Excerpt from the book “A Short History of Russia and the Balkan States” by Wallace, Donald Mackenzie, Sir, 1841-1919.

Abstract

The text describes the origins, society, and characteristics of the Albanian people. It presents Albanians as one of the oldest populations in southeastern Europe, possibly descended from ancient Illyrians and related groups. The population is divided mainly into Ghegs in the north and Tosks in the south, who differ in customs and temperament. Albanians preserved their language and traditions despite foreign influences and migrations. Strong social customs include blood feuds, strict hospitality, and clan-based tribal organization, especially in northern mountain regions. Some Albanian communities settled in Greece, Italy, and elsewhere during historical migrations. Northern tribes maintained considerable autonomy under Ottoman rule, governed mainly by traditional laws and hereditary leaders.

Cited:

“The Albanians appear to be the oldest race in southeastern Europe. History and legend provide no records of their arrival on the Balkan Peninsula. They are probably the descendants of the earliest Aryan immigrants, who in historical times were represented by the related Illyrians, Macedonians, and Epirotes; Hahn believes that the Macedonians and Epirotes formed the core of the pre-Hellenic Tyrrhenian-Pelasgian population that inhabited the southern part of the peninsula and extended its boundaries as far as Thrace and Italy.

The Illyrians were also “Pelasgians,” but in a broader sense. Of these related races, which were described by Greek writers as barbarian or non-Hellenic, the Illyrians and Epirotes were, in his opinion, the respective ancestors of the Ghegs or northern Albanians and the Tosks or southern Albanians.

The Via Egnatia, which Strabo (VII, Fragment 3) describes as the boundary between Illyrians and Epirotes, corresponds practically with the course of the Shkumb, which today separates the Ghegs and Tosks. The same geographer (V.2.221) states that the Epirotes were also called Pelasgians; the Pelasgian Zeus was worshipped at Dodona (Homer, Iliad XVI.234), and the region around the sanctuary was called Pelasgia (Herodotus II.56).

The meaning of the term “Pelasgians,” however, is too obscure to serve as the basis for ethnographic speculation; by the time of Herodotus it may already have referred to an epoch rather than to a people. The name Tosk may be identical with Tusens, Etruscus, while the form Tyrrhenus may possibly be preserved in Tirana.

The large number of Slavic place names in Albania, even in districts without a Slavic population, bears witness to the extensive Serbian and Bulgarian migrations in the early Middle Ages. The original inhabitants, however, gradually expelled or assimilated the intruders. The determination with which this remarkable people has preserved its mountain stronghold over the centuries has received little recognition from the outside world.

The Montenegrins have been praised by writers of all countries; the Albanians remain, apart from Byron’s eulogy of the Suliotes, still unsung. No less remarkable is the persistence with which isolated sections of the nation have preserved their special characteristics, language, customs, and traditions. The Albanians in Greece and Italy, although separated from the main stock for six centuries, have not yet been assimilated by the surrounding populations.

The Albanians, both Ghegs and Tosks, call themselves Shküpetar and their country Shhupenia or Shhäperia, the former being the Gheg and the latter the Tosk form of the word. Shhupetar has been interpreted in various ways. According to Hahn, it is a participle of skkyipoij, “I understand,” meaning “one who understands the native language”; others interpret it, less probably, as “rock-dweller,” from shhep, shhip, North Albanian sklamp, “rock.” The designations Arber (Greek Andanitēs, Turkish Arnaout) for the people and Arbenia or Arberia for the country are also used by the Albanians, though less frequently. A district near Kroša is locally known as Arbenia; the Tosk form Arberia strictly refers only to the mountain region near Avlona.

The area inhabited by a more or less homogeneous Albanian population may roughly be defined by a line running from the Montenegrin frontier at Berane to Mitrovitza and the Serbian border near Vranya, and from there through Usküb, Prilep, Monastir, Florina, Kastoria, Iannina, and Parga. These limits, however, by no means include all members of this widely scattered people.

