Discovery by Valon Qorri. Translation Petrit Latifi

Summary

The text discusses the situation of Albanians in Greece following the Ottoman conquest. It explains that both Greeks and Albanians became rayas under Ottoman rule, although Albanians often remained larger landowners. Some Albanian nobles converted to Islam to preserve their social status and became feudal lords, while the majority of Albanians in Greece remained Christian. The author argues that Islamization was less widespread among Albanians in Greece than in Albania itself, possibly due to a stronger church organization and tighter communal life. The text also notes the migration of Albanian elites abroad and the continued insecurity faced by Christian Albanian communities.

This is an article from the newspaper “Dituria” from 1926. Cited:

“The arrival of the Turks disrupted things in Greece, as both Greeks and Albanians became rajas, all mixed up in all three categories, with the only difference being that the latter were larger landowners.

Some of the gentlemen became Muslims in order to remain with the nobles, not to suffer from the greatness and evil of the occupier. But the people themselves followed the religion of the Ottomans very little, and we find Albanian Muslims much rarer in Greece than in their native Albania; the reason perhaps is that in Greece the Albanians had found a better organized church, and a more strict communal life**, while those of the north lacked these benefits.

Those who became Muslims undoubtedly became beys and aghas, feudal lords, like those of Barduina and Lala; Satha believes that even the beys of Manja (feudal lords) borrowed their feudal system from the Albanians. Furthermore, many Albanian lords who were conquered by the Turks were forced to flee, escape and seek refuge in foreign lands.”

Footnotes:

“It seems that the total number of Muslim Albanians in Greece, at the beginning of the 19th century, was no more than 20,000 people.

G. Finlay. History of Greece B. C. 146 to A. D. 1864, new-edition, Lon-don 1897, vol VI, faqe 29.

Even the Christian Albanians, in Greece, had a more precarious situation, since many tribes had the right to bear arms, among others the five tribes of Megara.

Finlay. Op. cit. vol VI, page 30.

** See the preface in volume IV of Sathaj’s documents on the Greek community that was like a wall between the kings and the Turks, a wall that promised to keep them as a nation.”