Some Serbian Nationalist claim that Albanians were imported by the Osmans from the Caucasus to the Balkan Peninsula.

Albanian language made its first formal appearance in the 1500s. The Albanian national identity was "created" by the same time.

There is little doubt that the Osmanli "imported" a large mass of Caucasian Albanian, as loyal subjects and mercenaries into the Balkans. And, yes, they settled them in the land known now as Albania or "Shqiperia" as its inhabitants call it.

But it would be not very accurate to attribute the ethnogenesis of the Albanian people solely to those Caucasian Albanian. Sure they added to the mix, but they were not the only ones.

I wouldn't go as far as to claim that the Albanians are indeed Illyrians (as they claim, in order to facilitate the very Balkanic "I was here before you") moreso they are a mixture of various elements - among these of course Illyric, but also Latin, Thracic, Slavic, Greek, Turkic and certainly the Albanians of Caucasus.

On a related topic, there seems to be a certain controversy as to where this name (Albania) comes from. Several theories:

- Latin word for "white" (Alba)

- Tribe of Albi or Alvoi or Alvanoi (a small and rather insignificant mountainous Illyrian tribe, first recorded by Greek geographers in the 2nd century AD).

- The Caucasian Albanians (and that begs for another answer: where did they get the "Albanian" name themselves...)

I've been trying to find documentation on the so-called Ottoman "importation" of Caucasian Albanians but with no luck.  Instead I found this from the History Channel Forums:

http://boards.historychannel.com/thread.jspa?threadID=100034380&tstart=0&start=-1 - http://boards.historychannel.com/thread.jspa?threadID=100034 380&tstart=0&start=-1

This theory seems to make more sense.  The Armenians seemed to have absorbed Caucasian Albania by the 7th century and the name no longer is extant even to the present day in the region.  Then the western Balkan Albanians are in evidence by the 15th century.  If in the period between these dates the name was no longer extant, how could Ottomans supposedly imported "Albanians"?. 

Caution however is warranted.  The book that he quotes from, I have, and that quote is taken out of context.  Just after that sentence he writes "Nor should one be less cautious towards the authenticity of the vivid protrayals of defeated Illyrians by Roman sculptors..."  In other words the anthropological and artistic portrayals of Illyrians are inconclusive.  On the other hand he does describe continuity of archaeological evidence down to the appearance of the "Arbanites" in the 11th century.  He also stresses that the name Albanian in the eastern Balkans is older than the name Shqiper- which only occurrs in the wake of the Ottoman invasions of the Balkans in the 15th century. 

Very good analysis, Phallanx. Gives us all much food for thought.

Sharrukin, the Word Shqiper (people of the eagle, or something like that) was used practically after the Byzantine empire has seized to exist. And of course long after Georgios Kastriotis (the national hero of the Albanian nation - interestingly he precedes the Albanian nation itself ) has adopted the Byzantine Imperial Eagle as his symbol... I see a clear connection here.

Byzantine Imperial Eagle symbol was taken from Seljuk Turks.

Albanians were living in Balkans when Ottomans entered to the Balkans but in fact there were not Greeks in Greece!!!  Athens was only a small village. Ottomans fought against Venetians and Genoises Italians to take the Morea and other islands. Most probably Greeks are related with Albanians and of course with Bulgarians.

To the right you see the flag of Turkiye. There are many imitators, but they are just that... Due to the 1,000 year fight of Muslim Turk and Christian Europe, the symbols have come to be mistakingly representative of Islam by Europeans and now the world. The Crescent Moon and Star (Sun during the Ottoman Empire) are ancient Turkish celestial symbols of power originating from the Turkish, ancestoral lands of Siberia and Central Asia.

 Its origins are not Arabic or Persian and it can not be Islamic due to the strict, religious doctrines forbiding the usage of any symbols or the painting/drawing/sclupting of human faces... these very important religious facts are disregarded today by those trying to claim the Moon & Star as their own today.

Needless to say, the origins of the Crescent & Sun/star are in fact Turkish from ancient times, pre-Islamic. The Turks believed in Shamanisim and more importantly the one supreme Sky God (Tanri) along side others gods like that of the Moon & Sun, when they roamed nomadicaly on horseback in the steppes of Siberia & central Asia.

In the 10th century, the Turks accepted Islam on their own will and conquered the Middle East. Witin a few centuries, the Turks became extremely powerful and strected an empire from the gates of Vienna, Austria, Russia all the way to Spain in the west. They brought into Islam their own free spirit, dynamizm, Turkish culture, superstitions and serious beliefs as well. This is the origin of how the Crescent Moon & Star came into the Islamic world.