The Albanians in Greece, whose settlements extend through Attica, Boeotia, the Corinth region and the Argolid peninsula, as well as southern Euboea and the islands Hydra, Spetsae, Poros, and Salamis, descend from Tosk immigrants of the 14th century. They played a significant role in the War of Independence (1821–1829) and still furnish the best soldiers of the Greek army. Leake estimated their number at 200,000. Many still speak Albanian; many elderly men and a considerable portion of the women—even near Athens—do not know Greek.

The Albanian settlements in southern Italy and Sicily were founded in 1444, 1464, and 1468; smaller immigrations followed in the next three centuries. In southern Italy there are 72 Albanian communities with 154,674 inhabitants. In Sicily there are seven communities with 52,141 inhabitants. The Italian and Sicilian Albanians descend from the Tosks, and many still speak a variety of the Tosk dialect.

Several Albanian settlements also exist in European Turkey and Asia Minor. Some were founded by military colonists who received land grants from successive sultans; others arose through forced migrations following revolts in Albania.

The only real division of the Albanian population is into Ghegs and Tosks. The Liapen, who inhabit the region between the Viossa and the sea, and the Tshams or Châma, who occupy the coastal district south of the Kalamas, are subdivisions of the Tosks. The name Gheg (Gégé-a) is not used by the Ghegs themselves but is regarded as a nickname. The designation Tosk (Toska-a) is restricted by the Tosks to the inhabitants of a small region north of the lower Viossa (Toskeria).

National Characteristics

While the other primitive peoples of the peninsula were either Hellenized or Latinized, or later assimilated by Slavic immigration, the Albanians remained largely unaffected by foreign influences. They preserved their original language and the customs and institutions of remote antiquity and represent a distinct type. They differ in many essential respects from the other peoples of the peninsula.

The Ghegs, despite their wild and lawless character, their superstition, ignorance, and predatory tendencies, possess remarkable qualities rarely encountered in eastern Europe: they are simple, brave, loyal, and sometimes capable of devoted affection. These wild mountaineers make excellent soldiers and reliable followers. For a long time they provided the Sultan with bodyguards and, like the Tosks, were frequently employed as kavasses and attendants in foreign embassies and consulates in the East.

The original character of the Tosks has been modified through contact with Greeks and Wallachians; while the Gheg devotes himself exclusively to fighting, raiding, and cattle breeding, the Tosk occasionally engages in trade, industry, or agriculture. The Gheg is stern, morose, and proud; the Tosk lively, talkative, and sociable. The natural antipathy between the two populations is less pronounced than formerly, but by no means disappeared.

Throughout Albania the blood feud (vendetta, gyák, jak), the primitive principle of retaliation, is firmly established. The duty of vengeance is a sacred tradition passed down within the family, village, and tribe from generation to generation. A single murder often leads to a series of similar crimes or prolonged wars between neighboring families and communities. The murderer usually flees into the mountains or remains confined to his house for years. It is estimated that in some mountain regions nearly 75% of the population die natural deaths despite these feuds.

A truce (Bessa, literally “pledge of faith”), whether temporary or permanent, is sometimes arranged through mediation or, among the Ghegs, through clerical intervention; occasionally a general truce has been proclaimed by a special iradé of the Sultan, and the restoration of peace has been celebrated with elaborate ceremonies.

The obligations of hospitality are so strict that a household is bound to demand redress for any injury done to a guest as if he were a member of the family. No traveler can venture into the mountain districts without the Bessa of one of the inhabitants. Once this is obtained, he will be hospitably received.

In some districts—for example at Argyrokastro—a fixed blood price exists. The compensation paid by the murderer to the relatives of his victim is 120 piastres; in Khimara about 100 piastres. Once the debt is paid, friendly relations are restored.

Despite their complete subordination, women are treated with a certain respect and are often employed as mediators in settling feuds. A woman may traverse hostile territory without fear of injury, and her Bessa protects the traveler or stranger. Women accompany their male relatives to the battlefield to tend the wounded and carry away the dead.

The bride brings no dowry; she is purchased at a fixed price, and a deposit is paid at the betrothal, which usually takes place when the contracting parties are still children. It is customary for young men who are attached to one another to swear eternal brotherhood (compare the Slavic pobratimstvo). The contract is regarded as sacred, and no case of its violation is known.

