(600 AD - 620 AD):
HOW THE SERB & SLAVIC INVASIONS PERMANENTLY
ALTERED THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF ALBANIA
The
Serb/Slavic contribution to the Albanian ethno genesis occurred in two waves:
1.
by undifferentiated Slavs (neither Serbs, Bulgars nor Croats) who flooded
Southern Albania from 600 AD - 610 AD.
2.
by the Serboi, from 620 AD - ?
The
undifferentiated Slavs quickly assimilated Serb name an identity. It will be
shown below that as recently as the 18th century, there were still Tosks who
remembered their Serb ancestry and remembered fondly the Serb administration of
Albania by Czar Stefan Dushan the Mighty.
==================================
Part 1:
Undifferentiated
Slavs arrive
in
Prevalitania & the Shkumbi River
Wilkes
confirms that undifferentiated Slavs
reached the Shkumbi valley where they contributed to much of the earliest pre-Serb Slavic toponyms in Albania:
The dispersal of Slavs in the southern Balkans following
the siege of Thessaloniki resulted in
the occupation of Prevalitania and
the region south of the Shkumbi River,
a distribution indicated by place-names of Slavic origin.
On the other
hand, it is hoped that the unfortunate distortions which have marred
outstanding progress in Albanian Archaeology will soon be corrected. As
new guidebooks are demonstrating, the Albanian culture, as fascinating
and varied as any in that quarter of Europe, is an inheritance from several
languages, religions and ethnic groups known to have inhabited the
region since prehistoric times, among whom were the Illyrians.
John Wilkes
The Illyrians
Chapter: Prehistoric Illyrians
Page: 273
Blackwell Publishers
1992
Albanian
scholar Ardian Vebiu adds:
Where were they living? Where are the places
they have named after their common words (technically called appellatives)? The south is full -- literally full -- of
Slavic place names, especially the areas of Vlora, Tepelena, Skrapar,
Mallakaster.
ArdianVebiu
famous Albanian historian
<http://members.aol.com/Plaku/illyrian.htm>
Exactly how "literally full" of Slavic toponyms is
southern Albania? If we delve into this question, we discover that all of Albania is full of Slavic toponyms...
1. Bulgarian
scholar Selishev's map of Slavic toponyms in Albania:
http://www.kroraina.com/seli_sna/selish_slavic.gif
2. Bulgarian
scholar Selishev's map of non-Slavic (Alb, Vlach, Turkish, etc...) toponyms in Albania:
http://www.kroraina.com/seli_sna/selish_nonslavic.gif
3.
Bulgarian scholar Selishev's map of Slavic toponyms in Albania with the names
listed:
http://www.kroraina.com/seli_sna/selish_slavicnames2.gif
These
maps attest to a very large Slavic population in Albania because these hundreds
of place names could never have been implanted during the brief administration
of Albania by Serbia & Bulgaria, which collective adds up to barely 200
years, not counting the interruptions and rebellions. The fact is that none of
these Slavic place names could have remained to the present day if they had
been imposed during that brief time.
We
turn again to Albanian scholar & dissident Ardian Vebiu about what Albanian
historians had to say in the 1950s concerning the Serb / Slavic contribution to
the Albanian population:
About this
issue, one of the most distinguished Albanian historians had to say, in 1955,
in front of an audience of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow, more or
less the following:
"The bourgeois science has always tried to deny the
historic, ethnic and language links between Albanians and the Slavs. We won't
fall into this trap. There's no reason to deny that there is Slavic blood
running in our veins, and we are proud of it."
After 1960 all
this Slavic blood dried out, obviously.
Ardian Vebiu (Albanian
historian & dissident)
<http://members.aol.com/Plaku/origins.htm>
We
turn to Albanian dissident & critic, Fatos Lubonja who explains exactly how
"all this Slavic blood dried out":
...the ethnogenesis of the Albanians was an
open question among Albanian scholars in the 1950s, but when Enver Hoxha declared that their origin was
Illyrian (without denying their Pelasgian roots), no one dared participate in any further discussion of the question
... By this means a virtual world was created in which Albanians lived within the propaganda framework of the part and of the
literary, artistic and academic works, which pervaded schools, libraries,
cinemas, theaters and exhibitions.
Fatos Lubonja
Between the Glory of a Virtual World & the Misery of a
Real World
Quoted from:
Albanian
Identities: Myth and History
Edited by:
Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd J. Fischer
Page: 96
<http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_96.jpg>
==================================
Part 2:
Refuting
alleged "Bulgarian" contributions
to
Albanian Ethnogenesis
But
the Serb contribution to the ethnogenesis of the Albanians is one of the most deliberately understated and deliberately underrated events in
Albanian history. It is also one of the most deliberately ignored & distorted events in Albanian history.
More
often than not, the Serb contribution is deliberately short-changed and masked
as a "Bulgarian" contribution. For example, here is an excerpt from
the work of the most prominent Western distorter
of Balkan history, Noel Malcolm:
The myth of
ethnic homogeneity and cultural purity
Although some
of the other myths of Albanian identity may
have contained an important element of historical truth, this one is hardly
defensible at all…In the case of the Albanian, the added ingredients would
include Romans (themselves of various ethnic origins), Slavs (during the middle ages when Bulgarian Slav
settlers penetrated much of Albania), Greeks (in much smaller numbers) and
Turks…. linguistic legacy of Slavic and
Latin vocabulary and the strong cultural
imprint of the Ottomans.
