Translation: Petrit Latifi
Summary
Dr. Nusha Zhuba, a Vatican Archives researcher living in Rome, discusses her extensive work uncovering hidden Albanian history through original documents. Born in Blinisht, Zadrimë, she traces her education from Albania to multiple Master’s degrees and a doctorate in Rome. Her books, based on Vatican reports, reveal centuries of Albanian suffering under Ottoman, Serbian, and Montenegrin rule, including forced conversions, massacres, and cultural suppression. Zhuba argues that Albanian history must be rewritten using archival evidence, challenges Serbian claims over Kosovo’s heritage, defends the indigenous Pelasgian-Illyrian origins of Albanians, and criticizes political Islam’s influence on Albanian identity and traditions.
Researcher Dr. Nusha Zhuba has been living in Rome, Italy for many years, where she earned her doctorate in “Theory of Social Research” at Sapienza University in Rome. Nusha Zhuba (Anna Hida) has been working as a researcher at the Vatican Archives for five years. This was the main reason I decided to interview Nusha about the book Albanians in the War Against Global Islam.
Nusha has done extensive research in the archives, uncovering hidden and silenced Albanian history — the history preserved in the great books of various archives across Italy. Nusha is a dedicated and passionate researcher who wants to show Albanians the stories they did not know, based on primary sources.
Honorable Nusha, you were educated in Italy, you live in Rome, and you are distinguished for your great archival work. Could you give a chronology of your education, starting from the time you have been living in Italy…?
Nusha Zhuba: I was born in Blinisht, Zadrimë – Lezhë, a village rich in tradition. It was once a very large and wealthy center, as described by Frang Bardhi, Bishop of Sapa (Zadrimë), in a report addressed to Propaganda Fide. This is the Blinisht of Princes Guljem and Vlad Blinishti, who ruled Zadrimë before Gjergj Kastrioti Skenderbeu came to power. This is the place of the first high school for boys and girls in Albania, where only Albanian was written and spoken in the years 1638–39. In my village are the oldest Albanian churches, dating from the year 1300: the Church of Saint Stephen, Saint James, the Holy Trinity, and the Assumption.
There are the old bridges of Shkina and Leka. There is the Renaissance figure Pjetër Zarishi (Zhuba), who connected Pjetër Budi and Bogdani with the new Renaissance figures. There is Nikollë Lindi, the bishop who opened Albanian schools in Sapa. It is the birthplace of Bendikt Blinishti, the Albanian representative at the League of Nations, who never stopped protesting against the massacres committed by the Serbo-Montenegrins against the Albanians of Kosovo and Macedonia in the years 1919–1923. This is Blinisht, my home, and Zadrimë, my land, with its wisdom and its traditional clothing — today a national cultural heritage on the way to UNESCO.
I studied until the eighth grade in Blinisht, then at the Pedagogical School in Shkodër, Luigj Gurakuqi University in Shkodër. At the University of Tirana I graduated in Italian language. I completed a Master’s at Urbaniana in Rome, a Master’s in medicine in Isernia – Molise, Italy, a Master’s against trafficking of women and children in Pescara, and a Doctorate in “Theory of Social Research” at Sapienza in Rome.
For five years now, I have also been a researcher at the Vatican Archives. I work with Italian trade unions on migration issues.
The books you have brought from the Vatican are “Pjetër Zarishi amid the wounds and betrayals of the time”, “From Zadrimë to Sapa”, “The Tales of an Abbot – Preng Doçi”, “The Horrors Seen by the Eyes of Lazër Mjeda.”
Yes, the above-mentioned books are based on original reports from the Vatican Archives. The latest book I have in hand is “The Hidden Corners of the Zadrimë Spirit”, where most of the book also contains reports from Propaganda Fide. The book “The Horrors Seen by the Eyes of Lazër Mjeda” is the most difficult book I have encountered so far… I had to stop writing for several weeks because the pain was too great while transcribing those words that spoke only of terror.
Mrs. Zhuba, where have you arrived with your archival discoveries and how do you see our history after such discoveries…?