 The importance of the celestial bodies can be seen in many Turk epics, poems, songs, names etc... One quick example is that of the legendary leader of the Western Turks, Oguz Khan, named his first 3 born Sun, Moon, & Star emphasizing the importance of the celestial objects to Turks. The founder of the Ottoman Turkish empire, Osman, had a dream in which he invisioned a Crescent Moon stretching over the Earth, he took it as a good sign and made it the symbol of his dynasty. Where ever a Turkish army met with a Euro-Christian one, of course it would be seen that the Turks used a Moon and Europeans assumed that this was the symbol of Islam used by muslim people. [this was wrong of course, as I said no symbols are allowed, but Turks quite often incorporated their own beliefs and free spirit regarding the religion]

 So, over the 1,000 year fight of Muslim Turk and Christian Europe, the symbols have come to be mistakingly representative of Islam by Europeans and now the world. The Crescent Moon and Star are ancient Turkish celestial symbols of power originating from the Turkish, ancestoral lands of Siberia and Central Asia. You see for a 1000 years Turks were the warriors, the leaders of Islam so it is not unusual that our symbols have been adopted by many present-day countries that are by a majority muslim. But it doesn't mean that the symbols are Islamic or muslim. Unfortunately, this confusion will most likely never be cleared up. It is very deep in the minds of the world, even the Muslim world.

Interesting note: The representative color of all Turks in the world is Skyblue or Turquiose, but we have also ascribed color to the four cardinal directions (North=Black, East=SkyBlue, South=White, & West=Red). Therefore, the Red background is used to indicate that we are the most geographically western of our family. (Over time and among the folk, the color has also come to represent the Turkish blood shed over the centuries of warfare.)

Also today, none of the Arabic countries use these symbols in their flags. The ones which are using these are influenced with Turkish beliefs...

The Ottoman flag was not formed when they saw the flags in the way to Ýstanbul. It was gifted to Ertugrul Begh, Osman Gazi's father as a "sancak" of his "uchbeghlik" by Aleaddin Keykubad, the khan of Seljuks of Rum...

1.At what year the name Greek(greeks)was used?

2.Where was the boundary of the known hellenic people according o ancient historygraphers as Plinius, Strabonus ecc.?

Now i'm telling you something about the etimiology of the Albanian appelative.It was a medieval name as one of the little tribes living here.The earlier name was Arberia.As to your ideas that albanians came from caucasus i think that e descendance of thousands people in the 1033 across Europe will be notified by the historians. According to Strabonus the north of Peloponesus was inabitated by barbarian tribes(didn't spoke a language comprensive of Strabonus).To the other hand none of the Illyrians tribes was named albi nor alva neither alvanoi.Probably the map you've seen(if you really have seen one)is medieval.Genetically speaking(and this is a science not an opinion)is more likely that the socalled odiern greeks came from caucasus.Albanians are bracicefals and not dodikocefals as the habitants of caucasus or the mediterrenean peoples.At the other hand Albania was occupied from turks 73 years after whole balkans(the so called Greece too)was occupied.It's not possible that turks have imported caucasic tribes only in albania and nothing at the other countries occupied  for so many years.To the albanian ethnogenesis i can se that the latins weren't interessed to colonize(maybe a small part of amministrative)other countries,with the thracs maybe this is true near the boundary.But you must explain me what you intend when you say Thracs.Turning ourselves to the Albanian language it was written in many epitaphes and statues found from Austria to Thesaloniki.Can you explain me the odiern greek when was written?And you know that you can't tell me that was the language of Homer or Aristotelis.So don't tell to the others "your" story making a system only basing yourself to the origin of amedieval name.

Just to remind you Ottoman Empire. Algeria and Tunusia was inside the Empire during 300 years. Morocco was outside of the empire.

http://geocities.com/protoillyrian/serb.html - http://geocities.com/protoillyrian/serb.html

The topic he talks about is Caucasian Albanians and Balkan Albanian. Warning. Its damn long.

There doesn't seem to be an appreciable difference between what the two of you are saying. 

(This is about a message posted earlier)

Why would Arabs convert the Caucasian Albanians to Islam, and ''skip'' some of the surrounding nations under their rule, such as the Armenians or the Georgians?

The Caucasian Albanians used an alphabet almost identical to the Armenian alphabet. What alphabet did the Balkan Albanians use? 

 he Albanian alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, with the addition of the letters ë, ç, and nine digraphs to account for certain sounds in pronunciations. Until 1908, when the Latin alphabet was introduced in Albanian, the Greek alphabet, Cyrillic alphabet, and the Ottoman Turkish version of the Arabic alphabet had been used to write Albanian.

