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[[Image:The Souliot Women 1827.jpg|thumb|300px|right|A painting by Ary Scheffer (1795-1858), "The women, entrapped, turned towards the steep cliff. It was December 16, 1803 when the dance began. As the enemy charged against them, the women one-by-one threw their children from the cliff before jumping after them themselves. The decision: to choose [[death]] over [[enslavement]]" (1827 - Oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France).]]
[[Image:The Souliot Women 1827.jpg|thumb|300px|right|A painting by Ary Scheffer (1795-1858), "The women, entrapped, turned towards the steep cliff. It was December 16, 1803 when the dance began. As the enemy charged against them, the women one-by-one threw their children from the cliff before jumping after them themselves. The decision: to choose [[death]] over [[enslavement]]" (1827 - Oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France).]]


The '''Souliotes''' (or '''Souliots''' or '''Suliots'''; {{lang-el|Σουλιώτες}}, {{lang-al|Soliot}}) were the inhabitants of [[Souli]], a historic mountain settlement 73 km southeast of [[Igoumenitsa]] in [[Thesprotia]] and its surrounding areas in the mountains of Mourgana in [[Epirus (region)|Epirus]] in northwestern Greece. They established an autonomous association of villages resisting [[Ottoman Greece|Ottoman]] rule in the 17th and 18th centuries. Souliotes became famous across Greece for their successful resistance against the local Ottoman governor [[Ali Pasha]]. After their defeat in 1803, the Souliotes were forced to move to other parts of Greece, and many of them later became active in the [[Greek War of Independence]] starting in 1821, under leaders such as [[Markos Botsaris]] and [[Kitsos Tzavelas]]. They were Christian [[Cham Albanians]],<ref>Richard Clogg, [http://books.google.com/books?id=231XALxmFFsC&pg=PA178&dq=Richard+Clogg+souliotes&lr= Minorities in Greece: Aspects of a Plural Society], 2002 ISBN 1850657068, 9781850657064 "The Souliotes were a warlike Albanian Christian community, which resisted Ali Pasha in Epirus in the years immediately preceding the outbreak the Greek War of Independence"</ref><ref>Great Britain Naval Intelligence Division, Henry Clifford Darby, Greece, University Press, 1944. "...who belongs to the Cham branch of south Albanian tosks (see volume I, pp.363-5). In the mid-eighteenth century these people (the Souliotes)were a semi-autonomous community..."</ref><ref>Miranda Vickers, The Albanians: A Modern History, I.B.Tauris, 1999, ISBN 1860645410, 9781860645419 "The Suliots, then numbering around 12,000, were Christian Albanians inhabiting a small independent community somewhat akin to tat of the Catholic Mirdite trive to the north"</ref><ref>Vickers, Miranda and Pettifer, James. [http://books.google.com/books?id=9IbgsDdeVxsC&pg=PR3&dq=%27%27Albania:+From+Anarchy+to+a+Balkan+Identity ''Albania: From Anarchy to a Balkan Identity'']. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 1997, ISBN 1850652791, p. 207.</ref><ref>Nicholas Charles Pappas, Greeks in Russian Military Service in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries, Institute for Balkan Studies, 1991</ref><ref name = P>Vickers, Miranda and Petiffer, James. ''The Albanian Question''. I.B. Tauris, 2007, ISBN 1860649742, p. 238.</ref><ref>Katherine Elizabeth Fleming, [http://books.google.com/books?id=zZqbA6Jk0uUC&printsec=frontcover The Muslim Bonaparte: Diplomacy and Orientalism in Ali Pasha's Greece], Princeton University Press, 1999, ISBN 0691001944, ISBN 9780691001944 "The history of the orthodox albanian peoples of the mountain stronghold of Souli provides an example of such an overlap"</ref><ref>Gerolymatos, p. 141. "The Suliot dance of death is an integral image of the Greek revolution and it has been seared into the consciousness of Greek schoolchildren for generations. Many youngsters pay homage to the memory of these Orthodox Albanians each year by recreating the event in their elementary school pageants."</ref> and spoke the [[Cham dialect]] of the [[Albanian language]].<ref>T. Jochalas, To hellêno-albanikon lexikon tu Marku Mpotzarê. Filologikê ekdosis ek tu autografu hypo Titu P.Giochala (Pragmateiai tês Akadêmias Athênôn, 46 (Athens 1980)</ref>