Nusha Zhuba: History has always been written by the winners, and we Albanians have almost never been on the winning side. Besides that, they divided and dismembered us, but even worse, they taught us how to write history — meaning the history that suited them, to make us newcomers without history. But with the opening of our countries toward Europe, we rushed to the archives of the world, where our history is preserved in archival secrecy. Many researchers have brought a great deal of material, but unfortunately they have not been well received by our academic institutions. The work in the Vatican has been intensive, and while working on the book “The Horrors Seen by the Eyes of Lazër Mjeda”, two questions arose for me:
- “Have we Albanians been so merciless toward the Serbs – ‘Servs’ (servants)…” that in the Vatican Archives, Serbia is not recognized as a “Serb” people but as “Serv”, who harbor such great hatred toward us that throughout history we have been attacked by them. We have had them like a snake in our bosom, which has poisoned us whenever it wanted. But again I contradicted myself, because the forced conversion of Albanians to Muslims by the Turks, and from Orthodox by the Serbs into schismatics, has done its work.
This meant that they coveted us, wanted our blood, wanted to be like us, wanted our land and history, but also wanted to humiliate us, because they have always felt inferior to us. That is why they have always tried to steal our culture or imitate it by destroying us through wars and slanders, and by creating artificial states in the Balkans.
With the translations of such notes (correspondence) you bring back a forgotten time… Where have you arrived with such archival research?
Nusha Zhuba: When I read the writings of Pjetër Mazreku about the tortures in Janjevo, for about a year I did not touch those documents, because there I understood what Janjevo was, the arrival of foreign workers in its mines, how Albanian Janjevo turned into a city of immigrants, how Albanians spoke the Croatian language. They had no other choice.
The Serbs learned a lot from their Turkish brothers. When the Turks occupied Janjevo, with bayonets they would cut open the bellies of pregnant mothers to pull out the children… and the Serbs and Montenegrins did the same two hundred years later. They did not hesitate to massacre Albanians, especially Christians, even though they were Christians like them. And I understood from the writings why they hated Albanian Christians so much: by exterminating the Christians, they would exterminate the history, because for centuries history was written by Christians and preserved in the Vatican Archives and other archives.
Not long ago in Italy there began an unprecedented campaign against some Italian “hunters”, but for my eyes and ears this was not the first time, because I had read it in the Vatican Archives.
In Italy they arrested an 80-year-old man because during the Bosnian war, according to a documentary made by an investigative journalist, many rich Italians, Germans, and Americans went to Bosnia invited by Serbian circles — not to support the suffering souls in that inhuman war, but as “hunters”, hunters of humans, not animals!
They stayed in hotels and from there killed for pleasure, the younger the victim the more the Serbo-Montenegrins charged, and if they killed children the price for the killer increased even more. A business of shame and blood. But the Serbs did the same thing in hotels near the Vardar River in Skopje during the Balkan Wars — they killed Albanians for fun as they passed on the road or on the bridge, simply because they were Albanian. In the brothel hotels of Skopje they ate, drank, hunted and killed Albanian children, women and men, then disposed of their bodies in the walls of Skopje’s fortress.
Even after 100 years the Serbs played the same dirty game in Bosnia, and now the terrible murders they committed against the innocent population are coming to light, just as they have done for centuries against Albanians, and of course as they did against Kosovo in 1999 and earlier.
It is not easy to research in the Vatican Archives, because there are many documents from all over the world, and even when you find them, it is difficult to read them, because those bayonets, knives and bullets piercing the innocent flesh of children feel as if they are piercing your own heart. Albanians also suffered from the hatred of Serbs, Greeks and Montenegrins, all jealous even when Austria-Hungary took them under protection.
The suffering of Catholic Albanians was even greater: not only because they were with Austria-Hungary for the sake of Albanian national survival — which made them targets of the Montenegrins, Serbs and Bulgarians — but we must tell the truth as it was: they also suffered from their own Muslim Albanian brothers.
Our history must be rewritten, and it must be rewritten based on documents found in foreign archives. The problem is that it is not easy. Our academics cannot throw away the diplomas they received at a time when history had to be written according to the Party’s guidelines, and they will have to reject their own theses. I am sorry to say, but as long as they are alive, many of our Albanian history researchers will find it difficult to speak the truth.
