Article by Faton B. Mehmetaj. Translation by Petrit Latifi

In this interesting article by Faton. B. Mehmetaj, the author states that Stefan Nemanja was from Ribnica near Podgorica, at the time, an Albanian inhabited region. Tsar Dusan is also mentioned to have had Illyrian Albanian origin.

But Pope Calixtus II, according to his chrysobull from 1119-1124, confirms that at the beginning of the 12th century, Serbia did not have an independent ecclesiastical formation. There are dozens of correspondence between Dushan and the Papacy of Rome in which Dushan is warned by the Papacy of Rome about the usurpation of Albanian churches and monasteries that he had appropriated and transformed into Orthodox churches.

In these letters, the Papacy suggests to Dushan that these churches that he had usurped should be returned. Fra Kurbini, the Pope’s rapporteur, emphasized that he had also found many Albanian clergymen in the Deçan Monastery. The Nemanja tree is egg-shaped and is carved on a marble pillar.

The king of the Albanians was also inscribed on its crown. Stefan Nemanja – the crowned king (1168-1196), in many historical sources it appears that he was born in Ribnica near Podgorica, where his father had taken refuge during the war in Raška.

The place where Dušan was born had no priests and he was baptized with the Western Catholic rites. Stefan Nemanja is considered the founder of the Nemanja dynasty, and was the first cousin of the Albanian prince, Dhimmtri, who is known as the founder of the Dukagjin dynasty.

He was from the Nemanj tribe of Dukles-Tribal. The Nemanj dynasty arose during the time of Manuel Komnen, in the state of Raška, once as a vassal, and later as a subordinate, and won independence, and expanded the borders of their state. Stefan Nemanja, before ascending the throne (1168) accepted the Orthodox (Pan-Slavic) religion. He was converted to the church of “Svetog Petra” (now in Novi Pazar), because before this date Stefan Nemanja held the Catholic religion.

According to the Byzantologist Laonik Halkokondili, Stefan Dushan (1331-1355), initially became king of the Tribals. This is also confirmed by other chroniclers of the Byzantine era, that the Nemanites and Brankovites were ethnically Illyrian-tribal-Albanian. The Brankovites-Brankovics belonged to the Gashi tribe. Their official language was the Illyrian-Arberian-Albanian of the time.

Even the legal aspect in the time of the Nemanites was regulated according to Albanian customs, there was a Council of Elders. This tradition was followed by Illyria and Rome. Nemanja was not initially a great župan but was called “dorëzon i madh” (Albanian expression-sundimtar; synonym of the expression “ruler” which was used in the Middle Ages).

As “dorëzon i madh” he had his own cavalry and people, who were his knights and nobles, through whom he ruled. This is strong evidence for the Albanian method of ruling the Nimanite dynasty in Medieval Serbia.

It is understood that the old Nemanjić dynasty, in the old historical sources and in the literature of the time, is not known as Serbia, but as Rasciae. Among other things, these data also correspond to the Coat of Arms of the Nemanjićs which was found in the archives of Vienna.

This coat of arms is actually presented as special in itself, it is presented neither as a Slavic coat of arms, nor as a Serbian coat of arms! In Latin, the Coat of Arms of Stefan Nemanja is decisively called: “Coat of Arms of the House of Nemanjić” (“Stemmae Alma Dominus Nemaniae”).

In the coat of arms of the Nemanjićs, as we said, other coats of arms are placed, such as: Coat of Arms of Serbia, Coat of Arms of Slavs, Coat of Arms of Bosnia, Coat of Arms of Bulgaria, Coat of Arms of Croatia, Coat of Arms of Raška, etc. Among these coats of arms mentioned above, the coat of arms of the Nemanjić Dynasty is placed, which has a double-headed eagle.

This coat of arms is also found in another source, in the book entitled: “Historia Serviae seu colloquia 13 de statu regni et religionis Serviae ab exordio ad finem, sive a saeculo”. Moreover, the Albanian prince Demetrius princippa Arbanensis, who came from an Albanian aristocratic family and was, as mentioned above, a cousin of Nemanja, after the fall of the Byzantine Empire (1204), swore to the municipality of Ragusa that he would live in peace with the Ragusans; that the Ragusans could freely come to his country without paying taxes.

