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Linguistic relationships of Albanians with the Pre-Indo-European inhabitants of their territories

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By Nelson CABEJ/

The history of the Albanian language is an essential part of their history and cannot be separated from it. Being an Indo-European language, Albanian, like all the rest of Indo-European languages of Europe has a considerable Pre-Indo-European linguistic substrate, originating in the language of the Neolithic population of the Western Balkans. The prevailing opinion among linguists is that Neolithic Europe was characterized by a linguistic diversity of languages that didn’t belong to a single family of languages.

During the Neolithic, the territory where by the Bronze Age formed the Illyrian ethnos, flourished the Vinča culture, which left a large number pictographic “writings”. However, the pictographs are still not deciphered and provide us no clue about the language they spoke. Basque may be the only language that survived from the group of the Neolithic languages of Europe, but the extinct Minoan language attested in undeciphered inscriptions and the Eteocretan language (whose inscriptions are deciphered) in Crete are clearly non-Indo-European languages and is believed to belong to the group of the Neolithic pre-Indo-European languages. It is not known whether the  languages of the Caucasus belong to the same group of Neolithic languages.

The development of the ancient Mediterranean culture of the Pre-Indo-European inhabitants of Western Balkans was interrupted with the arrival of the immigrant population, the bearers of the Indo-European culture. From their fusion, a new culture emerged in the region. Despite the domination of the Indo-European component, elements of the earlier Mediterranean culture were preserved in the emerging new culture.

From the viewpoint of the physical-anthropology, however, the following process of dinaricization of population in this region complicates the situation to such a degree that  makes it difficult for us today to determine the relative contribution of Pre-Indo-European type in the formation of the population that came to be known as Illyrians by the bronze era.

Under such circumstances, the examination of the lexical Pre-Indo-European and Indo-European substrate of the Albanian language could lead us to a reliable judgment on the relative contributions of both components of the Illyrian culture. It is generally believed that the pastoral civilization of steppes was lower than the agriculture-based civilization of the late Neolithic inhabitants of the South-East Europe, with the first being of a higher degree of patriarchal organization1. This and the fact that at the time existed no state and true centralization of the social structure, leads one to believe that the contribution of both the Pre-Indo-European and Indo-European populations in the formation of future Illyrian ethnos and the spiritual and material culture that emerged from their gradual fusion, might have been proportional to the contribution of each of them to the language of Illyrians, and Albanian as a linear descendant of Illyrian. Commenting on the Norbert Jokl’s view on Illyrian-Thracian origin of Albanian the greatest scholar of the history of the Albanian, Eqrem Çabej, while admitting the possibility of a Thracian component in Albanian, concluded that available linguistic material proves that “Illyrian is the major contributor to the formation of the Albanian language”2. However, as late as 1976, the well known Croatian linguist, Radoslav Katičić, denied the very existence of any proof or reliable indications on any Thracian origin of Albanian3: “Nothing in the nature of a proof has been presented so far for the Thracian origin of Albanian, only a cumulation of indications which, without deciding the question, prevent us from rejecting the Thracian hypothesis outright. The only thing one can do is to keep an open mind while remembering that in this controversy the burden of proof is with those who deny the Illyrian descent of Albanian”3.

Since the beginning of the 19th century when Franz Bopp (1791-1867) and August Schleicher (1821- 1868) proved that Albanian belongs to the Indo-European family of languages4, 5, most linguists pointed out that the Albanian vocabulary and grammatical structure is Indo-European and, from the family of ancient Indo-European languages, Illyrian provided most of the lexical material, without excluding a modest contribution of Thracian, which is difficult to be determined because of the close genetic relationship and likeness of these two ancient languages.

In modern Albanian, however, a considerable number of words is believed to belong to the ancient Balkan Pre-Indo-European substrate. Most of them belong to Albanian-Basque lexical correspondences, e.g. Albanian agon ‘to dawn’ and Basque ego ‘light’,  Alb. bisht ‘tail’ and Basq. bustan ‘tail’, hardhi ‘grapevine,  grape plant’ and ardo ‘wine’4, etc. In 50es of the 20th century E. Lahovary and K. Bouda discovered a number of Albanian-Basque concordances, which could not be accidental. A number of words of the Pre-Indo-European substrate of Albanian are similar with the corresponding words of the Pre-Indo-European substrtate of other Indo-European languages. So, e.g., Albanian words rripë, shkrep, etc. are comparable to the corresponding words of the Pre-Indo-European substrate of German (dialectal form riepe ‘rripë, rrëpirë), Italian (dialectal rave and grepo ‘shkrep’) and French (dialectal crep, grep ‘shkrep’). In the ancient Illyrian language were preserved a number of  Mediterranean, Pre-Indo-European place names, such as  names of the islands Issa and Cissa, as well as place names Puplisca, Tambia(Timbia) etc. considered by Hans Krahe7.

Although the contribution of this ancient Mediterranean language to the vocabulary and morphology of Illyrian and the Albanian language is very difficult to be determined, the idea exists that there are more words of the Mediterranean substrate in modern Albanian than in other Balkan languages and the study of the lexical material of Albanian may considerably contribute to the knowledge of the lexical structure of ancient languages of Balkans8 (Mayer, A. (1957). Die Sprache der alten  Illyrier I.).

In regard to the possible Thracian component that may have participated in formation of the Albanian people, culture and language, it is noteworthy that the Thracian component is not satisfactorily demonstrated and argued. Besides, that contribution may be exaggerated because at the time, i.e. more than 2 millennia ago, as argued by Norbert Jokl, Illyrian and Thracian were two closely related Indo-European languages (Polack, V. (1964). Op. cit.). It can be imagined that  Illyrian and Thracian at the time of the formation of the Albanian people have been roughly as closely related to each other as two neo-Latin languages are today. Such a conclusion would be drawn based on the general view of the historical linguistics that differentiation of languages of a common origin, in our case of the Indo-European family of languages, is a function of time. This implies that in the classical era Illyrian and Thracian from their common Proto-Indo-European were evolving as separate dialects for about 2 millennia.

 References

1 Garashanin, M.V. (1971). Nomades des steppes et autochtones dans le Sud-Est européen à l’epoque de transition du néolithique a l’age du bronze. In Sympossion: L’ethnogenese des peuples balkaniques. Sofia, p. 9-14.

2 Çabej, E. (1976). Studime Gjuhësore III. Rilindja, Prishtinë, p. 36.

3 Katičić R. (1976). Ancient Languages of the Balkans. Ed. W. Winter, Mouton & Co., The Hague, p. 187-88.

4 Bopp, F. (1855).Über das Albanesische in seinen verwandtschaftlichen Beziehungen. Stargardt, Berlin.

5 Schleicher, A. (1861). Compendium der  vergleichende Grammatik der  indogermanischen Sprachen. Bohlau, Weimar.

6 Krahe, H. ((1955). Die Sprache der Illyrier. Wiesbaden, f. 48.

7 Çabej, E.. (1936). Mundartliches aus Italien. Glotta, XXV (1/2), 50–57 (52).

8 Mayer, A. (1957). Die Sprache der alten  Illyrier I.

 

Archaeological record on Pre-Indo-European inhabitants of Western Balkans

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BY NELSON CABEJ/*

About 8 thousand years ago the western Balkan was inhabited by a population that had developed its own characteristic culture, representing an independent cultural entity rather than a subregion or reflection of the pioneering civilization of the Near East. This population served as the Mediterranean substrate of the future Illyrian ethnos, whose long historical evolution to the formation of the Albanian people will be the main subject of this work.

When and where the first humans came from to Balkans and Europe in general, is not known with certainty. According to the prevailing opinion, based on an ever-growing snowball of anthropological evidence posits that the modern human race originates in an East African center from which modern humans migrated to spread rapidly over all the continents. But all the human fossils studied as of yet cannot resolve whether the modern human species, Homo sapiens sapiens, rose from an oasis of intelligence in East Africa or it evolved in wider regions of Africa1. Nevertheless, the opinion of some paleontologists on the multifocal origin or south-Asiatic origin of humans should not be ignored.

The modern human species exited Africa about 50-60,000 years ago2 and within a relatively short period of time, they settled Europe and Balkans. It is not known, however, whether they came from the Near East or from the Eurasia. The details of the epic journey of the Homo s. sapiens tribe from East Africa, claiming to become ruler of the world, just after he left the Animal Kingdom, may remain unknown forever. This compells us to start our recount from that point in time when the earliest human fossilized remnants of the western Balkans are dated.

In the peninsula are also discovered traces of the Neanderthal man that lived since the earliest times of the last glacial period (~70-40 thousand years ago), as well as fossilized remains of the modern man, Homo sapiens sapiens, that appeared during the Late Paleolithic period, 50 to 10 thousand years ago. Additionally, in the territory of Western Balkans (Krapin, Croatia) are discovered fossils of more than 80 Neanderthal individuals. During the Late Paleolithic era the territory was populated from east and west, while evidences for immigrations from the south are uncertain. Life in society in Balkans developed since the Paleolithic period3 and Albanian archaeologists have discovered a number of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic settlements4. During the Mesolithic period (11,000-8,000 BC) occurred the brachycranization (skulls becoming shorter and broader) and gracilization (reduction of bone mass), while during the transition to the Neolithic period occurred significant microevolutionary changes, leading to the change of the anthropological type and formation of the Mediterranean anthropological type.

With the beginning of the Neolithic period, the Balkans became homeland of a population of food producers about 1 thousand years before the populations of Central Europe and 2 thousand years before those of the West and North Europe, appearing thus as an integral part of the Mediterranean cultural area and the ancient human civilization5 rather than a reflection of the Near East civilization. Although agricultural crops and animal domesticates that were cultivated in Balkans since the 7th millennium BC, were generally introduced from the East, the native population domesticated the cattle and swine, before they were domesticated in the Near East6. During the Early Neolithic this region, was integral party of the Meditterranean cultural region, which in the prehistory was part of the European cultural complex.

About 8 thousand years ago in human tribes in Western Balkans began a process that led to formation of the pre-IndoEuropian substrate of the Illyrian ethnos.

Archaeological finds in the territory of modern Albania, in Vashtëmi and other sites in Korça district, attest that by the 7th (~6400 BC) millennium Neolithic settlements were founded there. The region thus is among the first to develop agriculture in South Europe. Excavations in the Vashtëmi site led archaeologists to the conclusion that “agriculture was only one part of the subsistence economy, which also included hunting, fishing, and the gathering of wild plant resources”7.

Two cultural complexes developed in western Balkans during the Neolithic era: the Starčevo complex with its characteristic pottery, which emerged around the first half of the 6th millennium BC and the Vinča culture.

Inhabitants of the region of Starčevo complex in Western Balkans cultivated wheat, barley, etc. and from domestic animals they raised mostly sheep, goats and a kind of cattle, but less swines. They produced a series of bone tools for use in farming, hunting, fishing, etc, and made bone ornaments.

Due to the lack of the large tombs in Starčevo, the knowledge on the physical type of the inhabitants of the region is inadequate. However, the small number of the analyzed skeletons indicates that this population represents a mixture of Proto-European with oriental elements8.

