HAVE THE ALBANIANS OCCUPIED KOSOVA?*

by ALAIN DUCELLIER (Toulouse, France)

After the recent grave events in Kosova, it is difficult to analyse this problem with all the intellectual seriousness demanded of an historian; furthermore, since, from that time, the press carries articles in support of the "Serbian" thesis, regarded by many as quite a logical one, any voice in opposition to it remains isolated and seems to be inspired by an "Albanophily" which is a priori considered doubtful.
Let us make ourselves clear: there is no solid argument today to determine the nationality of this or that region, especially in the Balkans, except the existence there of a recognized national minority. In this sense, Kosova, inhabited by a population two thirds of which is Albanian, (**) of course could not be treated otherwise but as Albanian, and this without the slightest hit on uniting it with the political entity called "Albania".

Seeing the persistent use of historical facts to prove that the Serbs,as the oldest inhabitants who were allegedly driven out by Albanians later, have a "right" to Kosova, it would not be irrelevant to demonstrate that in this case, at least, history and the present situation coincide.

In a recent article Michel Aubin points out that Kosova was the "economic and political centre of the Serbian mediaeval kingdom in the 13th and 14th centuries", (1) which is true. So, it seems that only the Turkish occupation, after driving the Serbs out of the best lands, finally forced them, especially in 1690 and 1738, to emigrate towards south Hungary and substituted them with Islamized elements brought over from Northern Albania.

Let us not insist on the fact that the establishment of a centre of political and economic power on a certain territory is by no means a guarantee, particularly in the Middle Ages, for the ethnic predomination of those who have political power. Thus, the small "Serbian" despotate of Seres in Northern Greece managed to rule from 1355 to 1371 a population the overwhelming majority of which was Greek ... (2)

Nevertheless, let us agree that the Serbs were the majority in Kosova in the 13th century. But then the question arises: who lived in this region before? The Slavs are an Indo-European people who came to Europe at a later period, since the frequent waves of their invasions occurred in the 6th and 7th centuries. (3) At this time many centuries of Romanization had failed to liquidate the old autochthonous people : the Dacians in Romania, the Thracians in Bulgaria, the Illyrians in Dalmatia, Albania and Macedonia. As for Kosova, it is an undeniable fact that at least from the 18th century b.o.e. many Illyrian political states emerged, and gradually passed from the tribal stage to small real kingdoms like the Dardanians, the Penestes, the Paeonians (to mention only the most important). (4) All the recent studies, both linguistic and archaeological, try to prove that the Illyrians are certainly the direct ancestors of the Albanians. (5) As regards archaeology, the study of ceramics and ornaments (earings, bracelets, rings and especially fibulae) testifies to an extraordinary continuity in the designs and technology between the ancient Illyrian and the new artifacts discovered in the mediaeval settlements which may be dated to the 6th and 7th centuries of the new era (the Daimaca castle in the vicinity of Puka, and especially Kruja); this is so true that the Yugoslav archaeologist B.Covic has dated the material found in Daimaca castle to the 6th-7th centuries of the new era (6). However, we must remember that the excavations in the Daimaca castle began in the last century and that all agreed then that they were testimony of the "old Slavonic civilization". (7) Of course, this Illyrian-Albanian continuity is not Proved only in the present-day territory of Albania. The finds in the necropolis of Melje in the vicinity of Virpazar (Montenegro) and in two settlements in Ohri zone in Macedonia have brought to light objects belonging to the same civilization. (8) Of course, the intensive activity of Albanian archaeologists since Liberation is the only one to be considered to explain the very rich finds unearthed in their national territory.

