ALBANIA. REPERE ISTORICE, CULTURALE ȘI POLITICE

Where’s the sword, there’s religion: Local Elites, Ottomans, and Islamization Among Albanians during the 15th Century

Caka EDUARD

Abstract: The stages through which the Ottoman conquest of Albanian territories took place during the 15^th century and the process of Islamisation that followed later remain topics of curiosity for Albanian and foreign scholars. Unlike other neighbouring nations, who accepted Ottoman hegemony but continued to adhere to their traditional confession, among Albanians we observe a gradual change in religious affiliation that began with the settlement of the Ottomans in this area. Thus, both Ottoman cadastral registers and Western archival documentation testify primarily to a portion of the elites who had converted to the Islamic faith by becoming part of the Ottoman administration and military class, letting us understand that the trend of conversion came from the upper classes towards the common people. The spread of the Islamic faith among Albanians during this time also marked the shaping of their religious map, where the population of this geography now consisted of three major religious groups: Roman Catholic, Christian Orthodox, and Muslim.

In this article, we will analyse the relations of Albanian elites with the Ottomans during the phase of establishing Ottoman rule in Albanian territory, as well as the impact that this relationship had on the process of Islamisation of Albanians. The analysis and the study will focus mainly on the Ottoman cadastral registers (Tahrir Defterleri) of the 15^th century for the lands inhabited by the Albanian population.

Keywords: Albania, Islamisation process, Local elites, Ottoman rule, Ottoman Tax Registers.

Introduction

The religious composition of Al­banians in general and the process of Islamisation in particular continue to remain delicate issues in Albanian public opinion, where intellectuals and clerics approach the topic with great caution as a result of the fragility that it presents in itself.¹ On the other hand, these two important issues have been a constant topic of curiosity for local and foreign scholars, who aim to understand the social dynamics and economic and political factors that influenced the creation of this reality as well as the historical processes through which these important chang­es occurred. While in the chronologi­cal context, the origin of this “scien­tific curiosity” dates to the 15^th centu­ry when the traditional faith of Alba­nians, Christianity, which was present among the local population, both with the Catholic version in one part of it and the Orthodox one in the other, was added a new faith, that of Islam.

With the spread of Islam in the Al­banian lands, a different social reality now appears, where the local popula­tion that had lived for centuries under different rulers while maintaining its continuity in the confessional aspect now faces a continuity and stability in the political and administrative aspect but undergoes changes in the religious one. This reality has continued to be so throughout the period of Ottoman rule, when the Ottoman society, of which the Albanian one was also a part, has functioned within the frame­work of the system of the millets. However, unlike other neighbour na­tions who mainly maintained their traditional beliefs, the Albanians who spoke the same language and had the same customary codes coexisted with each other divided into three faiths. Seen in this light, the religious diversi­ty among Albanians has been seen by travellers, diplomats, and foreign writers as a phenomenon that is both unique and “strange²,” which has led to this aspect finding a place in the works of many of these authors who visited the Albanian space during the period of Ottoman rule, and especially in the 19^th century.

Although there is still no in-depth study on the conversion of Albanians to Islam during the period of Ottoman rule, it should be noted that different authors have treated this phenomenon from different perspectives. One ap­proach was that of political changes, where the spread of the Islamic faith in the Albanian lands is followed in parallel with the extension of Ottoman rule and its institutions in this geogra­phy.³ An important thesis was also that with an economic context, where different historians have focused on taxes as one of the main instruments that influenced the conversion of the local population to the Islamic faith.⁴ Other studies have treated it in a chronological context by following the process of Islamisation in time, which seems to have gained extensive proportions, especially after the sec­ond half of the 16^th century.⁵

Although external factors such as the political, economic and cultural context, which belong to the social dimension, that is, the society to which the individual belongs, have their importance and weight, the con­version process is equally individual and is related to psychological stages through which a person must over­come. Of course, such approaches force the historian to overcome the rigid boundary of the document and history as a scientific discipline and to approach other disciplines that deal with man and society, such as psy­chology and sociology, to enable a broader and more objective elabora­tion of the phenomenon. But, when it comes to the Middle Ages, the factors that must be considered in such trans­formations differ from those of later centuries. As we clearly see from the archival and documentary sources of the time, this process seems to have occurred mainly among the social and political elites, to subsequently spread to the wider masses of society. In this context, we must emphasise that re­garding this issue it is possible to see a detailed panorama in the Ottoman cadastral registers of the 15^th century for the Albanian lands, in which we also encounter the first cases of con­versions to the Islamic faith.

The process of Islamisation among Albanians during the 15^th century

The establishment of Ottoman rule in Albanian territory includes a time frame that begins with the first Turk­ish incursions into this area in the last decades of the 14^th century and ends with the conquest of coastal cities that were under Venetian rule, such as Durrës, which was invaded in 1501. During this period, which covers a period of time that goes more than a century, Albanian relations with the Ottomans went through several phas­es, such as that of vassalage⁶, the up­risings of the 30s of the 15^th century⁷, the great resistance during the time of Skanderbeg⁸, and the great Ottoman-Venetian war that ended with the withdrawal of Venice from Albanian territory and the complete establish­ment of Ottoman rule in this geogra­phy.

