In a pamphlet written in 1416 by the Byzantine satirist Mazaris, ‘The Sojourn of Mazaris in Hades’, there is an imaginary letter dated 21 September 1415 and addressed from the Peloponnese to one Holobolos of the Underworld, which describes the condition then existing in the peninsula:

“In the Peloponnese … live pell-mell numerous nations, of which it is not easy nor very necessary to retrace the boundaries, but every ear can easily distinguish them by their languages, and here are the most notable of them: Lacedaemonians, Italians, Peloponessians, Slavs, Illyrians, Egyptians, and Jews (and among them are not a few half- castes) in all seven nations.”

John Fine, a specialist in medieval Balkans describes Albanian movement in Morea (Peloponesse) this way:

“A certain amount of disruption was caused by further Albanian migration and settlement, but this had benefits as well. Albanians, settled in deserted and mountainous regions, added to the number of farmers and shepherds and contributed to increased agricultural production and tax income. The Albanians also provided further, and excellent soldiers. However, the Albanians were also a source of disorder and brigandage. For though their settlement at times took place on vacant lands, at others it resulted in the ousting of already settled agriculturalists. And since many Albanians were shepherds and continued to be so, a portion of Morean (Peloponessian) farmland, went out of crop production to become pastureland. In March 1415 Emperor Manuel arrived in Morea, investing his son Theodore, who was now of age, with full authority…” (The Late Medieval Balkans – A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest, John V. A. Fine Jr.)