This oath was given by his people, marked with Albanian names and with the titles “stepanus”, “sundia”, (ruler). But Orthodoxy as an ideological tool in the hands of the Slavic invaders, used for the Slavization and assimilation of the Albanians did not yield decisive results. They failed because there was a massive Albanian population here that was an integral and inseparable part of the Albanian nationality historically formed many centuries ago. In Kosovo there were no Serbs at all, but there were Orthodox Albanians and Vlachs.

So, after the Battle of Angora, Deçan fell back under the rule of the Brankovićs. Despite the conquests and reconquests by various conquerors, the “Serbs” of Kosovo are none other than schismatic Albanians (shkije), and are part of the early genesis of Muslim and Catholic Albanians.

As mentioned above, Stefan Nemanja, at first was of the Christian faith, and later converted to the Slavic-Orthodox religion. In fact, at the beginning, when he was the župan of Raška, he had fought several times against the Byzantines. Even Raška itself, which the Serbs call the “medieval Serbian kingdom”, in most historical sources appears to have been not Serbian, but Tribal (a Pelasgian tribe related to the Dardanians).

(The Tribals were a large Illyrian tribe, whose history is known since the Bronze Age, i.e. 1300 BC). Some authors extend the Tribal tribe to the Dardanian Plain and call it a Thracian tribe, but Appian calls the Tribals an Illyrian tribe. According to Byzantine and Latin sources, the Nemanj were first cousins ​​of the Albanian prince Demetrius (Demetrius princippa Arbanensis), who is thought to have been the founder of the Dukagjin Dynasty, who was born in the vicinity of Peja.

Regarding this, the Serbian scholar Lazo Kostić adds that: “The Nemanese (Nemanjits – according to him) could have ruled Byzantium, but not the Serbs” (Because there was no Serbia). Within the Nemanid dynasty there were great divisions and an unjust struggle for power. For this reason, Stefan Deçan was murdered in the Zveçan Castle by the rebels of the nobles of the new king, Dushan, with whose knowledge they had launched an uprising and had suddenly attacked the royal palace of Nerobimla.

The Serbian king, Stefan Deçan, had fled from them and had been hiding for over two months in the Zveçan Castle, they found him there and Dushan ordered his imprisonment, and on November 11 (or November 24 of the old calendar), he was killed by Dushan’s men. His body was carried with great ceremony and honors from there and placed in the Deçan Monastery, where his place had been prepared for him, earlier.

Stefan Nimani governed with the Customary Laws of the Albanians. King Dushan had his advisors, some of whom were converted Arbëror, and a leadership of priests with whom he consulted and ruled. In the Monastery of Hilandar, where he lived and died as a monk, he was signed in Albanian: Stefan Nimani. Stefan Nemanja in Hilendar is signed as “Stejan Nhmanh”.

Even Skanderbeg’s ancestors belonged to the Greek-Byzantine Orthodox Church. Skanderbeg’s father, Gjon Kastrioti, died as a monk in the Monastery of Hilandar, where he had also registered his sons. Tsar Dushan’s mother, Martja, was from Baja e Mitrovica, an Albanian of the Christian faith.

Martja was buried in her birthplace, in Banja e Mitrovica, together with her husband, Shtjefni. This information is provided by the publisher of the Banjska chrysobull of 1318, V. Jagiqi, and especially by the Montenegrin scholar Radoslav Grujiq, who writes “that the mother of King Dushan, as nun Marte, died in the year 6983 of the formation of the world, or in the year 1385 of our era”.

The author takes this evidence from the inscription on the epitaph or tombstone of Marte in Banja i Mitrovica, built of white marble, it is mentioned “immediately after the name of King Stefan Deçani, as nun queen Marte…” (original: “I EGO Krajlica monahinja Marta”), which inscription on the stone, according to R. Grujiq, was sent to Skopje from the tombs of the Banjska Church in Mitrovica in Kosovo, where King Dushan’s mother was buried, from which tomb it was removed so that it would not fall into the hands of the Turks.

The personal name or matrony Marte is still widely used by Catholic Albanians today. The village of Banjska was inhabited by Albanians, initially the inhabitants of Banjska were Albanians of the Catholic confession. With the occupation of Kosovo by the Ottoman Empire, the inhabitants of Banjska became Muslims.