The cadastral registers (Tahrir Defterleri) also constituted the official document that symbolised the estab­lishment of Ottoman rule in a certain territorial space.⁹ Regarding the terri­torial space that includes the territory of today’s political Albania, it can be said that there are four cadastral regis­ters for this century, through which we are able to follow the phases of the establishment of Ottoman rule in this area, the political and military turbu­lences that occurred, demographic movements, the progress of the eco­nomic element but also the way in which the process of Islamisation de­veloped. While the Tahrir defters that contain a reflection of the entire Alba­nian population of the time, which today extends to areas that are part of the territorial map of the countries neighbouring Albania, are more nu­merous in number. By using these texts, local historians have managed to obtain interesting data regarding the process of Islamisation among Alba­nians during the 15^th-16^th centuries¹⁰. Thus, the first element that emerges from their study is related to the fact that Islamisation initially occurred in urban centres and then spread to the suburban areas. This is because cities, towns or large villages were mainly areas that were part of the timars of the pashas and beylers, i.e., high Ot­toman officials, where officials and military troops were stationed and there was interaction with the sur­rounding areas as a result of the eco­nomic and commercial activities that took place there. This was also the reason that these urban centres were even more in contact with the Islamic faith.

However, if we take a look at the mentioned cadastral registers, we will see that apart from the military and administrative caste established in these cities, who were Muslims, the spread of Islam was extremely slow. This consideration doesn’t include only the Albanian space, but it in­cludes the entire Ottoman territory that was part of the eyalet of Rumelia. According to the jizya registers for this area for the years 1488-1491, in this entire geography only 300 cases of conversion to Islam per year are observed¹¹. This process of Islamisa­tion was observed mostly in the re­gions of Bosnia, while in the Albanian parts the cases were much fewer. More specifically, the Ottoman tax registers let us understand that during the 15^th century, important demo­graphic centres for the time, such as Berat, Gjirokastra, Përmet, Kruja etc., were entirely with Christian popula­tions, while in other cities, such as Shkodra or the newly re-founded El­basan, they had Muslim populations within them. In these urban centres, in addition to the settlers brought by the Ottomans, we also observe residents who are newly converted to the Islam­ic faith (nev-i müslim) as well as craftsmen who practised their profes­sions in these cities while a part of them were Islamised¹².

The gradual spread of Islam in cit­ies conditioned the expansion of this phenomenon in rural areas also, for which urban life served as an orient­ing model. This is because the Otto­man urbanisation policies during this century, which aimed at the estab­lishment of new urban centres, also created nuclei of absorption of resi­dents of various rural areas, which became part of a larger community society where the guiding role was constituted by the new political, eco­nomic, and even religious culture, which in this case was the Islamic one. Such cases of the foundation or re-foundation of new cities, in the part of today’s Albania, can be mentioned in those of Elbasan and Korça, while in the entire Balkans, such examples are much greater in number¹³.

The panorama will change during the 16^th century, when, in parallel with the demographic and economic growth of urban centres, there will also be changes in the Islamisation processes, where we already notice that Muslim neighbourhoods create dominance in centres like Elbasan and constitute a significant portion of the city’s population in other settlements. For example, in 1583 Gjirokastra had 65 Muslim houses (hane) out of 369 such that the city had, while in Berat the ratios were 650 to 400 houses, elements that showed the rapid chang­es that were taking place in the reli­gious configuration of urban centres¹⁴. Such a panorama is not observed only in Albanian cities but in the entire Ottoman territorial space that was part of the Rumelia eyalet. The demo­graphic statistics of the Ottoman chancellery for the first half of the 16^th century count a number of 1,111,799 houses for the entire province, where Muslims accounted for 194,958 hous­es, which consisted of 18% of the total number of inhabitants of this part of the empire¹⁵.

A second aspect that emerges from the use of these sources is that which has to do with the profile and status of the people who converted to Islam. Thus, if we observe the categories of people who converted, we will see that the majority of them were indi­viduals who were part of the timar system; that is, they belonged to the military and ruling caste. Most timars were given to the administrative and military class, but a significant catego­ry was also made up of Albanian timar holders who had converted to Islam. Among the latter, a significant part were the scions of the great Alba­nian families of the time.

Both the Ottoman cadastral regis­ters and the later studies carried out on these sources show that with the con­solidation of Ottoman rule in the Al­banian space, the main part of the elites converted to the Islamic faith and were integrated into the Ottoman state apparatus, serving as command­ers and government officials in their homeland or in different parts of the empire. For example, one of the sons of Theodore II Muzaka, Kasem Bey, is found in the post of Sanjakbey of Arvanid during the years 1438-41, while Isa Bey Skura in 1444 is found in the post of Beylerbey of Anatolia, and Hasan Zenebishi served as subash of Fener that today is located in Greece¹⁶. Meanwhile, in the second half of the same century, Albanians converted to the Islamic faith are found in the highest positions of the Ottoman state. Such is the case of Zaganos Pascha, who held the post of Grand Vizier (veziriazam) during the reign of Mehmed II¹⁷.

This integration of local elites into the Ottoman military and administra­tive structures was based on two very important institutions on which Otto­man power was based during this time. More specifically, we are talking about the system of Ghulams that was installed during the reign of Bayezid I and that of the Kapikulu later. Through these structures, the Otto­mans not only maintained control of the areas they ruled but also generated manpower for their army and, thus, replaced the existing Turkish aristoc­racy, minimising any threat to the ab­solutist power of the sultan. On the other hand, such a policy was also of interest to the Albanian nobles, who, through integration within their state structures, initially maintained their social and economic status in their own areas but also became part of the echelons of power.