It must be paragraphs like this tempting Phil-Hellenes and Slavo- phones to paint the origin of Albanians as enshrouded into mystery. It is time we spread the clouds and let the eagle fly high on clear skies over peaks she once raised her eaglets. The Illyrians, Mazaris speaks of, are the same Albanians following Scanderbeg’s father, Gjon Kastrioti. By 1415 Gjon Kastrioti held Tirane and the territory north of that town to the Mati and beyond it(including Thkella), controlling lands as far east as Prizren, and by 1423 extended his dominance to the outskirts of Alessio (including Mirdite). Meanwhile, that same year, the Turks directed a major offensive into Albania and Gjon Kastrioti accepted suzerainty and sent his sons as hostages to Adrianople. Captured by Ottoman Turks and educated at Adrianople, the Turks nicknamed young Kastriot (Gjergj), “Scander-beg”. Literally, “Iskander”, Turkish for Alexander in reference to his illustrious forefather, Alexander the Great; and “bey” or general, lord.) Skender-bey quickly won the favor of sultan and served him loyally in campaigns both in Europe and Asia. He did well and rose rapidly to become a high-ranking Ottoman military commander. Seeing what was happening to Albania, Scanderbeg with three hundred loyal Albanian horsemen deserted the Ottomans and arrived at Kroia (Albania), recovered all his family holdings and set out to unite the Albanians chiefs into a league to resist the Turks. In March 1444 he called a congress at Alessio, where all the tribesmen willingly submitted to central discipline with Scanderbegas head of the League. A Mirdites by blood, he was able to overcome every difficulty in uniting his tribesmen. Scanderbeg’s heroics and his brilliant military leadership defending Albania from the Empire of the Turks became widely known in Europe. Proclaimed by the Pope as King of Albania and Macedonia, Scanderbeg died in 1468. Marlowe’s first work was titled ‘Scanderbeg’ as was one of Vivaldi’s operas and later Longfellow would describe the Great Lord Alexander of Medieval Albania this way:
Anon from the Castle walls the crescent banner falls, And the crowd beholds instead, like a portent in the sky, Iskander’s banner fly, the Black Eagle with double head, And the loud exultant cry that echoes wide and far, “Long Live Scanderbeg!” H W Longfellow Tales of a Wayside Inn, 1873
Scanderbeg’s name is closely linked with the League of Alessio (Alexiensis). Alessio, one of the principal seaports of Albania, favourably located near the mouth of Drin, was known through ages as Lissus, Alise, Alessio, Lesch and today as Lezh. Within the diocesan limits of Alessio was the quasi-episcopal abbey (abbatia nullius) of St. Alexander Oroshi or Orochi, the mountain stronghold of the small but brave body of the Catholic Mirdites of Albania. St. Alexander called Shen Llezh-dri is the saint protector of the Mirdites. There existed a legend about an Arc up at the top of Orosh, none could open, where the Saint’s head was believed to be found. It’s from Shen Llezh-dri (St. Alexander) that the modern name Lezh originates. Its medieval name Lesh is also Albanian deriving from the short Latin version for Alessandro, Alessio (root – Lesh). Lezhe (Alessio) had formerly five churches. The cathedral was dedicated to St. Nicholas and once held the mortal remains of Gjergj (George) Kastrioti, the immortal Skanderbeg. Local tradition relates that when the Turks took the town they opened his grave and made amulets of his bones, believing that these would confer indomitable bravery on the wearer. Transformed into a mosque, the cathedral was abandoned by the Ottomans after three dervishes had successively committed suicide from one of its towers. We may speculate that the saint’s head, at the Arc of Orosh, was in fact that of Gergj Kastrioti – Skenderbey, saved by the Mirdites not to fall in Ottoman hand. Alexander’s name in Indo-Pak. is Sikander, which comes from Iskender. The peoples of Asia Minor and the Middle East called him this because Alexander of Macedon conquered all their lands so quickly and when riding into battle tied horns to his head to look more menacing. The peoples of these regions believed these were real! In similar fashion Gjergj Kastrioti, Skender-bey (Lord Alexander in Turkish) wore a helmet with a goat’s horns standing out. It may be a coincidence that Alexander the Great of Macedon was turned into a latter-day saint, named St. George by Greek Orthodox Church, in Mirdite Shen Gjergji corresponding with Albania’s own medieval Lord Alexander named Gjergj Kastrioti.
The feast day of Saint George, April 23, marks the beginning of summer in Albania, and is associated with numerous popular customs, most of which are designed to ensure growth in children, farm animals and crops. In Kosova and Macedonia, Saint George’s Day, celebrated on May 6 according to the eastern calendar, is associated with the eating of a flija. In Podujeva, nettles are picked from the garden, dipped in water and used to sprinkle the children with in order to give them strength. In Tetova (Macedonia), villagers at the foot of the Sharr mountains bathed their children in water from the Vardar River, which they fetched the night before and mixed with various ingredients (red flowers, red-colored eggshells, blossoms, etc.). The bath water was then thrown back into the river and all potential harm to the child with it. The tradition of bathing children in spring flowers and blossoms is still known throughout Kosova and Western Macedonia. Flowers are also put under children’s pillows at bedtime. In Shala, shepherds gathered flowers and herbs on Saint George’s Day and fed them to the farm animals, which were adorned with ivy leaves and “smoked” with incense. It was believed in the northern mountains that herbs and plants had a particularly strong healing effect if picked between the two Saint George’s days. In Shkodra, children would decorate doorways with branches and flowers picked before dawn. In Mirdita it was believed that, should there be thunder storms between the two Saint George’s days, there would be no snakes that summer. The Orthodox of Kiçnica in Upper Reka (Macedonia) also celebrate Saint George of the Winter (Shën Gjergj i Dimrit) on December 9. Edith Durham in “High Albania” when speaking of Albanians’ use of flags, points to a striking fact: “Only the Mirdites have a distinctive flag with a rayed-sun upon it.” (‘High Albania’, Chapter II London: Edward Arnold, 1909). The Rayed-Sun was the emblem of the Royal House of Macedon, and of course that of Great Alexander. The Rayed-Sun was used in Skanderbeg’s seal as “Dominum Albanie” (King of Albanians) and in a mandate sent to Pope Piu II the seal of his kingdom wrote “Sigilum o Regniae o Macedoniae o et o Albaniae” (Kingdom of Macedonian Albania).
Sir William Woodthorpe Tarn, of the British Academy, regarded worldwide as having written the definitive work on Alexander the Great, states in the opening paragraph of his book ‘Alexander the Great’ that “Alexander certainly had from his father (Philip II) and probably from his mother (Olymbia) Illyrian, i.e. Albanian, blood!” (ALEXANDER THE GREAT, W.W. Tarn, Beacon Press, Boston, 1956)
Aristotle, Alexander’s teacher, favored a “Timocracy” (rule by honor) – a combination of aristocracy and democracy, in which the suffrage would be restricted to property owners, and a numerous middle class would be the pivot and balance wheel of power, an idea very similar to the rule of inviolable trust in the history of Mirdites Albanians. However, Leonidas, the Epirote, rather than Aristotle was considered as Alexander’s greatest teacher.
“The care of his education as it might be presumed, was committed to a great many attendants, preceptors, and teachers, over the whole of whom Leonidas, a near kinsman of Olympias, a man of an austere temper, presided, who did not indeed himself decline the name of what in reality is a noble and honorable office, but in general his dignity, and his near relationship, obtained him from other people the title of Alexander’s foster-father and governor.” (The Life of Alexander the Great – Plutarch)
Alexander himself was quoted to have said:
“All mortals should live like one, united, and peacefully working towards the common good. You should regard the whole world as your country, a country where the best govern, with common laws, and no racial distinctions. I do not separate people, as many narrow-minded others do. I am not interested in the origin or race of citizens; I only distinguish them on the basis of their virtue. For my part, I consider all, whether they be white or black, equal.” (Alexander The Great )
We know for a fact that Alexander’s mother Olympia was an Epirote Princess. We also know that Philips’ mother Eurydice was Illyrian, which makes 3/4th of Alexander’s blood Illyrian. The question however is whether the Macedonian ruling house was of Greek or Illyrian descent?
Shala, Shoshi and Mirdita, says tradition, descend from three brothers, who came from modern Kosova (ancient Dardania). When they left, the first took a saddle (shala); the second a winnowing sieve (shosh); and the third had nothing, so he said ‘good-day’ (mir dit) and withdrew. Up to the days E. Durham visited the highlands of Albania, Shala, Shoshi and the three banners that constitute the original Mirdita brotherhood (Spach, Orosh and Kushnen) did not intermarry. Miss Durham saw this fact as proof of original close consanguinity. Shala, Shoshi and Mirdita are mainly Catholics and the most conservative culturally preserving the Gegh social system. Shala, Shoshi and Mirdita belong to the most important ‘fis’ of whole north Albania, known as the Dukagjins.
‘Fis’ comes from Pelasgian ‘phys-us’ meaning common origin. The ‘fis’ is an exogamus patrilineal kinship group, without geographical attachments; several whole banners (bairaks) may belong to one ‘fis’; on the other hand one small village may contain branches of several ‘fis’, some large and national, others small and local. The ‘fis’ is the body of descendants in the male line of one usually eponymous ancestor
The original ancestor of Mirdita triple brotherhood (Spach, Orosh, and Kushnen), youngest from the legend of the super-fis (Shala, Shoshi and Mirdita), came from the plain of Kosova (ancient Dardania) looking for refuge, at least 100 generations ago, according to popular tradition. This youngest brother, left with nothing but a ‘good-day’ (Mir-dita) greeting to come and live in the mountains of today’s Mirdite where he had three sons. When these three brothers set out to divide the land, the oldest took Orosh, that’s why the banner of Orosh is known as the leading banner, Spach took the second place and Kushnen the third. It’s of great interest to stop at the relationship of this triple brotherhood with the other banners of Mirdite (9 of them, altogether 12 banners).