I am sure that when some researchers die, no one will read their books, but they will be used “to light the fire”… I don’t want to say more about where those books will end up. I would have liked our “academics” to encourage us who have the opportunity to visit old archives, to support us because we are very dedicated researchers studying in foreign archives… but this is not happening.
At least they should stop appearing on television talking nonsense… because justice may be late, but it never forgets. We are now an army of researchers and even 100 fake academics cannot stop us from telling the truth. But besides them we also have local researchers who have never left their rooms, yet consider themselves the best, and if you touch their “corn” a little they explode… We need to change our mentality and accept the new historical findings that are in the world’s archives.
We also have a rich oral history. Our people have forgotten nothing and have transmitted their history through ballads, songs and legends. It is known that history is written by the winners, by the great powers, but if we researchers manage to find letters, writings and reports that match the word of the people, then we have made history.
In Italy they are returning to old narratives, because they are the historical truth. I know the history roughly from 1622 until today, while next year I will dedicate myself more to the Apostolic Archive (the former Secret Archive of the Vatican), to go further back in time, before the year 1600.
From “The Horrors Seen by the Eyes of Lazër Mjeda”, the “Catholic oases” of Kosovo reappear before the reader like snow that constantly shrinks and melts under the rays of the sun. It shows the painful history of Albanians under various occupations, the efforts of the occupiers to set them against each other so that Albanians of different religions could not tolerate one another.
While reading your rare translated book, I felt disappointment and great pain for the road traveled, for the difficulties experienced, for the killings, violence, looting, simply for the persecution, terror and continuous torture of a people. Do you have other discoveries in hand that the public does not yet know?
Nusha Zhuba: “The Horrors Seen by the Eyes of an Abbot” by Lazër Mjeda is a book addressed to all Albanians, but especially to these “Catholic oases”, as you call them. Kosovo was Christian, but gradually became Muslim, and often in these “oases” the hidden ones were Muslim by day and Catholic by night.
While reading these reports I found an answer to another question that tormented me: “Why have we always been poor? Why are other nations ahead in culture, language and economy?” and I found the answer in the reports I work with. Catholics suffered greatly, they had to pay the highest taxes in the empire, they were killed, burned, without any trial, their property was taken, they had to do forced labor not only for Muslim Albanian landlords, but also for local governments. Rapes were an everyday occurrence.
I remember a young woman who threw herself into the river to avoid being raped by Montenegrins and died, but even then the barbarians shot at her to kill her, even though she was already dead. They had no mercy — the Slavs, the “Servs”, they were extremely inhuman. What causes me pain are the humiliations the occupiers invented just to exploit the Albanians.
But it was not only Albanians who were lied to; the Serbs also lied to the Vatican. The Montenegrins managed with lies to conclude an agreement with the Vatican in 1860, in which they promised to help the Catholic Church, etc. But immediately this agreement gave the Montenegrins freedom to replace priests and substitute them with Orthodox popes, causing many Catholic villages to be forcibly converted into schismatic or Muslim villages, or Turkish as they were called at the time.
They also lied to the Austrians whenever they could; we see this with the murder of Father Luigj Pali. They made an agreement with the Vatican that they would pay the priests, but on the condition that they should not preach in Albanian.
The refusal to allow the removal of bodies, summary executions without law — these were some of the most inhuman tortures, especially in Kosovo. Catholic Albanians were simply cannon fodder; they were people who truly had only God as friend and protector.
In the book of Bishop Lazër Mjeda, the brutal blows of the Ottoman Empire’s occupation in 1911 appear, and shortly after, the occupation by Serbia. For Christians the same violence and cruelty continued, in different forms: under the Ottomans the violence was to make them Muslim, and under the Serbs and Montenegrins the violence was “for the Austrian fault”. Nevertheless, those Catholic “oases” remained to testify until today…?
Nusha Zhuba: The terrible methods against Albanians did not change much after 1911, after the loss and withdrawal of the centuries-long Ottoman occupation. Only the masters changed, not the methods. They were no longer called Turkish masters, but “Servs” — the former servants who had become masters of the Albanians. Every Serbian army that passed through disarmed the Albanians, and even those who had no weapons were forced to buy them from Montenegrin officials to present them as Albanian weapons.
