellectually as well as physically, in the Balkans. If you go to Constantinople you will find that many of the finest men, not only soldiers but also statesmen, are Albanians.

Their fault, due to their present degree of civilization, is that they cannot grasp the idea of State. The clan is their highest organization; they are unable to see the importance of combining the clan with the higher organization of making a state. But that will come.

Albania's Golgotha: Indictment of the Exterminators of the Albanian People

2010-11-22T11:07:00.000-08:00

'Albania's Golgotha', originally published in German, is a compilation of rare news reports which seeped out of Kosova at the time of the Balkan wars. The Ottoman Empire, which had ruled Kosova for five centuries, was in disarray. Filling the vacuum, Serb troops invaded the territory to claim and occupy it for Serbia, and to cleanse it of its Albanian population.

The author of the moving document, Leo Freundlich (1875 - 1953), was a Jewish publicist living in Vienna.Freundlich was born of a wealthy Jewish family in Bielitz-Biala in the then Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Bielsko-Biala in southern Poland) and was early to develop a passion for the ideals of socialism. He worked as an editor in Aussig (now Ústí nad Labem in the Czech Republic) where he met his wife, Emmy Kögler, daughter of the former mayor of the town.

Leo Freundlich, for his part, after the publication of 'Albania's Golgotha' in 1913, had first direct contacts with Albania as a soldier with Austro-Hungarian forces in the country in World War I. He later joined the service of Ahmet Zogu (1895-1961), subsequently King Zog of Albania (r. 1928-1939), as honorary consul of the Kingdom of Albania in Vienna. In this capacity, in the 1930s, he was involved in promoting Albania's trade relations with the German Reich. It is reported that, when confronted with the Nazi salute 'Heil Hitler', which he despised, he would respond with a sarcastic 'Heil Zogu' salute, and would amuse himself at seeing the confusion of his German counterparts, who believed this to be a standard Albanian greeting.

On the eastern banks of the Adriatic, a mere three days journey from Vienna, live an autochthonous people who for centuries have been fighting for their freedom and independence against enemies and oppressors of all types. This nation has clung steadfast to its roots through countless wars and the cataclysms of history. Neither the great migrations nor wars with the Serbs, the Turks and other invaders have hindered the Albanians from maintaining their nationality, their language, and the purity and originality of their customs.

The history of this nation is an unbroken chain of bloody battles against violent oppressors, but not even the most unspeakable of atrocities have managed to annihilate this people. Intellectual life has flourished among the Albanians even though their oppressors endeavoured to cut off all cultural development at the root. This nation produced great generals and men of state for the Ottoman Empire. Albanians were among the best judges in Turkey and among the greatest authors of Turkish literature. Almost all the merchants of Montenegro were Albanian, as were many fine businessmen in the major cities of Romania. The Albanians played an important role in Italy, too. Crispi was one of them. Greece's bravest soldiers were of Albanian blood.
In the wake of the cataclysms wrought by the Balkan War, the ancient dream of freedom and independence for this people is now becoming a reality. The Great Powers of Europe have decided to grant Albania its national autonomy.

But the Serbian thirst for conquest has now found a means of destroying the fair dream of this courageous and freedom-loving people before it can be realized. Serbian troops have invaded Albania with fire and sword. And if Albania cannot be conquered, then at least the Albanian people can be exterminated. This is the solution they propose.

* * *

On 18 October 1912, King Peter of Serbia issued a declaration 'To the Serbian People', proclaiming:

"The Turkish governments showed no interest in their duties towards their citizens and turned a deaf ear to all complaints and suggestions. Things got so far out of hand that no one was satisfied with the situation in Turkey in Europe. It became unbearable for the Serbs, the Greeks and for the Albanians, too.

By the grace of God, I have therefore ordered my brave army to join in the Holy War to free our brethren and to ensure a better future.

In Old Serbia, my army will meet not only upon Christian Serbs, but also upon Moslem Serbs, who are equally dear to us, and in addition to them, upon Christian and Moslem Albanians with whom our people have shared joy and sorrow for thirteen centuries now. To all of them we bring freedom, brotherhood and equality."

How have the Serbs understood the declaration of their monarch, which is not even half a year old?

The thousand and thousands of men, women, children and old people who have been slain or tortured to death, the villages marauded and burnt to the ground, the women and young girls who have been raped, and the countryside plundered, ravaged and swimming in blood can give no answer to this question.

The Serbs came to Albania not as liberators but as exterminators of the Albanian people. The Ambassadors' Conference in London proposed drawing the borders of Albania according to ethnic and religious statistics to be gathered on site by a commission. The Serbs have hastened to prepare the statistics for them with machine guns, rifles and bayonets. They have committed unspeakable atrocities. The shock and outrage produced by these crimes are outdone only by the sense of sorrow that such vile deeds could be committed in Europe, not far from the great centres of western culture, in this twentieth century. Our sorrow is made all the heavier by the fact that, despite the reports which have been cabled home for months now by the journalists of many nations, and despite the impassioned indictment launched to the world by Pierre Loti, nothing has been done to put an end to the killings.

A courageous people full of character is being crucified before the eyes of the world and Europe, civilized Christian Europe, remains silent!

Tens of thousands of defenceless people are being massacred, women are being raped, old people and children strangled, hundreds of villages burnt to the ground, priests slaughtered.

And Europe remains silent!

Serbia and Montenegro have set out to conquer a foreign country. But in that land live a freedom-loving, brave people who despite centuries of servitude have not yet become accustomed to bearing a foreign yoke. The solution is obvious. The Albanians must be exterminated!

A crazed and savage soldateska has turned this solution into a gruesome reality.

Countless villages have been razed to the ground, countless individuals have been butchered. Where once the humble cottages of poor Albanians stood, there is nothing left but smoke and ashes. A whole people is perishing on Calvary cross, and Europe remains silent!

* * *

The aim of this work is to rouse the conscience of European public opinion. The reports gathered here are but a small portion of the material available. More than what they contain is already known by the governments of Europe from official consular and press reports.

Up to now, however, the governments have chosen to remain silent. Now, any further silence means complicity.

The Great Powers must tell the crazed barbarians once and for all to keep their 'Hands off!' This wave of extermination must be ended with all possible rapidity. An international commission must be set up to investigate accusations made against the Serbian government.

Most important of all, Serbian and Montenegrin troops must withdraw from Albanian territory at once and the Greek blockade, which has cut the country off from all food supplies, must be lifted.

I call upon the governments of the Great Powers, I call upon European public opinion in the name of humanity, in the name of civilization, in the name of the wretched Albanian people.

I turn to the British public, to the nation which raised its voice so virtuously to protest against the Armenian massacres.

I direct my appeal to the French public which has shown so often that it will defend humanity and human rights.

A poor nation, suffering a horrible fate, appeals from the cross for help. Will Europe hear its call?

Leo Freundlich
Vienna, Easter Sunday 1913

The Albanians Must Be Exterminated!

In connection with the news report that 300 unarmed Albanians of the Luma tribe were executed in Prizren without trial, the Frankfurter Zeitung writes: In the case in question, it seems to have been regular Serbian troops who committed the massacre. But there is no doubt whatsoever that even the heinous massacres committed by irregulars were carried out with the tacit approval and in full compliance with the will of the Serbian authorities." At the beginning of the war we ourselves were told quite openly by a Serbian official: "We are going to wipe out the Albanians." Despite European protests, this systematic policy of extermination is continuing unhindered. As a result, we regard it as our duty to expose the intentions of the Serbian rulers. The gentlemen in Belgrade will then indignantly deny everything, knowing full well that journalistic propriety prevents us from mentioning names.

It is evident that we would not make such a report if we were not fully convinced of its truth. In the case in question, the facts speak louder than any full confession could do. One massacre after another has been committed since Serbian troops crossed the border last autumn and occupied the land inhabited by the Albanians.

A War of Extermination

Professor Schiemann published an article in Kreuzzeitung, writing: "Despite the rigorous censorship of Balkan allies and the pressure exerted upon war correspondents, private letters which have managed to reach us from the region in which the Serbs and Greeks are conducting their war offer an exceptionally sorry picture." The Serbs, as the article notes, are conducting a war of extermination against the Albanian nation which, if they could, they would eradicate completely.

The Daily Chronicle reported on 12 November 1912 that it was true that thousands of Arnauts (Albanians) had been massacred by the Serbs. 2,000 Moslem Arnauts were slaughtered near Skopje and a further 5,000 near Prizren. Many villages have been set on fire and their inhabitants slaughtered. Albanian householders were simply slain during house to house searches for arms, even when no weapons were found. The Serbs declared quite openly that the Moslem Albanians were to be exterminated because this was the only way of pacifying the country.

The war correspondent of the Messaggero of Rome reported heinous Serbian massacres of Albanians in the vilayet of Kosovo. After Albanian resistance, the towns of Ferizaj / Uroševac, Negotin / Negotino, Lipjan / Ljipljan, Babush / Babuš and others were completely destroyed and most of the inhabitants slaughtered. A Catholic priest reported that fierce fighting around Ferizaj / Uroševac had lasted for three days. After the town was taken, the Serbian commander ordered its fleeing inhabitants to return peacefully and lay down their arms. When they returned, three or four hundred people were massacred. There remained only half a dozen Moslem families in all of Ferizaj / Uroševac. Destitute Serbian families hastened to take possession of the homes of the wealthy families.

The Humanité of Paris published an official report submitted to a consulate in Salonika. The report described the activities of the Serbs in Albania: plundering, destruction, massacres. The number of Albanian villages totally or partially but systematically destroyed by the Serbs was estimated at thirty-one. The Kristos of Kumanova / Kumanovo, the Siro Diljovs of Skopje, the Alexandrovos of Štip and other leading guerrilla bands looted all the villages in the districts of Kratovo and Kocani, set them on fire and killed all the Moslem inhabitants. All the Moslems of Zhujova / Žujovo and Mešeli were slaughtered, as were a further two hundred people in Vetreni. In Bogdanc / Bogdanci, sixty Turks were locked in a mosque. They were then let out and slain, one by one. Thirty-four of the ninety-eight villages in the district of Kavadarci have been destroyed. The Turks, some of whom had made payoffs to one guerrilla band hoping to save their lives, were then butchered by another band of guerrillas. All the inhabitants of Drenova / Drenovo were put to death. Between this village and Palikura, a number of graves were found with the heads sticking out of the earth. These are the graves of wretched individuals who were buried alive!

Manhunts

Fritz Magnussen, war correspondent for the Danish newspaper Riget, who is generally known for his pro-Serbian sympathies, described the crimes committed by the Serbs against the Arnaut population in a telegramme that he had to send by special courier from Skopje to Zemun to avoid the rigorous censorship:

Serbian military activities in Macedonia have taken on the character of an extermination of the Arnaut population. The army is conducting an unspeakable war of atrocities. According to officers and soldiers, 3,000 Arnauts were slaughtered in the region between Kumanova / Kumanovo and Skopje and 5,000 near Prishtina. The Arnaut villages were surrounded and set on fire. The inhabitants were then chased from their homes and shot like rats. The Serbian soldiers delighted in telling me of the manhunts they had conducted.

The situation in Skopje is equally appalling. Rigorous searches of Arnaut homes are carried out and if anything vaguely resembling a weapon is discovered, the inhabitants are shot on the spot. It is very dangerous to travel the roads because of the constant shooting in and out of the houses.

Yesterday, 36 Arnauts were sentenced to death by a military tribunal and shot on the spot. No day passes without Arnauts being put to death in the most barbarous manner. The river upstream is full of corpses. Hunting expeditions take place every day in the surrounding villages. Yesterday, a Serbian officer invited me to take part in such a hunt and boasted that he had put nine Arnauts to death the previous day with his own hands!

The Reichspost received a dossier about the massacres committed by Serbian guerrilla bands and regular troops in Albania from a person whose name and high rank is guarantee enough of the authenticity of the reports it contains. In the dossier we find the following information:

The city of Skopje and the surrounding district have been witness to inhuman crimes committed against the Albanians. For days on end, I saw manhunts conducted by armed Serbian bands and regular troops. For three days I could see the flames of burning villages in the sky. When the horrors were over, five villages in the direct vicinity of Skopje lay in ruins and their inhabitants were almost all slain, even though the Albanians offered no armed resistance to the invading Serbs. Behind the fortress of Skopje is a ravine which is still filled with the corpses of over one hundred victims of this campaign. Eighty Albanian bodies are also to be found in the ravine of Vodno / Vistala Voda near Skopje. Shortly after the invasion, a reliable informant of mine, whom I spoke to myself, visited the hospital in Skopje and encountered during this first visit 132 Albanians patients. The next day he could find only 80 and a few days later a mere 30 of them. The treatment meted out to these wounded Albanians is beyond imagination. They were refused food and drink, such that, according to witnesses, some of them died of starvation. Many of the patients, it is alleged, were still alive when they were thrown into the Vardar. The river flows through the town and is carrying with it twenty to thirty corpses a day. There were a number of Serbian volunteers quartered in my hotel in Skopje who boasted quite candidly of their marauding and manhunts, in particular when the wine got their tongues. One evening, they went out onto the street and shot a couple of unarmed Albanians who were simply passing by and minding their own business. The two murderers, who thereafter returned to the hotel and got drunk, were not bothered by the military authorities at all, even though everyone in town knew that they were guilty of the crime. A bloody scene also occurred in town at the Vardar bridge. Three Albanians who tried to cross into town to go to market were attacked by Serbian soldiers and simply murdered without trial. Digging graves seemed to be a problem for the soldiers, in particular since the earth is frozen over, so bodies have been thrown into wells. An informant counted 38 wells around Skopje which have been filled with Albanian corpses. Bandits play an important role in the pogroms, too. I myself was witness to a Serbian soldier who was showing off the two watches and 150 Turkish pounds he had taken as booty. When he saw a well-dressed Albanian pass by, he shouted in an almost genuine show of sympathy, "Pity there are so many of them. Otherwise, I would gladly spend a bullet on him." The Albanians are considered fair game and are protected by no law or court. Many of the excesses are, however, committed under the influence of drink. The most outrageous crimes were, indeed, committed by bands of drunken soldiers breaking into homes.

As I speak Serbian fluently, many Serbian officers and soldiers regarded me as one of theirs. And so it was that a Serbian soldier boasted to me of their attack on an Albanian village near Kumanova / Kumanovo. "Many of the villagers who were not able to flee, hid in their attics. We smoked them out, and when their houses were in flames, they came out of their hiding places like moles, screaming, cursing and begging for mercy. We shot them at the doorways, sparing our bullets only with the children on whom we used our bayonets. We destroyed the whole village because shots had been fired out of one of the houses bearing a white flag." The military authorities did nothing to hinder these bloodbaths and many officers took part in the atrocities themselves. There was no Serb to be found who had not acted in the full conviction that, with these atrocities, he was doing his country a great service, and one which his superiors wanted of him.

* * *

Eighty-five Albanians were slain in their homes in Tetova / Tetovo and the town was looted without sign of an armed uprising beforehand. The heinous deeds committed against the women and girls, including twelve-year-old children, are indescribable. To top off such horrors, the fathers and husbands of the victims were forced by revolver to hold candles and be witness themselves to the outrages committed against their daughters and wives in their own homes. The town of Gostivar was only saved by paying off the Serbian commander with a sum of 200 Turkish pounds. Here only six Albanians were shot.

In Ferizaj / Uroševac, as opposed to the above-mentioned towns, the Albanians offered organized armed resistance. Fighting continued here for twenty-four hours, during which a woman whose husband had been slain seized a rifle and shot five Serbs before she was killed herself. Over 1,200 Albanians fell victim to the carnage in Ferizaj / Uroševac. The town is almost devoid of inhabitants now. There are only three Moslem Albanians over the age of fifteen left. In Gjilan / Gnjilane, too, where the Albanians put up no defence, almost all the inhabitants were killed by fire and sword. A very small number of fugitives survived the carnage. Now only ruins are left as witness to the destruction of Gjilan / Gnjilane.

The Serbian occupation of Prishtina was even bloodier. The Albanians estimate the number of their dead at 5,000. In all fairness, it must be noted that the flag on the parliament building was severely misused. After the white flag had been hoisted, Turkish officers suddenly opened fire on Serbian troops, apparently with the intention of thwarting the latters' cease-fire negotiations with the Albanians. Hundreds of Albanian families, even babies in their cradles, paid for this deed with their lives.

In Leskovac near Ferizaj / Uroševac, eight unarmed Albanians were stopped by Serbian soldiers and shot on the spot.

* * *

The town of Prizren offered no resistance to Serb forces, but this did not avert a bloodbath there. After Prishtina, Prizren was the hardest hit of the Albanian towns. The local population call it the 'Kingdom of Death'. Here the Serbian bands did their worst. They forced their way into homes and beat up anyone and everyone in their way, irrespective of age or sex. Corpses lined the streets for days while the Serbian victors were busy with other atrocities, and the native population which had survived did not dare to venture out of their homes. The attacks continued night after night throughout the town and region. Up to 400 people perished in the first few days of the Serbian occupation. Despite this, the commander, General Jankovic, with rifle in hand, forced notables and local tribal leaders to sign a declaration of gratitude to King Peter for their 'liberation by the Serbian army.' As Serbian troops were about to set off westwards, they could not find any horses to transport their equipment. They therefore requisitioned 200 Albanians, forcing them to carry goods weighing up to 50-60 kilos for seven hours during the night along bad roads in the direction of Luma. Seeing that the wretched group of bearers had managed to reach their goal, though most of them collapsed under the inhumane treatment they had suffered, the Serbian commander expressed his satisfaction and approval of the action.

A Fani woman called Dila took the road to Prizren with her sons, another relative and two men from the village of Gjugja in order to buy goods for her daughter's dowry. Before reaching Prizren, she applied for a laisser passer for herself and her companions from the command post of General Jankovic in order to proceed unimpeded. She was given the passes. When the group of five arrived in Suni, about four hours from Prizren, they were robbed of their possessions and the four men were tied up and thrown into a pit. Soldiers then shot the men from the edge of the pit. The mother, who had witnessed this scene, called out in desperation to her son. Seeing that he was no longer alive, she threw herself to the feet of the soldiers, begging them to kill her, too. They had tied her to a tree by the time some officers came by, having heard the shooting. The soldiers showed the officers a loaf of bread they had seized from the women, in which they had pressed two Mauser bullets as proof that the men had been trying to smuggle ammunition. The officers thereupon ordered the soldiers to go their way. The poor woman remained tied to the tree at the edge of the pit, in full view of her slain son, from Monday afternoon until Wednesday. On Wednesday, starving and exhausted by the chill of the late autumn nights, she was taken to Prizren. She was locked up that night and presented to the commander the next day. Although General Jankovic must have known that the poor woman standing before him was innocent, she was still not released. Instead, she was taken to the residence of the Serbian bishop where she remained in custody until the following day when she was given over to the Catholics, taken to a church and tended to.

In Prizren, there lived a baker named Gjoni i Prek Palit who supplied the Serbian troops with food. One day, a sergeant came by to order bread for the troops and happened to leave his rifle in the bakery. When soldiers later entered the bakery and saw the rifle, they arrested the baker for violating the weapons ban. He was taken to a military tribunal and executed. When Gini, the baker's brother, heard of the arrest, he ran to the sergeant and took him to the military police where the latter admitted the rifle was his and that he had only left it in the bakery for a short time. He knew the number of the rifle and recognized it immediately. Gini and his Serbian witness were then beaten up and chased away. Gini learned nothing of the fate of his arrested brother. Ten days later, the mother of the dead baker, who had been searching day and night for her son, came upon the body outside of town. She requested to be given the corpse so that she could give her son a Christian burial. This request was refused. A Catholic priest then hastened to the commander and in the name of religious freedom requested that the body be buried in the Catholic cemetery. He, too, was refused, and they were obliged to bury the body on the spot where they found it.

Officers also took part in the atrocities. It is said in Prizren that a soldier asked his officer for shoes or sandals. The officer replied he should confiscate the sandals from the next Albanian who happened to pass by. "Why else do you carry a rifle?" asked the officer, pointing to his own sandals.

* * *

Three Albanian villages in the vicinity of Prizren were totally destroyed and thirty local officials slain. They were accused of being pro-Austrian. In one of these villages, the soldiers forced the womenfolk out of their homes, tied them to one another and forced them to dance in a circle. They then opened fire and amused themselves by watching one victim after another fall to the ground in a pool of blood.

When it was reported to General Jankovic that the Luma tribe was preventing Serbian troops from advancing westwards towards the Adriatic, he ordered his men to proceed with extreme severity. All in all, twenty-seven villages on Luma territory were burnt to the ground and their inhabitants slain, even the children. It is here that one of the most appalling atrocities of the Serbian war of annihilation was committed against the Albanians. Women and children were tied to bundles of hay and set on fire before the eyes of their husbands and fathers. The women were then barbarously cut to pieces and the children bayoneted. My informant, a respected and thoroughly reliable man, added in his report: "It is all so inconceivable, and yet it is true!" 400 men from Luma who gave themselves up voluntarily were taken to Prizren and executed day after day in groups of forty to sixty. Similar executions are still being carried out there. Hundreds of bodies still lie unburied in the Prizren region. Gjakova / Djakovica is also in ruins and its population decimated.

Sixty Albanians were slain in Tërstenik / Trstenik, thirty-two in Smira, twenty in Vërban / Vrban, nineteen in Ljubishta / Ljubište and all the males in Kamogllava / Kameno Glava, which is home to fifty families. In the latter village, the men were forced to appear for roll call and to salute. They were then tied up and executed without trial. Not very many survived in Presheva / Preševo either.

The total number of Albanians slain in the vilayet of Kosovo is estimated at 25,000, a figure which is by no means exaggerated.

* * *

On 20 March 1913, the Albanische Korrespondenz published this item: We have received the following report from reliable Albanian sources in Skopje. Serbian troops and volunteers are committing unspeakable atrocities in the vicinity of Skopje against the population of the territories they have occupied. European circles have been particularly outraged by the following events which were reliably recorded. The Serbian army took the village of Shashare at the end of February. Having removed all men and boys from the village, the soldiers then proceeded to rape the women and girls. Serbian soldiers committed the same heineous crimes in the village of Letnica. It must be stressed that both Shashare and Letnica have an exclusively Slavic and Catholic population. Serbian troops, thus, do not even stop at committing such degenerate acts against their own Christian people. Shashare is a settlement of over one hundred families.

These savage troops have committed even worse crimes in other areas. Two hundred eighty farms belonging to Albanian Moslems were set on fire in twenty-nine villages in the Karadag (Black) mountains and all the male inhabitants who had not flown fell under a hail of bullets and under the bayonets of the soldiers. The Serbs marauded like the Huns from village to village. Other such pogroms have been carried out in the villages of Tërstenik / Trstenik, Senica, Vërban / Vrban, Ljubishta / Ljubište and Gjylekar / Djelekare. Two hundred thirty-eight men were pitilessly slaughtered here. In Sefer, an old women was burnt alive together with her Catholic servant. The suffering of the population knows no limits. In the village of Ljubishta / Ljubište, the atrocities have reached such a point that Moslem Albanian women have sold themselves to surviving Moslem men to serve them more or less as slaves. The Serbs took a man, an old woman and two children captive and burnt them alive in this village. In Gjylekar / Djelekare a pregnant women had her belly slit open with a bayonet and the offspring wrenched out of her body. In Prespa, an Albanian women whose husband had been taken away shot five Serbian soldiers. The Serbs then set the whole settlement aflame, ninety farms in all, and let it burn to the ground.

The Serbs are laying waste to whole regions and slaughtering their inhabitants. Their fury is directed against both the Moslems and the Catholics. The survivors remain behind in unspeakable misery and despair.

In a report published on 19 February 1913 by the Deutsches Volksblatt, we read: Few towns and villages (in the occupied areas) have escaped the attention of the Serbs completely and there are many Albanians who now press to take vengeance for the deaths of their wives and children. When the order was issued in the towns for the immediate surrender of all weapons, only very few people complied. Most of them hid their weapons at home or fled with them, for it is easier to separate an Albanian from his whole farm than from his rifle. In order to enforce the order, patrols were sent out to search homes. A gruesome fate awaited those caught with weapons. The military tribunal came to its findings within a matter of hours. One spectacular case took place in Tirana. Serbian soldiers went to the shop of a local merchant to buy goods. As they had no money with them, one of them left the merchant his rifle as security. Petrified at his own deed, the soldier subsequently went to his commander and brought charges against the merchant for stealing the rifle. A patrol was sent out in search of the Albanian and found him with the rifle in question. He was taken to a military tribunal and, despite his protestations that the rifle had only been left as security, was shot.

An Albanian from the village of Zalla, west of Kruja, shot a Serb who had broken into his home and was assaulting his wife, and took to flight. When the Serbs subsequently arrived at the scene of the crime and could not find the culprit, and - such is the sad truth - they slaughtered all the inhabitants, over one hundred persons including women and children, and set the village on fire.

* * *

The Serbian Thirst for Blood

The special correspondent of the Daily Telegraph reported the following: All the horrors of history have been outdone by the atrocious conduct of the troops of General Jankovic. On their march through Albania, the Serbs have treacherously slaughtered not only armed Albanians, but in their savagery even unarmed individuals - old people, women, children and babies at their mother's breasts.

Drunk with victory, Serbian officers have proclaimed that the only way of pacifying Albania is to exterminate the Albanians. They slaughtered 3,000 people in the region between Kumanova / Kumanovo and Skopje alone. 5,000 Albanians were murdered by the Serbs in the Prishtina area. These people did not die with honour on the battlefield, but were slain in a series of gruesome raids. The Serbian soldiers have found new methods of butchery to satisfy their thirst for blood. Houses were set on fire in several villages and the inhabitants slaughtered like rats when they tried to flee the flames. The men were slain before the eyes of their wives and children. The wretched women were then forced to look on as their children were literally hacked to pieces.

Executions were a daily entertainment for the Serbian soldiers. All inhabitants who had been found with weapons in their homes were executed. They were either shot or hanged. Up to thirty-six executions took place a day. How strange it is that the Serbian nationalists living in Hungary should complain about massacres in Albania. Mr Tomic, the former secretary to the Serbian Prime Minister Pašic, reported on his trip from Prizren to Peja / Pec that on both sides of the road he saw nothing but the remnants of burnt-out villages which had been razed to the ground.

The roads were lined with gallows from which the bodies of Albanians were hanging. The road to Gjakova / Djakovica had become a Boulevard of Gibbets.

The Belgrade newspapers reported quite without shame on the heineous atrocities of the Serbs. When Colonel Osbic's regiment took Prizren, he commanded his compatriots, "Kill!" When his order was heard, so the Belgrade papers report, "the Serbian soldiers stormed into homes and slaughtered every human being they could lay their hands on."

The Daily Telegraph then gives the authentic statement of an Albanian notable: Anyone who denounces an Albanian to the Serbs can be sure that the Albanian will be executed. There were people who owed money to Moslem Albanians. They went and denounced them to the Serbs as traitors. The wretched Albanians were immediately hanged and the informers later found ways of acquiring the home and land of their victims for a ridiculously low price.

In Skopje, unarmed Albanians were simply shot and killed by Serbian officers. If even a hunting knife was found in a home, its owner was executed.

In Ferizaj / Uroševac, the Serbian commander invited Albanian fugitives to return to their home and surrender their weapons. When over four hundred of them did return, they were slaughtered. There were no more than a dozen Moslem families left alive in Ferizaj / Uroševac. The war correspondent of the Messaggero has confirmed this report.

In Pana, the Serbs killed their prisoners, in Varosh / Varoš and Prishtina the population was literally decimated. Serbian officers admitted themselves that they were on the 'hunt' for Albanians, and one of them boasted having killed nine Albanians in one day with his own hands.

A doctor working for the Red Cross reported, according to the same source: The Serbs have been massacring throughout Albania with no sign of mercy. Neither women nor children nor old people have been spared. I have seen villages burning in Old Serbia every day. Near Kratovo, General Stefanovic had hundreds of prisoners lined up in two rows and machine gunned down. General Živkovic had 850 Albanian notables put to death in Senica because they had offered resistance.

The Albanische Korrespondenz reported from Trieste on 12 March: A letter from Kruja near Durrës (Durazzo) dated 27 February of this year was read out at the Albanian congress here. It read: All the buildings as well as the villas of Mashar Bey and Fuad Bey (n.b. who were taking part in the congress at the time) have been burnt to the ground. Ali Lam Osmani's brother was caught by the Serbs in Vinjoll near Kruja, buried to his thighs in the earth, and then shot. The letter concludes with the words: We shall never see one another again. Farewell until we meet in the other world!

The Marauding Serbs!

Ahmed Djevad, secretary of the Comité de Publication D. A. C. B. reports, according to several witnesses: The most incredible amounts of valuables have been robbed and stolen by the Serbs in Strumica. Major Ivan Gribic, commander of the fourth battalion of the fourteenth Serbian line regiment alone had eighty wagons filled with furniture and carpets transported back to Serbia. All the young women and girls of Strumica have been raped and forcibly baptized. The rest of the wretched Moslem population is dying of starvation, destitution and disease...

The Albanische Korrespondenz reported from Trieste on 21 March 1913: The suffering in Albania has reached an unspeakable zenith. The Serbian troops who took Durrës (Durazzo) were immediately ordered to proceed into the countryside although no provision had been made for their food and drink. They were therefore forced to rely on food they confiscated from the population, which they did with exception cruelty. They took nine-tenths of all the stocks available, and refused to give written receipts for the goods they requisitioned.

The Serbian troops not only confiscated goods for their own usage. They seized or destroyed all the food that fell into their hands. Ancient olive trees which had been planted in the Venetian period and had provided sustenance to generations were cut down by the Serbs. Farm animals were slain. No sheep, no chickens, no corn which the Serbs could get their hands on remained untouched. They conducted extensive raids and looted wherever they could. In Durrës (Durazzo), the Serbs loaded ships with carpets and other stolen goods for transportation to Salonika whence the cargo was transferred back to Belgrade. Even antique benches from the government offices in Durrës were confiscated and loaded onto the booty ships.

Fazil Toptani Pasha, to whom we showed this report for confirmation, stated: Everything written in this report is true. These facts are but a small portion of the outrages committed in our country by these barbarians. They flooded into Albania slaughtering, looting and burning, and have caused more destruction than anyone could possibly imagine.

Dervish Hima told us: Tell the public that a good proportion of the Albanian people is on the verge of starvation. Spring has come, the time to sow the land, and the Serbs have stolen all the seed. Even if the Albanians had seed, they would not sow it, for they now have a saying: "Even if something manages to grow, the Serbs will destroy it." Such is the fear of the Serbs among our people!

Wholesale Murder

A Romanian doctor, Dr Leonte, reported in the Bucharest newspaper Adevarul on 6 January 1913 that the horrors he saw committed by the Serbian army far outdid his worst fears. That hundreds of Moslem captives were forced to march a hundred kilometres was the least of what these wretches were to suffer. Whenever any of these poor individuals collapsed of hunger and exhaustion at the roadside, they were simply bayoneted by the first soldier passing, and the corpses were left to rot. The fields were still strewn with the bodies of slaughtered men and women, young and old, even children. When Serbian troops marched into Monastir / Bitola, all Turkish patients being treated in the hospitals were slain in order to make room for wounded Serbs. The soldiers stole whatever they could get their hands on. Even banks were robbed. A Bulgarian professor who made himself unpopular by proposing a toast to King Ferdinand has disappeared without a trace since the evening of the toast. Dr Leonte gives other reports of atrocities similar to those committed in Kumanova / Kumanovo, Prizren etc.

* * *

The well-known war correspondent Hermenegild Wagner reported from Zemun on 20 November 1912: During my three-day stay in Nish, I heard shocking details of the inhumane acts committed by Serbian troops. I wish to note in this connection that I have respected witnesses for all details referred to.

In the fortress of Nish was a fifty-year-old Albanian woman being held on suspicion of having thrown bombs at Serbian troops marching into Ferizaj / Uroševac. Instead of bringing the accused before a military tribunal, she was given over to Serbian soldiers who literally shattered her skull with the butts of their rifles.

A Turkish lieutenant named Abdul Kadri Bey was beaten to death in the fortress of Nish. The autopsy showed a broken nose and a traumatized liver. The victim was kicked to death.

An Albanian who attempted to escape was bayoneted to death. The body was dreadfully battered about by the soldiers even while it was being taken to the morgue.

In the hospital of Nish, a number of Serbs entered a ward where Turkish patients were being treated. One of the Serbs called out, making a joke, "That's the one who wounded me!" Thereupon, a whole group of Serbs attacked the helpless patient and kicked him to death.