The '''Souliotes''' (or '''Souliots''' or '''Suliots'''; {{lang-el|Σουλιώτες}}, {{lang-al|Soliot}}) were the inhabitants of [[Souli]], a mountain settlement 73 km southeast of [[Igoumenitsa]] in [[Thesprotia]] and its surrounding areas in the mountains of Mourgana in [[Epirus (region)|Epirus]] in northwestern Greece. They established an autonomous association of villages resisting [[Ottoman Greece|Ottoman]] rule in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the early 19th century, the Souliotes became famous across Greece for their successful resistance against the local Ottoman governor [[Ali Pasha]]. After their defeat in 1803, the Souliotes were forced to move to other parts of Greece, and many of them later became active in the [[Greek War of Independence]] starting in 1821, under leaders such as [[Markos Botsaris]] and [[Kitsos Tzavelas]]. They were Arvanites. Like many remote mountain communities in Ottoman Greece, by the mid-eighteenth century these people (the Souliotes)were a semi-autonomous community..."</ref><ref>Miranda Vickers, The Albanians: A Modern History, I.B.Tauris, 1999, ISBN 1860645410, 9781860645419 "The Suliots, then numbering around 12,000, were Christian Albanians inhabiting a small independent community somewhat akin to tat of the Catholic Mirdite trive to the north"</ref><ref>Vickers, Miranda and Pettifer, James. [http://books.google.com/books?id=9IbgsDdeVxsC&pg=PR3&dq=%27%27Albania:+From+Anarchy+to+a+Balkan+Identity ''Albania: From Anarchy to a Balkan Identity'']. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 1997, ISBN 1850652791, p. 207.</ref><ref>Nicholas Charles Pappas, Greeks in Russian Military Service in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries, Institute for Balkan Studies, 1991</ref><ref name = P>Vickers, Miranda and Petiffer, James. ''The Albanian Question''. I.B. Tauris, 2007, ISBN 1860649742, p. 238.</ref><ref>Katherine Elizabeth Fleming, [http://books.google.com/books?id=zZqbA6Jk0uUC&printsec=frontcover The Muslim Bonaparte: Diplomacy and Orientalism in Ali Pasha's Greece], Princeton University Press, 1999, ISBN 0691001944, ISBN 9780691001944 "The history of the orthodox albanian peoples of the mountain stronghold of Souli provides an example of such an overlap"</ref><ref>Gerolymatos, p. 141. "The Suliot dance of death is an integral image of the Greek revolution and it has been seared into the consciousness of Greek schoolchildren for generations. Many youngsters pay homage to the memory of these Orthodox Albanians each year by recreating the event in their elementary school pageants."</ref> and spoke the [[Cham dialect]] of the [[Albanian language]].<ref>T. Jochalas, To hellêno-albanikon lexikon tu Marku Mpotzarê. Filologikê ekdosis ek tu autografu hypo Titu P.Giochala (Pragmateiai tês Akadêmias Athênôn, 46 (Athens 1980)</ref>


==Etymology==
==Etymology==

Revision as of 20:48, 9 February 2009

Suli redirects here. This is also a suborder in the Pelecaniformes, containing gannets, boobies, cormorants and darters.
A painting by Ary Scheffer (1795-1858), "The women, entrapped, turned towards the steep cliff. It was December 16, 1803 when the dance began. As the enemy charged against them, the women one-by-one threw their children from the cliff before jumping after them themselves. The decision: to choose death over enslavement" (1827 - Oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France).