In the Adriatic coast of the western Balkans between the 6th and 5th millennium BC developed the Impresso civilization characterized by a pottery with ‘impressions’ or scratching with shells of the bivalve mollusk Cardium edule, which was spread throughout the Mediterranean world, but there is no sufficient reason to believe that the spread may be related to any migrations of this population to other Mediterranean countries. This population lived both in caves and open settlements. In Albania the Impresso culture is represented by archeological finds of the Konispol cave dated immediately after Mesolithic period (the cave seem to have been inhabited since the Upper Paleolithic period)9 .

Neolithic population of this period raised mainly sheep, goats and cattle. Later they developed the colored pottery of the Danilo complex, with geometric and spiral motifs. This ceramics was very smooth and with thin walls. The population of this complex was engaged in husbandry, agriculture as well as in hunting.

Skeletons found show that individuals were buried in flexed position, but no tombs or graveyards are found in this region.

During the 6-5th millennium BC in Balkans emerge a few cultural complexes clearly distinct from each other, from which of special interest is that of Vinča (Turdaș) culture in the central region of Balkans and Hvar culture (named after the homonymous  island) in the Adriatic coast. The view that the development of these cultures, which are distinct in regard to their pottery and art styles, may be related to the immigration of ethnic groups from the East is refuted from the fact that this would not lead to the factual diversification of Balkan cultures of the time, but to their further uniformization10. For these reasons, the development of the Vinča and Hvar cultures has to be considered normal development of the local cultures, certainly under the influence of the contacts with the Aegean-Anatolian world.

Vinča culture, dated to 5,700-4,500 BC, developed in the Central Balkan. The culture features intense spiritual life reflected in more than one thousand figurines, exceeding the number of figurines found in Aegean Greece, which clearly indicate that at this early period they had created their cults.

 Figure 1. (A) A figurine of Vinča culture found near Prishtinë (Kosova), with pictographic signs or symbols of a primitive writing. In T.D. Griffen’s interpretation, the figurine displays the mask face of a bear and the signs on the right bottom from the left to the right symbolize respectively bear, goddess and bird. (B) Arrogant Lady of Vinča. A ~5,000 years old anthropomorphic terracota figurine of the Great Goddess from Vinča (Serbia).

From Griffen, T.B. (2007)11.

According to G.I. Georgiev, the Neolithic culture of Starčevo evolved into the Vinča culture under the influence of internal and external factors in a human society, whose substrate during the whole that period of time remained unchanged. Similarly developed other Balkan cultures of the time, such as the Karanovo culture in Bulgaria and the Sesklo culture in Thessaly (Grece), which evolved into Dimini culture12.

Towards the end of the Neolithic era, the inhabitants of the Western Balkans began to live in small villages. In some cases the villages of this period display features of ancient towns; houses were of rectangular shape in varying sizes and arranged in the form of circles or semicircles. Often these were two-story houses. Great progress was made during this period in the agricultural technology and in animal domestication. With the specialization in ceramic production and the copper and gold metallurgy began the division of labor.

In the Vinča complex between the 6th and 5th millennium BC was invented the “pictographic writing”, which may be the earliest form of pictography in the world, apparently predating the Sumerian pictographic script (in modern Iraq). The Vinča-Turdaș script started at about 5900-5800 BC and flourished until 3500-3300 BC. Its beginning predates by about 2 thousand years the earliest known form of writing13.

According to M.M. Winn (1981), these pictograms represent a primitive way of communication, which he prefers to name ‘prewriting’; they may represent ‘specific notions with magical value” or may be ‘imprecisely defined deities”. This writing system didn’t succeed to rise to the level of true writing. Attempts to relate Vinča writings with pictograms of Troy, Crete and Mesopotamia have been scientifically flawed. Dumitrescu related the disappearance of pictographic writing to the arrival of Indo-European migrants14, but this is not convincing since the pictographic writing disappeared in the Danube basin between the 3300-3000 BC, i.e. before the arrival of the first waves of Indo-European tribes. Let’s remember that even the modern writing developed from the pictographic writing. This occurred in Egypt and Mesopotamia, about 2 thousand years after Vinča pictographic writing by the 4-3rd millennium BC. Only later the pictographic writing was conventionalized in the form of hieroglyphs, which during the following millennia evolved into alphabetic writing15.

Figure  . The region where  Vinča-Turdaș pictograms are  discovered

 At a time when the Vinča script was gradually disappearing in the Balkans and Danube regions, the stage was set in the eastern regions of Europe for a unique event that would deeply and decisively affect the demographic, ethnographic and cultural situation in the European continent and Asia, migrations of the Indo-European population in successive waves from the steppes of the eastern corner of Europe toward distant regions in directions of the north, west, and south.

During the Late Neolithic period, by the beginning the 4th millennium BC, in the region between the Caspian Sea, Ural Mountains and Volga rivers developed a primary nucleus of Indo-European population, which, after being stabilized, grew its demographic potential and began a one-thousand year long march towards the west, north and south, starting with the Indo-Europianization of the earlier Sredni Stog culture around the Dnieper River. Around the year 3500-3000 BC the Indo-European ‘kurgan culture’ (from kurgan – a Turkic word for tumuli for graves covered with mounds of earth and stones), appears in the territory of the Usatovo culture, north of Danube in a wide territory of east Romania, Moldova and western Ukraine.

In a latter stage the kurgan culture expanded south of the Danube River to Pannonia and the Balkan Peninsula (2660-2400 BC), including modern Kosova and in a fourth stage it reached southern territories of the Balkan Peninsula.

According to J. Nemeskeri, the inhabitants of these regions at the time belonged to the Mediterranean physical type, comparable to the inhabitants of Khirokitias, Cyprus, of 6,000 BC. Vinča and Hvar cultures, like other Balkan complexes of this period, except for the Aegean region (until 2300-2200 BC), had disappeared, leaving behind only small traces of their culture.

*Librin e Profesor Nelson Cabej ” Epirotes Albanians of Antiquity”  mund ta porosisni ne Amazon

 References 

  1. Mayr, E.Populations, Species and Evolution, 1970, p. 394.
  2. Fu, Q. et al. (2014). Genome sequence of a 45,000-year-old modern human from western Siberia. Nature 514, 445–449.
  3. Georgiev, G.I. (1973). Gjetje prehistorike në Bullgari dhe zhvillimi cultural në Maqedoni dhe Shqipëri prej neolitit deri në periudhën e hershme të bronzit. Studime Historike 1, f. 12.
  4. Korkuti, M. (1972). A propos de la formation de l’ethnie illyrienne. In Premier colloque des Etudes Illyriennes, Tirana, pp. 55-76.

5. Gimbutas, M. (1972). Neolithic cultures of the Balkan Peninsula. In Aspects of the Balkans: continuity and change. Contributions to the International Balkan Conference held at UCLA, October 23-28, 1969. Ed. H. Birnbaum and  S. Vrionis. Mouton, 9-48 ( p. 9).

  1. Gimbutas, M. (1972). Ibid.
  2. Allen, S.E. and Gjipali, I. (2014). New Light on the Early Neolithic Period in Albania: The Southern Albania Neolithic Archaeological Project, 2006-2013, pp. 107-119. Internet: http://www.academia.edu/16166415/New_Light_on_the_Early_Neolithic_Period_in_Albania_The_Southern_Albania_Neolithic_Archaeological_Project_SANAP_2006-2013. Retrieved on March 27, 2016.
  3. Dimitrescu, V. (1958). Peut-on reellement parler d’un “systeme de pre-ecriture” della culture de Vinča? Dacia 1/2 113-118.
  4. Petruso, K., Korkuti, M., Bejko, L., Bottema, S. et al. (1996). Konispol Cave, Albania: A Preliminary Report on Excavations and Related Studies, 1992-1994. Iliria 26, 183-224.
  5. Gimbutas, M. (1972). Op. cit. p. 41.
  6. Griffen, T.B. (2007). Deciphering the Vinča script. Available in Internethttp://www.fanad.net/vincascript.pdf. Retrieved on Feb 19, 2016.
  7. Georgiev, G.I. (1973). Op. cit. This author believes that “the historical-cultural development of tribes inhabiting this region in older prehistorical times (from Palaeolithic until the Bronze Age) proceeded alongside each other”.
  8. Merlini, M. (2013). Introduction to the Danube script from the book Neo-Eneolithic Literacy in Southeastern Europe.

http://www.academia.edu/3035626/Introduction_to_the_Danube_script_from_the_book_Neo-Eneolithic_Literacy_in_Southeastern_Europe.

  1. Dimitrescu, V. (1958). Op. cit.
  2. Russell, B. (1969). History of Western Philosophy. Allen and Unwin, London, f. 25.

 

The theory of the Illyrian origin of Albanians is historically valid

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BY NELSON CABEJ/

In stark contrast to theories in natural sciences, historical hypotheses and theories are not empirically verifiable; having occurred in the past historical events are inaccessible to the historian and the only way he can reconstruct the past is to use historical sources, archaeological finds, linguistic remnants of the time, etc. However, historical sources are tinted by the emotions, prejudices and subjective feelings of the authors, which may have distorted the reality, archaeological finds may not always be related to the relevant populations and linguistic evidence may reflect foreign influences. The critical consideration and comparison with other sources may often corroborate historian’s views to a satisfactory degree but not always validate them. Furthermore, the historian himself is not free of the human emotions, prejudices and biases, so he is attracted by the kind of information he finds to agree with his beliefs and opinions. It is certainly very difficult to write history of the past based on the partial evidence that is available now. In spite of all the problems and philosophical impasses, the historiography is a 25-centuries old science that has contributed immensely to the human knowledge.

Being all of the above more or less philosophical problems relevant to the history of every particular country rather than a sui generis problem of the Albanian historiography, I will adopt herein a down-to-earth approach.

What I intend in these articles is not to access the inaccessible past of my people, but simply to reconstitute its historical past by using as much as possible pieces of available relevant evidence. All the evidence in sources, archaeological finds, linguistic fossils etc. is mere data which only after processed in historian’s brain generates information necessary for constructing the historical past. Certainly the emerging picture, by definition, will not be identical to the real past, but again this is is rather a problem of historiography in general than a problem of the Albanian history.

The theory of the Illyrian origin of Albanians gives the best and the more complete explanation of the known facts about the history, language and culture of Albanians, as linear descendants of south Illyrians that uninterruptedly inhabited the present-day Albanian-speaking territories, at least during the last three millennia. The theory looks at the language of Albanians, in Gustav Meyer’s expression, as the younger phase of a south-Illyrian dialect[1]

As mentioned earlier, the theory of Illyrian origin of Albanians started with an unbiased inquiry by Leibniz in his attempt to give an answer to the Prussian Königliche Bibliotek’s question on the nature and origin of Albanian. He analyzed the results of his research on the subject matter and first he guessed that its remnants may be “in the mountains of Epirus”2 and in the third letter, he expanded the territory to reach the conclusion that Albanian “was the language of the ancient Illyrians”3. Then Johann E. Thunmann expanded the area of research and elaborated arguments by delving into the historical evidence on the Albanian people4.