A Red Cross doctor told me with horror that the prisoners and injured patients one encountered in Nish and Belgrade were only there for show. "The Serbs," he added, "know no mercy. All Albanians caught, whether armed or not, are butchered on the spot. Women, children, old people. Dreadful things are happening down there (in Old Serbia). I don't know how many villages have been razed to the ground by Serbian troops. I saw them burning day after day... Near Kratovo, General Stefanovic had hundreds of Albanian prisoners lined up in two rows and mowed down with machine guns. The general then declared: This brood must be exterminated so that Austria will never find her beloved Albanians again.

General Živkovic massacred 950 Albanian and Turkish notables near Senica when ten thousand Albanians slowed down the advance of Serbian troops.

The Serbs took very few of the wounded prisoner after the Battle of Kumanova / Kumanovo. King Peter himself visited the field hospital in Nish. One of the injured Serbs complained that the Albanians were firing upon the Serbs with rifles stolen from the Serbs themselves, and that he, too, had been wounded in this manner, to which King Peter replied: "The swine will pay for it!"

Serbian witnesses who were present at the battle told me with smiles on their faces how after the battle, all of the dead and injured Turks and Albanians were hurled into a shallow grave. The battlefield looked frightful after a heavy rainfall because the Turkish mass grave collapsed, leaving the hands, feet and skulls of distorted bodies sticking out of the mud.

Devastated Villages

In Skopje, a returning Serbian officer explained quite seriously to me the justice of burning down eighty villages in Luma territory.

On 14 February, the Deutsches Volksblatt published a report from southern Hungary, warning: The Serbian government must come to realize that their official denials only serve to destroy Serbian credibility even further. We saw examples of such rallies following the murder of the king. At that time, the government solemnly and officially denied that King Alexander and Queen Draga had been murdered by the perjured officers, insisting instead that they had been quarrelling and had killed one another...

With regard to the Albanian massacres, it is extremely sad to note that the description of events which has filtered through to the public is indeed in full accord with the facts and has only one shortcoming, that it is incomplete. Many Serbs have confirmed the events themselves, often with great pride. Let it suffice for us to quote a statement made by someone who himself took part in the first stages of the war and who, though a Serb from the Kingdom, prefers to exercise his profession in southern Hungary for the moment, under Austrian 'oppression', in order to avoid as far as possible the 'cultural and religious liberality' reigning in his native land. This classic witness took obvious satisfaction in declaring that Serbian soldiers had ruthlessly mowed down whole groups of Albanian farmers, whose only 'crime' was that weapons had been found in their homes. When I expressed my astonishment at his statement, he replied placidly, "Should we have wasted our time escorting these people to some distant garrison town? It was much less work this way. We were then free and could go for a drink!" This pragmatic attitude seems to be extremely widespread among Serbian soldiers. An injured patient at a Belgrade hospital told a visitor, "We left the Turks alone but slaughtered the Albanian dogs wherever we could get our hands on them." Another indication is to be seen in the letter by a Serbian officer, published in the journal Magyarorszag, whose Balkan correspondent was Ivan Ivanovic, Austrian deserter and former head of the Royal Serbian Press Office. In this letter, the officer declares that, after the occupation of Monastir / Bitola, he had with his own eyes seen his soldiers seize ten Turkish men, women and children each and burn them alive. Such statements can be heard from all the Serbs returning from the war. To their misfortune, they have not read the official Serbian denials published in the foreign press...

* * *

An Albanian from near Skopje reported: "When we saw the Serbian soldiers approaching our village, everyone ran back home. I myself was not afraid and, wanting to get a look at the strangers, came out in front of the house. There they were already. I offered one of the soldiers a small coin. He struck me on the head and I fell to the ground, where the soldiers left me. Storming into the house, they murdered my mother and father, set the house on fire, and proceeded to slaughter everyone else. When I finally got back up on my feet, everything was in flames."

In Sefer in the region of Gjilan / Gnjilane, the Serbs set fire to a cottage and hurled its two elderly owners, who had not had time to flee, alive into the conflagration. They tied the hands of one man together, told him to run away, and then shot him as he ran off.

Varying explanations were given this month for the burning down of the following towns and villages: Limbishte, Koliq / Kolic, Tërpeza / Trpeza and Gjylekar / Djelekare. In the last three villages, everyone was slaughtered, including women and children.

In the village of Bobaj in the district of Gjakova / Djakovica, four Serbian soldiers who had been caught trying to rape the women, were beaten up. This was enough for a punitive expedition to be sent in and Bobaj was put to the torch. All the inhabitants were slaughtered. When they had finished their work, the soldateska came upon seventy Catholic Albanians from Nikaj, who were going to market. Here, too, the soldiers carried out their bloody handwork.

In Peja / Pec, Serbian soldiers carried off three women. The Montenegrins also carried off three girls.

In Luma territory, thirty-two communities were burnt to the ground, and anyone who was captured there was slain.

In Dibër / Debar, too, Serbian soldiers committed dreadful atrocities. They stole whatever they could get their hands on. Then fresh troops arrived and set twenty-four villages on fire, killing all the inhabitants...

In Prizren, the Catholic priest was not allowed to administer communion to the dying. Whoever approached the parish priest was brought before a military tribunal.

* * *

The following report was received from Durrës (Durazzo) on 6 March: Serbian troops have burnt the following villages to the ground: Zeza, Larushk, Monikla, Sheh and Gromni. In Zeza, twenty women and girls were locked in their homes and burnt alive.

The inhabitants of the village of Kruja-Kurbin have taken to the mountains, in order to save their lives, leaving behind all their possessions.

* * *

On 12 March, the Albanische Korrespondenz reported from Trieste: Letters from Tirana inform us that Serbian troops have recently been committing atrocities in the vicinity. The inhabitants of Kaza Tirana had offered accommodation to a unit of Albanian volunteers and given them food and drink. When the Serbian military commander got word of this, he had his troops encircle the village, whereupon all the houses, including the estate belonging to Fuad Toptani Bey, were burnt to the ground. Seventeen people died in the fire. Ten men and two women were executed.

The Serbs Are Also Murdering Christians

On 20 March, the Reichspost published a letter from Albania, reading as follows:

The parish priest of the sanctuary of Cernagora or Setnica, Don Tommaso, was robbed by Serbian soldiers of all the funds belonging to the church. The soldiers drew their bayonets, forced him to open the safe and took out all the money belonging to the pilgrimage site.

The parish priest of Gjakova / Djakovica was threatened with death. He was told, "Either you give up your links with the Austrian protectorate or we will roast your brains!" The courageous reaction of the priest blew the wind out of their sails, however.

For three months now, the Serbs have been hindering the parish priest of Ferizaj / Uroševac in his freedom to exercise his office. They have been jailing anyone who talks to him or who goes to mass or confession. The same thing has happened to two priests from Prizren.

All imaginable pressure has been exerted against the Catholics of Janjeva / Janjevo (four hundred families, almost all of whom are ethnic Slavs) to convert to the schismatic church.

For hundreds of years now, about 8,000 Catholics, so-called Laramans or secret Catholics, have been living in this archdiocese. Because of Turkish persecution, they did not profess their faith openly. When the Serbs arrived, several hundred of these Laramans wanted to declare openly that they were Catholic. When a representative of the new government got word of this, they were ordered, "Either Moslem or Orthodox. Not Catholic!"

Near the sanctuary of Letnica is the village of Shashare (ninety families, all of them Catholic). Serbian soldiers took the village, assembled the men on a field and tied them up with ropes. They then looted the homes and brutally raped the women and girls.

Countless Albanian Catholics have been murdered. In Ponoshec / Ponoševac, for instance, thirty men were slaughtered one day while they were going about their business in the village. Their only crime was to admit that they were Albanian Catholics.

Near Zhur / Žur, entire families of innocent Catholic tribesmen who had come down to Prizren to purchase salt, oil, sugar etc. were treacherously murdered on their way. The same thing happened near Gjakova / Djakovica where a further seventy Catholics from the parish of Nikaj were slaughtered. The Catholics are persecuted, whereas the native Orthodox are left alone.

In the vicinity of Dibër / Debar and Monastir / Bitola, as well as in Kosovo, many villages have now been burnt to the ground. The looting is unspeakable. It is sufficient to note that sheep are now being sold at a price of two francs each because nobody knows what to do with them all. So many have been stolen from the Albanians by the Serbs and Montenegrins.

They are now trying to stop us from speaking Albanian. A number of schools teaching Albanian have already been closed down.

The letter ends with the words, "May God have mercy upon us, and may Europe come and save us. Otherwise we are lost!"

* * *

In its issue of 21 March, the Neue Freie Presse reports: We have been told by informed sources that, according to recent reports, Catholics and Moslems are being persecuted both in the district of Gjakova / Djakovica and in the district of Dibër / Debar. Many deaths occur every day. The population has fled, leaving behind all their possessions. It is not only the Albanians who are the object of such persecution, but also Catholic and Moslem Slavs.

Slaughtered Priests

On 20 March, the Neue Freie Presse reported: On 7 March, the soldateska joined fanatic Orthodox priests in and around Gjakova / Djakovica to forcefully convert the Catholic population to the Orthodox faith. About 300 persons, men, women and children, among whom Pater Angelus Palic, were bound with ropes and forced under threat of death to convert. An Orthodox priest pointed to the soldiers standing by with their rifles in hand and said, "Either you sign the declaration that you have converted to the one true faith or these soldiers of God will send your souls to hell."

All the prisoners then signed the forms prepared for them which contained a declaration of conversion to the Orthodox faith. Pater Angelus was the last. He was the only one of them who had the strength, in a calm and dignified manner, to refuse to give up his faith. Pater Angelus stood by his word, even when ordered three times to convert and even when entreated by the other forcefully converted Catholics. The result was one of the most appalling scenes imaginable in twentieth-century Europe.

After a sign from the Orthodox priest, the soldiers fell upon the Franciscan, ripped off his tunic and began beating him with the butts of their rifles. Pater Angelus collapsed after several of his bones and ribs had been fractured. At this moment, the Orthodox priest stopped the soldiers and asked him if he was now willing to convert. Again he shook his head and said placidly, "No, I will not abandon my faith and break my oath." Pater Angelus was beaten with the rifle butts again until one of the soldiers plunged a bayonet through the priest's lungs and put an end to his suffering.

A Serbian Decree For More Bloodshed

A decree was issued to the local authorities in the district of Kruja in western Albania, reading: "If anything occurs in the future or if but one Serbian soldier is killed in the town, in a village or in the vicinity, the town will be razed to the ground and all men over the age of fifteen will be bayoneted." The decree was signed: Kruja, 5 January 1913. Commanding officer: A. Petrovic, Captain, first class.

Kruja is the birthplace of Scanderbeg, the national hero, whose castle still stands in the town. It is a place venerated by all Albanians!

Serbian Voices

The Deutsches Volksblatt reported on 8 February: The Serbian Minister of Culture and Education, Ljuba Jovanovic, has published a declaration in a Slav newspaper, stating: "The Moslems will of course be treated the same as everyone else with regard to their rights as citizens. As to their religious affairs, the Vakuf properties (belonging to religious foundations) will remain under Moslem jurisdiction and their monasteries will be held in the same respect as are the Christian ones. With the exception of the regular troops, the Moslems have not put up any resistance to Serbian occupation and, as a result, were not harmed by Serbian forces. The Albanians, for their part, have resisted the Serbian occupation and even shot at soldiers after having surrendered. Such shootings have taken place not only outdoors but also from within houses in occupied villages. This has led to what happens everywhere when non-combatants oppose a victorious army" (i.e. the massacre of the Albanians).

The Belgrade newspaper Piemont, which serves as the mouthpiece of radical circles within the army, dealt in its issue of 20 March with the problem of Shkodër (Scutari) and declared that Shkodër must fall to Montenegro. "If this does not happen," continued the newspaper, "the town must be razed to the ground."

Serbian Officers Boast of their Vile Deeds

The Albanische Korrespondenz reports from Durrës (Durazzo): The carnage perpetrated by the Serbs in Albania is outrageous. Serbian officers boast openly of their deeds. Serbian troops have acted infamously in Kosovo in particular. A Serbian officer reported here: "The womenfolk often hid their jewellery and were not willing to hand it over. In such cases, we shot one member of the family and, right away, were given all the valuables." Particularly shocking was the behaviour of the Serbs on Luma territory. The men were burnt alive. Old people, women and children were slaughtered. In Kruja, the birthplace of Scanderbeg, a good number of men and women were simply shot to death and many houses set on fire. The Serbian commander, Captain Petrovic, published an ukaz officially announcing the evil deeds. In Tirana, several Albanians were sentenced to corporal punishment. The Serbs thrashed the wretched individuals until they died. In Kavaja and Elbasan, people were also officially beaten to death by the soldiers. A well-known, respected and wealthy gentleman, son of a Turkish officer, was shot in Durrës (Durazzo). The Serbian command later made his sentence known by wall posters on which they wrote that he had been accused of theft and sentenced to death. The Serbs have destroyed Catholic churches, saying that they are Austrian constructions and must disappear from the face of the earth. Serbian soldiers and officers harass the population day and night.

A Serbian soldier was recently found murdered. The Serbian commander ordered the immediate arrest of five Albanians who had nothing to do with the murder and had them shot.

A Bloodbath in Shkodër (Scutari)

The Albanische Korrespondenz reports from Podgorica: After the battle of Brdica, which resulted in a sound defeat for the Serbs, Serbian forces entered the village of Barbullush on their retreat. The terrified inhabitants came out of their homes with crucifixes in their hands and begged for mercy, but to no avail. The crazed troops attacked the unarmed villagers and slaughtered men, women, old people and children. The maimed body of an eight-year-old child was found to contain no less than six bayonet wounds.

The Serbian Denials

In recent times, the Serbian government has countered most reports of atrocities with official denials. Such disavowals have always been issued promptly, but all too often they lacked any semblance of credibility. Such grave and detailed accusations cannot be repudiated by a simple statement that the events in question did not occur.

The present and by no means complete selection of reports from various sources, not only Austrian, but also Italian, German, Danish, French and Russian, should have more weight in any court of human justice than all the formal denials issued by the Royal Serbian Press Office.

In an official denial dated 8 February, the Serbian Press Office declared that, "Such atrocities alleged to have been perpetrated by the Serbian army are simply unthinkable today on the part of a people who are exceptionally religious and tolerant." We can only answer: An army whose officers assault their king and queen in the middle of the night, murder them, maim their corpses with fifty-eight sabre cuts and then throw them out the window is quite capable of such atrocities, in particular since the leader of the bloodbath which took place in the konak of Belgrade was none other than Colonel Popovic, one of the leaders of the Serbian attack on Albania and currently commander of Serbian occupation forces in Durrës (Durazzo).

Vienna 1913

Serbian~Albanian conflict

2010-11-21T14:11:00.000-08:00

The Serbian–Albanian conflict is a struggle between the Serbs and Albanians that lasted for several centuries. The conflict has been characterised by repeated episodes of fighting (most notably during the First Balkan War, the Second World War and the Kosovo War).

Middle ages

Thomas II Preljubović, the Serbian ruler of Epirus 1367–1384 had many conflicts with local Albanians who raided the territories. Thomas waged war against these Albanians and he successfully defeated them with help from the Ottomans, with great force, something that earned him the title of "Albanian-slayer" (Ἀλβανιτόκτονος).

Đurađ I Balšić declared war against the Thopias of Northern Albania over territories in 1363. Karl Thopia, a 14th century King of Albania, was defeated by the ruler Balša II who ruled from Shkoder who had gained Berat, Kanina (1372) and finally Dyrrhachium (1382). In 1385 defeated Thopia appealed to Ottoman Sultan Murat I for help and let the Ottoman army of Hayreddin Pasha mobilize in Albania. The Ottoman army defeated the Balšićs in the Battle of Savra in 1385 and made the Albanians vassals.

Sinan Pasha, an Albanian-Ottoman military commander ordered, in 1595, that the relics of Saint Sava, the founder of the autocephalous Serbian Orthodox Church in the 12th century, be taken from the Serbs and burned at the Vračar hill of Belgrade so that the Serbs in Banat who fought with the Habsburgs against the Ottoman Empire would see the smoke. Only the saint's right hand which was kept elsewhere remains.

Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878)

Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire during the war, the slavic Christian nations of the balkan gained additional territory. Consequently, Serbia displaced about 80.000 Muslims (Albanians) during the winter of 1877/1878 from its newly acquired lands (the region around Leskovac, Vranje, Niš and the valley of the Morava river). Those refugees, the Muhaxir, mostly settled in today's Kosovo. Not only had this large influx of refugees a lasting effect on the demographic composition of Kosovo, it also worsened the existing tensions between Muslims and Christians in this part of the Ottoman Empire, since the Muhaxir had been driven out of Serbia by force. This act of ethnic cleansing could be seen as the actual starting point of the Serbian-Albanian conflict, since it was the first act of state-organised large-scale violence in the conflict and at least one party (the Serbs) had developed into a fully functional nation and displayed a Serbian national consciousness (whereas the Albanian nationalism was still in its infant stages).

1912 to 1946

The first Balkan War in 1912 were ignited by the Albanian uprising between 1908-10 which were directed at opposing the Young Turk policies of consolidation of the Ottoman Empire. Following the eventual weakening of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria declared war and sought to aggrandize their respective boundaries on the remaining territories of the Empire. Albania was thus invaded by Serbia in the North and Greece in the south, restricting the country to only a patch of land around the southern coastal city of Vlora. In 1912 Albania, still under foreign occupation declared its independence and with the aid of Austria-Hungary, the Great Powers drew its present borders leaving more than half of the Albanian population outside the new country.

In September 1913, Albanians in Vardar Macedonia together with Pro-Bulgarian Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization rebelled against Serbian Chetniks in the Ohrid-Debar Uprising.

In 1914, Serbia was invaded by Austria-Hungary. During the autumn of 1915 its army, accompanied by a host of civilian refugees, was forced into retreat in the face of the Austrian invasion. It embarked on a two-month forced march across Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania to the Albanian port of Durrës, from where it was evacuated by the Allies. Along the way it was repeatedly attacked by local Albanians as the army had become known for great atrocities in the area before their forced retreat; many more Serbian soldiers and civilians died of starvation as the locals were unwilling to be sympathetic to their former occupiers, with 150,000 fatalities by the time the host had reached the sea. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was established following the war. As the kingdom's original name - the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes - indicated, the Albanians of Yugoslavia were not regarded as a constitutive nation of the new state but rather a mere ethnic minority. Official discrimination and efforts to dilute the numbers of the Albanian population led to the formation of anti-Serbian groups, the so-called Kacak.

In the Second World War, Kosovo Albanians rebelled against Axis- Serbia who was occupied by the Axis at the time, and tried to reunite with Albania. Kosovo and parts of what was historical Albanian territories in Macedonia were annexed to Albania. Other Albanians joined the Partisans of Josip Broz Tito, since they disliked axis rule and hoped to fight for independence from the Axis powers.

1946 to 1999

From 1946, when the constitution of the Federative People's Republic of Yugoslavia (later the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) was established, the Albanians of Yugoslavia were split between two new entities: the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo and the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. The Albanians were again established as "national minorities" rather than "nations". The Yugoslav government imposed a strongly repressive policy, carried out by the UDBA secret police under the direction of Aleksandar Ranković.

After Ranković fell from power in 1966, the position of the Yugoslav Albanians improved somewhat. Mass demonstrations by Albanian students in 1974 led to the province obtaining greater autonomy under the rule of the local (Albanian-dominated) Communist Party. However, this led to discrimination against local Serbs. This, combined with Kosovo's enduring poverty, prompted thousands of Serbs to move out and led to the province becoming even more predominantly Albanian-populated.

The problems of Kosovo's Serbs were instrumental in the rise of Slobodan Milošević in the late 1980s, who used the issue as a stepping-stone to the Presidency of Serbia. In 1989 he greatly reduced the autonomy of Kosovo and imposed a harshly repressive regime that was widely criticised by foreign governments and international human rights groups. The province remained quiet during the early phase of the Yugoslav Wars, but by 1996 Albanian radicals had established the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) to fight for an independent Kosovo. Attacks against the Serbian security forces targets followed, and by 1998 the province was in a state of widespread low-level war. The Kosovo War of 1999 resulted in NATO forces expelling Serbian and Yugoslav security forces from Kosovo.

Pejoratives

Serbs use the derogatory term Šiptari (Serbian Cyrillic: Шиптари) for Albanians and it is a direct transliteration of the Albanian ethnonym Shqiptar. Albanci is the correct designation.

Albanians use the derogatory term Shkije, Shkja or Shqeh (as in Tosk Dialect) for Serbs, old nominative term meaning sclavi which translates and relates to the word slave or subhuman. Serbët is the correct designation.

Albanian_muhajir

Battle of Deçiq

2010-11-21T14:01:00.000-08:00

The legendary Battle of Deçiq marked the beginning of the turning point for Albanian liberty. It was in this battle that the Flag of Albania was raised for the first time after 442 years of Ottoman occupation. Before this battle, the Albanian flag was last flown in 1480, when the Castle of Shkodra had fallen to the Turks.

Location & Background

The battle took place in both towns of Koplik (Albania) & Tuzi (Montenegro). The main battle occurred in Koplik, however the victorious ending was sought in Tuzi. Tuzi is the town center for the region of Malësia that lies within Montenegro, whereas the capital town for all of Malësia is Koplik. Malësia is simply translated to "The Great Highlands", which is a well depicted name due to the rough mountainous terrain within this region. The region of Malësia is mostly under the Roman Catholic faith. The tribesman of Malësia are known as Malësor, meaning Highlander. The Malësori people were always a fiercely independent people, with very little suppression from any conquering armies.

The battle

The main cause to the battle came from the disrespect of the Ottoman government on the Albanian people. The Albanian highlanders (Malësorët) were tricked by the Young Turks. The Turks promised them independence and freedom only if the Albanians disarmed their weapons. The Albanians trusted the Turks, thinking they would imply the freedom that they longed hoped for. Instead, after the disarming, the Turks started to oppress them like never before.

The backstabbing actions committed by the Turks only infuriated the Albanians and led them to a state of seeking revenge. The highlanders decided to wage a battle against the "Young Turk" regime lead by the infamous leader himself, Shefqet Turgut Pasha. The Albanians, on the other hand, had their own leaders named Ded Gjo Luli Dedvukaj, from the Hoti tribe, and Sokol Baci Ivezaj, from the Gruda tribe. This very battle happened to determine the independence for the region of Malësia, as well the spark to Albanian Independence. The number of soldiers of both combatatting parties are unknown, but both were indicated in the mid-thousands. It was more likely that the Turks had more soldiers.

The main portion of the battle took place in Koplik (Albania), where the Malësors went against thousands of Turks. Koplik is the largest town in Malësia, right across the border with Montenegro is Tuzi. During the battle, the women and children were sent to the dark woods within Malësia to keep away from the battle scene and protection from any wandering Turks.

As the fighting proceeded, both armies decided to move north into the town of Tuzi, where the battle ended. It was in this town, where the Albanian flag was raised on the mountain top of Deciq, claiming the victory.

Outcome

The outcome to this long battle was in favor of the Albanians. Although a large number of Albanians died that day, they still managed to claim victory from the Ottomans.

In 1913, at the Treaty of London, the powers of Europe decided to annex half the land of Malësia to Montenegro, wheres the rest remained in Albania. Tuzi, along with the tribes of half of Hoti (Traboini), Gruda, Triesh, and Koja e Kuçit went to Montenegro. Kelmendi, the other half of Hoti (Rapsha), Kastrati, Shkreli, and the town of Koplik remained in Albania, but certain parts of Kelmendi such as Vuthaj, Martinaj, Plave Guci,went to Montenegro and Rugova was annexed to Serbia. Even though this decision was finalized, all seven tribes still proudly call themselves the "Djemtë te Malësis" (Sons of Malësia). It was in this battle to which they celebrate their proud victory.

Notable Warriors

* Prek Cali i Kelmendit
* Ded Gjo Luli i Traboinit te Hotit
* Pretash Zeka Ulaj i Kojes
* Gjeto Toma Kolcaj
* Mehmet Shpendi i Shalës
* Sokol Baci Ivezaj
* Baca Kurti Gjokaj
* Nik Marashi i Trieshit
* Palok Traboini Gojçaj

Albanian Revolts of 1833~1839

2010-11-21T13:52:00.000-08:00

Albanian revolts of 1833-1839 took place in Albania as a reaction against the new centralizing policy of Ottoman administration.

Uprising in South Albania in 1833

In the beginning of July 1833 the inhabitants of Tepelenë under the leadership of Balil Nesho rose up against the new Ottoman governor Emin Pasha, son of Mehmet Reshit Pasha. The revolt was spread in the nearby regions of Gjirokastër and Delvinë. The Ottoman forces led by Emin Pasha attacked the rebels in the Peshkëpi Pass. Unprepared, the rebels withdrew in the village of Luzat and, when Ottoman forces attacked them there, the Ottomans were soundly defeated. Inspired by the first successes, other regions of Vlorë, Berat and Skrapar, rose up in rebellion. In Berat the inhabitants sieged the castle. In a sign of pacification the Ottoman government evicted Emin Pasha from his post, but the rebellion continued and spread out even more. In September 1833 the castle of Berat surrendered to the rebels. The rebels requests were to have Albanian governors and officials in the rebel districts and to abolish new taxes. Alarmed, the Ottoman government accepted the rebels' requests by nominating Albanian officials in the cities of Berat. Vlorë, Tepelenë, Përmet, and Gjirokastër, and by also declaring an amnesty.

Uprising in Shkodër in 1833

In 10 April 1833 about 4,000 armed Albanians from Shkodër and the surrounding areas entered the city occupying the main market and asking for the abolition of taxes and the application of old privileges granted before by the Sultan to the region. Trying to calm down the rebels, the Turkish governor, Namik Pasha, promised to solve the problems. Inadvertently, in August 1833 he sent a military expedition to push the rebels out of the market which they still possessed. A fierce fighting took place and the Ottoman expedition withdrew. The rebels sent a delegation to Istanbul to ask the Sultan for the replacement of Namik Pasha. While the Albanian delegation was in Istanbul the Ottoman forces under the lead of Namik Pasha sieged the city of Shkodër and started several attacks during a three months period, but the city resisted them. After three months of siege the Ottoman forces withdraw on December 1833. Alarmed by the continuous uprisings, which were also happening in Southern Albania at that time, the Ottoman government accepted the rebel requests and replaced the upopular governor Namik Pasha with another official.

Uprisings in 1834-1835

The Ottoman didn't kept its promises long in south Albania. The inhabitants of Berat rose up in rebellion and asked for the local leader Tafil Buzi to lead them. Soon they gathered an army of 10000 men. The rebellion was spread in the same regions in which the rebellion took plas in the previous year. The rebels sieged the castle of Berat and in the liberated city they created a committee. The political leader was elected Abaz bey Lushnja and the military commander Tafil Buzi. They asked from the new governor of Vlora sandjak for an authonomy of their regions. After two months of siege the castle of Berat surrendered to the rebels.In January 1835 the rebels committee signed a document in which the Ottoman government promised to fulfill their requests while they had to depose the arms. While the agreement was quickly violated by Ottoman government, the rebels under Tafil Buzi rose up again this time marching to Yanina. There, Tafil Buzi made a proclamation for all the Albanian to take their arms against the Ottomans and this is one of the first proclamations for the liberation of Albania. Tafil Buzi asked also for the help of Mehmet Ali of Egypt. Alarmed, Ottoman government sent many military troops against the rebels. Under these circumstances Tafil Buzi was forced to accept the amnisty and to withdraw in his village in May 1835.

At the same time in May 1835, in Myzeqe a new rebellion took place under the leadership of Alush bey Frakulla. The uprise was soon put to an end by Ottoman government corrupting the leaders.

While the situation was calmed down in South Albania, Hafiz Pasha the new governor of Shkodër, tried to implement new reforms in the sandjak. He raised the custom taxes and also introduced new "extraordinary taxes". This caused a new rebellion in the city of Shkodër. The rebels were lead by Hamza Kazazi which was the head of city guilds. The rebels forced the Ottoman garrison to withdraw in the castle. They created a new committee lead by Hamza Kazazi, Haxhi Idrizi and other local leaders, asking from the Ottoman government to respect their old privileges. While their requests were refused on 24 May 1835 they attacked the Ottoman posts. The rebels were helped from other volunteers coming from Gjakova and Peja. After the first clashes even the regions of Ulqin and Mirdita joined the rebellion. Hafiz Pasha requested help from Vladika of Montenegro to crush the rebellion promising him some lands around the lake of Shkodër, but although an agreement was done that help never came.

Unable to deal with the rebels by local Ottoman forces, the Ottoman government sent the Vali of Roumeli to crush the rebellion. In 14 July 1835, Vali's forces were crushed by the rebels in a pitch battle. A new regular army of 30000 men under the command of the secretary of Sultan, Vasaf Efendi was sent as reinforcement to Vali's troops. In the meantime Vali of Roumeli began negotiations with the rebels. The Ottoman official sent them even a false document, in which the sultan promised the acceptance of their requests.Many of the rebels convinced of the document began leaving the ranks, only a part of them under Haxhi Idrizi distrustful of Ottomans continued their resistance. On 1 September the reinforced Ottoman army attacked the rebels in the vicinities of Lezhë. After fierce fightings the Ottoman forces were able to relieve the besieged garrison of Shkodër on 18 September. Great part of the rebels withdrew in the mountains. To calm the situation the Ottoman government transferred the Ottoman governor Hafiz Pasha and canceled the military service for the rebel regions.

Uprisings of 1836-1839 in South Albania

In summer 1836 a new uprising began in Vlora region. The rebels were lead again by Tafil Buzi but with a little success. In 1837 a new uprising began in Muzeqe under Alush bey Frakulla. They defeated the Ottoman forces in the vicinity of Berat, but in a second battle in Frakull they were defeated by a superior new Ottoman force. Alush bey Frakulla and other local leaders were captured sentenced in hard labor in Instanbul.

In August 1839 a new uprising took place in Berat. The inhabitants of Berat attacked the Ottoman forces and besieged them in the castle. The rebellion spread out in all the regions of Vlora sandjak. The rebels leaders sent a petition to Sultan Abdul Medjit to have Albanian officials in administration and to put Ismail Pasha, the nephew of Ali Pasha as a general governor. In September 1839 the rebels captured the castle and ones again the Ottoman government postponed the application of reforms in Albania

Albanian Revolt of 1910

2010-11-21T13:45:00.000-08:00

The Albanian Revolt of 1910 was a reaction to the new centralization policies of the Young Turk Ottoman government in Albania. It was the first of a series of major uprisings which led to the Albanian Declaration of Independence in 1912. New taxes levied in the early months of 1910 led to Isa Boletini's activity to convince Albanian leaders who had already been involved in a 1909 uprising to try another revolt against the Ottoman Empire. The Albanian attacks on the Ottomans in Prishtinë and Ferizaj, the killing of the Ottoman commander in Pejë, and the insurgents' blocking of the railway to Shkup at the Kaçanik Pass led to the Ottoman government's declaration of martial law in the area.

After two weeks of fierce fighting the Albanian forces withdrew to the Drenicë region, whereas the Ottoman army took possession of the cities of Prizren and Gjakovë. The Ottomans captured Pejë on June 1, 1910 and two months later they entered Shkodër. The reprisals against the Albanian population were heavy: several summary executions took place, and many villages and properties were burned. Moreover, many schools were closed, and publications in the Albanian alphabet, which had been approved two years earlier, in the Congress of Manastir, were declared illegal. Journalists and publishers were fined or sentenced to death. The Albanian culture and patriotism were thus severely repressed.

Events

During the first months of 1910, Isa Boletini tried to coordinate forces for a new insurrection by visiting the Albanian clans, which had taken refuge in Montenegro after the failure of a previous minor uprising in 1909. In the meantime the new governor, Masar Bey, introduced a new tax on commodities, which immediately became highly unpopular. Albanian leaders held two other meetings in Pejë and Ferizaj, where they took the oath of besa to be united against the new Ottoman government policy of centralization. Forces led by Isa Boletini attacked the Ottoman forces in Prishtinë and Ferizaj, while the commander of Ottoman forces in Pejë was killed by the local population. The Ottoman government declared martial law and sent a military expedition of 16,000 men lead by Shefqet Turgut Pasha who went to Shkup on April 1910.

At the same time some 3,000 Albanians under Idriz Seferi blocked the railway to Shkup at the Kaçanik Pass. They captured a train conveying soldiers and military supplies to the Ottoman garrison of Prishtinë, disarmed the soldiers and held the supplies.[4] The Ottoman forces attacked the Kaçanik Pass but the resistance given there by the Albanians led by Idriz Seferi made it clear that the 16,000 Ottoman forces were insufficient to crush the rebellion so their numbers increased to some 40,000 men. After two weeks of fierce fighting, the Ottoman forces captured the Kaçanik Pass. and attacked the Albanian forces led by Isa Boletini and Hasan Budakova, which meanwhile were blocking the Ferizaj-Prizren road to Carraleva Pass.Superior in numbers, the Ottoman forces tried at first a frontal attack but the stiff resistance offered made them change their tactics. They made a pincer movement, trying to encircle the Albanian forces in Carralevo pass.