Another element that should be emphasised regarding the policies that the Ottomans followed during their penetration into the Albanian lands in terms of the relationship with the local elites is that of the division of timars among Christian timariots, a practice that we do not encounter in the fol­lowing centuries. This is related to the methods that the Ottomans used dur­ing their penetration into certain re­gions during this period, an aspect clearly addressed by Halil Inalcık in his articles and writings¹⁸. As long as the timar holders were committed to the conditions that had to be fulfilled to the Sultan, this property remained with them as a possession, and there were cases when their sons also inher­ited it, who, this time, chose not to remain in their previous faith but to convert to Islam. Such was the case of Mesir Pavli in the 1431 register for the areas of Përmet and Korça, respective­ly for Leskovik, which now passed to his sister’s son who had converted to Islam, Muhammed¹⁹. This was not a limited case, but in the cadastral regis­ters we see numerous examples where the Timar clans have converted to the Islamic faith, or it is the second gener­ation, that is, their sons, who have converted²⁰.

In conclusion, seen in a summa­rised manner, it can be said that, in the Ottoman cadastral registers for the 15^th century that belong to the area of ​​present-day Albania, the ratio of timars owned by Christian timariots varied, as showed in the following statistics: 16% in the Arvanid sanjak (56 out of 335 timars); 27.9% in the areas of Përmet, Korçë and Konica (38 out of 136); 18% in the part of Dibra (19 out of 105 timars), and; 8.3% in the sanjak of Shkodra (15 out of 120 such)²¹. What attracts the most attention in this case, too, has to do with the fact that timars were also dis­tributed to priests²².

Factors that influenced the pro­cess of Islamisation

This tendency of Islamisation among Albanians that is observed in the sources of the 15^th century, while such a phenomenon is not observed among neighbouring nations, exclud­ing here the Bosnians, leads us to think about the causes that influenced these confessional changes among the Albanian population. In this regard, it must be said that there are several fac­tors of a geographical, political, social and customary character which distin­guished this population from its neighbours, letting us understand that they may have also influenced this religious transformation.

Geographical factor

The penetration of the Ottoman armies into the Balkans, followed by the installation of their rule in this area later, comes out as an element which also implies the extension of the Is­lamic element in this geography oc­curred in a very short period of time. Thus, if we take into account the crossing of the Dardanelles (1354) by the Turks in the middle of the 14^th century to reach their victory in the Battle of Kosovo (1389), it is clear that this progress of theirs occurred within a few decades. Whereas in just one century, that is, around the middle of the 15^th century, almost the entire Balkans had turned into a Turkish empire, where large urban centres, such as Sofia, Edirne, Thessaloniki, etc., served as the headquarters of the central and local Ottoman administra­tion. Two factors can be mentioned as influencing the rapid course of events: the geographical position of this space, which had been a constant transit zone and therefore the object of the conquest intentions of various po­litical and economic powers, and the fragmented political-military powers that had failed to ensure continuity in this geography²³.

Among the major political for­mations observed in this part of the Balkans during the period of Ottoman penetration, one can mention Byzanti­um and the Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian kingdoms, but also Venice, which was initially established in the Morea and which later spread along the eastern coast of the Adriatic as a result of the increasing Ottoman threat. The Ottoman invasion of the Balkan areas, part of which were also the lands inhabited by the Albanian population, coincides with such a re­gional political panorama, where, un­like other neighbouring countries that had established state formations, the Albanians were governed by local elites. This situation, on the one hand, aroused the appetites of various king­doms and powers to include these lo­cal dignitaries within their states, while on the other hand, it also condi­tioned the approach of the Albanian nobility to the new political balances that were being built in the region. Another political actor who played a role in the Albanian lands during the 15^th century, especially during the pe­riod of the resistance led by Skander­beg, was also the Kingdom of Naples, which played a special role in support­ing the Albanians during their re­sistance against the Ottoman inva­sion²⁴.

Of course, the main factor influ­encing the rivalries for the possession of this space was the geographical position that the Albanian lands had had throughout the centuries. As the well-known Ottoman historian and jurist of the 19^th century, Ahmed Cevdet Pascha, expressed it, Albania was the westernmost tip of Rumelia²⁵, where the Adriatic served as a natural border between the Ottomans and Europe, Islam and Christianity. This geogra­phy, which had been part of the route of the famous Via Egnatia road that connected Rome with Constantinople, during the 15^th century still continued to serve as the shortest point from where the Ottomans could march to­wards Rome²⁶, or as the first eastern terrain from which the crusades against the Ottomans would start.

Local elites

The lack of a genuine existing state formation, as was observed among its neighbours, meant that the Albanians were not united in the face of the po­litical-military changes that occurred in the Balkans during the Late Middle Ages. Precisely for this reason, we find the local elites positioned on the side of states that had the potential to become regional actors. This reality also explains the fact that during the 14^th-15^th centuries we see the local nobility linked to the Serbian royal court, engaged as soldiers and com­manders in Byzantium, as citizens and allies of Venice, Ragusa and Naples and, finally, as vassals of the Otto­mans.