Thunmann, was the first to present the autochthony of Albanians in the form of a partly proven hypothesis. Had Thunmann, at his time, formalized it according to the present-day criteria of hypothesis building he could be able to state that his hypothesis fulfills the main criterion of a scientific hypothesis, the criterion of falsifiability, by offering the possibility to show it being false or the possibility of being refuted by demonstrating, e.g., the lack of sufficient linguistic affinities between the Albanian language and Illyrian; by proving that the Illyrian tribe of Albanoi mentioned by Ptolemy5 in the 2nd century AD was not related to the medieval Albanoi; by presenting historical evidence on migration of Albanians to their present territories at some point in time during the late Antiquity up to the 10th century, when they appear first in the known  written sources6, etc.

Had he formalized the hypothesis that Albanians are descendants of ancient Illyrians inhabiting their ancestral territories in the west Balkans would allow him make a number of predictions.

With such formalization in mind, we can retrospectively reconstruct the predictions of the hypothesis of the autochthony of Albanians as presented more than two centuries ago by Thunmann and the relevant research to prove/disprove it as follows:

  1. Albanian is key to explaining the attested and reconstructed Illyrian words.

This prediction was proven to be true. In the works of Conrad Malte-Brunn, Martin William Leake, Johan Georg von Hahn, Paul Kretschmer, Alf Torp, Wilhelm Deecke et al., an ever increasing number of Illyrian (and Messapian) tribe names, personal names and place names began to be related to, and explained by, Albanian7. Although the common origin of Albanian with other Indo-European languages would make it possible that other languages like the ancient Greek (attested at an earlier time, when the IE languages were closer to each other) be helpful in this respect, Albanian has prevailed among all the IE languages in explaining the attested and reconstructed Illyrian words as well as Illyrian personal, tribe and place names.

  1. Illyrian personal names are preserved in Albania as such or as patronymics. Foreign authors and Albanians have proven this prediction to be true8. Among the Illyrian personal names inherited into Albanian are worth mentioning Bato (the name of the leader of the great Ilyrian revolt against the Roman rule in the first decade of the new era), which is still used now in unchanged form Bato in South Albania and probably Vatë, in northern Albania. Another example is Genthius, the name of the Illyrian king of the 2nd century BC, also attested in the Epirote version Gontha9 from which derives the modern personal name and patronymic Goxho in the rugged region of Labëria, South Albania, part of the ex-Roman province of Epirus vetus10, used as personal name and patronymic Goxho and Gjet/Gjeto as personal name and patronymic in northern Albania and Gjeç as patronymic in both northern and southern Albania; the Illyrian female name Teutana probably preserved in the personal female name Tana11.
  2. 3. Given the Illyrian tribe of Hylleis (Ύλεῖς)12, 13 was one of the three tribes (along the Dymanes (Δυμάνες) and Pamphyloi (Πάμφυλοι) that took part in the invasion of Dorians (Δωριεῖς) during the 11th century BC. Adequate evidence to prove the prediction will be presented elsewhere.
  3. Being consensually admitted that the Messapian language is a dialect of Illyrian, it would be expected that Albanian would uniquely be helpful in explaining words in Messapian inscriptions. Relevant research has showen that Albanian prevails among all the IE languages in explaining Messapian words14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. Noteworthy is the fact that similar place names and tribe names are uniquely encountered in the Messapian region of South Italy, Illyria and Epirus22.
  4. If Albanians were descendants of Illyrians it would be predicted that no interruption will be observed in the material culture of Albania at least during 2 last millennia. In point of fact, ample archaeological evidence reveals a clear continuity in the material culture of Albania, beginning from the Bronze Age. The Koman-Krujë culture, despite novelties it displays, is nothing but a continuation and evolution of the ancient Illyrian culture23,24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, under the new circumstances of the Byzantine empire to which Illyria belonged after the division of the Roman empire by the 5th century, the ethnological pressure of Slavic invasion and the accompanying shrinking of the ethnic Illyrian territories.
  5. The hypothesis would predict that proves and arguments will be found to refute the view on “the silence of written sources about Illyrians from the 7th century onward and about Albanians from the 2nd to the 10th century”. Indeed, concerning the first part of the statement, i.e. the silence of sources on Illyrians after the 7th century propounded by the Russian historian Dimitri Obolensky (1918-2001)31 is inaccurate. Evidence on Illyrians (Ἰλλυριοί) as a people exists in Chronicon Paschale32 of the 7th century and Paul the Deacon (c.720–799 CE) still writes about Illyria in the 8th in Historia Langobardorum, when he describes the destructions caused by Germanic tribes in Gallia and Illyria33. The place name Illyricum also appears in documents of the end of the 8th century, in relation to the transfer of bishoprics of Illyricum, Sicily and Calabria, from the jurisdiction of the Roman Church to that of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The doubt that this may have to do with any south Slavic country disappears as soon as we remember that Slavic people in the 8th century were still pagans. By the middle of the 9th century Illyrians are mentioned in a Bulgarian scholion treaty commenting on “Illyrian bishops”34 (not “bishops of Illyria”) and adding in the present tense: “Bishops of Illyria depend from the Holy See of Rome”35.

Given that the Albanian language developed by 5-6th century CE36, it is logical to believe that the formation of the Albanian people occurred not later than the 7th century. Hence it makes no sense to look for Albanians to be mentioned in sources before the 7th century. And this alone would reduce the centuries of the “silence” to 3 because the emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus mentions Albania in the 10th century37. Moreover, there is a solid linguistic fossil proving the South Slavic neighbors of Albanians were aware of their presence in  modern Albanian territories at least by the 8-9th century, making the so-called silence on Albanians almost inexistent. This is a phonetic law of liquid metathesis, which was operative during the second half of the 8th century and affected the endonym Arban, which is encountered in medieval south Slavic documents as Raban. This fact proves that Albanians were in the present-day territories in the 8th century38.

As for the scarcity of the appearance of the name of Illyrians in the early medieval documents, this is not a specific problem for Albanians and Illyrians but also for Hellenes which do not appear at all during the whole period of the Early Middle Age. Let’s remember that the medieval sources are silent for 3 centuries about Croatians and 2-3 centuries about Serbs until they are mentioned by the emperor Porphyrogenitus by the middle of the 10th century39. And this occurred for a good reason: the Byzantine historiography of the early Middle Age was reduced to a hagiography, focused almost totally on the life of saints and the church. Even based on this fact alone, the American historian, John van Antwerp Fine pointed out: “The lack of early references to the Albanians is not significant. The centuries before the ninth are a period of few sources”40

The alleged centuries-long silence of sources of Albanians disappears if would take into account the Illyrian-Albanian continuity (   ).

 

  1. In the Albanian mythology traces must exist of the ancient Illyrian mythology. Indeed, this seems to have been the case: a number of Illyrian deities are found transposed into figures of Albanian mythology. Such are the figures of Zana and “E Bukura e Dheut”, which are believed be transpositions of the Illyrian goddess Thana41 or the Albanian mythological figure of lugati, which is interpreted as demonization, under the pressure of Christianity, of the god Logetis42, an Illyrian-Messapian deity.

 

The large body of evidence and arguments accumulated on the autochthony of Albanians, with the efforts of numerous scholars, during the last three centuries has verified the implied predictions of the Thunmann hypothesis. This fact raises the autochthony of Albanians to the level of a scientific theory, in the meaning of the theory that while solving numerous questions and problems, naturally generates other puzzles and makes new predictions. In other words, the autochthony of Albanians has acquired now the status of a scientific paradigm, a scientifically supported theory.

From the standpoint of the present knowledge, the theory of autochthony of Albanians is the only and as of yet unrivalled theory of the origin of Albanians that explains best the evidence from the all the relevant fields of linguistics, history, archaeology, ethnography, folklore, mythology etc. It is a complete theory in the Kuhnian meaning of theory and normal science.

 

 

References

 

1 Meyer, G. (1888). Die lateinischen Elemente im Albanischen. In Grundriss der romanischen Philologie I, Trubner, Strassburg, p 804-821.

2 Reiter, M. (1980). Leibnizen’s  Albanerbriefe . Zeitschrift für Balkanologie. XVI, 82-93.

3 Reiter, M. (1980). Ibid.

4 Thunmann, J.E. (1774). Untersuchungen über die Geschichte östlichen europäischen Völker. Chapter Über die Geschichte und Sprache der Albaner und der Wlachen. Siegfried Lebrecht Crusius, Leipzig.

5.Ptolemy Geography 3, 16.

6.Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus De Cerimoniis I, Red. I.I. Reiski, Weber, Bonn. Red. 1829, p. 688.

7.Çabej, N. (2016). Epirotes – Albanians of Antiquity. Albanet Publishing, Dumont NJ, pp. 106-116.

8.von Hahn, J.G. (1854). Albanesische Studien. F. Mauko, Jena.

9.Spahiu, A. (2010). Gjuha e Epirotëve të Vjetër. Botimet Princi, Tiranë, pp.132-133.

10.Çabej, N. (2016). Epirotes – Albanians of Antiquity. Albanet Publishing, Dumont NJ, p. 119.

1.Çabej, N. (2016). Ibid. p. 181.

  1. Günther, H.F.K. Lebensgeschichte der Spartaner. Internet: http://www.thule-seminar.org/herkunft_sparta_guenther.htm.
  2. Kiechle, F. (1963). Lakonien und Sparta – Untersuchungen zur ethnischen Struktur und zur politischen Entwicklung Lakoniens und Spartas bis zum Ende der archäischen Zeit. München, Berlin 1963, p. 116.
  3. Torp, A. (1895). Zu den messapischen Inschriften, Indogermanische Forschungen V, 197-215.
  4. Torp (1895). Ibid., p. 208.

16.Torp, A. ( 1897). Bemerkungen zu den venetischen Inschriften. In Om Io-mythen. Ed. J. Lieblein, Christiania. pp. 1-16.

  1. Mommsen, T. (1850). Die unteritalischen Dialekte. Wigand’s, Leipzig, p. 70; Mommsen Unteitalische Dialekte, p. 46.

18.Çabej, E. (1976). SE, pp. 151-153.

19.Çabej, E. (1976). SGJ III, p. 26.

20.Orel, V. (1998), Albanian…, Brill, Leiden, pp. 7-8.

21.Fortson, B.W. IV (2011). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction. sec. ed. Wiley & Sons, Hong Kong, p. 408.

22 Çabej, N. (2016). Epirotes – Albanians of Antiquity. Albanet, Dumont, NJ, pp. 106-118.

23 Prendi, F. (1966). La civilization préhistorique de Maliq. Studia Albanica I, 254–266.

24 Anamali, S. (1982). Des Illyriens aux Albanais. Les nouvelles données de l’archéologie, Illyria

25 Prendi, F. (1966). La civilization préhistorique de Maliq. Studia Albanica I,254–266

26 Anamali, S. and Korkuti, M. (1969). Problemi ilir dhe i gjenezes së shqiptarëve në dritën e kërkimeve arkeologjike shqiptare. Studime Historike 1, 115-142.

27 Korkuti, M. (1972). A propos de la formation del’ ethnie illyrienne. In Premier colloque des Etudes Illyriennes, Tirana, pp. 55-76.