After three days of fighting the Albanian forces withdrew to the Drenicë region.Ottoman forces entered Prizren in the middle of May 1910. They proceeded to Gjakovë and Pejë where they entered on June 1, 1910. By government orders part of the force proceeded in the direction of Shkodër, while another column marched toward the Dibër region. The first column marching to Shkodër managed to capture the Morinë pass, after bitter fighting with the Albanian forces of Gash, Krasniq and Bytyç areas, led by Zeqir Halili, Abdulla Hoxha, and Shaban Binaku. Ottoman forces were stopped for more than 20 days in the Agri Pass, from the Albanian forces of Shalë, Shoshë, Nikaj and Mërtur areas, led by Prel Tuli, Mehmet Shpendi, and Marash Delia. Unable to repress their resistance, this column took another way to Shkodër, passing from the Pukë region. On July 24 1910, Ottoman forces entered the city of Shkodër. During this period martial courts were put in action and summary executions took place. A large number of firearms were collected and many villages and properties were burned by the Ottoman army.

Aftermath

Although the number of Ottoman forces was now up to 50,000[4] they controlled only the lowlands and the cities, and failed to control the mountainous regions. By request from Ottoman commander Mehmet Shefqet Pasha, the Ottoman government declared the abrogation of the "Lekë Dukagjini Code" which was the mountain law of Albanian clans. Some Albanian clans went to seek refuge in Montenegro requesting an amnesty from the Ottoman government and the return of the previous conditions before the rebellion. This was not accepted by the Ottoman government which went even further, and declared the prohibition of the Albanian alphabet and books published in such alphabet. The Albanian schools were declared illegal and even possessing a book in Albanian letters became a penal act. Strong through numbers and position, the Ottoman expedition continued its march towards central and Southern Albania imposing the new prohibitions. Albanian schools were closed and the publications in Latin letters were declared illegal. A number of journalists and publishers were fined or sentenced to death while the entrance of Albanian books published outside Ottoman Empire was prohibited. After these events, Albania became a wasteland for Albanian patriots, and the Albanian culture was fully oppressed.One year later, Sultan Mehmed V visited Pristina and declared an amnisty for all of those who had participated in the revolt, except for the ones who had committed murder.

Albanian Revolt of 1843~1844

2010-11-21T13:32:00.000-08:00

The Albanian Revolt of 1843–1844, variously also known as the Revolt of 1844 or the Uprising of Dervish Cara, was a 19th-century uprising in northern Ottoman Albania directed against the Ottoman Tanzimat reforms which started in 1839 and were gradually being put in action in the regions of Albania. Some historians include the actions in Dibër of the same time, under the same historical name, though they actions were independent and headed by other leaders.

Background

The Tanzimat reforms began in 1839, and aimed to modernize the Ottoman Empire by introducing European-inspired reforms. Most importantly, it involved a centralization and streamlining of the administration and military. This hurt the old-established feudal order (cf. timariots and sipahis) among the Empire's Muslim communities, and especially the various local leaders who had exercised considerable regional authority and often enjoyed wide-ranging autonomy from the imperial government. The Albanians had long been a source of manpower for the Ottomans, providing both soldiers and statesmen such as the Köprülü family. The Tanzimat reforms however, and in particular the replacement of influential local leaders by Ottoman functionaries, the imposition of new taxes, the compulsory recruitment into the regular army, and the attempt to disarm the general population caused much resentment, and led to a series of disorders throughout the western Balkan provinces in 1840–43.

In the summer of 1843, the inhabitants of Prizren attacked and routed the new officials of the city and their example was followed by the inhabitants of Prishtina and Gjakova.These local insurrections in the cities were immediately suppressed by Ottoman authorities.

The uprising

The direct cause of the uprising, was the arresting and liquidation of the local Albanophone pashas', most notably that of Abdurrahman Pasha of Tetovo and his two brothers, Havzi Pasha of Üsküb and Hussein Pasha of Kustendil. The revolters which were lead by Dervish Cara had also the support of the Christian population and were assisted also by other Albanophone pashas'.The revolt began in Shkup in July 1843 and grew strongly when an Ottoman army under Hajredin Pasha in a process of opposing it, tried to recruit local Albanians in the regular army. In November the rebels liberated Gostivar and in January 1844 after bitter fights with the Ottoman army they liberated Tetovo. The leader of the rebels was Dervish Cara which was assisted by various local leaders. In February 1844 the rebels attacked and liberated Shkup. They created a Great Council lead by Dervish Cara which was the supreme body of the newly created administration in the liberated territories. In February 1844 the rebels liberated Kumanovo. After Kumonovo the rebels liberated Preshevo, Bujanovc, Vranja, Leskovc and other territories in North Kosovo. The rebellion was spread out in Peja, Gjakovë, Prizren and İşkodra, while in the spring of 1844 the territory of the rebellion was from Oher and Manastır in the south, İşkodra in west, North Kosovo in North and Kumanovo in east.The rebels sent a letter to the Albanians of Sandjak of Yanya recalling them brothers and asking them not to fight for the Ottoman army.

Fearing a further extension of the rebellion the Ottoman government tried to gain some time through negotiations. The requests of the rebels were:

1. Abolish the military levy for Albanian recruitments
2. Replacement of Ottoman functionaries who didn't know Albanian with local Albanians.
3. Recognition of the authonomy of Albania, just like the Ottoman government did with the Serbians in 1830.

The requests of the rebels were not accepted. In a move to disunite the rebels, the Ottoman government declared an amnisty, the abolishment of the new taxes and the postponement of the recruitment process which would become voluntary in the future. A promise that the if they handed over their arms the same rights accorded to the Serbs which ment authonomy, was done by the Ottoman commander in chief Omer Pasha. At the same time an Ottoman army of 30.000 men led by Omer Pasha concentrated in Monastir. In May 1844 the Ottoman army attacked rebels, forcing them to retreat in Tetovo, Shkup and Kumanovo area. Heavy fightins took place from 13–17 May 1844, in Katlanovo Pass and in 18 May in Katlanovo thermals. IN disparity of numbers and without artillery the rebels could not resist longer the superior Ottoman army. In 21 May 1844 the Ottoman army entered in Shkup, where many reprisals took place. During May–June, after bitter fightings with the rebels the Ottoman army could capture from the rebels the cities of Kumanove, Preshevë, Bujonovc, Vranjë, Tetovë, Gostivar while in July the Ottoman army captured all the area from Kachanik to Prishtinë. Dervish Cara was captured by Ottoman forces in summer 1844.

The actions in Dibër

The capture of Dervish Cara didn't put an end to the rebellion which continued in the areas of Dibër and İşkodra. The resistance was very strong especially in Dibër under its local leaders. In the fall of 1844 the Ottoman army was concentrated against the rebels in sandjak of Dibër. Ottoman forces led by Rexhep Pasha were defeated by the rebels in the field of Mavrovë. The rebels in the sandjak of Dibër were led from Sheh Mustafa Zerqani. In a meeting in November 1844 they declared that the old authonomy of Dibër was not to be touched. The rebel army led by Cen Leka tried to stop the advancing Ottoman army led by Hayredin Pasha. The Ottoman commander declared again an amnisty, the abolishment of the new taxes and the postponement of the recruitment process which would become voluntary in the future. The greatest resistance happened in the Battle of Gjuricë, which lasted for five days. According to the report of a French diplomat in Yanina even women and children participated in it.The Ottoman army suffered a great number of loses but due to the great superiority in numbers and armaments succeeded in forcing the rebels to leave the field of battle. The reprisals from the Ottoman army forced a large number of people to leave their houses. Although the rebellion was crushed, the Ottoman government postponed the application of Tanzimat for the sandjak of Dibër and İşkodra. Dervish Cara together with other local leaders was sentenced to death, but this punishment was later transformed into a lifetime sentence.

Battle of Ržanica

2010-11-21T13:26:00.000-08:00

The Battle of Rržanica (Montenegrin: Bitka na Rržanici; Albanian: Beteja e Rrzhanicës) took place on the bridge of Rržanica river in Montenegro. King Nicholas I of Montenegro had planned intentions of invading Albanian lands. The King's intentions, with several others, was to invade Albania and discuss plans with his general (Marko Miljanov) on how to do so. The word quickly was sent to the Albanians of Malësia (Great Highlands). Marash Uci traveled to Çun Mula in Hoti and asked him to summon the tribal leaders of Hoti and Gruda to the Church of Saint John's (Kisha e Shen Gjonit), located in Hoti, without delay for a council meeting.

The men resolve to take arms to defend their land, and make Çun Mula their commander, one of those men were Baca Kurti of Gruda. The Malësors of Hoti and Gruda battled against the forces of Marko Miljanov. The Montenegrins were defeated at Rržanica Bridge and Marko Miljanov was forced to withdraw. King Nicholas in Cetinje was informed of the defeat and was told that Albanian forces are massing at the border.

When Prince Nicholas I of Montenegro and his army stepped foot on the Albanian land (which had been given to him by the Congress of Berlin)the albanian nationalist Baca Kurti heard gunshots from an extreme point in Malësia, and he and other men of Malësia organized a resistance against Montenegro and against the injustice of Europe. He opposed the selling of Albanian land in th European Diplomacy deal. A golden page in the 1,000 years of Albanian history was made towards the end of the 19th century, when Baca Kurti and other Malësors of Northern Albania fought and defeated Montenegrins in the Battle of Ržanica. These words he said towards his fellow natives for the protection of Ura e Rrzhanicës (Rrzhanica Bridge) in Malësia, against the Montenegrin army;

Vëllazën, anmiku po na mësyen! Kush don me dekë sot për vend të vet dhe për nder të armëve të veta, të vinë pas meje!
("Brothers, the enemy is coming after us! whoever wants to die today for their own country and for the honor of their armor, shall follow me")
—Baca Kurti

Pelasgian Albanians

2010-11-21T00:16:00.000-08:00

The name Pelasgians (Greek: Πελασγοί, Pelasgoí, singular Πελασγός, Pelasgós) was used by some ancient Greek writers to refer to populations that preceded the Hellenes in Greece, "a hold-all term for any ancient, primitive and presumably autochthonous people in the Greek world."

Populations identified as "Pelasgian" spoke a language or languages that at the time Greeks identified as not Greek.A tradition also survived that large parts of Greece had once been Pelasgian before being Hellenized. These parts generally fell within the ethnic domain that by the fifth century was attributed to those speakers of ancient Greek who were identified as Ionians.

According to Austrian linguist Johann Georg von Hahn in his work Albanesiche Studien in 1854,the Pelasgians were the original proto-Albanians and the language spoken by the Pelasgians, Illyrians, Epirotes and ancient Macedonians were closely related.

“The Pelasgi would have formed the pre-historical population of Epirus, Macedonia, Illyria, Greece, the Peloponnese and large Italian territories. In Greece, the Pelasgi would have adopted the Hellenic language, when the Hellenic population came to dominate the Pelasgic one, while the native language would have lasted until both the Bulgarian invasion of Macedonia and the Serbian invasion of Illyria. In Albania, southern Illyria and Epirus, the Pelasgic population resisted assimilation by the Slavic population".

Facts about Pelasgian~Illyrian origin of Albanians!
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Nermin Vlora Falaski translated this written pelasgian inscription with the Albanian language:

This is a illiyric Inscription, dated between the III-II century a.C, than currently it is found in the archaeological museum of Durres, in Albania:

“Underego your pain and weep, if that helps you anguish, but entrust him to the warm earth, to the Heavenly Grace and to the Supreme Good”

Albanian Revolt of 1847

2010-11-20T13:45:00.000-08:00

Zenel Gjoleka

The Albanian Revolt of 1847 was a 19th century uprising in southern Albania directed against Ottoman Tanzimat reforms which started in 1839 and were gradually being put in action in the regions of Albania. One of the characteristics of the uprising was the absence of known bey families among its leaders and the massive participation of the peasants. In Albanian communist history this event was also called the Great Peasant Uprisings (Albanian: Kryengritjet e Mëdha Fshatare).

Background

The primary aim of the Tanzimat reforms was that of creating a strong modern local apparatus with which to govern the empire. The old privileges were abolished and taxes were to be collected from Ottoman officials, rather than by local Albanian beys.

After the uprising in Kosovo in 1844, the Ottoman Porte declared the application of the Tanzimat reforms in southern Albania in a ceremony organized in Ioannina. Albanian sandjaks were reorganized. Hysen Pashe Vrioni was appointed the head of Berat Sandjak, which would include the regions of Vlorë, Mallakastër, Skrapar and Përmet. His forces began putting into action the new reforms, disarming the population and requesting new taxes.

Revolt

Albanian peasants in southern Albania reacted to the actions of Ottoman administration and in June 1847, their representatives met in Mesaplik.In a memorandum sent to the Turkish sultan they declared that they would not send soldiers in the regular army, would not pay the new taxes and would also not accept the new administration

The insurgents created a committee with Zenel Gjoleka as its leader. When the new Ottoman administration tried to gather the new taxes in Kuç, the peasants went into open rebellion in July 1847. 500 men led by Zenel Gjoleka marched toward Delvinë and liberated the city. In a short period of time the uprising expanded in all Vlorë region, Chameria, Përmet and especially in Mallakastër where the local rebels were led by another notable local leader, Rrapo Hekali.

Isuf bey Vrioni with its men attacked the rebels in the Mallakastër area. Their forces were defeated and Isuf and its brother were captured during the fighting and executed by the rebels. After that the Mallakastër rebels, led by Rrapo Hekali attacked Berat, but having no artillery they could not capture the castle. They continued the siege without attacking the castle. At the same time, the rebels led by Gjoleka defeated an Ottomand force coming from Ioannina. The Gjoleka men also attacked Gjirokastër and kept its castle under siege. The Porte was alarmed by the news and a release force of 3000 men under Shahin bey Kosturi, was sent from Thessaly, against the rebels in Gjirokastër, but Kosturi and his forces were also defeated by the forces of Gjoleka. Gjoleka also tried to have some cooperation and negotiated with the Greek government of Ioannis Kolettis, but with little succes. A new Ottoman army of 5000 men was sent from Ioannina against Gjoleka. With a force of 1500 men Gjoleka was able to defeat again the Ottoman forces in the Battle of Dholan in 28 August 1847.

At the same time some 15,000 Ottoman forces under the Turkish mareshal Mehmet Reshit Pasha were sent from Manastir to release the siege of Berat. In Ohrid their forces were summoned by other 6,000 men. The Ottoman forces attacked the forces of Rrapo Hekali based in the city of Berat and at the same time the Turkish garrison in the castle attacked them from behind. Albanian forces left the siege and withdrew in Mallakastër. From Berat, the Ottoman army tried to enter to the heart of the rebellion, the Kurvelesh region, from the Kuç pass where Gjoleka forces were concentrated. They once again resisted the Ottoman forces. At the same time other Ottoman forces attacked Kurvelesh from the Mesaplik region and another Ottoman column disembarked in the Himara region encircling the forces of Gjoleka. Even under these circumstances Gjoleka men resisted. Seeing the tough resistance, Mehmed Reshid Pasha declared an amnesty and invited all the leaders to met him in Zhulat village. Some 85 men who believed his words and came to the place of meeting (among whom the local leader Hodo Nivica and some other minor leaders), were captured. After that the organised resistance was no longer possible and Albanian forces were divided in small ceta. Ottoman forces entered the regions of uprising and thousands of men were arrested and deported, whereas Rrapo Hekali was poisoned in the prison of Manastir in December 30, 1847. Gjoleka with a small group of fighters retreated to Greece, which ended the uprising.

Monastir massacre of 1830

2010-11-20T08:46:00.000-08:00

The Massacre of the Albanian beys occurred on 26 August 1830, when around 500 Albanian leaders (beys) and their personal guards were killed by Ottoman forces in the town of Manastir (present-day Bitola, Republic of Macedonia). The massacre led to the weakening of the power of the beys of southern Albania and also set the basis for the destruction of the powerful northern Albanian Pashalik of Shkodra.

Background events

During the era of the Albanian Pashaliks, the influence of the local Albanian beys had weakened. Since they had lost the Pashalik of Yanina, after the Greek War of Independence the situation in southern Albania was in turmoil, with the Albanian mercenaries of the Ottoman Army pillaging the villages of the region.At this moment, the old Albanian Muslim families tried to regain their power. On the other hand, the Ottoman Empire tried to prevent the rise of local beys, which presented a menace to the Ottoman centralised power. In 1830, the Sublime Porte sent an expeditionary force under the command of Reşid Mehmed Pasha to suppress the local Albanian beys. On hearing the news of the Ottoman forces' arrival, the three most powerful local chiefs: Zylyftar Poda, accompanied by the remains of Ali Pasha's faction, Veli Bey (whose power base was around Yannina), and Arslan Bey, along with other less powerful beys, began to prepare their forces to resist a probable Ottoman attack.

Massacre

Realising the seriousness of the situation and the danger of a general uprising, Reşid Mehmed Pasha invited the Albanian beys to a meeting on the pretext that they would be rewarded for their loyalty to the Porte. Two of the main leaders, Veli and Arslan Bey, accepted the invitation and went together with their followers to meet with Reşid Mehmed Pasha at his headquarter in Monastir. On their arrival there, the Turkish commander led them into an enclosed field when they saw Turkish forces aligned in ceremonial salute parade. In fact, this was an ambush, and upon a sign from the pasha, the soldiers opened fire on the surprised Albanian beys and their personal guards. All the Albanians which had entered the field, some four to five hundred, were killed, while Arslan tried in vain to escape. He was killed by Ottoman forces after a short pursuit.

Aftermath

The massacre of the Albanian beys was a strong blow to the beys' power in Albania. In addition, the Ottomans, after having managed to deprive southern Albania from its leaders, defeated the following year, in 1831, the Pashalik of Shkodra, the last remaining Albanian pashalik. Nevertheless this did not end the opposition of the Albanians to the Ottoman regime,which re-emerged with the Albanian Revolt of 1847.

Albanian Revolt of 1843~1844

2010-11-17T12:46:00.000-08:00

The Albanian Revolt of 1843–1844, variously also known as the Revolt of 1844 or the Uprising of Dervish Cara, was a 19th-century uprising in northern Ottoman Albania directed against the Ottoman Tanzimat reforms which started in 1839 and were gradually being put in action in the regions of Albania. Some historians include the actions in Dibër of the same time, under the same historical name, though they actions were independent and headed by other leaders.

Background

The Tanzimat reforms began in 1839, and aimed to modernize the Ottoman Empire by introducing European-inspired reforms. Most importantly, it involved a centralization and streamlining of the administration and military. This hurt the old-established feudal order (cf. timariots and sipahis) among the Empire's Muslim communities, and especially the various local leaders who had exercised considerable regional authority and often enjoyed wide-ranging autonomy from the imperial government. The Albanians had long been a source of manpower for the Ottomans, providing both soldiers and statesmen such as the Köprülü family. The Tanzimat reforms however, and in particular the replacement of influential local leaders by Ottoman functionaries, the imposition of new taxes, the compulsory recruitment into the regular army, and the attempt to disarm the general population caused much resentment, and led to a series of disorders throughout the western Balkan provinces in 1840–43.

In the summer of 1843, the inhabitants of Prizren attacked and routed the new officials of the city and their example was followed by the inhabitants of Prishtina and Gjakova. These local insurrections in the cities were immediately suppressed by Ottoman authorities.

The uprising

The direct cause of the uprising, was the arresting and liquidation of the local Albanophone pashas', most notably that of Abdurrahman Pasha of Tetovo and his two brothers, Havzi Pasha of Üsküb and Hussein Pasha of Kustendil. The revolters which were lead by Dervish Cara had also the support of the Christian population and were assisted also by other Albanophone pashas'.The revolt began in Shkup in July 1843 and grew strongly when an Ottoman army under Hajredin Pasha in a process of opposing it, tried to recruit local Albanians in the regular army. In November the rebels liberated Gostivar and in January 1844 after bitter fights with the Ottoman army they liberated Tetovo. The leader of the rebels was Dervish Cara which was assisted by various local leaders. In February 1844 the rebels attacked and liberated Shkup. They created a Great Council lead by Dervish Cara which was the supreme body of the newly created administration in the liberated territories. In February 1844 the rebels liberated Kumanovo. After Kumonovo the rebels liberated Preshevo, Bujanovc, Vranja, Leskovc and other territories in North Kosovo. The rebellion was spread out in Peja, Gjakovë, Prizren and İşkodra, while in the spring of 1844 the territory of the rebellion was from Oher and Manastır in the south, İşkodra in west, North Kosovo in North and Kumanovo in east.The rebels sent a letter to the Albanians of Sandjak of Yanya recalling them brothers and asking them not to fight for the Ottoman army.

Fearing a further extension of the rebellion the Ottoman government tried to gain some time through negotiations. The requests of the rebels were:

1. Abolish the military levy for Albanian recruitments
2. Replacement of Ottoman functionaries who didn't know Albanian with local Albanians.
3. Recognition of the authonomy of Albania, just like the Ottoman government did with the Serbians in 1830.

The requests of the rebels were not accepted. In a move to disunite the rebels, the Ottoman government declared an amnisty, the abolishment of the new taxes and the postponement of the recruitment process which would become voluntary in the future. A promise that the if they handed over their arms the same rights accorded to the Serbs which ment authonomy, was done by the Ottoman commander in chief Omer Pasha. At the same time an Ottoman army of 30.000 men led by Omer Pasha concentrated in Monastir. In May 1844 the Ottoman army attacked rebels, forcing them to retreat in Tetovo, Shkup and Kumanovo area. Heavy fightins took place from 13–17 May 1844, in Katlanovo Pass and in 18 May in Katlanovo thermals. IN disparity of numbers and without artillery the rebels could not resist longer the superior Ottoman army. In 21 May 1844 the Ottoman army entered in Shkup, where many reprisals took place. During May–June, after bitter fightings with the rebels the Ottoman army could capture from the rebels the cities of Kumanove, Preshevë, Bujonovc, Vranjë, Tetovë, Gostivar while in July the Ottoman army captured all the area from Kachanik to Prishtinë. Dervish Cara was captured by Ottoman forces in summer 1844.

The actions in Dibër

The capture of Dervish Cara didn't put an end to the rebellion which continued in the areas of Dibër and İşkodra. The resistance was very strong especially in Dibër under its local leaders. In the fall of 1844 the Ottoman army was concentrated against the rebels in sandjak of Dibër. Ottoman forces led by Rexhep Pasha were defeated by the rebels in the field of Mavrovë. The rebels in the sandjak of Dibër were led from Sheh Mustafa Zerqani. In a meeting in November 1844 they declared that the old authonomy of Dibër was not to be touched. The rebel army led by Cen Leka tried to stop the advancing Ottoman army led by Hayredin Pasha. The Ottoman commander declared again an amnisty, the abolishment of the new taxes and the postponement of the recruitment process which would become voluntary in the future. The greatest resistance happened in the Battle of Gjuricë, which lasted for five days. According to the report of a French diplomat in Yanina even women and children participated in it.The Ottoman army suffered a great number of loses but due to the great superiority in numbers and armaments succeeded in forcing the rebels to leave the field of battle. The reprisals from the Ottoman army forced a large number of people to leave their houses. Although the rebellion was crushed, the Ottoman government postponed the application of Tanzimat for the sandjak of Dibër and İşkodra. Dervish Cara together with other local leaders was sentenced to death, but this punishment was later transformed into a lifetime sentence.

Principality of Arbër

2010-11-17T12:08:00.000-08:00

The Principality of Arbër or Arbëria (1190–1255) was the first Albanian state during the Middle Ages. The proclamation of the feudal state of Arbëria, in the north of Albania, with Kruja as the capital took place on 1190. As the founder of this state is known Progoni and later on Gjini and Dhimiter. Nderfandina is known as the most important center of this principality. For this was spoken clearly by the emblem of Arber found carved on a stone in the Catholic Church of Saint Maria. After the fall of Progon Dynasty the principality came under Grigor Kamona and Gulam of Albania. Finally the Principality was dissolved on 1255. The best period of the principality was under Dhimiter Progoni.

Progon Dynasty

* Progon (1190–1198)
* Gjin Progoni (1198–1208)
* Dhimitër Progoni (1208–1216)

Others

* Grigor Kamona (1216–1253?)
* Gulam (1253?–1255)

Under Dhimitër Progoni
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Dhimitër Progoni was the third and the last Prince of Albania from the Progon Dynasty, reigning between 1208 and 1216. He succeeded his brother Gjin and brought the principality to its climax. Western sources of the time attribute him the titles judex ("judge") and princeps Arbanorum ("prince of the Albanians"), while Byzantine records refer to him as megas archon ("grand archon"). Marrying Komnena, the daughter of the Serbian Prince Stefan Nemanja and granddaughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III Angelos, he also earned the exalted Byzantine title panhypersebastos.

Dhimitër's marriage with Nemanja's daughter did not rule out the risk of a Serbian expansion toward the Albanian domains. However, in 1204, the most serious threat came from the Venetian Duchy of Durrës, a Latin entity formed after the Fourth Crusade in the former territories of the Byzantine Empire. In search for allies, Dhimitër signed in 1209 a treaty with the Republic of Raguza and began negotiations with Pope Innocent III regarding his and his subjects’ conversion to Catholicism. This is considered a tactful move, which Dhimitër undertook to establish ties with Western Europe against Venice.

Succession

Dhimitër had no son to succeed him. His wife, Komnena, married an Albanian noble, Grigor Kamona, who later became Prince of Albania.[1] Grigor Kamona saw a decadence of the principality and was succeeded by his son-in-law, Gulam. Under Gulam's rule, the principality ended.

Facts about Epirotes~Cham Albanians ~Souliotes

2010-11-14T11:45:00.000-08:00

The question of ethnicity of ancient and modern population of Epirus still continue to be object of dispute.Some scholars( historians, archaeologists ) argue that Epirotes were of Albanian descent,some other say that they were of greek origin.In the most part of ancient documents, the population of Epir was reckoned by all means as ‘barbarian’ also illyrian~epirotic~albanian.In the extreme south of Illyria (Epirus) there were several Hellenized Illyrian tribes such as the Chaoni,Thesproti and Molossi.According to Strabo by the time some Illyrian tribes, became bilingual through contact with their Greek neighbors.The 5th century BC Athenian historian Thucydides describes Epirotes as "barbarians", as does Strabo.Unlike most Greeks of this time, who lived in or around city-states, the inhabitants of Epirus lived in small villages and their way of life was foreign to that of the poleis of southern Greece. Their region lay on the periphery of the Greek world and was far from peaceful; for many centuries, it remained a frontier area contested with the Illyrian peoples to the north..The origin of the Albanians has been for some time a matter of dispute among historians. Most historians conclude that the Albanians are descendants of populations of the prehistoric Balkans, such as the Illyrians, Dacians or Thracians.Little is known about these peoples, and they blended into one another in Thraco-Illyrian and Daco-Thracian contact zones even in antiquity.

The Albanians first appear in the historical record in Byzantine sources of the late 11th century.It is during this time that an Albanian presence in Epirus is first mentioned. .At this point, they were already fully Christianized. Very little evidence of pre-Christian Albanian culture survives, although Albanian mythology and folklore are of Paleo-Balkanic origin and almost all of their elements are pagan.During this time Albanian clans seized most of the region and founded two local, short-lived entities, centered in Arta (1358–1416) and Gjirokastër (1386–1411) by the Losha and Zenebishi clans, respectively.Although Albanian clans gained control of most of the region of Epirus by the end of 15th century ,they were finally fully subdued by ottomans as it was the whole Balkan Penisula.

Documents;
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“The Helmet of Skanderbeg

Skanderbeg’s helmet is made of white metal, adorned with a strip dressed in gold. On its top lies the head of a horned goat made of bronze, also dressed in gold. The bottom part bears a copper strip adorned with a monogram separated by rosettes;

* IN * PE * RA * TO * RE BT *

which means:

Jhezus Nazarenus * Principi Emathie * Regi Albaniae * Terrori Osmanorum * Regi Epirotarum * Benedictat Te -

-Jesus Nazarene Blesses Thee [Skanderbeg], Prince of Mat, King of Albania, Terror of the Ottomans, King of Epirus.”

“From the Barbarians there were: 1000 Chaones witch had no King but 2 Prostates for 1 year Fotis and Nikanores. The Chaones are joint by Thesprotes wich have no King either. In the head of the Mollosians and the Atintanians was Sabylinthius, wich was the tutor of King Tharypa (yet still a child).There were also the Parauei with their King Oroides and 1000 Orestes.”
(~Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, . 2.80)

“…After the Epeirotes and the Illyrians, then, come the following peoples of the Greeks: the Acarnanians, the Aetolians, and the Ozolian Locrians…
~Strabo Geography Book VIII, Chapter 1, 1

And even to the present day the Thracians, Illyrians, and Epeirotes live on the flanks of the Greeks (though this was still more the case formerly than now); indeed most of the country that at the present time is indisputably Greece is held by the barbarians — Macedonia and certain parts of Thessaly by the Thracians, and the parts above Acarnania and Aetolia by the Thesproti, the Cassopaei, the Amphilochi, the Molossi, and the Athamanes — Epeirotic tribes.
~STRABO, GEOGRAPHY, Book VII, Chapter 7~

“Ephorus says that, if one begins with the western parts, Acarnania is the beginning of Greece; for, he adds, Acarnania is the first to border on the tribes of the Epeirotes. But just as Ephorus, using the sea-coast as his measuring-line, begins with Acarnania (for he decides in favour of the sea as a kind of guide in his description of places…so it is proper that I too, following the natural character of the regions, should make the sea my counsellor”.
~Strabo Geography Book VIII, Chapter 1, 3

Scylax notes that only beyond Ambracia, the Peneus and the town or mountain of Homotion in Magnesia, had the Greeks begun to inhabit the region in a compact manner.
1774 Johann Thunmann:
On the History and Language of the Albanians and Vlachs”

"In The North Adriatic lives the tribe of the Liburnians,
"The middle and the South Adriatic sea Is Populated By Illyrians"
"The Ionian sea is devided Between Chaons and Thesprots.Between them The Mollosians have opened an exit to the sea wich is (40 stadia=8Km)."
"After Mollosia it comes Ambracia an Hellenic Polis,which is (80 stadia) away from the sea"
"From there and down is Hellas no end"
~Scylax

The Greeks call those people Illyrians who occupy the region beyond Macedonia and Thrace from Chaonia and Thesprotia to the river Danube. This is the length of the country. Its breadth is from Macedonia and the mountains of Thrace to Pannonia and the Adriatic and the foothills of the Alps. Its breadth is five days' journey and its length thirty - so the Greek writers say. The Romans measured the country and found its length to be upward of 1,000 kilometers and its width about 220.
~Appian

"the Head(start) of Hellas, is Akarnania from the West,because it is the first that contacts with the Epirots tribes"
~Ephores

"Epirots speak a different language from the Greek,
it resembles very much to Macedonian"
~Strabo and Plutarchus

"The brave Epirots, the Albanians of antiquity, ...
~Theodor Mommsen

Mandritsa

2010-11-14T01:15:00.000-08:00

Mandritsa (Bulgarian: Мандрица, "small dairy"; Albanian: Mandrica or Mandricë; Greek: Μανδρίτσα) is a village in southernmost Bulgaria, part of Ivaylovgrad municipality, Haskovo Province. It is known as the only Albanian village in Bulgaria.

The village was founded in 1636 by Eastern Orthodox Albanian dairymen who supplied the Ottoman Army. They were allowed to pick a tract of land and were freed from taxes. The bulk of the local Albanian speakers arrived in the 18th century from around Korçë and in the 19th century from the region of Souli in Epirus. The locals preserved their Souliot national dress until the 19th century, when the fustanella was substituted by Thracian breeches. However, the female dress was preserved until the mass emigration to Greece in 1913.

In the 19th century, Mandritsa was a small town of Greek-identifying Albanians in the kaza of Didymoteicho. In 1873, it was a village of 250 households with 1,080 Albanian residents. In 1908, Greek sources list the population as 3,500 "Albanian-speaking Greeks, most of whom also speak Greek".

Mandritsa was liberated from Ottoman rule on 15 October 1912, during the First Balkan War, by military units of the First Bulgarian Army, but was once again occupied by the Ottomans during the Second Balkan War. According to the Treaty of Constantinople, it was ceded to Bulgaria. A large number of the residents fled back to the Ottoman Empire, where they remained as refugees for six months before heading to Greece in 1914 through Constantinople and Rodosto.