Spach, Orosh and Kushnen together with Fan and Dibrri formed the League of Mirdite and later with the other 3 banners of Thkella (Thkella, Selita, Perlati) and 4 banners of Lezha highlands formed Mirdite with 12 banners. While Fani and the banners of Lezhe could be the most ancient inhabitants of these highlands, the other two major groups, Mirdita and Thkella, often times rivals, claim as their ancestral origin respectively Dardania and Ohrid area. Archaeological and historical findings, show that Mirdite in antiquity was inhabited by the Illyrian Pirustae. Pirustae, according to Ptolemy (Geogr., ii, 16, §5), dwelt in the eastern part of Albania, east of Dyrrachium (Durazzo); Pirustae, is Latin for Dardanian, since Pirus is Latin for pear, in Alb. would be ‘Dardhe’. The ethnic affinities of the Dardanians, from whose name, derives the modern Albanian word for ‘pear’ (dardhe), have been examined by Papazogly. Names of individual peoples may have been formed in a similar fashion. The name of the Delmatae appears connected with the Albanian word for ‘sheep’ (delme) and the Taulantii from ‘swallow’ (cf. the Albanian tallandushe). It is possible that just like Pirustae, the Taulanti are one of the many branches of the Dardani, and therefore referred by a different name at a particular place and westward movement in time. M.E. Durham pointed out that Bertius, mapmaker of Louis XIII of France, who marked the region “Pirustae” added to it “albanese”. She also remarked that the name Dardania was used as late as 1770, as attested by a map published in Nuremberg (see Durham, Some Tribal Origins… pp.) Dardanians, were believed to be descended from the legendary king of Troy, Dardanus, who ruled over many tribes in Asia Minor and was responsible for settling the Dardani west of the Thracians. According to tradition, this Dardanus was founder of the Trojan ruling house from which Epirus, Macedonia and later Rome (from Aeneas) claimed Trojan ancestry. This son of Zeus and Electra (daughter of Atlas) survived the great flood and sailed to the area that later became known as Troy. He married the daughter of Teucer, who was king of the area, built a city, and named it after himself. When Teucer died, Dardanus succeeded him as king and renamed the entire area Dardania; the inhabitants of the region were known as Dardani. (Homer, Iliad 20.215-222; Apollodorus 3.12.1- 2; Diodorus Siculus 5.48.2-3). Family Tree 42.
John Wilkes, author of “The Illyrians- Peoples of Europe”, well-known British scholar concerned with the archaeology of Roman frontiers and Eastern Europe writes:
“Among groups who may have belonged to the Taulanti, known to Greeks for their method of preparing mead from honey, were the Abri, named by the sixth century writer Hecataeus as neighbors of the Chelidones, the ‘snail-men’, who may have lived on their northern borders towards the Mat or Drin valleys.Behind the coast Illyrians bordered the Chaones, the Epirote people of whom the Dexari or Dessaretae were the most northerly and bordered the Illyrian Enchelei, the ‘eel-men’, whose name points to a location near Lake Ohrid. According to Polybius (5.108), the Dassaretae possessed several towns, though none has yet been definitely located, including Pelion, Antipatrea (probably Berat), Chrysondym, Gertous or Gerous and Crenion. Livy’s refrence to ‘Pirustae of the Dassareti’ (45.26) in the second century BC may be an error of the manuscript…” (p. 98)
Going through Wilkes’ book, I found many fascinating facts, the author knew nothing how closely they relate to Albania and modern Albanians. I believe Wilkes to be a Phil-Hellene, however I must say his work is a great accomplishment in Illyrian studies. I have to disagree with his assumption that Livy’s reference to “Pirustae of the Dassareti” might be a manuscript error, because I don’t see why the Pirustae, one of the most powerful Illyrian tribes could not hold possessions in and around Lake Ohrid or why the Pirustae and the Dassaretis may not have been connected to a common ancestor as in the case of our talked about Gegh super-fis!
“… The Issenses, the Taulantii, the Pirustae of Dassaretia, the cities of Rhizon and Olcinium, shall be not only free politically, but exempt from all tribute …” (Livy’s History of Rome)
There were in fact other groups going by the same name as in the case of Atintanes of Epirus located among the hills on the right bank of Aous in the Mallakastra north of Tepelena and perhaps as far as Skrapar and the Atintani of Illyria located in the region of Chermenike, north of Elbasan. If we accept Livy’s reference as truth and not as a ‘manuscript error’ than there is a high probability or should we call it ‘evidence’, that those belonging to the Mirdites triple brotherhood (Spach, Orosh and Kushnen) are descendants of Illyrian Pirustae (Dardans) and the ones from Thkellas triple brotherhood (Thkelle, Selite, Perlat) descend from ‘Pirustae of the Dassareti’ (Southern Dardans), whose ancestor as we will see might be the same. According to tradition, Thkella, Selita and Perlati, known as ‘Thkellas’ or ‘Oherians’ (Ohrides), were three brothers that came from somewhere near Lake Ohrid, which corresponds to Dassarete’s location Livy has given us.
Being neither a historian nor a linguist I have no definite say on something so intriguing and fascinating as the origin of Macedonian dynasty but since our historians are not brave enough to step in, do the research and unravel the truth Slav-Macedonians and Greeks falsely claim as theirs in their daily fabrications, it is left to many of us simply taken by the connection between Albanian culture and antiquity, when this should be rather than a hobby, a scholarly challenge. Mixing facts with legends may seem foolish since all ancient people traced their origin based on some legend, but there is one truth Albanian highlands know best, that which has brought down from one generation to the next an oral tradition as unique as one can find, preserving their identity through thousands of years in midst of wars, fighting endless enemies up in their mountains. These highlanders were called “barbarians” by the new coming Greeks* whose name in fact is anything but Greek.
Greek was a name applied by Illyrians to an insignificant group of Dorians that passed through Illyria into Epirus and settled in a region of Thessaly called Graia. Gra – in Albanian literally means women or ladies. According to Pelasgian mythology ‘Graias’, were three gray haired, old ladies (representing three Dorian tribes), sisters of the monsters called Gorgons. The original name of Greeks was ‘Grae-ci’ originally given to them by Illyrians and then modified by Romans, adding the Latin suffix (- ci) just as in the Illyrian case, ‘Illyri-ci’. I’ll try not to get any further into the roots of Greek mythological origin because then I’d have to explain a whole different connection having nothing to do with Macedonians and the Illyrian ‘barbaric’ war style deeply rooted in Alexander’s spirit. Velleius Paterculus, officer in the Roman army and an eyewitness of the Roman campaign to crush the Illyrian uprising of the Pirustae and neighboring tribes, makes this comments:
“…for the Pirustae and the Desidites, Dalmatian tribes who were almost unconquerable on account of their position of their strongholds in the mountains, their warlike temper, their wonderful knowledge of fighting, and, above all, the narrow passes in which they lived, were then at last pacified, not now under the mere generalship but by the strength in arms of (Tiberius) Caesar himself, and then only when they were all but exterminated” (2.115).
Alexander the Great, Alexander III of Macedon (356-323 B.C.), king of Macedonia, born in late July 356 BC in Pella, Macedonia is one of the greatest military genius in history. He conquered much of what was then civilized world, governed by his divine ambition of the world conquest and creation of universal world monarchy. Arrian describes Alexander: the strong, handsome commander with one eye dark as a night and one blue as a sky, always leading his army on his faithful Bucephalus, accompanied by the best military formation of the time, the Macedonian Phalanx which was armed with sarisses, the fearful five and a half meter long spears. He was the first great conqueror, which has reached Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor, and Asia till the river Indus in India.
Like all ancient kings, Alexander claimed that the gods were his ancestors. Already in the fifth century, the Macedonian kings said that they descended from Temenos, a king of Argos; great grandchild of Hyllus (Alb. Star), the son of Heracles. The oldest source for this family tree can be found in book eight of the Histories of the Greek researcher Herodotus of Halicarnassus.
Herodotus in his work “The Histories” gives us this account on Alexander’s ancestry:
“This Alexander was descended, in the seventh generation, from Perdicass, who won the lordship of the Macedonians in the following way. Three brothers, Gauanes, Aeropus, and Perdicass, descendants of Temenus, had been expelled from Argos and had taken refuge in Illyria. Thence they crossed into upper Macedonia and went to the town of Lebaea, where they hired themselves out to do menial work for the king, one tending the horses, another the oxen, and the youngest, Perdicass, the sheep and goats.
In the old days it was not only the common folk who were poor; even the reigning houses were of slender means, and in Lebaea the king’s wife cooked the food. Now it happened that every time she baked, the loaf intended for the boy Perdicass swelled to double its proper size. She said nothing for a while, but when it went on happening every time, she told her husband. At once it occurred to the king that it was portent from heaven of some important event, so he sent for three servants and ordered them to leave the country. The young man in reply, said they had a right to their wages, and would go as soon as they were paid. The sun was shining through the smoke-hole in the roof of the house, and the king, when he heard wages mentioned, was inspired to his ruin, crying out: ‘I give you the wages you deserve – there they are?’ – and pointed to the sun. The two elder brothers Gauanes and Aeropus, were struck dumb; but the boy, who had a knife in his hand, scratched a line with the point of it around the patch of sunlight on the floor, and said: ‘King, we accept what you offer us.’ Then three times he gathered the sunlight into the folds of his tunic, and left the town together with his brothers.
When they were gone, somebody who was in attendance upon the king mentioned what a significant thing the boy had done, and suggested that the youngest of the three knew what he was doing in accepting the offered wage. The king was angry and ordered men to ride in pursuit of the brothers and kill them.