28 Korkuti, M. (1972). A propos de la formation del’ ethnie illyrienne. In Premier colloque des Etudes Illyriennes, Tirana, pp. 55-76.

29 Anamali, S. (1982). Des Illyriens aux Albanais. Les nouvelles données de l’archéologie, Illyria;  Also available in English: Anamali, S. (1985). From the Illyrians to the Arbërs. In The Albanians and their Territories. Academy of Sciences of the PSR of Albania, 8 Nëntori, Tiranë, pp. 100-132.

30 Ducellier, A. (1998). Les Albanais dans l’empire byzantin: de la communauté à l’expansion. In The Medieval Albanians. Athènes, 17-45.

31 Dimitri Obolensky (1994). Byzantium & the Slavs. St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, p. 284.

32 Paschalion seu Chronicon Paschale. vol. 4 Byzantinae Historiae Scriptoribus. Ed.  du Fresne Du Cagne, Javarian, 1729, p.23.

33 Paul the Deacon Historiae Langobardorum. Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1907, p. 2.

34 Wyrwoll, N. (1966). Politischer oder petrinischer Primat? Zwei Zeugnisse zur Primatsauffassung  im 9 Jahrhund. Excerpta  ex dissertatione ad lauream in Facultate Theologica, Pontificae Universitatis Gregorianae, Hildes, Wunstrof, p. 25.

35 Wyrwoll, N. (1966). Ibid., p. 35.

36 Demiraj, S. (2006). The Origin of the Albanians. Tiranë, 2006, p. 210.

37 Constantine Porphyrogenitus. Op. cit.

38 Çabej, N. (1990). Sa të vjetër janë emrat “arbër” dhe “Arbëri”? Bashkimi, 10 shkurt 1990.. See also Çabej, N. R. (2013). Ilirët që Mbijetuan. Fan Noli, Tiranë, ff. 151-160; Çabej, N. R. (2014). Vazhdimësi Iliro-Shqiptare në Emrat e Vëndeve. Fan Noli, Tiranë, pp. 28-30.

39 C. Porphyrogenitus De Thematibus et de Administrando Imperio. Weber, Bonn, 1840, pp. 128, 131, 143, 144, 145, 146.

40 Van Antwerp Fine, J. (1991). The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century. University of Michigan Press, p. 11.

41 Çabej, N. (2014). Në gjurmët e perëndive dhe mitologjemave ilire. Fan Noli, Tiranë, pp. 75-81.

42 Çabej, N. (2014). Ibid. pp. 69-74.

On the Formation of the Albanian People

by

 By Nelson ÇABEJ/

 The history of the Albanian people and the ancient homeland of Albanians has been dealt with in numerous, often fundamental, papers and books of Albanian and other European scholars. Despite the high scientific level, these works were limited in scope; they coped with the complex problem of the formation of Albanians from particular aspects imposed by the field(s) of expertise of the authors.

Beginning with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) and Johann Thunmann (1746-1778) in the 18th century, most of the outstanding authorities in the fields of history, linguistics and archaeology of the 19th century acknowledged and supported with evidence and scientific arguments the view that Albanians, at least from the classical era, lived in their present-day territories and are linear descendants of ancient Illyrians (C. Malte-Brunn, W. M. Leake, J.G. von Hahn, B. G. Niebuhr, T. Mommsen, J. P. Fallmereyer, P. Kretschmer, W. Deecke, S. Bugge, et al.). However some authors opposed that view (F.C.H.L. Pouqueville, C. Pauli, H. Hirt, et al.).

In the 20th century, the controversy about the ancient homeland of Albanians continued, but again, most scholars involved in studies of Albanian history and language still supported the theory of the presence since the classical antiquity of Albanians in the present-day Albanian-speaking territories. Many European scholars made contributions to the substantiation of this view by presenting evidence from their respective fields of expertise (linguistics, history, archaeology, ethnography, folklore, common law, mythology, genetics, etc.). During the second half of the 20th century the contribution of the Albanian historians, linguists, and archaeologists in the studies on the history of Albania and the origin of Albanians increased rapidly and became preponderant, making Albania the world center of the Albanian studies. Worth mentioning are contributions of Albanian historians like Aleks Buda, archaeologists like Skënder Anamali, linguists like S. Demiraj and, above all, the greatest albanologist of all time, Eqrem Çabej, whose extensive work represents the synthesis of 3 centuries of studies on the history of the Albanian language and comprises a wealth of evidence from the most diverse fields of scientific investigation on the subject.

 The concept of the autochthony of Albanians

 Autochthony of a people is a temporally relative concept, implying its presence in the actual territories from a particular time in history, neglecting temporary foreign invasions, raids and minor enclaves and colonies of foreign peoples that did not overturn the ethnic equilibrium of the native population, did not lead to the loss of its ethnic identity and the ‘We’ consciousness, its native language and socio-cultural heritage. Indeed, given the generally accepted ‘out-of-Africa” theory on the origin of human race, no people can claim an absolute autochthony. As it will be used in this series of articles, the autochthony of Albanians implies their presence in modern Albanian-speaking territories since the classical antiquity.

In the above meaning, the autochthony of Albanians represents a well founded concept, which is free of any political overtones or connotations, hence not a taboo. The relativity of the concept the autochthony of Albanians was defined more than half a century ago by Eqrem Çabej:

“…like all the other Indo-European peoples, Albanians too, came to their present territories since ancient times. Accordingly, it is not a question of absolute autochthony, but of a relative one. Even though, in principle, this problem can be dealt with from the prehistoric ages of metals (bronze, iron), by examining it linguistically as well as in relation to the prehistorical archeology, herein, on methodical grounds, we’ll restrict ourselves to the question: Are Albanians uninterruptedly inhabitants of these territories since the Greek and Roman times?”[1].

This concept is echoed recently by many historians and linguists, including the distinguished byzantinologist Alain Ducellier[2]. It implies the Illyrian origin of Albanains rather than an ethnological homogeneity, which can not be claimed by any people or ethnic group of Europe. It implies ethno-cultural Illyrization/Albanization of foreign element in the ancient coastal colonies of south Illyria and Epirus; it admits the possibility of assimilation or Illyrization of the small tribe of Bryges (Βρύγες,), considered by most historians to be a Thracian people[3] by most historians; it implies the assimilation in south Epirus (Ioannina) of the Greek population that emigrated there from Constantinople, Duchy of Athens (Attica), Principality of Achaia in Peloponnesus and the Kingdom of Thessalonika (Thessaly) in the beginning of 13th century at the time of the Latin Empire (Imperium Romaniae) with its capital in Constantinople (1204-1261)[4].

Theoretically, it cannot be excluded the possibility that during the Late Antiquity and Middle Ages the Illyrian-Albanian territory might have been infiltrated by small foreign groups of people too minute to be noticed by the contemporary historians. Such ancient ethnic interminglings are a general feature of the ethnogenesis of every people on earth.

The concept of the autochthony of Albanians, to my knowledge, starts with, the greatest philosopher and the most versatile scientist of his time, and also an early true scholar of the Albanian linguistics[5], Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), by the beginning of the 18th century, with three famous letters he addressed to the Königliche Bibliothek Preußens (Royal Library of Prussia), by concluding that the Albanian language is a descendant of Illyrian[6]. But, it was the Swedish historian and linguist Johann Thunmann (1746-1778) that, towards the end of the same century, with historical and linguistic evidence proved and argued convincingly that Albanians are descendants of ancient Illyrians and inhabit the same territories their south-Illyrian ancestors occupied in antiquity. By studying the history of Albanians he proclaimed that he could “not fail to recognize in them ancient neighbors of Greeks and subjects of ancient Rome”[7].

By the middle of the 19th century, Johann Georg von Hahn (1811-1869) in Albanesische Studien (1854), presented voluminous and scientifically solid evidence and arguments in support of the autochthony of Albanians. Equipped with deep knowledge of not only the ancient and modern written sources, but of the Albanian language, psychology, folk culture, and the nature and geography of Albanian territories, he made a methodical thoroughgoing analysis and synthesis of the evidence about the Albanian history, language, customs and myths, which led him to the conclusion that “Since Albanians are no Slavs and show no closer affinity to other peoples of whom we know, and since the meager existing sources, except for Slavic immigration, report no immigration that would have been sufficient to create a great people, one must admit that modern Albanians are descendants of the earlier inhabitants of the land”[8].

Soon thereafter, Austrian historian Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer (1790-1861), a cofounder of the discipline of Byzantinology, in Das albanesische Element in Griechenland I (The Albanian Element in Greece I) (1857) also came to the conclusion that: “The homeland, where the attested history of Albanians first unfolds, is the mountainous, mainly rugged, torn and narrow coast belt of one hundred hours long and nowhere more than thirty hours wide, encompassed south of the gulf of Ambracia, north of Lake Shkodra, west of Ionian-Adriatic seas and east of Pindus range, with the southern half known in Antiquity as Epirus and the northern part as Illyria”[9]. Fallmerayer extended the concept of the autochthony of Albanians to the prehistory: “They are a people that inhabited the country before beginning of the historiography”[10].

In the still unsurpassed masterpiece, Römische Geschichte (The History of Rome), Theodor Mommsen (1817-1903), wrote about “The original Illyrian population, whose latter pure remnants the modern Albanians seem to be”[11]. He also made clear the Illyrian identity of Epirotes by naming Albanians “Epirotes of Antiquity”: “The brave Epirots, the Albanians of antiquity, clung with hereditary loyalty and fresh enthusiasm to the high-spirited youth—the “eagle,” (Pyrrhus – N.R.C.) as they called him” [12].

The founder of the Albanian comparative historical phonology, Gustav Meyer, by the end of the 19th century also concluded that “There is no ground whatsoever, to consider this language for something else but as the younger phase of the old Illyrian or, more accurately, one of the ancient Illyrian dialects”[13].

Echoing Meyer, towards the end of the 19th century, Paul Kretschmer, an all time great expert of Greek language, wrote: “The admission that the Albanian language represents the younger phase of ancient Illyrian, or as G. Meyer by right (in Grober’s Grundriss I 804) cautiously put it, represents one of the old Illyrian dialects, according to the general state of affairs, is as likely as one has to provide very weighty arguments to refute it”[14]..

In the first half of the 20th century, the distinguished scholar of the Albanian language Norbert Jokl (1877-1942), made numerous fundamental studies on the etymology of Albanian and developed a sui generis theory of autochthony, according to which Albanian people formed in ancient Illyrian territory, but he localized it in the eastern region of Illyria, in Dardania (now the Republic of Kosova). His extensive and deep studies on the etymology of Albanian and history, evolution and homeland of the Albanian are central to the modern theory of autochthony of Albanians. Among later scholars that argued and supported with new evidence the autochthony of Albanians are Julius Pokorny (1887-1970), Eric Hamp, Georg Renatus Solta (1919-2005), Waclaw Cimochowski (1912-1982), et al.

