Albanians

This article is about Albanians as an ethnic group. For demographic information, see Demographics of Albania.

Albanians
Albanian: Shqiptarë

File:Famous Albanians.jpg Skanderbeg · Ali Pasha · Muhammad Ali of Egypt · Lekë Dukagjini
Total population
approximately 10 million (July 2009 est.)
Regions with significant populations
Albania	3,457,480 95%
Kosovo	1,942,257 (2009)
Turkey	1,300,000
Macedonia	509,083 (2002)
Italy	438,000
Greece	481,663
Montenegro	31,000
Serbia	55,000
United States	114,000
Canada	22,395
Sweden	40,000
Switzerland	150,000
Germany	100,000
United Kingdom	30,000
France	20,000
Netherlands	105,000
Austria	20,000
Bosnia and Herzegovina	15,600
Croatia	14,590
Egypt	20,000
Denmark	12,000
Australia	11,140
Slovenia	8,200
Norway	12,000
Finland	5,000
Belgium	5,000
Luxembourg	4,800
Spain	4,500
Romania	4,000
Ukraine	2,500
Languages
Albanian (Gheg, Tosk, Arvanitika, Arbëresh, Cham)
Related ethnic groups
Arvanites, Arbëreshë, Chams, Arbanasi

Albanians (Albanian: Shqiptarët) are a people from southeast Europe who live in Albania and neighboring countries. They speak the Albanian language. About half of them live in Albania, with other large groups residing in Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and Montenegro. There are also Albanian communities in a number of other countries, including Turkey, Greece and Italy.

Ethnonym

Further information: Origin of the Albanians and Albania (toponym)

While the exonym Albania for the general region inhabited by the Albanians does hark back to Classical Antiquity, and possibly to an Illyrian tribe, the name was lost within the Albanian language, the Albanian endonym being shqiptar, from the term for the Albanian language, shqip, a derivation of the verb shqipoj "to speak clearly", perhaps ultimately a loan from Latin excipio. Thus, the Albanian endonym, like Slav and others, is in origin a term for "those who speak [intelligibly, the same language]".

In the 2nd century BCE, Polybius mentions the Arbanios, Arbanitai with their city Arbon; in the 1st century CE, Pliny refers to Illyrian Olbonensis, and the 2nd century CE, Ptolemy mentions an Illyrian tribe of the Albanoi, settling in what is now Central Albania, with Albanopolis as their main city.

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. It is disputed, however, whether that refers to Albanians in an ethnic sense.. The first reference to a lingua albanesca dates to the later 13th century (around 1285).

Distribution

Europe

Approximately 6 million Albanians are to be found within the Balkan peninsula with only about half this number residing in Albania and the other divided between Kosovo, Montenegro, the Republic of Macedonia, Greece and to a much smaller extent Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. Approximately 1,5 million are dispersed throughout the rest of Europe, most of these in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Austria and France. Also to include Italy has a historical Albanian minority known as the Arbëreshë are scattered across Southern Italy, but the majority of Italo-Albanians have arrived since 1991 to surpass that of the older populations of Arbëreshë.

In February 2008, the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government, an assembly under UNMIK, declared Kosovo's independence as the Republic of Kosovo (Albanian: Republika e Kosovës). Its independence is recognized by some countries and opposed by others, including the Republic of Serbia, which continues to claim sovereignty over it as the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija.

The conflict in the Republic of Macedonia seems to have calmed down. It was resolved by the Macedonian government giving the Albanian minority a greater role in the government and the right to use the Albanian language in areas where the Albanians form a majority.

It is worth mentioning here that rights to use the Albanian language in education and government were given and guaranteed by the Constitution of SFRY and were widely utilized in Serbia, Macedonia, and in Montenegro long before Dissolution of Yugoslavia. The only thing that changed in that matter is that before NATO intervention in 1999, there were information services and news ("Dnevnik") broadcaster in Albanian language on the Serbian National Radio and Television, RTS.

Turkey

According to a 2008 report prepared for the National Security Council of Turkey by academics of three Turkish universities in eastern Anatolia, there were approximately 1,300,000 Albanians living in Turkey. Most of these people are assimilated into Turkish nation, and consider themselves more Turkish rather than Albanian.

Greece

Main article: Albanians in Greece

Location of the Albani at 150 AD in Roman Macedon

Tosk Albanians wearing traditional costumes from southern Albania.