The Souliotes (or Souliots or Suliots; Greek: Σουλιώτες, Albanian: Soliot) were the inhabitants of Souli, a mountain settlement 73 km southeast of Igoumenitsa in Thesprotia and its surrounding areas in the mountains of Mourgana in Epirus in northwestern Greece. They established an autonomous association of villages resisting Ottoman rule in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the early 19th century, the Souliotes became famous across Greece for their successful resistance against the local Ottoman governor Ali Pasha. After their defeat in 1803, the Souliotes were forced to move to other parts of Greece, and many of them later became active in the Greek War of Independence starting in 1821, under leaders such as Markos Botsaris and Kitsos Tzavelas. They were Arvanites. Like many remote mountain communities in Ottoman Greece, by the mid-eighteenth century these people (the Souliotes)were a semi-autonomous community..."</ref>[1][2][3][4][5][6] and spoke the Cham dialect of the Albanian language.[7]

Etymology

Modern dictionaries derive "Souli" from Albanian suli, meaning mountain summit.[8]

History

Souliote Confederation

The core of Souli was the "Tetrachori" (Four Villages: Souli, Kiafa, Avariko and Samoniva), which are believed to have been founded some time around 1600 AD. The formation of the Four Villages occurred after settlers from the plains of Thesprotia migrated up into the mountains of Mourgas.[9]

The Souliotes established an autonomous confederacy dominating a large number of neighbouring villages in the remote mountainous areas of Epirus, where they could successfully resist Ottoman rule. At the height of its power, in the second half of the 18th century, the Souliot state is estimated to have comprised up to 12,000 inhabitants in about 60 villages.[10]

Wars

The Ottoman Turks attempted numerous times to conquer the territories of the Souliot Confederacy. The first conflicts between the Souliotes and the Ottomans (including Muslim Albanians) date back to 1635, if not earlier. In 1731, Hadji Ahmed, pasha of Ioannina, received orders from the Sultan to subdue the Souliotes and he lost his army of 8000 men. In 1754, Mustafa Pasha lost his army to the Souliotes too. In the following years, Mustafa Kokka came in with 4000 soldiers and Bekir Pasha with 5000. In the end, both failed to defeat the Souliotes. In 1759, Dost Bey, commander of Dhelvinou, was defeated by the Souliotes and Mahmoud Aga of Margariti, the governor of Arta, suffered the same fate in 1762. In 1772, Suleyman Tsapari attacked the Souliotes with his army of 9000 men and was defeated. In 1775, Kurt Pasha sent a military expedition to Souli that ultimately failed. When Ali became pasha of Ioannina in 1788, he tried for 15 years to destroy the Souliotes. In 1792, his army of 3000 Turk-Albanians (Τουρκαλβανοί, a pejorative term meaning Muslim Albanians) was eliminated. Although he had hostages (such as Fotos Tzavellas who was the son of Lambros Tzavellas), the Souliotes fought bravely under the command of Georgios Botsaris, Lambros Tzavellas, and Dimos Drakos. Even women under the command of Moscho (Lambros Tzavellas' wife) participated in the battle. Eventually, 2000 Turk-Albanians and 74 Souliotes were killed.[11]

The Souliotes obtained all of their supplies from Parga, and also acquired support from Europe. Russia and France provided weapons and ammunition to them. For the European powers, the Souliotes were seen as an instrument to weaken the Ottoman Empire. When the British politicians turned to the Ottoman Empire in order to strengthen their forces against Napoleon, the weapons and ammunition supplies were interrupted. Without support from outside and wearied by years of siege, the unity of the Souliot clans started to split. The Botsaris family for political reasons left Souli and parleyed with Ali Pasha. However, the remaining Souliotes in Souli gathered together in Saint George's Greek Orthodox Church and decided either to win or die. The remaining Souliotes numbered at no more than 2000 armed men. The main leaders were Fotos Tzavellas, Dimos Drakos, Tousas Zervas, Koutzonikas, Gogkas Daglis, Yiannakis Sehos, Fotomaras, Tzavaras, Veikos, Panou, Zigouris Diamadis, and Yorgos Bousbos. The Souliotes won all of the decisive battles, which forced Ali Pasha to build castles in neighboring villages so as to prepare himself for a long siege. The Souliotes stayed without food and ammunition, but they could have held longer if not for a traitor named Pelios Gousis who helped the Ottomans to enter into the village of Souli. The Souliotes withdrew to the fortresses of Kiafa and Kughi, where they fought their last battle on December 7, 1803. They eventually capitulated and Ali Pasha promised to release them with all of their property and even weapons to the Ionian Islands.[11]