Originally posted by Kuu-ukko Originally posted by Oguzoglu Also today, none of the Arabic countries use these symbols in their flags. The ones which are using these are influenced with Turkish beliefs... Tunisia, Algeria and Mauritania have the exact same symbols in their flags, but they aren't influenced by Turkish beliefs, they have nothing to do with Turkey. The only thing common with for example Algeria and Turkey is Islam. What we can conclude from this............ neritan aren't Albanian and Illyrian recognized with some other language as originating from a same proto-language? PS. Nice examples about the similarities

These countries cannot be counted as real Arabic countries since they are mostlu Berberi and other North Africans (Hami). But this is possible that they are heavily influenced with Turkish culture since they were under Turkish rule for hundreds of years. And Mauritania was also influenced...

"Oguzoglu
Interesting theory, but unfortunately for the supporters of this, the following quote proves the use of this symbol at least 500yrs before the Seljuks even stepped foot in the area.
Any simple search for ancient coins will support what you'll see here.

" 147 PARTHIA, Orodes II. 57-38 BC. AR Drachm (3.62). Bare-headed bust left, royal wart on forehead, star before face, crescent with star below behind head/ Archer seated right on throne holding bow, anchor behind archer. Shore-261, Sellwood 48.9. VF, stained $50.00"

http://rosenblumcoins.com/34d/ancientgreek

It is interesting to note that your first flags never did have a cresent and star symbol on them.
Turkic White Hun Empire (420-552) had three five-pointed gold stars on a white background,
Turkic Khazar Empire (602-1016 ) had five five-pointed white stars on a blue background.
Turkish Gazneli Empire (962-1183) had a crescent and a peacock on a green background
The Great Seljuk Empire (1040-1157 AD) and the Seljuks of Rum (1077-1308)  had 'crescent and star" on them

So we see that only after the obvious Byzantine influence did you adopt the cresent as a symbol.
Remember the "Vardariots"???"

But as you see, all the Turkish empires had their flag according to their countries position (East-blue, west-red etc.), according to their beliefs (Göktanrý, Shamanism, Maniheizm, Islam etc.), and according to their political structures. But the only common thing was always Turkic beliefs and symbols. For example, the Huns could have five pointed stars to show some beliefs, the Göktürks could have a wolf head to show their origins and religion on their flag, the Seljuks could have a two headed eagle and an arch on it as a symbol of Oguz rule of both the east and the west. The Ottomans could be gifted with a crescent and a star by the Seljuk sultan symbolising the western Turkish lands (red color- meaning west, the background) and their authority over everything, moon (crescent, night) and eight pointed star (sun,day)... These were also old symbols of middle east, old Turkic symbols, the symbols of Istanbul and Islam. So adapting all of them according to Ottoman Empire and forming the most suitable flag was the most ideal decision to take...

No offence intented!

I was just amazed and delighted by the detail in your post (admired is a more appropriate word).

The modern Turkish Republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was an example for some countries such as Tunisia, Algeria in their stuggle for liberation. That's why they chose the symbol of crescent & star; not because it represents Islam. If that was true, then how come the countries ruled by Islamic law such as Saudi Arabia or Iran do not have those symbols ? Let's put facts in to context. Turkey is pre-dominantly Muslim but it's secular. we are not an Islamic country .

I believe that was a good point Phallanx. I base my comment on the strong evidence that Illyrian is not the ancestor of modern Albanian, since the former extinct language belongs to the Centum group of Indo-European, while Albanian is part of the Satem group, like ancient Thracian. However, I can't explain how Thracian populations could migrate to the western Balkans.

Maybe Gheg Albanians of Serbia and Skopje are somehow related to the Thracoid ancient populations of the central Balkans. However, there can be found similarities between standard or dialects of Albanian and Illyrian lingual material.

Warning!

Please do not insult forum members with racist or fascist remarks. Read the forum rules and adhere to them:  http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1338&PN=1 - http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1338& ;PN=1

If you are a Greek but might have Turkish genes and you dont like beign called a turk then im sorry you took it as an insult. But the thing is that since you took it as an insult then you must be racist toward the Turks. Just because i claim your half turkish that shouldn't insult you ... if your not racist yourself that is.