Noel Malcolm
Myth of Albanian National Identity: Some Key Elements
Quoted from:
Albanian
Identities: Myth and History
Edited by:
Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd J. Fischer
Page: 73
<http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_73.jpg>
Malcolm
attempts to explain Slavic toponyms, vocabulary and population contributions
as the legacy of Bulgarian political
administration of Albania - but gives no evidence. Malcolm's biases are obvious
because the Bulgarian occupation and administration of Albania was slightly
shorter in duration than the Serbian occupation of Albania. Yet, Malcolm is silent
on medieval Serb contributions that should have been implicit if a medieval
Bulgarian contribution is going to mentioned at all.
The
fact is that neither Bulgar nor Serb administration of Albania in the Middle Ages included
any significant migration into Albania that would be worth mentioning
as contributing to Albanian ethnogenesis.
When
Serbs & Bulgars occupied Albania, they would have had no need to transplant
their own peasant populations into Albania nor would there have been any
incentive or reason to do so.
Albanian
tribal chieftains were simply obligated to send soldiers on military
expeditions & to pay taxes in exchange for local autonomy. Serb
administration of Bulgaria, Greece & Albania under Czar Stefan Dushan the
Mighty did not involve any migrations either.
==================================
Part 3:
The
undifferentiated Slavs assimilate into Serbs
in
the early 7th century
The
Serbs entered Albania in the Dark Ages - as early as 620 AD. We know that they
expanded southward very early after arrival; otherwise they never would have
been able to bestow their ethno-tribal name and identity on the
undifferentiated Shkumbi Slavs. This movement was probably an organized
military campaign.
An
monk from Hungary visited Southern Albania in the mid-18th century:
While visiting
Greece in 1768, upon being called to a visit by "some Albanians", he
stayed one year with them. He became familiar
with the people and "learned Albanian".
Dositej
emphasizes their relation to the Serbs: "How (strange) it was for me to
hear these same Albanians say, 'Whoever governs Serbia, and we too will
acknowledge that ruler, because the Serb kings were ours once, too'".
Dositej
continues about his tenure with the Albanians, "Not too far from Hormove,
beautiful fields were described which the Albanians call 'Lepa-zhite'. I asked
them what this meant. 'We don't know,' they told me. 'That's just the name of the
field'.
When I clarified what this meant, telling them that this is a Serbian word, "Oh, holy man," they answered, "Don't be surprised; we were once one family and tribe with the Serblyans in ancient times".
The Cetinje Herald
Dositej among the Albanians
April. 2. 1911
Dositej proves that the undifferentiated Slavs who arrived at the Shkmbi a decade before
the Serbs entered Albania - quickly assimilated Serb name an identity that remained with them as recently as 250 years ago. This
is expected because both the Slavs and the Serbs spoke a similar language. Coon attributes all Slavic place-names and all Slav-speakers
in Albania to the Serb legacy in Albania:
"The once important Serbian influence in Albania has left few
vestiges, other than Slavic place names, and the presence
of a few islands of Moslem Serb speakers in the mountains, as in the
Gora district of Luma".
Carleton Stevens Coon
Races of Europe
(Chapter XII, section 12)
1939
Below,
Coon calls the Serbs, "the most important single people in this
southern expansion" and mentions (below) that the 7th century
Serbs entered North-West Albania.
The movement
of the South Slavs took them to the Dinaric mountain chain, which certain bands
crossed to the Istra Peninsula and into Northern Italy itself. The main body
moved south-eastward along the Adriatic coast, following the Dinaric mountain
chain to Monenegro and to the Gore region of Northwestern Albania.
A southern
Slavic nucleus was formed in the Kingdom of Old Serbia centered around Prizren
& Skoplje. From this nucleus, they expanded into the Kosovo plain, which
they were soon to lose in great part to the Turks & Albanians.
The
Serbs, the most important single people in this southern expansion -
still speak a language closely allied ot that of the Wends of Germany.
Carleton Stevens Coon
Races of Europe
(Chapter VI, section 7)
The Slavs
Macmillam Press
1939
The
suffixes ova, ove, iqi, ica found in Albanian surnames- are all Slavic suffixes. The first two are masculine & feminine possessive, the
last two are masculine & feminine diminutives. There are numerous examples
Albanian surnames with Slavic suffixes and it is safe to say, based on Coon's
& Dositej's research, that Albanians with these Slavic surnames descend
from Serbs.
Colbeck's
19th century map of Europe in 814 AD shows the extent of Serb influence:
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/europe_814_colbeck.jpg
The
question is: what happened to all these Serbs? These Albanian Serbs were Albanized
& Islamized in the Ottoman era by Muslim Albanians, who in turn were
converted by the Turks. Muslim Albanian colonists pushed the Serbs out of
Kosovo and Western Macedonia in the Ottoman Era.
Much
of Albania was populated by Serbs by the end of the Middle Ages. Islam and
Islamization wiped out the Serb population by forcing them to assimilate into
Muslims and then into Albanians. All that remain of Albanian Serbs are the
tens of thousands of albanized Serb in Albania, Kosovo & Macedonia and Serb
surnames & Serb toponyms and hydronyms all over Albania. The sheer
number of toponyms and albanized surnames tell us that the Serb population of
Medieval Albania was very considerable, indeed.
The last Medieval ruler of Albania was a Serb nobleman named
Djuradj Kastriota Skenderbeg who was a member of a 4th generation Albanian-Serb noble
family & a direct descendant of a Serb nobleman - according to Skenderbeg own direct descendant, Count Loris
Castriota-Scandrebegh:
http://www.sardimpex.com/...
The current Albanian population of Kosovo and Macedonia
descend from Muslim colonists from North
Albania who expelled the Serbs from these regions in Ottoman times :
http://geocities.datacellar.net/aia_skenderbeg/turkish_era.html
Albanians also conducted an ethnic
cleansing campaign while they administered Kosovo
from 1970 - 1987:
http://geocities.datacellar.net/aia_skenderbeg/rillindja.html