Petrit Latifi
In 1938, the Alpenzeitung published an interesting article on the history of the Zogu family. The Great Zogu was an Albanian cheiftain in the 15th century who resisted the Ottoman invasion. The Zogu clan also fought against Istanbul in 1621, and against the Montenegrins in 1852 where Mahmut Pasha Zogu fought with 11,500 tribesmen.
“King Achmed Zogu married Hungarian Countess Geraldine the Younger of the Hungarian magnate and former court marshal (Count Julius Apponyi).
The King of the Albanians descended from the old Albanian family of Zogu. One of his barons, the Great Zogu, belonged to the chiefs of the Malësia of Kosovo in northern Albania when the Turks invaded Kosovo in the 15th century. He offered them strong resistance and finally had to retreat to Albania.
Here he gained rule over the tribes of Mati, to which he later added the tribes of Gjelaj and Allaman. Under his son, the Albanians recognized the rule of the House of Zogu and the independence of the territory in return for the obligation to provide military aid in times of war. The head of the family, who from then on enjoyed a position similar to that of a count.
The Zogu clan repeatedly rebelled against the tyranny of Constantinople and fought for the exile of its tribes. Abdullah Zogu fell in 1621 in the battle against the people. The highly educated Mahmut Pasha Zogu took part in the fighting against Montenegro in 1852 with 11,500 of his tribal men.
He was later imprisoned in Constantinople when he organized an uprising in Turkey aimed at overthrowing the government. When his tribes took up arms, he was released. Mahmut Pasha surrendered to Vienna, where he asked Emperor Franz Joseph in an audience for support for the Albanian independence movement
Mahmut’s son, Jemal Basha Zogu, the father of King of Albania, was filled with modern national ideas. He called the nationalist Husseini his father and later the famous nationalist Dervish Hima was a guardian of his children. In agreement with the heads of other Albanian territories and the prominent leaders of the Albanian freedom movement, he was preparing an uprising for Albanian independence when, in 1908, at the age of 44, he was struck down.”
Reference
Balkan Academia 