The Encyclopaedia of Islam

 

New Edition

 

Prepared by a Number of

Leading Orientalists

 

 

Edited by an Editorial Committee Consisting of

 

H.A.R. Gibb, J.H. Kramers, E. Lévi-Provenēal, J. Schacht

 

Assisted by S.M. Stern as Secretary General (pp. 1-320)

 

 

B. Lewis, Ch. Pellat and J. Schacht

 

Assisted by C. Dumont and R.M. Savory as Editorial Secretaries

(pp. 321-1359)

 

Under the Patronage of

The International Union of Academies

 

Volume I

 

A-B

 

 

 

 

 

1960

 

Transliteration notes by Giovanni Armillotta:

 

Pay attention: you must install from My Computer icon, Control Panel icon, etc. for PC-IMB comp. the characters set of following languages: Albanian, Belorussian, Bulgarian, Czech, Estonian, Greek, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Rumanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Turkish and Ukrainian.

 

The following letters with under dot, I transliterate (for characters lack): h, t, z;

the “i” with over circle instead of dot, I transliterate (for characters lack): ĭ;

the “k” with under dot, I transliterate (for characters lack): ķ;

the rest of letters with over/under symbols are the same ones.

 

[p. 650]

ARNAWUTLUĶ, the Ottoman Turkish name for Albania.

 

1.– Language.

Allegedly descended from Pelasgian, Albanian is an Indo-European language of “satem” type like Armenian, Indo-Iranian and Slavonic. No literary records occur before 1496 A.D., but ancient Illyrian and ancient Epirote, on the basis of personal and place names, are held to be the prototypes of Geg (northern) and Tosķ (southern) Albanian respectively. Illyrian mantua, mantia, “bramble”, and grōssa, “file”, are Albanian mand, manzė and grresė respectively. Macedonian, Thracian and Dacian were languages of Albanian type.

Known as shqip in Albania, arbėresh in the Albanian colonies, the Albanian language is spoken by some 1,500,000 in Albania, 700,000 in the adjoining Kosovo-Metohija area of Yugoslavia, and some 40.000 in Epirus. An archaic form of the language survives on the Greek islands of Hydra and Spetsa, and in Sicily and Calabria, brought there by Tosķ exiled from the Turkish invasions. Impoverished by centuries of neglect, Albanian has a small native, but a large borrowed vocabulary. Thus the wheel, the cart and the plough are represented by borrowings and the usual Indo-European terms of kinship are absent. City life, road-building, horticulture, law, religion and family relationship are expressed by Latin loanwords, much disguised by phonological breakdown. Terms used in the Orthodox, ritual are Greek; names of prepared dishes, garments, parts of the house, and Islamic terms have come in via Turkish.

The composite alphabet is: a, b, c (like ts), ē (like ch), d, dh (like th in this), e, ė (like French e in le), f, g, gj, (like Turkish g before e, i, ö), h, i, j (like y in yoke), k, l (as in French), ll (as in .English all), m, n, nj (as in cañon), o, p, q (like Turkish k before e, i, ö), r (weak), rr (strong trill), s, sh (as in shop), t, th (as in thin), u, v, x (as in adze), xh (as in judge), y (German ü), z, zh (as in pleasure). The vowels ā, ē, ī are Geg nasals.

Geg is the dialect of Tiranė, the capital, and the North, including Kosovo-Metohija. Tosķ has a considerable literature. Its main deviations are: replacement of the infinitive by subjunctive constructions, absence of nasal vowels, occasional conversion of n to r, and representation of ue, uem as ua, uar. There are small differences of vocabulary.

The noun has three genders and five cases. A noun is linked to a following genitive or adjective by an inflected particle, thus mali i veriut, “the mountain of the north”, mali i búkur “the beautiful mountain”, in which -i of mal-i is the detachable masc. definite article. Similarly molla, f. “the apple”, but mollė “apple”. The verb possesses an imperfect, aorist, subjunctive, optative, imperative, a mediopassive, and a compound mood called the admirative.

 

2 – Literature.

From the third century A.D. the Roman Church has maintained a bishopric at Scutari in. N. Albania. This became the first cultural centre; evidence of this is Bishop John Buzuk’s Liturgy of 1555, and the 17th century religious works of Budi, Bardhi and Bogdani. Literary activity, tolerated by the Turks in the Catholic North, was suppressed in the Muslim centre and the Orthodox South, but took root among the exile colonies of Sicily and Calabria. .Matranga, descendant of the exiles, began a tradition of hymn-writing using folk-rhythms (1592), which was continued by Brancato (1675-1741) and the Calabrian Variboba (born 1725). The movement became secular with the folksongs and rhapsodies of De Rada (1813-1903) an ardent spokesman of Albanian liberation, and was continued well into the present century by Zef Schirò (1865-1927), Sicilian-born author of two allegorical epics and a collector of folksongs.

