In the eighties, due to my great interest in the Albanian past and research into the heroism of Skanderbeg, I was sentenced by the then Yugoslav government to 4 years of hard labor, which I served in the infamous Idrizova prison in Skopje.
This study of mine has been prepared and is mainly related to the claims of some Greek-Serbian-Slavic historians about the origin of Skanderbeg and his mother Voisava. After a long time of research, deciphering and studying documents in the Istanbul Archive, I managed to support myself at the University of Skopje, before the special commission formed only by Macedonian historians, researchers of the time of Skanderbeg, with numerous facts and arguments and in the most scientific way, and defend the topic of my postgraduate studies entitled: “Skanderbeg in Ottoman and Byzantine sources”, which also includes his origin from both his mother and father.
The new documents that I discovered in the Istanbul Archive, which speak of the Albanian origin of Gjergj and his parents, helped me to keep the commission formed on that occasion, of the University of Skopje, speechless and speechless.
Kastrioti’s mother, in Serbo-Slavic-Macedonian writings, is always presented with the name Voisllava (Slavic) and not Voisava or Veisava; which is a Slavicized name. In Latin and Old Slavonic, the name of Skanderbeg’s mother is deciphered and read as Voisava or Viosava and cannot be read as Voisllava, because in the original name in Latin and Old Slavonic, the letter ,, LL,, is not marked.
Since the name of Skanderbeg’s mother; Viosava-Voisava-Vjosava cannot be read and deciphered as Voislav, (Slavic) I have also taken and analyzed Barlet’s translation into French of the 18th century where the name of Skanderbeg’s mother is translated, deciphered and noted as Veisava and not Voislav.
Here are the sources that speak about the origin of Skanderbeg’s mother that politicized historians do not want to take into account.
1. Gjon Muzaka, a contemporary of Skanderbeg and a good connoisseur of the Albanian aristocracy of that time, in his “Genealogy” mentions the mother of Gjergj Kastrioti-Voisava in three places, but he, knowing and being certain that she and her father came from a purely Albanian region, “Pollog of Dardania”, and that they were all of Albanian origin, did not see it reasonable to speak about their origin or ethnic background.
Muzaka writes that Gjon Kastrioti and Voisava Tibalda had four sons and five daughters. Then below he notes that Skanderbeg’s mother and Gjon Kastrioti’s wife was called Voisava Tribalda. Gjon Muzaka also talks about Voisava in the part where he says that Skanderbeg is descended from parents Voisava and Gjoni, and that Voisava was the daughter of an aristocratic and highly respected family of Polog – the Tribalda family.
Muzaka, never and nowhere in his writing, questions the Albanian origin of Voisava because he knew and was clear that Polog at the time of Bardhyl, Agron and Teuta was part of Illyrian Dardania, and that it had always been inhabited by Illyrian-Arbëri, and even during the Byzantine, Ottoman, Tsar Dushan periods, and even today, it continues to be 99% inhabited by Albanians.
Fan S. Noli, in his work on Kastrioti, says that Gjon Muzaka is the first author to mention the surname of Skanderbeg’s mother – Tribalda. So Muzaka was the first to inform us that Voisava’s maiden name was Tribalda, which was also the surname of her father Gërgur, the prince of the principality of Polog.
-Kristo Frasheri, our very famous historian, says that Voisava’s Albanian ethnicity was well known and acknowledged, not only by Gjon Muzaka but also by all of Muzaka’s contemporaries, their heirs, and the wider circle of friends who surrounded the family of the prince of Polog, Gërgur Tribalda.
2. Marin Barleti, 1508, is the author and biographer of the life of Skanderbeg and, informing about George’s parents, says that his mother was called Voisava, who was the daughter of one of the most famous princes of the Tribalda family of the Principality of Polog and who was the prince and ruler of this Albanian province until the time when the entire Balkans was conquered by the Ottomans.
Barleti, knowing and having it clear that the province of Polog belonged to Illyrian Dardania and that all of Dardania has been Albanian since Illyrian times, then continued as an Albanian province even in the times mentioned above, did not see it reasonable to deal with her national affiliation and origin or to ask questions about which ethnic affiliation her family tree belonged to.
3. The Bulgarian author, Ivan Ivanov, in his work “Bulgarian Antiquity”, 1990 Sofia, says that after the murder of Prince Vukashin by the Ottomans in 1371 at the Battle of the Maritsa River, his son, King Marko, continued to rule the part of present-day Eastern Macedonia (Strumica, Kavadarci, Gevgelija, Shtip), while the part that is today called Western Macedonia continued to be ruled by the prince of Polog named Gregory, who became the ruler of Polog after the destruction of the Serbian Empire and the weakening of the Byzantine Empire.
From this data it appears that Voisava’s father-Gërguri ruled the principality of Polog much earlier than these lands fell under Ottoman rule and it can be assumed that Polog was conquered soon after the conquest of Skopje in 1392, the time when documents mention Gërguri as the lord of Polog and the border of his state northwest of Polog.
Together with other Serbian princes of the Balkans, Vuk Branković and Krali Marko, as well as the empowered Albanian princes of the generous Albanian families of that time, Thopia, Skurra, Muzaka, Arianiti, Ballsha, Kastrioti; even the prince of Polog-Gërguri, agreed to temporarily become a vassal of the Sultan in order to remain ruler of the Albanian principality of Polog.
To confirm what we said above, we must explain once again that after the death of Tsar Dushan and the destruction of the Serbian empire, the Albanian feudal lords we mentioned above began to rise and strengthen their principalities at a great speed, a time when Voisava’s father-Gërguri was one of those Albanian feudal lords who became powerful and ruled with Pollog until 1392, when Pollog, together with Skopje, fell under Ottoman rule.
