Studies on Albanians in Great Britain and Northern Europe

The volume "Studies on Albanians in Great Britain and Northern Europe" brings 40 aids for different fields of study related to our topic. In its 518 pages, you will find references, analyses, reviews, discussions on various aspects of interest in the Albanian world of British and Northern European authors. In this case, the frequent concentrations around the works of authors such as Lord Byron, Stuart Mann, Edith Durham, Noel Malcolm, Christian Sandfeld, Holger Pedersen, Arthur Evans, or John Wilkes stand out, but in general the horizon expands more than in other conferences, now not only in linguistics, but also in literature, in ethnological-ethnographic studies, in archeology, and even in geopolitical and historiographical aspects

"Studies on Albanians in Great Britain and Northern European countries" is the fifth volume of studies from the very successful series of international conferences on Albanian studies outside Albania. The following conferences have been held so far: Albanian studies in America, 2015 (2016), ff. 665; Albanian studies in German-speaking countries, 2017 (2018), ff. 861; Albanian studies in Italy, 2019 (2020), ff. 567; Albanian studies in France, 2021 (2022), ff. 638 and Studies on Albanians in Great Britain and Northern European countries, 2023 (2024), ff. 518, a total of 3060 book pages so far. Not only in terms of volume, but in the first place in terms of the number of participants and the quality of reviews, this whole activity represents a serious undertaking of evaluating Albanian studies in the world by a generation of scholars spanning about a decade. We are also pleased by the fact that such a high evaluation of these results has come not only from the many participants of these conferences, but also in the reviews that have been made afterwards. For us, in this whole activity, it was important that the participants felt the atmosphere of necessary and open discussions in all directions, which ensured very positive results. In our forecasts in the Linguistics and Literature Section of ASHAK, which is and continues to be the main bearer of this activity, until the end of this cycle we have a few circles left to complete: next year we will have a conference on Albanian studies among the South Slavs, then we can have another one on Albanian studies in Russia and among other Slavs, the third, equally important, can be a conference on Albanian studies in Romania and Greece, and maybe the last one for studies on Albanians in Turkey and the Arab world. In this way the cycle would be completed. The main bearer of all these conferences has been and will be the Linguistics and Literature Section of ASHAK, but, as happened in one case, cooperation with the Social Sciences section may also be required, or, as in two cases others, cooperation with ASHSH. It may be that other institutions outside the Albanian world will be involved in these activities in the future. The degree of openness manifested in the activities so far and the effort to include as many researchers as possible, the quality of the references, the constructive critical views and the integrative visions within Albanian studies in general and with this also in the Balkanological and wider views, have made world to create a very positive evaluative image for the study developments in Kosovo and in the Albanian world and have conveyed the important message of the opening of these studies and the actors within them towards integrations within the relevant philological, linguistic, literary, cultural disciplines, and even in relation to historical, ethnological, archeological, and other aspects in today's world. Although all these activities have had and continue to have a common general vision of evaluating the achievements so far, and with this the aim of a cut, to move further to another plane of views towards new analyzes and syntheses , each of them has brought the peculiarities and aspects that characterize the spaces where these studies have been developed, so in each case it has become necessary for the organizing councils to redimension the goals, spaces and fields of study that would be included in the following conference. In every case, the priority has been to respond to the needs for communication as open as possible between researchers from different environments, welcoming observations of all kinds, especially those that discuss and problematize. Dialogue with colleagues from different countries and in relation to the achievements noted in the respective traditions has been and remains a permanent goal. It has been noticed that in some cases it has been necessary to examine the results of actualizing studies and travelogues, or documentation of other natures that are related to the Albanian world, and thus the horizons of the conferences have been expanding, to include more in the end, all interests in the world and Albanian living spaces. This thing has been noticed especially in the last two conferences, but I have the impression that it will expand in the future.

In the review published for the volume on "Albanian studies in German-speaking countries" in the important magazine "Zeitschrfit für Balkanologie", professor from Berlin Christian Voss assessed:

"In faszinierender Weise zeigen uns die 50 Beiträge den Zustand und die Dynamik eines typicalsen 'kleinen Faches', das sich allmälich aus seiner indo¬ger¬ma¬nistischen Tradition emanzipiert und Anschluß an neuere und interdisziplinäre Herangehensweise findet'... Dieser Prozess implied eine Internationa¬lisierung des Fachs... Mit diesem Band erweist sich Prishtina erneut als Gravitationspunkt der europäischen Albanologie".

"Fascinatingly, the 50 grants show us the state and dynamics of a 'typically small fahu', which is gradually emancipating itself from the Indo-European tradition and connecting with newer and interdisciplinary approaches... This process implies an internationalization of fahu ... With this volume, Prishtina is once again proving itself as a center of gravity for European Albanian studies".