What I have noticed, and I think that after the death of Gjergj Kastrioti Skenderbeu, the Ottomans became smart and no longer brought armies from afar, but recruited Albanians and sent them to fight — against other Albanians. Albanians did not fight against the Turk, but against themselves, because on the other side of the trench were Albanian boys dressed as Ottomans, and this lasted more than 400 years in which Albanians cut each other’s throats. Neither the Turk nor the Serb was ever satisfied, because they had chosen the old law for the extermination of Albanians — the old Roman law: Divide et impera (Divide and rule).
The war against Christians was merciless by all, and they were reduced so much, but they did not disappear, and that is why we often have these “oases” (especially in Kosovo) of Christians who carried the history, defended the faith and the lands, and were not assimilated.
Besides this book which is expected to be published soon, have you managed to find in the Vatican Archives and others the historical facts about who the “schismatics” were, since it is clear that they were not Slav-Serbs?
Nusha Zhuba: The term schismatic refers to someone who causes or participates in a division, that is, a formal split or rupture within a religious organization, separating from the established authority and the community of the mother church. So schismatics are not only those who divide, but also those who separate from the mother church (the Catholic one).
There is much talk about schismatics throughout Albania. In 1626 many Albanian Byzantine-Latin people in the south became schismatics after the monks of Mount Athos rushed into Albanian lands, especially in Himara and southern Albania, to convert them to Orthodoxy. The schismatics of southern Albania were forced to adopt the Orthodox faith.
The schismatics were Slav-Serbs, but unfortunately there were also Albanian Christians and Muslims who joined the schismatics. We can easily distinguish them today, especially by old Albanian names to which the suffix “vić” has been added, or by surnames. So far, archival research has given us a lot. We were told that we had no alphabet, we were told that our alphabet dates to 1908. A big mistake. The archives tell us different things.
The Arbëresh Renaissance figures never stopped searching and researching. In the books of Skiroi in the Vatican and of Francesco Maria Da Lecce I read that we had an alphabet, and it was from 1635 — this was never told to us. In Propaganda Fide there are many letters sent in Albanian with this alphabet. And this matches the hidden truth, because Frang Bardhi, a student of those years at the Urbaniana University of the Vatican, wrote the dictionary, and later Pjetër Budi, Pjetër Bogdani and Pjetër Mazreku would write entire books in Albanian.
The alphabet of that time consisted of 28 letters, and the Arbëresh scholars in many of their books dedicated to the language tell us that this 1635 alphabet was prepared by Propaganda Fide. And personally I asked them about this and they confirmed it with the words: “In the places where Propaganda Fide had missionaries, and there was no Latin alphabet, they proposed an alphabet. We Albanians were not allowed an alphabet; we were not allowed by the Ottomans to write with the old Albanian alphabet.”
Did the old Albanian alphabet exist?
Nusha Zhuba: Yes, because out of the 28 letters of this alphabet, six were taken from the old Albanian alphabet. This is what the books in the Vatican say, so the Albanian alphabet existed even earlier — otherwise where did Propaganda Fide take the letters for the Albanian alphabet? Six letters from the Albanian alphabet are Pelasgian letters.
So we had an alphabet even older than the one of 1635, because six letters of the Albanian alphabet were taken from there. Of course Rome was forced to create a new alphabet, not only for printing purposes or for the convenience of Latin printing houses, but also because the Turk could not stop Albanian books that could only be printed outside Albania. It was in 1901 when Austria told the Bishop of Shkodër, Guerrini: “Either create a single alphabet (many alphabets had appeared; the Turks wanted their own, the Greeks their own, the Serbo-Montenegrins their own), or we will no longer finance you.”
The Congress of Manastir (Bitola) was financed by the Austrians, because the time had come for a new alphabet. The crossed Latin-Albanian alphabet no longer met the needs of writing, because we had more than 28 phonemes.
Archival research does not limit you to one single geography of the Illyrian Peninsula, but gives you the most information, whether about the geographical space of today’s Montenegro, about the periods of loss of the Albanian language and Catholicism and the transition to Slavic Orthodoxy. Do you have data and notes about this tragedy of those inhabitants?