The moderated policy used by the Ottomans during the period of vassal­age was nothing more than a transi­tional phase that would end in the up­risings that engulfed the entire territo­ry during the first decades of the 15^th century. During this period, the Otto­mans left the Albanian nobles the ex­ploitation of the areas they governed while integrating their own adminis­trative and military structures here, while on the other hand, they took the sons of the Albanian nobles as iço­glan’s in Edirne, a phase that would also bring with it the transformation of the elites.

In the Ottoman cadastral registers for the 15^th century, we note that the possessions of Albanian nobles who were vassals to the Ottomans are men­tioned by their names. Such are the possessions registered with the name of the related noble, such as vilayet-i Kastrioti, Zenebishi, Muzaka, Araniti, Ashtini, etc., an element that clearly shows the fact that the Ottomans rec­ognised them as important local actors and recognised their attributes. How­ever, with the passage of time and the centralisation of power during the reign of Murad II, the Ottomans began to reduce the possessions of the Alba­nian nobles by dividing parts of them into timars that were divided among the military castes, an element that caused a harsh reaction among the Albanian elites, where the most signif­icant reflection of this dissatisfaction is the uprising launched by Gjergj Araniti in the 30s of the 15^th century²⁷.

There were two factors that changed the situation on the ground: the first, the power vacuum among the Ottomans after the Battle of Ankara (1402) until the accession to the throne of Mehmed I and especially Murad II, while the second aspect was related to the establishment of Venice in the cities of the Albanian coastline as well as the plans for a possible cru­sade that was organised by the Vatican as the capital of all Christian states of Europe²⁸.

Precisely in such a politically fluid situation, the Albanian nobility seems to have chosen to remain in relations with all parties, with the aim of posi­tioning itself on the side of the winner. A contemporary source that describes in detail the position in which the lo­cal elites found themselves during this period is the chronicle of Gjon Muzaka, who shows the difficulties that the local nobility went through in this time of turbulence, where some were forced to emigrate away from Arbëria²⁹.

The fact that almost half of the members of each of the Albanian no­ble families of the time converted to Islam suggests that this was more of a political decision than a conversion process. If it were the opposite, we would be faced with the complete Is­lamisation of one or several of them, while the other families would remain in their previous faith. But, in this case, Islamisation is observed in all these families, and, in a controlled manner, some of them continued to remain in their traditional faith.

On the other hand, the Islamisation of local leaders had a direct impact on the peasants, who, based on the moral and customary codes of Albanian so­ciety, did not see the issue of conver­sion as heresy. An illustrative case of all this, namely the nobleman who is a vassal of the Ottomans but who re­mains in his own faith, of his son who preserves his father’s territory but chooses to convert to Islam by becom­ing part of the ruling and military caste, as well as of the local popula­tion who follows the path of their “lord”, can be seen in the case of a timar of the vilayet of Pavlo Kurtik, part of the Arvanid sanjak. As can be seen from the name of this territorial unit, the vilayet belonged to Pavlo Kurtik, whom the Ottomans also rec­ognised with the status of local lord, thus naming the area in question. However, according to the entry in the register, the timar was given to his son, Isa Bey³⁰. As is evident from the title of bey that the Islamised Isa held, we can suppose that he held an admin­istrative-military position in the Otto­man governing structures. Finally, one of the villages of Pavlo Kurtiku’s vila­yet that was part of the cited timar, namely the one called Zhilema, had a total of 40 houses, of which 17 were Muslim and served to the subash³¹.

Religion

The geographical position that made this area a bordering space, as well as the instability in the political-administrative aspect that character­ised the Albanian lands starting from the Middle Ages until the time of the establishment of Ottoman rule, were elements that also influenced the con­figuration and religious life of this area. In terms of confession, before the 15^th century, the local population belonged to the Orthodox and Catho­lic Christian rites, where, while the Catholics were dependent on the Vatican, the Orthodox population was found partially dependent on the Archbishopric of Ohrid for those areas that were under Byzantium and the rest connected to the Patriarchate of Peja as a result of the Serbian expan­sion towards Albanian areas, especial­ly during the period of Stefan Dushan’s rule³².

The lack of an autochthonous state with its own institutions, in which the functioning of religious life would be sanctioned, meant that church life and organisation in the Albanian lands were conditioned by the political powers that managed to establish their hegemony in this geography. Schmitt clearly highlights this approach when he discusses the way Venice dealt with the churches at the time it took possession of the main Albanian coastal cities, where he emphasises that the Venetian governors had been extremely careful to preserve the po­litical interests of the la Serenissima in this space, even when it came to their relationship with religious institutions, that is, the churches³³. Of course, this panorama affected the influence that the church had not only on communi­ty life but also on the relationships of elites and individuals with the clergy.

It is precisely this influence of politics on religion that conditioned the behaviour of local elites towards religion, where this was seen as a means or instrument to adapt to the power of the time. One case that can be mentioned here is that of 1369, when the three Balsha brothers aban­doned the Orthodox faith to convert to Catholicism, a genuine political step that would bring them closer to the Papacy and the Catholic world in gen­eral³⁴. Such an explanation, that of the “conformist” approach of smaller elites towards much larger powers only with the aim of preserving their privileges or building political-military alliances aiming to grow po­litically and economically, would also make clearer the explanation of why the Albanian nobility during the 15^th century preferred to partially side with the faith of the new dominant of this space, the Ottomans.