Albanians in Greece form the country's largest population group after the ethnic Greek majority. Due to different waves of migration, they are divided into distinct communities. Alongside these two indigenous groups, about 10 percent of the population of Albania has entered Greece after the fall of Communism, forming the third community of Albanian origin in Greece.

The first group of Northwestern Greece is mainly composed of Cham Albanians. Muslim Chams were expelled from the region of Epirus during World War II, by anti-communist resistance group, as a result of their participation in a communist resistance group and the collaboration in large parts with the Axis occupation, while Orthodox Albanians remained in Greece. This population forms part of the modern Albanian nation, alongside minor communities in Ioannina Prefecture and West Macedonia periphery, mainly concentrated in Konitsa and Florina, respectively.

Another group of Albanian origin, which speak a dialect of Albanian, but which does not identify with the modern Albanian nation is that of Arvanites and Albanian-speakers of Western Thrace, who retain a distinct ethnic identity, but self-identify nationally as Greeks.

Albanian immigrants, who have entered Greece in large numbers since the fall of the Socialist People's Republic of Albania, form the largest single expatriate group in the country today.

Rest of the world

Americas

In the United States the number reaches 113,661 according to the latest 2000 US Census which is published in 2004, while in Canada approximately 15,000 as of the 2001 census. Albanians also live in Latin America, they concentrate in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, although in smaller numbers than in the USA.

Asia and Oceania

In Australia and New Zealand 12,000 in total. Albanians are also known to reside in China, India, Iran, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore, but the numbers are generally small. Albanians have been present in Arab countries such as Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria for about 5 centuries as a legacy of Ottoman Turkish rule.

Africa

In Egypt there are 18,000 Albanians, mostly Tosk speakers. Many are descendants of the soldiers of Mehmet Ali. A large part of the former nobility of Egypt was Albanian in origin. A small community also resides in South Africa.

Religion

Main article: Religion in Albania

Development of Modern Albanian Religious Affiliation

The original culture continued until the Roman and Byzantine Empires crowned Christianity- as official religion of the regime, thus suffusing Paganism. Both were later overshadowed by Islam, which kept the scepter of the major religion during the period of Ottoman Turkish rule from the 15th century until year 1912. Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Roman Catholicism and Paganism were continued practiced with less frequency.

During the 20th century the monarchy and later the totalitarian state followed a systematic secularization of the nation and the national culture. This policy was chiefly applied within the borders of the current Albanian state. It produced a secular majority in the population. All forms of Christianity, Islam and other religious practices were prohibited except for old non-institutional Pagan practices in the rural areas, which were seen as identifying with the national culture. The current Albanian state has revived some pagan festivals, such as the lunar Spring festival (Albanian: Dita e Verës) held yearly on March 14 in the city of Elbasan. It is a national holiday.

File:Albanian Fest.jpg

"Albanian fest" 1856, by Jean-Léon Gérôme.

Most of the Muslim Albanians in Albania are Sunni Muslims and Bektashi Shi'a Muslims. It is estimated that 92% of ethnic Albanians in the Republic of Kosovo are Muslims. The statistics, however are pre-WWII and with the collapse of communism there has been a revival of religiosity. There are also Orthodox Christians, predominantly in Southern Albania, bordering Greece, and Roman Catholics is the main religion among those Albanians living predominantly in northern Albania, bordering the Republic of Montenegro. After 1992 an influx of foreign missionaries has brought more religious diversity with groups such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Hindus, Bahá'í, a variety of Christian denominations and others. This rich blend of religions has however rarely caused religious strife. People of different religions freely intermarry. For part of its history, Albania has also had a Jewish community. Some of the members of the Jewish community were saved by a group of Albanians during the Nazi occupation. Many left for Israel circa 1990-1992 after borders were open due to fall of communist regime in Albania.

Other ethnonyms

The Albanians are and have been referred to by other terms as well. Some of them are:

• Arbër, Arbën, Arbëreshë; the old native term denoting ancient and medieval Albanians and sharing the same root with the latter. At the time the country was called Arbër (Gheg: Arbën) and Arbëria (Gheg: Arbënia). This term is still used for the Albanians that migrated to Italy during the Middle Ages.
• Arnauts; old term used mainly from Turks and by extension by European authors during the Ottoman Empire. A derivate of Arbër, Albanian.
• Skipetars; the historical rendering of the ethnonym Shqiptar (or Shqyptar by French, Austrian and German authors) in use from the 18th century (but probably earlier) to the present, the literal translation of which is subject of the eagle. The term Šiptari is a derivation used by Yugoslavs which the Albanians consider derogatory.