The work of De Rada was helpful in inspiring three Tosķ patriots, the brothers Abdyl, Sami and Naim Frashėri, to form a league at Prizrend in 1878. Under the stimulus of the San Stefano settlement they sought Albanian autonomy and literary freedom. After several years of activity in Istanbul, where they were joined by the lexicographer and Bible translator Kristoforidhi (1827-1895), they were forced into exile. At Bucharest Abdyl the politician, Sami the educationist, and Naim, the Bektashi lyricist of Albanian nostalgia, formed a literary society and printed Albanian books from 1885 onward. Thimi Mitko and Spiro Dine, exiles in Egypt, collected folksongs from the local colony. In Sofia Midhat Frashėri, son of Abdyl, published an almanach, an anthology and a journal, and wrote didactic essays and short stories with a moral. .Books printed in exile were smuggled into Albania by caravan.

The absence of a literary centre, and the want of a standard alphabet, hampered the movement, and Sami’s difficult phonetic spelling was replaced by a digraphic one resembling that of A. Santori of Calabria and the linguist Dh. Camarda (1821-1882) of Sicily. After independence in November 1912 the various literary currents combined. A. Drenova (born 1872), the Tosķ lyricist, Bubani, and L. Poradeci (born 1899) continued the Bucharest tradition, the last in an unorthodox style of his own; the Catholic North was represented by the nostalgic F. Shiroka (1847-1917), the linguist and historian A. Xanoni (1863-1915), N. Mjeda (1866-1937), tbe satirist Gj. Fishta (1871-1940), the folk-poet and elegist V. Prennushi (1885-1946), and the short-story writer F. Koliqi (born 1903). Foqion Postoli, and M. Grameno (1872-1931), the Tosķ novelists, Kristo Floqi (born 1873), the dramatist, and F. Konitza (1875-1943) transferred their activity to Boston, U.S.A., where a literary society Vatra, and a journal Dielli (“The Sun”) were founded in 1912.

The brief fascist regime (1939-1943) attracted a few writers with pro-Italian leanings; the present communist regime encourages writing on the partisan movement, the class struggle, work themes and peace. Textbooks are based on Russian models. There are three active theatres and a writers’ union. This activity is paralleled in Kosovo-Metohija, where the communist themes are Titoist.

 

3. – Geography.

Albania (Shqipní, Shqipėrí) lies on a N-S axis 20° E of Greenwich. With a total area of 11,097 square miles (28.748 sq. km.) it is bounded by Yugoslavia, Greece and the Adriatic. Lying between N Latitudes 39° 38’ and 40° 41’, its total length is 207 miles. It narrows to 50 miles at Peshkopí, and widens to 90 miles at the lake of Little Presba. Its ten prefectures formerly had 39 subprefectures, now redrawn and renamed as 34 districts. Continuing the limestone formation of the Dinaric Alps, the terrain is highest in the E, reaching some 7,000 feet in places. Of the western lowlands, some below sea-

 

[p. 651]

level, the largest is the .fertile Myzeqeja plain. The longest river, the Drin, rises in Lake Ohri (Ochrida), and flows N-W and S-W to the Adriatic below Shėngjin. The Mat, Ishém, Arzén, Semén-Devoll-Berat and the Vijosė flow in general N-W, but the Shkumbi, a torrent in winter, flows broadly E to W dividing the country into two roughly equal areas, Gegnija and Toskėrija.

The mountain massif consists of three north-to-south barriers in Gegnija, and four N-W to S-E parallel ranges in Toskėrija. The highest mountain is Tomorr near Berat (7,861 feet: 2396 metres). Denudation and deforestation have given the country a bare, rugged character. The lakes of Shkodėr (Scutari), Ohri and Presba are only partly iu Albania; Tėrbuf in the central plain is a marsh, and Malik, below Korēė, has been drained.

Durrės (Durazzo) is the main port, with wharves and a shipyard; Valona has a fine natural harbour, and handles refined oil and bitumen; Saranda is a fishing port, and Shėngjin handles ore. Chief towns are Tiranė, the capital (100,000), Shkodėr (35,000), Korēė (25,000), Durrės (16,000), Vlorė or Valona (15,000) and Gjinokastėr or Gjirokastėr (12,000). Railways (80 miles) link Tiranė with Durrės, Peqin and Elbasan, but most towns are reached by road.

Climate ranges from European in the high country to sub-tropical in the S-W, and the vegetation is Mediterranean. Forests, mainly deciduous, include hornbeam, turkey oak, sumach, avellan oak, holm oak, jujube and celtis. The foothill scrub includes arbutus, bush heather, pomegranate and juniper. Densest forests are at Mamuras near Kruja.

Bibliography: M. Lambertz, Albanisches Lesebuch, Parts I and II (Albanian Grammar, Texts and Translation into German), Leipzig 1948; S.E. Mann, Albanian Literature, An Outline of Prose, Poetry and Drama, London 1955; idem, A Short Albanian Grammar, London 1932; idem, An English-Albanian Dictionary, Cambridge 1957; S. Skendi, Albania (Statistical, Historical, Political, etc.), New York and London 1957.