Albania = 75% Dinaric ( Illyrian ), 10% West Mediterranean (m.c. on the coast), 10% Alpine ( Epirus, Dorians), 5% Noric = 80% Dinarik / 10% UP / 10% Med..

same source Phallanx used to disprove Turkish population in Anatolia.. gotcha

Originally posted by Phallanx Originally posted by vulkan02 Illyrians never liked the Greeks or Hellization therefore they never bothered to learn their language or add Greek words.... their raided their ships and ports tho Are you refering to the Hellines that colonized Illyria since the 6th BC??? Proof of the colonization of Illyria by Hellines is this "Illyrian helmet" clearly of Pelloponessean style. But anyway, those were Illyrians you're an Albanian, what connection do you have to them???? NONE

yeah and the they were all kicked out by king Agron and his predecesors

So according to your unique logic if i tell you that as an Albanian you must have eg. Serbian blood and you react you should be a racist towards Serbs.  Man, what kind of drugs are you on???

Ancient Illyrians are said to be the ancestors of modern Albanians. But they were mixed up so much with Turks (mainly) and Greeks during Byzantine and Ottoman Empires that they have change a lot. That's why some people call them Turk-Albanians because they had close relationships and mix with Turks.

In "that" forum members are Turks included?

hehe,

np, If we are half greek, but It is problem If they are half-Turk.

Maybe turk word is insult?

I do believe that I was clear enough. If something is still vague, I'd strongly advise to re-read the forum rules

Then i should strongly advice you mods to practice the forum rules everywhere you can.

That goes also for me,

thanks in advance

You keep going with your BS!

Can't you understand that name Shqipëria has nothing to do with Ichqeria!

Shqipëria = Shqiponja = Eagle

Do you want me to say more about this?

Hehe

phaaa

Albanians the old in BALKAN but greek are not

Costumes greeks are albanian, food are turkish

Language homerike are albanins language not greeks

long live Albania-Illyrtia

The name Albania   probably derives from the Proto-Indo-European root *albho, which meant 'white'. Others think it may share the same origin as the name of the Alps, the etymology of which is disputed.

Ptolemy

The earliest known occurance of the ethnonym Albanoi as the name of an Illyrian tribe in what is now north-central Albania goes back to 130 A.D., in a work of Ptolemy. Albanopolis of the Albani, a place located on the map of Ptolemy (3.12.20) and also named on an ancient family epitaph at Scupi, which has been identified with the Zgërdhesh hill-fort near Kruja in northern Albania. Moreover, Arbanon is just likely to be the name of a district - the plain of the Mat has been suggested - rather than particular place. An indication of movement from higher altitudes in a much earlier period has been detected in the distribution of place-names ending in -esh that appears to derive from the latin -enisis or -esis, between the Shkumbin and the Mat, with a concentration between Elbasan and Kruja.

The term Albanoi may have been slowly spread to other Illyrian tribes until its usage became universal among all the Albanian people. According to the Albanian scholar Faïk bey Konitza, the term "Albania" did not displace "Illyria" completely until the end of the fourteenth century. The word "Alba" or "Arba" seems to be connected with the town Arba (modern Rab, Croatia), in prehistoric times inhabited by the Liburnians, first mentioned in 360 BC.

Byzantines

Approximately a millennium after, some Byzantine writers use the words “Albanon” and “Arbanon” to indicate the region of Kruja. Under the Angiò, in the XIII century, the names “Albania “and “Albanenses” indicate the whole country and all the population, as it is demonstrated by the works of many ancient Albanian writers such as Budi, Blanco and Bogdano. We first learn of Albanians in their native land as the Arbanites of Arbanon in Anna Comnenas' account (Alexiad 4) of the troubles in that region caused in the reign of her father Alexius I Comneus (1081- 1118) by the Normans. In ‘History’ written in 1079-1080, Byzantine historian Michael Attaliates was first to refer to the Albanoi as having taken part in a revolt against Constantinople in 1043 and to the Arbanitai as subjects of the duke of Dyrrachium. The Italo-Albanians and the Albanian minorities (still present in Greece) have been called in different ways with the passing of the years: Arbënuer, Arbënor, Arbëneshë, Arbreshë.





Shqipëria

There seems to be no doubt that the root Alb- or Arb- is earlier than Shqip-, from which the modern name of the state (Shqipëria) derives, a name which appears only in the time of the Turkish invasions. The Albanian name of the country, Shqipëria, translates into English as "Land of the Eagles", hence the two-headed bird on the national flag and emblem, and because of the large presence of these animals in the mountainous zones of Albania.