Another aspect which influenced the Islamisation processes that took place in the Balkans was Bogomilism, which was mainly observed in the areas of Bosnia, i.e., near the coast of Dalmatia. As a fraction considered heretical, which had doctrinal and ethical changes towards Christianity, propagating the reformation of the church and its return to the form of the apostolic period, Bogomilism created a kind of vacuum in the doctrinal and moral aspects, which seemed to have served as a space through which a new faith that was spreading in the Balkans together with the Ottomans, that of Islam, would penetrate. Bosni­an scholars in particular, who have used Ottoman cadastral registers of this period, express that Bogomilism and its reformist and puritanical nature had influenced the spread of Islam in this geography³⁵. Although there are no genuine studies regarding the pres­ence of Bogomilism among Albani­ans, the fact that it was spread in a geographical area close to Albanian lands and that economic, cultural and human interaction between the inhab­itants of this geographical area has been continuous leads us to think that it was not foreign to Albanians.

The weak state of religious institu­tions as a result of political instability but also of the social configuration where customary norms were respect­ed more than religious sermons has produced ignorance but also negli­gence among people towards religion in general, an element that did not consider conversion to another faith as a “great sin”. This element is high­lighted both by the phenomenon of crypto-Christianity that would appear in Albanian spaces after the 16th cen­tury and also by the numerous testi­monies of foreign travellers, diplomats and historians. An interesting testimo­ny in this regard is that of Wortley Montague, wife of the English ambas­sador in Istanbul in the second half of the 18th century, who stated that: “The Albanians are not able of speak­ing about which religion, Christianity or Islam, is better for them. They do not reject any, but on Friday go to the mosque and on Sunday to church”³⁶.

Social structure

Another important factor that in­fluenced the Albanians’ conversion to Islam, but which is also related to the elements we mentioned above, was the social structure and customary codes that belonged to this population, which were unique and not observed among other surrounding areas and nations. What we mean more precise­ly has to do with the family structure among Albanians throughout history, the close ties and strong relationships that existed between people with blood ties, and the great importance that the tribe had in the social context, that is, in the functioning and progress of social life.

In the family and clan structure of the Albanians, it was the word of the head of the house or tribe that also meant the final decision on a certain relationship. Not only the family and clan but all the codes and norms of the social life of the Albanians during the pre-Ottoman, Ottoman and modern periods were sanctioned by a corpus of customary norms known as Kanun, among which the most famous was that of Lekë Dukagjini, who func­tioned in the northern areas of Albania, known as Gegeria. These unwritten norms, though known by everyone, were respected by the local population with more precision and rigour than the norms of religious institutions or political powers that ruled in this ge­ography. This element is also high­lighted by Ahmed Cevdet Pascha in 1861, when he states that, although the empire had long called for people to break away from the Kanun be­cause it conflicted with Sharia, the main part of the highlanders still acted on the basis of this customary code³⁷.

Finally, the importance of the cus­tomary code in individual, family and social life, especially in the northern areas where Albanians lived, seen in the context of the approach to religion in general and Islamisation processes in particular, is clearly highlighted through the following narration that Ahmed Cevdet Pascha conveys in his notes on the case of the conversion of the Malziu neighbourhood in the vi­cinity of Puka:

“The population of Malziu, which once belonged entirely to the Catholic rite, recently converted to the Islamic faith. Thus, one Sunday they were late for mass, and when they arrived at the church, they asked the priest to “bless the bread and wine for us again”. But the priest refused them, saying that “repeating the liturgy is not allowed”. After this, they insisted on reading the liturgy again, but the priest refused them again. Finally, the inhabitants killed the priest. After this develop­ment, this time the bishop excommu­nicated those who, angry with the bishop, had converted to the Islamic faith and, to this day, continue to hold this faith”³⁸.

Conclusion

The issue of the Islamisation of Albanians is also one of the main problems that stands as a challenge for local and foreign historians. Although various articles and writings have been written on this topic, it can be freely said that there is still no com­plete work that analyses the dynamics and processes that influenced the tran­sition of Albanians to the Islamic faith. This is precisely the starting point of this article, which aims to understand, analyse and discuss those developments that influenced the Is­lamisation processes in a very im­portant period of time for the history of Albania in particular and the Bal­kans in general, such as the 15^th centu­ry, which coincides with the estab­lishment of Ottoman power and the beginnings of Islamisation in this geo­graphical area.

As is evident from the sources of the time, which, in this case, are main­ly Ottoman tax registers, local elites played an important and determining role in the social, political and reli­gious changes that occurred in the Albanian area during this time. More specifically, in the processes of con­version of the peoples of these lands to the Islamic faith. Thus, both the political-military elites in the case of the noble families of the time and the local elites in terms of leading families and tribes, which had a direct impact on ordinary people, with the transition to the Islamic faith and integration within the administrative structures of the empire, seem to constitute the main examples of what would happen on a wider scale during the following centuries. The fact that the Albanians did not have a consolidated state, but also a single church seems to have made the role of these elites decisive in terms of their influence on the ordi­nary population.