Lacking any document which would prove the liquidation or the emigration of the local Illyrian population in the course of Slavonic invasions, it is natural to think that during the Late Middle Ages Kosova, like all of Albania, has had mainly an Illyrian population,. that is, Albanian. No doubt, a phenomenon of Slavization is noted and this is best shown by place names, which have little value in determining the ethnic character of a people. In spite of the large number of Slavonic toponyms found in Albania Pt present, no one can ever think that the majority of its population was Slav. Indeed, such an argument would never serve the advocates of the "Serbian thesis". the more so since most of the Slavonic toponyms in Kosova and Albania seem to be more Bulgarian than Serbian, which is quite natural because the Bulgarians occupied this zone since the 9th century, and especially at the end of the 10th century, at the height of the last Bulgarian Empire, with Ohri as its capital (9).At that time the Serbs were situated far from Kosova; in fact, in the 9th-10th centuries their first compact colonies were Rasha (Rasa) in the lbar valley, west of Morava, and Zeta which corresponds broadly to present-day Montenegro. It is precisely when prince Stefan became king in 1217 the Serbian state began to expand and included the zone of Peja (Pec,), while the main body of Kosova territories remained outside its borders. It is unnecessary to dwell any longer on this since any "historical" argument does nothing other than refute the "Serbian" thesis, because history points out that the Serbs. in regard to Kosova, are very late comers.

Did the Serbian domination wipe out the ancient Illyrian-Albanian population? In fact, the Serbian texts show the opposite: on the occasion when, in 1348, Stefan Dusan. endowed a gift to the monastery of Saint Michael and Gabriel in Prizren, we learn that in the vicinity of that town there were at least 9 villages described as Albanian (Arbanas). (10) The famous code proclaimed by the same sovereign one year later shows that in many villages under his rule, besides the Slavonic population, there were Wlachs and Albanian elements, which must have been very dynamic since the Tsar was obliged to restrict their settlement on his lands. (11) If the Wlachs and the Albanians come to be called nomads, this is surely not only because they were "shepherds from birth", but merely because of the economic and political pressure of the ruling people. This was happening since 1328 in the regions of Diabolis, Kolonea and Ohri, where J.Kantakuzen speaks of the meeting of the Byzantine Emperor Andronicus III with the "nomadic Albanians" of Central Macedonia. (12) No doubt, the Serbian rule was heavy during the Albanian History. Allowing for the obvious propaganda aims of the author, there is certainly some truth in what Guillaume D'Adam propagandist of the crusade, writes in 1332, "... these people, both Latin and Albanian, are under the unbearable and very grave yoke of the prince of the Slavs, whom they despise and hate heartily because they are burdened with heavy taxes, their clergymen are treated scornfully, their bishops and priests are often bound in chains, their noblemen expropriated ... All of them together and individually, thought that they would sanctify their hands if they stained them with the blood of the above-mentioned Slavs."(13)

We must add that the Byzantine authors are sensitive about the unity of the people from Albania to Macedonia; the historian Laonikos Chalkokondylis of the 15th century, after stressing that the Albanians are quite different from the Serbs and the Bosnians, (14) says that no other people resembles the Macedonians more than the Albanians. (15)

In these conditions the Turkish occupation began in the second half of the 14th century, and it is true that at this juncture the Albanians affirmed themselves again in Kosova, but, of course, not in the way the question is usually presented, as if the Albanians came on the 11 band-wa SI,; on the contrary, from the Shkodra Lake up to Kosova they united and resisted together with the other Christian peoples.

At the time of the decisive battle of 1389, the Greek authors mention, apart from the Serbs and the Bulgarians, also, the Albanians of the North, those of Himara, Epirus and the coastal zone. (16) The Turkish chronicler, ldrisi Bittisi, mentions the participation of the Albanians of the Shkodra region, whose prince, Gjergj Balsha, led 50 000 men in the battle; (17) the same data are provided by the other Ottoman chroniclers, Ali and Hoxha Saadeddin. (18) The defeat of 1389 totally disorganized the Serbian state and left a free field of action to the most powerful local princes, including the Albanian princes of the north and the northeast. The most distinguished among them was Gjon Kastrioti. Skanderbeg's father, who, from an original ruler of the mountainous region of Mat, extended his principality from the mouth of the Ishem River up to Prizren, at the centre of Kosova. In 1420 he granted Ragusa the trade privilege from "his coastal lands up to Prizren" (19) for trade. This new Albanian state brought about the development of a class of merchants from a population which had been discouraged from this pursuit. The archives of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) show that a number of Albanian merchants of Ragusa voluntarily stayed in Kosova. "his is proved by a letter which the Republic of Ragusa sent Marco de Tani in Prishtina, (20) in March 1428, after the Kastriotis had submitted to the Turks, and again in 1448 in the same town we find the other Albanian merchant Kimo Mati de Tani. (21)