Of the 480 families of the time, only 40 remained in Bulgaria, while 100 settled in the village of Hambarköy near Kilkis, which was renamed Mandres in their honour, while the others populated other villages in Greek Macedonia and Western Thrace. The Bulgarian government settled Bulgarian refugees from Thrace and Macedonia (from the region of Edessa). In 1929, another wave of emigration to Greece followed.

Today, Mandritsa is a small village of around 70 residents, part of them still speaking a distinct Tosk Albanian dialect. The village has well-preserved Greek-style three-storey adobe and brick houses which represent the Thracian style featuring wood-carved ceilings, wrought iron balconies and columns.

Mandritsa has two churches: the small single-naved cemetery church of St Nedelya built in 1708, which is one of the oldest churches in the Eastern Rhodopes, and the three-naved village church of St Demetrius constructed in 1835, which is partially destroyed, but planned to be reconstructed.

Today, Mandritsa is a small village of around 70 residents, part of them still speaking a distinct Tosk Albanian dialect. The village has well-preserved Greek-style three-storey adobe and brick houses which represent the Thracian style featuring wood-carved ceilings, wrought iron balconies and columns.

Mandritsa has two churches: the small single-naved cemetery church of St Nedelya built in 1708, which is one of the oldest churches in the Eastern Rhodopes, and the three-naved village church of St Demetrius constructed in 1835, which is partially destroyed, but planned to be reconstructed.

Arbanasi

2010-11-14T00:27:00.000-08:00

Albanians of Arbanasi

Arbanasi (Albanian: Arbëreshët e Zarës, local dialect: Arbneshë), also known as the Arbëreshë of Zara, are a population in Croatia of Albanian origin, who speak a local dialect of Gheg Albanian.Their name means Albanians in Croatian and is the toponymy of the first Arbanasi settlement in the region, which today is a suburb of Zadar.

The origin of this population is thought to be from Shkodra lake region in Northwestern Albania and Southeastern Montenegro. According to scholars they are descendants of immigrants from villages in Bar region of Montenegro primarely and from Shestan, Briska and Livar. Arbanasi have migrated in two different periods, during the 18th century.These settlers were said to be part of the Kastrioti clan, one of the numerous Northern Albanian clans known to have existed.

In August 1726 came the first group of 16 families for a total of 121 people, mostly wealthy peasants who had abandoned their possessions in order to escape Turkish oppression. A second installment came in 1727 and included seven families, totaling 71 people, who were initially housed in Zemunik, fraction of Zadar. The third group was the largest. They arrived in the village in 1733 and included 28 families with a total of 150 people.

All these groups would be integrated into the social and economic Venetian-Dalmatian, but they preserved their language and their customs, and songs. First, the Albanian community worked to reclaim the marshy areas near the Arbanas, which was originally an island and that in time it was connected to the mainland, and then got to make the land cultivable land in the scheme of 'lease. The Venetian government took charge of construction of many homes and, at first, even meals.

Since 1901 the Arbanasi was also equipped with an Albanian school and in 1910 James Vuçani promoted and organized the "Italo-Albanian Association".

According to tradition, the Albanians of Arbanasi came from countries Briska and Sestan. These locations were identified by some with the villages of Shestan, Brisk, and Arbnesh Liar, all located in the hinterland of Bar and Ulqin in Montenegro, but within areas inhabited by Albanians. A demonstration of the fact that the origin of the Albanians of Arbanasi were not located along the coast is that in their language most of the names of the fish comes from the Croatian. After the Second World War, lot of Arbanasi emigrated to Italy, following the fate of Zadar.Today, the community is spread across Croatia. Their original settlements were Arbanasi of Zadar and some villages around Zadar, namely Zemunik, Dračevac, Crno, Ploča, etc.

Notable Arbanasi
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* Andrija Aleši
* Tomislav Ivčić
* Božidar Kalmeta
* Bernard Kotlar
* Giuseppe-Pino Gjergja

Albanians of Arbanasi

Arbëreshë

2010-11-13T14:38:00.000-08:00

The Arbëreshë are an ethnic Albanian community living in Italy, especially the regions of Calabria, Apulia, Molise, Basilicata and Sicily.The Arbëreshë arrived in Southern Italy in several waves of migrations, from the 15th to 18th century AD. The Arbëreshë have their own distinct culture and have been able to preserve the original Albanian identity over the centuries. Today, they are mostly Byzantine Catholics belonging to the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church of Eastern Rite, with a Roman Catholic minority.

The Arbëresh language is of particular interest to students of the modern Albanian language as it represents the sounds, grammar, and vocabulary of pre-Ottoman Albania. However, the Arbëreshë language has been influenced more by the Italian than any other Albanian dialects.

Prior to the Ottoman invasion of Albania, the native people in the area of Albania were all called Arbëreshë. After some were forced out of their homeland to Italy, these Italian-born Albanians continued to use the term Arbëresh whilst those in Albania called themselves Shqiptarë.

Early migrations

The Arbëreshë originally lived in Albania. Between the 11th and 14th centuries, they moved in small groups towards the south of Greece (Thessaly, Corinth, Peloponnesus, Attica) where they founded colonies. Their military skill made them favourite mercenaries of the Franks, Catalans, Italians and Byzantine.

The invasion of the Balkans by the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century forced many Arbëreshë to emigrate to the south of Italy. There were several waves of migrations. Indeed, in 1448, the King of Naples Alfonso V of Aragon appealed to Skanderbeg in suppressing a revolt at Naples. Skanderbeg sent a force under the leadership of Demetrio Reres, and his two sons. Following a request of Albanian soldiers King Alfonso granting land to them and they were settled in twelfth villages in the mountainous area called Catanzaro in 1448. A year later the sons of Demetrio, Geroge and Basil along with other Albanians were settled in four villages in Sicily region.

In 1459 the son of Alfonso, king Ferdinand I of Naples requested again the help of Skanderbeg. This time, the legendary leader came himself to Italy with his troops, to end a French supported insurrection. Skanderbeg was appointed as the leader of the combined Neapolitan-Albanian army and, after victories in two decisive battles, the Albanian soldiers effectively saved Naples. This time they were rewarded with land east of Taranto in Apulia, populating other 15 villages.

After the death of Skanderbeg in 1468 the organized Albanian resistance against the Ottomans came to an end. Like much of the Mediterranean, Albania became subject to the invading Turks. Many of its people fled to the neighboring countries. From the time of Skanderberg's death till 1480 there were constant migrations of Albanians in Italian coast. Throughout the 16th century, these migrations continued and other Albanian villages were formed in Italian soil.The new immigrants often took up work as mercenaries hired by the Italian armies.

Another wave of emigration, between 1500 and 1534, relates to Arbëreshë from central Greece. Employed as mercenaries by Venice, they had to evacuate the colonies of the Peloponnese with the assistance of the troops of Charles V, as the Turks had invaded that region. Charles V established these troops in Italy of the South to reinforce defense again the threat of Turkish invasion. Established in insular villages (which enabled them to maintain their culture until the 20th century), Arbëreshë were, traditionally, soldiers for the Kingdom of Naples and the Republic of Venice, from the Wars of Religion to the Napoleonic invasion.

The final wave of Arbëreshë was in the 18th century with a group of Himariots, from the village of Himarë near Sarandë in southern Albania. These Himariots were fleeing a massacre instigated by Ali Pasha, who slaughtered 6000 Christian Albanians for supporting his enemies, the Souliote albanians. These refugees settled in Hora e Arbëreshëvet (Piana degli Albanesi) and subsequently founded the village of Sëndahstina (Santa Cristina Gela). Other migrations followed one another, especially in the villages of Calabria.

Later migrations

The wave of migration from southern Italy to the Americas in 1900-1910 depopulated approximately half of the Arbëreshë villages, and subjected the population to the risk of cultural disappearance, despite the beginning of a cultural and artistic revival in the 19th century.

Since the end of communism in Albania, there has been a wave of immigration into Arbëreshë villages by Kosovar and Shqiptarë Albanians. Many differences are apparent between the new immigrants and the old diaspora in these villages, but there is still a sense of familiarity between them, who refer to each other as Jemi të gjithë Kushërinj edhe Gjaku jin i shprishur, ma na jemi arbëreshët e ata janë shkjiptarët ("We are all cousins and our blood is scattered, but we are the arbëreshë and they are the shqiptarë").

Villages in Italy

The Arbëresh villages have two or three names, an Italian one as well as one or two native Arbëresh names by which villagers know the place. The main streets of many Arbëresh villages are named Via Giorgio Castriota after Skanderbeg. The Arbëresh villages are divided into small "islands" in the areas of the south of Italy:

Notable Arbëreshë
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* Giorgio Basta (1544–1607), aristocrat, general and military strategist in the Holy Roman Empire.

* Lekë Matrënga (1560–1619), priest, one of the first writers in Albanian language.

* Pope Clement XI (1649–1721), born Giovanni Francesco Albani, Pope from 1700 -1721.

* Jeronim de Rada (1814–1903), poet, folklorist and Albanian nationalist.

* Anton Santori (1819–1894), writer, playwright and poet of the Albanian National Awakening.

* Francesco Crispi (1819–1901), 19th century Italian politician, Prime Minister between 1887–1891 and again between 1893-1896.

* Zef Serembe (1844–1901), lyric poet.

* Zef Skiroi (1865–1925), poet, linguist, publicist and folklorist.

* Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937), Italian philosopher, writer, politician and political theorist.

* Costantino Mortati (1891–1985), statesman and contributor to the Italian Constitution.

* Giuseppe T. Gangale (1898–1978), Italian philosopher, philologist and poet.

* Enrico Cuccia (1907–2000), banker, founder of Mediobanca and important figure in Italian post-war industrial reconstruction.

* Stefano Rodotà (1933), politician.

* Joseph J. DioGuardi (b. 1940), American politician.

* Kara DioGuardi (b. 1970), singer, songwriter and American Idol judge.

* Claudia Conserva (b. 1974), Chilean TV hostess and actress.

* Amalia Granata (b. 1981), Argentine model.

* Ernesto Sábato (b. 1911), Argentine writer.

* Regis Philbin (b. 1931), American media personality and occasional actor and singer.

Piana degli Albanesi

1848 James Henry Skeene~The Albanians

2010-11-11T10:56:00.000-08:00

Scottish traveller and diplomat, Sir James Henry Skene, lived for twenty years in the “east” and served as British consul in Aleppo from March 1855 to about 1877. As author of “Anadol: the Last Home of the Faithful” (London 1853) and “The Frontier Lands of the Christian and the Turk, Comprising Travel in the Regions of the Lower Danube in 1850 and 1851" (London 1853), he showed a lively interest in the peoples of the Ottoman Empire, including the Albanians. The present article was read before the Ethnological Society of London in June 1848, and appeared in the “Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal” in 1849 and in the “Journal of the Ethnological Society of London” in 1850. Skeene provides a typical account of Western knowledge of the Albanians in the mid-nineteenth century.

There are three principal distinctions among the inhabitants of the Greek provinces, still forming a part of the Turkish empire. The Osmanlis, of pure Asiatic blood, and the Greeks, are two of these great families, differing in race and in faith: the third, which is composed of the Albanian nation, is distinct from either of them, with respect to its origin and descent, while it is divided between the two religious sects to which they belong. In habits, appearance, character, and language, the Albanians are also eminently dissimilar from both the Greeks and the Turks; and they side, in faith, partly with the Christians and partly with the Mahometans. These three races now live in close contact with each other; and they are at such constant variance, on every subject which implies the slightest interest in common, that a great political change can alone produce an approximation of feeling among them.

The Turks and Greeks have been so often the subject of the lucubrations of travellers and political speculators, that their characteristics are comparatively well known in the west of Europe. The Albanians have attracted less attention; and, when they have been taken into consideration as a nation, they have generally been misrepresented or confounded with the other inhabitants of European Turkey. The Mahometan Albanians have thus been identified with the Osmanlis, and the Christians with the Greeks; while the ferocious and treacherous character of one of their tribes has been attributed to the whole nation.

The Albanians are divided into four tribes. These are, the Gheghides and Mirdites, the Toskides, the Tsamides, and the Liapides.

The Gheghides, who boast of having numbered among them such a hero as Scanderbeg, unite, according to the learned topographer of Greece (Colonel Leake), “the cruelty of the Albanian to the dulness of the Bulgarian.” They have long enjoyed a greater share of independence, under the Pashas of Scodra, than any other of the Albanian tribes. They are equally good soldiers with the latter, and have preserved more of their natural stubbornness, from the fact of their having been less often employed as such by the Turks. Their country extends from the frontier of the Austrian territory of Cattaro round the Montenegro, which may be considered an independent state; and, following the ridges which unite it to Mount Scardus, it reaches the Herzegovina, while it is bounded on the south by the river Drino. Scutari, or Scodra, is their chief town, and Dulcigno, Alessio, and Durazzo belong to them.

The Mirdites are merely a branch of the Gheg tribe, and they speak the same dialect. They occupy the pashalik of Croja, and their capital is Oros. Many of them are Roman Catholics.

The tribe of the Ghegs and Mirdites are of lofty stature and athletic frame; and their swarthy complexion and black eyes still retain the characteristics of their supposed Caucasian origin. The distinguishing mark in the dress of these two sections of the same family is, that the jacket of the Ghegs is red, and that of the Mirdites is black. Both branches of the tribe are entitled to much credit for their daring disobedience to the tyrant Ali Pasha, when he ordered them to fire upon and destroy the remnant of the Gardikiotes, which he had enclosed in a courtyard for cold-blooded butchery.

The Toskides are the most handsome of the Albanians. They have noble features, with fair hair and blue eyes, indicating the mixture of Georgian blood, which probably flows in their veins : less warlike than their countrymen of the other tribes, their stature is also less Herculean. They are supposed to have derived their name from the Toxidae, mentioned by Chardin as inhabiting Mingrelia. The country now occupied by this tribe lies to the south of that of the Ghegs and Mirdites, and extends to the river Vojutza. It is called by themselves Toskouria. Their chief places are Elbassan and Berat, called by the Turks Arnaout Belgrad, in order to distinguish it from Belgrade on the Danube. Tepellene, the birth-place of Ali Pasha, is now included in their territory, although it was formerly considered as belonging to the infamous Liapides. The great despot declared it, however, to be in Toskouria, and no one dared to gainsay him on a point which affected the respectability of his origin. The women of the Toske tribe are remarkable for their beauty, like those of Georgia, whence they issue, according to the conjecture of some antiquaries.
The Liapides are the worst of the Albanian tribes. Living only by rapine and murder, they offer the most frightful picture of a degraded state of society; and their evil name has sullied the reputation of the whole nation. They infest the roads, plundering the wayfarer, and often ransacking villages. They convert their booty into arms, curious collections of which may be found in their mountain-homes, whither they retire at the end of their roving campaign. They are cruel, fierce, and treacherous,—of forbidding countenances and sinister expression, and short and ungainly in person. Their dress displays the greatest possible want of cleanliness, and they even pride themselves on allowing it to rot on their bodies. They consider this to be a proof of warlike habits, and they boast of a brave countryman being washed only three times, namely, at his birth, his marriage, and his death. Liapouria, which includes the whole country inhabited by the Liapides, extends as far south as the plain of Delvino, and is composed of bleak and barren hills, feathered with trees only near their base. The proneness of these rude highlanders to lead a life of plunder, and their filthy habits, aided by the great similarity of the names, the d, or delta of modern Greek, being pronounced like th, have given rise to a conjecture, that they may be the remains of the ancient Lapithrae.

The Tsamides are the most peaceable and industrious of the tribes, and are devoted to trade and agriculture. The purity of race has been less scrupulously preserved than with the northern tribes, yet they are for the most part fair-haired. They dress with great splendour, their clothes being covered with gold lace and embroidery, and they carry arms like their more warlike countrymen, notwithstanding that they do not make so much use of them. They inhabit the country, watered by the Thyamis, which is opposite the island of Corfu, and the regions about the river Acheron, extending nearly as far as the gulf of Ambracia, on the south. They call their territory Tsamouriá, which, together with the name of Tsamis which they bear, is probably derived from the river Thyamis. The site of the well-known Soali is in this district, as also the ancient Buthrotam, now a small military position seen from the town of Corfu. Margariti, Paramythia, and Philates, are their principal towns.

Albanian Wedding Rejoicings,
1892

The existence of a nation in the very heart of Greece, which is totally different from the original inhabitants in manners, appearance, language, and costume, has naturally roused the curiosity of antiquaries, and given rise to much research on the subject of their origin.

The Albanian language being merely oral, the want of written documents renders their history exceedingly obscure, and the silence preserved by the Greek and Byzantine writers on the subject has reduced the data within a very narrow compass. They are called Arvaniti by the Greeks, and Arnaout by the Turks, both names being derived, along with that of Albanians, from the Albanes, an ancient people of the shores of the Caspian Sea, which may have incorporated itself with the Illyrians. The town of Elbassan or Albanopolis in Illyrian Macedonia, took its name from them, as it is supposed to have been built by a horde of these Asiatic barbarians, who were driven to the coast of the Adriatic by the advancing tribes of the east. In their own language they call themselves Skipetar, which name bears some affinity with that of the Skitekip, mentioned by the Armenian geographers as inhabiting a territory near the Caspian. One of the best authorities on the subject (Colonel Leake) compares the name of Skipetar with that of the Selapitani, a people of Illyria, noticed by Livy. The modern denomination of Liapides may be derived from this ancient tribe, rather than from the still more ancient Lapithae, as the name becomes almost the same when the first two letters are suppressed, and the termination, which is always variable, altered. A similarity of names, however, is but a feeble indication of the origin of a people or town, especially in a country where so many dialectic changes have taken place, and it often leads into error. For instance, there is a village near Elbassan, which bears the name of Pekin, without the slightest difference from that of the great city of the Celestial Empire; but it cannot be said, even by the wildest etymologist, to be inhabited by a people in any way kindred to the Chinese.

Another hypothesis holds that the Albanians derive their origin from Alba, in Italy, and that they are the descendants of a colony of the Praetorian guards, dismissed from Rome, by the Emperor Septimius Severus, for having been accessory to the assassination of Pertinax. Their dress, the words coming from Latin roots, which are to be found in their language, and a vague tradition prevalent among themselves, support this idea. Chalcocondyles thinks that the Albanians came from the other side of the Adriatic. But, as Justin says, that the Albani of Asia were originally brought by Hercules from Italy, the Albanians may have been first Italian, and then Asiatic, although their migration, in this case, must have been much anterior to the time of Septimius Severus. The Albans of Asia, mentioned by Tacitus, occupied the modern country of Shirvan.

Little is known about them, however, previously to their occupation of parts of Macedonia and Epirus, excepting that they entered these provinces from Illyria, and nothing else has hitherto been proved on the subject. They are supposed to have overrun Epirus about the time of the fall of the Byzantine Empire. In advancing towards the south, they also spread over the greatest part of Greece Proper, and many villages of the Morea are Albanian. Indeed, with the exception of the Mainotes or modern Spartans, the most warlike communities of Greece, such as the islands of Hydra and Spetzia, are formed of this nation, and not of Greeks. Attica, Argolis, Phocis, and Boetia, are likewise all peopled by them, and there are Albanian colonies even in Calabria and Sicily.

The Albanians call their language Skipt. It is totally different from the Turkish. Greek, and Sclavonian dialects, and it contains a great number of words, closely resembling the Spanish, French, and Italian languages. This would imply that they had undergone some process of amalgamation with the remains of Roman armies. If this had not been really the effect of their descent from the Praetorian guards, it might be attributed to an admixture with the troops of Roger, king of Apulia, who fled to these mountains, and took refuge there. Some of his soldiers may have remained as settlers. The Albanian dress, also, is an exact antitype of that of the Roman army, with the exception of the helmet, which has been replaced by the red skull-cap, and, of the coat of mail, which is imitated by the close embroidery on the jacket. There are, likewise, Gothic words in the Albanian language. These must have been derived from the incursions of Alaricus, in the fifth century, when his Goths made themselves masters of Epirus. It is recorded by Procopius, that Goths were to be found settled in Dalmatia, when Justinian forcibly annexed that country to the Roman Empire. Some of them may, therefore, probably have remained also in Albania. Now, the ancient Illyrian language was as completely distinct from the Greek tongue, and, if it is not now extant in the form of the Skipt or Albanian, it must be concluded that it has totally disappeared; which is hardly credible. There is no record in history of the extinction of the Illyrian language and people. If, then, the modern Albanians came directly from Alba, in Italy, as some assert, what can have become of that ancient tribe and dialect? The first mention of the Albanians, by the Byzantine historians, although cursory and imperfect, represents them as they now are; and Ptolemy, the geographer, who is the first of the ancient authors to notice them, distinctly places them in Illyria. Anna Comnena makes the next allusion to them; so that history is totally silent on the subject of this people during ten centuries. It appears, however, that they were known, at a much more remote period; for Dion Cassino, in enumerating the Roman conquests, implies that he knew of another Albania. Therefore it is impossible to assign a later date to their settlement in Illyria, with any degree of plausibility, as some do, because this proves that they had then already separated from their mother tribe in Asia. They had probably become incorporated with the ancient Illyrians, and both races are now represented by the modern Albanians. As the remains of the Illyrians, they have perhaps altered less, during this long succession of ages, than any other people of Europe. The study of this tribe is, therefore, the more interesting, inasmuch as it is almost an initiation into the habits and condition of a nation of past time, while much remains, even in their physical appearance, to recall the admixture with a still more ancient Asiatic tribe. This is corroborated by one of the most intelligent and also learned of the English who have seen this people (Dr Hughes). He says, that “the features of the Albanian, his narrow forehead, his keen grey eye, small mouth, thin arched eyebrow, high cheekbones, and pointed chin, strongly mark a Scythian physiognomy.”

After Anna Comnena, the first mention of the Albanians, in the middle ages, is by Nicephorus Bryennius, who describes them as having formed part of the army of Nicephorus Basilaces, when he rebelled against his Emperor Nicephorus Botaniates, and was vanquished and taken by Alexius Comnenus, in the year 1109. They next received the aid of the Normans against the Greeks, and Robert Guiscard, who led them, together with his son Bohemoud, took Durazzo, Ochrida, and Jannina. Durazzo was well defended by George Palaeologus, who waited for the coming of Alexius Comnenus, the father of the historian Anna Comnena. Again, in the end of the twelfth century, the Norman kings of Sicily, with their relatives the princes of Taranto, formed permanent settlements in Albania, under the Byzantine emperors, Andronicus Comnenus and Isaac Angelus. The Albanians were thus early connected with the natives of the west. The Crusades next left a sensible impression on this people, as their ports were constantly resorted to by the Frank chiefs, during at least a century and a half; and Durazzo, in particular, was the depôt of the crusaders. In the beginning of the thirteenth century, when the oriental empire fell to pieces, on account of the occupation of Constantinople by the Franks, a principality of Albania was founded by an illegitimate son of one of the Comneni, named Michael Angelus, and it existed for more than two centuries, under the title of the Despotate. Jannina was the capital of this state, and Albanopolis also became one of its principal towns. Theodore Lascaris the Second, emperor of Nicea, sent a Praetor to the latter place, in the year 1257, hoping to recover it; but the Albanians preferred the protection of the despot to that of the emperor, and the praetor, who was the historian Acropolita, was obliged to abandon it. In the same century, they plundered the city of Durazzo, which had been destroyed by a violent earthquake; but they afterwards rebuilt it themselves. Pachymer, who records this in his history of the reign of Michael Palaeologus calls them Albanians and Illyrians indiscriminately; and he says that they enjoyed acknowledged independence of the Greek emperor, and were allies of Charles king of Sicily, who then occupied the island of Corfu and the town of Kanina, anciently Bullis, near Aulon. In the year 1294, Philip, duke of Taranto, the son of Charles the Second, king of the Sicilies, having married the daughter of the despot Nicephorus, received possession of some territory in this country, and called himself Lord of Albania. This title descended to his brother and nephew, but these Latin princes never enjoined much authority on this side of the Adriatic. The Albanians are next mentioned by Cantacuzenus, as having aided Andronicus Palaeologus, in his struggle with his grandfather, in 1327, and as having submitted to him, in number about 12,000, when he, being then sole emperor, made an incursion in IIlyrian Macedonia against some rebels of their race. The historian says, that it was in Thessaly; but it is more probable that his knowledge of geography was deficient, than that the Albanians were ever to be found in Thessaly. The same emperor took advantage of the death of the despot John, in the year 1338, and the minority of his son Nicephorus, to revenge himself on the Albanians, for their frequent attacks on his towns, and to overthrow the despotate. In this he was reinforced by a body of Asiatic Turks, which was the first appearance in Epirus of the future lords of the country. Two Albanian chiefs, named Balza and Spata, became formidable to the Byzantine empire about this period, as is related by the historian Chalcocondyles. Towards the commencement of the fifteenth century, the Albanians came under the rule of a sovereign from the west of Europe in the person of Charles Tocco, who was made despot by the Emperor Manuel Palaeologus. He was one of the Frank princes of the Ionian Islands, and he took the independent possession of Epirus Proper and Acarnania from them. The Turks now commenced their invasion of Albania, although the first battle which had been fought against them, dated as far back as the year 1383. It took place near Berot, and the Albanians were totally routed by the army of the Sultan Murat the First, their general, the only son of Balza, being killed on the occasion. By the year 1431 they were nearly subdued by the Turks, although their total reduction was warded off for some years longer by the brave Scanderbeg and his father-in-law Arianita Topia. Their last struggle was the siege of Scodra, which was described by a native and eyewitness, Marinus Barletius, in a Latin publication, dated at Venice, 1504. The defence was conducted by a Venetian general, and the attack by Mahomet the Second himself. The Albanians displayed a degree of gallantry worthy of their warlike name, in baffling the utmost efforts of a greatly superior number of troops during a whole year, until famine reduced them to the necessity of yielding. The Venetians then stepped in to protect them, and obtained for them an honourable retreat to Venice as refugees, while the town was given up to the Turks. Since then, the Ottoman dominion over the Albanians has been nominally undisputed, but the authority of the Sultan has never been sufficient to enable him to suppress the spirit of revolt which is still strong within them.

This is nearly all that is known of the history of the Albanians, and, although it is uncertain and obscure, still several heroes of this race have arisen to adorn its pages. There is first the great Scanderbeg; then the more ancient Balsa and Spata; there is Ali Pasha of the present century; and in the last, Ghalil or Patrona. The latter headed a sudden revolution which overwhelmed the capital in 1730, and he became absolute master of Constantinople, as recorded by Lord Sandwich.

Many communities of Albanians, which were formerly Christian, have become followers of Mahomet. Some of these were forced to become apostates by Badjazet, their conqueror, very few having had the constancy to resist this conversion by means of the sword. There were, however, instances of fidelity to the Cross, under the most difficult and trying circumstances, the most remarkable of which were the Souliotes, Chimariotes, and Parganotes, who remained faithful to the Greek Church, and the Mirdites, to that of Rome. Others again changed their religion from motives of interest and ambition. One inducement to adopt the Mussulman faith, which was held out to the Albanians by the Turkish government, was in the shape of a law, securing their property to each family which should bring up one of their sons as a Mahometan. Many proselytes were thus gained, and the succession of land was diverted from the Christians to the Mussulmen. Again, soldiers by necessity and from choice, the Albanians could attain rank and power only through a conformity of faith with their military superiors; while religion sat so lightly on this class of the population, that it was of little consequence to themselves which rite they followed, as they were never strict in the observance of any form of worship. This was not the case with the Greeks of Albania; for not only Christianity seems to have taken a much deeper root in them, but also their prospects in life did not depend so immediately on a recantation of religion. The adoption of Mahometanism was certainly advantageous, in a worldly point of view, to the whole Christian population of European Turkey; but the pursuits of most of the Greeks did not render them exclusively dependent on it for their welfare, as occurred with the Albanians. More addicted to commerce, the Greeks cherished rather any connections which they could form with Western Europeans; or, when induced by vocation or persecution to become soldiers, they preferred the life of the free Klepht to that of the organised Armatoli bands. Their religion was then optional, and they rarely became renegades. This tendency evidenced the natural breach which existed between the Albanians and the Greeks; and the Turks were wily enough to foresee the advantage which they might derive from it by making use of the former against the latter. Indeed, it is an undoubted fact, that the Turkish government succeeded in keeping Greece in subjection, up to the time of the revolution, solely by means of the Mussulman Albanians. Gratitude has not been the recompense of the latter, for the Osmanli despises the Mussulman Skipetar, even more than he does the Christian Greek. They have earned the just reward of all traitors and renegades, having betrayed their country and renounced the true faith. A curse seems to have settled on this unhappy people; and they deserved it for the rejection of that Gospel which was given to them by St Paul himself, before their descent into Epirus. For the great Apostle of the Gentiles preached “round about unto Illyricum.” Their present state proves that they have inherited the doom which was entailed on them by their apostate forefathers. Unhappy in their faith, and mistrusted of both Greeks and Turks, there is little doubt, however, that they might again be restored to Christendom, were the Albanians, who have not abandoned the cross for the crescent, admitted to equal privileges. There are still many of the latter class, as one of the best authorities on this subject (Colonel Leake) gives it as his opinion, that only one half of the Albanian nation has relinquished their fidelity. Christianity seems, however, never to have taken a very firm hold on this race, which is morally and intellectually, if not in strength and physical courage, greatly inferior to the Greeks. Their interests dictated their apostasy; and however unworthy the motive may be, a similar agency may lead back these lost sheep to the fold. The very readiness which many of them shewed to adopt Islamism, is an earnest of their easy recantation and return; and, were the allurements of military advancement to be equally the right of every distinguished soldier, whether Moslem or Giaour, the Mahometan Albanians would probably again become Christians. This would most likely be the first effect— and it is no paltry or insignificant one—of the emancipation of the latter in Turkey, and of the establishment of a complete system of general and mutual religious tolerance, provided always that it is enforced, and does not remain a mere project on paper, unseen and unfelt in real life. A radical change in this, as well as in their social and political circumstances, would certainly afford tranquillity to these restless and rapacious tribes, which, in their present state, are constantly at war among themselves.