 History of Illyria
-Jennifer Wallace-

Pjesa I

Throughout history., little has been known about the land of Illyria. 'As "savages" or "barbarians" on the northern periphery of the classical world'., the historian John Wilkes writes., 'even today the IUyrians barely make footnotes in most versions of ancient history., and more often than not they are simply ignored.'1 Shut in by mountains., north of the better-known Greece and covering roughly the area of modern-day Albania., Macedonia., and Bosnia^ Illyria has remained a closed world to outsiders., dismissed as barbarian in ancient times and remembered in more recent centuries only as an unexplored outpost of the Ottoman or Hapsburg Empires. As a result, Illyria has become a place of mystery., the site of myth and legend as much as of historical civilization-building or battles, a by-word for the realm of the imagination. Oscar Wilde summed up the popular association of Illyria with fiction when., in a review of an amateur production of Twelfth Night, he wrote with characteristic succinctness: 'Where there is no illusion there is no Illyria.'2
In his recent book The Ilyrians, John Wilkes attempts to reverse this ignorance by stripping away the accumulated legends., or 'illusion'.,
 
about the Illyrian people and unearthing, in their stead, painstaking detail about the reality of their civilization. But this strategy seems to reduce the overall picture of the identity of Illyria. For Illyria has always been a place where fact and fiction meet, where myth is substituted in the absence of knowledge and later becomes a geographical or historical reality, mapped onto the physical landscape or the territory's political borders. Illyria has also always been a threshold between the known and the unknown world, a threshold internalized by the Illyrian peoples themselves, sometimes considered 'Western' - and even Greek - but at other times thought to be barbarian and different. It is a liminal space which dramatizes the problems of our conventional polarizations of ethnic identity.
In many ways, the study of Illyria, its myth and history, serves as an analogy for the study of Greece. Greece, too, comes with almost as much mythical baggage as historical facts. In the lesser known, and lesser loved, example of Illyria, we have a parallel land combining a powerful mixture of ancient stories and dimly remembered historical details to forge its independence in the nineteenth century. But Illyria is interesting because throughout history it has served, not only as a parallel for Greece, but also as a counterpoint to it. From Herodotus to Byron, Illyria has been cited as the opposite of Greece, used to illuminate, by contrast, the particular qualities of Greece. This contrast has by no means been straightforward, since it has not always been obvious where Greece stops and Illyria begins. Indeed Illyria serves to highlight the fact that the conventional polarization between Greek and barbarian/other, which persisted through ancient Greek history and has been revived since independence in 1830, created as much anxiety and lack of distinction as it did clarity. Thus the history of Illyria and its literary appropriation raises the issue of Greek ethnicity - both ancient and modern - and sheds light upon the uneasy relationship between national myth, politics, and geography which still troubles the Balkan area today.
Ancient Model
The mountainous land of the ancient Illyrian tribes stretched down the Adriatic coast from modern-day Trieste to the Rhizonic gulf. The ancient Greeks considered the Illyrians to be barbarians. They were non-Greek speakers and they had different customs; they were made up of various tribes. Herodotus refers to the Eneti tribe in Illyria and their habit of taking their daughters to the marketplace to sell them for marriage, a custom which he compares with that of the Babylonians, another barbarian people.3 Yet the clear distinction between the Greeks and barbarians with different customs is made more complicated by the observation that all of Greece was once populated by barbarians. Herodotus comments early in his history that Greece was originally occupied by Pelasgians who spoke a non-Greek language.4 This notion of the barbarian origins of Greece was corroborated centuries later by Strabo in his Geography:
Now Hecataeus of Miletus says of the Peloponnesus that before the time of the Greeks it was inhabited by barbarians. Yet one might say that in the ancient times the whole of Greece was a settlement of barbarians, if one reasons from the traditions themselves. . . . And even to the present day the Thracians, Illyrians, and Epeirotes live on the flanks of the Greeks (though this was still more the case formerly than now); indeed most of the country that at the present time is indisputably Greece is held by the barbarians -Macedonia and certain parts of Thessaly by the Thracians, and the parts above Acarnania and Aetolia by the Threspoti, the Cassopaei, the Amphilochi, the Molossi, and the Athamanes - Epeirotic tribes.5
According to this argument, the Hellenic Greeks had either emerged or arrived after the original barbarians and had civilized them and the land. The Illyrians and the Greeks were therefore thought to have shared a common origin, even if they had subsequently drifted apart. The Illyrians were closer to the primitive beginnings of the land, while the Greeks, like their Olympian gods, represented a later, and possibly higher, civilization. Beyond ancient myths of ethnic origin, the Illyrians were also deeply involved with the Greeks in the historical period. Strabo refers to the fact that 'the Thracians, Illyrians, and Epeirotes live on the flanks of the Greeks'. In fact much of Thrace, Illyria, and Epirus was colonized by the Greeks, with the inevitable mingling and merging of the peoples. The largest Greek colony in Illyria was Epidamnus, the later Durazzo. It was here, according to Thucydides, that the first sparks of the Peloponnesian War caught fire. In 435 B.C., the aristocrats of Epidam¬nus were expelled by a newly emerged democratic group of people in the city. Anxious to regain their power, they allied themselves with the neighbouring people, 'a barbarian tribe, the Taulantians, of Illyrian race (ethnos)\6 'Making common cause with the barbarians', Thucydides writes, the aristocrats 'plundered those who were in the city both by land and sea'.7 The besieged democrats sought help from Corinth, the city of their original founder, while the now outnumbered aristocrats were soon aided by the newer colonizers, Corcyra. Athens and Sparta were quickly drawn into the feud, as the different political alliances spread, and the Hellenic world began the process of tearing itself apart.
The Illyrians had a role to play later in the war in the battle of shifting alliances which characterized the campaigns. Since the Illyrians lived on the 'flanks' of Greece, as Strabo commented, it was unclear to con¬temporaries whether they supported Athens or Sparta in the war, whether indeed they were sufficiently Greek to express support for either city. In one particular campaign, described by Thucydides, Brasidas the Spartan general believes that his ally Perdiccas, who leads a troop of Macedonians, has elicited the support of the Illyrians, only to discover that they have deserted and gone to help the opposition. The Illyrians, suddenly become enemies, present a frightening prospect to the Spartans, precisely because they are barbarian and different. Brasidas feels the need of a rallying speech:
Now as for these Illyrians, for those who have had no experience of them, the menace of their attack has terror; for their number is indeed dreadful to behold and the loudness of their battle-cry is intolerable, and the idle brandishing of their arms has a threatening effect. But for hand-to-hand fighting, if their opponents but endure such threats, they are not the men they seem; for having no regular order, they would not be ashamed to abandon any position when hard pressed; and since flight and attack are considered equally honourable with them, their courage cannot be put to the test.8
Brasidas defines the otherness of the Illyrians by pointing both to their excessive violence - their war-cry and their arms - and at the same time to their weakness - their tendency to retreat. What is not stressed is the fact that until the news of the Illyrian betrayal, Brasidas was prepared, and hoping, to fight alongside the men he now condemns so vehe¬mently. Greek alliances, and thus to an extent Greek identity, are forged by such whims and exigencies of war.
In the third century B.C., the Romans began their conquest of the area, and two centuries later they had succeeded in establishing command. They named the province Illyricum. The place, and the name, lasted until the sixth or seventh centuries A.D. when Slav invasions changed the character of the whole region. Many Illyrians are thought to have died or to have fled. The others were absorbed by Slavic settlers. The name for the actual geographical place disappeared for the next thousand years. It left the space free for the fictionalizers.
 