Therefore, there is no reason to think that at this stage of their conquest the Ottomans relied especially on the Albanians to oppose the Slavs. It is not futile to recall that the Albanians were then Christians like the Serbs and were not in any way ready to submit to the Ottomans.If this is the place to speak of the deeds of Skanderbeg, who carried out some of his battles on the borders of Kosova, we shall state that the Byzantine historian, Dukas, in the middle of the 15th century, presents as the main reason of the Turkish triumph the reduction of the number of Albanians from Dalmatia to Thracia. (22) Whereas the Turkish chronicles refer to the Albanian uprisings in Kosova, especially those of 1467, when the "rebels" plundered the herds of cattle in the region of Tetova under the leadership of a "traitor" by the name of Iskender. (23)

Thus, it is clear that a large Albanian population was living in Kosova even before the Turkish occupation, and it is redundant to explain this fact by supposing an outburst of mass migrations on which the sources are silent. Indeed, the fact that no mention is made of clashes between the Albanians and the Slavs at the time of Tsar Dusan, and the more so during the time of the creation of the principality of Kastrioti, proves that the "Albanian state" extended gradually and was welcomed by the local people in general, because there were many Albanian elements among them. Despite the new information provided by the Ottoman cadastral registers (defterler) recently put at our disposal, it is virtually impossible to determine the relative number of Albanians in relation to that of the Slavs in Kosova in the 15th century. The best example is the publication in 1974, by S. Pulaha, of the register of the Shkodra Sandjak of 1485, covering the region of Shkodra, Peja, Podgorica (Titograd) and Bihor. (24)

First of all, we must stress the extraordinary objectivity with which S.Pulaha treats the rich toponymy and anthroponymy supplied by this source; we repeat together with him that it is quite ordinary for an Albanian to have a Slav name and vice-versa and that a Slav or Albanian toponym does not determine the nature of the population under discussion. (25) However, it is certain that the common use of a double toponym and anthroponym testifies to an ethnic mixture, the component elements of which may be determined according to regions. In the Shkodra Sandjak (which included the entire zone of Peja), S.Pulaha distinguishes three entities in which the Albanian element is represented in various degrees: the region of Shkodra where the Albanians make up the overwhelming majority, the region of Piper, Shestan, Altunili, where an equilibrium seems to have been established between the two populations; the zone of Peja where the Albanians constitute a considerable minority (26) and where a good number of villages have. Slavonic names but the majority of the population is Albanian (27). The main conclusion is that such a mixture of tile two groups would be quite unimaginable if on villages have hem would have been recently established in this zone; the Ottoman register of Shkodra shows that the Albanians constitute a very old component of the local population, especially in the region of Peja, and apart from others, since we lack information about any massive migration of Albanians towards Kosova before the 16th century, we are induced to think that a considerable part of the Albanians of Kosova had their roots in the ancient Illyrian-Albanian population living there from Antiquity.(28) As for the other pan of Kosova, there is still much to be done, but it must be said that a very old cadastral register including also the central Kosova (Vikiii) has been preserved. From than register of 1455, the Bosnian historian, A-Hanzic, draws precisely the same conclusions : the very Particular mixture of the two peoples implies the permanence of the old Albanian substratum. (29) It must be added that this Albanian element was consolidated from the beginning of the 15th century with the "economic" immigration to the mineral zone, especially the rich silver mines of Srbrenica and Novo Brdo. These Albanians, nearly all Christians, are masters who emigrated first towards Ragusa from Northern coastal Albania (Tivar, Shkodra), and from the mountainous zone,,, (Mat). (30) However, these masters have been established in Kosova for many generations, as is the case with Petar Gonovic Pristenaz (from Prishtina), (3 1 ) Johannes Prognovic from Novomonte (Novo Brdo), and, apparently, man others. (32) It is not without interest to point out that this emigration of the Catholic Albanians, attracted by the possibility of working in the mines, continues well into the 17th century and, according to reports by some envoys of the Pope to that region, (33) resulted in their settlement in Novo Brdo, Gjakova, Prishtina and Trepca.