In this part of the country there is a river to which the descendants of these three men offer sacrifices as their savior – for when the sons of Temenus had crossed it, it suddenly rose so high that their pursuers were unable to get over. Once safe on the other side, the brothers went on to another part of Macedonia and settled near the place called the Gardens of Midas, the son of Gordias, where roses grow wild – wonderful blooms, with sixty petals apiece, and sweeter smelling than any others in the world. According to the Macedonians it was in these gardens that Silenus was caught. Above them rises Mt. Bermium, the heights of which are so cold that none can climb them, and it was from the slopes of these mountains that the brothers conquered, first, the land in the immediate neighborhood, and afterwards the rest of Macedonia. From the Perdicass of this story Alexander was descended: he was the son of Amyntas, Amyntas of Alcetas; the father of Alcetas was Aeropus; of Aeropus, Philippus; of Philippus, Argaeus; and of Argaeus, Perdicass – who first won the sovereign power.” (Herodotus – The Histories, p. 549)
It is not how the legend of Shala, Shoshi and Mirdite relate to the one of Gauanes, Aeropus and Perdicass, told by Herodotus that convince us about the connection between the two legends, but the mounting material showing Macedonians as a pre-Hellenic stock, whose might together with the Epirote and Illyrian kingdoms formed Pelasgian bastions in the sea of Hellenic assimilation within Greek cultural piracy. In Albanian “Argat” is a servant working the fields since “Ar-a” means field just as in ancient Pelasgian “Aras”, meant flat land. The plot as told by Herodotus takes place first in Illyria where three brothers have taken refugee which for Herodotus must have been a territory next to upper Macedonia, either Dardania or Dassaretes’ land. There is hard to find a town called Lebaea in upper Macedonia but in Wilkes book I came across Labeates, a small Illyrian tribe later absorbed by the Autariates living around Lake Shkoder.Coins with the legend ‘LABIATIAN’ were produced by the Labeatae of the Lacus Labeatis (Lake of Shkoder) and, like other pieces of Scodra (legend SKODRI-NON), bear on the reverse a galley, a traditional image dated in Illyria around 211-197 BC. If our three brothers followed an itinerary from Argos (will explain later which Argos we’re talking about) to Dardania and then onward to the house of Labeates’ king we might be able to imaginatively construct a fictional way of their escape through Mirdite passing onto a great river called Emathia (modern Mat), whose name later was brought to Paeonia by one of the Macedonians kings named Emathion (Mation/Matian, people from Mat).
Thkella as a brotherhood in its history has not always sided with Mirdite, at times those two brotherhoods would appear as rivals, other times Thkella would act alone or side with Mat tribesmen, but when facing enemies Mirdite and Thkella were always one. What separated Mirdite (with Thkelle) from Mat tribesman was the river Mat, other than that every aspect of their tradition is almost identical. If the story of the young Temenaid, named Perdicass and his older brothers was that of Shala, Shoshi and young Mirdite than the Illyrian connection between Mirdite and Thkelle might indicate a migration of the Pirustae to the south from where they probably launched their attack on Paeonia establishing themselves as rulers of not only Illyrian Paeons but of Thracian tribes as well, and giving rise to a new identity, that of Macedon.
The fact that Macedonia’s ancient name was Emathia (Alb. Emadhia) meaning ‘great one’ indicates that the river crossed must have been Mat (ancient Emathia). Emathia, [Hom.Il.14.226; Nonn.48.77; Ov.Met.5.313, 12.462; Strab.Frag.7.11]. In winter Mat raises so high that quite often accidents happen to those who try getting from one side to the other. Greeks place a strong emphasis on the Royal House of Macedon as Heraclids and therefore true Hellenes, an attempt by the ancient Greeks to make it easier the idea of subordination to a foreign leadership. If Royal Macedonians were Heraclids and therefore Greeks then all Illyrians are Hercalids therefore “Greeks” but we know that ancient Greeks and Illyrians spoke a different language and we also know that Illyrians were named Hercalids, after Hyllus, son of Heracles. In Periplus or Coastal Passage attributed to Scylax of Caryanda, we find this description:
“22. …The Illyri dwell by the sea as far as Chaonia, which lies opposite Corcyra, the island of Alcinous. There is situated the Greek city called Heraclea, with a harbour. There dwell the Lotus-eaters, barbarian peoples with the names Hierastamnae, Bulini, and Hylli who are neighbors of the Bulini. This people tell that Hyllus the son of Hercules had his dwelling among them. They are a barbarian people occupying a peninsula a little smaller than the Peloponenese. The Bulini are also an Illyrian people. The voyage along the land of the Bulini as far as the river Nestus takes one day. 24 … Then from the river Arion (to the river Rhizon) the voyage is a half-day. There are the rocks of Cadmus and Harmonia and a shrine, not far from the river Rhizon….” (Periplus, Coastal Passage).
There is no doubt that Hylli were named after Hyllus, the adopted son of Heracles. According to legend, Hyllus was the son of Cadmus and Harmonia, the first king of Illyrians, worshiped as ‘The Star’. To this day ‘Hyu’ has entered the Albanian vocabulary as ‘God’, where in ancient Greek, understandably ‘Hyus/Hyos’ meant ‘Son/Son of God’. Modern Greek claims of Macedonians as Heraclids and therefore Graecis/Grakois are false and scholars today make the distinction between Dorians and Heraclids, two different groups purposely confused by the ancient ‘Hellenes’ to lay claims upon Pelasgian land and culture.
Based on legends and accounts given to us from story-tellers of old and new ages, we can see the truth behind this “based on a real story” legend. As we all know myth is part truth and part fiction, a reason why Herodotus, claiming a Dorian ancestry, was known not just as ‘Father of History’ but as ‘Father of Lies’ as well. It’s one thing claiming Alexander’s heritage and another to back it up with facts.
The legendary origin of the Macedonians from Argos in Peloponnesus, was invented by King Alexander I Macedon (498-454 B.C.). When as a Phil-Hellene he wanted to take part in the Olympian games, he was rejected, since “the games are not meant for the barbarians, but only for the Hellenes.” The Macedonian king, for the sake of his own prestige and to fulfill his desire to take part in the Great Games, tried cunning: he stated that, according to tradition, his family originated from Argos on Peloponnesus and not from Western Macedonia. Consequently, he became the first Macedonian at the Olympic Games; but this is a questionable statement. There is no evidence that any Macedonian took part in the Olympic Games before Philip II. And the assertion that Alexander I Macedon won in some events should be completely rejected because his name is not included in the lists of the victors, the Olympionics. Alexander I had done a great favor for the Greeks prior to the Battle of Plataea in 479 B.C., and was therefore known as a Phil-Hellene, “admirer of the Greeks” or “friend of the Greeks.” But it is obvious that Alexander could not have been a Greek, if he was called a “Greek friend” and not referred to as a Greek.
Alexander I, the Phil-Hellene, misrepresented the fact that Temenid legend spoke not of Argos in Peloponnesus, but of Argos Orestikon in Upper Macedonia. Herodotus stated that the three brothers Gauanus, Aeropus and Perdiccas, descendants of Heraclides Temenus and therefore called the Temenids, had fled from Argos in Upper Macedonia and arrived at the town of Lebaia. Herodotus does not say where Argos was located; however, the historian Apyanus asserts that it was Argos in Oresteide.
The name ‘Argeads’ has created the impression that the Macedonian kings traced their descent back to Argos in the Peloponnesus, but today most scholars believe that this impression is the result of confusion between Argos in the Peloponnese and Argos Orestikon south of Kastoria. Just south of Keletron was Argos Orestikon, a mountain city, founded by the Orestae, a Molossian tribe that in Late Bronze Age moved from the north into the upper Haliakmon river valley. Orestides lived in Epirus in their land called Orestis, which was part of Molossia. The Orestae were the tribe from which the Argeadae Macedones sprang. They became the leading tribe of Macedonia forming the Macedonian royal house that reigned until the death of Alexander III (the Great). Their territory was found between rivers Aous and Achelous and they claimed to be successors of legendary Orestes of Mykenaea, son of the Dannan leader, Great Agamemnon. Orestes’ name comes from Oros / Orae, (offspring of “Gaia”) which in Pelasgian was a mountain god/goddes, and in today Albanian Or-e is a mountain nymph. Edwin E Jacques in his book on Albanians among other place- names found in Iliad mentions Maleiaon Oros (Nymph’s Mountain – Malin Orosh). In Aggamemnon’s kingdom we find the ancient city of Or-neai. The Greeks of classical world would say, “we will say that we died fighting the enemy at Orneai.” ‘At Orneai’ in classical Greek is a pun meaning (bird), i.e. ‘At Birdland’, and the town of Orneai, which lay between Korinth and Sikyon, underwent a bloodless one-day siege in 416. Aristophanes uses this classical Greek expression, in his play “The Birds”, to remind Greeks not to undertake their Sicilian expedition against natives of that land. It’s a fascinating fact that for as long as it can be remembered Arvanites of Greece referred to their language as “The language of the Birds”. The oldest brother in the Mirdita brotherhood was also called Orosh (Mali Orosh) and strange enough in “Twelfth Nights” Shakespeare, the Duke of Illyria is named Orsino.
The issue of how the term “Macedonian” originated is dealt with by J. R. Ellis:
“One of the significant sites which illustrates their presence [the presence of the Illyrian tribes] is the one in the vicinity of the neighboring villages Vergina [Kutlesh in Macedonian, in Aegean Macedonia] and Palatitsia, at the foot of the Pirin Range, which projects above the southwestern corner of the Emathia Plain, twenty kilometers from Methone on the land and seven or eight kilometers in the south from the coasts of the lower Haliacmon River. The archaeological picture there shows the presence of an Illyrian population from 800 B.C. until the middle of the seventh century. Further to the south, on the slopes of Mt. Titarion and the Pirin Mountains as well as the northern extensions of Mt. Olympus lived Macedons, who gave their name to the region Macedonia.”

