Cited:
“The Origin of the Arvanites
[…] the Macedonians themselves and thus they are mentioned in a report sent to the Duke of Savoy, Manuel I, in 1592. The Macedonians also mention the body that was sent to the fortress of the royal palace of Neapolis. The leader of the Arvanite corps, Captain Mertos, Tzanes Koronaios, in his entire poem refers to the “Arvanites of Karavellares” who brought Mertos from the Morea: “Pelloponnesians, Macedonians and Arvanites, he says, and some – some, for the sake of the rhyme, he calls them ‘Arvanites’, completely equating the meaning of the two terms. Often he also imitates his hero in addressing the Great Alexander, concluding thus the rhyme:
‘N’ akousis oi didaskaloi tou ‘Alexandrou tou Mega
To ti omorfo paradegma pou vgalan kai tou legan
‘Oyan vanei protos vasileus ki’ afentis tis kosmos,
‘Eleyan dos ‘Alexandron, va dis tous Makedonas.
Loi pon ekeino poileyan tou ‘Alexandrou tote,
Kai tora dos Mertsion va vlefti stratiotes.
And the national poet of the Arvanites wrote in the 15th century, Georgios Kastriotis, in the context of the exploits of Skanderbeg:
“Oi progenoi mas isan ‘Ipeirotes, apo tous opoious ekeinos o ‘Pyrrhos, sto opoio tin ormi molis pou mporesan v’ antitaxthoun oi Romaioi’ ekeinous pou polemountas ekyrieuse ton Taranta kai alles chores tis ‘Italías… ‘An lathis ip’ oti i ‘Alvania apotelei meros tis Makedonías, tha omologisis oti akoma pio eygeneis isan oi progenoi mas, pou me ton Megan ‘Alexandron etim keraflis, etroposan eos tis ‘Indies. ‘Apo ekeinous katagontai autoi pou ean eiron euontai’.”
Translation
“Our ancestors were Epirotes, from whom that Pyrrhus [came], against whom the Romans could barely resist when he attacked Taranto and other regions of Italy… If you accept that Albania is part of Macedonia, you will admit that our ancestors were even nobler, those who with Alexander the Great became famous, and advanced as far as India. From them descend those who are now called Arvanites.””
Nevertheless, the question of the origin of the Albanians constituted a problem, the solution of which began around 1770, with the linguistic works of Leibnitz and Thunmann, and by the end of the 19th century it had already given rise to various theories, often contradictory to each other. After 1900 the relevant research continued, strengthened by the contribution of linguistic science and mainly from history and archaeology. ‘The expansion of research however through these sciences, instead of giving a clear solution to the problem, complicated it even more and intensified the controversy between them. Under these circumstances, and […]
Source
καταγωγὴ τῶν Ἀρβανιτῶν” (“The Origin of the Arvanites”). p.24