Nusha Zhuba: In the Vatican Archives the Albanian space is divided into many dioceses, all called Albanian; from Janina to Tivari (Bar), Skopje, Prizren, Mitrovica and Niš. Serbia has only 5 collections of reports in the Vatican (very few), and even these are nevertheless about Albanian-speaking areas. This means that the archdioceses had their own territories, all inhabited by Albanians with well-defined borders, and all the reports in the Vatican speak about Albanians as the masters of those lands.
Serbian historiography emphasizes a fact, or rather a historical appropriation, that the old churches and monasteries of Dardania, such as the Monastery of Deçan, Gračanica, the Patriarchate of Peja, etc., “are Serbian”. What do the archival sources say about this, if you have researched them?
Nusha Zhuba: In the reports sent to the Vatican there is also information about baptisms and confirmations, but most reports represent the social side of Albanians, the historical side, borders, etc. We know that after the division between Rome and Byzantium, Albania remained under Byzantium for a long time, with the exception of some areas. From the fourth century AD the Basilians were formed. Around the year 1004 they came and spread in the Balkans and southern Italy; they were of the Byzantine-Latin rite and were led by Albanian priests.
(Today Grottaferrata is the Vatican of the Albanians, because in the Basilian order knowledge of the Albanian language is a requirement — if you do not know Albanian, you cannot enter that Order.)
In one of his reports, Abbot Doçi says that Lekë Dukagjini himself took the head of Saint Alexander from Deçan and brought it to Orosh. This means that until the time of Gjergj Kastrioti, that monastery belonged to the Arbënorë, even though Car Dušan, a “Serb” – Schismatic king of Albanian origin, is buried there.
This means that the Church of Deçan and other churches were Albanian. Of course other Arbënor churches and the Patriarchate of Peja need to be studied more, and for this the Secret Archive of the Vatican should be visited, where there should be more data, but the Monastery of Deçan has been a Basilian monastery since the year 1004.
Once and still today Serbian historiography slanders that “Albanians are newcomers” in the regions of Dardania, while now even Albanian “Islamists” say this, claiming that it was the Ottomans (the Ottoman Empire) who brought the Albanians to Dardania. What do the archives say about the history of Arbëria and the Arbënorë, about the history of the Dardanians…?
Nusha Zhuba: So far I have not encountered these expressions or words in the Vatican reports — who should be called “newcomer Albanians” — when in all reports it is stated as follows: From Janina of Albania, from Antibari (Tivar) of Albania, from Prizren and Gjakova of Albania, from Uscubi (Skopje) of Albania, etc.
There is no need for comments. In the books of the Apostolic Library of the Vatican there are books sponsored by academies that are against our culture and history, by researchers who for centuries tried to present the Serbian language as “Illyrian”. But how can Serbian be an Illyrian language when it is well known that the “Servs” came to the Balkans in the 7th century, while the Pelasgian-Illyrian language was spoken and transmitted from generation to generation only by Albanians.
Various researchers tried to give Albanian origins a direction from the Caucasus; this was initially also accepted by some Albanian researchers, but this thesis had no scientific basis. From many Albanian bishops, one often finds in the Vatican Archives reports requesting books in the Illyrian language, although personally I have not yet found such a book in the archives.
In the Apostolic Library we have books where it can be seen that various researchers tried to present the Albanian language as a daughter of Slavic. This, as we said above, continued for several centuries, but this thesis has been lost in the Vatican Archives over the centuries. However, it has penalized us as researchers, because when searching in the world’s digital archives, every Albanian word we write also appears in Serbian, meaning that the Serbs presented the Albanian language “as Serbian” – Illyrian, making it very difficult to find old Albanian history.
Albanians are descendants of the Pelasgians and Illyrians, and they are indigenous in these lands where they live today. If we were newcomers, world history would have written these data and evidence, just as it has written about the Serbs and Slavs who are newcomers to the Illyrian Peninsula, but no connection can be found with the Albanians of the Caucasus. If that were the case, then the Albanians of America would also have to be considered Albanian.
How do you see Political Islam today and the content of this Islam that does not know Albanian history, culture and traditions…?
Nusha Zhuba: I experience it very badly. I am not against any religion because in theory religion should be a school, it should be education.