(S.E. Mann)

 

 

4. – Population.

According to the census of 1955 the population of Albania was 1,394,310 (in 1930 it was 1,003,097). Outside Albania there are Albanians in Yugoslavia (750.000 according to the Yugoslav census in 1948), in Greece (estimated between 30-60,000) and m Italy (estimated a: 150-250,000). The number of Albanians by birth all over the world is estimated at 3 millions, (see Albania, ed. S. Skendi, New York, 1956, 50). According to the 1930 census there were 45,000 Vlachs, 35,000 Slavs, 20,000 Turks and 15,000 Greeks m Albania. Approximately 20 percent of Albania’s total population lived in towns in 1949-50. In the same year the larger towns were Tiranė, the capital, with an estimated population of 80,000 (in 1930, 30,806), Shkodėr 34,000, Korēė 24,000, Durrės 16,000, Elbasan 15,000, Vlorė 15,000, Berat (12,000), Gjinokastėr 12,000.

The Albanians are divided into two principal ethnic groups: The Gegs to the North of the Shkumbi River and the Tosķs to the South. The Turks called these two regions Gegalĭk and Tosķalĭk. Not only in their dialects bul also in the outlook and social behaviour the Gegs differ from the Tosķs. The Gegs are considered as keeping national characteristics purer than the Tosķs.

Generally speaking the barren mountains of Albania provided too little for an increasing: population to subsist. Especially when an epidemic decimated livestock, the helpless people had no choise but to emigrate or to fall upon neighbouring plains. They usually went out as mercenaries, shepherds or agriculturists.

Toward the middle of the 14th century the Albanians, under the pressure of the Serbs or as mercenaries of feudal seigneurs in Greece, migrated and settled in Epirus, Thessaly, Morea and even in the Aegean Islands. There most of the Albanians were gradually graecised, or migrated to Southern Italy under the pressure of the Ottomans later on. But about 1466 in Thessaly there were still Albanian districts in the towns as well as 24 Albanian ķatunes in Livadia (Lebadea) and 34 in Istifa (see my Fātih Devri, Ankara 1954, 146). Under the Ottomans these ķatunes had a special status and, later, are known as armatols.

When Iskender-beg died in 1468 a number of the Albanians involved in his struggle against the Ottomans either retired to the mountains or migrated to the kingdom of Naples. In 1478, 1481 and 1492 more Albanians migrated to Southern Italy and Sicily where they preserved their language and customs down to the present day.

In the 15th century the Ottoman government transferred some Albanian tīmār-holders [see tīmār] of the feudal families (Mazeraki and Heykal) to Trebizond.

No large Turkish settlement is recorded m Albania except a small number of exiles from Konya, locally called Ķonici. There are also the Yürüks of Kodjadjĭk on the mountains to the East of Dibra where they were stationed apparently to safeguard the Rumeli-Albania highway. The sürgüns (the deported), sent c. 1410 from such parts of Anatolia as Sarukhan, Kodja-ili, Djanik were also few in number (see Sūret-i Defter-i Sandjāk-i Arvanid, index).

The second significant expansion of Albanians in Rumeli occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries. They came to settle in the plains of Djaķovė (Yaķova), Prizren, Ipek (Peč), Ķalķandelen (Tetovo) and Ķossovo, especially after the mass migration of the Serbs from these areas in 1690. It seems that Albanian settlement was mostly the result of the land muķāta‘a system (see my Tanzimat nedir?, in Tarih Araştĭrmalarĭ, Ankara 1942) prevailing there in this period. Albanians came to lease small tracts of lands from big muķāta‘a owners in these rich plains and settled there as tenants permanently.

As for the VIachs in Albania, they had lived a pastoral life on the mountains of North Albania side by side with the Albanians since the Slavic invasion in the 7th century and they took part in the Albanian expansion from the 11th century onwards. In the Ottoman Register of 835/1431 we find the Vlachs and their ķatunes (Eflaķ-ķatune) in Southern Albania especially in the region east to Kanina.

The Albanian tribes to the North of the Drin River are called by the general term of Malj-i-sor (highlanders). Toward 1881 there were 19 tribes belonging to this group with a population of 35,000 Roman Catholics, 15,000 Muslims and 220 Greek Orthodox. The most famous tribes among them were Hotti, Klementi, Shkreli, Ķastrati, Ķoēaj, Pulati, living on the mountains east of Scutari.

It seems that during the Ottoman conquest of Albania from 1385 to the end of the 15th century the rebellious clans had to retire once more to the most rugged parts of the highlands. Their reappearence in the lowlands coincided later with the weakening of Ottoman control in the provinces in the 17th century, and, later on, they became “the terror of Rumeli”.