An incident occurred about two months ago, which illustrates the actual condition of society in Epirus, while it is also highly characteristic of the primitive and patriarchal manners of the Albanians. A feud had existed for some time between two villages of the Tsami and Liapi tribes, and various acts of reciprocal vexation had kept it alive, without its having exploded, until now, in open hostilities and bloodshed. These were produced on this occasion by the following circumstance. A Tsami shepherd, being alone on the hill, was overpowered by a party of Liapides, and his flock of sheep was driven by the latter to the wild mountains of the Chimara. A detachment belonging to the village of the Tsami was bold enough to enter this rugged and hostile country in search of the stolen sheep, or of revenge. They met a number of Liapi, inhabitants of the obnoxious village; the sheep were demanded and refused, a volley of abuse ensued on both sides, and the signal for action was given. The manoeuvres consisted for some time in their favourite mode of fighting, which resembles the service of riflemen; they fired at each other from a considerable distance, and sheltered by trees and rocks. But emissaries had been dispatched, at the commencement of the fight, for succour by both contending parties, and in a few hours hundreds were engaged. Not many, however, had been killed and wounded as yet, considering the mode of skirmishing which was going on, but in a short time they would have thrown down their long guns and used their pistols and yataghans. The Albanians are in the habit of rushing upon each other with loud shouts, when their fury is lashed into charging order by a few successful shots. On this occasion, before they had come to close quarters, several of the old men of the respective villages had come to the spot, and one of the Liapi tribe, who was respected for his age and wisdom, called out that he demanded a parley. It was immediately granted, and in a few minutes the scene was totally changed. Ten or a dozen of the patriarchs of both tribes were now seated on the ground, smoking their long pipes and discussing the terms of peace in the most solemn manner, while the palicara or fighting men stood around them, leaning on the muzzles of their guns, looking fierce at each other, and twisting their long mustachios. The killed and wounded of both parties, being but few in number, were already in the hands of the women, who are never far distant from a scene of conflict; and, on comparing notes, it was found that the respective tribes had suffered an equal loss in this way. The old men of the Liapides then tendered an offer of restoring the stolen flock of sheep, but the Tsami spokesmen demurred, on the plea of the proverbial bad faith of the former clan. They therefore asked for hostages, or security in money. None of the latter article was forthcoming, so the Liapi offered an amount of solid silver equalling thirty okes, or nearly ninety pounds weight. This was accepted as a pledge, and the one tribe had such a degree of confidence in the oath and honour of the other, that they agreed not only to leave their property in their hands, but also to disarm themselves by doing so, for the silver, which was of much greater value than the sheep, consisted in the mountings of guns and pistols, in cartouch boxes, and in hilts of yataghans. The oaths were sworn, the silver was handed over, and the late combatants separated, amicably wishing each other lives of a thousand years. A few days later the sheep were found at sunrise quietly grazing near the Tsami village whence they had been stolen; and the silver was immediately deposited in a ruined church half way on the road to the Liapi village. Thus terminated the feud for the present, although the feeling of hostility has very little abated, and will again burst forth in the same way at the first opportunity. The Turkish government took no notice whatever of this affair. An often-quoted author (Colonel Leake) says of the Albanians, that “they are in the constant habit of either warring upon each other, or of hiring themselves to some powerful chieftain of Albania, or of seeking their fortunes as mercenary troops in other parts of the empire. Although preserving a marked distinction from the Greeks, in form and physiognomy, having light eyes and high cheek-bones, they resemble very much in character and manners, the natives of the more mountainous and independent districts of Greece. They possess, perhaps, more evenness of conduct, more prudence, more fidelity to their employers, and, at the same time, more selfishness, avidity, and avarice; but there is found among them the same rigid observance of religious prejudices, the same superstitions, the same active, keen, and enterprising genius, the same hardy, patient, and laborious habits.” This is certainly a portrait drawn from the life, and it is strikingly resembling, although there is one point which does not now appear to be an exact copy of the original, but the lapse of years since the picture was painted may account for the discrepancy. The valuable work (Researches in Greece), from which the extract is taken, was published more than thirty years ago, and then the Albanian may have been more wedded to “religious prejudices and superstitions” than he is now. It is a sad state of society for the century in which it exists, and for the geographical position of the country, which is so near the civilized nations of Europe. But even, bad as it is, it fosters many fine qualities in the Albanians, which are brought out by their adventurous life. For instance, they possess great presence of mind when exposed to danger, and in general they know not of the existence of such a feeling as the fear of death. They are strong and fine-looking men, with the exception of the Liapi tribe, and bear in their gait and carriage a consciousness of physical power and determined courage. A well-known traveller (Dr Holland) says, when landing in Epirus, “the Albanian peasant or soldier, words which, in this country, seem to be almost synonymous, is here seen in the completeness of his national character and costume. Generally masculine in his person, having features which shew him not subdued into the tameness of slavery, and with a singular stateliness of his walk and carriage, the manner of his dress adds to these peculiarities, and renders the whole figure more striking and picturesque than any other with which I am acquainted. They are devoted and obedient to their chiefs, whom they love, and follow from generation to generation. A species of hereditary and feudal aristocracy thus exists, and its power among themselves is unlimited. The title of these nobles is that of Bey, which originates with the Albanians. Many of this people know no language but their own; and those who can speak Greek are easily recognised by their strong guttural accent. Their conduct to their women is one of the worst traits in their character: they marry, as they would buy a donkey, not to enjoy conjugal happiness, but to have their fire-wood carried home, and to have their provisions conveyed to and from the nearest market. They are constantly to be seen on the road, riding the horse whose load has been transferred to the back of the master’s wife; and the poor creature, bent nearly double as she creeps slowly along, is perhaps knitting a stocking for her husband all the time. This has been remarked by most of those who have visited the country; and one of them (Dr Hughes) thus describes the state of the Albanian women: “They are in general too poor to avail themselves of the license which their religion grants for polygamy, but are content with one wife, who is chosen like any other animal, more for a slave or drudge than for a companion. They are by no means jealous of their women, nor do they confine them like the Turks and Greeks. The wretched creature of a wife, with one or two infants tied in a bag behind her back, cultivates the ground, and attends to the household affairs by turns, whilst her lordly master ranges over the forest in search of game, guards the flocks, or watches behind a rock with his fusil ready to aim at the unwary traveller. These women are in general hard-featured, with complexions rendered coarse by exposure to all varieties of weather, and with persons attenuated by constant toil and scanty fare. In some districts they meet with better treatment, and are found ready to share the dangers of war with the men, as well as the labours of agriculture” (Travels in Greece and Albania, vol. ii, p. 106). But the least expression of compassion from a stranger enrages them, for they consider their bondage honourable; and the only disgrace with them is to be without children, or to remain unmarried.

The Albanians are compared with the Highlanders of Scotland, by a writer (Mr Urquhart) well acquainted with their present state, and their character and habits, as well as their dress and appearance, certainly bear a strong mutual resemblance. Active and daring, hardy and frugal, they may become the finest light infantry in the world; and, in fact, the Turkish ranks are solely dependent upon them for that branch of their army. They were first employed as regular soldiers in the time of the Byzantine empire, when the bands of Armatoli were formed; and the Turks were wise enough to continue this system of militia, for the defence of the many defiles and mountain-passes of continental Greece. They had also the responsible protection of all the roads, when brigandage was rife; and although the travellers in general suffered robbery equally frequently, yet a strict superior officer could make the system efficacious. A chief functionary under the Turks commanded them, with the title of Dervendji Bashi, from the Persian word derbend, or pass; and it was this post which commenced the extraordinary career of Ali Pasha of Jannina. He made the Armatoli so efficient as road-guards, that highway robbery was effectually put a stop to. One of his expedients to intimidate by example was to cut off the hands and feet of all the brigands whom he captured, and to leave them on the most frequented roads to die of hunger, and the effects of their mutilation. So appalling an example did not, as it is said, require a very frequent repetition, for in a short time the roads became as secure to travellers as those of the most civilized countries; and a man might have walked in perfect safety, with his purse in his hand, from one end of the province to the other. The terror of Ali’s name alone was an invisible Aegis to protect him.

Besides the three great families of Turks, Greeks, and Albanians, there are to be found, in the Greek provinces of European Turkey, two other tribes, equally distinct from these and from each other, though infinitely less numerous. These are the Bulgarians and the Vlachs.

The Bulgarians are a race of Sclavonian origin, and are supposed by some to have been a tribe of the Huns. Their physical appearance is totally different from that of the Greeks and Albanians. More powerful in form, they are of a heavy build, while their features are coarser, and devoid of the acute and intelligent expression which is so remarkable in the Greek and even in the Albanian physiognomy. The Bulgarians are brave but cruel, strong workmen, but brutal in their habits and manners; and the best and most advantageous of their characteristics is their aptness for country labour. They are, in fact, the best agriculturists of European Turkey: diligent husbandmen, they have consequently spread their colonies partly over Thrace, and partially even in Macedonia; although in the middle ages they had extended them over the greatest part of what is called now European Turkey.

The Bulgarians crossed the Danube before the reign of Justinian, and kept constantly pouring down from the vast plains of Poland, Lithuania, and Russia, during the sixth century; and they continued gradually gaining ground in the fine countries of Macedonia and Illyria, until the fall of the Byzantine empire. Their relations with the emperors were those of peace, when it was purchased by the latter, or of hostilities generally successful on their part; and they consequently overran a large part of the empire. They made a permanent alliance in the year 360, with Michael the Third, which stipulated, by treaty, their conversion to Christianity; and, on the other hand, the grant to them of a tract of hilly country around Mount Rhodope, to which they gave the name of Zagorá, still extant. In the tenth century they are said by the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogeunctus to have occupied even the Peloponnesus, and he dates their possession of it from the time of the Emperor Constantine Copronymus, in the eighth century. The epitomiser of Strabo, who wrote in the time of Basil Bulgaroctonus, that is about the year 1000, goes further, and gives the whole of Greece to the Bulgarians, whom he calls Scythian Sclavonians. They established their capital at Achris or Achrida, the ancient Lychnides, and, their chief, by name Peter, was dignified with the title of King by the Emperor Romanus, who gave him also his granddaughter in marriage. When this town was destroyed by Basil the Second, at the opening of the eleventh century, a treasure was found by him there, amounting to the weight of ten thousand pounds in gold. The Bulgarians had driven the Albanians back to the more mountainous tracts of country, but the destruction of their capital Achris enabled the latter to gain head again, and it is then that they first appear on the page of history as acting a conspicuous part. The Bulgarians however recovered their power before another century had elapsed, and they extended to the southernmost parts of Epirus; Cedrenus records, in confirmation of this, that they had even taken possession of Nicopolis. They formed an alliance with the Blacks in the year 1186, and rebelled together against the Greek empire; they succeeded in founding another kingdom, of which Turnovo was the capital.

The Bulgarians have fallen very much in power, although they have not become incorporated with any of the other portions of the population of European Turkey. They still remain a distinct people, and they occupy different parts of Macedonia, Illyria, and even Thessaly, where they devote themselves solely to agriculture. Many places which were formerly possessed by them, have fallen to the share of the Greeks and Albanians; and the Bulgarians have left traces of their occupation, in the names of these towns, by adding the Slavonian terminations ovo, avo, ista, itza or itzi.

Their language is a corrupt Sclavonian dialect, and their religion is that of the Eastern Christian Church, although some of them have espoused the Mahometan faith. Rude and ignorant, they still seem to retain the same habits which they possessed before their descent from the forests of Russia and Poland; and, with their kinsmen the Servians, Bosniacs, and Croatians, they form a family, totally distinct from the Greeks and Albanians.

The Blacks are chiefly migratory shepherds originally from Wallachia, but now to be found all over Turkey in Europe, and even in free Greece. They possess large flocks, which they move from the hills to the plains, and vice versa, according to the season; living on the produce of these, they attempt no species of agriculture or settlement, in general. They still hold, however, several towns and villages, which were taken by them in their first incursions. Well armed and courageous, they are ready to protect their lives and property, but it is rare that they act on the offensive or become Klephti. The celebrated Catz Antoni was an exception however to this statement; and the Greek revolution also roused them to take a part in it. The Blacks of the towns are good artisans, and the best goldsmiths are of this tribe; they make the silver yataghan hilts and mounting of fire-arms, which the Greeks and Albanians are so fond of investing their money in; and the rough cloaks, called cappa or capotes, are made by them, forming an article of extensive manufacture and exportation.

The Wallachians of Greece or Blacks are first mentioned in history about the eleventh and twelfth centuries; they are noticed by the travelling Jew, Benjamin of Tudela, by Anna Comnena, and by Nicetas in the thirteenth century; and the latter author states, that their settlements were on Mont Haemus. Towards the end of the twelfth century, when they joined the Bulgarians in their revolt against the weak Emperor Isaac Angelus, they contributed so greatly to the foundation of the second Bulgarian kingdom, that two of their own chiefs, Peter and Asan, were the first of its kings. In the year 1205, under their third king, John, they were instrumental in an eminent degree towards the gaining of the great battle of Adrianople by the total defeat of the Franks, which led to the dethronement of Baldwin, Emperor of Byzantium, and his subsequent death in captivity. When their power was greatest, in the end of the twelfth century, a part of the province of Macedonia, with several forts, was successfully held by Chrysus, one of their chiefs, against the utmost endeavours of the Emperor Alexius Angelus to take them. Anna Comnena next represents them as being, in her time, exactly as they are now, a wandering hardy race of shepherds. Nicetas calls them cruel, and relates the havoc which they made in Thrace during the reigns of the Emperors Andronicus Comnenus, Isaac Angelus, Alexius Angelus, and Baldwin. He says that they had not yet been converted to Christianity, and this historian wrote about the year 1200. But the Blacko-Bulgarian kingdom was for a time attached to the See of Rome by Pope Innocent the Third, therefore their conversion must be ascribed to some date in that interval. The correspondence on this subject with the Archbishop of Zagorei, alludes to the Italian origin of the Blacks, and, it seems to have been admitted by all the Byzantine historians, that they were the remains of the Roman Colonies, planted by Trajan in Dacia and Moesia. Chalcocondyles notices the Blacks, in the fifteenth century, as extending from Dacia to Mount Pindus; and their principal town in the present day is Metzovo, situated on that great mountain range.

These are nearly all the data, which have been handed down, with regard to this people, which still exists in the identical state described by the writers of the Lower Empire. Their language appears not to be a Sclavonian dialect, as some have said, but it contains so many words of Latin derivation that a western origin must be assigned to it, in preference to a northern one. It is a singular fact, that the Blacks call themselves in their own patois, Romans. Their total number in the provinces of European Turkey is supposed to exceed half a million; and, during the Greek revolution, they furnished at least ten thousand armed men under Zougas. This leader was formerly the protopalicar, or lieutenant, of their famous chief Catz Antoni, who was put to death in the most cruel manner by Ali Pasha for numberless acts of brigandage. Zougas and his Blacks were the executioners of the unfortunate Gardikiotes, whom Ali immolated to his thirst for revenge.

Some inhabitants of this ill-fated town had outraged the mother and sister of the “Albanian Leopard,” about forty years before. On her death-bed, the old woman obliged her two children to swear that they would inflict a bloody vengeance for her insulted honour; and Ali kept his vow. The whole population of the place was drawn by him into an ambuscade, where seven hundred and thirty of them were massacred, and the rest, who had settled or were born at Gardiki after the insult, were sent to Prevesa to be embarked as slaves. Ali was stirred on by the malignant vindictiveness of his sister, who left him neither rest nor quiet until the bloody deed was done. She herself perpetrated the most unheard-of cruelties on the persons of the women of Gardiki, and she had a mattress made of the hair of her victims, on which she slept ever after. Many of the inhabitants who had been inveigled into the town of Jannina under various pretences, were seized and thrown into the lake on the same day; and the place where the others were murdered was built up, when they were all dead, and the bodies were left unburied. Ali had a stone tablet placed over the principal entrance, now closed for ever, with an inscription in Modern Greek, recording the facts, and containing the words, “Thus perish all the enemies of Ali.” He fired the first shot himself, as he sat in his carriage at the gate. Several of the principal Gardikiotes having been absent at the time of these events, he found means of laying hold of them subsequently, when he put them to death, and sent their bodies to rot in the same court yard with those of their countrymen. The destruction of Gardiki, a town of six thousand inhabitants, which was condemned never to be occupied again, took place in the year 1812; and it was a monument of private vengeance, unparalleled in history, ancient or modern.

The Ghegh and Mirdite Albanians were intended to have been the executioners, but they obstinately and nobly refused; the Blacks were then called upon to fire, and Zougas having been but lately pardoned, with his followers, for previous misdeeds as Klephti, he thought that it would be unsafe to decline. The usual headsmen in European Turkey are chosen from among Gipsies, who possess skill in this, as well as many other professions of doubtful respectability.

There are a great many Gipsies in these provinces, where they are called Tshingaries, probably a corruption of the Italian word Zingari. Several villages on the coast between Alessio and Durazzo, are inhabited exclusively by these strangers; and in the large towns, they are also to be found in considerable numbers. They do not mix, however, with the Greek and Albanian inhabitants, but they establish themselves in the suburbs. The town in which they are most numerous is Jannina, where there are at least two thousand of them and Premiti is also one of their favourite resorts. Besides that of public executioners, they exercise the trade of blacksmiths and tinkers, and they also tell fortunes here, as in the other countries of Europe. Constantly on the wing, they wander from town to town, and even their settlements are often handed over to new comers of the same race. They are easily recognised by their swarthy colour and filthy habits; and, despised and maltreated by all classes, more than in other countries, it is only surprising that they are to be found in such numbers in Turkey.

There are also a great many Jews in Macedonia, Thessaly, and Epirus, but more especially in the capital of the former province, where there is a large community of them of Spanish descent. They are to be found, however, wherever there is a possibility of gaining money, and the small courts of the Pashas offer peculiar facilities to them, from the monetary transactions which are imperative in a country without a paper currency. One classic publication on the subject of Turkey (Lady M. W. Montague’s works) gives them perhaps more than was their due, by saying, that “every Pasha has his Jew, who is his homme d’affaires; he is let into all his secrets, and does all his business. They are the physicians, the stewards, and the interpreters of all the great men.” They are to be found, however, in great numbers, and everywhere they seem to earn their bread, while some enrich themselves.
Such is the motley population of European Turkey, and such the elements of the future destinies of these provinces. That they may be happy, it will only require the care and consideration of statesmen, enlightened by the laudable wish to improve them, while certain misery, such as they now endure, and possibly violent convulsions in their political state, await them, if matters are allowed to remain as they are.

Sami bey Frashëri~ Description of Kosova

2010-11-11T10:34:00.000-08:00

Among the most impressive publications of Albanian writer, Sami bey Frashëri (1850-1904), is a 4,830-page Ottoman Turkish dictionary entitled “Kamus al-a’lam” (Universal Dictionary of History and Geography), published in Istanbul in the years 1889-1898. This dictionary contains numerous entries on the towns and regions of Kosova, as part of the Ottoman Empire, with its primarily Albanian population.

Kosova

This is one of the vilayets situated in the north of Roumelia [European Turkey]. It comprises the northeastern part of Arnautlluk [Albania] with Yeni Pazar [Novi Pazar] and the northeastern part of Macedonia, that is, the territory once known as Dardania. The Vilayet of Kosova borders to the north on Serbia and Bosnia, to the northwest on Montenegro, to the west on Shkodra, to the southwest on the Vilayet of Monastir [Bitola], to the southeast on the Vilayet of Salonica and to the east on Bulgaria. Most of the terrain is a plateau with some mountainous areas. Now, the plain of Skopje also forms part of the Vilayet of Kosova. The highest mountain range in Roumelia is the Sharr, that stretches southwest to northeast and ends at the Gorge of Kaçanik. It then continues with the Karadak [Crna Gora] mountains to the border of Serbia. There are also high mountains elsewhere along the borders and around the vilayet, in particular towards Montenegro and the Serb border. Some of these high mountains are arid and rocky, whereas others are covered in forests. The Sharr Mountains are arid and bare on the western side, but covered in various types of trees to the east, where there are also fair valleys. Many rivers flow from the mountains and, as mentioned above, the Vilayet of Kosova has three water basins. The first water basin is that of the Vardar which collects all the waters in the southern part of the vilayet. This river takes its source in the southern part of the Sharr Mountains that stretch eastwards, and flows trough a fair valley in an eastward direction. It passes through the centre of the vilayet, through Skopje, and collects, on its way, the rivers to the south of the plain of Kosova that pass through the Gorge of Kaçanik, taking the Lepenc river and many others with them, and continuing their flow southwards. It then passes through the Vilayet of Salonica and flows into the Sea of Islands [Aegean Sea]. Among the larger rivers in this vilayet is the Egri Su [Kriva river, tributary of the Pčinja]. The second water basin is that of the Morava into which flow the rivers in the northeast that pass through Serbia. The third is the Ibër river that passes through the northern portion of the vilayet and, taking with it many other rivers, flows into the Morava. The fourth water basin is that of the Black Drin that comes from the Sandjak of Dibra and joins the White Drin in the western part of that vilayet. The White Drin, that comes from the region of Peja and Gjakova, collects all the waters in the western part of the vilayet.

The climate is generally very good, although the winters are very cold. The summers are mild. There are only a very few marshes. The northern and western parts, i.e. around Gjakova and the western slopes of the Sharr are stony and not fertile, whereas the other parts, especially the plain of Kosova and the southeastern part of the vilayet, are very fertile. They produce: wheat, barley, rye, oats, chickpeas, beans and other produce such as tobacco, hemp, grapes, vegetables, and many kinds of fruit. The Sandjak of Skopje is known for cotton, hashish and rice. Best known among the fruits are apples called “shqiptarka” that grow around Tetova. Good plums and apricots also grow on the plain of Kosova and in Yeni Pazar [Novi Pazar], whereas around Skopje, all the fruits are excellent. Skopje beans and Koçana rice are known for their high quality. In the northwest, they do not produce enough food, but in the rest of the vilayet there is sufficient produce to cover not only the needs of the inhabitants, but also export. There are many farm animals because they thrive in this terrain, having sufficient pastureland. They raise cows, sheep and goats, etc. and because these are known not only for their quantity, but also for their quality, they are also exported abroad. Among the products of the herding industry are: wool, hides, butter and cheese, etc. that are used to cover local needs and the rest is then exported abroad. The Vilayet of Kosova has many woodlands. Although there is great wealth to be had in the forests with many types of trees, there is a lack of roads and vehicles, so that the wood can only be used for construction and for firewood. The mountain areas are also very rich in minerals, but up to now they have not been exploited. They are also rich in mineral waters and mineral baths. There are also many wild animals: wolves, bears, foxes, boars and hares, etc. from the hides of which they make fur pelts, most of which are sold abroad. Among the types of local handicrafts are blacksmiths, silversmiths, tanners, shoemakers and others, and they fulfil the region’s needs. In Prizren they produce metal weapons and tools, and throughout the vilayet they produce carpets, rugs, and various blankets and hides.

As stated above, the Vilayet of Kosova includes part of Arnautlluk [Albania], part of Macedonia and part of Bosnia. The population is also of various origins. As no census was taken for all the regions, we cannot yet say anything for sure about the number of inhabitants. Taking the population density in several parts of the vilayet into account, we can, however, estimate a population of about one million. Most of the inhabitants are Albanians, the exception being in the southeast part of the Sandjak of Skopje where there are Turks, Muslims and Christian Slavs. The territory of Yeni Pazar has a mixed population of Albanians and Bosnians. In Tashlidja [Plevlja] they are almost all Bosnians. The sandjaks with Albanians are Prizren, Peja, Prishtina and the northwestern part of the Sandjak of Skopje, the majority of whom are Muslims. Here and there, there are Catholics, but all of them are Albanians. There are few Orthodox, some of whom are Slavs. In some towns like Skopje, Prizren and Prishtina they can speak Turkish. According to the religious census, three-quarters of the population are Muslims and only one-quarter is Christian and others.

The railway line that stretches from Salonika to Serbia and Europe, passes through the Sandjak of Skopje. The section of the railway line to Mitrovica passes through the Sandjak of Prishtina and has done much to promote the development of trade and commerce in the vilayet because roads and vehicles here are underdeveloped.

The Vilayet of Kosova, as can be seen in the following table, is divided into six sandjaks, with 27 kaza and 16 nahiye. Including all the capitals, towns and villages, there are 3,120 settlements.

Priboj

Until the last war with Russia, the Vilayet of Kosova had its capital in Sofia and included the regions of Nish and Prishtina. After the war, Prishtina was made the capital of the vilayet, including Yeni Pazar. When the Sandjak of Prizren was removed from the Vilayet of Monastir and given to the Vilayet of Kosova and when Peja and the surrounding region became a sandjak of its own, Skopje became the capital of the vilayet.

Fusha e Kosovës [Kosovo Polje]

This is a broad plain that is situated in the western part of the Balkan peninsula, in Roumelia [European Turkey]. It is in the vilayet of the same name, between Kaçanik, Prishtina, Yeni Pazar [Novi Pazar], Peja, Gjakova and Prizren. It is at an altitude of approximately 500-600 m. The rivers that take their source here are: the Drin and its tributaries flowing into the Adriatic, the Vardar flowing into the Aegean Sea, and the Ibër on the other side that, as a tributary of the Morava, flows into the Black Sea. This serves to show the high altitude of the Balkan Peninsula above sea level. Even though the region is surrounded by high mountain ranges, the directions of the rivers show that the mountain ranges are separated from one another. In fact, there are few areas that can be called flat land in the full sense of the word. Most of the surface is hilly, but the flat land that there is, is fertile. It produces various types of grain, in particular those suitable to cold climates. It produces various fruits, in particular apples, pears, plums and other fruits of high quality. However, at the moment, due to a lack of population, many areas lie barren. Two events of great historical significance have made this plain well known. The first of these was the victory won by Sultan Murat I against the Serbs in 791 A.H. [1389 A.D.], on which occasion he put an end to the Kingdom of Serbia, and the second event was the defeat of the army of Hungary, Austria and their allies under the command of the Hungarian King Hunyadi in 852 A.H. [1448 A.D.] by Sultan Murat Khan II.

Gjakova

This is a kasaba and capital of a kaza that stretches along the Reka [Erenik] river that flows into the White Drin. It forms part of the Vilayet of Kosova. It is situated 35 kilometres to the southeast of Peja and 30 kilometres to the northwest of Prizren, but belongs to the Sandjak of Peja. It has 17,000 inhabitants. In Gjakova, there are 16 mosques, 2 medresa [religious schools], 1 rushdiye [secondary school] and several sibyanmektebe [elementary schools], one library, a church and a mekteb [religious school] for the Catholic and Orthodox population. It has about 1,000 shops, with inns and public baths. The population of Gjakova is known for the fact that it preserves its traditions, and is devoted to trade and handicrafts. They make beautiful costumes and braiding, and produce slippers and shoes, etc.

The kaza of Gjakova comprises 149 villages, most of which are considered to be part of the Malësia [highlands] because they are situated in the mountains. The population is courageous and skilled at bearing arms. The number of inhabitants is not known for sure, but it is estimated at about 25,000. In the Malësia, one household can have up to 40-50 members who are skilled at bearing arms. Only one-fifth or one-sixth of the people are Catholic or Orthodox Christians, the rest are Muslims. This town has always given birth to famous scholars and professors, and many of them have come to the der-i seade to study. There are fertile plains and valleys, where maize, beans, wheat, oats, rye and barley are grown, as well as many types of fruit and vegetables. There are many mountains and much pastureland such that they raise many sheep, goats and other animals.

Gjilan

This is a kasaba and the capital of a kaza in the Vilayet of Kosova. It is part of the Sandjak of Prishtina and stretches along a small river that flows into the Morava. It is situated 23 kilometres to the southeast of Prishtina. It has 4,500 inhabitants, two mosques, one church, 1 rushdiye, two iptidayye [elementary schools], and a well-stocked market.

The kaza of Gjilan forms the southeastern part of the Sandjak of Prishtina. It borders to the northwest on the kaza of Prishtina, to the south on the Sandjak of Skopje, and to the northeast on Serbia. This kaza comprises 109 villages, most of the inhabitants being Albanians and Muslim, though there are some Slavs. There are about 30,000 inhabitants in all. The land is generally mountainous, though there are plains, fields and fertile valleys. It borders to the southeast on the Karadak [Mali i Zi / Crna Gora] Mountains, and it is separated from Serbia by the Gollak Mountains. To the west of it rise the mountains Zhegovc and Konijça. The rivers that flow down from the mountains on this inner side of the kaza form the Morava that continues its course northeastwards, enters Serbia and flows into the Danube. To the northeast of the kaza, there is an area of 25,000 new dynym [dynym = ca. one thousand square metres] covered in forests, and this region covers the country’s needs for building material and firewood. The soil is very fertile and, aside from the various types of grain that grow here, they also grow hemp that the locals use to make a type of hide from which they make clothing. There are mineral spas in this kaza, as well as many ruined churches and fortifications. Not far away, to the north of the kaza, are the ruins of the castle and kasaba of Novobërda [Novo Brdo] that reveal that it was very important at the time of the conquests of Sultan Murat I in Kosova.

Kaçanik

This is situated in a gorge 35 kilometres to the northwest of Skopje. It is part of the Vilayet of Kosova but belongs to the kaza and Sandjak of Skopje. It is situated along the river Lepenc that flows into the Vardar, taking its course through the valley that separates the Sharr Mountains from the Karadak [Crna Gora] Mountains. This is where the railway line comes through from Salonika to Mitrovica. To the north, at some distance, where the river Lepenc merges with the Nerodimka, there is a village of the same name. Here there is a railway station and nearby are the ruins of a fortress. The gorge, stretching to the aforementioned village, is at an altitude of 525 metres and on the south side, it opens out onto the plains and valley of the Vardar.

Karadak [Mali i Zi, Karadaku i Shkupit, Skopska Crna Gora]

This is a mountain in Kosova, to the northeast of Skopje. It begins at the Gorge of Kaçanik, across from the end of the Sharr Mountains and stretches to the border of Serbia and separated Gjilan from Kumanova. The highest peak is 1,452 m. The Morava river takes its source in these hills and flows into Serbia.

Mitrovica

This is the capital of a kaza and belongs to the Sandjak of Prishtina. It lies 38 kilometres to the northwest of Prishtina, on the right side of the Ibër river, where the little river Sitnica flows into it. It is a kasaba of the Vilayet of Kosova. In Mitrovica there are three mosques and one prayer house. There are rushdiye and iptidayye and about 5,000 inhabitants. Above the town are the ruins of a fortress. The railway line from Salonika to Bosnia stops here. The kaza of Mitrovica stretches to the western edge of the Sandjak of Prishtina. To the south it borders on the kaza of Vushtrria [Vuçitërn], to the northeast on Serbia, and to the northwest on the Sandjak of Yeni Pazar. It includes 170 villages with Albanians and Christians. Most of the inhabitants are Muslims. It is a primarily mountainous terrain, but there are fertile valleys and plains. It is rich in forests, with pines, firs and other types of trees from which they make strong beams. In the field of agriculture, they produce all kinds of grain, vegetables and fruit. They also make excellent millstones here that are exported to other countries. There are many farm animals. Three hours from the capital of the kaza there are mineral baths that are very effective in treating a number of illnesses. It is known by the name of Banjska.

Peja [Pec]

This is a town in the northern part of Arnautlluk [Albania] and is the capital of a sandjak forming part of the Vilayet of Kosova. It is situated 75 kilometres to the northwest of Prishtina and 110 kilometres to the northeast of Shkodra. It lies to the southeast of a range of mountains known as the alps, that begin in Shkodra, in Albania. It is built in the valley of the White Drin. In Albanian and in Slavic it is known as Peq [Pec]. It has 18,000 inhabitants all of whom are Muslims. There are ten mosques, two medresas, one rushdiye school, about ten sibyanmektebe, one government konak, one barracks, one public baths, 550 shops and storage houses, and ten inns. The largest and architecturally most precious mosque is the one built by Sultan Mehmet Khan II. Peja is rich in flowing water and has a good climate, with fine vineyards and gardens. Above the kasaba is an old church, and about two hours away on foot is a monastery known as Deçan. The population is entirely Albanian and they hold religiously to their ancient traditions. They are known for their ponderous nature. Since ancient times, the town of Peja has produced rifles, guns and other weapons. There are many tanners and they produce many shoes and slippers.

The kaza of Peja is part of the sandjak of the same name. It borders to the east on the Sandjak of Prishtina, to the south on the Sandjak of Gjakova, to the west on the elayet of Shkodra and the kaza of Gucia [Gusinje], to the northwest on the kaza of Berane, and to the north on the Sandjak of Yeni Pazar. It contains 200 villages. Due to the lack of reliable statistics, the exact number of inhabitants is not known, but it is known that in this kaza there are large families and a population of somewhat less than 150,000. These Gheg mountain people have their own form of society. They are attached to their tribes and recognize their tribal elders. They pay particular attention to the bloodline among them. Most of the terrain is mountainous and the flat land is sandy. Agriculture is very backward. The region is known for its apples and other fruit.

Peja, Sandjak of

The Sandjak of Peja is situated in the western part of the Vilayet of Kosova, on the edge of northern Arnautlluk [Albania]. It consists of the kazas of Tërgovishta, Berane, Gucia, Gjakova and Peja. To the north it borders on the Sandjak of Yeni Pazar, to the west on Montenegro, to the southwest on the Vilayet of Shkodra, to the south on the Vilayet of Monastir and the Sandjak of Prizren, and to the east on the Sandjak of Prishtina. As to the terrain of this sandjak, it is primarily mountainous. From the southwest to the northeast stretch the Albanian Alps, Mokra and Suka that form part of the territory of the sandjak. Only the kazas of Gucia and Berane, on the northwest side of the above-mentioned mountain range form part of the water basin of the Lim that flows into the Danube. The other kazas to the southeast of the mountain range are connected to the Adriatic. This includes most of the land to the north of the water basin of the White Drin. Both sides of these mountain ranges are rich in forests and pastureland. There are also rocky crags. The population is mainly active in herding. Between the mountains and along the rivers there are fine valleys and fields. Agriculture is not highly developed here, although the land is fertile. It has remained backward. They produce various types of grain and very good fruit. In the towns of Peja and Gjakova, they produce arms, silverware, Albanian national costumes, and silken garments. In both of the aforementioned towns, there is much trade. Butter and excellent cheese are produced in the mountains. The exact number of inhabitants is not known because the census was not carried out properly, but one can estimate that there are 159,000 inhabitants in this sandjak. Most of the people are Muslims. There are few Christians and they are divided into Catholics and Orthodox. The population is Albanian. Only in the kazas of Gucia and Berane does a part of the population speak the Bosnian language, but they know Albanian just as well. As for their customs and traditions, they are no different from the Albanians.

The people of the whole sandjak, in particular the mountain inhabitants of Peja and Gjakova, are exceptionally courageous and warlike, in particular with regard to their customs and traditions that they defend fanatically.