After 60es of the last century, Albania became the world center of albanological studies accomplishing a number of outstanding achievements in the fields of the Albanian linguistics, archaeology, ethnography, folklore, etc., which, coming from the most different disciplines, converged to the relevant scientific conclusion: Albanians are autochthonous in their present Albanian-speaking territories. The period of time after the World War II coincides with the greater and most productive life of the all time greatest albanologist, Eqrem Çabej (1908-1980), whose immense contributions, as well as his synthesis of the studies in the field of the origins and history of the Albanian language, represent the crowning achievement the Albanian linguistics and albanology in general. His work is of paramount importance for the recognition of the Illyrian origin and the autochthony of Albanians in present-day territories[15].

Let’s reiterate, in this series of articles I will adopt the concept of the relative autochthony, which acknowledges the presence of Albanians in their present territories in Republic Albania, Republic of Kosova and surrounding Albanian-speaking territories at least since the classical Greek-Roman period, as developed by Thunmann, promoted by E. Çabej (1958)[16], and endorsed by other Albanian and foreign scholars.

There are clearly substantial gaps in our knowledge on the history of Albanians, just like in the history of other peoples; some gaps may never be filled. But these gaps do not shake the theory of the Illyrian origin of the Albanian people just as gaps in the history of other peoples like Greeks, Serbians, Croatians, and most of the peoples of Europe and the world. In fact, it is in the nature of the human knowledge that gaps remain not only in theories about the origin of peoples and the place of their formation, but even in theories of modern natural sciences.

Relevant historical parallels can be drawn with the history of formation of other Balkan peoples. The Greek people emerged after the migration of various “Greek” tribes such as Aeolians and Ionians by the 16th century BC, and Dorians by the 11th century BC. Our knowledge on the origin and the language of these tribes spoke before arriving in the peninsula is minimal and anything but solid. No one can say with certainty where the Dorians came from and what language did they speak. Even if both Dorians and Aeolian-Ionians initially belonged to the same ethnic group, which no one has been able to prove, five to six centuries separating their arrival in Greece would have been sufficient for them to have developed two different languages. If one would consider the organization of the Olympic Games in the 8th century BC as the time of the formation of the Greek people, still in the 5 century Herodotus and Thucydides speak of non-Greek, Pelasgian tribes living in various parts of the modern Greece, while Thucydides reports that at his time (5-4th centuries BC), in Aetolia there were still non-Greek-speaking tribes such as Eurytanians, who according to Thucydides still in the 5th century BC spoke a language “completely incomprehensible”[17] to Greeks. In the meantime, there were still Macedonians speaking their own language even after the death of Alexander the Great[18], while Epirus was still inhabited by a ‘barbarian’ unhellenized population. The modern Greece has been an area of expansion of the Greek population and Greek culture during more than 2 millenia.

Serbians’ early history in Balkans, as a particular Slavic people is almost unknown. The first specific report about them dates the 10th century. For the first time, in De administrando Imperio the emperor Constantinus Porphyrogenitus VII (905- 959) reports that in the 7th century a part of Serbians were allowed to move to an area near Thessaloniki[19], south Balkans. Later they moved to the north of the peninsula, in an area south of Danube. Then, in the 7th century, with the permission of the Byzantine emperor, they settled in Dalmatia before the final resettlement roughly in modern Serbian territory.

Similarly, there is a 3-centuries long silence on Croatians until the middle of the 10th century.

To reiterate, the core of the theory of the autochthony of Albanians is the idea that they are descendants of Illyrian tribes inhabiting South Illyria and Epirus.

In the 2nd century CE, the ancient sources speak of an Illyrian tribe named Albanoi[20] and in the 10th century CE their name appears as the name of a people Albanoi (Άλβανοί)[21] with an unmistakable ethnic identity within the territories occupied in Antiquity by their Illyrian ancestors. In this relative meaning, the autochthony of Albanians is a historical reality and Albanians are the linear and immediate descendants of Illyrians.

As it is common with most of the scientific theories, the autochthony of Albanians has been criticized, both objectively and subjectively, and it can be predicted that it will continue to be so in the future. Unresolved problems or questions will remain in the future. What makes a theory solid and reliable is not its perfection and immutability but its relative power to explain the known facts at any point in time. A scientific theory always benefits from the scientific debate and the autochthony of Albanians has been gratified by all the objective critique from all the scholars, both by its supporters (Kretschmer, Jokl, Çabej, Hamp, Cimochowski, et al.) and opponents (Paul, Hirt, Weigand, et al.).

References

 1 Çabej, E. (1958). Problemi i autoktonisë së shqiptarëvet në dritën e emravet të vëndeve. Buletin i Universitetit Shtetëror të Tiranës, Seria Shk. shoq. 2, p. 54-62.

2 Alain Ducellier [(1998). Les Albanais dans l’empire byzantin: de la communauté à l’expansion. In The Medieval Albanians. Symp. Athens, pp. 17-45 (p.19): “pour les Albanais comme pour tous les autres peuples balkaniques, on ne saurait jamais parler que d’autochtonie”.

3 S. Byzantini Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorvm quae svpersvnt. Reimer, Berlin, p. 187: “Βρύκες ἔθνος Θρακης”.

4 Osswald, B (2007). The  ethnic composition of medieval Epirus. In Imagining Frontiers, Contesting Identities. Ed. S.G. Ellis and L. Klusáková. Edizioni Plus, Pisa. p. 137.

5 Hamp, E. P. (1981). On Leibniz’s Third Albanian Letter. Zeitschrift fur Balkanologie. Jg. XVII 1, p. 34-36.

6 Reiter, M. (1980). Leibnizen’s Albanerbriefe. Zeitschrift für Balkanologie. Jg. XVI, p. 82-93.

7 Thunmann, J. (1774). Untersuchungen über die Geschichte östlichen europäischen Völker. Chapter Über die Geschichte und Sprache der Albaner und der Wlachen. Siegfried Lebrecht Crusius, Leipzig, p. 246.

8 von Hahn, J.G. (1854). Albanesische Studien. . F. Mauko, Jena, p. 213: “da die Albanesen keine Slaven sind, und mit keinem andern bekannten Volke nähere Verwandtschaft zeigen, da die freilich kümmerlichen Quellen ausser der slavischen keine Einwanderung melden, die bedeutend genug wäre, um ein grosses Volk zu schaffen, so darf man annehmen, das die heutigen Albanesen die Nachkommen der vorslavischen Urwohner des landes seien”. 

9 Fallmerayer, J.P. (1857). Das albanesische Element in Griechenland: Über Ursprung und Alterthum der Albanesen I, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, München,  p. 8 (424): “Heimatland oder Ursitz, in welchem die beglaubligte Geschichte das Volk der Albanier zuerst entdeckt, ist der gebirgige, meistens rauhe, etwa einhundert Stunden lange und nirgend über dreissig Stunden breite, südlich vom Ambrakischen Golf, nördlich vom Skodra-See, westlich vom jonisch-adriatischen Meere und östlich vom Pindusgebirg eingekeilte, schmale und zerrissene Küstenstrich, von welchem die Südhälfte im Alterthum Epirus, die nördliche aber Illyria hiess”.

10 Fallmereyer, J.P. (1857). Ibid. p. 11 (427) “Sind sie ein Volk, welches vor Anfang aller Geschichtskunde im Lande war”.

11 Mommsen, T. (1855). Römische Geschichte II. Leipzig, f. 161:”Die ursprünglich illyrische Bevölkerung, deren letzter reiner Ueberrest die heutigen Albanesen zu sein scheinen”.

12 Mommsen, T. (1854). Römische Geschichte I. Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, Leipzig, f. 257: “…die tapfern Epeiroten, die Albanesen des Alterthums, hingen mit angestammter Treue und frischer Begeisterung an dem muthigen Jüngling, dem ‘Adler‘, wie sie ihn hiessen”.

13 Meyer, G. (1888). Die lateinischen Elemente im Albanischen. In Grundriss der romanischen Philologie I, Trubner, Strassburg, p 804-821: “Es ist keine Grund vorhanden, dieselbe für etwas anderes zu halten, als für die jüngere Phase des alten Illyrisch oder richtiger einer der alten illyrischen Mundarten”.

14 Kretschmer, P. (1896). Einleitung in die Geschichte der griechischen Sprache. Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, Göttingen, f. 262): “Die Annahme, dass die Albanesische Sprache die jüngste Phase des Altillyrischen oder, wie sich G. Meyer mit Recht vorsichtiger ausdrückt (in Grober’s Grundriss I 804), einer der alten Illyrischen Mundarten darstelle, ist der ganzen Sachlage nach so wahrscheinlich, dass man schon sehr gewichtige Gründe beibringen musste, um sie zu wiederlegen”,

15 Çabej, E. (1976-2006). Studime Etimologjike në Fushë të Shqipes volumes I-VII. Akademia e Shkencave e RPSSH, Tiranë.

16 Çabej, E. (1958). Problemi i  autoktonisë  së shqiptarëvet në dritën e emravet të vëndeve. Buletini i Universitetit Shtetëror të Tiranës, Seria  Shkencat Shoqërore 2, 54-62.

17 Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 3, 94, 5: “ἀγνωστότατοι δὲ γλῶσσαν”.

18 Strabo Geography

19 Porphyrogenitus C. De Administrando Imperio

20 Claudii Ptolemaei,  Geographia,  III, 13, 23, Red. C.F.A. Nobbe, Tauchnitz, Leipzig, 1843, f. 197.

21 Michaelis Attaliotae Historia Opus. Ibid, p. 9, 18 and 297.

 

 

 

