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The Albanians ( / ælˈbeɪniənz, ɔːl -/ a (w)l-BAY-nee-ənz; Albanian: Shqiptarët, pronounced [ʃcipˈtaɾət]) are an ethnic group native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, culture, history and language. [66] They primarily live in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia as well as in Croatia ...
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4 days ago · Albania, country in southern Europe, located in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula on the Strait of Otranto, the southern entrance to the Adriatic Sea. The capital city is Tirana ( Tiranë ). Albania. Albanians refer to themselves as shqiptarë —often taken to mean “sons of eagles,” though it may well refer to “those associated ...
Albanian Ishëm derives directly from Isamnus and indicates that its ancestral language was spoken in the area. Mat is a river in northern Albania. It is generally considered to be of Illyrian origin and originally meant "river bank, shore". It evolved within Albanian as an inherited term from its ancestral language.
Tirana is the capital and largest city in the country, followed by Durrës, Vlorë, and Shkodër . In ancient times, the Illyrians inhabited northern and central regions of Albania, whilst Epirotes inhabited the south. Several important ancient Greek colonies were also established on the coast.
- Overview
- The Illyrians
- The Greeks
- The Roman Empire
- From Illyria to Albania
- Medieval culture
- The decline of Byzantium
- The nature of Turkish rule
history of Albania, a survey of the important events and people in the history of Albania from ancient times to the present.
The origins of the Albanian people are not definitely known, but data drawn from history and from archaeological and anthropological studies have led some researchers to consider the Albanians to be the direct descendants of the ancient Illyrians. The linguistic evidence in that regard is most unclear; the Albanian language is certainly a distinct branch of the Indo-European family, but, largely because of a dearth of information on the language of the ancient Illyrians, it is difficult to convincingly demonstrate a connection between the two languages. (Some scholars, moreover, dispute such theses, arguing that Illyrians were not autochthonous to Albania and that Albanian derives from a dialect of the now-extinct Thracian language, but again the data are sparse and thus the arguments are difficult to judge.)
Illyrian culture is believed to have evolved from the Stone Age and to have manifested itself in the territory of Albania toward the beginning of the Bronze Age, about 2000 bce). The Illyrians were not a uniform body of people but a conglomeration of many tribes that inhabited the western part of the Balkans, from what is now Slovenia in the northwest to central Albania.
Authors of antiquity relate that the Illyrians were a sociable and hospitable people, renowned for their daring and bravery at war. Illyrian women were fairly equal in status to the men, even to the point of becoming heads of tribal federations. In matters of religion, Illyrians were pagans who believed in an afterlife and buried their dead along with arms and various articles intended for personal use.
The land of Illyria was rich in minerals—iron, copper, gold, and silver—and Illyrians became skillful in the mining and processing of metals. They were highly skilled boatbuilders and sailors as well; indeed, their light swift galleys known as liburnae were of such superior design that the Romans incorporated them into their own fleet as a type of warship called the liburnian.
From the 8th to the 6th century bce, the Greeks founded a string of colonies on Illyrian soil, two of the most prominent of which were Epidamnus (modern Durrës) and Apollonia (near modern Vlorë). The presence of Greek colonies on their soil brought the Illyrians into contact with a more advanced civilization, which helped them to develop their own culture while they in turn influenced the economic and political life of the colonies. In the 3rd century bce the colonies began to decline and eventually perished.
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Roughly parallel with the rise of Greek colonies, Illyrian tribes began to evolve politically from relatively small and simple entities into larger and more complex ones. At first they formed temporary alliances with one another for defensive or offensive purposes, then federations and, still later, kingdoms. The most important of these kingdoms, which flourished from the 5th to the 2nd century bce, were those of the Enkalayes, the Taulantes, the Epirotes, and the Ardianes.
The Romans ruled Illyria—which now became the province of Illyricum—for about six centuries. Under Roman rule Illyrian society underwent great change, especially in its outward, material aspect. Art and culture flourished, particularly in Apollonia, whose school of philosophy became celebrated in antiquity. To a great extent, though, the Illyrians resisted assimilation into Roman culture. Illyrian culture survived, along with the Illyrian tongue, though many Latin words entered the language and later became a part of the Albanian language.