The costume of the Tosk differs from that of the Gheg; its characteristic feature is the white pleated linen fustanella or kilt adopted from the Greeks. The Ghegs wear trousers of white or crimson native cloth ornamented with black braid and a short tight-fitting jacket, sometimes decorated with gold lace among the wealthy. The fez is worn by both peoples, and in the northern highlands yataghans and firearms are almost always carried.

The costume of the Mirditë and Mat tribes is distinctive: it consists of a white felt cap, a long white tunic fastened by a red belt, white linen trousers, and opinki or sandals.

Tribal Organization

The tribal organization of northern Albania is an interesting survival of the earliest form of social grouping; in many respects it may be compared with that which existed in the Scottish Highlands in the time of the Stuart kings.

The practical autonomy of the Gheg mountaineers is the result of long and successful resistance to Turkish rule. They usually pay no taxes, are exempt from military service, are unfamiliar with Ottoman law, and the few Turkish officials established among them possess no real authority. Their only obligation to the Turkish government is to supply a contingent in time of war.

The only law they recognize is either traditional custom (adef) or the unwritten Kanun-i Leks Duhajinit, a civil and criminal code named after its author Leka Dukajini, who probably lived in the 14th or 15th century.

The tribe or mal (“mountain”) often consists of several clans (phis, pharea) or baryaks (“banners”), each led by a chief or baryaktar (“standard-bearer”), who is essentially a military leader. Within each clan there are a number of elders or voivodes (Albanian aruye, plural krenete), who form a council and hold their office hereditarily like the baryaktar. They preside over the assemblies of the tribesmen, which exercise the highest legislative authority.

The clan is usually divided into smaller communities (makale), each administered by a local notable or jobar. The jobars supervise the execution of the law, collect fines, and carry out capital punishment. They communicate with the buluk-bashi, the resident representative of the tribe in Scutari, who forms the only link between the mountaineers and the Turkish government. He transmits the orders of the vali, which must be obeyed.

The tribes of northern Albania, also called Ghegeria, may be divided into seven groups:

1. The Mirdites, inhabiting the alpine region around Orosh southeast of Scutari, are the most populous and politically independent tribe, numbering about 17,000 members. As a Catholic tribe they live in an inaccessible district and have so far resisted all Turkish attempts to undermine their autonomy. Their hereditary chiefs, the Capidans, belong to the family of the Dera of John Mark (House of John Mark), which has ruled for 200 years and claims descent from Skanderbeg. In 1868 the ruling chief Bib Doda died and his son and successor Prenk was taken hostage by the Turks. The Mirdites then refused to furnish their usual contingent for the Turkish army, and eventually Prenk was restored. His ambiguous conduct, however, led to the dispatch of two expeditions against the Mirdites and the devastation of their territory. In 1880 Prenk was seized by the Turkish authorities and exiled to Anatolia. Another member of the ruling family was appointed kaimakam, but the Mirdites refused him obedience and their territory has since remained in a state of anarchy. No Muslim is allowed to reside in Mirditë territory.
2. The Mi-shkodrak group (Upper Scutari) or confederation, also known as Malsia-Madhé (“Great Highlands”), consists of the tribes of the Klement, Gruda, Hot, Kastrat, and Shkrel inhabiting the mountainous region northeast of Scutari. Because of their proximity to the capital, this group is comparatively more subject to Turkish power and pays a small annual tribute. The chiels who assess and collect the tribute form a kind of administrative council. The confederation also has an official representative council in Scutari called the Jibal, presided over by a serharde, a Muslim official.
3. The Dukajin, whose territory lies between that of the preceding group and the district of Jakova, include the Pulati, Shalla, Shoshi, and other tribes. They are more independent and wilder than the Mi-shkodrak and have never paid tribute.
4. The Puka group, known as “the Seven Baryaks of Puka,” lives on the southern bank of the river Drin. They are nominally governed by a Turkish kaimakam, who is in fact merely a spectator of their affairs.”

Reference

A SHORT HISTORY OF RUSSIA AND THE BALKAN STATES. By Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace, Prince Kropotkin. C. Mijatovich, Formerly Servian Minister in London, and J. D. Bourchier, Formerly Correspondent of The Times in S. E. Europe. Illustrated. Reproduced from the 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, by permission of the Publishers, The Cambridge University Press.