The Croatian scholar Branko Horvati clearly tells us that Marta, the mother of King Dušan, was Albanian, who quotes; “The mother of King Dušan was probably Albanian”. According to the studies of the Montenegrin historian Božidar Shekullarc, who clearly shows us that “Nemanja has origins from Dukla”.

While another scholar Gaspër Gjini provides us with accurate data that; “The Church of Saint Peter and Paul in Raška was built by the Romans before the Christianization of the Serbs”. While the provincial Nemanja was a Christian according to the Western rite in Ribnica, in Duklja, where there were only Latin clergy (priests)…, and later, based on some studies, he became a Christian according to the rite of birth in the city of Ras”.

Even Nemanja’s children, Štjefni, Vukani, Rastku or Sava “remained in permanent connection with the Catholic religion until death”, because the Serbs accepted Christianity from the 9th century onwards, that is, from the years 867-874. Meanwhile, Stefan Nemanja’s first wife was called Teodora.

Gjuro Daničiqi presents the Nemanjic dynasty as having Illyrian origins. Daničiqi mentions that some of the names of the ancestors of the Nemanjic were also considered names of Illyrian origin. Also according to Gj. Daničiqi, the name of Stefan Nemanja’s wife was Ana, which name or matronymic scholars consider an Illyrian name.

For example, Milan Budimiri emphasizes: “Illyrian Ana, the typical goddess of the female gender (also known as Ana Perana). While Efimija was the daughter of Stefan Nemanja who he had with his wife Ana. While the well-known scholar[1] Radoslav Katičiqi considers the female name Ana among the Illyrians among is a “characteristic Illyrian name of this type”.

All historical facts show that the Nemanjics, according to genealogy, were Illyrian-Albanians assimilated into Slavs, respectively into Serbs or Montenegrins. Also, according to Gj. Daničić, the name of Stefan Nemanja’s wife was Ana, which name or matronymic scholars consider an Illyrian name.

While the well-known scholar Radoslav Katičić considers the female name Ana among the Illyrians among the “Characteristic Illyrian names of this type”. All historical facts show that the Nemanjics, according to genealogy, were Illyrian-Albanians assimilated into Slavs, respectively into Serbs or Montenegrins.

Stefan Dushan belonged to the Albanian Orthodox rite, which became famous with the support of other Albanian princes. Dukla, Moraça and other surrounding places where the Nemanjić family had established its state, were Illyrian with almost no other mixture of the population. Albanians until recent times, but even today, consider the grave of Stefan Dushan as a good grave – with a saintly character, to which our mothers and grandmothers often sent their children to the good grave in the Church of Deçan, where during the visit ceremony they performed a series of magical rituals, according to old beliefs in order to positively influence the child or adults who had gone to seek help.

The population of Deçan considered Stefan Dushan as their own, because he was of Albanian origin, but after he adopted the Orthodox religion, the concepts political and social beliefs differ from those of the Catholic religion, just as the concepts of many Albanian leaders would change after the arrival of Turkey in the Balkans. Even Ana, Dushan’s second wife, was of Arbër origin.

The bad thing was that the rulers from the Nemanjić Dynasty maintained very close ties with the Orthodox Church of Hilandar, which was located in Greece, but also with the Church of Deçan and Peja, which were located in Kosovo, these churches that supported Dushan in converting Christians to Orthodoxy and destroying villages that did not obey. Also, the Monastery of Peja, which was the seat of the Serbian Patriarchate (1346-1556 and 1557-1766) was in close relations with the Albanians of the mountainous area of ​​Rugova, which became the refuge of Patriarch Arsen IV, in 1737, at a time when he was being pursued by the Turks.

If we look carefully at the historical sources of the time, as well as the archaeological findings, it is clear that we are dealing with the Serbian appropriation of the monuments of the Illyrian-Albanian cult of the Roman and Byzantine periods, a phenomenon that has become a practice since the time of the Nemanjic rule (from the beginning of the 13th century) and that has continued to this day, where many monasteries and other medieval objects in Kosovo, which the international community without any basis listed as part of the cultural heritage of Serbia.