Prishtina

This is a kasaba situated in the northeastern part of Arnautlluk [Albania]. It is the capital of a sandjak forming part of the Vilayet of Kosova. It is also the residence for the vilayet and lies to the northwest of Skopje, at a distance of 80 kilometres, and is about 10 kilometres to the east of the railway line from Salonika to Mitrovica. It is finely situated at the point where the mountains end and the plain of Kosova begins. It has 10,638 inhabitants, of whom 8,165 are Muslims, the rest being of other faiths. Although the population is wholly Albanian, Turkish is widely spoken in the kasaba. Prishtina has thirteen mosques, five prayer houses, two medresas, one rushdiye, two iptidayye, one for boy and one for girls, several sibyanmektebe, three pubic baths, a military hospital outside the town, about 500 storehouses and shops, and ten inns and guesthouses. Of the mosques, three are large, one of which was begun by Sultan Murat Khan II and finished by Sultan Mehmet Khan II. The other one was built on the orders of Sultan Mehmet II the Conqueror. The third one was built by a local family, that of Jashar Pasha. The kasaba produces a pleasantly fragrant soap. This kasaba was originally the capital of the kaza, but with the creation of the Vilayet of Kosova, it became the capital of the whole vilayet, and remained capital of the sandjak after the vilayet capital was transferred to Skopje. Half an hour away from Prishtina is the site where Sultan Murat I fell as a martyr to the faith. There is a splendid tyrbe [mausoleum] at the site.

Prishtina, Sandjak of

This is one of the six sandjaks forming the Vilayet of Kosova. It border to the south on the Sandjak of Skopje, to the northwest on Yeni Pazar, to the west on Peja and the Sandjak of Prizren, which is part of the Vilayet of Monastir, and to the south on the Vilayet of Monastir. It stretches for a distance of about 120 kilometres in a southeast to northwest direction and has a width of about 65 kilometres. It is mostly flat. It borders to the east and northeast on Serbia where there are mountains, and to the southwest on Sharr Mountains. Between these is the Lepenc river that flows through the Gorge of Kaçanik. There are mountains to the northwest, too. Most of the fertile flat land is on the plain of Kosova, that stretches out as a plateau and is most productive. Although germination is excellent, little of the land is cultivated. The sandjak is a plateau and is divided into three water basins. Most of it, flowing from Yeni Pazar, is gathered by the Iber, that collects the waters of the Sitnica, and enters Serbia, flowing into the Morava river. The Sitnica, that flows through the plain of Kosova from south to north, includes the Drenica and many other streams. The separate southeastern water basin of the sandjak also enters Serbia and, together with the waters of the Morava river, and flows into the Danube. This river, the Morava, separates the Sandjak of Skopje from the Karadak region, taking several small streams with it that flow northwards. It enters Serbia near Vranje. In the southwestern part, there is also the water basin of the Vardar that collects the waters of the Nerodimka and the Lepenc, flows through the Gorge of Kaçanik, and continues onwards to the Aegean Sea. The soil of the sandjak is fertile. Although agriculture is not particularly developed, there is enough produce to meet the region’s needs, and a large part of it is exported. Indeed, there are many good types of fruit. There is also much forest and pastureland and for this reason, the people herd sheep, cows, horses and other animals. The cattle are of a hardy race. The people produce and export butter and other dairy products. As to handicrafts, they are known for their manufacture of garments, carpets and rugs made of cotton.

The railway line from Salonica to Mitrovica divides the plain of Kosova into two. The population of the sandjak is about 220,000. Over two-thirds of the people are Muslims, the others being Catholics, Slavs and others. (…) As seen in the overview below, the Sandjak of Prishtina consists of five kazas encompassing 860 villages.

The kaza of Prishtina alone, that is, including the capital of the sandjak of the same name, has 241 villages. The number of inhabitants is 60,993 and almost all of them are Muslims.

Prizren

This is one of the largest towns. It is the capital of a sandjak that is part of the Vilayet of Kosova. It lies to the west of the Sharr Mountains, along a river called the Bistrica, a tributary of the White Drin. It is situated 55 kilometres to the northeast of the capital of the vilayet, Skopje, 140 kilometres to the northwest of Monastir, and 125 kilometres to the east of Shkodra. It is a beautiful town with 38,000 inhabitants, and has a large market, 24 mosques, a large number of medresas and one rushdiye. Above the town, there is a mighty fortress, an ancient castle adapted as a government konak. There are many streams, several bridges, 100 shops, a number of workshops for the production of arms, scissors, knives and other metal objects, a workshop especially for the production of silver, several tanners and a flourishing commerce. The population is Albanian, most of whom are Muslims. The others are divided among Orthodox and Catholics. There are also a few Vlachs [Aromunians] and Slavs.

The inhabitants are devoted to trade and commerce and to handicrafts, and they are known for their particularly resolute and unyielding nature, and are said to be prone to rebellion. Before the Ottoman takeover, when it was under the control of the Serbs, it served for a time as a royal residence. When it was conquered by Sultan Murat I, and then by Sultan Mehmet Khan II, it served as a centre for the eastern part of Ghegeria and then became the capital of the vilayet. Also, after the creation of the vilayet, it was on several occasions the residence of the vilayet. It was formerly part of the Vilayet of Monastir and recently became part of the Vilayet of Kosova.

Prizren, Sandjak of

This is one of the six sandjaks that make up the Vilayet of Kosova. It is situated in the western part of this vilayet. This sandjak once included Gjakova and Peja, since it extends in the direction of Montenegro. Now it is a small sandjak consisting only of the kaza of Prizren itself, Luma and Tetova. However, it has 400 villages and about 260,000 inhabitants. With the exception of a small portion of Christians living in the town of Prizren, all the rest of the people are Albanian Muslims. The inhabitants of the towns of Prizren and Tetova speak Albanian and Turkish. The Sharr Mountains divide this sandjak into two. The western slopes of the range are not suitable for agriculture, but the eastern and northern sides of the Sharr are very fertile. They produce many crops, including various types of grain, grapes, and other high-quality fruits, and in great quantities, too. To be mentioned in particular are apples, pears, plums, peaches and other fruits. In Istanbul, they sell apples imported from Prizren and Tetova that are known as arnaud elmasi (Albanian apples). They also produce very good drinks.

There are many forests and much pastureland that enable the population to raise sheep and other animals. There are many mulberry trees so that they produce a lot of silk that is processed in Prizren. The administrative divisions of the Sandjak of Prizren are as follows:

The kaza of Prizren, including the town and 190 villages, is a large kaza stretching along a fertile plain to the northeast, including Rahovec. The soil is exceptionally fertile and is well known for local fruits.

Vushtrria [Vuçitërn, Vučitrn]

This is a kasaba and the capital of a kaza in the Sandjak of Prishtina and in the Vilayet of Kosova. It is situated on the plain of Kosova, 27 kilometres to the northwest of Prishtina. It has about 4,000 inhabitants, 14 mosques and prayer houses, 2 medresas, rushdiye and iptidayye schools, a ruined fortress, a solid bridge over the nearby Sitnica river, and a railway station, half an hour away.

The kaza of Vushtrria borders to the east and southeast on the kaza of Prishtina, to the west on the Sandjak of Peja, to the northeast on the kaza of Mitrovica and on Serbia. It encompasses 325 villages with 25,000 inhabitants, of whom 5,000 are Christians and all the rest are Muslims, and all of them speak Albanian. The soil is quite fertile. They grow all sorts of things: good apples, pears, plums, peaches and other fruit, as well as watermelons, etc. There are extensive forests covered in mighty trees. In the winter, the weather is cold, but it is very pleasant here in the summer.

Catholic Encyclopedia 1907 ~Albania

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The ancient Epirus and Illyria, is the most western land occupied by the Turks in Europe. Its extreme length is about 290 miles, and its breadth from forty to ninety miles. On the west and southwest it is bounded by the Adriatic and the Ionian seas. It is generally divided into three regions: Upper Albania, from the Montenegrin frontier to the river Shkumbi; Lower Albania, or Epirus, from the Shkumbi to the Gulf of Arta; and Eastern Albania, to the east of the Schar-Dagh chain. It is a mountainous and rugged territory, some of its peaks reaching a height of 8,500 feet, and has only one plain of note, that of Scutari (the ancient Scodra, 'e Skódra), which holds the lake of the same name and is watered by its affluent, the Drin. Many rivers flow from savage, inaccessible heights to the Ionian Sea: the Mati, Shkumbi, Ergent or Devol, Voynassa, Kalamas. Among them are the celebrated Acheron and Cocytus of antiquity. Albania shares with Greece the peculiar phenomenon of subterranean rivers; the waters of the lake of Jamina flow through one of these underground channels into the Gulf of Arta, and this gave rise to the myth that here was the entrance to the infernal world of the ancient Greeks. The surrounding country is covered with Cyclopean ruins. In the region of Lakes Ochrida and Presba there are passages through the mountains, which facilitates communication between Albania and Macedonia; and the Turkish mail post actually follows the old Via Egmatia of the Romans from Durrazzo (the ancient Dyrrachium) to Salonica, passing by Bitolia. Further down, between the Grammos and the Pindar chains, a defile allows communication with the road from Jamina to Larissa. The Mavropotamas, or Acheron, formerly received the affluents of the Cocytus and Phlegeton, which have now disappeared. The soil is barren from want of cultivation and the exports are few, consisting principally of hides, bark for dyeing, and tobacco. If the Boyana river were made navigable, Scutari would be connected with the sea, and trade would assuredly lead to progress of all kinds; but Mussulman rule precludes the attempt.

The Albanians (more of an ethnographic than a geographic term) are called Arnauts (Arnaoots, Arnaouts) by the other peoples of the Balkan peninsula; they give themselves the name of Skipetars or "mountaineers". They claim descent from the Epirots and Illyrians, and, like the latter, have always been distinguished by their warlike spirit. After having been conquered in the Illyrian wars by Rome, the tribes of this region furnished the best soldiers of the empire, several emperors were of Illyrian stock (Freeman, The Illyrian Emperors, Historical Essays, London, 1892, III, 22-68). Christianity probably penetrated these mountain fastnesses through the Roman soldiers and traders from Epirus and Macedonia; it is doubtful whether any traces of the original apostolate survived the ruin of the Roman State in the West. After the dismemberment of the Roman Empire, the Illyrian population, gradually driven southward by the invading Slavs, became known as Albanians, were long subject to schismatic Constantinople, then fell under the sway of the Serbs, and finally became (1336-56) a province of the medieval Servian Empire under Tsar Stephen Duschan. (See SERVIA.) On its dismemberment, after the battle of Kosovo which took place (1389), the victorious Turks overran the country, but Prince George Castriota, the famous Scanderbeg who was known also as Iskander Bey, or Prince Alexander, maintained an independent rule in Upper Albania for a quarter of a century (1443-67). This hero, whose feats of valour are almost legendary, was bred as a Moslem at the court of Murad II to whom he had been given as a hostage by his father, an Albanian chief; but after having won fame and honour in the Sultan's service, his race asserted itself, and he broke away to place himself at the head of his own people and embrace Christianity. He defeated the Turkish army in several engagements and secured an honourable peace on his own terms. But, encouraged by the Pope and the promise of help from the Venetians, he again attacked the Turks and gained numerous victories. On his death at Alessio (1467), the Sultan exclaimed: "Now that the infidels have lost their sword and buckler, who can save them from my wrath?" The Albanians became disorganized and were finally subjected (1479) to Mussulman dominion. They have, however, never been subdued, and are, even today, treated more like allies than subjects. They now supply the Turkish army with its best soldiers as they once did the legions of Rome, and are exempted from taxes and from compulsory military service. As volunteers, they receive high pay and many privileges. While several tribes have embraced Islam and others belong to the Greek schism, the best of the population is Catholic, and while guarding traditional customs and a primitive manner of life, practise their religion devoutly. The purity of their morals is proverbial throughout the Balkan peninsula, and the zealous Austrian and Italian missionaries have met with conditions most favourable for their teaching. Schools have been opened in all the villages of note by Franciscan and Jesuit Fathers, but the spread of education is hindered by the lack of a gramatically organized language. Many attempts have been made to decide upon an alphabet, but none has yet succeeded owing to the difficulty of expressing the oral sounds by any known combination of European letters. A cultured Albanian, therefore, takes Roumanian, Greek, Servian, or Italian, for his medium of intercommunication. An Albanian journal is published in Bukarest and another in Belgrade. In the country itself there is no attempt at a newspaper, and the periodicals most prevalent in the towns are Italian publications of a religious tone. The tribes which have resisted Mussulman rule successfully and retained their creed have, notwithstanding this, adopted many Moslem customs.

Battle of Achelous 1359

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Since the early 14th century the power of the Despotate of Epirus had been decreasing while the Albanian rulers had been increasing their control over many areas of the despotate.Nikephoros II Orsini, Despot of Epirus decided to establish closer relations to the Serbian Empire by dropping his previous wife Maria Cantacuzena and marrying the sister of Stefan Uroš IV Dušan's widow. The Albanians of the Despotate threatened revolt if Orsini married Helena of Bulgaria's sister and didn't recall Maria, who was part of the Cantacuzene family allied with them.Orsini was forced to recall Maria but decided to wage war against the Albanians to stop their increasing power in the despotate.The Battle of Achelous took place in 1359 near the river Achelous, in Aetolia, modern Greece fought between Albanian troops, under Peter Losha, and forces of the Despotate of Epirus, under Nikephoros II Orsini. The Albanians defeated Orsini's army, which suffered massive casualties during the battle. The battle established two despotates from regions previously part of the Despotate of Epirus: the Despotate of Arta and the Despotate of Angelokastron and Lepanto.

Battle
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Nikephoros II Orsini gathered his forces and marched against the Albanians in the regions they had settled in Aetolia, modern western Greece. The Albanians gathered their forces and under the leadership of Peter Losha fought against Orsini in the late spring of 1359 near the Achelous river. The Albanians won the battle. Orsini was killed and his whole army was destroyed.

Aftermath
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After Nikephoros's death the remaining major towns in the Despotate Epirus, being under risk of capture by the Albanian troops, submitted to Simeon Uroš and the remaining areas of the despotate were divided between him and Radoslav Hlapen.Simeon unable to expel the Albanian leaders tried to maintain indirect control of the Despotate of Epirus by recognizing as Despots of the regions of Arta and Aetolia Peter Losha and Gjin Bua Shpata, who created the Despotate of Arta and the Despotate of Angelokastron and Lepanto.

Although most of Epirus was under Albanian rule due to their tribal structure and lack of central authority the Albanians didn't replace any existing Greek or Serbian rule with a centralized Albanian state.As an aftermath by 1366-7 only the city of Ioannina wasn't under Albanian control.

Albanian Revolt of Morea of 1453

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The Byzantine Empire had ruled over the Morea for centuries before the rebellion. During this time, several thousand Albanians had settled in the area.After the Battle of Varna in 1444, the Ottoman Turks had a free hand in dealing with the remnants of the Byzantine Empire, which had been in decline for over a century. In 1446, the Ottomans invaded the Byzantine Morea which was then jointly administrated by the two brothers, the Despots Constantine and Thomas Palaiologos. The brothers successfully resisted the invasion, but at the cost of devastating the countryside of the Morea, and the Turks carrying off 60,000 Greek civilians back to their territory.Murad II, the Ottoman Sultan, concluded a peace treaty which resulted in the brothers paying a heavy tribute to the Turks, accepting vassalage to them and a promise not to oppose them in the future, for Murad had to deal with his own internal conflicts elsewhere.

Upon the death of Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaiologos in Constantinople in October 1448, the imperial throne fell to Constantine, who was crowned on 6 January 1449 in Mystras before departing for the capital. Two months later, he assumed his new role in Constantinople as Emperor Constantine XI. His younger brothers, Thomas and Demetrius remained in charge of the Morea as joint Despots in his place. Despite assurances to Constantine that they would pledge support to one another, both Thomas and Demetrius coveted the other's lands - in addition, they pressed claims against Venetian port possessions in the Morea, alienating the only power capable of aiding them in resisting the Turks.The mutual hostility went to the point that both despots requested military aid from the Turks against the other. During the final siege of Constantinople, the new Sultan, Mehmed II invaded the Morea again as a distraction to prevent the brothers sending any provisions to Constantinople.

The Albanian Revolt of Morea of 1453 was a failed peasant rebellion carried out against the rule of the brothers Thomas and Demetrios II Palaiologos, rulers of the Byzantine Despotate of Morea in the Peloponnese peninsula.Shortly after the fall of Constantinople and the death of the last Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI, 30,000 Albanians under Peter Boua rose in revolt against the two brothers, Thomas and Demetrius II, due to the chronic insecurity and tribute payment to the Turks.The Albanians were later joined by the local Greeks, who by then had a common leader in Manuel Kantakouzenos. Kantakouzenos was hailed as their common Despot, and the rebels asked for Venetian help, while the two brothers asked for Mehmed's help in putting down the rebellion. The situation was further confused by a second rebellion led by Giovanni Asen Zaccaria, who claimed to be the "Prince of Achaia" representing the remains of the Latin element in the Morea. Before the rebellion, Zaccaria had been imprisoned by Thomas but managed to escape during the confusion.

Aftermath
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By 1454, both rebellions were put down, but only after a full-scale invasion by the Turks and the restoration of the now completely humiliated Despots. Tribute was reinstated to the same levels and the Despots were to continue their vassalage as before. From the rebel leaders, Boua was pardoned by Mehmet and later became a spokesperson for the Albanian people, Zaccaria fled and ended up as a pensioner in Venice and later the Papal Court, while Kantakouzenos escaped and disappeared from history.

Manuel Kantakouzenos (usurper)
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Manuel Kantakouzenos was a rebel leader who started a revolt against the Palaiologos family in the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea.

He was the grandson of Demetrios I Kantakouzenos, the last Kantakouzenos governor of the Morea.Shortly after the fall of Constantinople and the death of the last Byzantine Emperor, Constantine XI, Manuel joined 30,000 Albanians in a revolt against the two brothers, Thomas and Demetrios II, rulers of the Byzantine Morea.

It was public knowledge that the two brothers hated one another, and using this situation to his advantage, Manuel headed this revolt in 1453. He was soon proclaimed by the Albanians as a Despot and in order to please them, he took the Albanian name "Ghin" and also called his wife "Cuchia".

His situation was favorable in the beginning, but that quickly changed. The Palaiologos brothers soon realized that they needed outside help to succeed and appealed to the Ottomans and Venice to receive it.The Ottoman overlord of the Morea made the decision that the province would stay in the hands of Thomas and Demetrios II. Because of this, any power fighting against the Morea would also face the Ottoman Empire. With minimal Ottoman support, the brothers ceased their hostilities and joined together to fight Manuel. With this assistance, the revolt was overpowered and put down the next year, in 1454.

Albanians of Morea

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz~Correspondence on the Albanian Language

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The German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was a major figure in Western thought. Born in Leipzig, he served as a diplomat and lived for much of his life in Paris. He later served the Duke of Brunswick in Hanover and became the first president of the Prussian Academy of Science. His wide-ranging works on philosophy, mathematics, science, history and jurisprudence were written in French and Latin. Leibniz was a man of many interests and even devoted himself to the Albanian language, which was very little known at the time. Here are extracts from his correspondence.

I. On some medication, II. On the death of the Count of Schwerin, III. The Albanian-Illyrian language, IV. Chinese, V. On Wales, etc., VI. On the old Spanish alphabet.

I. I would like to thank you for informing me about the remedy of the Prior of Cabrières. Such proven remedies ought to be published with details of experience with them. You mentioned some others.

II. I am grieved by the death of the Count of Schwerin. He was a man of knowledge and curiosity and helped promote studies and learning. I somewhat suspect that Mr Brand will now be given the position as head of the King's Library.

III. I have no doubt, Sir, that your merits will be taken into consideration more and more as I note that those with positions of authority are persuaded of them. I also see that I am in aere tuo since I owe you the Lord's Prayer in Hottentot. I still cannot find it, but as I am sure that I have it somewhere, you will receive it one day without fail. As to the language of the Albanians, I have the impression that it may be a sort of Slavic since this tongue is spoken along the Adriatic Sea. It is commonly known as Linguam Illiricam, but I believe that the language of the ancient Illyrians was something quite different. If there were any remnants of it in the mountains of Epirus, it would certainly be very odd, and most worthy as a subject of research. I have thought about it more than once, but it did not occur to me when I was in Rome, where I know Mr Pastritio (if I am not mistaken), professor at the College della propaganda (for the Propagation of the Faith), who was himself from Dalmatia. I do not know if he is still alive. That could be found out in Ragusa (Dubrovnik) or even in Venice since the territories of the Republic are quite near to Albania.

IV. If I might, Sir, I would like to encourage you to learn the Chinese language. I believe, as you do, that the late Mr Muller, a gentleman of learning, saw something of interest in it. I hope that we will get a copy of the Tartar-Chinese Dictionary which the Emperor of China is having prepared, and I have written to the Jesuits telling them that it would be good to have some explanations in a European language. Father Grimaldi did not believe that there was a key to Chinese characters. But there must be some reason what they were made that way, even though the passage of time may have rendered them difficult to decipher and caused irregularities in them.

V. I received two dictionaries of the language of Wales. The older one by Davies was published in London in 1632 in fol. and was sent to me with a grammar published in 12 in 1621. The second Welsh dictionary is by Thom. Jones, published in 12 in 1688. It gives Welsh to English, though not vice versa. But Davies gives Welsh to Latin and Latin to Welsh. I am still persuaded that at least half of Welsh corresponds to Germanic, and that it is rather like Greek is to Latin. Old Germanic contained quite a few words we do not understand today. I rather believe that the ancient Britons came from Germany, and that the Gauls etc. have something of the language of the ancient Cimbrians and Germans of which little is left, and that the Irish are the reflection of an earlier migration of older Britons, who also crossed the sea. Thus, Irish is an even older form of Celtic. There are people in England working at the moment on explaining the Irish language and I would be curious to know what they come up with. Davies quotes a Dictionarium Britannico-Aremoricum, published in Paris impensis Yvonis Quillevere in 1521. But enough of this.

VI. I asked for the Chinese inscription from Mr Cuper, but I have not yet received it. He spoke to me about a Dutchman who spent much time in Spain and hoped to be able to decipher the ancient Spanish alphabet.

(Hanover, 24 June 1705)

I. On the Albanian language, II. On the Armenian, Coptic and Georgian languages, etc., III. On the language of the countries under Czarist rule.

I. Since Mr Hubener is passing through here on his return from Holland, I asked him to get hold of a manuscript in the King's Library, which I am sending back to you with thanks, and I have the honour of writing to you at the same time. I was very pleased to hear that you have received a book and a Dictionary of the Albanian Language. By it we see what the language of the ancient Illyrians was like. I nonetheless notice that there is much Latin in it. Attiyne for "our father" corresponds to the Scythian languages. It would also seem that there are small traces of words which are like German, such as seet for "earth," Enandeyenée "to pardon," and ndetekech "in temptation."

II. You will soon be universal in linguistics, Sir, since you are even enhancing your knowledge of Armenian, which is quite different from other languages. You know that the late Mr Acoluthus thought he had found a link between Armenian and Coptic, but I believe he was mistaken, at least I received no persuasive evidence from him when he talked to me in Berlin. You will be able to make a better judgment now. The Georgian language seemed to me more unusual than Armenian because of the multitude of moods it has. Your explanation of the Armenian medals will be suitable as part of our Miscellanea.

III. There is a gentleman from Moscow here, an envoy of the Czar, who intends perhaps to spend a couple of weeks here. He calls himself a prince or knjaz and is of the old Kurakin family. I will endeavour to get him to write to the Chancery in Moscow to get us samples of the languages of the countries under Czarist rule, and of the neighbouring countries. And if you have any request, I would beg you, Sir, to inform me of it as soon as possible. As he is a native of the country, he can more easily write to get things than can foreigners in the employment of the Czar, to whom I have written and spoken, but to no avail. For the rest, I am yours, etc.

(Hanover, 10 December 1709)

I. On the Albanian language, II. The Georgian language, III. The work of Nestor of Kiev, IV. The rebaptism of the Latins among the Russians, etc., V. The origin of the word Cossack.

I. It would be a good idea in Albanian to distinguish between what is native to the language and what has been borrowed. No one could do this better than you, Sir. Nevertheless, I would like to give you my opinion on several words in this language. Hunde pro naso, an dicemus antiquum Celticum esse? (hunde for "nose," may we call this old Celtic?) and the German word "Hund" (dog) got its name from the nose because it excels in the use of this organ, just as Truye "troia" (sow)derives differently from trogue or truyn, meaning "nose" in ancient Gaulish and among the modern Gauls, too. "Hunting" is one thing in English, yet "hint" is a trace or indication, which modern Germans would call Spuhr. Therefore it is possible that all of this comes from the root in Kunde "knowledge," from which the French connoître (to know) and Greek gnóoskein (to know)derive. I would come to a similar conclusion with craha "brachium (arm)" in Albanian because Krebs or crabbe (crab) is an animal with arms, and Krallen (claws), krazzen "to scratch," kriechen "to crawl," Kröte "bufo" (toad) would seem related to this, too. The letter "k" in roots often signifies a bending, and the letter "r" a movement, whereas arms are often expressed with a "cr." Massa would seem to me to mean "meat" in Slavic. This has become mix in Albanian and mis in Armenian, both meaning "meat." Burri "maritus" (husband) could be related to Braut (bride), Bräutigam (groom), Freia is the Germanic goddess Venus. As to the crab, Albanian gaforreia, I suspect there may be a relation with Gafel, i.e. furca "fork." Boots as the Hungarians are wont to wear them are called citmes in Vienna in Italian pronunciation, i.e. tschismes. One must also see whether ocrea is not the same thing as tschisme in Hungarian or some other neighbouring country, as it is in Albanian. The Albanian words for numbers have nothing that can be derived from the neighbouring languages, but, knowing all the languages you do, you will be able to figure out why the Albanians call an ox chau, and the sea deet, and "mulier (woman)" crue and "good" emir. Perhaps deet derives from delt, i.e. thálassa, etc. …

(Hanover, 26 December 1709)

II. On this occasion, I would beg you, Sir, to send me the Lord's Prayer in the Epirotic (Albanian) language in an interlinear version and would be obliged to you if you could add the Credo, if possible. Please also send me the titles of the two books in this idiom, their size and the date and place of publication, for this language, being little known, is worthy of being investigated. I will endeavour to find these books in Rome. With them, ancient monuments have been dug up from the foundations of Notre Dame in Paris.

(Hanover, 28 December 1711)

… The modern European alphabets are derived from Latin, with the exception of the two Slavic ones: Cyrillic and so-called Glagolitic. Some authors later attributed these to Saint Jerome who was of Illyrian origin, but falsely so, as if the ancient Illyrian language were some sort of Slavic. But the Slavs were late to arrive in Illyria, not before the age of Justinian. The ancient Illyrians were of Celtic origin. They used a language closely related to Germanic and Gaulish. It is evident that relics of this are preserved in the modern language, in particular in that of the Epirots, of which I have seen specimens published. Nowadays they generally call the Slavic language Illyrian because the Slavs settled in Illyria. …

(Vienna, 13 January 1714)

II. …One day in Berlin you gave me a book in the language of the Epirots, printed in Rome by the Propaganda Fide. I believe it had the Lord's Prayer in that language and I took it out. But I cannot easily find it in my letters. Would you be so kind, Sir, as to send it to me once more?

(Hanover, 24 March 1715)

Sami bey Frashëri ~Description of Chameria

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Among the most impressive publications of Albanian writer, Sami bey Frashëri (1850-1904), is a 4,830-page Ottoman Turkish dictionary entitled “Kamus al-a’lam” (Universal Dictionary of History and Geography), published in Istanbul in the years 1889-1898. This dictionary contains numerous entries on the towns and regions of Chameria or southern Epirus, now in northwestern Greece, as it was under the Ottoman Empire with a primarily Albanian population.

Aydonat [Paramythia]

This town is also known as Paramythia. It is a kasaba and the capital of a kaza in the Vilayet and Sandjak of Janina that is situated in Chameria, the southeastern part of Albania. It is about 40 kilometres to the southwest of Janina, 18 kilometres to the east of the port of Morto, at the foot of a mountain on the left or eastern side of the river Vouvo [Kokytos]. It has a pleasant climate although it is at a high altitude. It is endowed with vineyards and gardens. It has 2,500 inhabitants, all of whom are Muslims and Albanians. The fortress is called Agios Donatos that, according to the inhabitants, is also called Paramythia. the name Aydonat that is in official use is derived from this Agios Donatos. Not far away are the ruins of the ancient town of Orija [Elea?]. It is a kasaba known for its trade and commerce and each year, in early September, a large fair is organized that lasts for five days. A very popular plant grows in some parts of this kasaba and kaza known as enfiye [basil?] of Janina, as does common tobacco.

The kaza with its kasaba encompasses 64 villages, of which 40 are situated to the north of the capital of the kaza, and 24 to the south. The nahiye of Souli whose population is known for its courage and the resistance it offered to Ali Pasha Tepelena, is situated to the southeast of this kaza. It is a mountainous region, but there are several plateaux and fair valleys. The land is farmed and produces a variety of cereals, tobacco etc. The population is about 16,000, of whom most are Muslims. Of these about half are Albanian. In this kaza, there are 22 mosques and prayer houses, 51 rushdiye [secondary schools], one medresa [religious school], two sibyenmektebe [elementary schools], three tanner shops and 13 bridges. One can travel the length of the kaza in 23 hours.

Aydonat [Paramythia]

Aydonat [Paramythia] 1913

Filat [Filiates]

This is a kasaba and the capital of a kaza in the territory of Albanian Chameria. It is situated in the Vilayet and Sandjak of Janina, 45 kilometres to the north of Janina and 15 kilometres to the northeast of the port of Sajada [Sagiada]. It has 5,000 inhabitants who are all Muslims, and one rushdiye.

The kaza of Filat borders on the Sandjak of Preveza to the south, on the Sandjak of Gjirokastra to the north, on the kaza of Janina to the east and on the coastline and the kasaba of Filat to the west. It includes 68 villages with 24,179 inhabitants. There are many orchards of olive and almond trees, fair farmland, and hills covered in various types of trees. The climate is mild which is why many people come here from higher reaches to spend the winter. Agricultural activity has been neglected and, as such, the land is not actually used for farming. In fact, many of the olive orchards have gone wild because there is no one to prune the trees. Most of the people of the kaza are Muslim and they are all Albanian. They are known for their courage, intelligence and wealth, but are not inclined towards farming and herding. In other words, they are not interested in such activities.

Filat [Filiates]

Janina [Ioannina]

This is a town and capital of the vilayet of the same name which is situated to the south of the Vilayet of Shkodra. It is 700 kilometres from Istanbul and 200 kilometres from Salonika [Thessalonika], and is situated on the western bank of the lake bearing the same name. Its geographical coordinates are 39˚47’ N and 18˚41’ E. It has 35,000 inhabitants, 30 mosques, six churches, two synagogues, three tekkes, many medresas, one library, one idadiye [secondary school], one iptidayye [elementary schools], several sibyenmektebe, one idadiye school specially for the Greeks called Zosimea, several sibyenmektebe, one mekteb [religious school] for women, and one rushdiye specially for the Vlachs. It also has one Greek home for old people, poor people and orphans, and one hospital. A hospital was recently built to cover the needs of the town. It has an attractive market, many inns and public baths. On the headland sticking out into the lake, there is a fortress from the time of Ali Pasha Tepelena, around which are many military buildings to train the army. Near town are vineyards and fertile land. There are tanners, silversmiths, tinkers and many merchants.

[The town] was constructed by a prince called Yani who appeared here when the Byzantine Empire took over. It surrendered peacefully at the time of the late Yildirim Sultan Bayazid Khan, but later managed to rebel and was retaken definitively at the time of His Majesty, Sultan Murat Khan II, in 835 AH [1431 AD]. Independent once more, it was embellished and flourished at the time of Ali Pasha Tepelena, with more and more inhabitants flocking to it.

The kaza of Janina extends through the middle of the sandjak and vilayet of the same name. Together with the two nahiye of Zagora and Korondos, it encompasses 223 villages with 87,256 inhabitants. The land is used variously; there is farmland, pastureland and forests. Most of the inhabitants are Christians. There are Greeks and Vlachs.

Castle of Janina

Janina, Vilayet of

The Vilayet of Janina is one of the vilayets of Roumelia [European Turkey]. It includes most of the south, i.e. the half of Toskeria that was formerly called Epirus. It is situated between 38˚56’ and 41˚ N and 17˚ and 19˚ E. It has a surface area of 18,200 square kilometres and 650,000 inhabitants. It borders to the north on the Vilayet of Shkodra, to the northeast on the Vilayet of Monastir, and to the southeast on Greece. To the south, it borders on the Gulf of Arta, to the southwest on the Greek [Ionian] Sea and to the west on the Adriatic Sea. Land usage is varied.