"...a land within the arc of Italy, but less known than the interior of America"

In the studies so far, it has been noticed that the interests of the authors of the British world for the Albanian world most often extend to the beginning of the 18th century, when the historian Edward Gibbon spoke of Albania as "a land within the arc of Italy, but less known as the interior of America'. We even appreciated the attitude of the central personality in today's Albanian studies in the British world, Sir Noel Malcolm, according to whom: "Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, the contacts between Britain and Albania were minimal, very little on the personal level and not at all on the level official".

Mithat Frashëri was among the first in Albanian culture to show special interest in this type of studies in the British world with a series of studies under the common title "Foreign travelers in Albania until the end of the XIX century", published in "Knowledge" in the years 1927-29. He rightly emphasized the importance of the notes of the prominent poet of romanticism, Lord Byron: ″A trip that has made perhaps the greatest of all - although from the scientific point of view there was no fruit as exploration and discoveries for Albania - that, undoubtedly, ay of Lord Byron, in Janina and Tepelena. From this visit to the place 'where the boys are wild and wild, but not without virtue' the poet adds the most beautiful part in the poems Childe Harold's Pilgrimage: Harold here is Byron himself". And having presented the notes of JC Hobhause, H. Holland, JJ Best, D. Urquhart, Doduell, etc. Skëndo especially appreciated the work of Edward Lear. then of WM Leak, Lord J. Hobhouse, &c. In the XNUMXth century, the activity of Edith Durham, and a little later of SE Mann, was especially appreciated for both their breadth and the depth of their observations of the entire Albanian world. In recent decades in Great Britain there has been a revival of interest in Albanian studies, both in the fields of history, ethnology, and in the fields of philology, including interest in Albanian culture and literature. The late developments among the Albanians, the increasingly dense presence of the Albanian diaspora there, have also played an important role in promoting this increased interest in the Albanian world in Great Britain, from where important aid has also come for important aspects, such as the movements for liberation, the reflection of the painful sufferings in the areas from which the Albanians were persecuted, especially in Chameri, the movements for liberation in Kosovo, etc. There is no doubt that in these central decades Sir N. Malcolm's in-depth scholarly activity has been. This conference analyzed, compared and highlighted the contributions that British authors, despite the geographical distance, have given for three centuries to the knowledge of the Albanian world.

An early 14th century note from the British world

On this occasion, allow me to recall a much earlier note, from the beginning of XIV from the British world, a note which was not reflected in the conference, but which is of undoubted value. Its value emerges from the contextualization, even if it is very short, and it clearly tells us that the Albanian world and its peculiarities were marked very early and at great distances.    

It is usually said that Ptolemy in the 1038nd century AD had mentioned the great Illyrian tribe Albanoi and the city of Albanopolis, which archaeological and historical research has identified with the ruins found in Zgërdesh near Kruja. After that, there are no other mentions in the historiography until the Byzantine references of sh. XI: Michael Attaliates in 1042 as άλβανοί καὶ λατῖνοί, in 1078 as ρωμαίων καὶ άλβανῶν and in 1148 as βουλγάρων καὶ άρβανιτῶν: Anna Comnena, daughter of Emperor Alexius I Comnenus and Irene Ducas in XNUMX:  on the occasion of the siege of Durrës in 1081 and the defeat of the Byzantine Emperor there, it is said, among other things: 'The whole rest of the city was put under the command of Comiskort, descended (born) from (in) Arberia: τῷ ἕξ Arβανῶν ὀρμωμένῳ' .

The other presumed early mention appears in the Serbian manuscript document of 1628, which refers to a legend of the time of Tsar Samuil, known as XI (early 1000s), which mentions the Orthodox languages ​​(Bulgarian, Greek, Syriac, Iberian (Georgian) and Russian) with the three Orthodox alphabets: Greek, Bulgarian and Iberian, and 12 languages ​​of the half-believers (Catholic Christians) : of the Germans, the Franks, the Magyars, the Indians, the Jacobites, the Armenians, the Saxons, the Lehs, the Arbanians, the Croats, the Hysians, the Germans. Doubts regarding this document arise from the fact that being sh. XVII, talks about the legend that is supposed to be of sh. XI, Albanians are referred to as Arbanasi, meanwhile in Serbian. e.g. XI Arbëni was called Rabъnъ, so he had undergone the Slavic metathesis of the liquids of sh. VIII-IX.