Epiri në historiografinë mesjetare dhe moderne

by

SHKRUAN:NELSON CABEJ-New Jersey/
Thuajse me bashkëndijesi, pranohet nga thuajse të gjithë historianët e Greqisë së lashtë dhe Romës se epirotët ishin një popull ‘barbar’, dmth i ndryshëm nga grekët e lashtë e që fliste një gjuhë tjetër. Në burimet e lashta nuk ka të dhëna që të tregojnë se ata u helenizuan, se humbën gjuhën, strukturën shoqërore ose shtetërore dhe identitetin e tyre etnik.
Nga mesin e shekullit XII kemi një njoftim se “Mbretëria e Epirit” u nda midis principatave të Maqedonisë dhe të Albania-s (Shqipërisë). Nga kjo ndarje Albania i takoi të sundohej nga Konstantin Dukas. Sipas Lorenzo Miniati-t : “Nga respekti për këtë mbretëri, dhe gjuhën e veçante, që është shumë e ndryshme nga greqishtja (shkrimdoret janë të mijat – NRÇ), vëndasit ndruan mbiemrat, në përputhje me gjuhën e vëndit” (1). Ky njoftim i Mesjetes së Mesme pohon sa s’ka si bëhet më qartë se epirotët në atë kohë flisnin një gjuhë të ndryshme nga greqishtja.
Një njoftim tjetër interesant mbi identitetin etnik të epirotëve [banorëve të Epirit klasik, dmth të ish-provincës romake Epirus vetus (Epiri i vjeter)] jep perandori bizantin Joan Kantakuzen (1292-1383), që sundoi nga 1347 deri në 1354. Duke rëfyer në Historinë e tij për banorët e Himarës (kështu quhej në atë kohë territori me 54 fshatra i Labërisë së sotme – NRÇ), i quan ata shqiptarë dhe shton se “Shqiptarët jane nomadë të pavarur”. (Άλβανοὶ αὐτόνομοι νομάδες) (2, 24). Pasi jep citatin e Kantakuzenit, dijetari gjerman Karl F. Merleker shton: “Himariotët, ashtu si të parët e tyre, të cilët perandori Kantakuzen i quan shqiptarë të pavarur nomadë, janë barinj të pavarur, një race trime dhe pretuese të krishterësh shqiptarë, që herë pas here dalin nga shkëmbinjtë e tyre dhe nxjerrin në tokë anijet që qëndrojnë në det…” (2, 3).
Nga fundi i shekullit XIV juristi Italian Nikolo de Martoni (Niccolo de Martoni) në rrugë për Lindjen e Mesme dhe vëndet e shënjta, bëri një ndalesë në ujdhesën Leukas të detit Jon, që gjëndet përballë skajit jugor të Epirit, vetëm pak kilometra larg tij, dhe e quajti atë – Albania (Shqipëri) (3).
Përshkrimin e parë të qartë për gjëndjen etnologjike në Epirin mesjetar e gjejmë në një burim Bizantin të paemër të shekullit XV. Informacioni që ai përmban përputhet plotëësisht edhe me njohuritë tona mbi gjëndjen etnologjike të Epirit në Lashtësi, si një vënd që banohej nga një popullsi vendase ‘barbare’, ndërkohë që në disa qytete bregdetare banonin edhe kolonë greke, e më vonë edhe romakë. Kështu, i paemri (Anonymous Panegyricus) shkruan për Epirin: „Në të gjithë atë vënd, rajonet bregdetare banohen nga grekë, kurse mbi ta, në brëndësi të vëndit, ashtu si në të shkuarën, edhe tani jetojnë barbarë“(5) dhe shton: „Akoma tani vendi banohet nga shqiptarët, një popull ilir, i shpërndarë në grupe të vogla njerëzish dhe fshatra“ (6, 7, 8).
Studiues të sotëm grekë, po kështu, flasin për mbizotërimin në Epir të elementit musliman (lexo: shqiptarëve) “nga shekulli XV deri në shekullin XIX” (9).
Edhe në “Kronikat e Janinës” të shekullit 14, që janë shumë përçmuese ndaj shqiptarëve, lexojmë: “vetëm qyteti i Janinës nuk ishte nën sundimin e shqiptarëve sepse ai banohej nga njerëz të shquar e të zotë” (10) [prania e grekëve në Janinë në shekullin XIV është rrjedhim i migrimit të mirënjohur në Epir të popullsive greke nga Konstantinopoli, Thesalia dhe Peloponezi në vitin 1204, si pasojë e persekutimit dhe masakrave që kryen mbi popullsinë greke kryqtarët frankë të kryqëzatës IV].
Por burimet më të besueshme për gjëndjen etnologjike të Epirit nga shekulli XV e më vonë, janë ato që vinë nga mbikqyrjet kadastarale dhe të dhënat e taksimit të administratës osmane.
Nën presionin e shtuar të kryengritjeve të shqiptarëve, despotët e fundit italianë të Epirit “u detyruan të bënin marrëveshje me turqit dhe faktikisht iu nënshtruan Sulltanit” (11). Pas pushtimit osman të Epirit, në vitin1420 sulltan Mehmeti I i bashkoi thuajse krejt ish-provincat romake të Epirus vetus dhe Epirus nova në një provincë (sanxhak) të vetëm, në sanxhakun Arvanid, që do të thotë në sanxhakun e Shqipërisë, që shtrihej nga Tirana e sotme deri në lumin Thyamis (Kalama) (12), në tërritorin e Republikës së Greqisë.
Nga shekulli XVII shqiptarët që banonin në provincën e Çamërisë kishin fituar statusin administrativ të sanxhakut (13). Ne nuk dimë se sa thellë në territorin e Republikës së Greqisë shtrihej sanxhaku i Çamërisë, por mjafton të mbajmë mënd se, në atë kohë, ndër njësitë administrative të perandorisë Osmane, sanxhaku ishte i dyti, pas elajetit, persa i përket sipërfaqes.
Një prirje e përgjithshme e dinamikës demografike të Epirit gjatë sundimit osman, sidomos gjatë shekullit XV, ishin lëvizjet e popullsisë drejt rajoneve natyralisht të mbrojtura, kodrinore dhe malore, për shkak të sundimit osman (14).
Një shëmbëll tipik i kësaj është lëvizja e banorëve shqiptarë drejt malësive të Sulit në shekullin XVI. Sipas traditës gojore të vetë suliotëve, ata e kanë prejardhjen nga Kardhiqi i rrethit të Gjirokastrës (15), që përputhet me zonën qëndrore të ish Epirit klasik.
Nga shekulli XVII e këndej shumë historianë të mirënjohur të kohëve moderne e kanë përshkruar Epirin si një rajon të banuar në shumicë dërmuese nga shqiptarë. Kështu, në vitin 1686 gjeografi Filip Klyver (Philipp Clüver) e përshkroi Epirin fare qartë si një vënd që kufizohej me Greqinë, dmth si një territor jogrek. Po e citoj: “Epiri ndahet nga maqedonasit nga lumi Celydnus dhe nga vargmalet e Pindit, kurse me Greqinë ndahet nga lumi Akelos” (16).
Në shekullin XVII, autorët gjermanë J. Buno (1617-1697) dhe F. Heckel (1640-1715) shkruanin se banorët e Epirit e quanin veten Arbonarë, një variant i qartë i emrit etnik mesjetar të shqiptarëve Arbënorë/Arbërorë, që ruhet ende në ditët tona në të folur e në folklor në rajonin e Gjirokastrës, ndërkohë që turqit i quanin ata arnautlerë (17).
Në vitin1771 në botimin frëngjisht të librit të Plinit Plak Naturalis historiae (Historia e natyrës), redaktorët francezë theksojnë se turqit, të cilët e kanë njohur Epirin që në shekullin XIV (1338), kur erdhën në Epir të paguar nga perandori bizantin Andronik i Tretë Paleologu dhe shtypën me egërsi kryengritjen e shqiptarëve të Shqipërisë së jugut (Epirus nova), e quanin Arbanos Epirin klasik (Epirus vetus ) (18).
Në vitin 1774 historiani suedez Johann Thunmann (1746- 1778) shkruante se vetë grekët i njihnin si shqiptarë banorët e Epirit dhe të ‘Ilirisë Greke’ (Shqipërinë e mesme dhe të veriut): “Grekët, të cilët ishin të parët që erdhën në kontakt me shqiptarët si një popull i pavarur luftarak, i dhënë pas blegtorisë, e përdorën emrin e tyre për të treguar të gjithë banorët e rajoneve malore “të Ilirisë greke dhe të Epirit, që kishin të njëjtën gjuhë e të njëjtat zakone me shqiptarët (19). Thunmani tregoi gjithashtu se duke marrë parasysh rritjen e fuqisë së shqiptatëve, perandori bizantin Kantakuzen mori një vendim politik për t’i shkëputur këto rajone nga Nikefori dhe caktoi prijsa vëndas për të qeverisur Epirin. Kështu, sipas tij, Gjin Bua Shpata u bë princ i Janinës dhe Muzak Topia – princ i Artës (20).
Zhvillimet e mëtejshme politiko-ushtarake në Epir treguan se perandori Kantakuzen nuk ua fali pushtetinprijsave shqiptarë të Epirit, por ishte i detyruar tua dorëzonte Epirin për shkak të rritjes së fuqisë së tyre.
Pas vdekjes së Stefan Dushanit, ne vitin 1355, filloi një luftë për luftë për të zënë vëndin e tij midis gjysëm-vëllait të tij dhe të birit të tij, Uroshit. Kjo i dha guxim të birit të Joan Orsinit, Nikiforit II Orsini që të shfrytëzonte rastin për të rimarrë shtetin e atit të tij. Ai mori Thesalinë, por hasi një rezistence të fortë nga shqiptarët në Epir. Pasi bëri gati një ushtri dhe e përforcoi atë me trupa mercenare turke, në vitin 1356, ai ndërmori një sulm të madh kundër shqiptarëve në jug të Epirit, në brigjet lumit Akelos, ku ushtria e tij u shpartallua dhe ai vetë u vra (21).
Një informacion ‘nga brenda’ për gjëndjen etnologjike në Epir nga fundi i shekullit XVIII na jep nje grek etnik i lindur në Janinë, kryeqyteti i vilajetit të Janinës në atë kohë. Emri i tij ishte Athanasios Psalidha (Αθανάσιος Ψαλίδας, 1767-1829). Pasi kishte kaluar 10 vjet studime dhe punuar si redaktor në Vjenë, ai u kthye në Janinë ku punoi si mësues dhe drejtor i shkollës Maroutsia, shkolla më e mirë e qytetit. Pas rënies së pashallëkut të Janinës, me vrasjen e Ali Pashës, ai u vendos në ujdhesën Leukas, ku edhe vdiq, në vitin 1829.
Si etnik grek i shkolluar, lindur e rritur në Janinë, njohuritë e tij mbi përbërjen etnike të qytetit të lindjes dhe të Epirit në përgjithësi nuk mund të vihen në dyshim. Ai shkruante: “Shqipëria (e njohur më parë si Ilirikon dhe Epir) kufizohet në lindje nga pjesët fushore të Maqedonisë dhe Thesalisë, në veri nga Bosnja dhe Sërbia, në perëndim nga deti Jon dhe në jug nga Gjiri i Ambrakisë (Artës – NRÇ) “ (21). Me këtë autori grek na thotë sheshit e pa dykuptimësi se trojet e Epirit nga fundi i shekullit XVIII vazhdonin të banoheshin nga shqiptarë.
Kështu, 23 shekuj të të ashtuquajturit “proces i helenizimit”, “romanizimit” dhe “bizantinizimit” të mëvonshëm të Epirit, edhe pas ardhjes së një popullsije greke në 1204, nuk arritën dot ta përmbysin gjëndjen etnologjike të rajonit që mbeti gjithë kohën e mbizotëruar nga elementi shqiptar. Më tej, Psalidha shpjegon gjithashtu se : “Shqipëria përbëhet nga dy mbretëri, njera është ajo e Epirit dhe tjetra – ajo e Ilirikonit” (22). Duke përdorur termin bizantin toparki [nga greqishtja toparches (τοπάρχης) “sundues i vëndit”], ai na dëshmon për dy njësitë administrative të perandorisë osmane, të banuara nga shqiptarë, ‘Epirin’ dhe ‘Ilirikonin’. Në atë kohë ‘Epiri’ ishte nën sundimin e Ali Pashë Tepelenës kurse ‘Ilirikoni’, rajoni në veri të lumit Shkumbin – nën sundimin e Bushatllinjve të Shkodrës.
Megjithatë, burime të reja greke njoftojnë se, pas pavarësisë së Greqisë, Psalidha ndroi mëndje dhe u tërhoq nga pohimet e tij të mëparëshme. Meqënëse unë nuk kam mundur të gjej thëniet që tregojnë se Psalidha ka “ndruar mendje”, jam i detyruar të mbështetem në një botim grek të kohëve të fundit nga i cili po citoj deklaratën e tij kundërthënëse: “Shqipëria në perëndim kufizohet nga deti Adriatik, në lindje nga pjesët perëndimore të Maqedonisë, në veri nga Bosnja, Dalmacia dhe Mali i Zi dhe në jug nga Epiri me të cilin ndahet nga lumi Vjosa” (23).
Është e pamundur të përfytyrohet dhe të besohet se një grek etnik i shkolluar, i lindur dhe rritur në Epir, u ngatërrua në shkrimin e tij dhe iu deshën disa vjet që ta gjente në se epirotët ishin shqiptarë apo grekë.
Dikotomia e Psalidhës shpjegohet lehtë dhe bindshëm po të mbahen parasysh rrethanat në të cilat ai “ndroi mendje”. Ndryshimi ndodhi në një kohë ngritje të paparë të nacionalizmit, gjatë kohës së revolucionit grek, kur hidheshin bazat e shtetit të pavarur grek, në apogjeun e ngasjes nacionaliste për zgjerimin e kufijve të atij shteti në territore të huaja të banuara jo vetëm nga shqiptarë, por edhe bullgarë, maqedonë e turq, prirje që do të formalizohej në nivel institucional në projektin e famshëm të “Idesë së Madhe” (Megali Idhea) (Shih hartën ne figurën 1).
Konferenca e Paqes pas Luftës së Parë Botërore në Paris. Greqia dhe Epiri në këndin veri-perëndimor janë shënuar me të zezë. I vijëzuar është rajoni ku ndesheshin interesat greke me ato franceze.
From the New York Times, Current History 1919.
Për fat të keq, duket se objektiviteti dhe ndershmëria intelektuale e Psalidhës nuk mundi ti qëndronte dot emocioneve dhe trusnive nacionaliste të kohës.
Ia vlen të shënohet se Psalidha nuk e fshehu dot brejtjen e ndërgjegjes dhe ndrojtjen, siç kuptohet nga fakti që ai nuk flet fare për kufirin e Shqipërisë me Greqinë, siç bën për Bosnjën, Maqedoninë dhe Sërbinë, kur flet për Epirin si për një territor të paidentifikuar ose neutral, as grek e as shqiptar.
Dy shekuj më parë gjeografi danez-francez Conrad Malte-Brun (1755-1826), në vëllimin IV të Gjeografisë universale (Universal Geography) e identifikon qartë Epirin me Shqipërinë ose, më saktë, me atë që ai e quan Shqipëria e Poshtme (“lower Albania”): “Shqipëria e Poshtme ose Epiri i lashtë shtrihet në jug të paralelit 40, andaj ne do ta shohim atë si një rajon të veçantë” (24). Në nënkapitullin “Klima dhe bimësia – Shqipëria e Poshtme” të botimit të Londrës të kësaj vepre, ai shkruan: “Tërë Epiri ose Shqipëria e sotme është e plot me male, shumica e të cilëve janë gëlqerorë e të brazduara nga hone të thella” (25).
Dhe përsëri në vitin 1841 Karl Friedrich Merleker (1803-1872) identifikon Shqipërinë me pashallëkun e Janinës, i cili përfshinte të gjithë Epirin klasik (Epirus vetus), kur shkruan “Pashallëku i Janinës ose Shqipëria” (26).
Përcaktimi që i bën Merlekeri kufijve të popullit shqipfolës përputhet bukur me trojet e sotme shqipfolëse në Ballkanin perëndimor: “Shqipëria e sotme kufizohet në veri me Bosnjën, në lindje me Maqedoninë dhe Thesalinë, në jug me Akarnaninë dhe Gjirin e Artës kurse në perëndim me detet Jon dhe Adriatik” (27).
Dijetari gjerman theksonte gjithashtu se, duke u bazuar në të dhëna të parëndësishme, të tilla si prania në shqipen e fjalëve latine, disa autorë kanë hamëndësuar se shqiptarët kanë ardhur në trojet e sotme nga Alba e Italisë, kurse të tjerë, duke u bazuar në ngjashmërinë e emrit me Albanian e Kaukazit (27), një eksonim për vëndin në Kaukaz që banohej nga populli i aluanëve (28), kanë spekulluar se shqiptarët mund të kenë ardhur nga Kaukazi.
Edhe gjeografi gjerman L. Schmitz nga mesi i shekullit XIX në Manualin e Gjeografisë së Lashtë e identifikoi Pashallëkun e Janinës me Shqipërinë (29).
Në vitin 1855 historian anglez William Cooke Stafford shkruante: “Shqipëria përfshin mbretëritë e lashta të Ilirisë dhe të Epirit…Shkodra është kryeqyteti i Shqipërisë së Sipërme ose Veriore dhe Janina është kryeqyteti i Shqipërisë së Poshtme ose Epirit të lashtë” (30).
Radhës së identifikuesve të Epirit me Shqipërinë në vitin 1860 u shtohet edhe mesjetaristi gjerman Jakob Philipp Falmerayer, një nga themeluesit e bizantinistikës, që i përshkruan shqiptarët si “një degë e popullit të madh ilir, që është njëkohësisht i lidhur nga gjaku dhe gjuha me epirotët dhe maqedonët e lashtë, dy popuj që u përkasin barbarëve ilirë, e jo helenëve” (31).
Theodor Mommsen (1817-1903), një nga historianët më të mëdhenj të të gjitha kohëve, në kryeveprën e tij ende të patejkaluar, Histori e Romës (Römische Geschichte) e ka shprehur në mënyrë monumentale bindjen e tij për identitetin iliro-shqiptar të epirotëve duke i quajtur epirotët “shqiptarë të i lashtësisë”: “Epirotët trima, shqiptarët e lashtësisë, ndoqën djaloshin e guximshëm (Piron e Epirit – NRÇ), “Shqiponjën”, siç e kishin zakon ta quanin atë, me besnikërinë e trashëguar dhe me ngazëllim të përtërirë”(32).
Nga fillimi i shekullit XX, historiani I.S. Clare e përmbledh në këtë mënyrë gjëndjen etnologjike të Epirit, nga lashtësia deri në kohët e reja: “Gjatë tërë periudhës historike Epiri ishte më shumë shqiptar se sa grek” (33). Duke i bërë jehonë pikpamjes se Clare-s, edhe historiani britanik Graham Shipley, tani vonë, nga fundi i shekullit XX ka ardhur në përfundimin se “Trakët, paionët, epirotët dhe ilirët ishin kryesisht popullsi jourbane me elita (shkrimdorja është e imja – NRÇ) pak a shumë të helenizuara” (34).
Duke u mbështetur në burimet e lashta greke, dhe duke shprehur një mendim të përgjithshëm, në vitin 1917, klasicisti dhe gjeografi gjerman Eugen Oberhummer (1859-1944) gjithashtu konfirmoi identitetin ilir të epirotëve, duke theksuar se ata flisnin një gjuhë që ishte e ndryshme nga greqishtja: ”Epiri vetë deri në Greqinë veri-perëndimore, banohej nga fise ilire që flisnin një gjuhë të pakuptueshme nga grekët” (35).
Dallimin e theksuar të epirotëve nga grekët e ka shprehur në mënyrë elokuente edhe autori britanik E.L. Clark: “Epirotët ishin aq të dallueshëm nga helenët, sa janë dhe shqiptarët nga grekët e sotëm” (36).