J.R. Ellis assessment of the Macedonian background gives us an understanding of the “barbarian” identity, highlighted in Curtius’ famous dialogue between Alexander and Philotas.
Curtius(2) Hist. Alex. Magni Maced., IV, I11.4.:
The general Philotas was accused by one of his compatriots of not feeling ashamed,
” . . . Macedonatus, homines linguae suae per interpretem audire,” “. . . born a Macedonian, to hear the men of his language through an interpreter,”
Alexander asks if Philotas will speak in the language of their fathers,
“… Macedones … de te indicaturi sunt, quero an patrio sermone sis apud eos usurus,” “… the Macedonians who will judge you, I ask if you will use the language of [our] fathers with them,”

The response:
“Praeter Macedonas … plerique adsunt, quos facilius quae dicam percep-turus arbitror, si eadem lingua fuero usus qua tu egisti, non ob aliud, credo quam ut oratio tua intellegi posset a pluribus,” “[Above and] beyond the Macedonians … there are many present whom, I feel, will more easily grasp the things I say if I use the same language you did, for no other reason, I believe, than that your speech might be understood by many.”
Greek was for the classical world the international language of trade, as English is in modern times, and the elite Macedonians as well as the elite Illyrians spoke it but Alexander and the rest of Macedonians could not help but feel offended when Philotas, one of their own, addressed them in a tongue different from that of their fathers. The language of Macedonians was the “barbarian – Pelasgic” tongue, spoken by the Illyrians of Epirus (Toscans) and Illyria (Gegenes – Homeric Hymns) and Plutarch indirectly proves it, when he says that young Alexander retired in Illyria after the quarrel with Philip:
“At the wedding of Cleopatra, whom Philip fell in love with and married, she being too young for him, her uncle Attalus in his drink desired the Macedonians would implore the gods to give them a lawful successor to the kingdom by his niece. This so irritated Alexander, that throwing one of the cups at his head, ‘You villain,’ said he, ‘What, am I a bastard then?’ Then Philip, taking Attalus’s part rose up and would have run his son through, but by good fortune for them both, either his over-hasty rage or the wine he had drunk, made his foot slip, so that he fell down, on the floor. At which Alexander reproachfully imsulted over him: ‘See there’, said he, ‘the man who makes preparations to pass out of Europe into Asia overturned passing from one seat to another.’ After this debauch, he and his mother Olympias withdrew from Philip’s company, and when he had placed her in Epirus, he himself retired into Illyria.”
Polyxena Myrtale, Alexander’s mother later called Olympia, claimed descent from Achilles, and met Philip’s infidelities by intimating that the real father of her son was god Zeus (Ammon). In the excavations of Dodona conducted in 1875, Karapanos found carved on the stone of the temple a two-headed eagle, which the ancients used to represent the messenger of Zeus. In the Iliad we find Zeus sending an eagle as a divine sign to the Pelasgian combatants (Iliad 8:97; 12:155). Homer also likened those brave warriors to a swift eagle. Queen Olympias of Epirus later took this symbol with her to Macedonia, and her son Alexander the Great made it known throughout the ancient world as a true messenger of Zeus. Achilles, son of Peleus and goddesses of the sea Thetis (Alb. Deti) led in Troy his Myrmidons, which after their king’s death followed his son Pyrrhus to Epirus where Achilles was known by the name Aspetus (alb. Swift), and labeled by Homer “Swift footed Aeacides”. Pyrrhus Neoptolemy, son of Achilles, had three sons by Andromache (Hector’s wife): Molossius, Pictus and Pergamon. While they were still young, king Pyrrhus was assassinated at the temple of Delphi. Meanwhile Elin, Priam’s son taken a slave in Troy’s war, married the twice-widowed Andromache and ruled as king of Chaonia, his kingdom extending from the present-day town of Saranda southwest including the region called Chameria (Molossia). Elin established himself at the Albanian town of Butrint, giving it the name of Buthrotum-Troy. Upon the death of Elin of Butrint, the throne went to Pyrrhus’s son Molossius and from him to his son Neoptolemy whose daughter was Polyxena Myrtale (Olympia). The Athenian orator Hyperides gives us an account on the possessive trait and pride of Olympias as Athens found out when the city decided to renovate the temple of Dodona in Epirus:
“The land of Molossus is mine. It is not for you Athenians to lay a finger upon a stone of that temple.” (Hyperides)
Molossians called Xanthus River the Skamander, for Plato wrote about the river that “the gods call Xanthus, and men call Skamander” (Plato 1952, 7:89), in Albanian meaning ‘I have no dreams’ (S’kam-anderr). Having read Iliad several times I felt compelled to read some more about the authors who translated this great work into English and I came across “A Companion to the ILIAD – Based on The Translation by Richmond Lattimore” by Malcolm M. Willcock, and on page 225, I stopped and tried to make sense of what was written:
“Iliad, 74. For different names for the same thing in the language of gods and men, see 1.403-4 n. Perhaps in this case Xanthos and Skamandros result from separate attempts to put into Greek the same non-Greek name, a confusion which may also be discerned in the names of Alexandros and her sister Cassandra.”
I asked myself, – what’s in the name Alexander?
Alexander was the name given to Olympia ‘s son. The night before her wedding, Olympias dreamed she was penetrated by a thunderbolt, so that fire gushed out of her womb, spreading far and wide before it was extinguished. On the night of Alexander’s birth, tradition alleged, the temple of Artemis was burnt down. The local Persian Magi interpreted this as an omen of further disasters to come. They ‘ran about beating their faces and crying aloud that woe and great calamity for Asia had that day been born’, a firebrand that was destined to destroy the entire East. A month or two later Philip also had a dream: he was sealing up his wife’s vagina, and the wax bore the stamped device of a lion. Some of the palace seers took this to mean that Philip should keep a closer watch on his wife. But Aristander of Telmessus — who afterwards accompanied Alexander to Asia — had a more acceptable explanation: Olympias was pregnant, and with a spirited, lion-like son. One did not, he told Philip, put a seal on an empty jar. The name “”Alexander” was used by Homer for Paris in Iliad, and in Pelasgian, (alb. Aleksanderr) meant ‘Newborn Dream’ – ‘A Le Ksi Anderr’ or ‘Le-Ka Si Anderr’. Lek-e and Llesh are the abbreviated Albanian forms of Alexander widely used in Mirdite. Llesh indicating influence from the Western (Latin) form “A-less- ander” and Leka from the Eastern (Hellenic) form “A-leks-ander”. It doesn’t surprise me that Phil-Hellenes will voice their skepticism and say there is no Albanian explanation in Alexander’s name, that is why I would like you to judge for yourselves. Let’s look at the names Alexander (Paris), Alexander (Macedon), Cassandra (Kassandra), Aristander (of Telmessus), Menander (at Alexander’s Death), Leander (Hero and Leander). If there is a connection between the Albanian word for dream (Anderr) and the story behind each of these character’s birth and life then I think we hit the nail right on.
Paris, called by Homer in Iliad Alexander (A le kesi ander – newborn dream), was the second child of Queen Hecabe 1 of Troy. Just before his birth, Hecabe 1 dreamt she had brought forth a firebrand that destroyed the city of Troy. When this dream was known, the diviner Aesacus 1, who had learned to understand the meanings of dreams because he had been taking lessons in this art from the seer Merops 1, the father of King Priam 1’s first wife Arisbe, advised to expose the child, prophesying that Paris was to become the ruin of the city. So, when Paris was born, King Priam 1, following Aesacus 1’s interpretation of the dream, gave his and Hecabe 1’s son to a servant Agelaus 2, with instructions to expose him on Mount Ida, near Troy. Agelaus 2 did as he was told, but when he returned after five days, seeing that the child had survived because a bear had nursed him in the wilderness, carried him away, and bringing him up as his own son, he named him Paris. This boy grew up to be a very handsome and strong young shepherd who also defended the flocks from robbers.
Cassandra (Ka ca andra – has dreams) according to J.G. Frazier, referring to a couple of scholiasts, acquired her prophetic power (reading dreams) when she, as a child, was left overnight in the temple of Apollo Thymbraeus and in the following morning serpents were seen licking her ears. Others have said that Apollo himself, wishing to gain her love, promised to teach her the prophetic art. But Cassandra, having learned it, refused her favours, and then the god, not wishing to take back his gift, deprived her prophecy of the power to persuade. This is why she, later in life, lamented:
“Apollo, my destroyer, for you have destroyed me …” [Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1080]
… and acknowledged:
“I promised consent to Apollo but broke my word … and ever since that fault I could persuade no one.” [Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1208ff.]
Accordingly no one listened when she recommended to destroy Paris, her ill-omened brother, shrieking:
“Kill him! Kill the destroyer of Priam’s city! Kill that child!” [Cassandra. Euripides, Andromache 293]
When Paris finally sailed to fetch Helen in Sparta, Cassandra uttered new fiery prophecies, saying:
“Where are you going? You will bring conflagration back with you. How great the flames are that you are seeking over these waters, you do not know.” [Cassandra to Paris. Ovid, Heroides 16,120]
And when on Paris’ return, Cassandra saw Helen coming into Troy, she tore her hair and flung away her golden veil; but the city nevertheless received this woman as a jewel meant to enhance its beauty.
Aristander (Arrish te Anderr – grasping, reaching a dream) of Telmessus, who later served as Alexander’s seer during his campaigns, interpreting Olympia’s dream declared that Olympias must be pregnant, since men did not seal up what was empty, and that she would bear a son whose nature would be bold and lion-like. Alexander had many precognitive dreams that benefited his career. The most famous of his dreams occurred while he laid siege to the city of Tyre. Alexander dreamed that he had captured a satyr dancing on a shield. Aristander interpreted the dream as an acronym of the words “Sa Tyros”, meaning, “Tyre is yours.” After a seven month siege, it became his prize. He also had a dream in which he saw Heracles reach out and call from the walls of Tyre. Thus inspired, Alexander won the city on the next day.
Menander: (Men Anderr – dream thinker) had the following dream, and saw this vision: he saw a lion loaded with chains and cast into a pit. A man spoke to him: “Menander, why dost thou not descend with this lion, since his purple is fallen? Get thee up now, and seize him by the neck of his purple.” Menander’s grief at this dream, and his conviction that the lion signified his master, were not mistaken – in the morning a messenger announced the death of Alexander at treacherous hands. This story of Menander’s dream has come down to us in fragments of a Coptic romance the fabulous Life of Alexander.
Leander (Dream born) is the Romeo of ancient world, his name reflecting his good looks in a superlative scale. The beautiful Hero lived in a tower by the Hellespont (a sea), administering to Venus and Cupid. Across the Hellespont lived Leander, a handsome young man. They met at a festival honoring Adonis, and fell in love. Leander agreed to swim the Hellespont each night to visit her, and she agreed to light a lamp to guide him to her tower. Thus, during the summer the two enjoyed many secret nights of love. But when the fierce weather of winter arrived Hero could not resist lighting the lamp anyway to guide Leander to her bed. When Leander saw the lighted lamp he attempted to swim across the Hellespont despite the weather, and drowned in the attempt. The next morning Hero looking down at the wave-battered rocks saw the mangled body of her lover, and threw herself from the highest crag onto the rocks below, uniting with Leander in death.
Alexander the Great was Albanians as was his name.