The highest mountain range in eastern Roumelia is the Pindus that stretches from north to south. To the west of it is Mount Gramos. Near Berat there is is an isolated mountain called Tomor. There are many other mountains within the borders of the vilayet, such as Trebeshina, Nemërçka, Lungara, Uliçka, Souli, etc. In these mountain areas there are few wide plains and valleys. There is a beautiful range of hills along the coastline to the south, and to the northwest there is a expansive plain called Myzeqeja. All the rivers of this vilayet empty into the Adriatic and Greek Seas.

The largest rivers are the Vjosa [Aoos] and Seman. The former takes its source in the Pindus mountains in the southeast of the vilayet and flows in a northwesterly direction, emptying into the Adriatic Sea north of Vlora. As to the Seman river, it takes over from Devoll and Berat rivers, the latter also known as the Osum. Both of these take their sources from Mount Gramos. It flows in a northwesterly direction and joins the Dishnica in Myzeqeja, then turning southwest and to the left of the Vjosa flows into the above-mentioned sea. Smaller rivers include the Vouvo, that is also called Mavropotamo, and the Arta [Arachthos], that constitutes the border with Greece and flows into the Gulf of Arta. Following these are the Lurus [Louros], that also flows into the Greek Sea and the Pavlle, Bistrica and Kalamas rivers that also flow into this body of water.

Some of the rivers flow into the Vjosa are of a considerable size. The largest of them is the Lengarica on the right side and the Drino on the left. The largest lake is that of Janina, and following it come that of the plain of Myzeqeja, Tërbuf and Lurus. Along the coastline, there are swampy lagoons such as Karavasta in Myzeqeja, Souli and Vlora.

In the winter, the mountains are covered in snow. Although it is very cold in higher reaches, the valleys and the coastal area have a mild, warm climate. It rarely snows there in the winter and the soil is fertile. The main crop is maize, followed by wheat, barley, rye, oats and other cereals, rice, tobacco, and some cotton and flax, etc. After covering domestic needs, much of his produce is exported. Near the coast, they grow olives and in some places wild olives. Around Preveza, there are many lemon, orange and mandarin trees. And the vineyards produce much fruit, which is mostly for export. There are various kinds of trees, in particular many mulberries, and in some place they make silk. Although there are not many forests, they suffice to meet local needs and there is enough left over for firewood and for construction. The trees are primarily Scotch pines and firs, etc. There is much pastureland, both in summer and in winter, and the inhabitants raise many goats and sheep. There are not many cows, and these are mostly of a small race. The horses that are raised on the plain of Myzeqeja are also small in build.

The lake of Janina produces various types of fish. Particularly well known are the eels. They also fish in Preveza and Butrint and have good-quality roe. The mines have not yet been sufficiently investigated, but in many places there are sulphuric waters with various minerals that are used to cure a variety of illnesses. They are still in an untouched, natural state.

As to the population, two-thirds of the people are Muslims and one-third Christians. Aside from this, all the Muslims are Albanians as are most of the Christians. Only in the Sandjak of Janina are there also Vlach and Greek villagers. The Albanian Christians have expressed their desire to read and write in their own language.

Local industry is based on wool production for jerkins, bed and floor covers, and socks, but cotton and silk are also used to make fine clothes, Albanian costumes and cord etc. In Parga, they produce a type of grey soap that is very fragrant. In Konica [Konitza], there is an excellent type of cheese called arnavud peynir [Albanian cheese] and other dairy products. Many articles, from foodstuffs to wool and hides, are exported to Trieste, Italy, Greece and elsewhere, and more is exported than imported. Aside from taxes and other duties, the Vilayet has annual revenues of 300,000 pounds. Expenditures amount to about 80,000 pounds.

The Vilayet of Janina consists of four sandjaks, 19 kaza, 10 nahiye and 1,597 villages.

The Sandjak of Janina is the centre of the vilayet of the same name. It borders to the southeast on Greece, to the northeast on the Vilayet of Monastir, to the northwest on the Sandjak of Gjirokastra, to the west on the Greek Sea, and to the south on the Sandjak of Preveza.

Konica [Konitza]

This is a kasaba and the capital of a kaza in the Vilayet and Sandjak of Janina, 45 kilometres to the northwest of Janina. It extends along the side of a plain at the foot of a mountain that rises above the Vjosa [Aoos] river, and has 5,500 inhabitants. There is much pastureland in the vicinity and, because there are many sheep, they produce a well-known Albanian cheese. The population is known for its intelligence and wit.

The kaza of Konica is surrounded by the kaza of Janina to the south, the Sandjak of Gjirokastra to the west, the kaza of Leskovik to the north and the Vilayet of Monastir to the east. It has 34 villages with about 25,000 inhabitants, half of whom are Muslim Albanians and the other half Christian Albanians and Vlachs. The terrain is mountainous and there is little farmland, but there is an abundance of pastureland so there are many sheep, goats and other animals. On the plain of Konica and in the valley of the Vjosa there are many mulberry orchards on which the silkworms feed, producing much silk. In the villages, the children make woollen socks and undershirts, woollen bed and floor covers, and other things. The Vjosa river divides the kaza and takes on the waters of the Vojdomati [Voidomatis] and the Sarandopori [Sarandaporos]. In this kaza, there are sulphuric baths with very hot water that has proven itself useful in many concrete cases. Once a year, there is a fair called pazarpol, to which are brought many animals and many good made by the women, etc.

Lurus [Louros]

This is a river in the southern part of Albania that is situated to the south of Janina. It takes its source from Mount Uliçka, flows southwards and, upon entering the plain of Arta, it turns southwestwards and flows across the aforementioned plain, forming several marshes on its way, and empties into the Gulf of Arta, between Preveza and Salahora.

Lurus, also called Filipiada, is a kasaba and the capital of a kaza in the Vilayet of Janina and in the Sandjak of Preveza, 30 kilometres north of Preveza. It is situated on a plain, beside a river that flows into a river of the same name. It has 2,000 inhabitants, one mosque, several inns and some shops. When Arta was given to Greece, this kasaba was populated primarily by refugees from Arta. It has an arduous climate.

The kaza of Lurus makes up the eastern part of the Sandjak of Preveza. To the north it borders on the Sandjak of Janina and to the east on Greece. Together with the nahiye of Çemernika, it has 68 villages and 20,000 inhabitants. The land is very fertile and is used for farming. There is much pastureland, enough for the sheep to spend the winter here. It exports many animals, maize and other articles.

Margëlliç [Margariti]

This is a kasaba and the capital of a kaza in the Sandjak of Preveza. It is situated about ten kilometres from the sea and has 3,000 inhabitants, all of them Muslim Albanians.

The kaza, together with the nahiye of Parga and Fanar, encompass 71 villages with about 25,000 inhabitants. All of the population is Albanian, of whom most are Muslims. They are known for their courage and bravery. The soil is fertile and produces crops such as rice and olives, etc.

Since it is near the sea, it has a mild climate, so there is good pastureland here for the sheep in the winter. Aside from [the port of] Parga, there are a few small rivers that are navigable with small boats and skiffs.

Parga

This is a kasaba and the capital of a nahiye on the southern coast of Albania, in the Vilayet of Janina, Sandjak of Preveza and the kaza of Margëlliç. It is situated 45 kilometres to the northwest of Preveza and 55 kilometres to the southwest of Janina. It has 5,000 inhabitants, one mosque, one fortress that rises on a cliff overlooking the sea, surrounded by orange, lemon and olive orchards. Its primary exports are oranges, lemons and olives. This kasaba also produces a type of grey-coloured soap. It has a splendidly mild climate that is very conducive to healing respiratory diseases. Swimming in the sea is also very helpful. Although ships cannot dock here, it is the chief port of Chameria, with sailing ships coming and going to Corfu and Trieste and conducting much trade. This kasaba was in the hands of the English for a long time. When Ali Pasha Tepelena bought the kasaba from the English, the population emigrated and it became the personal çiflik of Ali Pasha. After his execution, his assets were handed over to the government and then sold by Rifat Pasha, a finance inspector. Nowadays, it is in private hands. The people here are Muslim Albanians with some Christian Albanians and Greeks.

The nahiye of Parga includes the central part of the plain of Chameria and belongs to the kaza of Margëlliç. It consists of the kasaba itself and three surrounding villages. Together with other villages, it forms the kaza itself.

Parga

Preveza

This is a kasaba in southern Albania, to the west of Arta. It is situated in the Vilayet of Janina and is a sandjak of the same name and a centre of Chameria. It is 92 kilometres to the southwest of Janina and has the geographical coordinates: 38˚57’5” N and 18˚24’57” E. It has 8,000 inhabitants. There are many orchards with oranges, lemons and olives. It is protected from the sea by four fortresses and two positions equipped with cannons, and from the land by a canal built by Ali Pasha Tepelena. In the kasaba there are two mosques, one of which constructed by the aforementioned Ali Pasha and the other one by Ahmet Agadino, as well as two tekkes and a number of mausoleums. It has one rushdiye [secondary school], several iptidayye [elementary schools], two schools especially for the Greeks, one for boys and the other for girls, one steam mill, two tanner shops, and a number of soap makers, etc. Good-quality textiles of cotton and silk are made in the kasaba, as are socks, etc. The harbour is very profitable and gains much revenue from trade with Trieste, Corfu and a few ports in Greece and Italy. To the north, there was once a large harbour called ‘vathi’ which means deep. This was the harbour of the ancient town of Nicopolis. The word Preveza is taken from the name of the ancient town founded by the famed Pyrrhus. It was constructed by Octavian, whereas the ruins to be found one hour to the north of Preveza are those of Nicopolis, destroyed in a Bulgarian-Serbian attack. The Republic of Venice constructed present-day Preveza and the town was under its rule for quite some time. Later, with the seven islands [Heptanesos], it fell into the hands of the French and in 1798, Ali Pasha Tepelena took it in fighting with the French. Since that time, it has been under the sway of the Ottoman authorities. Its position is promising from a commercial and military point of view.

Preveza, Sandjak of

This is the smallest of the sandjaks in the Vilayet of Janina. It is situated in the southern corner of Albania and forms the southern half of Chameria. It borders to the north on the Sandjak of Janina, to the east on Greece, to the south on Arta and the channel of Preveza, and to the west and southwest on the Greek Sea. Most of the land consists of hills covered in orchards of lemon and orange trees, and of beautiful pastureland. Although the soil is very fertile, the presence of a number of swamps and marshes poisons the climate, such that most of the land is not used for farming. It is only used as pastureland for the animals in the winter. The Arta [Arachthos] river flows to the east of the sandjak and forms the border with Greece. There are two other rivers in this district. One of them is in the Sandjak of Janina and is joined by the waters flowing down from the Uliçka mountains to form the Lurus river. It makes the plains between the Gulf of Arta and Preveza very swampy, and then flows into the bay. The other river is the Ferar that flows through the kaza of Margëlliq. It takes its source in the Souli mountains, flows westwards, joins the Vouvo [Kokytos] river coming from the north, and flows into the Greek Sea. This river which in ancient Greek legends was known as the gates of hell, is called the Acheron.

The population is about 55,000, most of whome are Muslims. There are also Christians and a few Jews. The Muslim population is all Albanian, as are most of the Christians. Only near the Greek border in the kaza of Preveza are there Greek Christians. In this district there are 179 villages, 48 mosques and prayer houses, 2 medresas, 30 mekteb [religious schools], 220 churches and monasteries, 450 shops, 50 mills, etc. Of agricultural produce, mention may be made of various cereals. Primarily they grow oranges, lemons, pomegranates, olives and other fruit. They export large amounts of olive oil, and many animals. All the herders who spend their summers in the mountains of the Sandjak of Janina, come down with their sheep to the pastures of the Sandjak of Preveza. The climate is mild and there is rarely snow.

The kaza of Preveza is situated in the southern part of the vilayet. To the east it borders on Lurus and to the north on the kaza of Margëlliç. The territory of the kaza is extensive, but there are few inhabitants. It consisted of only 38 villages and, including the capital, it has 13,000 inhabitants. In the countryside, most of the people are Albanian Christians. With its pastureland and olive orchards, this kaza is the wealthiest one in the sandjak.

Nora of Kelmendi

2010-11-07T10:33:00.000-08:00

Nora of Kelmendi also called Helen of Albania or the Albanian Brunhilde was the one of the greatest female warriors in the history of Albania. There are two versions of Legend and both versions end with Nora killing the Pasha (a Bosnian man ) who has been documented to have been the leader of the Ottoman Army and who had taken a Public Oath to turn Malesia into ashes if Nora did not become his wife.

The events happened around 1620. Nora’s father, a Noble Fighter wanted a son to help him fight against the ottoman empire. When Nora, a girl was born, he took her to an orphanage in Shkodra and left her there. His sister, knowing the doings of her brother, took Nora back and raised her as a boy. Nora's biological father, having the desire to train some young man to become a fighter, decided to train the adapted “son” of his sister. Hence, unknowingly, he trained his own daughter to become a fighter. But there is no way to fight biology, so when Nora grew up, she become Malesia’s most beautiful women. It is said that she was as pretty as a true Zane (mountain fairy). Her fame spread through the whole country. The Pasha who resided at the Rozafati Castle in Shkodra, heard of her too. One day Nora came down to the city with her parents. The Pasha came out of Castle and saw her. He fell in love.

Initially, he wanted to marry her by the laws of the Albanian Kanun, which meant he would send a trusted man to Nora’s house and ask for her hand. However, Nora's family replied that the Albanian KAnun did not allow for marriages with non-Albanians. The Pasha was not used to being refused. He was quoted as stating "I'll burn all of Malesia to ashes he said, or Nora will become my wife".

That was not the first or the last time for someone to attempt to burn Malesia to the ground, so nobody was afraid of the threat. It was bound to happen either for taxes, solders or the refusal to recognize the Ottoman legal system, anyway. The Pasha was serious. He lead his huge army and besieged Malesia.

Nora had proved to be a warrior. As a young woman as she was, she had proved to be the noblest and the most beautiful girl of all, but life had thrown yet another challenge at her. She had to prove that she was wise too, for wisdom is the thing most appreciated by the people of Malesia. She devised the plan of how to kill the mad Bosnian Pasha.

This is what happened according to various Albanian Epics. Nora pretended to want to marry the Pasha without the permission of her family. Dressed in the traditional Xhubleta, she went to Pasha's tent. Seeing her, the Pasha fell on his knees and began to pray to the divinities believing she was a true gift from heaven, as a reward by the almighty Allah for his services to Him. Pasha ordered his troops to rest and prepare to go back to Shkodra. The solders were happy to lay down their spears.

While everything was quiet around the Pasha's tent, Nora pulled a dagger that her father had given to her, which he had gotten as a gift from his own father, who had gotten it as a gift from his own father and so on and so forth. The dagger was in the family longer than anyone could remember. It was used strictly in wars, that is to say, the dagger was used only as a weapon to kill the enemy. This time, though, it turned out to be a regular dagger, made of steel, by a smith in the Middle Ages. She stabbed the Pasha a few times, kicked him around the back of his head, and choked him a little so he would not scream. The Pasha fell on his Persian rug.

At that point Nora could no longer stab him for he was lying on the floor. Nora ran as planned, at this time the Malesors attacked the Ottomans army and destroyed them. The Pasha survived the stab wounds. He created his own special unit, and followed Nora to her home.

There is a second legend. In this legend, Nora never went to the tent, but as the men were fighting on one side and the Ottomans had stealthily attempted to attack surrounding villages, she led an army of 300 women against the Ottomans. It is said that Nora had a duel with Pasha and she killed him.In both versions, Nora kills the Pasha in a fair duel. And in both stories he is from Bosnia and is called Vutsi Pasha.

It is proven historically that around 1620, the Bosnian Pasha, Vutsi Pasha, lead an expedition against the malesors, and there are documents that state that a woman was one of the most distinguished warriors. Anyhow, both stories are interesting. They are both mixed in legends and history. The malesors are truly a people that are of worthy mention in any legend. For centuries they have fought the Turk, Slav and various would-be invaders. Nora is one of the heroines that has contributed to the illustrious legacy of the Malesors, and all Albanian people while at the same time, reminding them of what is to be done to those who would attempt to pillage and ransack them.

Greeks ~Hellenized Albanians!

2010-11-07T05:05:00.000-08:00

"...One of the most vexing questions concerning the history of medieval Greece has been that of the extent to which the indigenous "Hellenic" population survived and brings with it the question whether this term can properly be used of anything other than a cultural (as opposed to ethnic or racial) identity. The archaeological data, certainly, can offer answers only in terms of cultural similarities and differences, so that the question, as it has been traditionally expressed, of a Hellenic ethnic survival, cannot be answered. The issue must be explored in the context of the influx of large numbers of Slavs during the later 6th-8th centuries as well as the migration across Greece of nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoral groups such as the Vlachs from the 10th or 11th century and the Albanians from the 11-14th century.

“…For reasons not yet fully understood, the Albanians began in the 11th century to advance into the western coastal plain, where they served both Byzantine and Serbian overlords as well as ruling independently under various warlords and chiefly families; they were also present in considerable numbers in Thessaly, Boeotia, Attica, and the Peloponnese, serving as soldiers and as farmers, colonizing deserted lands. Albanians arrived in large numbers in the Peloponnese during the reign of the despotes Manuel Kantakouzenos, who brought them there to serve as soldiers and to resettle depopulated regions”

Albanians in Greece are divided into distinct communities as a result of different waves of migration. Albanians first migrated into Greece during Middle Ages . The descendants of populations of Albanian origin who settled in Greece during the Middle Ages are the Arvanites.At least five sixths of Greeks, if not more are Christian Albanians of the Orthodox faith(Arvanites).It has been estimated that, when the Ottomans conquered the whole Greek territory in the 14-15th century, some 45% of it was populated by Albanians (Trudgill, 1975:6). All these Albanians are the ancestors of modern-day Arvanites in Central and Southern Greece"

According to german scholar Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer (10 December 1790 – 26 April 18619,modern greeks are the descendants of medieval Slavs who inundated Greece during the Middle Ages, with a further adstratum of Albanians of late medieval and Ottoman times.

"The race of the Hellenes has been wiped out in Europe. Physical beauty, intellectual brilliance, innate harmony and simplicity, art, competition, city, village, the splendour of column and temple — indeed, even the name has disappeared from the surface of the Greek continent.... Not the slightest drop of undiluted Hellenic blood flows in the veins of the Christian population of present-day Greece"

In his second volume of "Fallmerayer's Geschichte" published in 1836, he wrote that the Greek War of Independence was a "purely Shkypitarian [Albanian], not a Hellenic Revolution."

Sir Charles Eliot in his book "Turkey in Europe" on page 299 says: "It must be confessed that, though the Greeks showed more energy than any other Christian race, those who now remain in Turkey (except the islanders) are not remarkable for physical vigour or military capacity. This, is no doubt, partly due to the fact that the people who revolted against Mahmud were largely Hellenized Albanians and Vlachs, who, under the modern system would, not be regarded as Greeks. Nowadays the robust agricultural population is rarely Hellenic in its sympathies, for, as already mentioned, there are comparatively few parts where it is really Greek."

Citations;
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Travellers in the 19th century were unanimous in identifying Plaka as a heavily "Albanian" quarter of Athens.

John Cam Hobhouse, writing in 1810, quoted in John Freely, Strolling through Athens, p. 247: "The number of houses in Athens is supposed to be between twelve and thirteen hundred; of which about four hundred are inhabited by the Turks, the remainder by the Greeks and Albanians, the latter of whom occupy above three hundred houses." Eyre

" Eyre Evans Crowe, The Greek and the Turk; or, Powers and prospects in the Levant, 1853: "The cultivators of the plain live at the foot of the Acropolis, occupying what is called the Albanian quarter..." (p. 99);

"Edmond About, Greece and the Greeks of the Present Day, Edinburgh, 1855 (translation of La Grèce contemporaine, 1854): "Athens, twenty-five years ago, was only an Albanian village. The Albanians formed, and still form, almost the whole of the population of Attica; and within three leagues of the capital, villages are to be found where Greek is hardly understood." (p. 32); "The Albanians form about one-fourth of the population of the country; they are in majority in Attica, in Arcadia, and in Hydra...." (p. 50); "The Turkish [sic] village which formerly clustered round the base of the Acropolis has not disappeared: it forms a whole quarter of the town.... An immense majority of the population of this quarter is composed of Albanians." (p. 160)

“The Albanians of Hydra and Spatsae, many of whom could not even speak Greek, regarded themselves as Greek because their allegiance was with the Orthodox Church.” (”That Greece Might Still be Free”, by William St. Clair, page 9.)

“In the last year of the 15th century, and the opening years of the 16th, when the Morea was again the battlefield of the Turks and Venetians, the occupants of the plain of Argos and portions of Attica were practically exterminated, and Albanian colonists began to reoccupy the lands.” (”The Customs and Lore of Modern Greece”, by Rennell Rodd, 1892, page 17.)

The most important immigration of all is probably that of the Albanians, who, from the thirteenth century until the advent of the Turks incessantly overran the land.” (”The Races of Europe a Sociological Study”, by William Z. Ripley PhD, 1910, page 408.)

“The term ´Greek´ differentiates the language spoken by inhabitants of modern Greece from the languages of the surrounding countries; but there is disagreement on what the Greek language was, is, or should be. At the time of independence, the range of local dialects was significant; substantial portions of the population spoke Albanian.” (”Politics in Modern Greece”, by Keith R. Legg, page 86.)

“In 1358 the Albanians overran Epirus, Acarnania and Anatolia and established two principalities under their leaders…

Naupactas fell into their control in 1378…

Other Albanians and Vlachs invaded the Catalan principality of Boeotia and Attica, and a great many Albanians settled there as peasant-farmers in 1368 and later….

The penetration of the Greek mainland which we have described occurred during the hundred or more years after 1325.” (”Migrations and Invasions in Greece and Adjacent Areas”, by Nicholas G. L. Hammond, page 59.)

“…so, in the Middle Ages, these Albanian mountaineers have brought both war like spirit, bright costume, and beauty of person, to refresh the Hellenic race. There are still, even in Attica, districts where Albanian is the common language; there are Albanian names famous in Greek annals, especially in the great war of independence (1821-1831) and even among the sailors of Hydra, so famed for their commercial enterprise and their deeds of war, the chief families were Albanian in origin.” (”Greek Pictures drawn with pen and pencil” by J. P. Mahaffy, M.A. D.D., 1890, pages 20 and 21.)

“Among the numerous islands of the Egian, arise several barren rocks, some of which are however gifted by nature with small and commodious heavens. Of this number are Hydra, Spezzia and Ipsara, the first two close to the Eastern shore of the Peloponnesus, and the latter not far from Scio, on the Asiatic coast. Tyranny and Want had driven some families, whose origin, like that of nearly all the peasants, who inhabited proper Greece, was Albanian, to take refuge on these desolate crags, where they built villages and sought a precarious existence by fishing.” (”The Greek Revolution; in origin and progress”, by Edward Blaquiere Esq., page 21.)

“It is one of a group made famous in the Greek revolution of 1821 by the bravery of its Albanian settlers, in defense of a country which they had never adopted for their own till this moment of danger came.

They brought to it moreover, the hoarded wealth of many years. Albanian captains, Albanian ships and Albanian gold became the strength of the Greek and the dread of the Turk. The successful close of the revolution found them as firmly allied with the Greek nationality as they have been previously alien to it, and there are now no names more honoured and beloved in Athens, no families more influential in its polite circles, than those of the Albanian leaders in the war of 1821, the Tombazis, the Miaulis the Condouriottis.” (”The Atlantic Monthly: A magazine of literature, science, art and politics Vol. XLIX, January 1882, page 31.)

Oh, my Beautiful Morea

2010-11-07T04:04:00.000-08:00

The nostalgic song “Oh, my beautiful Morea,” included in the last eight lines of this folk ballad, is perhaps the best known Arbëresh (Italo-Albanian) folksong of all. The ballad reflects a central element in the collective memory of the Albanian minority of southern Italy – that of their early flight from the Morea (i.e. the Peloponnese in Greece), which had been conquered by the Ottoman Turks, to the safety of Sicily and Calabria. Other Albanians fled from Albania, too, when it was conquered by the Turks in the fifteenth century.

Once there was a savage ruler
Who imprisoned a fine fellow,
No one dared address that ruler
Till a noble-hearted maiden
Summoned courage, spoke unto him:
“Lord, though you are known as savage,
You and I, let’s make a wager,
Let us see who is more able,
Who can drink more wine-filled glasses.
If you lose, release your prisoner,
If you win, my bed you’ll conquer
All with silken snakes embroidered.”
He was willing, made the wager.
To her servants said the maiden:
“When you serve the Turk his wineglass,
Make sure that the cup is brimming.
When you serve to me my wineglass,
Do not fill the cup completely,
Add a bit of water to it.”
Then, while they were having dinner,
Flushed with wine they were and laughing,
Did she lift her wineglass, sipping
Wine with icy water in it.
Mad with rapture did the ruler
Seize his glass and swill the wine down,
Till he slumped into his armchair,
Overcome, and fell asleep there.
Well the noble maiden freed the
Prisoner, armed him; they departed,
Taking flight then to the seaside,
There they climbed aboard a sailboat,
Tossing, gliding ’cross the ocean.
When they reached the other coastline
She looked back towards the ocean
In nostalgia contemplating:
“Oh, my beautiful Morea,
Left and saw you nevermore,
Left behind my lady mother,
Left behind my loving brother,
Left behind my lordly father,
All under your soil they’re resting.
Oh, my beautiful Morea,
Left and saw you nevermore.”

Historical maps showing Albanians in Morea!

Historical maps showing Albanians in Morea!

Song of Çelo Mezani

2010-11-06T16:10:00.000-07:00

The Song of Çelo Mezani (Albanian: Kënga e Çelo Mezanit) is an Albanian polyphonic folk song. It is considered to be the best-known Cham Albanian song. The song increased the awareness in Albania about the Chameria region and its history.The song was composed during the period of the Albanian National Awakening and is a narrative and a lament of the death of Çelo Mezani, a well-known Cham Albanian revolutionary from the village of Perdika in modern north-western Greece (Çamëria). Çelo Mezani lived in the late 19th century and was a kaçak who fought against Ottoman rule in his homeland. The Ottoman agents managed to kill him through betrayal.

Song
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The song of Çelo Mezani consists of three parts and is sung by two soloists and a drone group.It was recorded officially in 1957 in Fier in the Myzeqe region and in Skelë in the area of Vlorë by Cham Albanian refugees who had settled in those areas after the expulsion of Cham Albanians. In both recording the groups sang a cappella.

Albanian

Song of Çelo Mezani

The sun arose in Malavire,
Çelo came out in Harile,
Çelo came out in Harile,
Out to offer his condolence,
Out to offer his condolence,

Near the well of Sulejmani
They awaited Çelo Mezani.

When the rifle rang the first time,
Çelo turned and looked around him,
Çelo turned and looked around him.

When the rifle rang the second time,
Çelo folded, closed his eyelids,
Çelo folded, closed his eyelids.

When the rifle rang the third time,
Çelo then was truly slaughtered,
Çelo then was truly slaughtered.

Off they went to tell his mother
That her son had now been slaughtered,
That her son had now been slaughtered.

“Do not utter these words to me,
For my Çelo is still living,
For my Çelo is still living.”

Dance of Osman Taka

2010-11-06T15:44:00.000-07:00

Osman Taka was one of the main contributors to the National Renaissance of Albania and a well-known dancer of his time. After him is named the Dance of Osman Taka. His early ages are not clear. He was born in Filiates in one of the most powerful and wealthy families of the town. In 1848, he started an armed revolt against the Ottoman Empire and became a protagonist in Albanian resistance against Ottoman forces. When the League of Prizren was formed he was named as the head of the local branch in Preveza. At the same time he was a well-known traditional dancer. After the Ottoman forces managed to seize the Preveza League, they arrested in 1886, Osman Taka and accused him for treason. He was jailed in Yanina and was sentenced to death. When he was asked to give his final wish, he wanted to dance. The folk tradition says that his dance was so beautiful that the local gendarmes of the Ottoman army, did not executed him. After some days he was caught again and was killed in Konispol.

The dance
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The dance follows a strict tempo with emphasis in the "attitude, style and grace" of the dancer. It is a 2/4 meter with steps "slow-quick-quick". The dance is a row dance, with a lead dancer performing skillfully executed steps. He then drops to his knees, arches his back and extends his chest upward, forming a bridge. The other dancers then step forward onto the lead dancer's stomach and dance on top of his stomach. The dancers hold each other from the hands, bend 90 degrees upwards at the elbows. It takes a sturdy hand, especially if you are supporting the first or last person of the line. This symbolizes the strength and centrality of the lead dancer as he forms a bridge with his body for the other men to cross over.

The dance it is known in both Albania and Greece, as a part of the Epirote music in Greece and Cham music in Albania. In both countries the dance is primarily known as the Dance of Osman Taka, or Samantaka in Greece. This dance is supposed to have been the dance of the Souliotes. But, it is also known as 'Arvanitiko', 'Tsamiko(dance of the Chams) in Greece.

Song of Marko Boçari

2010-11-06T15:33:00.000-07:00

The Song of Marko Boçari from Suli (Albanian: Kënga e Marko Boçarit nga Suli) is an Albanian polyphonic folk song of the early 19th century narrating the death of Markos Botsaris, a Souliot leader.Markos Botsaris was a leader of the Souliotes. After the beginning of Greek War of Independence he became one of its central figures. He died in Kefalovryso, modern western Greece in 1823 during a battle between Ottoman and Souliot forces.The Song of Marko Boçari from Suli is a narrative and lament of his death. It contains more than 70 octosyllabic lines and was published about fifty years after the event by Thimi Mitko, an Albanian folklorist in his book Bleta Shqipëtare (Albanian: The Albanian Bee).

Albanian

Një harap me karabinë
u ngulë e shtroi synë
Goditi bajrakn' e mirë
Marko Boçari shahinë!

Erdhi Kosta vet i tretë
"More shokë, gjithë erdhët
S'prit të vinja edhe unë,
Vriti, shokë, Shqipëtarë,
biru qënet, se më vrane
Mermëni sa jam i gjallë
më muarë plumbi ndë ballë

English

A moor with a carbine
kneeled and took aim,
He struck the goodly banner,
Marko Boçari the falcon!

Kosta himself came with two others.
"Hey, comrades, have you all come?
Didn't you wait for me as well?
Kill them, oh Albanian comrades
Shoot the dogs, cause they have slain me.
Take me while I am alive,
The shot has struck my forehead!

Albanian Songs of the Frontier Warriors

2010-11-06T14:55:00.000-07:00

Albanian Songs of the Frontier Warriors (Albanian: Këngë Kreshnikësh or Cikli i Kreshnikëve) are part of the traditional cycle of the Albanian epic songs. They took their definite form over 400 years ago and were orally transmitted by the Albanian bards. The songs were collected in the 19th and 20th centuries by the Franciscan priests Shtjefën Gjeçovi and Bernandin Palaj. Palaj was eventually the first to publish them in Albanian in 1937.The Albanian bards' tradition of singing the songs from memory is the last survival of its kind in modern Europe.

Research work before World War II
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Franciscan priest Shtjefën Gjeçovi, who was the first one to collect the Albanian Kanun in writing, also began to collect the Frontier Warrior Songs and write them down.From 1919 onward Gjeçovi's work was continued by Rev. Bernandin Palaj. Both Gjeçovi and Palaj would travel on foot to meet with the bards and write down their songs.Këngë Kreshnikësh dhe Legenda (English: Songs of Frontier Warriors and Legends) appeared thus as a first publication in 1937, after Gjeçovi's death and were included within the Visaret e Kombit (English: Treasures of the Nation) book.]

At this time, parallel to the interest shown in Albania in the collection of the songs, Yugoslav scholars became interested in the illiterate bards of the Sanjak and Bosnia. This had aroused the interest of Milman Parry, a Homeric scholar from the Harvard University, and his then assistant, Albert Lord. Parry and Lord stayed in Bosnia for a year (1934-1935) and recorded 12,500 texts.

Interestingly enough, four out of five of the bards they recorded were Albanians: Salih Ugljanin, Djemal Zogic, Sulejman Makic, and Alija Fjuljanin.These singers were from Novi Pazar and the Sanjak, and were able to reproduce the same songs in both Albanian and Serbo-Croatian.