Prejardhja e suljotëve
Një vështrim i shkurtër rreth prejardhjes së suljotëve është i nevojshëm, ndër të tjera, edhe për shkak të famës që kishte ky fis që mundi të ruante pavarësi të plotë brënda perandorisë osmane si dhe për rolin e shquar të asaj popullsije në Revolucionin grek.
Shumë autorë besojnë në traditën gojore suljote, sipas së cilës ata e kanë prejardhjen nga rajoni i Labërisë (Kardhiqit të rrethit Gjirokastër), pjesë e Epirit klasik të lashtësisë ose Epirus vetus. Ata u vendosën në malet e ashpra dhe të papushtueshme të Sulit, dikur gjatë pushtimit osman, për shkak të shtypjes ekonomike shoqërore (37).
Me bashkëndijesi sot pranohet se “Suljotët ishin shqiptarë nga prejardhja dhe ortodoksë nga besimi”(38). Ata mirreshin kryesisht me blegtori. Gjuha e tyre e nënës ishte shqipja e nëndialektit çam të toskërishtes.

Natyrën jogreke të Epirit dhe epirotëve, madje dhe të fqinjëve të rajoneve të Etolisë dhe Akarnanisë në jug të Epirit, e ka ritheksuar gjeografi historik britanik N.J.G. Pounds në vitin 1976: “Epiri nuk ishte pjesë e Greqisë, dhe në shekullin V p.e.s. tregëtia dhe kultura greke kishte ndikuar fare pak në fiset epirote. Është e dyshimtë në se mund të konsiderohen grekë edhe fiset e Etolisë dhe të Akarnanisë” (39). Pikëpamja e Pound-it rreth karakterit jogrek të Etolisë dhe Akarnanisë mund të gjurmohet thellë që në Lashtësinë klasike, mbi dy mije vjet më parë te Tuqididi, në shekullin V p.e.s., i cili na bën të ditur se euritanët, fisi më i madh i etolëve flisnin një gjuhë të pakuptueshme për grekët (40).
Edhe kartat etnografike të Epirit dhe rajoneve fqinjë të përgatitura në shekullin XIX nga kartografë rusë, francezë dhe gjermanë vërtetojnë pikëpamjen e Pounds-it.

Fig. 2. Hartë etnografike e Ballkanit nga Ami Boue (1847), që tregon trojet shqiptare në ish-provincat romake Epirus nova, Epirus vetus dhe Akarnani me xhepa popullatash vllahe ne malet e Pindit etj. Në hartë popullsia shqipfolëse është ndarë sipas besimit mbizotërues në ortodoksë lindorë (ngjyrë e gjelbër) dhe në muslimanë (bojëkafe), deri në gjirin e Korinthit
Internet:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ethnographic_map_Ami_Boue_1847.jpg

Figure 3. Harte etnografike ruse e mesit të shekullit XIX ku shihen trojet e banuara nga popullsi shqiptare në Ballkanin perëndimor, në ish-provincat romake Epirus nova Internet: https://commons.wikimedia.org/ëiki/File:Ethnic_map_of_Balkans_-_russian_1867.jpg

Në vitin 1999 historiani francez Alain Ducellier, bizantolog në Universitetin e Tuluzës, na siguron se jo vetëm prapavëndi (hinterlandi) i Epirit, por edhe bregdeti i tij, ku kishte pasur kolonë grekë e romakë, kishte mbetur etnikisht shqiptar gjatë tërë Mesjetës. Në përshkrimin e gjëndjes së Epirit të shekujve XII-XIII në The New Cambridge Medieval History vol 5 – c.1198-c.1300, ndër të tjera, lexojmë: “bregdeti i Epirit, edhe pse u ndodh nën kontrollin e grekëve dhe të sërbëve, mbeti i banuar kryesisht nga shqiptarë” (41).
Unë do t’i mbyll këto shënime me një përfundim rreth identitetit etnik të epirotëve që ka dalë nga diskutimet në një konferencë ndërkombëtare të historianëve dhe arkeologëve të mbajtur në Clermont Ferrand të Francës, në vitin 1984, ashtu siç e ka paraqitur atë Edwin E. Jacques:
“Në tetor 1984, 70 historianë dhe arkeologë nga Greqia, Shqipëria, Rumania, Italia dhe disa vende të tjera u mblodhën në Klermon Feran të Francës. Ata mbajtën një kolokium me një grup specialistësh të historisë së lashtë, të cilët punonin nën drejtimin e profesor Pjer Kabanit, ekspert i njohur për Epirin. Ata krahasuan studimet e kryera mbi grupet fisnore dhe etnike, të cilat gradualisht kaluan në jetën qytetare e pastaj u federuan në organizma shtetërore. Ata krahasuan institucionet e së drejtës, të tilla si e drejta familjare e pronësisë, roli i gruas në familje dhe në lirimin e skllevërve. Ngjashmëritë e qendrave epirote si Dodona dhe ato të Ilirisë së Jugut u vunë re në dizenjot, arkitekturën dhe në organizimin politik, por edhe në qarkullimin e monedhave, ndërtimin e varreve, ritet e varrimit dhe sendet që vendoseshin në varre. Dijetarët erdhën në përfundimin se, që nga lashtësia hershme deri në kohën romake, kultura e Ilirisë së Jugut dhe Epirit, duke përfshirë Mollosinë, ishte krejt e ndryshme nga ajo e Greqisë klasike që shihet në Athinë e Spartë” (42).