Notes

• In one of his articles on beliefs in Albania, Father Anton Harapi empha­sized the fragility of this topic at the beginning of the article, starting his text with the words: “Forgive me for my courage: I want to face the most delicate issue in Albanian life…” For the full article, see Anton Harapi, “Çashtja e elementavet fetarë në Shqipni”, Hylli i Dritës, no. 5 (1944), p. 1.
• A Franciscan missionary, Fra Cherubino who visited Gjakova in 1637, related to his superiors regarding the Albani­ans attitude toward religions, describ­ing this phenomenon with the words: “They seemed do glory in this diversi­ty of religions, as if they were wiser than the other people of this world.” See Noel Malcolm, Rebels, Believers, Survivors: Studies in the History of the Albanians, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020, p. 56.
• Egro, Islam in Albanian Lands during the First Two Centuries of the Ottoman Rule, Ankara: University of Bilkent, 2003; Zhelyazkova, A.,”Islamization in the Balkans as an Historiographical Problem: The Southeast-European Perspective”, The Ottomans and the Balkans: A Discus­sion of Historiography, Ed. Fikret Adanır, Suraiya Faroqhi, Leiden: Brill, 2002, pp. 223-266.
• This is mainly about the jizya tax that was collected from Christians living in Islamic states. For more details on these claims, see Anton Minkov, Con­version to Islam in the Balkans: Kisve Bahası Petitions and Ottoman Social Life, 1670-1730, Leiden: Brill, 2004, pp. 10-11; Georg Stadtmüller, “Die Is­lamisierung bei den Albanern”, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, 3 (1955), pp. 404-429.
• From the examination of the cadastral registers for the sandjak of Vlora of the early 16th century, Inalcık con­cludes that the spread of Islam in the territorial space that included this ad­ministrative unit remained in extreme­ly modest figures. Thus, the ratio of Christian to Muslim houses for the years 1506-1507 in the Vlora district is 14 304 Christian families and 1 206 Muslim. While for Gjirokastra, men­tioned tax registers give a balance of 12 257 Christian houses with 53 Mus­lim ones. Halil Inalcık, “Stefan Duşan’dan Osmanlı İmparatorluğuna: XV. asırda Rumelı’de hırıstiyan sipahi­ler ve menşeleri”, Fuad Köprülü Ar­mağanı, İstanbul: Osman Yalçın Matbaası, 1953, p. 229. Gjithashtu, shih Ferit Duka, “XV-XVIII. Yüzyıllarda Arnavut Nüfusunun İslamlaşma Süreci Üzerine Gözlemler”, OTAM, vol. 2, no. 2 (1991), pp. 63-71.
• Regarding the period of vassalage and how the Ottomans used this practice to extend their rule into new territories, see Halil Inalcık, “Ottoman Methods of Conquest”, Studia Islamica, no. 2 (1954), pp. 103-129; Eduart Caka, “Yıldırım Bayezid Dönemi ve Arna­vutluk ile Münasebetler”, Uluslararası Yıldırım Bayezid Sempozyumu, Ed. Hasan Basri Öcalan, Yusuf Ziya Karaaslan, Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 2019, pp. 149-157.
• Lufta shqiptaro-turke në shekullin XV (Burime osmane), përg. Selami Pulaha, Universiteti Shtetëror i Tiranës, Instituti i Historisë dhe i Gjuhësisë, Tiranë, 1968.
• Frashëri Kristo, Skënderbeu: Jeta dhe vepra (1405-1468), Botimet Toena, Tiranë, 2002; Oliver Jens Schmitt, Skënderbeu, përkth, Ardian Klosi, Tiranë: Fjala Publishing, 2008; Halil Inalcık, “Arnavutluk’ta Osmanlı Hâkimiyetinin Yerleşmesi ve İskender Bey İsyanının Menşei”, Fâtih ve İstanbul, C. I, sy. 2 (1953), pp. 153-175.
• For the importance of cadastral regis­ters in the study of the early Ottoman period, defterology as a scientific dis­cipline, and registers pertaining to the territory of Albania in the 15th century, see Heath W. Lowry, Studies in Deft­erology: Ottoman Society in the Fif­teenth and Sixteenth Centuries, Istanbul: The Isis Press, 1992; Nicoară Beldiceanu, Yüzyıldan XVI. Yüzyıla Osmanlı Devleti’nde Tımar, çev. Mehmet Ali Kılıçbay, Ankara: Teori Yay., 1985; Hicri 835 Tarihli Sûret-i Defter-ı Sancak-ı Arvanid, neşr. Halil İnalcık, Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, 1954, pp. XI-XII. For the Albanian translation, see Regjistri i sanxhakut të Arvanidit i vitit 1431, përg. Në turq. Halil Inalcık, përkth. nga Mykerem Janina, red. Eduart Caka, Tiranë: Akademia e Studimeve Albanologjike, Instituti i Historisë, 2017. Also see Selami Pulaha, Pronësia feudale në tokat shqiptare (shek. XV-XVI), Tiranë: Akademia e Shkencave e RPS të Shqipërisë, Instituti i Historisë, 1988; Eduart Caka, “The Cadastral Register of Përmet and Korça as a Source for the History of Southeastern Albania during the First Half of the XV Century”, Studia Albanica, no. 1 (2020), pp. 60-61.
• Pulaha, op. cit., pp. 411-413; D. Egro, op. cit., pp. 213-215.
• İnalcik, H., Devlet-i ‘Aliyye: Osmanlı İmparatorluğu Üzerine Araştırmalar, I, İstanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yay., 2002, p. 201.