As a conclusion it emerges that in Kosova, it is certainly the Slavs or the Slavonized peoples, the Bulgarians and then the Serbs, who, beginning from the 7th century, occupied a region the population of which was virtually Illyrian-Albanian from antiquity. With the settlement of Slavs and the Slavization of part of the local population at the beginning of the 13th century, Kosova became their main political and economic centre. As we pointed out, it is impossible to determine how the two elements stood in relation to one another, though they managed to coexist without major problems. The Ottoman occupation, the gradual weakening of Serbia and, at the same time, the internal reaction and the influx of peaceful immigration of Christian Albanians from the north of Albania resulted in the continuous increase of the Albanian element in Kosova. Still many studies are necessary to confirm this, but there is a possibility that, even before the emigrations of 1690 and 1738, the Albanians constituted a big minority in Kosova, if not the majority of the population. It would be a mistake to forget that the Serbs were not the only ones to depart from the Serbian emigration of 1737-1738 some thousands of Christian Albanians abandoned the mountainous regions of Shkodra to settle round Karlovac, in Croatia, where the Austrian government used them to implement its policy of military colonization; thus these "Kiemenner", as they are called in the Austrian texts, found themselves in close contacts with the Serbians who had emigrated in the FM hot and settled in the same manner. They would preserve their traditions and language up to 1910, the date when their Slavonization (34) was completed.

The "deslavization" of Kosova is thus a fictitious problem: it is only a result of the vast convergent movements of population which have always characterized the history of the Balkan peoples. Based on an ancient substratum that remained Albanian, this migration went on without violence throughout the Middle Ages and in the beginning of modern times. Thus, the events of 1690 and 1738 must be considered only as its final act. Of course, this centuries-old movement of population has nothing to do with the big projects of the Yugoslav government which, between the two wars, tried to bring about the division of Albania with fascist Italy and the mass expulsion of Albanians to Turkey. (35)

 

