THE ALBANIANS: PROBLEM OF ETHNOGENESIS

HISTORICAL SCIENCES

THE ALBANIANS: PROBLEM OF ETHNOGENESIS

Iskenderov P.

Senior researcher at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, candidate of historical sciences. M.A. in History from New York University. Editor-in-Chief of

"Voprosy Istorii" history journal (Moscow, Russia)

Abstract

The problem of origins and identity of the Albanians is one of the key problems of the Balkans and Europe as a whole. During the centuries the picture of the resettlement of peoples in the Balkans gave rise for fierce debates between the supporters of the Illyrian and Thracian roots of the Albanian language, and more broadly among advocates of the theory of Illyrian autochthonous roots of the Albanian nation, and its opponents.

The problem of origins and identity of the Albanians is one of the key problems of the Balkans and Europe as a whole. During the centuries the picture of the resettlement of peoples in the Balkans gave rise for fierce debates between the supporters of the Illyrian and Thracian roots of the Albanian language, and more broadly among advocates of the theory of Illyrian autochthonous roots of the Albanian nation, and its opponents. These disputes are fueled by the fact that, as Russian researcher Yu.V.Ivanova rightly noted, "it is extremely difficult to examine the differences between the elements of the Illyrian and Thracian languages, mainly because of the scarcity of documented sources". [9, p.29]

Leading Albanian historians believe in direct and deep Illyrian roots of Albanians - that allows to consider them as the ancient indigenous people of the Balkans. E.Qabej in his "Language studies" insists on the coincidence of the formation area of the Albanian language and the modern Albanian settlement. He traces the contacts between the population of the Southern Adriatic coast and the Romans even before the formation of the Roman province of Illyricum. [5]

However, opponents of this point of view - in particular, G.Weigand, V.Georgiev, L.A.Gindin, O.S.Shi-rokov, I. Popovich, H. Barich - express the hypothesis that the ancestors of the Albanians lived far to the East of the current Albanian area. They base that concept on proximity between ancient Albanian and Thracian languages. According to Shirokov - who analyses various data from the etymology, phonetics and grammar of the Albanian language - the ancestral home of the Albanians should be located in the Carpathian mountains, where their ancestors were engaged in animal husbandry. Later on they along with the Slavs reached the Danube River (geographically to the East of Tisza), crossed it, reached Macedonia, and then advanced further to the West of the Balkan Peninsula (including the territory of modern Dalmatia), where he met local Roman population. That is why we can see the enrichment of their languages - and as a result we now have a definite lexical closeness of the Albanian and Romanian languages. In addition ancient Albanians enriched their language with the ancient place names used by the

Slavic population of the Balkan intermountain basins. So, according to the adherents of above-mentioned theory, the Albanian language was formed on the basis of Romanian and Latin dialects, dialects of the Illyrians of Dalmatia and the Paleo-Slavic languages. [11]

A supporter of the "mountain-continental" origin of the Albanians was one of the leading German scientists-ethnographers, G.Studtmuller, who considered as their ancestors "pastoral nomads" lived isolated in the mountainous region of Mat (modern Central Albania) and had only sporadic contacts with the surrounding Roman population. [12, p.167]

This theory also explains the fact that the Albanians were mentioned in written sources only in XI century in the context of the area called "Arbanon" (in a mountainous region in the central part of modern Albania). [12, p.167]

However, the Albanian researcher A.Buda in the "Historical records" explains this by the fact that "documents of the Roman and later Byzantine Empires usually referred only to those people who posed a danger to political power". "The population of the former Il-lyria has attracted attention in the XI century in connection with his rebellion and therefore just from that time it was constantly referred to in written documents. But this does not mean that the ancestors of the Albanians did not live in the area" - Buda wrote. He also underlines the impossibility of assimilation of the local population and its urban culture by "nomads". [4]