I want to tell you only one thing: In the book “Disagreements between Italy and Austria”, which speaks a lot about the Balkans, in 1870 Macedonia had eliminated illiteracy — of course everyone knew how to write in Slavic — while we Albanians were not allowed even a magazine in the Albanian language, let alone talk about literacy. In the same book it spoke about the boys of Shkodër, while Catholic boys had taken the world with their studies; Muslim boys of Shkodër were not allowed any kind of school.
The fear of the Ottomans of an Albanian awakening through education was so great. When we understand today how much we Albanians lost because of the Ottomans, there is no need for comments. What bothers me at this time is something else. Every person makes their own choices and no one has the right to interfere in another’s life. But a radical transformation, especially of Albanian women, makes me wonder.
I have known women from Macedonia who had finished university there and were normal like all European women, but when I saw them after a few years I no longer recognized them, because they were dressed like old women “in black sacks”, and looked like Arabs! I am not against Muslims, but if you want to be Muslim, wear your national clothes, not the sacks of the Bedouins, because they wear them in the desert sand to protect themselves from the heat, while we have a different level, culture and climate.
While often working as a mediator, Albanian women confide in me about their lives, and my soul hurts when they tell me: “I was forced by my husband or son to dress like this”… This kills me. Unfortunately, Islam is being used a lot by our politicians too. They abuse in the name of interfaith brotherhood to show the world that we get along with each other or just to win one more vote, but I have not heard any politician appear on TV and speak against the scoundrels who fearlessly say that Gjergj Kastrioti Skenderbeu was a traitor.
These politicians not only tolerate the Arab clothing of Albanian women, but they tolerate endless nonsense from the websites of imams. Whoever says that Gjergj Kastrioti Skenderbeu was not Albanian and that he was a traitor should be personally denounced. This has not happened yet with any of our politicians.
Here among us everyone speaks nonsense, approaches the weak by indoctrinating children and youth to become kamikazes of freedom, thought and European rights — of which we have been inhabitants since Pelasgian times, and why not even predecessors of this culture…
It is true that we also have our blood in Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, because both the Ottomans and the Serbs wanted the extermination of the Albanian people and forced displacements toward those countries, but this does not oblige us to call the Mongol or the Bedouin our brother. The world has moved forward and globalization has brought fast means of communication, which many imams exploit with these technical achievements, speaking nonsense that makes you vomit.
But when you ask a Muslim why this phenomenon, they answer: “Leave them, these people (imams) are ignorant…” I believe that we are the ignorant ones for listening to those sermons. They create public opinion, so you and others can call them ignorant all the time. Something else: the world is experiencing a civil war between Shiites and Sunnis, a war between the work of Allah followed by Sunnis and the blood of Allah followed by Shiites… War, but no protest from Muslims, neither when the people were being killed in the squares of Tehran, nor when Tehran’s officials were being killed… it is enough to reduce the Shiites… thinks the other Muslim side!
The Albanian people are a people of peace; we never attacked anyone, we never imposed our culture on anyone, but since the time of Dodona many peoples have taken our culture. Time, occupations, terrors and temptations forced the Albanian to change religion, name and homeland. But today I do not understand why we should transform ourselves to follow a religion, especially when it is known that Constantine the Great himself was a Dardan (Kosovar) and gave religious freedom to the world.
Where Aurelian was a Dardan who built Rome, Justinian, a Dardan who taught justice to the world, because that justice Justinian knew from the customs of his own land — the justice that the Albanian people practiced since the world was born.
Do you think that after the many archival discoveries — discoveries that do not allow different interpretations because they are based on facts and evidence of the time — Albanian history should be rewritten…?
Nusha Zhuba: History must be rewritten. Every city and village must rewrite its own true history with the data extracted from the archives and family memories, which must be collected, systematized and verified by specialists — not by those who come out and distort history only for someone else’s interests, only because they are paid by someone, and not to divide history according to the borders we have today.
Albania in the Vatican documents stretches from Parga to Antibari (Tivar), without dividing it into Kosovo and Albania, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, because if we divide it, others will easily divide us. Albania in the Vatican documents is from Parga, from Niš and Mitrovica — facts and evidence to give a new reality and dimension to the history dictated so far by neighboring countries in order to distort our truth and appropriate it for their own benefit, as they have done for centuries.
Interviewer: Gjergj – Bajram Kabashi
P.S.
The interview was conducted for the book: “Albanians in the War Against Global Islam”.
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