 

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From the beginning the Ottoman government had to respect the tribal organisation and autonomy of these tribes. As they had actual control of the important mountain passes from Rumeli into Albania the government charged them with the guardianship of these passes and in return for these services made them exempt from taxation. A regulation dated 1496 (Başbakanlĭk Archives, Istanbul, Tapu Def. no. 26) reads as follows: “The nāhiye of Klemente (Klementi) consists of five villages. Their inhabitants of Christian faith pay one thousand aķča of kharādj and one thousand aķča of ispendje to the Sandjaķbegi and they are exempted from ‘ushr and ‘awārid-i dīwānī and other taxes, but they are made derbendji (guardians of the passes) on the route Scutari-Petrishban’s territory-Altun-ili as well as the route Medun-Kuča-Plava”. Later in the 17th century the Klementi caused troubles through their depredations in Rumeli and their co-operation with the rebellious tribes of Montenegro (Karadagh).

To the south of Drin lived the Mirditė tribe, 32,000 in number (in 1881) and all Roman Catholics. They were divided into five clans called bayraķs, namely Oroshi, Fāndi, Spashi, Kushneni, Dibri. Distinguished by their service to the Ottomans against the Venetians in 1696, the Hotti were promoted to the first place among the clans. Their bayraķ headed all the others. But today the Shalė tribe is the chief.

In tribal tradition the origin of the bayraķs goes back to the Ottomans. In fact it was an Ottoman institution to give a bayraķ or a sandjaķ to military chiefs as a symbol of authority. Each clan was under a bayraķdār i.e. standard-bearer, who was a hereditary chief. The public affairs of the clan were decided in the council of the hereditary elders. In order to discuss general affairs the five clans had their annual meeting at Orosh. A bölük-bashĭ, appointed by the Ottoman governor, arranged all kinds of affairs between the administration and the clans. The “captains” of the five clans of Mirditė claimed to descend from Lekė Dukagjin who played an oustanding role in Iskender-beg’s struggle against the Ottomans. Lekė Dukagjin is believed to have codified the customary law practiced among the tribes, which is called Kanuni i Lekė Dukagjinit (A.Sh.K. Gječov, Kanuni i Lekė Dukagjinit, Shkodėr 1933).

These tribes used to send to the Ottoman army an auxiliary force composed of one man per household, an Ottoman practice which was also applied to the Yürüks and the Kurds. When from the end of the 16th century onwards the empire came to need more troops for its lengthy wars the Albanian auxiliaries seemed to gain an increasing importance. They were used especially in the local wars against the Montenegrins. The Mirditė were regarded as the bravest soldiers in Rumeli. But at the same time H. Hequard (1855) calls them “the greatest plunderers m the world” In 1855 when the Tanzīmāt administration attempted to disarm them and enrol them in the regular army they rose up and infested the Zadrima (Zadrimė) area with the result that the next year the government gave up these attempts. Later the Mirditan chief Prenk Bib Doda played an important part in the Albanian independence movement (1908). The “Republic of Mirdite”, proclaimed under Yugoslav auspices in 1921, collapsed the next year.

 

5. – Religion.

According to the Italian statistics of 1942 (see, Albania, ed. S. Skendi, 58) out of a total population of 1,128,143, 779,417 were Muslims, 232,320 Orthodox and 116,259 Catholics. The only significant Catholic group is located in the Shkodėr (Scutari) district while large Orthodox groups live in the districts of Gjinokastėr (Argyrokastro), Korčė (Körice), Berat and Vlorė (Avlona). Muslims are spread all over the country, but mostly in the Central Albania.

Albania which became attached to the Patriarchate of Constinople in 732 A.D., was split between Rome and Constantinople in 1054, the northern part coming under the jurisdiction of Rome. The Normans and the Angevins strengthened Catholicism in the country; Antivari was the seat of the Archbishop of Albania and Durazzo that of Macedonia.