Referimet
1 Miniati, L. (1663). “Le glorie cadute dell’antichissima, ed augustissima famiglia Comnena…p. 44.
2 Merleker K.F. (1841). Das Land und die Bewohner von Epeiros. Erste Theil. Dalkowski, Königsberg, p. 7-8.
3 Merleker, K.F. (1841). Das Land und die Bewohner von Epeiros. Erste Theil. Dalkowski, Königsberg, p. 7-8: “Die Chimarioten sind, ëie ihre Vorältern, welche Kaiser Kantakuzenos selbstherrschende albanische Nomaden (2, 24. Άλβανοὶ αὐτόνομοι νομάδες), nennt, unabhängige Hirten, eine kühne und räuberische Art albanischer Christen, die zuëeilen aus ihren Felsen hervorkommen und die Schiffe, welche ëährend der Ëindstille vor ihrer Küste liegen, an das land ziehen”.
4 Pelegrinage a Jerusalem de N. de Martoni: Notaire italien (1394-1395). Revue de l’Orient latin, vol. 3, Paris, p. 662.
5 Anonimi. In Burime Tregimtare Bizantine për Historinë e Shqipërisë – Shek. X-XV. Përg. K. Bozhori and F. Liço. Tiranë, p. 318 (in Albanian).
6 Anonimi. In Burime Tregimtare Bizantine për Historinë e Shqipërisë… Ibid.
7 Bojatzides,, I.K. (1926). Symbole eis ton mesaioniken istorian tes Epeirou. Epeirotica Chronika I, 79-80.
8 Lambros, S. (1926). Anonymon Panegyrikos. Palailogia kai Peloponnesiaka, 3, pp. 194-195. Cited by Xhufi, P. (1994). The Ethnic Situation in Epirus During the Middle Ages. Studia Albanica 1/2, 41-58.
9 The Muslim Presence in Epirus and Western Greece (2008). In Elevating and Safeguarding Culture Using Tools of the Information Society: Dusty traces of the Muslim culture. Earthlab Greece. p. 278.
10 The Muslim Presence in Epirus and Ëestern Greece (2008). Ibid. p. 307.
11 The Muslim Presence ….Ibid. p. 307.
12The Muslim Presence …. Op cit., p. 328.
13 Ibid., p. 331.
14 Ibid. p., 309.
15 von Lüdemann, Ë. (1825). Der Suliotenkrieg nebst den darauf bezüglichen Volksgesängen. F.U. Brockhaus, Leipzig, p. 1.
16 Philippi Cluverii Introductio in universam geographiam, tam veterem quam novam. J. Wolters, 1686, p. 329: “Epirus, nunc dicitur Kanina, separatur”.
17 Philippi Cluverii Introductio in …Ibid. p 329.
18 History naturelle de Pline (1771). Traduite en françois, Veuve Desaint, Paris, pp. 233-234.
19 Thunmann, J. (1774).Untersuchungen über die Geschichte der östlichen Europäischen Völker I. p. 242: “Die Griechen, die zuerst die eigentlichen Albaner, als eine unabhängiges, kriegerisches und dem Hirtenleben ergebenes Volk kennenlernten, machten ihren Namen zu einem allgemeinen Namen der übrigen Bergbewohner des Griechischen Illyriens und des Epirs, die mit den Albanern von gleicher Sprache und Lebensart waren”.
20 Thunmann, J. (1774). Untersuchungen…Op. cit. p. 306: “Kantakuzen hatte zu der Zeit, da er diese Länder dem Nicephorus entriss, einige Albanische Herren so gar zu Statthaltern darinnen verordnet. Guini de Spata erhielt die Gegenden um Jannina, und Musacchi Topia das Gebieth von Arta. Spata machte sich bald unabhängig, und nahm auch dem Topia zugleich mit dem Leben seine Statthalterschaft (Spandugin. ap. du Cange dans l’Hist. de Constantin L. VIII, p. 139)”.
21 Papacharisis A. (ed.), Kosma Thesprosian and Athanasios Psalidas, Geography of Albania and Epirus. Ioannina 1964, 49-50 (in greek).
22 Papacharisis A. (ed.), Kosma Thesprosian and Athanasios Psalidas. Ibid: Ëith this revision he places the river Aoos as a border betëeen Epirus and Illyricon – Ano Arvanitia (upper Arvanitia), a notion ëhich his student Kosmas the Thesprotian also adopts to define Albania.
23 Papacharisis A. (ed.), Kosma Thesprosian and Athanasios Psalidas, Geography of Albania and Epirus, Ioannina 1964, 49-50 (in greek).
24 Malte-Brun, C. (1929). Universal Geography: or A Description of All the Parts of the World on a new Plan IV. Laval and Bradford, Philadelphia, 1829, p. 103.
25 Malte-Brun, C. (1827). Ibid., p. 176.
26 Merleker K.F. (1852). Historisch-geographische Darstellung des Landes und der Bewohner von Epeiros: Tl. III. Jahresbericht der königlichen Friedrichskollegium, Königsberg, 1841, f. 4: “dem gegenwärtigen Paschalik Janina oder Albanien”.
27 Merleker, 1852, p. 17: “das heutige Albanien gegen Norden von Bosnien, gegen Westen von Macedonien und Thessalien, gegen Süden von Akarnanien und dem Golf von Arta, und gegen Westen von dem ionischen und adriatischen Meere begrenzt wird”.
28 The name “Albania’ for the people of Caucasus seems to be a misspelling of the original name of the people by ancient Greeks and then Latins.. This is indicated by the fact that their ëestern neighbors, ancient Armenians called them Aluans (Ałuank) and their language ałoëanic; their eastern neighbors, medieval Persians knew them as Arran;and Georgians in the north called them Rani.
29 Schmitz, L. (1859). A Manual of Ancient Geography. Blanchard and Lea, Philadelphia, p. 84-85. In author’s definition, Epirus “embraces the modern Pashalik of Ioannina or Albania”.
30 Stafford, Ë.C. (1855). History of the war in Russia and Turkey… Jackson, London – Liverpool, p. 120.
31 Fallmerayer, J.P. (1860). Das albanesische Element in Griechenland. Verlag der K. Akad., München, p. 4: “Zweig des grossen Volkstammes der Illyrier und zugleich für Bluts- und Sprachverwandte der alten Epiroten und Macedonier zu erklären, welche beiden Völker ihrerseits ebenfalls den Illyrischen Barbaren, nich den Hellenen angehören”.
32 Mommsen, T. (1854). Römische Geschichte I. Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, Leipzig, f. 257: “…die tapfern Epeiroten, die Albanesen des Alterthums, hingen mit angestammter Treue und frischer Begeisterung an dem müthigen Jüngling, dem ‚Adler‘, wie sie ihn hiessen.”.
33 Clare, I.S. (1906). Library of universal history III. Union Book Co, NewYork – Chicago, p. 706: “During the entire historical period Epirus was more Illyrian than Greek”.
34 Shipley, G. (2000). The Greek World After Alexander 323–30 BC. Routledge, London-New York, p. 111.
35 Oberhummer, E. (1917). Die Balkanvölker. Verein nat. Kenntn. LVII. Bd. pp. 263-279: ”Auch in Epirus selbst und bis in das nordwestliche Griechenland hinein wohnten Stämme, die als illyrisch bezeichnet werden und eine den Griechen unverständliche Sprache redeten”.
36 Clark, E.L. (1878). The Races of European Turkey. Dodd, Mead and Co., New York, p. 167-168: “The Ancient Epirots were as distinct from the Hellenes as the Albanians are from the modern Greeks”.
37 von Lüdemann, Ë. (1825). Der Suliotenkrieg nebst den darauf bezüglichen Volksgesängen. F.U. Brockhaus, Leipzig, p. 1.
38 Trencsényi, B.Kopecek, M. (2006): Discourses of Collective Identity in Central and Southeast Europe (1770-1945): In The Formation of National Movements. Central European University Press, p. 173: “The Souliotes were Albanian by origin and Orthodox by faith”.
39 Pounds, N.J.G. (1976). An Historical Geography of Europe 450 B.C.-A.D. 1330. CUP Archive, p. 30: “Epirus formed no part of Greece, and in the 5th century Greek commerce and culture had made little impression upon its tribes. It is doubtful whether the tribes of Aetolia and Acarnania should be considered Greek”.
40 Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War III, 94, 5.
41 Ducellier, A. (1999). Albania, Serbia and Bulgaria. In The New Cambridge Medieval History V – c.1198-c.1300. Ed. D. Abulafia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge – New York, p. 780: “the coasts of Epiros, despite their control by Serbs and Greeks, remained primarily inhabited by Albanians”.
42 Jacques, E.E. (1995). The Albanians: An ethnic history from prehistoric times to the present. McFarland and Co. Inc. Publishers, Jefferson, N. Carolina, pp. 79-80: “In October 1984, 70 historians and archaeologists from Greece, Albania, Romania, Italy and several other countries of Europe convened in Clermont-Ferrand, France. They held a colloquium with a group of specialists in ancient history who were working there under the direction of Professor Pierre Cabanes, the renowned expert on Epirus. They compared studies on the tribal and ethnic groups which gradually organised into urban life, then federated into state organisations. They compared juridical institutions such as family right of ownership, the role of the woman in the family and the procedure in freeing slaves. Similarities of Epirotes centers like Dodona and those of Southern Illyria were evidenced by the layout, architecture, and political organisation, also the circulation of coins, the structure of groves, the burial rites and articles found in the tumuli. But scholars concluded that from early antiquity until the Roman times that culture of Southern Illyria and Epirus, including Molossia, was quite different from that of classical Greece as found in Athens and Sparta”.