Christianity manifested itself in Illyria during Roman rule, about the middle of the 1st century ce. At first the new religion had to compete with Middle Eastern religions—among them that of Mithra, Persian god of light—which had entered the land in the wake of Illyria’s growing interaction with eastern regions of the empire. For a long time it also had to compete with gods worshipped by Illyrian pagans. The steady growth of the Christian community in Dyrrhachium (the Roman name for Epidamnus) led to the creation there of a bishopric in 58 ce. Later, episcopal seats were established in Apollonia, Buthrotum (modern Butrint), and Scodra (modern Shkodër).
When the Roman Empire divided into East and West in 395, the territories of modern Albania became part of the Byzantine Empire. As in the Roman Empire, some Illyrians rose to positions of eminence in the new empire. Three of the emperors who shaped the early history of Byzantium (reigning from 491 to 565) were of Illyrian origin: Anastasius I, Justin I, and—the most celebrated of Byzantine emperors—Justinian I.
In the first decades under Byzantine rule (until 461), Illyria suffered the devastation of raids by Visigoths, Huns, and Ostrogoths. Not long after these barbarian invaders swept through the Balkans, the Slavs appeared. Between the 6th and 8th centuries they settled in Illyrian territories and proceeded to assimilate Illyrian tribes in much of what is now Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. The tribes of southern Illyria, however—including modern Albania—averted assimilation and preserved their native tongue.
In the course of several centuries, under the impact of Roman, Byzantine, and Slavic cultures, the tribes of southern Illyria underwent a transformation, and a transition occurred from the old Illyrian population to a new Albanian one. As a consequence, from the 8th to the 11th century, the name Illyria gradually gave way to the name, first mentioned in the 2nd century ce by the geographer Ptolemy of Alexandria, of the Albanoi tribe, which inhabited what is now central Albania. From a single tribe the name spread to include the rest of the country as Arbëri and, finally, Albania. The genesis of Albanian nationality apparently occurred at this time as the Albanian people became aware that they shared a common territory, name, language, and cultural heritage. (The Albanians’ own name for their land, Shqipëria, is believed to have supplanted the name Albania during the 16th and 17th centuries. While Shqipëria is popularly believed to be connected to the word for “eagle,” shqipe, it is better taken to be derived from the language name shqip, which itself is most likely related to an adverb meaning “[speaking] clearly,” making shqip “[the] clearly [spoken language].”)
Long before that event, Christianity had become the established religion in Albania, supplanting pagan polytheism and eclipsing for the most part the humanistic world outlook and institutions inherited from the Greek and Roman civilizations. But, though the country was in the fold of Byzantium, Albanian Christians remained under the jurisdiction of the Roman pope until 732. In that year the Iconoclast Byzantine emperor Leo III, angered by Albanian archbishops because they had supported Rome in the Iconoclastic Controversy, detached the Albanian church from the Roman pope and placed it under the patriarch of Constantinople. When the Christian church split in 1054 between the East and Rome, southern Albania retained its tie to Constantinople while northern Albania reverted to the jurisdiction of Rome. This split in the Albanian church marked the first significant religious fragmentation of the country.
In the latter part of the Middle Ages, Albanian urban society reached a high point of development. Foreign commerce flourished to such an extent that leading Albanian merchants had their own agencies in Venice, Ragusa (modern Dubrovnik, Croatia), and Thessalonica (now Thessaloníki, Greece). The prosperity of the cities stimulated the development of education and the arts. Albanian, however, was not the language used in schools, churches, and official government transactions. Instead, Greek and Latin, which had the powerful support of the state and the church, were the official languages of culture and literature.
The new administrative system of the themes, or military provinces created by the Byzantine Empire, contributed to the eventual rise of feudalism in Albania, as peasant soldiers who served military lords became serfs on their landed estates. Among the leading families of the Albanian feudal nobility were the Thopias, Balshas, Shpatas, Muzakas, Aranitis, Dukagjins, and Kastriotis. The first three of these rose to become rulers of principalities that were practically independent of Byzantium.
Beginning in the 9th century, partly because of the weakness of the Byzantine Empire, Albania came under the domination, in whole or in part, of a succession of foreign powers: Bulgarians, Norman Crusaders, the Angevins of southern Italy, Serbs, and Venetians. The final occupation of the country in 1347 by the Serbs, led by Stefan Dušan, caused massive migrations of Albanians abroad, especially to Greece and the Aegean Islands. By the mid-14th century, Byzantine rule had come to an end in Albania, after nearly 1,000 years.