Orthodox Albania was dependent directly on the Archbishopric of Ohrida. As the protectors of the Orthodox Church the Ottomans, even before their restoration of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1454, favoured Orthodoxy against Catholicism. However, for political reasons the Porte tolerated the Catholic church in Albania. The Albanian lords wavered between East and West according to the political conditions. The Orthodox Albanian immigrants to southern Italy had their own Uniate church recognising the Pope’s supremacy. According to the Ottoman year-book of 1895 there were, in the province of Yanya (Epirus and Albania south of the Devoll River), 223,885 Muslims, 118,033 Greeks, 129,517 Orthodox Albanians, 3,517 Jews and only 93 Roman Catholics. It must be added that a part of these Greeks were in origin Orthodox Albanians graecised through the Greek religious and educational institutions  which  were zealously founded beginning with the second half of the 18th century. After the independence of Albania an autocephalous Orthodox church of Albania was finally recognised by the Patriarchate (1937). The first converts to Islam were the Albanian feudal lords holding tīmārs from the Ottomans. Contrary to what is generally held conversion was not required as a condition for keeping their lands as tīmārs; allegiance to the Ottoman state was sufficient in order to receive tīmārs. Throughout the 15th century Christians were granted tīmārs. By the end of the 15th century, however, only a few Christian tīmār-holders were left because of voluntary conversions. Elbasan, built by Mehemmed II in 870/1466, became a Muslim centre from the outset, as did Yenishehir in Thessaly. It appears, however, that Islam had then only a few converts among the common people ra‘āyā. At the beginning of the 16th century in four sandjaķs of Albania (Elbasan, Ohri, Awlonya and Iskenderiye) there were about three thousand Muslim ra‘āyā families. In Catholic sources written around 1622 it was estimated that only one thirtieth of the Albanian population was Muslim. During the 17th century the Venetians and Austrians attempted to foment an insurrection of the Catholic Albanians as well as the Orthodox Serbs who were feeling hostile to the government because of an increase in the djiizyc. In 1614 at a meeting of church dignitaries at Kuči it was decided to ask for aid from the Pope. Toward 1622 the first Franciscan missionaries appeared in Albania and Southern Serbia. Albanian Catholics and the Serbs co-operated with the Venetians in 1649 and with the Austrians, in 1689-1690 which made the Porte decide to have recourse to retaliatory measures. To escape these, the Christian populations in the plains of Peč, Prizren, Djakovė and Kossovo, who were partly Albanian, migrated in mass or adopted Islam; but many of them became

 

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crypto Christians, locally called laramanė (motley). The albanisation and islamisation of these plains went hand in hand in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Conversion to Islam received a new impetus under the Bushatlĭs and ‘Alī Pasha [q.v.] of Tepedelen. According to contemporary witnesses, the latter forced a number of villages to adopt Islam. He is believed to have been a Bektāshī himself and in his time Bektāshism (see bektāshiyya) made its greatest progress in Albania. Under King Zog its adherents were estimated at about 200,000. With its prosperous tekkes in Tiran, Akčahisar (the old centre of the Bektāshīs), Berat, and on the Tomor mountain, as well as its central organisation in the capital, Bektāshism assumed importance in Albania. During the Congress of Korčė in 1919 the Bektāshīs sought to establish a community of their own, separate from the Sunnīs. This was to be accomplished only under the Communist regime in 1945.

Islam played an essential part in ottomanising the Albanians and the Christian Albanians often referred to their Muslim compatriots as Turks. On the other hand Islam prevented the Albanians from being assimilated by her Greek or Slavic neighbours. It is asserted that under the veneer of Christianity as well as Islam the primitive religious beliefs survived with the Albanians, especially in the highlands.

 

6. – History.

The Illyrian origin of the Albanian people is generally admitted, but their ethnic relationships to the Thracians, Epirots and the Pelasgians are still subject to argument. The Illyrian tribes first came into contact with Greek culture, through the Greek colonies founded on the Albanian coastland, in the 7th century B.C. The principal one was Epidamnos near Durazzo (Durrės). The lllyrians formed their first independent political organization in the third century B.C. Conquered by the Romans in 167 B.C., they were subject to strong Roman influence for centuries. The Roman highway to the Orient, Via Egnatia, started at Dyrrachium (Durrės) and followed the Shkumbi valley. Ptolemy mentions, for the first time, the Αλβανοι among Illyrian tribes and their capital Αλβανόπολις (near Croya). In the 7th century the invasion of Albania by the Slavs put an end to the romanisation of the Albanians who retired to the mountains in north Albania to live a pastoral life for half a millennium. In the 9th and 10th centuries the Bulgarian empire extended its rule over southern Albania, including Dyrrachium (Greek Dyrrachion), and toward the end of the 12th century the Serbs under Nemanja occupied northern Albania. The long coexistence with the agriculturist Slavs left a deep cultural imprint on the Albanian people. Finally, .emperor Basil II restored Byzantine rule in southern Albania, and conquered Dyrrachion (1005) which had been the capital of the Byzantine thema of Dyrrachion since the 9th century. When toward the middle of the 11th century the control of Byzantium was weakened in the provinces the Albanians came out from their mountain retreats. From this time on, the Albanians, who were then, located between the lines of Skodra (Shkodėr)-Dyrracinon and Ohrida-Prizren, are seen to be mentioned more by the contemporary sources, ’Αλβανοι or ’Αρβανίται in Greek, Arbanenses or Albanenses in Latin and Arbanaci in Slavic sources. The Ottomans first used the Greek form Arvanid and then its turcisised version Arnavud and Arnawut.

Again from the 11th century on, Albania became bridge-head for feudal Europe to attack the Byzantine empire. Dyrrachion was temporarily taken by the Normans in 1081 and 1185, and by the Venetians in 1204. Then, it came into the possession of the Despot of Epirus, Theodore Angelus (1215-1230). In 1272 Charles of Anjou occupied Dyrrachion as well as the rest of the Albanian coastland, and called himself the “King of Albania”. Tins started a long struggle between the Byzantines and the Angevins in Albania.