• Such is the case of Shkodra, where we note the presence of six houses newly converted to the Islamic faith. See Egro, op. cit., p. 216. Also see F. Duka, op. cit., pp. 66-67.
• For Ottoman urbanization policies during the 15th century, see Nikolai Todorov, The Balkan City, 1400-1900, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1983, p. 47.
• Regjistri i sanxhakut të Arvanidit, p. XXXVII.
• İnalcik, , Devlet-i ‘Aliyye, p. 201; N. Todorov, op. cit., p. 52.
• Idem, Fatih Devri Üzerinde Tetkikler ve Vesikalar I, Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, Ankara, 1954, pp. 146-148, 162; S. Pulaha, cit., pp. 36-38.
• Emecen, “Zağanos Paşa”, TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, C. 44, İstanbul: TDV Yay., 2013, pp.72-73; H. Inalcık, Arnavutluk’ta Osmanlı Hâkimiyetinin Yerleşmesi, op.cit., p. 160.
• For Ottoman policies of integrating Christian spahis into the Ottoman timar system, see H. Inalcık, Stefan Duşan’dan Osmanlı İmparatorluğuna, pp. 230-231.
• Defteri i regjistrimit të Përmetit dhe Korçës i vitit 1431, përkth. Vexhi Buharaja, përg. Eduart Caka, Akademia e Studimeve Albanologjike, Instituti i Historisë, Tiranë, 2018, p. 23. A similar case is that of Arnavut Hamzai, who was the son of Petro Mavri but who had converted to Islam and already owned part of the timar, namely Dranova in the vilayet of Berat. See Regjistri i sanxhakut të Arvanidit, p. 111.
• One of the timariots in the Dibra area was a newly converted Muslim named Jakub, who had also captured one of Skanderbeg’s collaborators, Moisi Golemi. See Defteri i hollësishëm për zonat e Dibrës i vitit 1467, përkth. Vexhi Buharaja, përgatiti për bot. Eduart Caka, Tiranë: Akademia e Studimeve Albanologjike, Instituti i Historisë, 2019, p. 44; H. İnalcık, Fatih Devri Üzerinde Tetkikler, cit., p. 164.
• For more details, see D. Egro, cit., pp. 190-191.
• Defteri i hollësishëm për zonat e Dibrës, p. XV.
• To illustrate the fragility of political and military stability in these areas during the period of Ottoman incur­sions into the Western Balkans, it is enough to mention the statement of the Croatian historian, Milan Šufflay, when he states that Durrës had changed hands a full 31 times within a period of 400 years. E. Caka, Yıldırım Bayezid Dönemi, p. 149. Also see A. Minkov, cit., p. 28.
• For more details on the political actors competing for hegemony in this space, see Peter Bartl, Ballkani Perëndimor ndërmjet monarkisë Spanjolle dhe Perandorisë Osmane, përkth. Pëllumb Xhufi, Shtëpia botuese Dituria, Tiranë, 2011, pp. 46-48; Pëlumb Xhufi, Arbërit e Jonit. Vlora, Delvina e Janina në shek. XV-XVII, Onufri, Tiranë, 2016, pp. 32-36.
• Osmanlı Arşiv Belgelerinde Arnavutluk, Devlet Arşivleri Genel Müdürlüğü, Osmanlı Arşivi Daire Başkanlığı, İstanbul, 2008, p. 252. For the Albanian version of this text, see Relacione të Ahmet Xhevdet Pashës për sanxhakun e Shkodrës, përg. Eduart Caka, Akademia e Studimeve Albanologjike, Instituti i Historisë, Tiranë, 2022, p. 44.
• We should remember here the Otranto expedition of Ahmed Gedik Pasha from Vlora to Puglia in 1480, who took the fortress and positioned him­self here for a period of several months. See Metin Ziya Köse, “Otranto Seferi”, TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, C. Ek-2, İstanbul: TDV Yay., 2019, pp. 382-384; P. Xhufi, cit, pp. 245-246.
• Regjistri i sanxhakut të Arvanidit, p. XII-XIII.
• On August 15, 1646, Pope Pius II, who had arrived here to organize a crusade against the Ottomans, would die suddenly in Ancona, an effort that would be interrupted because of the death of the head of the Vatican. See Oliver Jens Schmitt, Arbëria Venedike (1392-1479), shqip nga Ardian Klosi, Fjala Publishing, Tiranë, 2014, p. 551; P. Bartl, cit., pp. 72-73.
• Musachi, Breve Memoria de li Dis­cendenti de Nostra Casa Musachi, Chroniques Greco-Romanes, Ed. Charles Hopf, Berlin: Librairie de Weidmann, 1873, pp. 270-340.
• In 841 (1437-38) the timar had passed to Sinan Bey, the subash of Ilica. See Regjistri i sanxhakut të Arvanidit, p. 166.
• The village in question was located south of Tirana, right on the banks of the Erzen river. For more, see Regjistri i sanxhakut të Arvanidit, pp. 166-167.
• For more information about the state of the Orthodox and Catholic churches during the time of Venice’s establish­ment in Albanian territory, see Milan Šufflay, Situata të Kishës në Shqipërinë Paraturke: zona e depër­timit ortodoks në “digën katolike”, përkth Edmond Malaj, Shkodër: Botime Françeskane, 2016. Also see O. Schmitt, Arbëria Venedike…, pp. 534-535.
• Schmitt, O., Arbëria Venedike…, pp. 539-542.
• , p. 125.
• Minkov, op. cit, pp. 106-107.
• Egro, op. cit., pp. 35-36.
• Relacione të Ahmet Xhevdet Pashës…, p. 167; D. Egro, cit., pp. 35-36.
• Relacione të Ahmet Xhevdet Pashës…, p. 49.

