Gjergj Kastrioti (Skenderbey)

YOU WANTED SOURCES FOR THE POPULATIONS OF GREEKS IN WHAT IS CENTRAL ALBANIA! In that interval, thanks to Byzantine sources, the name Albanians is first mentioned from Ptolemy in the eleventh century and a significant part of the area they inhabited progressively but in a fairly compressed period of time came under the authority of Serbian rulers and administrators.

However, even before those conquests, areas were gifted to Slav nobles and Serbs were even chosen to lead Albanian insurgents. This happened for the first time in the ninth century when, during his imprisonment in Prespa, the Serbian Zupan, Vladimir, married Kosara, the daughter of Emperor Samuel who bestowed him with the princedom in northern Albania.

Fifty years later, the people "called out for BULGARIAN Emperor Tihomir" to lead an uprising against the Greeks in central Albania. Just before his death, Petar Dejan, an insurgent from Nis, united his warriors with insurgents from central Albania who also "cried out" for him to be "emperor". But instead of attacking, the Pravoslav soldiers defected and proclaimed Tihomir, one of their own soldiers, as their emperor. Tihomir unfortunately died in battle leaving his army under Delyan's command.

Delyan immediately began a military campaign to recover his grandfather's (Samoil's) kingdom by sending troops to Dyrrachium and, with the support of the local people, took that theme. He then sent a large army to besiege Solun. At the sight of Delyan's immense army, Pravoslav Emperor Michael IV, who at the time was waiting for him, fled in terror to Tsari Grad leaving Manuel Ivets in command of the Pravoslav army. Instead of fighting Ivets defected to Delyan's side, joining forces with the rebels.

Exploiting the panic which had risen in the ranks of the Pravoslav army, Delyan dispatched his armies in several directions. One, led by Anthimus, made its way south reaching as deep as the town Tiva and spreading the revolt into Epirus and conquering the theme of Naupactos. Another army took Demetrias (Volos in Thessaly) and so on. Soon Delyan was in possession of a large territory encompassing the greater part of Samoil's kingdom. Soon the Byzantines eliminated the resistance of Delyan's voivods Botko around Sofia and Manuil Ivats in Prilep.
In short, for almost four centuries certain parts of the territory which today belongs to Albania were under the authority of medieval Serbian rulers. The conquests of that time, regardless whether they were really conquests, could not be characterised as international conflicts in a contemporary sense, at least not in relation to the Albanian population of the time because the Albanians were then still not structured or constituted as a self-standing body.
Hugo Roth. Albanians & the Kosovo Region                                                           


Edited by Konstantine - 15-Sep-2007 at 10:04

                                                            ALBANIANS THE CRISIS AND THE FALL OF EPIRUS AND THE SURROUNDING TERITORIES ALL OWED TO CARLO THOPIA SON OF ANDREA , GRANDSON OF TANUSH REGENT OF MAT : Few countries have experienced such unusual confessional changes as Albania.
: After the religious schism of 1054, she was split into a Catholic north and an Orthodox south. Westerners from across the Adriatic invaded Albania and attacked the Byzantine Empire. The thema of Durres (Dyrrhachium) and its Metropolis became the most active theatre of contest between the two faiths. Whenever the Western armies were successful, the border line of the Eastern church receded: whenever Byzantium was victorious, its frontiers expanded. Church power followed the vicissitudes of the political power which supported it.

     Caught between the East-West struggle, the local lords and bishops in Albania tried to adapt themselves to the changing situations. They wavered between Eastern Othodoxy and Roman Catholicism, according to their momentary interest. These oscillations, however, and the mixed populations of cities, such as Durres, prevented the Orthodox-Catholic conflict from taking a violent form on Albanian territory.

     With the coming of the Ottomans a third religion was introduced into Albania: Islamism. The Turks invaded Albania for the first time in 1385. Turkey were invited by an Albanian feudal lord of the central part, Karlo Thopia, who, distrusting Venice and fearing the domination of a ruling house in the north, the Balshas, asked for Turkish support. Balsha II and many other Albanian lords formed a coalition in order to oppose the enemy, but their resistance was broken near the Vijos? River. Albania was invaded again in 1394-1396 by Sultan Beyazid I and a large part of the country was occupied by the Ottomans. But after Beyazid's departure the local lords revolted and much of the lost territory was regained. A great invasion of the Turkish army took place in 1423 under Sultan Murad II (1421-1451) reaching as far as the Adriatic.

    At the outset the Ottomans do not seem to have employed force for the propagation of Islam. They allowed the Albanian lords to maintain their positions on condition that they pay the harac (tribute), send their sons as hostages to the Sultan's court, and furnish auxiliary troops. In the records of the timars (Ottoman military fiefs) in southern and central Albania for the years 1431-1432, only 30% of the timars were held by Turks from Asia Minor whom the sultans had rewarded with lands in Albania, the rest were held by Albanian lords.

Edited by Konstantine - 15-Sep-2007 at 06:31

Also the claim from albanians that they have illyrian names is null

ISBN 960-210-279-9 Miranda Vickers, The Albanians

Chapter 9. "Albania Isolates itself" page 256

In page 271 it is stated

 

From time to time the state gave out lists with pagan ,supposed Illyrian or newly constructed names that would be proper for the new generation of revolutionaries.(see also Also Logoreci "the Albanians" page 157.)

I admire you Konstantine!

Edited by Petro Invictus - 29-Nov-2007 at 01:40

Any post that has nothing to do with the subject will be hidden. Any one spamming this thread (or any other) with irrelevant and nationalistic  posts, or FYROM talk will be dealt with.

Edit: actually this cant be saved as it stands, locked until someone can tell my this is worth opening


Edited by Leonidas - 13-Dec-2007 at 07:57