Anatolian Turks, as a result of their alliance with the Byzantine emperor, first came to know Albania m 737/1337. During the Byzantine civil war the Albanian Highlanders had increased their depredations in Albania, taken Timoron (Timorindje), and threatened the other Byzantine strongholds, Kanina, Belgrade (Berat) Klism’a and Skarapar. In order to establish his control in Albania as well as m Epirus, Andronicus III entered that province with an army which included a Turkish auxiliary force. It was sent by his ally Umur Beg, ruler of Aydin. The army overran the country as far as Durazzo (Dyrrachion). The rebels who retired into the mountains suffered great losses at the hands of the Turks. The Turks returned home through Thessaly and Boeotia (Cantacuzenus).

Before long Stephan Dushan occupied Albania (Croya in 1343, Central Albania 1343-1346). This seems to have accelerated the migration of Albanians into Greece. Native Albanian feudals and soldiers joined Dushan in his conquests further south (L. von Thallóczy-C. Jireček, Zwei Urkunden aus Nordalbanien, Archiv für slavische Phil., xxi, 1899, 85). The voyniks whom we later find in Albania under the Ottomans settled there apparently with Dushan at this time. When in 1355 Dushan’s empire collapsed, local feudal lords, Slav, Albanian or Byzantine in origin, appeared in all parts of Albania. Soon the Balshas (Balshići), in the north and the Thopias in the centre emerged as the most powerful of these lords. The Balshas possessed the coastland between Durazzo and Cattaro, and tried to secure control of a large area as far Prizren. They came into conflict with Twrtko, king of Bosnia, as well as with the Serbs who sought to bring this region, Zeta, again under their control. Soon the Balshas, who had already settled themselves in Avlona, Belgrade and Kanina, threatened Carlo Thopia in Durazzo. He asked for help from the Ottoman Turks in 787/1385, as their udj (frontier) units had appeared near Yannina already in 783/1381. Balsha II was defeated and killed by an Ottoman army at Savra (on the Vijosė River in Myzeqe) on 12 Sha‘ban 787/18 September 1385. This is recorded in Ottoman chronicles as the expedition to “Karli-ili”, that is “the land of Karli” (Carlo Thopia), and it is dated correctly as 787/1385. The Albanian lords, including Balsha’s heirs, recognised the Sultan’s overlordship. The Dukagjini of Alessio notified the Ragusans of their peace with the Ottomans in 789/1387. Alarmed by the Ottoman advance, Venice sent Daniel Cornaro to Murad I to protect Thopia (Ramadān 789/October 1387), but on the other hand started negotiations with Thopia to take over the city. Thus the long Venetian-Ottoman rivalry over Albania had begun. As a vassal of the Sultan, Gjergj Stratsimirović, Balsha’s heir in Scutari (Shkodėr) and Dulcigno, now wished to profit from the Ottomans in his conflict with the Bosnians. Kefalia Shāhīn (in Turkish chronicles Kavala Shahin, later Shihāb al-Dīn Shāhīn Pasha) an udj-begi and probably subashĭ of Liaskovik, embarked on a series of successful raids into Bosnia; but he was finally defeated by Bosnians near Trebinje 23 Sha‘bān 790/27 August 1388). According

 

[p. 654]

to Neshrī, this expedition was made at the request of the “Lord of Skutari” (G. Stratsimirović) who after Shāhīn’s defeat was accused of a secret understanding with the enemy. After their victory at the Kossovo plain (791/1389) the Ottomans made Skoplje (Üsküb) a strong frontier centre by settling there the Turks from Sarukhan under Pasha-Yigit (toward 793/1391). Then Shāhīn came back and drove out G. Stratsimirović from Scutari, and St. Sergius (1393-1395) who had returned to the Venetians for protection. Venice for its part took Alessio, Durazzo (1393), Drivasto (1396), all given up by the native lords for a yearly pension. The Ottomans too tried to keep the local lords on their side by guaranteeing them their lands as tīmārs. Thus Dimitri Yonima (Gionima), Konstantin Balsha, Gjergj Dukagjin as Turkish vassals all co-operated with Shāhīn against the Venetians.