Literary Metamorphoses
The most well-known literary representation of Illyria occurs in Shake¬speare's Twelfth Night. Viola finds herself shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria at the start of the play, and the subsequent comedy of the plot derives from the fact that she comes from a strange world beyond the naive isolation of Illyria and therefore her identity is unknown. Shake¬speare's story is drawn from the tangled comic narratives of Plautus and most directly, it is thought, from the Italian play GV Inganni.9 There is no mention of Illyria in these plays. But one source for Shakespeare's Illyrian setting has been suggested - Ovid's Metamorphoses. Ovid describes Cadmus and Harmonia being washed onto the Illyrian shore after shipwreck and the turmoil of losing their daughter:
Compelled with grief and great mishappes that had ensewed together And strange foretokens often seene since first his coming thither. He utterly forsakes his towne the which he builded had, As though the fortunes of the place so hardly him bessad And not his owne. And fleeting long like pilgrims, at the last Upon the coast of Illirie his wife and he were cast.10
Besides Homer's description of the shipwreck of Odysseus in Odyssey 5, Cadmus' wreck upon Illyria had become one of the chief literary models for shipwreck in classical literature and therefore a clear source for Shakespeare's account. Besides, there is in the notion of the metamor¬phosis which comes over Cadmus and Harmonia on landing upon Illyria (they become snakes), a particular resource for comedy. The humour of Twelfth Night is based upon the saturnalian possibilities of the festive season to change identities and to turn hierarchies upside-down. Viola cross-dresses, Malvolio is fooled and mocked by the socially inferior members of the household. Comedy indeed is licensed to offer a topsy¬turvy mirror to the world. But the dark side of the play, such as Feste's mournfully reflective songs or the loss of Viola/Cesario's freedom as she reverts back in Act V to the meekly feminine Viola, also owes something to Ovid's Illyria in the Metamorphoses. Cadmus and Harmonia as snakes, or in Golding's translation 'Dragons', live in wistful remembrance of their past: 'now remembering what they were themselves in tymes forepast / They neither shonne nor hurten men with stinging nor with blast.'11 Illyria offers the chance to explore the irrevocable, tragic consequences of change as well as the comic.12
 