Anonymous: Descriptio Euro¬pae Orientalis, 1308 of a French Dominican cleric, where it was said:

Habent enim Albani prefati linguam distinctam a latinis, Grecis et Sclavis ita quod in nullo se inteligunt eum aliis nationibus

'the aforesaid Arbers have a language which is different from that of the Latins, Greeks and Slavs, so that they cannot in any way get along with other peoples'.

Konstantin Jireček in "Die Romanen in den Städten Dalmatiens während des Mittelalters" Volume 49, Parts 1-3, 1904, said:

"The first mention of 'lingua albanesesca' (khs. lat. -iscus to thraciscus, daciscus, it. Vj. gre¬cescho, turchescho) I found in a judicial review in Dubrovnik in 1285 about a theft of the house of Petar de Volcio in Belen (now Plat) in Zhupa. The witness Ma¬theus son of Mar¬cut de Mençe says: audiui unam uocem, clamantem in monte ling¬gua albanesesca, and then by the vineyard of Benedict de Gondula he had seen ‛unum Alba¬nensem' carrying grapes and ‛duas scopinas plenas must'. Arba¬na from the end of the Middle Ages, in the time after the flourishing of trade and seafaring when religious studies had little attractive power for the Dubrovnik people themselves, in Dubrovnik there were many (sehr viel), merchants, artisans, and especially monks and priests from the mountains of Northern Albania", according to the publication Belgrade 1952, p. 51. 

Since Milan Sufflay 1911, we know and have commented on the Directorium ad passagium faciendum of the year 1332 of the Dominican brother Guillielmus Adam with his famous sentence: "licet Albanenses aliam omnino linguam a latina habeant et diversam, tamen littteram habent in usu et in omnibus suis libris", a sentence which has stimulated many discussions regarding the evidence of the language, as well as the existence of the earliest Albanian writings. Ten years earlier we have the note of the Irish Dominican brothers Symon Semeonis and Hugo Illuminator, which we now have the opportunity to refer to in the Latin text.

"Sklavonia ends 30 miles from the city and Albanye begins from Budva"

Xhevat Lloshi in this volume of our Conference comes with the indications for the travels of John Mandeville in 1322, according to which after Dubrovnik "Sclavonia ends 30 miles from the city and Albanye begins from Budva". He also stopped at the ports of Durres and Vlora, according to the book published in 1499. Xh. Lloshi also briefly announces that in the same year we also have the "Itinerary of Simon Simeonis from Hybernia with Hygonius the Illuminator to the Holy Land", where he also wrote about Durrës, which he calls Durachiam. Lloshi adds only that his notes were published in 1778 in Cambridge, p. 44-45. It does not mention that R. Elsie commented on this text in a separate article in 1991 and again in his book "Early Albania. A Reader of Historical Texts 11th-17th Centuries", Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 2003, 26-27. For me it is worth giving the details of this travelogue, the first of the British world, placing it in the historical flow, the more we have its Latin text.

In 1322, on a trip to the holy place from Ireland, the Anglo-Irish Franciscan Symon Simeonis together with Hugo the Illuminator passed by the Albanian villages on the way and noted in the Itinierarium Symonis Symeonis ab Hybernia ad Terram Sanctam their wonder at these villages, they told about the situation in Durrës . Lumo Skëndo had not recognized these notes. It was published again in Britain in 1960. They are noted in V. Kostić's "Kulturne veze izmajugosnohsnih zemlja i engleske do 1700. godine" (Beo¬grad, 1972, p. 278-79) and in Robert Elsie in 1991 and in 2003 There was the announcement that the two Franciscans from Ireland had arrived in Venice on June 28, while on August 19 they had left for Pula, two days later they had reached Dubrovnik by Hvar and Korcula. They had continued to Ulqin, "which belongs to the King of Rasha" [Rashka] and Arbënia, "which the aforementioned Rashian king has placed under his power", to continue to Corfu and Crete.

The significance is that this note comes only 14 years after Descriptio Europae Orientalis (Description of Eastern Europe), 1308, of the Dominican Anonymous, and comes from the not-so-near Irish world.

The Latin text reproduced in Kostić is this:

Original Latin: Albania est provincia inter Sclavoniam et Romaniam per se linguam habens, quam nuper predictus rex Rassie schismaticus suo dominio subjugavit. Ipsei enim Albanenses schissmatici sunt, graecorum utentes ritu, et eisdem habitu et gestu in omnibus conformes; nam greci raro vel nunquam utuntur caputio, sed capello albo, quasi plano in parte anteriori humiliate, et in posteriori elevato, ut eorum crines intuentuium occulis luculentius appareant: quia in crinium longitudine et pulchritudine summe gloriantur. Sclavi vero ... tantum capello albo ablongo et rotundo, cujus sumitati nobiles pennam longam figunt, qua facilius a rusticus et villanis distingui queunt atque cognosci,

CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, Ireland – http://www.ucc.ie/celt (2017). Distributed by CELT online at University College, Cork, Ireland. Text ID Number: T300002-001 (Electronic edition compiled by Natasha Dukelow, Beatrix Färber).