The establishment of the Ottoman rule in Albania with its tahrīr (see Tapu) and tīmār [q.v.] system started first in the region of Premedi (Premetė) and Korčė (Körice). The regular Ottoman administration with its subashĭs, and ķādīs in towns and sipāhīs in villages is found there in the records going back to the time of Bayazid I (Başvekalet Archives, Istanbul, Maliye no. 231). This must have followed the Ottoman expeditions in Albania in 796/1394 and 799/1397. The Ottoman records also show that Aķčahisar (Croya, Krujė) was granted tax exemption in the same period. Albanian forces under Coļa Zaccaria, Dimitri Yonima, Gjergj Dukagjin and Dushmani were present at the battle of Ankara in 804/1402. Upon the collapse of Bayazid’s empire in 1402, many of these Albanian lords (Ivan Kastriot, Coļa Zaccaria, Niketa Thopia) recognised Venetian suzerainty. When in 1403 Georg Stratsimirović died, Venice, which had already taken Scutari, seized a part of his heritage – Dulcigno, Antivari and Budua. But his son Balsha, supported by Stephan Lazarević and Vuk Branković of Serbia embarked upon a long struggle against Venice. The latter finally reached an agreement on Albanian affairs with their suzerain, Emīr Süleyimān (19 Djumādā I, 812/29 September 1409). Then Pasha-Yigit of Üsküb forced Ivan Kastriot to submit to the Sultan’s suzerainty (813/1410). In the South the Ottomans supported Albanian Spatas against the Toccos. Finally war was declared against Venice during which the Ottomans made the real conquest of Albania from Northern Epirus to Croya (Aķčahisar) and formed the province of Arvanid-ili or Arnavud-ili (818-20/1415-1417).

The conditions which the Ottoman conquest brought into the country can be fully ascertained with the help of the details contained in the tīmār register of 835/1432 [Sūret-i defter-i Sancāķ-i Arvanid, ed. H. Inalcik, Ankara 1954). The names of various regions in the register frequently contains references to the chief feudal families who were vassals of the Ottoman, about 819/1416; Yuvan-ili (land of Kastrioti), Balsha-ili (east of Kavajė and south of Shkumbi), Gionomaymo-ili (North of Pekin), Pavlo-Kurtik-ili (the Jilema Valley), Kondo-Miho-ili (area west of Elbasan), Zenebish-ili (Zenebissi, Gjinokastėr and its surroundings), Bogdan-Ripe-ili (north of Elbasan), Ashtin-ili (Premetė). Besides these great families, many smaller Christian feudals kept some of their lands as tīmārs. Among them we may mention Dobrile (in Čartolos), Simos Kondo (in Kokinolisari), Bobza Family (Gion and his sons Ghin and Andre in the Village of Bobza or Bubės), Karli family (Matja). This kind of tīmārs constituted 16 per cent of all the tīmār-holders in Arvanid-ili. Conversion to Islam was not considered necessary for possession of tīmār. One Metropolid in Belgrade (Berat) and three Peskopos in Kanina, Aķčahisar and Čartolos were given their former villages as tīmārs. The Turkish population in the province consisted only of the military and religious personnel. The Turkish tīmār-holders with their men did not exceed 800 in number. The whole sandjaķ was distributed among about 300 tīmār-holders who lived in the villages or castles, namely, Argiriķasrĭ (Argyrocastro, Gjinokastėr), Kanina, Belgrade, Iskarapar, Bratushesh or Yenidje-ķale and Aķčahisar. Argiriķasrĭ (later on Argiri or Ergiri) became the seat of the sandjaķ-begi and in each county (wilāyet) centre there was a subashĭ and ķādī, The revolutionary step taken by the Ottoman state was that it considered almost all the agricultural lands as owned by the state, because only a system would enable it to apply its tīmār system. The peasants, therefore, must have had the feeling that they were under an impersonal central government as compared to their close dependence upon the feudal lords under the old régime.

In the north, the Ottomans supported first, Balsha III, and upon his death (824/1421), Stephan Lazerević of Serbia, against Venice, which finally had to return to Stephan, Drivasto, Antivari and Budua (826/1423). In the south the Despot Carlo Tocco died in 832/1420 and Murad II, taking advantage of the conflict between his heirs, took Yannina (Muharram 834/October 1430). After that a new land and population survey of Albania was effected (Sha‘bān 835/spring 1432) which meant  the tightening of the Ottoman admnistrative control there. This survey may be regarded as the real starting-point ot the long Albanian resistence during the subsequent decades. Moreover it demonstrates the real character of the rebellion. Firstly some ot the villages in the mountainous Kurvelesh and Bzorshek areas refused to be registered. In a few places they even killed their Ottoman tīmār-holders. Great feudal lords such as Ivan (Yuvan) Kastriot in the north, Arianites (Aranit’i, Arnit) Comnenus in the Argiriķasrĭ region, had to give up considerable parts of their lands for distribution to the Ottoman sipāhīs as tīmār. First Araniti took up arms, killed many sipāhīs in the autumn of 836/1432, and Thopia Zenebissi besieged Argiriķasrĭ. Alfonso V, of Naples, Venice and Hungary encouraged the rebels. who defeated ‘Alī son of Evrenuz, governor of Albania, at the Bzorshek pass. Encouraged by tliesc developments Christian lords in central and northern Albania joined the rebellion. Finally in 837/1434 all the forces of Rumeli under Sinān Beg, governor-general of Rumeli, combined to put an end to this dangerous rebellion which was giving hope to Hungary of a new Crusade. But Araniti managed to escape to the mountains. The additional records made after 836/1432 m the defter of Arvanid-ili indicate that the rebellion did not affect the Ottoman control of the country to any considerable extent. A great majority of the Ottoman and Christian tīmār-holders remained in possession of their tīmārs. It appears that mostly the Highlanders co-operated with the feudal families who had matrimonial connexions with their chieftains.

