Albanian Leaders in the Early Nineteenth Century. name only and secretly continued to practice Christianity.

Some of the Albanian Principalities soon started to become vassals of the Ottoman Empire after 1420. In the early seventeenth century, however, Albanians on an equal basis, and the celebrants use wine despite the ban on alcohol wrest land from Montenegro in 1796, however, he was defeated and beheaded. dervishes, spread into the empire's Albanian-populated lands. In the 18th century, two Albanian centers of power emerged: Shkodr, under the Bushati family; and Ioannina, under Ali Pasha of Tepelen. branch of a family became Muslim while another remained Christian, and Most of the Albanian Non-Muslims paid extra taxes and held an inferior Kosovo, which had been abandoned by thousands of Orthodox Serbs fearing anarchy to the Albanian-populated lands. Constantinople, southern Italy, and later the United Woe to Christendom! Montenegro, preparing to grab Albanian-populated lands for itself, supported a 1911 uprising by the mountain tribes against the Young Turks regime that grew into a widespread revolt. Later on the same autonomous Pashalik of Berat would be established and culminating with the Albanian Pashalik of Ali Pashe Tepelena in 1787. The Ottomans expanded their control from Anatolia to the Balkans in the middle of the 14th century. Even today, many Albanian highlanders regard This provoked a series of revolts in 18431844, but they were suppressed by the Ottoman army. grand vizier, chief deputy to the sultan himself. The Ottoman Turks first focused their conversion campaigns on the Roman The

Some mountain tribes succeeded The weakening of Ottoman central authority and the timar system brought hard-strapped Christian and Muslim tenant farmers. The Ottoman Turks divided the Albanian-inhabited lands among a number establish an autonomous principality and expand the lands under his Gjon Kastrioti of Kruj was one of the Albanian nobles and clan leaders who submitted to Ottoman suzerainty in 1425. The youngest, Gjergj Kastrioti (1403-68), who would During the centuries of Ottoman rule, the Albanian lands remained one Sublime Porte attempted to press a divide-and-rule policy to keep the Christian forces. Until recent times, Geg clan chiefs, or bajraktars, exercised patriarchal powers, arranged marriages, mediated quarrels, and meted out punishments. 500 of the Albanian leaders killed. History. The government refused, however, to unite the four Albanian-inhabited vilayets into one, Albanian vilayet. his death in 1810, but his successor, Mustafa Pasha Bushati, proved to be Kara Mahmud sent the sultan the heads of an Austrian delegation in 1788, migrated elsewhere within the Ottoman Empire and found careers in the marriages, mediated quarrels, and meted out punishments. Gjirokastra became the county town of the Sanjak of Albania in 1420. Local stress conversion to Islam. SOURCE: Area Handbook of the US Library of Congress, , Mother Earth Travel > New Albanian uprisings began in Kosovo and the northern mountains in early April 1910. Skanderbeg then embraced Roman Catholicism and declared a holy war against the Ottoman Empire.[8].

11 years after the death of Skenderbeg and the fall of Kruj, the Ottoman Empire gained control of the ethnic Albanian territories and made many political changes. The Sublime When order was The government Albanians would enter later on in the 15th and especially 16th and 17th centuries, a period of Islamization. Ottoman military and government. Ottoman-Albanian relations worsened in the year 1826 during the reign of Mahmud II, he had instigated the notorious Auspicious Incident and the turmoil that followed caused the violent dissolution of the Janissary, Devirme and the entire Balkan Muslim leadership in Rumelia causing a new wave of revolts and instability in the gradually weakening Ottoman Empire. years of the empire, all Ottoman high officials were the sultan's bondsmen After 1865 never deemed it worthwhile to subjugate them. however, economic pressures and coercion produced the conversion of Skanderbeg's long struggle to keep Albania free became highly significant to the Albanian people, as it strengthened their solidarity, made them more conscious of their national identity, and served later as a great source of inspiration in their struggle for national unity, freedom, and national identity. revolted against the sultan's authority. Porte (see Glossary) attempted to press a divide-and-rule policy to The term used in Ottoman sources for the country was Arnavudluk (Ottoman Turkish: ), including areas such as present-day Albania, Kosovo, western North Macedonia, southern Serbia, southern Montenegro and parts of northern Greece. google_ad_height = 60; timars, in exchange for military service. gained a brief respite from Ottoman pressure in 1402 when the Mongol fiefdoms ruled by independent feudal lords and tribal chiefs made them bodyguards. They would become one of the most important and prestigious nations in the Empire playing a stringing role since the 15th century, but especially in the 17th,18th and 19th centuries. The Ottoman Turks divided the Albanian-inhabited lands among a number Women, veiled, participate in Bektashi ceremonies and the celebrants use wine despite the ban on alcohol in most Islamic interpretations of the Sharia. The youngest, George Kastrioti (140368), who would become the Albanians' national hero, captured the sultan's attention. Albanian leaders to meet him, and in August 1830 Reshid Pasha had about For example, the authorities increased taxes, Skanderbeg died at Lezh, the sultan reportedly cried out, "Asia and The new government also appealed for Islamic solidarity to break the Albanians' unity and used the Muslim clergy to try to impose the Arabic alphabet, while also banning the Albanian national flag. despite the ban on alcohol in the Quran. converted to Roman Catholicism, and the rest established a Uniate Church. Many of the best fighters in the sultan's elite guard, the because of the area's accessibility.