Source:  http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00CIwd

We are going to present in following some pieces from a journal reportage of some European travelers* who met

Albanian ruler of Egypt, Mehmet Ali Pasha (1769 –  1849)**. This journal paper goes to them who thought Albanians as newcomers in Macedonia, while allevidences support the contrary. Alexander the Great has left his traces in memory of native people of Macedonia. That’s why Albanians of Macedonia never forgot their hero and were inspired to follow him.

And first, here is the portrait of Mdhemed Ali’s prime minister:
” Among the men attached to the fortune of Mehemed-Ali, few have rendered him so useful and important services as Boghos-Bey. Boghos-Youijouf, an Armenian, born at Smyrna, in his youth tried unsuccessfully various kinds of commerce. • He arrived in Egypt at the time of the French invasion, and joined the pacha in the quality of interpreter; in which difficult post he distinguished himself by his talents and assiduity. The suppleness of his character did not save him from falling into disgrace with his master, who had, we are assured, given order that he should be thrown into the Nile. The interference of M. de Rosetti, consul-general of Tuscany, who then enjoyed great influence with the pacha, saved the life of Boghos, who soon resumed his functions of interpreter ; and his credit has since that period never ceased to increase. None knew better than Boghos the art of prolonging business when interest required that it should not be terminated. Skilful in giving offence to nobody, in not contradicting, in not yielding, yet without ever refusing ; his manners arc always affable, his reception gracious, his politeness refined. Possessing more natural mind than acquired knowledge, more skilfulness in business than large administrative views, more finesse than real talent; but indefatigable in labour, endowed with a sound judgment, and entirely devoted to the viceroy, to whom he owes his fortune, it cannot be denied that, in many circumstances, he has given him important aid. Boghos – Youc,onf- Bey is at present the first minister of Mchemed, over whose mind he exercises a very great ascendency : we will add, that it is to be regretted that the fear of alienating the mind of his master, by opposing his favourite ideas, has more than once hindered him from giving more energetic and more conscientious counsels.”
Nearly all the great men of Eastern history have risen from obscurity. Now, for a picture of the viceroy himself: —
” A sentinel was placed at the door of one of
arranged in the Albanian fashion. Endowed with much natural intelligence, joining the most prepossessing manners to a great enthusiasm for the European innovations, the pacha possesses, in the highest degree, the art of captivating his hearers, and of imposing his manner of seeing things on those who are about him. We need not be surprised, therefore, at the reputation which has been given to him in Europe by the persons who have had an opportunity of approaching him. We were impatient to begin a conversation in which we expected that the regenerator of Egypt was going to reveal himself to us; but it turned almost entirely on questions of commerce, and we could not help feeling a kind of disappointment in finding only the speculator and merchant, where we thought we should have found the conqueror and legislator. * *
“ Alexander the Great is the favourite hero of the viceroy. Having learnt that there existed a summary of the historians of this conqueror, he ordered the work to be procured from France. We were present when it was brought to him: arabesques in gold added to the elegance of this handsome volume, on which Thouvenin seemed to have exhausted the resources of his art. ‘ In how short a time can you give me this book translated?’ was the question he put to one of his interpreters. ‘ In six months.’ ‘ It is too long,’ answered the pacha, with vivacity; and seizing immediately the yataghan of one of his khawass, he quickly parted the rich volume into three. ‘ In this manner three of you can work upon it; I must have the translation in two months. And I also,’ said M£hemed-Ali to us, ‘ I intend that the events of my life shall be related to men. Every day I dictate to my kiatib (secretary) a portion of my history; and it is wonderful how one fact brings up another, and how a crowd of circumstances, which I had forgotten, are brought back to my memory. Admire,’ added he, after a moment’s silence, ‘ how He who knows all things, is impenetrable in his designs. They tell me that Alexander and Ptolemy were Macedonians; and I, too, am of Macedonia. Our country, then, was destined thrice to give masters to Egypt; but my power extends much further than theirs in this country, and I hope, with the assistance of Heaven, to discover one day if, as your Champollion believes, the Pharaohs reached the sources of this Nile blessed by God.’ Our conversation lasted more tnan an hour; the physiognomy of the pacha was animated, and we experienced an inexpressible charm in hearing this extraordinary man abandoning himself to his natural talkativeness and curiosity, and mixing more than once traits of ingenuous ignorance with the observations of a subtle and penetrating mind. After we had been served with coffee in xarfs, ornamented with diamonds, the viceroy arose, and we took our leave of him, announcing to hirn, at the same time, our departure for Nubia. ‘ Go,’ said he,’ visit without fear every part of my dominions; every where you will find aid and protection.’”
Our authors give us very numerous instances of the terrible and oppressive tyranny under which the Egyptians groan, of the fearful manner in which they are bruised, and the country depopulated by the iron sceptre of their viceroy, whose government presents so much outward splendour. The following is the process of conscription in Egypt during the pacha’s wars: it must not be forgotten, in extenuation, that the “grand” Napoleon, the idol of the French revolutionists, did much the same thing for France :—
” When a levy is ordered, the governors divide the number of conscripts to be furnished among the villages; and then, in execution of the measure, they send, as secretly as possible, the irregular Albanians attached to their service, to carry off the number of men required, So soon as the presence of these agents is announced on any point, the cultivators take flight, and the soldiers pursue them across the cultivated fields, which are trodden under foot by the horses, and ruined in every direction. At last, after one or two hunts, the Albanians obtain the number of prisoners fixed by the authority; but, in spite of the exact orders which are given, and after even severe punishment, the greater part of the unfortunates who are caught, are always children, old men, or men unfit for service, who, less nimble in flight, must necessarily be first caught. All the men whom the irregulars have captured are carried, in chains, to the nearest town, and there imprisoned lyitil the physician has examined them. The visit being ended, those who are judged unfit for service are sent home; but they are no sooner gone than there comes the question of replacing them: there is a new hunt, they are recaptured and taken again to the town to undergo a new visit, and, consequently, a new discharge; and this ceremony is repeated often more than twenty times before the number is completed. During this time the crops are ravaged, the fields are left uncultivated, and often, wheu people return to their labour, harvest or seed time is past, and the produce of a whole year is lost. By this it may be judged what an enormous sum a soldier costs the pacha before even he has entered the ranks. In vain the fellahs refuse, under pretext of former discharges, to follow the recruiting party. The cudgel and, at need, the sabre are ready to force them along; and we must confess, that it is very difficult to find a remedy for this serious inconvenience. The principle was adopted of giving certificates of discharge; but, independent of the errors which arose, as the greater part of the agents could not read, the fellahs who, by age or infirmity, were sure of being discharged again, gave their certificates to their relations or friends, and there were no more conscripts to be found.”
The following is a specimen of the mode of administering justice in Egypt, as witnessed by our travellers at Kelioub.
” The memour received us in the most friendly manner. Whilst he was giving us information concerning the province intrusted to his administration, there were brought before him four men who had just been arrested on suspicion of murder. These unfortunate men were immediately sent to the kiahia (secretary. general) to be interrogated; the latter returned in about a quarter of an hour, and declared that, by the confusion of their answers, he had no doubt they were the murderers of the effendi, who had been slain some days before. ‘ Very well, inquire at Cairo, by the telegraph, what I must do with them.’ The answer soon arrived. ‘ Since their guilt is acknowledged (said the chief of the council) they must be executed.’ It happened to be market-day; moreover, we were on the road to Cairo, and the meinour was very glad that we should be able to give a good account of the manner in which justice was administered in his province. The order was given to hang them the same day. The delays of our reis did not allow us to depart before night, so we were present at the execution. The four sufferers were taken out of the warehouse, where they had been shut up for waut of a prison, and were conducted to a small square near the house of the memour. The merchants who were assembled there remained squatted beside their stalls, and saw pass, with the utmost indifference, these unfortunate people led by six soldiers and a sergeant. Every one quietly followed his business; and had it not been for the cries of the women and children, who followed to the place of execution a father, a husband, their only support, one would have supposed that nothing had occurred hut what was in the habitual routine of every day. Four stakes had been planted at the four corners of the square. The soldiers asked for ropes of the neighbours; but it was a luxury which nobody possessed. So, the sergeant went and brought some string, which the soldiers began to plat. Some of the lookers-on obligingly lent their aid to this operation, which the sufferers regarded quietly, without attempting to run away: which they might easily have done, for their hands were only weakly tied behind their backs, and nobody paid attention to them. The fatal moment was arrived; the youngest was chosen to be hung first. ‘ Fool! that is not the way to do it, (said one of the soldiers to his comrade, who began by passing the rope about the neck of his patient), it will be better to begin, by fastening it to the top of the stake.’ Thereupon, he caused a ladder to be brought by one of the spectators, and proceeded in his work with the culprit, who, raised in the arms of another soldier, without the least resistance, expires quickly, after having cried out, that he is not guilty. Three of the victims were now dead. There remained the last, an old man with a white beard, who was surrounded by his wife and children, and who, as the only answer to their sobs and cries, repeated, at intervals, that he was innocent. ‘ Ali!’ said the Serjeant to one of his soldiers, ‘ if thou went to the memour, to ask pardon for this poor old man, perhaps he would grant it—go!’ And the soldier, shouldering coolly his musket, goes slowly to the governor to fulfil his mission. During the mean time, the old man conversed peacefully with his family. After a few minutes, the soldier returned; at sight of him, a gleam of hope and joy shone on the faces of the women: but the cries and sobs were soon redoubled: the memour had refused his pardon.
‘ It is a pity,’ said the Serjeant, ‘ this old man has the air of an excellent fellow ; but his edjel (last hour) is come.’ With these words he began himself to put the rope round the neck of his victim, who, after having embraced, with admirable resignation, his wife and children, contented himself with exclaiming, ‘ God is great!’”
If we judge by the numerous facts which are presented to us in this book, it would seem that the government of Egypt has been undermining its own power by the gradual exhaustion and destruction of its resources. The taxes are so exorbitant and so cruelly levied, that their result must be the throwing out of cultivation the land, and the reduction of the population to beggary.
Under the government of M6hemed-Ali there has been a great destruction of ancient monuments for the sake of their materials, even where excellent quarries are close at band. Such progress has utilitarianism made in Egypt.
” We may search in vain at Achmouneyn (Hermopolis Magna) any vestiges of the monuments which had adorned the sup’erb city, on whose ruins was built the town which is now itself in ruins. What time and fanaticism had respected has been destroyed by ignorance and cupidity, and the magnificent remains of Hermopolis Magna have been used to build a manufactory of saltpetre. The late Mr. Salt, the English consul, having learnt that they were going to destroy the remains of the city of Hermes, pleaded their cause with the viceroy, who, in consideration for the representative of Britain, promised to send immediate orders to hinder their destruction. But, vain hope! every thing was levelled; and there now remains nothing of the admirable portico which was looked upon as the most beautiful model of Egyptian architecture. It is with difficulty we distinguish, in the midst of the heaps of rubbish which mark the site of the ancient city, any of the bases of those columns now razed to the ground, about which lie, here and there, the remains of rich work, in the Grecian style, which have, by chance, escaped the devouring gulf of the lime-kiln. If the brutal despotism of the mamlouks forbade to science the knowledge of the monuments which time had spared, he respected them, at least, and preserved them to posterity. But who could tell the number of those which have disappeared, for ever, during the few years of the reign of MehemedAli ?”
At Samour, not far from Maufalout, our travellers found an immense grotto of mummies, little known even to the inhabitants of the country, and which has never yet been marked on a map. It appears, at some remote period, to have taken fire, either by accident or design, and, by tradition, is said to have burnt for many years.
We now leave our travellers for the present, with the end of their first volume, at Assouan (Syene), ready to pursue their further route up the Nile.
Adventures in the Moon and other Worlds. 12mo. Pp. 447. London, 1836. Longman and Co. This is a curious book, full of ” quaint fancies, and witty devices.” One ingenious allegory succeeds the other, and we leave off surprised at the fertility of our author’s inventions, and the variety of shapes taken by his sarcasm. One of the most amusing of these, is a philosopher who is taken at his word, and becomes all mind, his voice being all
that remains, by which means he communicates to his wife his wonderful change :—
” Cleopatra, being now left alone with the voice, which she was henceforth to regard as Aristus, remained silent, and plainly shewed by her dejected countenance that she did not consider this sound as equivalent to a husband; while Aristus, in suggesting arguments to console her, felt himself very insignificant, and was conscious that he greatly wanted personal advantages. The remainder of the day having passed in melancholy conversation, and the hour of rest being arrived, he said, ‘ We must now part, for the immortal soul does not lie in bed : your body insists upon sleep, but I, being intellect, am no longer liable to any such infirmity. While you and your body are asleep, I shall be engaged in meditation, and you see, therefore, how many valuable hours I have rescued.’ Cleopatra retired alone, not a little indignant that this meditation should have supplanted her in her husband’s affections, while he left the house and glided forth to pass the night in contemplation, as he said. The moon was bright, and the night calm and beautiful. He sat down on the sea-shore, and betook himself to the consideration of several philosophical subjects, being very desirous of arriving at some happy thought, which might justify him to his friend. He had been persuaded that as soon as he was reduced to pure intellect, he should be put in possession of extraordinary powers; and that whenever he applied himself to thinking, some great revelation would be made to him. He now, therefore, sat waiting for these new thoughts; hut though he revolved one subject after another, on which he desired to gain information, to his great disappointment, his meditations did not seem to him more profound than when he had been detained in a body. After some hours, he was weary of these studies, by which he was surprised, having always imagined that the soul was not liable to fatigue, and having always laid to the charge of his body all the weariness that he had felt. Finding, however, that he was not the indefatigable intellect which he had expected to be, he returned home without having acquired any information except that it was a fine night. On arriving at home, he entered his wife’s chamber, and sat down by her bed. She was asleep, and appeared very bountiful to him, and he could not refrain from stooping to kiss her, forgetting how incapable of such an enterprise he was become. On reaching her face, he endeavoured to press what he considered his lips against hers, and finding that no intercourse ensued, was reminded of the deception. Being distressed that all endearments were unattainable, he continued to gaze upon her, acknowledging to himself that she was a beautiful woman, and beginning to doubt whether he had done right. But he suddenly checked himself with the consideration that he was now a pure soul, and as such, could not possibly be affected by female beauty. Aristus had several young children, and the next morning Cleopatra endeavoured to explain to them the change that had taken place in their father. This, however, she was unable to make them comprehend; they were never to see him again, they were told, yet he was still with them, and by what means he had been put out of sight, was a mystery beyond their understanding. That figure which they had been used to consider as their father having vanished, they wondered how any remainder of him could be left, and were much perplexed by hearing that he had been divided into two. In vain their

http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA5&dq … utput=text

*William Jerdan, Lovell Reeve, John Mounteney Jephson

*** Muhammad Ali Pasha al-Mas’ud ibn Agha (Arabic: محمد علي باشا‎) (Mehmet Ali Pasha in Albanian; Muhammed Ali Paša in Bosnian; Kavalalı Mehmet Ali Paşa in Turkish) (4 March 1769 – 2 August 1849) was an Albanian who became Wāli, and self-declared Khedive of Egypt and Sudan. Though not a modern nationalist, he is regarded as the founder of modern Egypt because of the dramatic reforms in the military, economic, and cultural spheres that he instituted. The dynasty that he established would rule Egypt and Sudan until the Egyptian Revolution of 1952.

[...] Muhammad Ali was born in Kavala, in the Ottoman province of Macedonia (now a part of modern Greece) to Albanian parents.According to the many French, English and other western journalists who interviewed him, and according to people who knew him, the only language he knew fluently was Albanian. He learned Arabic only in his adult life.[citation needed] He was also competent in Turkish.[10] The son of a tobacco and shipping merchant named Ibrahim Agha, his mother Zainab Agha was his uncle Husain Agha’s daughter. Muhammad Ali was the nephew of the “Ayan of Kavalla” (Çorbaci) Husain Agha. When his father died at a young age, Muhammad was taken and raised by his uncle with his cousins. As a reward for Muhammad Ali’s hard work, his uncle Çorbaci gave him the rank of “Bolukbashi” for the collection of taxes in the town of Kavala. After his promising success in collecting taxes, he gained Second Commander rank under his cousin Sarechesme Halil Agha in the Kavala Volunteer Contingent that was sent to re-occupy Egypt following Napoleon’s withdrawal. He married Ali Agha’s daughter, Emine Nosratli, a wealthy widow of Ali Bey.
In 1801, the Albanian commander of the Ottoman army was sent to re-occupy Egypt following a brief French occupation. He was second in command under his cousin Sarechesme Halil Agha in the Kavala Volunteer Contingent, which was itself part of a larger Ottoman force. The expedition landed at Aboukir in the spring of 1801

Albanian troops (serving as official militia) in Egypt during Mehmet Ali Pasha’s period.