English translation of the National Library of Ireland: "After a few days spent here, we passed through Dul¬cigno, which belongs to the King of Rassia, and then by sea to Durazzo, a city once famous and powerful both on land and sea, a possession of the Emperor of the Greeks. But now it is subject to the Prince of Romania, brother of the King of Jerusalem, and is in the province of Albania, which is the province between Slavonia and Romania, having a language of its own, which was recently subjugated and added to his dominions by the aforementioned King of Ras¬sia, a schismatic, for the Albanians are themselves schismatics, using the Greek rite, and closely resem¬b¬ling the Greeks in dress and manners. For the Gre¬eks rarely or never wear a cowl, but a white hat, almost flat, turned downwards in front and up¬wards behind, so that their hair, of the length and beauty of which they are very proud, may be more clearly seen...

This city [Durazzo] is in the circuit of its walls very extensive, but in buildings miserably small, because it was once totally destroyed by an earthquake, during which the wealthy citizens and inhabitants, to the number of 24,000, as is asserted, were buried beneath their own palaces and killed. It is now thinly populated by peoples differing in religion, customs and language, by Latins, Greeks, perfidious Jews, and barbarous Albanians. Small coins called tournois are current here, of which eleven are worth one Venetian grosso, and these are current throughout all Romania. This city is distant 200 miles from Ragusa".

Approximate Albanian translation: "After a few days spent there, we passed through Ulqin, which belongs to the king of Rasha, and then through the sea to Durrës, a once famous and powerful city both on land and at sea, the property of the emperors of the Greeks. But now it belongs to the Prince of Romania [Greek Byzantium], the brother of the King of Jerusalem, and it is in the province of Arbën, which is a province between Slavonia and Romania, which has its own special language, which it was recently laid out and joined the domains of the King in question  of Rasa, schismatic, since the Arbers are also schismatics, who use the Greek rite and closely resemble the Greeks in dress and behavior. As the Greeks rarely or never wear a veil, but a white hat, mostly flat, slanting across the forehead and across the back, so that their hair, for the length and beauty of which they are very proud of, can be seen more often...

The city [of Durrës] within its walls is very spacious, but in buildings miserably small, because it was once completely destroyed by an earthquake, during which the prosperous citizens and inhabitants, to the number of 24.000, as has been witnessed, were buried within their palaces and killed. Now it is densely inhabited by people who differ in terms of religion, customs and language, from Latins, Greeks, perfidious Jews, and barbaric Arbers. Small coins known as tournois are common here, 11 sish are worth the same as a Venetian grosso, and are widespread throughout Romania. This city is 200 miles away from Ragusa."

An important trail in the studies of the Albanian world

Interests in the Albanian language, literature and culture have not been absent even among various authors who come from the Scandinavian countries and from the north of Europe in general. In these spaces, there are no such early announcements for the Albanian world as the one mentioned by the Irish Simeon, but since the beginning of the 50th, from there we have weighty observations, such as those of R. Rask, S. Bugge, etc., which come and intensify and deepen especially in the "Danish Harushani" H. Pedersen, as our S. Riza called him in the years XNUMX of sh. past, to continue with serious authors and with weighty help in Ch. G. Svanne's Sandfeld, later. Of course, the observations of Ullmar Quick, Berit Beker and other authors in our time are leaving an important mark in the studies of the Albanian world. The interest in this world for Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, the Presheva Valley, Montenegro and the Albanian diaspora in our time is always growing. In this volume we also have a novelty: for the first time we also have views on the archaeological studies of British authors on Albanian spaces.

The volume before us brings 40 aids for different fields of study related to our topic. In its 518 pages, you will find references, analyses, reviews, discussions on various aspects of interest in the Albanian world of British and Northern European authors. In this case, the frequent concentrations around the works of authors such as Lord Byron, Stuart Mann, Edith Durham, Noel Malcolm, Christian Sandfeld, Holger Pedersen, Arthur Evans, or John Wilkes stand out, but in general the horizon expands more than in other conferences, now not only in linguistics, but also in literature, in ethnological-ethnographic studies, in archeology, and even in geopolitical and historiographical aspects. 

I am full of confidence that this edition will also have the success that the previous four volumes have experienced.  

Speech on the occasion of the inauguration of the publication of the acts of the scientific conference "Studies on Albanians in Great Britain and Northern European countries", ASHK, Pristina, October 16, 2024