But besides a place of comic or tragic metamorphosis, Shakespeare's Illyria is a traditional paradise. The connection between Illyria and paradise is highlighted in Viola's opening scene:
Viola: What country, friends, is this? Captain: This is Illyria, lady.
Viola: And what should I do in Illyria? My brother he is in Elysium.
Illyria and Elysium are linked through alliteration. It is as if Viola has died and been washed ashore onto her own Elysium, Illyria. Later the parallel becomes even stronger when it is discovered that Sebastian, Viola's brother, has also survived the shipwreck and has landed in Illyria. His Elysium is also Illyria; Viola's opening words have proved false and yet strangely truer than she realises. Both siblings achieve Elysian happiness with the lovers they meet in Illyria.
In Matthew Arnold's poem Empedocles on Etna (1852), Illyria returns to Ovid's model in that it is again the setting for the story of Cadmus and Harmonia. While Empedocles agonizes about his sense of alienation from society on the mountain peak, Callicles sings the 'soothing' song of Cadmus and Harmonia in the valley below. Unlike Ovid's account, Arnold's Cadmus and Harmonia, 'far in the Illyrian brakes', do not remember their past:
Therefore they did not end their days
In sight of blood; but were rapt, far away,
To where the west-wind plays,
And murmurs of the Adriatic come
To those untrodden mountain-lawns; and there
Placed safely in changed forms, the pair
Wholly forgot their first sad life, and home,
And all that Theban woe, and stray
For ever through the glens, placid and dumb.13
Illyria becomes the site of forgetfulness, almost of troubling erasure. There are echoes, in Cadmus and Harmonia's 'placid' state, of the Lotos Eaters portrayed by Arnold's contemporary, Tennyson. Indeed it is tempting to think that the ancient mapping of the Illyrians and the Lotos Eaters side by side, beyond the boundaries of the known world, must have filtered down to the Victorians.14 The peaceful Illyrian landscape, with its soporific power to quell awkward resistance and anxiety, provides one controversial answer to Arnold's anxious but fascinated questioning of his contemporary world.15

Romantic Quest
At the end of the eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth century - the so-called Romantic period - Illyria once more assumed a historical and geographical specificity, albeit one influenced by the mythical associations of the name which had developed. The key figure in this alteration was Napoleon. By the treaty of Schonbrunn in 1809, the lands bordering the Adriatic were ceded by Austria to the Napoleonic kingdom of Italy. Napoleon chose to call these newly acquired lands - then known as Trieste, Croatia, Carinthia, Istria, and Dalmatia - the 'Illyrian Provinces', a term not used since ancient times. As in his other campaigns, notably the one in Egypt, Napoleon was using ancient history to justify his military appropriation and reconstruction. Lands once acquired by him were 'liberated' from recent historical oppression and degeneration, according to the current rhetoric, and restored to their original identity and splendour, albeit under the French aegis.16 Restoring the name Illyria for the territory north-west of Greece was part of this strategy. And even though in 1815, with Napoleon's defeat, the land returned to Austrian rule, the consciousness of an ancient identity had by then been raised. The area, under the Hapsburg Empire, became known as the 'kingdom of Illyria'.
The nineteenth-century Slav independence campaign, which carried the name the Illyrian Movement, appropriated the myth which had been fabricated by the West, by outsiders, and used it for a new, nationalist purpose. Like the Greeks in their campaign for independence, the southern Slavs devoted much energy to asserting their descent from the ancient Illyrians. The mysteriousness and the elysian qualities of the Illyrians of western legend became transformed into a vision of their former purity and perfection. The chief agitator for independence, Ljudevit Gaj, for example, urged the purity of the Illyrian language which must be re-acquired or re-invented. Writing in 1835 at the start of the campaign, he attempted to inspire dissenters:
Brother Illyrians, when will we, inhabitants of the old, great and world-famous Illyrica, throw away our prejudices and self deception and follow the glorious examples of our neighbours. . . . Books for the common people can be written in the local dialects but let educated and cultured Illyria have a mature and sweet language and a simple literature as her neighbour, Italy.17
Western travellers to Greece also became interested in Illyria after Napoleon's re-awakening. Chief among the travel writers was William Martin Leake, whose 'principal object [in writing] was a comparison of the ancient and modern geography, by confronting the information contained in the ancient authors with the actual state of the country'.18 His main concern was Albania, whose people, he argued, were des¬cended from the ancient Illyrians. Indeed, according to his thesis, the Albanians had originally been one of the Illyrian tribes and had now blossomed to inhabit the vast mountainous territory in modern-day north-west Greece, Albania, and southern Yugoslavia. The Albanians were of interest to Leake partly for political reasons. They lived within the Napoleonic Empire, although never physically invaded or con¬quered by Napoleon, and thus offered a mediating vision of the enemy. Leake writes in the preface of 1814:
Subsequent events, which have checked the torrent of French ambition, may have diminished the political importance of Albania, but at the time these Researches were made, its dialect had received an additional claim to notice from the changes which had brought the country where it is spoken into contact with our own enemies, who then made no secret of their design of seeking a road through Albania into Greece. Under these circumstances it became doubly interesting to obtain some knowledge of the language . . .
Once again, as in ancient times, Illyria/Albania was serving as a buffer between the known and unknown world, between the allies and the enemies.
But Leake was also interested in the Albanians because they seemed purer and therefore possibly more Greek than the Greeks. They were uncontaminated by invasion and were fiercely nationalistic. Leake described them as
irregular and undisciplined as soldiers, but possessing a perfect familiarity with the use of arms; ferocious and ignorant and uncivilised, but cherishing an enthusiastic partiality for their native mountains, and adding to the advantages of a country, which opposes the strongest natural obstacles to an invader, that determination to resist all foreign intruders, and that confidence in their ability to defend themselves, which had, until that period of the war, been found very deficient in soe more civilised nations of Europe.19