On December 12, 1803, the Souliotes left Souli towards the coast of Epirus. A monk named Samuel remained in Kughi and set fire to the powder magazines with a massive explosion that cost him his life. In the meantime, the Ottoman army attacked the other Souliotes, neglecting the promises Ali Pasha had made to them. In a famous incident on December 16, 1803, the so-called Dance of Zalongo, 22 Souliot women were trapped by enemy troops and committed suicide to avoid capture. According to tradition they did this by jumping off a steep cliff one after the other while dancing and singing. Other Souliotes also reached the harbor of Parga, which was under Russian control at the time. The Souliotes either settled down in Parga or set off for the Ionian Islands.

Diaspora

Many Souliotes entered service with the Russians on Corfu, where they became an important component of the Legion of Light Riflemen. This was a regiment of irregulars organized by the Russians among mainland refugees; it not only included Souliotes, but also Himariotes, Maniots, klephts (Greek bandits) and armatoloi (Greek anti-klepht militias created by the Ottomans that actually supported the klephts). The Souliotes participated in campaigns in Naples in 1805, Tenedos in 1806, Dalmatia in 1806, and during the defense of Lefkada in 1807. [12]

With the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807 and the détente between Russia and France, the Russian forces withdrew from the Ionian Islands and the French occupied them. The Souliotes and other components of Russian units entered service with the French in a unit known as the Albanian Regiment (Régiment Albanaise). During the Anglo-French struggle over the Ionian Islands between 1810 and 1814, the Souliotes in French service faced off against other refugees organized by the British into the Greek Light Infantry Regiment. Since the Souliotes were mostly garrisoned on Corfu, which remained under French control until 1814, very few entered British service.[13]

Souliotes in traditional costume. Oil painting by Eugène Delacroix 1824 - 1825; Louvre Museum, France.

The British disbanded the remnants of the Souliot Regiment in 1815 and subsequently decommissioned their own two Greek Light Regiments. This left many of the Souliotes and other military refugees without livelihoods. In 1817, a group of veterans of Russian service on the Ionian Islands traveled to Russia to see if they could get patents of commission and employment in the Russian army. While unsuccessful in this endeavor, they joined the Philike Etaireia ("Company of Friends"), the secret society founded in Odessa in 1814 for the purpose of liberating Greek lands from Ottoman rule. They returned to the Ionian Islands and elsewhere and began to recruit fellow veterans into the Philike Etaireia, including a number of Souliot leaders.[14]

When there were clear signs for the beginning of a Greek insurrection against Turkish rule, Ali Pasha saw an opportunity to make Epirus into an independent state. In 1820, he called upon the Souliotes for help, and they returned to the mainland to support their former enemy against the Sultan. However, Ali Pasha's plans failed and he was killed while the Turks occupied Ioannina. The Souliotes eventually gave their support for the Greek Revolution, which started on March 25, 1821. The Souliot leaders Markos Botsaris and Kitsos Tzavellas became famous generals in the Greek War of Independence. Many Souliotes lost their lives while defending the city of Messolongi. Lord Byron, the most prominent European philhellene volunteer and commander-in-chief of the Greek army in Western Greece, tried to integrate the Souliotes into a regular army. Until 1909, the Turks kept a military base on the fortress of Kiafa. Finally in 1913, during the Balkan Wars, the Ottomans lost Epirus and the southern part of the region became part of the Greek state.