One of the leading contemporary Kosovo researchers A.Jakupi points out "historical Albanian lands" that include actual Albania as well as almost all the territory of the former Yugoslavia. He stressed that "Albanians are the ones who base their independence and indigenous ethnicity on historiography, proven with regard to antiquity and to all subsequent periods". [7, p.47]

Some Russian researchers also do not agree with Shirokov and his associates. A.V.Desnitskaya, for example, considers Illyrian origin of the Albanian language "firmly proven". By her opinion, this is supported by the fact that the Roman language and culture had no such influence on the population of the Albanian coastal regions as on the peoples lived in other regions

of the Balkans. Desnitskaya explains "Slavic part" of the Albanian vocabulary by the subsequent period of coexistence of the ancient Albanians and Slavs. Similar point of view is supported by Yu.V.Ivanova. She considers archaeological finds in the locality of Koman, in the valley of the river Drin, as the main arguments in favor of the autochthony of Albanians: "Metal jewelry clothes very similar to those that adorned the modern, traditional costumes of the Albanians. They are not identical nor Roman, or Byzantine forms. Hence the natural conclusion about the continuity, the transition elements of the Illyrian culture directly into the culture of the Albanian ethnic group".

One of the leading contemporary British researchers of Albania M.Vickers speaks more cautiously. She admits "Illyrian" past of some of the lands currently inhabited by the Albanians, but in the same time does not consider proven the hypothesis of direct "flow" of that elements into Albanian culture. In her words, "it is now generally accepted that by the seventh century BC certain tribes sharing a common Illyrian language and culture had settled in the territory now known as Albania. Contemporary scholars describe the number of tribes who at one time occupied much of the Balkan peninsula as far north as the Danube as "Illyrian". But whether Greeks or Illyrians inhabited much of the southern region of present-day Albania, known as Epirus, remains a highly controversial issue. Most probably both Greeks and Illyrians were originally interspersed in this area much as they are at the present day". [13, p.1]

H.Roth gives clearer story of the ethnogenesis of the Albanians and the map of their initial settlement. He recognizes "differences between Illyrians and Albanians" and sees modern Albanians descendants both of the Illyrian tribe "Albani" who lived in the area of Ar-banon and neighboring tribes of the Thracians, Daci-ans, Dardanians, romanised Illirians, Vlachs and Slavs. As for the "homeland" of modern Albanians. Roth locates it in the mountain area of Central Albania to the West of Lake Ohrid and town of Debar in the direction of the coastal area around Durres, bounded by the rivers Mat and Shkumbi. [10]

Many Russian experts and diplomats traced the Serbian roots of Albanians. Among them - Russian delegate to the International Control Commission in Albania (1913-1914) A.M.Petryaev, one of the most prominent Russian experts on Albania. [6]

He underlined that Albanians lived in Kosovo and Macedonia "in the vast majority of cases should be considered as "Turkish Slavs" and "Albanized Slavs". "Albanian people never played a political role, but under the Turkish domination becomes a force that comes out of their field, expanding its borders to absorb another nation, which is the glorious historical past", - wrote Petryaev in 1912 pointing to the Serbs. [2]

Russian Consul to Prizren I.S.Yastrebov also saw the transition of the Kosovo Serbs into Islam an important factor in creating the Albanian ethnos. [1]

However, the point of view of the Serbian roots of a considerable part of the Albanian ethnic group was strongly disputed by some other Russian diplomats in the early twentieth century. Russian Consul to Mi-trovica Tuholka in the comprehensive report dated 1915 stated that the Albanians "undoubtedly have the Aryan origin. Apparently they have lived for a long time in the mountains on the Western side of the Balkan Peninsula". However, he also recognized the process of "Albanization" of Serbs. [3]

On should agree that the problem of the ethnic roots of modern Albanians still is far from resolving. One of the most important cause of such situation is the complicated history of the Balkans - where political borders were (and still are) quite "elastic". The expert from the Danish Institute of Political Sciences at the University of Copenhagen B.H. Jorgensen rightly treats such borders as a kind of "markers of identity". [8, 19]

And that is probably the best reason to continue researches.

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