Sir William Woodthorpe Tarn, of the British Academy, regarded worldwide as having written the definitive work on Alexander the Great, states in the opening paragraph of his book Alexander the Great that “Alexander certainly had from his father (Philip II) and probably from his mother (Olymbia) Illyrian, i.e. Albanian, blood!”*

During Rose Wilder Lane’s visit to Albania in 1921 resulting in the publication in 1923 of her book Peaks of Shala, she heard the following rather extraordinary rendition of Albanian oral history about Alexander the Great from an Albanian elder:

“There was at that time two capitals of the united kingdom of Macedonia. There was Pela, between Salonika and Manastir, and there was Emadhija(the great city Alb), the old capital, lying in the valley which is now Mati (a high, fertile plateau north of Shkodra, near the coast of northern Albania – ED). “Alexander’s father, Filip the Second had great houses in both Pela and Emadhija, and before Lek i Madh was born, his mother left Pela and came back to the original capital, Emadhija. It was there that Lec i Madhe was born, and there he lived until he was out of the cradle and rode on a horse when he first went down into Pela to see his father who came from the city to meet and see his son for the first time.”Filip the Second was very proud of his son, and his pride led him to the one great foolishness of a good and wise king. He said that he would make Lec i Madhe king of the world, and that was well enough, but he thought to be king of the world a man must be more learned than he himself. Whereas all old men who have watched the ways of the world know that to be strong and ruthless will make a man powerful, but to be learned makes a man full of dreams and hesitations. “In his pride and blindness, Filip the Second sent to Greece for an Albanian who had learned the ways of the ancient Greeks, and to that man he gave the boy, to be taught books. (The Albanian’s) name was Aristotle, and he came from a family of the tribe of Ajeropi, his father having gone to a village in Macedonia and became a merchant there. Being rich, he sent his son, who was fond of thought rather than of action, to learn the ancient Greek ways of thinking. And it was this man who was brought by Filip the Second to teach his son.”***P 1, ALEXANDER THE GREAT, W.W. Tarn, Beacon Press, Boston, 1956

Reference: Sir William Woodthorpe Tarn He contributed many chapters to the Cambridge Ancient History—on the rise of the Hellenistic world, on Alexander the Great, and on Parthia—and parts of the chapters between the death of Caesar and the death of Cleopatra. His account of Alexander, which was published separately in 1948 as Alexander the Great with a companion volume, Alexander the Great: Sources and Studies, showed an admiration verging on hero-worship. F. Adcock,‘Sir William Tarn’, PBA, 54 (1958), 253–62 • The Times (8 Nov 1957)• WWW • Venn, Alum. Cant.• The Eton register, 5 (privately printed, Eton, 1908)• private information (1971)• personal knowledge (1971)• census returns, 1881 • A. B. Bosworth, Alexander and the East (1996)

John Chika

In November 1963 copy of The Reader’s Digest Magazine, the story of CLEOPATRA was printed, written by Mr. Don Wharton. The story it would be excellent only if Mr. Wharion had made more research in ancient history of Pelasgians, and Illyrians of Antiquity. This is unfortunate to the world’s history that ancient Greek and Roman civilization have overcome the other contemporary civilizations. The reason for this is because the ancient and modern Greek writers have written their fancy history to suit their national pride.

Mr. Wharton, in his story, writes: “Although Cleopatra was queen of the ancient kingdom, not a drop of Egyptian blood flowed in her veins.” This is a true fact. Then he adds that “Cleopatra was a Macedonian Greek.” Here he is dead wrong.

Here we have to give a little careful historical analysis in to the subject. First of all, in time of Cleopatra, Macedonia was not Greek; Greece was occupied by Romans. The most important factor is for modern historians to know the fact that in the Balkan peninsula there were only two languages, ancient Greek, which was rich literaturally, and Thraco-Illyrian language, the modern Albanian. The Skythians (Russian) languages were not yet civilized and were confined in back woods. This is an ideal proof that in the Balkans there were only two languages.

Macedonians belonged to Thraco-Illyria. Their native language was the most ancient language of their own, the modern Albanian of today. And furthermore, they used to have their own culture and way of life which was strange to the Greeks.

In my long life of research, I have discovered that the blood which pulsed in the veins of Cleopatra was from Ptolemy the First, born in the town of Mollosia (Permet) in Southern Albania. Ptolemy I (Soter), 283 B.C., was a general of Alexander the Great, and in the war of Diadochi established himself as king of Egypt, 304 B.C., the defeat of Antigonus making his position secure. He founded the Library of Alexandria.

Now let’s come back to life story of Queen Cleopatra. For centuries many historians have written many prevalent stories in regard to Cleopatra. Some of the siories are half-truth and some of the stories are untrue, but one story all the writers have agreed to be the truth, and that is: Cleopatra was the daughter of Ptolemy XI. He died when Cleopatra was 18, and she became Queen of Egypt, ruling jointly with her 10-year-old brother, Ptolemy XIV.

Cleopatra was determined to punge the Roman Empire into civil war. She was a fascinanting conversationalist and clever in her speech. She had a lovely voice, beautiful and was the primadonna of the ancient Egypt. She spoke her ancestral Thraco-Illyrian language well, in addition to four other languages. She was an excellent negotiator and military strategist. She had the ability to dramatize herself when she was invited to meet Julius Caesar. After her first husband was accidentally drowned in the Nile, she married Caesar, to whom she bore a son, Casarion (Piolemy XIV. Afier Caesar’s death, she was visited by Marc Anthony, which for a time threatened the Roman Empire. The threat was ended when Octavian (later Augustus) defeated their forces at Actium (31 B.C.), and later at Alexandria Anthony committed suicide. Cleopatra, unable io move the cool Octavian, caused her own death by having an asp bite her.

You see, the Illyrian race have ruled Egypt twice. Muhammed Ali Pasha, 1769-1849, with Albanian soldiers, dealt the final blow to power Mame-Lukes, with his son, Ibrahim Pasha, he defeated Turkish Sultan. He became overlord of Egypt, Arabia, and in Greece, where he scored successes.

The royal Egyptian family is descended from the brave small Albanian mountaineers of Illyrian descendants.

It’s not a rare phenomenon amongst ‘Greek’ and Slav net warriors to truncate quotes out of their real content in order to make intentionally distorted conclusions. Such propagandists have put forth as “evidences” against Illyrian origin of Albanians some misleading pieces from John Wilkes’s book ‘Illyrians’. They always pick up pieces that suits to their low ambitions toward Albanian people.

One of the most scandalous quotes used without shame by their side is the following:

“NOT MUCH RELIANCE SHOULD PERHAPS BE PLACED ON ATTEMPTS TO IDENTIFY AN ILLYRIAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL TYPE AS SHORT AND DARK SKINNED SIMMILAR TO MODERN ALBANIANS” (Wilkes 1995: 219).

The quote on modern Albanians being “short and dark skinned” is not his. It was taken from the book ‘Skeletal evidence’ of Alexander Stipcevic, page 262, published over thirty years ago (in 1977). Stipcevic himself claims that Albanians are the descendants of Illyrians !!!! Instead of citing an inaccurate statement, it would be better to ask the authorities on that matter!

‘The stature of the Geghs is extremely variable geographically. the tribes which touch Montenegro have means of 173 cm, and 174 cm … On the south side of the Drin the means fall to 169 cm, and continues to the level of 167 cm, in Mati and Mirdita…Almost all of the Geghs are light-skinned‘.

(Coon 1939 http://www.snpa.nordish.net/chapter-XII13.htm)

‘At last I asked him on what he based his judgment, “Well” was the answer ” look at my servant” The man turned out to be a characteristic Albanian - tall, handsome, and doubtless as honest and brave as his eyes were frank and fearless, while his whole bearing conveyed that suggestion of mingled courtesy and independence which makes the peculiar charm of his race’ (BRAILSFORD 1903:223)

‘Macedonia and its races’ - http://kroraina.com/knigi/en/hb/hb_8_1.html

2. ‘But here are men of distinction, tall, swarthy, proud in their carriage. These are Albanians with quilted white peticoats, black caps, silver-braced coats and a couple of revolvers stuck in the gridle.’

(FOSTER 1906:185) ‘Pictures from the Balkans’

www.promacedonia.org/en/jf/jf_18.html

3. ‘Do Albanians look like Serbs ?. No, The Serbs often have black or dark brown hair and are generally darker and more heavily built than Albanians. Their appearance is fairly typical of Southern Slavs. By contrast Kosovars look Celtic to a British eye. They have curly hair, which is often blonde or rust, and their skin tends to be very pale and covered in freckles. Their eyes are often green or blue and their built is much more slender than that of Serbs’.

MARCUS TANNER – ‘INDEPENDENT’ – 11 May 1999

4. ‘It has been all the more painful to witness the suffering of the people of Kosovo because they look and live so much like us.

TOM UTLEY – ‘DAILY TELEGRAPH’ – 26 March 1999

Nevertheless  Wilkes do accepts  some components of Illyrian identity of the modern Albanians.