Clans

  • Antonopoulou (akin to the Botsaris clan; from Vervitsa/Tropaia)[15]
  • Kapralaioi (resettled in Messenia)[16]
  • Setaioi (resettled in Messenia)
  • Douskaioi (resettled in Messenia)
  • Dentaioi (resettled in Messenia)
  • Tzavaraioi (resettled in Arcadia)

See also

References

  1. ^ Miranda Vickers, The Albanians: A Modern History, I.B.Tauris, 1999, ISBN 1860645410, 9781860645419 "The Suliots, then numbering around 12,000, were Christian Albanians inhabiting a small independent community somewhat akin to tat of the Catholic Mirdite trive to the north"
  2. ^ Vickers, Miranda and Pettifer, James. Albania: From Anarchy to a Balkan Identity. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 1997, ISBN 1850652791, p. 207.
  3. ^ Nicholas Charles Pappas, Greeks in Russian Military Service in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries, Institute for Balkan Studies, 1991
  4. ^ Vickers, Miranda and Petiffer, James. The Albanian Question. I.B. Tauris, 2007, ISBN 1860649742, p. 238.
  5. ^ Katherine Elizabeth Fleming, The Muslim Bonaparte: Diplomacy and Orientalism in Ali Pasha's Greece, Princeton University Press, 1999, ISBN 0691001944, ISBN 9780691001944 "The history of the orthodox albanian peoples of the mountain stronghold of Souli provides an example of such an overlap"
  6. ^ Gerolymatos, p. 141. "The Suliot dance of death is an integral image of the Greek revolution and it has been seared into the consciousness of Greek schoolchildren for generations. Many youngsters pay homage to the memory of these Orthodox Albanians each year by recreating the event in their elementary school pageants."
  7. ^ T. Jochalas, To hellêno-albanikon lexikon tu Marku Mpotzarê. Filologikê ekdosis ek tu autografu hypo Titu P.Giochala (Pragmateiai tês Akadêmias Athênôn, 46 (Athens 1980)
  8. ^ Babiniotis (1998).
  9. ^ Biris (1960)
  10. ^ Biris (1960: 285ff.) Cf. also K. Paparigopoulos (1925), Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Εθνους, Ε-146.
  11. ^ a b Suli - Epirus
  12. ^ Pappas, pp. 187-191, pp. 219-258.
  13. ^ Pappas, pp. 259-292. On the Albanian Regiment, see also Auguste Boppe, "Le Régiment Albanaise (1807-1814)", Carnet de la Sabretache 9 (1901): 161-173; and Carnet de la Sabretache 10 (1902): 200-215.
  14. ^ Pappas, pp. 293-307.
  15. ^ Kapralos, Ch. Αρκαδικοί θρύλοι. p. 160. Η οικογένεια του Αντωνόπουλου (Μποτσαραίοι) κατάγονται από το Σούλι σύμφωνα με κάποια παράδοση.
  16. ^ Kapralos, Ch. Αρκαδικοί θρύλοι. p. 70. Μα και οι Καπραλαίοι, προερχόμενοι από την Ήπειρο, έμειναν στη Μεσσηνία για κάποιο χρονικό διάστημα.

Sources

  • Babiniotis, G. Λεξικό της Νέας Ελληνικής Γλώσσας. Athens, 1998.
  • Biris, K. Αρβανίτες, οι Δωριείς του νεότερου Ελληνισμού: H ιστορία των Ελλήνων Αρβανιτών. ["Arvanites, the Dorians of modern Greece: History of the Greek Arvanites"]. Athens, 1960 (3rd ed. 1998: ISBN 960-204-031-9).
  • Clogg, Richard. Minorities in Greece: Aspect of a Plural Society. Oxford: Hurst, 2002.
  • Fangridas, Anargiros. Σούλι - Το Ορμητήριο του Προεπαναστατικού Αγώνα. Athens: Periskopio, 2003. ISBN 960-8345-07-3
  • Gerolymatos, André. The Balkan Wars: Conquest, Revolution, and Retribution from the Ottoman Era to the Twentieth Century and Beyond. Basic Books, 2002. ISBN 0465027326
  • Pappas, Nicholas. Greeks in Russian Military Service in the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries. Thessaloniki: Institute for Balkan Studies. Monograph Series, No. 219, 1991. ISSN: 0073-862X
  • Psallidas, Athanasios. Γεωγραφία Ηπείρου και Αλβανίας.
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