Stefan Nemanja, unable to rule, destroyed a large part of the old Illyrian cities, such as the old Illyrian city in Montenegro, Shacin. Dushan also burned the church of “St. John” in Albania, which was built in the 10th century.

THE CODE OF DUSHAN WAS FOR THE ASSIMILATION OF THE ALBANIANS

In addition to colonization, the Serbian kings, and in particular Tsar Stefan Dushan, implemented a policy aimed at the assimilation of the Albanian populations of the territories conquered by him. Repression and persecution in the religious field were chosen as the most effective in this regard.

The main basis for the assimilation of the Albanian population during Dushan’s period was the Code of Dushan. Entire chapters of Stefan Dushan’s code and special orders of the Serbian Tsar provided for strict measures, such as confiscation of property, branding, expulsion and even the death penalty for Catholic and Orthodox Christians who refused to convert to Serbian Orthodoxy and were not rebaptized by taking Slavic names.

In addition to archival documents, various witnesses of the time, such as the anonymous traveler of 1308, the French archbishop of Tivat, William of Ada (1332), and the Italian cardinal Guido da Padova (1350), emphasize with particular emphasis this aspect of the policy of the Serbian kings towards the conquered non-Slavic populations, which was sanctioned in medieval Serbian law, the code of Stefan Dushan (1349).

Such measures primarily affected the Albanian populations of the Catholic and Byzantine Orthodox faiths in the northern and northeastern regions, where the pressure of the Serbian state was strongest. They determined the spread of the phenomenon of religious-onomastic Slavism in certain layers of the Albanian population. This is the reason that between the 13th and 14th centuries, in addition to the numerous Albanians who bore names such as Gjin, Dede, Gjon, Progon, Llesh, there were also other Albanians in these regions, described by the documentation itself as such, who bore Slavic names or who had adapted to Slavic onomastics.

The Code of Dushan (1349) states, among other things: “If you do not listen to being converted to Serbian Orthodoxy… you will be sentenced to death”. Dushan begins the assimilation policy due to his dominant claims over the Albanian population. Through the assimilation of the Albanian-Arbërorës, he claimed to change the ethnic structure, making the non-Slavic-Albanian peoples Slavs.

Dushan was “quite intolerant of Catholics” and “did not tolerate Catholicism on a large scale”. In this regard, in 1347, Pope Clement VI reacted to Stefan Dushan, the king of Raša (Raška), for the usurpation and appropriation of the Albanian Catholic churches in Prizren, Novo-Bërdë, Trepçë, Janjevë[1], Pejë, Deçan, Deviq and Graçanicë. Part of the process of Slavization by Dushan were also the Orthodox Albanians of Kosovo, Greece, Macedonia and Montenegro.

This denationalization process had begun in the 14th century (with the Dushan Code). In the Decani chrisobula of 1330, Stefan Deçan, in order to exert pressure, ordered that Albanians be prohibited from exploiting the mountains that the ruler had given to the Decani monastery and this ban applied to the entire Altin mountains (of the later Altin Ili province).

Such situations had occurred repeatedly because there had been dissatisfaction between the Slavic and Catholic churches, even though the believers of both churches were Albanians because the medieval churches and monasteries did not belong to the Serbs but to the Albanians.

The Code of Stefan Dushan was the main document that sanctioned the economic, political and legal relations of the citizens of the Empire with the power of the Tsar and the Serbian ruling class, and included free peasant and livestock communities in the system of feudal relations, giving them as feudal property to the monasteries and Serbian feudal lords.

During the reign of Stefan Dushan, around the middle of the century. XIV the monasteries, now Serbized, of Deçan, Graçanica, Banjska, Kryengjëllit, the monastery of Hilandar on Mount Athos and alongside them the bishoprics of Peja, Prizren etc., owned a considerable part of the villages of Kosovo and other northern Albanian regions.

At this time, culture, customs, customs, education, and cultural progress in general had begun to fade since the 10th century, when the Byzantine Empire, through its missionaries Cyril and Methodius, created a church language, the so-called “Slavic language”, which was a combination of Slavic, Albanian, Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Turkish of the time. Despite the efforts to assimilate this people and the appropriation of our churches by the Serbs, the rites on various holidays in these churches were for a long time performed according to the Gregorian calendar, even though the Serbs perform the holidays and rites on these holidays according to the Julian calendar.