4. Boban Petreski, professor at the University of Skopje, in his writings cites having researched and analyzed authors such as: Ivan Ivanov, “Bëlgarski starini od Makedonija”,; Mihajlo Dinić, “Oblast Brankovića”,; Milan Šuica, “O Cezaru Gerguru”, where he found and confirmed that Tribalda is the personal surname of Voisava, her father Gergur and their wider family and has nothing to do with the Tribal tribe, which tribe never extended into Illyrian Dardania where the Polog region lies today.
Petreski, with the arguments he presents, has managed to successfully sever the connection of Voisava and her father Gërgur with the old tribe of the Tribals, which discovery is more in the service of Albanians and does not help Serbs, Greeks and Macedonians to connect the origins of Voisava and Gërgur with the Slavs.
The second document that Petreski cites is that she was the daughter of Gërgur, the king of Polog, which we claim is completely acceptable to us Albanians because there are very strong documents, that indeed at the time we are talking about, Gërgur was the king of Polog, but the name Gërgur is Albanian, even today it is used in Kosovo as a surname and tribal name and has never been used and is not used today by the Slavs.
To the east of Polog, there is an Albanian village named “Gërgurnica”, which is the name of the Albanian prince, Gërguri… where the center or castle of his principality was located.
Such knowledge that we obtain from the information of the given sources, where it is noted that Voisava’s father was a king or prince of the principality of Polog, it appears that he ruled with Polog until the time when the Ottomans arrived here.
The data confirm that the Polog region did not fall under the Turks after the battle of the Marica River in 1371, the battle of the Savra Field in 1385 in Albania, nor after the battle of Kosovo in 1389. The Polog region, a territory that stretched from the place called “Karpallak”, near Skopje and Zhelinë, north of Polog to the top of Mount Bukoçë between Kićovo and Gostivar, in the south.
This territory therefore falls under the Ottomans immediately after the capture of Skopje in 1392, the time when even in Ottoman documents the lord of Polog is mentioned as having been a prince named Gërguri, who turns out to be the father of the only daughter named Voisava.
A very valuable document that mentions Voisava as the daughter of the king of Polog, named Gërguri, is also a letter written by the hermonk Mihal from the Leshka Monastery in Polog, which is written in Old Slavonic in 1366. This monastery continues to exist today under the same name in the north of Tetovo. The document states that “Priest Mihon of the village of “Debrishte” in Polog left us a note about Voisava, the daughter of the king of Polog, named Gërguri, that she donated a large mountain with many oaks to the “Leshka” Monastery. (Stari srpski zapisi, L. Stojanović, Belgrade, 1982)
No matter how much those who write and talk in vain about the non-Albanian origin of Voisava Tribalda search and research, they will not be able to find any Greek or Slavic family in the Balkans with the name Gërgur. On the contrary, in Kosovo we still find it today as an Albanian tribe or family name, Gërguri, among the Gërgurs, such as Krasniqe, Berisha, Thaqi, Kelmend, etc.
According to the research I have done and the documents I have found in the Istanbul Archive, analyzed and compared with the documents so far, it turns out that Skanderbeg (Gjergji) was John’s and John was George’s first, meaning that Skanderbeg had the name of his grandfather. At the time when Skanderbeg’s father – John inherited and replaced his father, and came to the head of the Kastriot principality, he found the borders and territory of the Kastriot principality greatly expanded.
This principality also included the territory of the two Dibras as well as other territories outside Dibras. It was at this time, i.e. the end of the 14th century, John married Voisava, who was the only child of the prince of Polog-Gërgur, and who, together with his bride from Polog, John also inherited the principality of Polog.
Here’s what an Ottoman document from the Istanbul Archives says.
Oruc Bin Adil
He is the author of one of the oldest histories of the Ottoman state, “Tevari el Osman”, (Ottoman Histories). The two manuscripts of Orçu found in Oxford and Cambridge were published by Franz Babinger under the title “Die Fruhosmanicshen Jaherbucher des Urudsch”, Hanover 1925. The first is a history in a condensed form (Icmai tarihi) while the second is detailed (Mufassal tarihi).
Uruc bin Adil, when writing about the numerous battles against Skanderbeg, on page 96 of his work, does not mention Rumelia, as the European part of the Ottoman Empire was called, but he emphasizes very clearly that the sultan went to fight against the Arnaut Iskender (Albanian Iskenderbeg) in Albanian lands, or the country of the Albanians (Arnavud ilinden) and not the Serb or Macedonian Iskender; in Macedonia, Greece or Serbia.
On page 115, Oruç also mentions the Albanian lands as the Vilayet of the Albanians (Arnavud vilajetine). “Ali Bey, the son of Evrenoz Bey, he says, gathered the army and the akinxhinj of Rumelia and entered the vilayet of the Albanians….”
On page 121 it says that “Sultan Murat II sent the Akinci against the Albanian Vilayet and conquered the castle of Sfetigradit. The Albanian ruler Iskender escaped…”. In the original it is “Arnavud beg Iskender” where it is very clearly emphasized that Iskender was the ruler of the Albanians and not of the Serbs, Bulgarians, Greeks, Bosnians, Hungarians, peoples who were also at war with the sultan at the time of Skanderbeg. On page 123 Oruç emphasizes that “Sultan Murat II descended to the lands of Gjuvan (Gjon Kastrioti), where he plundered the Albanian Vilayet, and attacked Kruja (Akçe Hisar) but could not conquer it….”.
Source
Dr. Ilmi VELIU. Specialist of the Kastrioti period. November 26, 2018.