Misnaming

Because of a confusion of nationality with religious affiliation, many authors from Byzantine times referred to and recorded Albanians by the following names:

• Latins; term used during the Middle Ages from Venetian and other European authors to denote Albanians of Catholic faith mainly in the Northern regions up to the 19th century.
• Greeks; old term used generically from Byzantine times up to the 20th century by other European authors to denote Albanians of Orthodox faith in the Southern regions, as also those migrating, during the Ottoman Occupation, from Epirus and Peloponnese to Italy. Toponyms reflecting this historical misnaming began being changed in Fascist Italy during the 1930s (for instance, Piana dei Greci became Piana degli Albanesi).
• Serbs; old term as above, used by authors to denote Albanians of Orthodox faith in the Northern regions up to the 19th century.
• Turks; old term used by ecclesiastical writings and embraced by other European authors to denote Albanians of Muslim faith, and generally all Albanian legions of the Ottoman army.

Famous Albanians and individuals of at least partial Albanian ancestry

Mother Teresa

• Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg - 15th century Albanian national hero who resisted the Ottoman invasion for 25 years.
• Ali Ahmeti - blacklisted terrorist and supreme commander and representative of the National Liberation Arms
• Mother Teresa - Nobel Peace Prize winner and beatified nun
• Ghica family Rulers of Moldova and Wallachia from 1659-1842
• Köprülü family including 6 Grand Viziers and other high officials of the Ottoman Empire, their rule also known as Köprülü Era
• Ferid Murad M.D Phd - Co-winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for researche on what later became Viagra.
• Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani - An important and influential Islamic scholar of the 20th Century
• Abdul Qader Arnaoot - An important and influential Islamic scholar of the 20th century; he specialised in the fields of hadith and fiqh
• Muhammad Ali Pasha - was Wāli of Egypt and Sudan, and is regarded as the "founder of modern Egypt"
• Fan Stilian Noli - Albanian-American writer, scholar, diplomat, politician, and founder of the Albanian Orthodox Church, who served as prime minister and regent of Albania in 1924.
• Luke Burbank - Host of Too Beautiful to Live
• Faik Konica- one of the greatest figures of Albanian culture in the early decades of the twentieth century.
• Alexander Moissi - famous Albanian stage actor.
• Ismail Kadare - writer, winner of the inaugural Man Booker International Prize
• Paul Kurti -- Albanian-Canadian filmmaker, winner of 2009 YobiFilm Awards grand prize
• Kara DioGuardi - Albanian-American songwriter, judge of American Idol
• Inva Mula - Opera soprano
• Regis Philbin - Albanian-American television personality
• Jim and John Belushi - Albanian-American actors, comedians and musicians
• Eliza Dushku- Albanian-American Actress
• Masiela Lusha - Albanian-American Actress
• Patrick Nuo - Albanian-Swiss Singer
• Tie Domi - Albanian-Canadian NHL hockey player (retired)
• Tony Dovolani - Albanian professional dancer from Dancing with the Stars
• John Cena - American born, mother Albanian, WWE wrestler

Prominent Albanians have included the defender of Albania during the mid-15th century Skenderbeg, Nobel Prize winner Mother Teresa, the writer Ismail Kadare, the painter Ibrahim Kodra, the composer Simon Gjoni, the Olympic athlete Klodiana Shala, and Pope Clement XI. Other well known individuals include the prime minister of the Ottoman Empire Ferhat Pasha and Mehemet Ali the viceroy of Egypt. John Belushi and his brother Jim Belushi were of Albanian parents who emigrated to the United States after WWII. The American actress Eliza Dushku was born of an Albanian father and a half-Danish mother, while Nobel Prize winner Ferid Murad has an Albanian father and an American mother

See also

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Further reading

• Edith Durham. The Burden of the Balkans (1905)

External links

• Albanians in Turkey
• Albanian Canadian League Information Service (ACLIS)
• Albanians in the Balkans U.S. Institute of Peace Report, November 2001
• Books about Albania and the Albanian people (scribd.com) Reference of books (and some journal articles) about Albania and the Albanian people; their history, language, origin, culture, literature, etc. Public domain books, fully accessible online.