Hajde qinu tash maxhupt e kqi, ju ka hi frika ne palce o grek e kqi

greets

your greeks some are pathetic and ultranaconalist , propagands but your culture and historu is bull sh*t

listen pathetic mans 

1) Albanians is the best RACE to Balkan (albs are white but sorry i am not racist) and LANGUAGE is different to world and this language are same identitet to Illyrians.

2) Albanet were contry in Illyrans and capital were Lissus (now Lezha to Albania) about Dardanet (today is Kosova,Macedonia,Nish,Leskovac ect) Kaonet (today is Korca, Chameria), Ardianet,Taulantet,Enkeljdet ect ect.

3)Albanians are ancient to Illyrans it is fact to much linguist and historans europian(from germans,italians,hungary,french,croats,austrians ect ect historians)

4) Albanians were cristians but convertet by othomant empires near 400 years (Today Albanians are 70% muslim and 30% cristians), you know the famous the Europe SKANDERBEG hi defandet near 40 years Vatikan and cristians people from europe from Othoman Empire.

5) Albanians are Illyrians and Illyrians were part of Pelazgian

and now you greek pathetic you are losser, you are full propoganda, ok see near 10 years reality for you history, greece are full full propaganda

greets from Kosova (Dardania)

Coming from a person who cant spell even the word "history" correct, we will take it as a compliment.

Ultranaconalist?? I have heard calling Greeks with too many names but...an ultranaconalist???  I dont think i can bear that.  

Unfortunately Iskenderani recently is nowhere to be found...you would become his favourite Jester with your new founded terms.

listen pathetic mans

Hmmm the plural of the word 'man' is men but you have an excuse. No working brain there.

Whooppsss a racist remark!! ts ts ts bad boy!!

Another sloppy remark with hints of racism. Since you do categorize people in whites and non-whites how is that you are not a racist.

Yeah since old times we do know that Languages are different ...but the word "identitet" is it albanian because i doubt it has anything to do with english.

All the list of -net you managed to fill your paragraph with, care to tell us what they are??

Anything to do maybe with Albanian Tv-stations or ISP providers?? Honestly this Albanet reminds highly an ISP provider. Maybe next time when you will learn how to use english adj you will be able to tell us what the #Albanet were contry in Illyrans # means since i dont think we have here mind-readers who could give us a clue here.

If it makes you feel better yeah we will go for that..no need for all these spasmodic attempts to convience us. Chill out!!

English is your second language, isn't it? You don't have a first. How about putting that into proper syntax, form, and grammar so that I can at least understand what you are saying before I dismiss it?

Congrats!!! We're all refreshed and challenged by your unique point of view, plus your whole post is the world's greatest proof of reincarnation.  I bet no one could get that dumb in just one lifetime.

greets from Kosova (Dardania)

Aeolus

Don't cry guy sorry gay from hell-ass  

ok good luck  

Awww and this was supposed to be an insult and make me feel bad.

My friend i understand you have a certain disability, not only to write a proper sentence, as its obvious from your posts, but even to think of sth worth-while for someone to comment on.

You are so boring even a boomerang wouldn't come back to you

Its ok though, every now and then we need someone to amuse us in the forums!! You are doing a great job till now