In 1937, shortly after the death of Parry, Lord went to Albania, began learning Albanian, and traveled throughout Albania collecting Albanian heroic verses, which are now preserved in the Milman Parry Collection at Harvard University. Parry wrote the following of this endeavor:

While in Novi Pazar, Parry had recorded several Albanian songs from one of the singers who sang in both languages. The musical instrument used to accompany these songs is the gusle (Albanian lahuta), but the line is shorter than the Serbian decasyllabic and a primitive type of rhyming is regular. It was apparent that a study of the exchange of formulas and traditional passages between these two poetries would be rewarding because it would show what happens when oral poetry passes from one language group to another which is adjacent to it. However, there was no sufficient time in 1935 to collect much material or to learn the Albanian language. While in Dubrovnik in the summer of 1937, I had an opportunity to study Albanian and in September and October of that year I traveled through the mountains of Northern Albania from Shkodër to Kukësi by way of Boga, Thethi, Abat, and Tropoja, returning by a more southerly route. I collected about one hundred narrative songs, many of them short, but a few between five hundred and a thousand lines in length. We found out that there are some songs common to both Serbo-Croatian and Albanian tradition and that a number of the Moslem heroes of theYugoslav poetry, such as Mujo and Halili Hrnjica and Gjergj Elez Alia, are found also in Albanian. Much work remains to be done in this field before we can tell exactly what the relationship is between the two traditions.

Research work after World War II
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Research in the field of the Albanian literature resumed in Albania in the 1950s with the founding of the Albanian Institute of Science, forerunner of the Academy of Sciences of Albania.Especially the setting up of the Folklore Institute of Tirana in 1961 was of particular importance to the continued research and publication of folklore at a particularly satisfactory scholarly level.In addition, the foundation of the Albanological Institute (Albanian: Instituti Albanologjik) in Pristina added a considerable number of works on the Albanian epic.

The Serbo-Croatian epic seems to have died out since the days of Parry and Lord, as there are no longer any bards to sing these songs, whereas the Albanian epic is still very much "alive and kicking".There still is a good number of lahutars in Albania, Kosovo, and even in the Albanian-speaking areas of Montenegro.It is believed that these men are the very last traditional native singers of epic verses in Europe.

The songs, linked together, form a long poem, similar to the Finnish Kalevala, compiled and published in 1835 by Elias Lönnrot as gathered from Finnish and Karelian folklore.

The Albanian Songs of the Frontier Warriors are considered to be the ultimate inspiration for Gjergj Fishta's epic Lahuta e Malcis.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Mujo's strength
2. The marriage of Gjeto Basho Mujo
3. Mujo's oras
4. Mujo visits the Sultan
5. The marriage of Halili
6. Gjergj Elez Alia
7. Mujo and Behuri
8. Mujo's courser
9. Young Omeri
10. Zuku Bajraktar
11. Arnaut Osmani and Hyso Radoica
12. Ali Bajraktari or the word of honour
13. Arnaut Osmani
14. Zuku captures Rusha
15. Mujo's wife is kidnapped
16. Mujo and Jevrenija
17. Halili avenges Mujo
18. Omer, son of Mujo
19. The death of Omer
20. Ajkuna mourns Omer
21. The death of Halili
22. Mujo wounded
23. After Mujo's death

March of Shkup

2010-11-06T14:25:00.000-07:00

Skopje after being captured by Albanian revolutionaries in August, 1912 who defeated the Ottoman forces holding the city.

The March of Shkup is an Albanian folk song composed in 1912, when Albanian revolutionaries captured the city of Skopje(Capital of Kosovo Vilayet) from the Ottomans after more than 500 years of Ottoman rule.
In July, 1912 Albanian revolutionaries gathered their forces in Kosovo after capturing most major cities of the region like Pristina, Ferizaj and Gjakova from the Ottoman Empire. In early August 1912 the Albanian troops marched southwards towards Skopje, capital of province. On August 13 the first Albanian troops, five hundred under Idriz Seferi and Isa Boletini entered the city and demanded from the 4000 Ottoman troops of the city to surrender it to the Albanian revolutionaries.On August 14 the Ottoman garrison surrendered, while more Albanian troops reached the city from the areas of Kumanovo, Pristina and Dibër.By the end of August more than 30,000 Albanian troops were stationed in Skopje.

Song
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The song March of Shkup was first performed by one of the Albanian Catholic bands -- possibly the band of Gjakova -- that marched towards Skopje in August 1912. When the Albanian troops entered the city on August 14, Albanian newspapers and magazines like Drita reported that March of Shkup was sung by a large part of the troops. The song is a call to arms to all Albanians to join the Albanian uprising of 1912 that led to the establishment of the state of Albania.

Albanian

Ngri, Shqyptar flamurin!
Tash n'luft' boria na thrret;
Me derdh për vend tonë gjakun,
Na pushka po na pret.

English

Raise Albanian the flag!
Now to war the command calls us;
To shed blood for our land,
The weapons await us.

Pashalik of Shkodra

2009-12-27T10:33:00.000-08:00

Pashalik of Shkodra (1757-1831) was a semi-independent entity under the Ottoman Empire, created by Albanian leaders of Northern Ottoman Albania, today's Northern Albania, Southeast Montenegro, most of Kosovo and West Macedonia.The weakening of Ottoman central authority and the timar system brought anarchy to the Albanian-populated lands. In the late 18th century, two Albanian centers of power emerged: Shkodër, under the Bushati family; and Janina, under Ali Pasha of Tepelenë. When it suited their goals, both places cooperated with the Sublime Porte, and when it was expedient to defy the central government, each acted independently.In 1757, Mehmed Bey Bushati proclaimed himself Pasha of Shkoder, eying at a degree of autonomy/independence Mehmed Ali Pasha had established for himself in Egypt. His son and successor Kara Mahmoud pursued a policy of military expansion; he established his control over northern Albania (up to the Shkumbi River) and over Kosovo. He launched two attacks on Montenegro (1785, 1796) and defeated resp. outlasted several Ottoman expeditions dispatched to subdue him. Kara Mahmoud's autonomous pashalik did receive the attention of the Austrian and Russian foreign office, both regarding him a potential ally against the Sublime Porte. In 1796, Kara Mahmoud was killed when he suffered defeat at the hands of the Montenegrins. He was succeeded by his brother Ibrahim Pasha, a less warlike personality loyal to the Ottoman Empire (-1810). The Bushati Dynasty continued to hold on to the Pashalik until an Ottoman army under Mehmet Reshid Pasha besieged Rozafat Castle at Shkoder in 1831 and forced Mustafa Bushati to surrender (1831). The pashalik was dissolved, the Vilayets of Shkoder and of Kosovo established. An uprising in Shkoder in 1833-1836 failed in reestablishing the autonomy enjoyed under the Bushati. The latter established the Bushati Library in the 1840es, which played an important role in the cultural awakening of northern Albania.

Pasha

* Mehmed Pasha Bushati (1768-1774)
* Mustafa Pasha Bushati (1774-1778)
* Kara Mahmud Bushati (1778-1796)
* Ibrahim Bushati (1796-1810)
* Mustafa Reshit Pasha (1810-1831)

Albanian Pashaliks

2009-12-13T05:17:00.000-08:00

The Albanian Pashaliks (Albanian: Pashallëqet e Shqiptare) were three Ottoman pashaliks ruled by Albanian pashas from about 1760 to 1831 and covering roughly the territory of modern Albania, Kosovo, and Greek Epirus.

List of Albanian Pashaliks
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1) Pashalik of Shkodra Kara Mahmud Bushati 1757-1831
2) Pashalik of Janina Ali Pasha 1787-1822
3) Pashalik of Berat Ahmet Kurt Pasha 1774–1809

The Pashalik of Iskodra, or Pashalik of Shkodra (1757-1831) was a semi-independent entity under the Ottoman Empire, created by Albanian leaders of Northern Ottoman Albania, today's Northern Albania, Southeast Montenegro, most of Kosovo and West Macedonia. The weakening of Ottoman central authority and the timar system brought anarchy to the Albanian-populated lands. In the late 18th century, two Albanian centers of power emerged: Shkodër, under the Bushati family; and Janina, under Ali Pasha of Tepelenë. When it suited their goals, both places cooperated with the Sublime Porte, and when it was expedient to defy the central government, each acted independently.In 1757, Mehmed Bey Bushati proclaimed himself Pasha of Shkodër, eying at a degree of autonomy/independence Mehmed Ali Pasha had established for himself in Egypt. His son and successor Kara Mahmoud pursued a policy of military expansion; he established his control over northern Albania (up to the Shkumbi River) and over Kosovo. He launched two attacks on Montenegro (1785, 1796) and defeated resp. outlasted several Ottoman expeditions dispatched to subdue him. Kara Mahmoud's autonomous pashalik did receive the attention of the Austrian and Russian foreign office, both regarding him a potential ally against the Sublime Porte. In 1796, Kara Mahmoud was killed when he suffered defeat at the hands of the Montenegrins. He was succeeded by his brother Ibrahim Pasha, a less warlike personality loyal to the Ottoman Empire (-1810). The Bushati Dynasti continued to hold on to the Pashalik until an Ottoman army under Mehmet Reshid Pasha besieged Rozafat Castle at Shkodër in 1831 and forced Mustafa Bushati to surrender (1831). The pashalik was dissolved, the Vilayets of Shkodër and of Kosovo established. An uprising in Shkodër in 1833-1836 failed in reestablishing the autonomy enjoyed under the Bushati. The latter established the Bushati Library in the 1840es, which played an important role in the cultural awakening of northern Albania.

The Pashalik of Yanina, or Pashalik of Janina (1787-1822) was a semi-independent albanian entity under the Ottoman Empire, created by Ali Pasha, an Albanian leader of Southern Ottoman Albania, encompassing areas of modern northern Greece and southern Albania. In 1787 Ali Pasha was awarded the pashaluk of Trikala in reward for his support for the sultan's war against Austria. This was not enough to satisfy his ambitions; shortly afterwards, he seized control of Ioánnina, which remained his power base for the next 33 years. Like other semi-autonomous regional leaders that emerged in that time, such as Osman Pazvantoğlu, he took advantage of a weak Ottoman government to expand his territory still further until he gained de facto control of most of Albania, western Greece and the Peloponnese, either directly or through his sons. Ali's policy as ruler of Ioánnina was governed by little more than simple expediency; he operated as a semi-independent despot and allied himself with whoever offered the most advantage at the time. In order to gain a seaport on the Albanian coast Ali formed an alliance with Napoleon I of France who had established Francois Pouqueville as his general consul in Ioánnina. After the Treaty of Tilsitt where Napoleon granted the Czar his plan to dismantle the Ottoman Empire, Ali switched sides and allied with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1807. His machinations were permitted by the Ottoman government in Istanbul for a mixture of expediency - it was deemed better to have Ali as a semi-ally than as an enemy - and weakness, as the central government did not have enough strength to oust him at that time. The poet George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron visited Ali's court in Ioánnina in 1809 and recorded the encounter in his work Childe Harold.In a letter to his mother, however, Byron deplored Ali's cruelty: "His Highness is a remorseless tyrant, guilty of the most horrible cruelties, very brave, so good a general that they call him the Mahometan Buonaparte ... but as barbarous as he is successful, roasting rebels, etc, etc.."In 1820, Ali ordered the assassination of a political opponent in Constantinople. The reformist Sultan Mahmud II, who sought to restore the authority of the Sublime Porte, took this opportunity to move against Ali by ordering his deposition. Ali refused to resign his official posts and put up a formidable resistance to Ottoman troop movements, indirectly helping the Greek Independence as some 20,000 Turkish troops were fighting Ali's formidable army. In January 1822, however, Ottoman agents assassinated Ali Pasha and sent his head to the Sultan. After his death the pashalik ceased to exist.

The Pashalik of Berat was a pashalik created in modern day central Albania by Ahmet Kurt Pasha in 1774 and dissolved after Ahmet's ally, Ibrahim Pasha of Berat was defeated by Ali Pasha in 1809, thus incorporating the pashalik, with the Pashalik of Janina. This pashalik was one of the three pashaliks created by Albanians in the period of lbanian Pashaliks. The Pashalik of Berat was created after Ahmet Kurt Pasha managed to complot with the Sublime Porte against Mehmed Pasha Bushati in 1774. For his service, the sultan gave him territories in central Albania. He managed to grow his pashalik until his death in 1787, incorporating territories of all central Albania, bordering to the north with the Pashalik of Shkodra and to the south with the Pashalik of Janina. Ahmet Kurt Pasha was the grandfather of Ali Pasha, and father of Ali's mother, Hanka. After the death of Ahmet Kurt Pasha, the territory of the pashalik was ruled by a close ally of him, Ibrahim Pasha of Berat. As this territory belonged to the Middle Albania, Ibrahim Pasha was roused at this encroachment. This made, Ali Pasha to start a war with the Pashalik of Berat. After some fruitless negotiation, Ibrahim Pasha sent a body of troops under the command of his brother Sephir, bey of Avlona. Against these, Ali summoned the armatoles of Thessaly; and after villages had been burnt, peasants robbed and hanged, and flocks carried oif on both sides, peace was made. Ibrahim gave his daughter in marriage to Mookhtar, the eldest son of Ali, and the disputed territory as her dower. As Sephir bey had displayed qualities which might prove formidable hereafter, Ali contrived to have him poisoned by a physician ; and, after his usual fasliion, he hanged the agent of the crime, that no witness might remain of it. Ali Pasha has said that he should prevail over the pasha of Berat, become vizir of Epirus, fight with the Sultan, and go to Constantinople. In 1808, Ali Pasha defeated Ibrahim Pasha, incorporating its territory in the Pashalik of Janina.

Albanian language

2009-12-12T10:32:00.000-08:00

Albanian (Gjuha shqipe) is an Indo-European language spoken by nearly 10 million people,primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, Montenegro, and southern Serbia. Albanian is also spoken by native enclaves in Greece, along the eastern coast of southern Italy, and in Sicily. Additionally, speakers of Albanian can be found elsewhere throughout the latter two countries resulting from a modern diaspora, originating from the Balkans, that also includes Scandinavia, Switzerland, Germany, United Kingdom, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. To the south of Albania, in Greece, there are traditional settlements of Çamërian dialect speakers, in particular around Parga and Igoumenitsa in Epirus. Despite border changes and deportations to Albania, the Albanian population here may be as high as 100,000. In central Greece, the Albanian language, known in Albanian as Arbërisht and in Greek as Arvanitika, languishes in more than 320 villages, primarily those of Boeotia (especially around Levadhia), southern Euboea, Attica, Corinth and northern Andros. These speakers are the descendants of large-scale Albanian emigration to Greece during the late Middle Ages. No official statistics exist as to their numbers. This exceptionally archaic form of Albanian is dying out rapidly.

In southern Italy, there is a small but well-established Albanian-speaking minority, the so-called Arbëresh, or Italo-Albanians. These are the descendants of refugees who fled Albania after the death of Scanderbeg in 1468.Most of them live in the mountain villages of Cosenza in Calabria and in the vicinity of Palermo in Sicily. The Arbëresh speak an archaic dialect of Albanian, which differs substantially from the Albanian now spoken in the Balkans, to the extent that communication is difficult if Arbëresh speakers are not familiar with standard literary Albanian.

Traditional Albanian settlements can be encountered sporadically elsewhere in the Balkans: in Arbanasi, a suburb of Zadar on the Dalmatian coast of Croatia; in some villages in the Sandjak in Serbia and in the Bulgarian-Greek-Turkish border region, notably in the Bulgarian village of Mandrica. A few Albanian speakers are also to be found in the Ukraine, notably in villages in the regions of Melitopol’ and Odessa.

Little remains of the once extensive colonies of Albanians scattered throughout the Ottoman Empire. The Albanian minority in Egypt has now dissipated, though Albanian communities still exist in large numbers in Turkey (Istanbul, Bursa and elsewhere) and to an extent in Syria, notably in Damascus.

Classification
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Traditionally scholars have seen the Albanian as the descendant of Illyrian while some dispute this claiming that it derives from Dacian or Thracian. (Illyrian, Dacian, and Thracian, however, may have formed a subgroup or a sprachbund).
Albanian is a language of the extensive Indo-European family and is thus related to a certain degree to almost all other languages of Europe. The Indo-European character of the language was first recognized in 1854 by the German linguist Franz Bopp (1791-1867). At the same time, Albanian shows no particularly close historical affinity to any other language or language group within the Indo-European family, i.e. it forms a language group of its own.

Despite Albania’s geographical proximity to Greece, linguistic contacts with ancient Greek seem to have been sporadic. Roman trading settlements on the Illyrian coast and Albania’s absorption into the Roman Empire, however, left noticeable traces in the language. Borrowings from Latin, which took place over a period of several centuries, were so massive as to threaten the very structure of the language. Cultural contacts with the Slavs (Bulgarians and Serbs), Turks and Italians have also left substantial strata of vocabulary in Albanian.Establishing longer relations, Albanian is often compared to Balto-Slavic and Germanic , both of which share a number of isoglosses with Albanian. Moreover, Albanian has undergone a vowel shift in which stressed, long o has fallen to a, much like in the former and opposite the latter. Likewise, Albanian has taken the old relative jos and innovatively used it exclusively to qualify adjectives, much in the way Balto-Slavic has used this word to provide the definite ending of adjectives. Other linguists link Albanian with Greek and Armenian, while placing Germanic and Balto-Slavic in another branch of Indo-European. Nakhleh, Ringe, and Warnow found that Albanian can be placed at a variety of points within the Indo-European tree with equally good fit; determining its correct placement is hampered by the loss of much of its former diagnostic inflectional morphology and vocabulary.

Dialects
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The Albanian language is divided into two basic dialect groups: Gheg in the north of the country and Tosk in the south. The Shkumbin River in central Albania, flowing past Elbasan into the Adriatic, forms the approximate boundary between the two dialect regions. Here, in a zone ten to twenty kilometers wide, intermediate dialects are also found.

The Gheg dialect group, characterized by the presence of nasal vowels, by the retention of the older n for Tosk r (e.g., venë “wine” for Tosk verë; Shqypnia “Albania” for Tosk Shqipëria) and by several distinct morphological features, can be further classified into a northwestern (Shkodra and surrounding region), a northeastern (northeastern Albania and Kosova), a central (between the Ishëm and Mat Rivers and eastwards into Macedonia, including Dibra and Tetova) and a southern (Durrës, Tirana) Gheg dialect.

The Tosk dialect group is in general more homogenous, though it can be subdivided into a northern (from Fier to Vlora on the coast and all of inland southern Albania north of the Vjosa River), a Labërian or Lab (south of the Vjosa to Saranda), and a Çamërian or Çam (the southern tip of Albania and into Greece) dialect.

The modern literary language (gjuha letrare), agreed upon at the Orthography Congress of 20 to 25 November 1972, is a combination of the two dialect groups, though based about eighty percent on Tosk. It is now a widely accepted standard both in Albania and elsewhere, though there have been increasing tendencies in recent years to revive literary Gheg.

Historical presence and location
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While it is considered established that the Albanians originated in the Balkans, the exact location from which they spread out is hard to pinpoint. Traditionally scholars have seen the Albanians as descended from Illyrians, however, from time to time this view has been challenged, very frequently for modern nationalistic reasons[27]

The theory that Albanians were related to the Illyrians was proposed for the first time by a German historian in 1774.[28] The scholars who advocate an Illyrian origin are numerous. There are two variants of the theory: one is that the Albanian language represents a survival of an indigenous Illyrian language spoken in what is now Albania.[32] The other is that the Albanian language is the descendant of an Illyrian language that was spoken north of the Jireček Line and probably north or northeast of Albania.

The arguments for the Illyrian-Albanian connection have been as follows:

* The national name Albania is derived from Albanoi, an Illyrian tribe mentioned by Ptolemy about 150 A.D.

* From what we know from the old Balkan populations territories (Greeks, Illyrians, Thracians, Dacians), Albanian language is spoken in the same region where Illyrian was spoken in ancient times.

* There is no evidence of any major migration into Albanian territory since the records of Illyrian occupation.

* Many of what remain as attested words to Illyrian have an Albanian explanation and also a number of Illyrian lexical items (toponyms, hydronyms, oronyms, anthroponyms, etc.) have been linked to Albanian.

* Borrowed words (eg Gk (NW) "device, instrument" mākhaná > *mokër "millstone" Gk (NW) drápanon > *drapër "sickle" etc) from Greek language date back before the Christian era[39] and are mostly of Doric dialect of Greek language, which means that the ancestors of the Albanians were in Northwestern part of Ancient Greek civilization and probably borrowed them from Greek cities (Dyrrachium, Apollonia, etc) in the Illyrian territory, colonies which belonged to the Doric division of Greek, or from the contacts in Epirus area.

* Borrowed words from Latin (eg Latin aurum > ar "gold", gaudium > gaz "gas" etc)date back before the Christian era, while Illyrians in the today's Albanian territory were the first from the old Balkan populations to be conquered by Romans in 229 - 167 B.C., Thracians were conquered in 45 A.D. and Dacians in 106 A.D.

* The ancient Illyrian place-names of the region have achieved their current form following Albanian phonetic rules e.g. Durrachion > Durrës (with the Albanian initial accent) Aulona > Vlonë~Vlorë (with rhotacism) Scodra > Shkodra etc.

* The characteristics of the Albanian dialects Tosk and Geg in the treatment of the native and loanwords from other languages, have lead to the conclusion that the dialectal split preceded the Slavic migration to the Balkans which means that in that period (5th to 6th century AD) Albanians were occupying pretty much the same area around Shkumbin river which straddled the Jirecek line.

However, archaeology has more convincingly pointed to the early Byzantine province of Praevitana (modern northern Albania) which shows an area where a primarily shepherding, transhumance population of Illyrians retained their culture. This area was based in the Mat district and the region of high mountains in Northern Albania, as well as in Dukagjin, Mirditë, and the mountains of Drin, from where the population would descend in the summer to the lowlands of western Albania, the Black Drin (Drin i zi) river valley, and into parts of Old Serbia. Indeed, the region's complete lack of Latin place names seems to imply little latinization of any kind and a more likely spot for the early medieval heart of Albanian territory, following the collapse of the Illyrian province.

Cognates with Illyrian

* brisa, "husk of grapes"; cf. Alb bërsí "lees, dregs; mash" (< PA *brutiā)
* loúgeon, "pool"; cf. Alb lag "to wet, soak, bathe, wash" (< PA *lauga), lëgatë
"pool" (< PA *leugatâ), lakshte "dew" (< PA *laugista)
* mandos, "small horse"; cf. Alb mëz, mâz "poney"
* mantía "bramblebush"; Old and dial. Alb mandë, mod. Alb mën, man "berry, mulberry"
* rhinos, "fog, mist"; cf. OAlb ren, mod. Alb re, rê "cloud" (< PA *rina)
* sibina, "spear"; cf. Alb thupër "bar, stick"
* sica, "dagger"; cf. Alb thika "knife"

Historical considerations
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Indeed, the center of the Albanians remained the river Mat. In 1079 AD they are recorded in the territory of the Shkumbin river.

Furthermore, the major Tosk-Gheg dialect division is based on the course of the Shkumbin River, a seasonal stream that lay near the old Via Egnatia. Since rhotacism postdates the dialect division, it is reasonable that the major dialect division occurred after the Christianization of the Roman Empire (4th c. AD) and before the eclipse of the East-West land-based trade route by Venetian seapower (10th c. AD).
The oldest surviving documents written in Albanian are the "Teodor Shkodrani Script 1210", "Formula e Pagëzimit" (Baptismal formula), "Un'te paghesont' pr'emenit t'Atit e t'Birit e t'Spirit Senit." (I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit) recorded by Pal Engjelli, Bishop of Durrës in 1462 in the Gheg dialect, and some New Testament verses from that period.

The oldest known Albanian printed book, Meshari or missal, was written by Gjon Buzuku, a Roman Catholic cleric, in 1555. The first Albanian school is believed to have been opened by Franciscans in 1638 in Pdhanë. In 1635, Frang Bardhi wrote the first Latin-Albanian dictionary.

Notable Illyrians

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The Illyrians were a group of tribes who inhabited the Western Balkans during classical antiquity.The first known Illyrian king was Hyllus (The Star) whose death was recorded in 1225 B.C.The first great king was Bardhylus (White Star), who united Illyria and Molossia (Epirus) and, who along with his son Kleitos, successfully fought against Macedonian expansion and annexed large portions of western Macedonia.

List of rulers of Illyria and Notable Illyrians
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Mythological
Illyrius and his kin

* Cadmus & Harmonia give birth to their youngest son Illyrius
* Illyrius,(Ancient Greek, "Ιλλυριός")
* Polyphemus & Galatea give birth to Illyrius and his brothers
* Celtus founder of the Celts
* Galas founder of the Gauls
* Illyrius

Illyrian Kings and Queens

* Bardyllisof the Dardani from 385 BC -358 BC
* Grabos perhaps Bardyllis's son 358 BC -
* Bardyllis II Bardyllis's son
* Cleitus the Illyrian son of Bardyllis II
* Pleuratus I 4th century BC
* Pleurias of the Autariatae 337 BC
* Glaukias of the Taulanti 335-302 BC
* Monunius of the Dardani first Illyrian to mint coins 3rd century BC
* Mytilus succesor to Monunius 3rd century BC
* Agron of the Ardiaei ? - 230 BC
* Triteuta mother of Pinnes
* Queen Teuta regent to Pinnes 231 BC - 228 BC
* Pinnes , never really ruled 230 BC -
* Skerdilaidas 218 BC
* Pleuratus II son of Skerdilaidas
* Gentius of the Ardiaei 2nd century BC
* Ballaios ruled after Teuta 2nd century BC
* Epulon of the Histri 2nd century BC
* Longarus of the Dardani father of Bato
* Bato of Dardania of the Dardani son of Longarus
* Pinnes of Pannnonia rebelled against the Romans at 6 AD see Great
* Bato/BatonWarlord of the Daesiates rebelled against the Romans at 6 AD
* Bato II Warlord of the Breuci rebelled against the Romans at 6 AD

Illyriciani

These Roman emperors are called Illyriciani due to being born in the province of Illyricum.Some were called Barracks emperors and the emperors of the Tetrarchy.In the second and third centuries, Illyricum was famous for its soldiers: being less Romanized than other regions of the Empire, it was one of the main purveyors of troops for the Roman army. One of the largest concentration of troops (twelve legions at its peak in the mid-third century) was on the Danube. It was the policy of some of the "Barracks emperors", especially Gallienus(260-268)[8], to promote able soldiers to high-ranking military posts. This means that, instead of commanders with an aristocratic background (members of the Roman Senate or the equestrian order), many soldiers of more humble origins, even mere peasants, began to be made generals— which meant that they could become emperors by being raised to power by their legions.High grade cavalry was also called Equites Illyriciani

* Decius - ruled AD 249-251
* Hostilianus - ruled AD 251
* Claudius II "Gothicus" - ruled AD 268-270
* Quintillus - ruled AD 270
* Aurelian - ruled AD 270-275
* Probus - ruled AD 276-282
* Diocletian - ruled AD 284-305
* Maximianus "Herculius" - ruled AD 286-305
* Constantine I - ruled AD 306-337
* Maximinus Daia - ruled AD 308-313
* Jovian - ruled AD 363-364
* Valentinianus I - ruled AD 364-375
* Valens - ruled AD 364-378
* Gratian - ruled AD 375-383
* Valentinianus II - ruled AD 375-392
* Marcianus - ruled AD 450-457 (either Illyricum or Moesia, Thrace)
* Anastasius I - ruled AD 491-518
* Justin I - ruled AD 518-527
* Justinian I - ruled AD 527-565

Others

* Audata - Illyrian woman, once wife of Philip II of Macedon 4th century BC
* Cynane - daughter of Audata and Philip II, half-sister of Alexander the Great
* Bircenna- daughter of Bardylis 4th century BC
* Pleuratus a number of princes 2nd century BC
* Etuta daughter of Monunius 3rd century BC
* Caravantius - brother of King Gentius 2nd century BC
* Plator - brother of King Gentius 2nd century BC
* Teuticus & Bellus, ambassador Illyrian nobles, who were sent to Rome as
ambassadors by King Gentius 2nd century BC
* Baraliris - an imaginary character Tertullian wrote about after seeing about
him in a dream. 2nd century AD
* Taurus Volusianus consul and prefect 3rd century AD
* Flavianus - prefect of Egypt 364 AD - 366 AD
* Jerome - the translator of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin. 4th
century AD - 5th century AD
* Priest Petrus - Builder of the church of Rome: Santa Sabina all'Aventino. 5th
century AD
* Marcellinus Comes - an obscure chronicler 6th century AD
* Petrus Patricius - Byzantine historian 6th century AD
* Celer - Magister officiorum (Master of Offices) 6th century AD

The Illyrian Wars According to Appian VI

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Augustus surrounded the town, and two hills which were still held by the enemy, with a wall 7¼ kilometers in length. When Testimus, another Dalmatian general, brought an army to the relief of the place Augustus met him and drove him back to the mountains, and while Testimus was still looking on he took Promona before the line of circumvallation was finished. For when the citizens made a sally and were sharply repulsed, the Romans pursued them and entered the town with them, where they killed a third part of them.

The remainder took refuge in the citadel, at the gates of which a Roman cohort was placed to keep watch. On the fourth night the barbarians assaulted them, and they fled terror-stricken from the gates. Augustus repulsed the enemy's assault, and the following day received their surrender. The cohort that had abandoned its position was obliged to cast lots, and every tenth man suffered death.[1] The lot fell upon two centurions among others. It was ordered, as a further punishment, that the surviving members of the cohort should subsist on barley instead of wheat for that summer.

Promona being thus taken, Testimus, who was still looking on, disbanded his army, telling them to scatter in all directions. For this reason the Romans were not able to pursue them long, as they feared to divide themselves into small bands, being ignorant of the roads, and the foot-prints of the fugitives being much confused.

They took the town of Sunodium at the edge of the forest in which the army of [Aulus] Gabinius had been entrapped by the Dalmatians in a long and deep gorge between two mountains. There also they laid an ambuscade for Augustus, but after he had burned Sunodium he sent soldiers around by the summits of the mountains to keep even pace with him on either side while he passed through the gorge. He cut down trees and captured and burned all the towns he found on his way.

While he was besieging the city of Setovia a force of barbarians came to its assistance, which he met and prevented from entering the place. In this conflict he was struck by a stone on the knee and was confined for several days. [33] When he recovered, he returned to Rome to perform the duties of the consulship with [Lucius] Volcatius Tullus, his colleague, leaving [Titus] Statilius Taurus to finish the war.

Entering upon his new consulship on the first of January [33 BCE], and delivering the government to [Lucius] Autronius Paetus the same day, he started back to Dalmatia at once, the triumvirate still existing; for two years remained of the second five-year period which the triumvirs themselves had ordained and the people confirmed.

And now the Dalmatians, oppressed by hunger and cut off from foreign supplies, met him on the road and delivered themselves up with supplications, giving 700 of their children as hostages, as Augustus demanded, and also the Roman standards taken from Gabinius. They also promised to pay the tribute that had been in arrears since the time of Gaius [Julius]Caesar and to be obedient henceforth.

Augustus deposited the standards in the portico called the Octavia.
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After the Dalmatians were prostrated Augustus advanced against the Derbani, who likewise begged pardon with supplications, gave hostages, and promised to pay the past due tribute. In like manner other tribes at his approach gave hostages for observing the treaties that he made with them. Some, however, he was prevented by sickness from reaching. These gave no hostages and made no treaties. It appears, however, that they were subjugated later. Thus Augustus subdued the whole Illyrian country, not only the parts that had revolted from the Romans, but those that had never before been under their rule. Wherefore the Senate awarded him an Illyrian triumph, which he enjoyed later, together with one for his victory over [Marc] Antony.

The remaining peoples, who are considered by the Romans to be parts of Illyria, are the Rhaetians and the Noricans, on this side of Pannonia, and the Mysians on the other side as far as the Euxine Sea. I think that the Rhaetians and Noricans were subdued by Gaius [Julius] Caesar during the Gallic war or by Augustus during the Pannonian war, as they lie between the two. I have found no mention of any war against them separately, whence I infer that they were conquered along with other neighboring tribes.

Marcus [Licinius] Lucullus, brother of that Licinius Lucullus who conducted the war against Mithridates[king of Pontus], advanced against the Mysians and arrived at the river where six Greek cities lie adjacent to the Mysian territory, namely, Istrus, Dionysopolis, Odessus, Mesembria, Catalis, and Apollonia; from which he brought to Rome the great statue of Apollo which was afterward set up on the Palatine Hill.

I have found nothing further done by the Roman republic as to the Mysians. They were not subjected to tribute by Augustus, but by Tiberius, who succeeded him as Roman emperor.

All the things done by command of the people before the taking of Egypt have been written by me for each country separately. Those countries that the emperors themselves pacified after Egypt was taken, or annexed as their own work, will be mentioned after the affairs of the commonwealth. There I shall tell more about the Mysians. For the present, since the Romans consider the Mysians a part of Illyria and this is my Illyrian history, in order that it may be complete it seems proper to premise that Lucullus invaded Mysia as a general of the republic and that Tiberius took it in the time of the empire.