From 847/1443 onwards Iskender-beg [q.v.] the son-in-law of Araniti, assumed the leadership of the rebellion; his unusual energy and boldness, and thff international situation which obtained at the time, gave the movement a character of international

 

[p. 655]

significance. Setting aside the legend that has grown up around his person, it must be emphasised that the origin and the motives of his rebellion were not different from those of the other Albanian lords. Appointed subashĭ of Aķčahisar (Croya) about 842/1438, he was dismissed in 1440. He wished to recover Croya and his father’s lands in their entirety and to possess them as a feudal lord, not as a tīmār-holder. It is true that he mad’e an alliance wth other feudal families, Thopias, Balshas,. Dukagjin, Dushmani, Lecca Zaccarļa and Araniti (The Alessio Meeting, 1st March 1444), but the idea of an Albania unified by a national leader is far from reality. He controlled only northern Albania while central and southern Albania always remained under Ottoman control. Subashĭs, and sandjaķ-begs, based on Argiriķasrĭ (Gjinokastėr), Ohrida or Belgrade (Berat) tried to suppress him with local forces. He waged guerilla warfare all the time. Many of the battles described by Marino Barlezio with such fantastic figures were nothing but local clashes. Iskender-beg’s own forces seem never to exceed 3,000. By the treaty of 26th March 1451 he became vassal of Alforso V of Naples and surrendered Croya to the king’s men. Araniti, who had claims on southern Albania (Vagenetia, Valona, Kanina) followed his example. Araniti was authorised by the king to accept in his name oaths of allegiance by other Albanian lords. So Zenebissi and others also became Alfonso’s vassals. In return, the King agreed to grant a yearly pension varying between 300 and 1400 ducats to each of these vassals and to provide them a place to take refuge in case of danger. This simple change of masters was obviously determined by the fact that the Aragonese system appeared much more favourable than the Ottoman regime to the Albanian feudals. But as witnessed by a contemporary Aragonese document, “the common people had hardly any complaints against the Ottoman administration’’. (see C. Marinesco, Alphonse VIII., Mél. de I’école Roum. en France, Paris 1923, 104). A tīmār register made in 871/1466-67 included Dibra, Digobrdo, Rjeka, Mat and Čermenika (Başbakalĭk Archives, Istanbul, Maliye no. 508). It is therefore seen that after Mehemmed II’s [q.v.] expedition in 870/1466, the tīmār system was extended into these areas. Whatever his real motives may have been, Iskender-beg, who defied, in his mountains, Murad II (in 852/1448 and 854/1450) and Mehemmed II (in 870/1466 and 871/1467), was also glorified in his time as “Champion of Christ”, by the Pope, and as the Albanian National hero, by the nationalists in the 19th centurv.

During the Ottoman-Venetian war of 1463-1479 Albania became one of the main scenes of operation. Finally the Ottomans were able to take Croya, Drivasto, Alessio and Jabljak (Jabyak) in 1478, Scutari in 1479, and Durazzo in 1501. Alessio (Lesh), which the Ottomans lost during the war of 1499-1503, was retaken in 1509. After having failed in their attempts in 1538, the Ottomans finally took Antivari (Bar) and Dulcigno (Ulćinj, Ölgün) in 1571, and thus completed their conquest of Albania.

It appears that up to the end of the 16th century Ottoman rule in Albania created a peaceful and prosperous era. Most of the old feudal families then adjusted themselves to the Ottoman régime, and even one of the Aranitis named ‘Alī beg had a large tīmār around Kanina, Argiriķasrĭ and Belgrade toward 1506.

Until about 870/1466 Ottoman Albania was organised as a sandjaķ under the name of Arvanid (or Arnavud)-ili. Its subdivisions were the wilāyets. of Argiriķasrĭ, Klisura, Kanina, Belgrade, Timor-indje, Iskarapar, Pavlo-Ķurtik, Čartalos and Akčahisar. When in 1466 Mehemmed II erected the fort of Elbasan, this region was set up as a new sandjaķ.

 

[p. 656]

Moreover in the south the sandjaķ of Awlonya (Avlona) and in the east that of Ohri were created and in 1479 the sandjaķ of Iskenderiye (Scutari) was formed in the north. The following is a list established on the basis of the surveys of 912/1506 and 926/1520. (Başv. Archives, Tapu no. 34 and 94), showing the administrative and military situation in the 16th century.

[Originally this list is at p. 655]

S A N D J A Ķ S

C O M M U N I T I E S

P O P U L A T I O N S

O F F I C I A L S

and

S O L D I E R S **

TAX   R E V E N U E S

T O W N S

F O R T S

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