“The Albanian language which belongs to the Indo-European group, has a distinctive vocabulary, morphology and phonetic rules which have engaged the attention of many philologists, of whom several have confidently proclaimed its origin from ancient Illyrian”. (Wilkes 1995:  278)

Many lines of reasoning convince linguistic scholars that the Albanian people and language originated with the ancient lllyrians.
1. The national name Albania is the name Albanoi, an Illyrian tribe mentioned by the geographer Ptolemy of Alexandria about A.D 150.
2. The Albanoi territory then centered at Albanopoli, between Durrës and Kruja, the heartland of modern Albania.
3. Four peoples speaking their own languages lived in the Balkans in ancient times: the Greeks in the south, the Macedonians in the center, the Thracians in the east and the lllyrians in the west. Today Albanian is spoken in most of the same region where Illyrian was spoken in ancient times.
4. Those few language elements which are known as Illyrian can be explained through the Albanian language, and no other.
5. A linguistic comparison of Albanian with ancient Greek and Latin indicates that Albanian was formed as a language at an earlier period than those other ancient languages.
6. Archeological and historical data witness to the cultural continuity from the lllyrians to the Albanians. Continual contact with other peoples and languages has left its traces in the Albanian vocabulary. Foreign words have been borrowed from Greek, Latin, Slavic and Turkish, yet Albanian has been preserved as a separate language, its grammatical system remaining virtually unchanged.
7. Linguists point out many technical similarities between Illyrian and Albanian words.
8. Borrowings from northern Greek and from Latin incorporated in the Albanian language reflect the well-known political and cultural pressures on Illyrian territory. Linguistic studies indicate that Albanian developed from Illyrian as a distinct language between the fourth and sixth centuries A.D. Thus ancient borrowings of Greek and Latin vocabulary could not have moved directly into Albanian, but into Illyrian, through which these words entered into Albanian. Historical linguists point out that these borrowings from ancient Greek were in the Dorian dialect and penetrated into Illyrian through Corinthian commercial colonies in Corfu, along the Adriatic coast, and through border towns. Latin borrowings came later during the lengthy Roman occupation (NAlb 1986, 3:32). These ancient Greek and Roman contacts occurred precisely in the territory of old Illyria, leaving their traces in the Illyrian language from which they later passed into the Albanian language.
9. Illyrian toponyms, ancient Illyrian place names for cities, rivers and mountains, are preserved today in the Albanian language, and only in Albanian. The names of Balkan villages usually lasted only a few centuries,
for villages were often destroyed altogether during wartime. Cities lasted longer, so their names were usually older. But rivers, lakes and mountains endured through the centuries, and their ancient names usually continued in use. Even new inhabitants usually adopted the old names, just as American colonists adopted many old Indian place names in the United States. Accordingly, Albanian linguists have found more than 300 names of ancient cities like Shkodra, rivers like the Drin and mountains like Tomor which were mentioned by ancient Greek and Roman geographers or historians and which are still in use in Albania. Scholars show how the rules of historical phonetics explain any changes of spelling over the centuries from Illyrian to Albanian, as Scupi to Shkup, Scodra to Shkodra, Lissus to Lezha, Durrachium to Durrës, Drinus to Drin, Mathis to Mat. Certainly the Albanian language is derived from the Illyrian (Cabej 1985, 42-62).
10. Illyrian proper names continue in use among present-day Albanians. Many of the individual Illyrian names of persons were preserved on epitaphs and inscriptions on coins. Then the names of other people like the Illyrian rulers Agron and Teuta were mentioned by Greek or Roman historians. The Albanian scholar Mahri Domi claims to have identified 800 of these (Liria 15 October 1982; 1 November 1983).
11. The numerous marine terms for sea plants and animals in the Albanian language show that these people lived along the coast on what would correspond with Illyrian territory (AT 1983, 1:44-45).
12. Then there are other words in Albanian which Greek or Roman writers long ago explicitly identified as Illyrian in origin.
Down through the centuries many once great peoples have been either destroyed or assimilated by others so as to disappear altogether. But the Illyrian people with their distinctive dress, music, customs and especially their language have persisted in their shrinking territory along the western shore of the Balkan Peninsula. With no record or tradition even hinting at their extermination or assimilation or migration, one can only assume their unbroken historical continuity. There seems to be no question but that the present-day Albanians are the historically uninterrupted descendants of the lllyrians who were known to have inhabited that same region in early Greek and Roman times.

Taken from: The Albanians: an ethnic history from prehistoric times to the present, Edwin E. Jacques – 1995,  pg.37 – 38.

“The Croats and Serbs rapidly absorbed most of the Latinized Illyrians. But the wealthy and powerful city-states on the coast were strong enough to maintain their independence and their distinctively Italian character. Other Roman provincials took refuge in the mountains of the interior; these Mavrovlachi, as they were called (see Dalmatia: Population; and Vlachs), preserved their language and nationality for many centuries. The Illyrian tribes which had withstood the attraction of Roman civilization remained unconquered among the mountains of Albania and were never Slavonized. With these exceptions Illyria became entirely Serbo-Croatian in population, language and culture.”

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/…/Illyria*.html

Albanians represent Illyrians

* The Illyrians were last mentioned as such in Miracula Sancti Demetri (7th century AD), after which there is no other record of the name, except for one tribe of theirs, the Albanians. All the remaining tribes except perhaps the Romanized Vlachs were Slavicised in the course of the Middle Ages, while the Albanians  represent an instance of southern Illyrian (or Thraco-Illyrian) continuity.

1. Polybius mention a city on modern central Albania called Arbon (its peoples he called Arbanios and Arbanitai)
2. Pliny mention an Illyrian tribe named Olbonenses (Pannonia)
3. Ptolemy the Geographer recorded a city called Albanopolis (according to his coordinates it may be found near Durrës territory). He named its inhabitants as Albanoi in his chapter about Macedonia.
4. Stephanus of Byzantium wrote for a population called Abroi from Adria Taulantii and a city in Illyria called Arbon.

“Thus the Illyrians and Dacians were able to retreat into the mountains at the time of the Slavic invasions and retain their identities as Albanians and Vlachs.”

THE EARLY MEDIEVAL BALKANS , John Van Antwerp Fine, 1991, pg. 2

Byzantine references to Albanians

* In History written in 1079-1080, Byzantine historian Michael Attaliates referred to the Albanoi as having taken part in a revolt against Constantinople in 1043 and to the Arbanitai as subjects of the duke of Dyrrachium. Indeed, the center of the Albanians remained the river Mat, and in 1079 AD they are recorded in the territory between Ohrid and Thessalonika as well as in Epirus.

* The earliest Serbian source mentioning “Albania” (Ar’banas’) is a charter by Stefan Nemanja, dated 1198, which lists the region of Pilot (Pulatum) among the parts Nemanja conquered from Albania (ѡд Арьбанась Пилоть, “de Albania Pulatum”).

* 1285 in Dubrovnik (Ragusa) a document states: “Audivi unam vocem clamantem in monte in lingua albanesca” (I heard a voice crying in the mountains in the Albanian language).

* Arbanasi people are recorded as being ‘half-believers’ (non-Orthodox Christians) and speaking their own language in the Fragment of Origins of Nations between 1000-1018 by an anonymous author in a Bulgarian text of the 11th century.

Arbanitai of Arbanon are recorded in an account by Anna Comnena of the troubles in that region during the reign of her father Alexius I Comnenus (1081-1118) by the Normans.

The name of Illyrian tribe of Albanians has been reflected in the languages of Slavs who called Albanians as Арьбанась (Arbanas); Orientals called Albanians as ارناود (Arnauts)  and Byzantines as Άρβανον (Arbanon).

A project by the Department of Linguistics at the University of Vienna aims to prove that (Old) Albanian was a major influence on the other Balkan languages. Linguist Dr. Stefan Schumacher and his colleague Dr. Joachim Matzinger are undertaking pioneering research in two key areas. The initial stage involves an in-depth examination of Old Albanian, as research into this language is extremely scarce in comparison to modern Albanian. This includes an analysis of the Old Albanian verbal system using all available written sources – the first study of its kind. In the second stage, the results are compared with the verbal systems of the other Balkan languages to establish where similarities occur.
Influences from Albania
As project leader Dr. Schumacher explains, the research is already bearing fruit: “So far, our work has shown that Old Albanian contained numerous modal levels that allowed the speaker to express a particular stance to what was being said. Compared to the existing knowledge and literature, these modal levels are actually more extensive and more nuanced than previously thought. We have also discovered a great many verbal forms that are now obsolete or have been lost through restructuring – until now, these forms have barely even been recognized or, at best, have been classified incorrectly.” These verbal forms are crucial to explaining the linguistic history of Albanian and its internal usage.
However, they can also shed light on the reciprocal relationship between Albanian and its neighbouring languages. The researchers are following various leads which suggest that Albanian played a key role in the Balkan Sprachbund. For example, it is likely that Albanian is the source of the suffixed definite article in Romanian, Bulgarian and Macedonian, as this has been a feature of Albanian since ancient times.
Literature
This project is based on the entire body of available Old Albanian literature dating from between the 16th and 18th centuries. This will prove a real challenge for the researchers as it comprises 1,500 pages of text, each of which must be analysed extremely carefully. Dr. Matzinger comments: “Until now, very little research has been carried out on these texts, as we are dealing almost exclusively with Catholic religious literature that was first forgotten and then became taboo, particularly during the Communist era. Following the fall of Communism, this literature has once again emerged from the shadows, but, so far, there has been a lack of money and of background knowledge about Catholicism.”
Due to their role in the FWF project, these old texts are receiving a new lease of life and taking their place as part of Austria’s rich tradition of research into this area – indeed, the Austrian professor Norbert Jokl, who was killed by the Nazis, is known as the “father of Albanology”. Jokl would no doubt have been proud to witness the first complete representation of the Old Albanian verbal system in the form of the lexicon that is to be produced at the conclusion of the research. This will provide a foundation for all future investigations into the verbal system of Albanian and will also prove invaluable to Indo-European studies and linguistics as a whole.