Bibliography

Archives and document collections

***, Osmanlı Arşiv Belgelerinde Arnavutluk, Devlet Arşivleri Genel Müdürlüğü, Osmanlı Arşivi Daire Başkanlığı, İstanbul, 2008.

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BARTL, Peter, Ballkani Perëndimor ndërmjet monarkisë Spanjolle dhe Perandorisë Osmane, përkth. Pëllumb Xhufi, Shtëpia botuese Dituria, Tiranë, 2011.

BELDICEANU, Nicoară, XIV. Yüzyıldan XVI. Yüzyıla Osmanlı Devleti’nde Tımar, çev. Mehmet Ali Kılıçbay, Teori Yay, Ankara, 1985.

CAKA, Eduart, “Yıldırım Bayezid Dönemi ve Arnavutluk ile Münasebetler”, Uluslararası Yıldırım Bayezid Sempozyumu, Ed. Hasan Basri Öcalan, Yusuf Ziya Karaaslan, Ankara, Türk Tarih Kurumu, 2019.

IDEM, (edited by), Vexhi Buharaja, Akademia e Studimeve Albanologjike, Instituti i Historisë, Tiranë, 2019.

IDEM, Regjistri i sanxhakut të Arvanidit i vitit 1431, Halil Inalcık and Mykerem Janina (trad), Akademia e Studimeve Albanologjike, Instituti i Historisë, Tiranë, 2017.

EGRO, D., Islam in Albanian Lands during the First Two Centuries of the Ottoman Rule, University of Bilkent, Ankara, 2003.

EMECEN, F.,”Zağanos Paşa”, TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, C. 44, TDV Yay, İstanbul, 2013.

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LOWRY, W., Studies in Defterology: Ottoman Society in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, The Isis Press, Istanbul, 1992.

MALCOLM, Noel, Rebels, Believers, Survivors: Studies in the History of the Albanians, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.

MINKOV, Anton, Conversion to Islam in the Balkans: Kisve Bahası Petitions and Ottoman Social Life, 1670-1730, Leiden: Brill, 2004.

MUSACHI, G., Breve Memoria de li Discendenti de Nostra Casa Musachi, Chroniques Greco-Romanes, Ed. Charles Hopf, Librairie de Weidmann, Berlin, 1873.

PËLUMB, Xhufi, Arbërit e Jonit. Vlora, Delvina e Janina në shek. XV-XVII, Onufri, Tiranë, 2016.

PULAHA, Selami, Pronësia feudale në tokat shqiptare (shek. XV-XVI), Akademia e Shkencave e RPS të Shqipërisë, Instituti i Historisë, Tiranë, 1988.

IDEM, Lufta shqiptaro-turke në shekullin XV (Burime osmane), Universiteti Shtetëror i Tiranës, Instituti i Historisë dhe i Gjuhësisë, Tiranë,1968.

SCHMITT, Oliver Jens, Skënderbeu, përkth, Ardian Klosi, Fjala Publishing, Tiranë, 2008.

IDEM, Oliver Jens SCHMITT, Arbëria Venedike (1392-1479), shqip nga Ardian Klosi, Fjala Publishing, Tiranë, 2014.

ŠUFFLAY, Milan, Situata të Kishës në Shqipërinë Paraturke: zona e depërtimit ortodoks në “digën katolike”, përkth Edmond Malaj, Botime Françeskane, Shkodër, 2016.

TODOROV, Nikolai, The Balkan City, 1400-1900, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1983.

ZHELYAZKOVA, A., Islamization in the Balkans as an Historiographical Problem: The Southeast-European Perspective”, The Ottomans and the Balkans: A Discussion of Historiography, Ed. Fikret Adanır, Suraiya Faroqhi, Leiden: Brill, 2002.

Articles and studies

CAKA, Eduart, “The Cadastral Register of Përmet and Korça as a Source for the History of Southeastern Albania during the First Half of the XV Century”, Studia Albanica, no. 1 (2020), pp. 60-61.

Gjithashtu, shih Ferit DUKA, “XV-XVIII. Yüzyıllarda Arnavut Nüfusunun İslamlaşma Süreci Üzerine Gözlemler”, OTAM, vol. 2, no. 2 (1991), pp. 63-71.

HARAPI, Anton, “Çashtja e elementavet fetarë në Shqipni”, Hylli i Dritës, no. 5 (1944), p. 1.

INALCIK, Halil, “Arnavutluk’ta Osmanlı Hâkimiyetinin Yerleşmesi ve İskender Bey İsyanının Menşei”, Fâtih ve İstanbul, C. I, sy. 2 (1953), pp. 153-175.

IDEM, “Stefan Duşan’dan Osmanlı İmparatorluğuna: XV. asırda Rumelı’de hırıstiyan sipahiler ve menşeleri”, Fuad Köprülü Armağanı, Osman Yalçın Matbaası, İstanbul, 1953, p. 229.

IDEM, Fatih Devri Üzerinde Tetkikler ve Vesikalar I, Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, Ankara, 1954, pp. 146-148, 162.

IDEM, Devlet-i ‘Aliyye: Osmanlı İmparatorluğu Üzerine Araştırmalar, I, Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yay., İstanbul, 2022, p. 201.

IDEM, “Ottoman Methods of Conquest”, Studia Islamica, no. 2 (1954), pp. 103-129.

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