A few decades later the country was confronted with a new threat, that of the Turks, who at this juncture were expanding their power in the Balkans. The Ottoman Turks invaded Albania in 1388 and completed the occupation of the country about four decades later (1430). But after 1443 an Albanian of military genius—Gjergj Kastrioti (1405–68), known as Skanderbeg—rallied the Albanian princes and succeeded in driving the occupiers out. For the next 25 years, operating out of his stronghold in the mountain town of Krujë, Skanderbeg frustrated every attempt by the Turks to regain Albania, which they envisioned as a springboard for the invasion of Italy and western Europe. His unequal fight against the mightiest power of the time won the esteem of Europe as well as some support in the form of money and military aid from Naples, the papacy, Venice, and Ragusa. After he died, Albanian resistance gradually collapsed, enabling the Turks to reoccupy the country by 1506.
The Turks established their dominion over Albania just as the Renaissance began to unfold in Europe. Cut off from contact and exchanges with western Europe, Albania had no chance to participate in or benefit from the humanistic achievements of that era. Conquest also caused great suffering and vast destruction of the country’s economy, commerce, art, and culture. Moreover, to escape persecution by their conquerors, about one-fourth of the country’s population fled abroad to southern Italy, Sicily, and the Dalmatian coast.
Although the Turks ruled Albania for more than four centuries, they were unable to extend their authority throughout the country. In the highland regions, Turkish authorities exercised only a formal sovereignty, as the highlanders refused to pay taxes, serve in the army, or surrender their arms—although they did pay an annual tribute to Constantinople.
Time and again Albanians rose in rebellion against Ottoman occupation. In order to check the ravages of Albanian resistance—which was partly motivated by religious feelings, namely defense of the Christian faith—as well as to bring Albania spiritually closer to the empire, the Ottomans initiated a systematic drive toward the end of the 16th century to Islamize the population. That drive continued through the following century, by the end of which two-thirds of the people had converted to Islam. A major reason Albanians became Muslims was to escape Turkish violence and exploitation, an instance of which was a crushing tax that Christians would have to pay if they refused to convert.
Islamization aggravated the religious fragmentation of Albanian society, which had first appeared in the Middle Ages and which was later used by Constantinople and Albania’s neighbours in attempts to divide and denationalize the Albanian people. Hence, leaders of the Albanian national movement in the 19th century used the rallying cry “The religion of Albanians is Albanianism” in order to overcome religious divisions and foster national unity.
The basis of Ottoman rule in Albania was a feudal military system of landed estates, called timars, which were awarded to military lords for loyalty and service to the empire. As Ottoman power began to decline in the 18th century, the central authority of the empire in Albania gave way to the local authority of autonomy-minded lords. The most successful of those lords were three generations of pashas of the Bushati family, who dominated most of northern Albania from 1757 to 1831, and Ali Paşa Tepelenë of Janina (now Ioánnina, Greece), a brigand-turned-despot who ruled over southern Albania and northern Greece from 1788 to 1822. Those pashas created separate states within the Ottoman state until they were overthrown by the sultan.
After the fall of the pashas, in 1831 Turkey officially abolished the timar system. In the wake of its collapse, economic and social power passed from the feudal lords to private landowning beys and, in the northern highlands, to tribal chieftains called bajraktars, who presided over given territories with rigid patriarchal societies that were often torn by blood feuds. Peasants who were formerly serfs now worked on the estates of the beys as tenant farmers.
- Peter R. Prifti
Jun 28, 2023 · Albania is a small, mountainous country in the Balkan peninsula, with a long Adriatic and Ionian coastline. Along with neighbouring and mainly Albanian-inhabited Kosovo, it has a Muslim majority ...
Albania - Ethnic Groups, Language, Religion: Albania has one of the most homogeneous populations in Europe, with non-Albanians accounting for less than one-tenth of the total population. The largest minorities are Vlachs; Greeks, concentrated mainly in the southeast; and Macedonians, living along the eastern border. The two main subgroups of Albanians are the Gegs (Ghegs) in the north and the ...