NOTES

* Abridged from "Albanie", 13, Paris, 1981, p. 10-15.
** According to Yugoslav sources, in 1989, the Albanians comprised 80 per cent of the population of the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosova (ed.).
1 Michel Aubin, Du my the serbe au nationalisms albanais, Le Monde, 5-6 April 198 1, p.2.
2 Georges Ostrogorskij, Serska Oblast posle Dusanove smrti (Seres region after the death of Dusan), Belgrade 1965.
3 On Serbs, in particular, H.Gregoire, The Origin and the Name of the Croats and the Serbs, "Bizantin", 17, 1945 and S.Novakovic, Serpske Oblasti X, XI veka (Serbian territories in the X-XI centuries), "Glasnik Srpskog drustva", 1880, p.48.
4 Bibliography on the Illyrians is considerable. Suffice it to mention the archaeological collection "Illyria" (6 published volumes, Tirana 1971-1976); The Illyrians and the Genesis of the Albanians, Tirana 1971 and The Acts of the Conference of Illyrian Studies, two volumes, Tirana 1974.
5 S.Anamali and M.Korkuti, The lllyrians and the Genesis of the Albanians in the Light of Albanian Archaeological Studies, in the collection of the same title, pp. 1 1-39; regarding linguistic data, E.Cabcj, The Illyrians and the Albanians, in the same volume, pp.41-52.
6 B.Covic, Osnovne karakteristike materialne ilira na njihovom centralnom prodrucju, "Sarajevo Symposium", 1964, p. 101. c.f.S.Anamaii and M.Korkuti, The lllyrians and the Genesis of the Albanians, p.35.
7 S.Anamaii, From the Albanian Civilization t)f'the Early Middle Ages, "Illyrians...... pp. 184-187.
8 lbidem, p. 185, 192.
9 A.M. Selishev, Slav.iansko naselenie v Albanii, Sofia 193 1, to be carefully studied because of his great Bulgarophil prejudice.
10 S.Novakovic, Zakonski spomenici srpskih drzava srednjega veka (Juridical sources of the Serbian state in the Middle Ages), Belgrade 1912, pp. 628-701.
11 See, in particular, chapters 77 and 82 of the Dusan code (N.Radojcic. Zakonik Cara Stefana Dusana, Belgrade 1960, pp. 57-58).
12 J.Kantakuzen, Histoire, Ed.de Bonn, 1, p. 55, vol.1, p.279.
13 Bokardus, Directorium ad passagiumfaciendum, "Historians of the Crusades", Armenian Historians, 11, pp. 484-485.
14 Laonikos Chalkokondylis, Histoire, Ed.E.Darko, Budapest 1922-1926, 1, pp. 277-278. 15 lbidem, 11, pp. 277-278.
16 Hierax, Chronique sur 1enipire des Turcs, Sathas; Biblioreca graeca, 1, p.247. 17 ldrisi Bitlisi, Chronique sur 1empire des Turcs, fols. 188-190, a); in S.Pulaha, The Albanian-Turkish War of the ]5th Century (Ottoman sources), Tirana 1968, pp. 134-138, 142. 18 S.Pulaha, op.cit.,pp. 251-252, 297.
19 Published by Radonic, Gjuragi Kastriot Skanderbeg i Arbanija u XV veku, Belgrade 1942, p.2.
20 The archives of the state of Dubrovnik, "Litterae et Con-tmissiones Levantis", X, p.84 v. (March 17, 1428).
21 lbidem, XIU, f.248 (January 5, 1448).
22 Dukas, lstotia Turko-Byzantina, XXIII, 8. Ed. Grecu, Bucharest 1959, p. 179. 23 Kemalpasazade, Chronique, f.254 in Pulaha, op.cit., p. 191.
24 S.Pulaha, The Cadastral Register of'the Shkodra Sandjak of 1458, vol. 2, Tirana 1974.
25 S.Pulaha, op. cit., pp. 31-32. 26 lbidem, pp. 33-34. 27 lb., p. 34, counts 15 villages in this case.
28 S.Pulaha, op.cit., pp. 34-35. It must be noted that this is the conclusion of the great Yugoslav historian, Milan Sufflay, killed in 1925 by the ustasi (M.Sufflay, Povijest sjevernih arbanasa, reprinted in Prishtina 1968, pp. 61-62).
29 A.Hanzic, Nekoliko vijesti o arbanasima na Kosovu i Metohiji v sredinom XV vijeka (some data on the Albanians of Kosova and Metohija in the middle of the 15th century), "Symposium on Skanderbeg", Prishtina 1969, pp. 201-209. S.Pulaha, Albanian Element according to the Ononwstics of the Regions of the Shkodra Sandjak in the Years 1485-1582, "Studime historike", 1972, 1, p. 63 ss.
30 Consult especially the documents supplied by M.Dinic taken from the state archives of Dubrovnik, and particularly Livre de Comptes by Mihal Lukarevic (M.Dinic, Iz Dubrovkog arhiva 1; Belgrade 1957. example p. 65 ("Dom Marin de Antivaro", "Andria Nicholich Arbanexo de Matia").
31 M. Dinic, op.cit., p.68.
32 lbidem, also the state archives of Dubrovnik, Pacta Matrimonalia II, f. 103 v. (December 11, 14-59).
33 I. Zamputi, Report on the Situation of Northern and Central Albania in the 17th Century, volume 1 (1610-1634), Tirana 1968, and the report of apostolic visitor, Pjeter Mazreku. in 1623-1624.
34 L. von Thalloczy, Die albanische diaspora, "Illyrisch-Albanische Forschungen" (Vienna 1916), vol. 1, p. 314, ss. This article is based on, apart from the archives of Karlovac's metropolis, the Archiv des Gemeinsamen Finanzministeriums, Vienna, especially, VI, p. 25, 1739.
35 This is what we conclude from the memorandum of Cubrilovic, The Expulsion of Albanians, written in 1937, which envisaged a mass transfer of the Kosova people to Turkey. These problems (especially, the report written on this problem in 1939 by Ivo Andric, and the scale of the Albanian emigration to Turkey between two wars) are dealt with cf. by M.Roux, Language and the State Power in Yugoslavia. The Case of the Albanians, "Pluriel" 22, Paris, 1980.