In the church of Sokolica, holidays were often celebrated according to the Gregorian calendar. This also happened in many other churches that were usurped by the Serbs, but the Albanian population, although converted, did not accept these rites to be performed according to Slavic Orthodox customs. For centuries, they prayed and believed as Christians even though they became Serbian Orthodox and after the arrival of the Turks they adopted the Islamic religion.

Pope Clement V had written to King Milutin, asking him to release the Albanian Catholic churches that he had usurped. In 1346, Pope Clement VI sent a letter to Tsar Dushan in which he warned him to take care and immediately stop the killing and conversion of the Albanian Catholics of Deçan and the surrounding area of ​​Deçan to the Slavic religion by force. Clement VI ordered Dushan to release the Catholic churches of Deçan, Prizren, Graçanica, Novoberda, Janjevo and many other Albanian churches that had been forcibly taken over during his time.

During the reign of Stefan Dushan, in the first half of the 14th century, Albanians were forcibly forced to convert to the Orthodox religion of the Serbian rite. According to Dushan’s code, any other religion except the Orthodox religion of the Serbian rite was forbidden in this region and the general conversion of the population to this religion was ordered. In the Code of Dushan (1349), among other things, it is read:

“Regarding the Latin heresy…, if anyone does not listen to being converted and returning to the true faith, he will be sentenced to death, as prescribed in the books of the Holy Fathers, The true believer king must eradicate from his state every trace of heresy… Heretical clerics of a foreign communion who attempt to proselytize will be seized, sent to the mines, or banished.

Heretical churches will be consecrated and entrusted to true clerics… The archpastors of the great churches must convert the Latins in every city and village. Every Christian must be converted to the true faith as the apostles and holy fathers command… If a Latin cleric is found attempting to convert a Christian to the Latin faith, he will be put to death…

If a half-believer is found who has secretly married an Orthodox woman, he must be baptized according to the Orthodox manner; if he does not listen to being baptized, his wife, children and house will be taken away from him, he will be reduced to misery and forced to emigrate… If a heretic is found living among Christians, he will be branded on his face and expelled, the one who hides him will suffer the same thing”.

For those who did not accept, strict measures were foreseen such as sequestration of property, emigration, branding and even the death penalty. The Nemanjs governed according to Albanian customary law until 1354, when Tsar Dushan issued his own code, which was used with relics of Albanian customary law.

The code claimed to limit the old Albanian customary law and regulate the legislature and legal life according to the Byzantine example. The Serbian hegemonism of Dushan and his rulers ended in 1389, when the Nemanjic state was overthrown. At this time, the Albanian population had returned to docks that have been preserved until that time among Albanians.

THE CONVERSION OF RELIGION AMONG THE ALBANIANS WAS FORCED BY THE SERBS TO CHANGE THE ETHNIC STRUCTURE

Since the period of Dushan, who through his canon, had undertaken a fierce campaign to change[1] the religion of the Albanian population and convert them to Slavic Orthodoxy, Albanians have changed their religion several times throughout history by force. Regarding this truth, the Bishop of Skopje, Pjetër Karagić, the Archbishop of Tivat, Vinqenc Zmajević, and the Bishop of Kotor, in their reports sent to the Vatican from 1700-1708, pointed out the great oppression of the Patriarchate of Peja and the Serbian Orthodox clergy, which they inflicted on Catholic Albanians who were caught between two fires, Turkish oppression and Serbian oppression, so that Catholic Albanians were forced to convert to Serbian and Muslim faiths.

The Serbian Orthodox Church, which accepted the vassalage of the Sultan, tried in every way to continue to Serbize Orthodox Albanians, and to convert Catholic Albanians to Orthodox. In the book of the Serbian historian Jovan Radonić there is a lot of information about the territory of the Orthodox Church in Kosovo and Montenegro towards Albanian Catholics, who were forced to convert to the Orthodox religion in the majority, or to the Muslim one, to escape from the oppression of the Orthodox clergy with the Patriarch of Peja at the head.

Reference

https://gazetademos.com/car-dushani-ishte-me-origjine-nga-fisi-ilir-tribal/