Muzafer Bislimi, MA, Assistant Researcher at INI

“Peoples of the Balkans on Skender Bey and his Uprising”

 Few are leaders of liberation movements in last five centuries that had earned a place in both Albanian and world historiography. One such is the leader of the Albanian liberation movement and uprising of the 15^th cent., Gjerg Kastrioti – Skender bey.

In the bibliography of 1881 published in Paris by Gjorge Petrovich, there are 185 works quoted, both literary and historic, that deal with this period and with the personality of Skender bey. [1]

This bibliography of 185 entries is very much outdated at present. The one published in Tirana in 1968 and on the occasion of the 500^th anniversary of Skender bey’s death, enlists over 1000 titles in more than 20 languages (including Esperanto), this number being larger today.[2]

 At the time when Ottoman Turks were in full swing and advancing towards the Balkans and central Europe in the 15th cent., Skender bey and Januzs Hunyadi remained the only ones to fight the Ottomans. After the death of Januzs Hunyadi in 1456[3], Skender bey continued to fight Ottoman Turks in Albania. In 1443, he initiated an uprising, and while the rest of Europe and the Balkans feared the Turks, he continued to fight in the next 25 years (1443 – 1468), and had been giving strong resistance to the Turkish armies[4] until his natural death (17 January 1468). Due to his heroic deeds, he achieved a great place in the domestic Albanian, the Balkan, European and world historiography, literature, folk tales and other areas.

 In this work, we will focus shortly on how the character of Skender Bey was represented in the literature of other Balkan peoples, more precisely, by Andrija Kachik Mioshik, Croatian nobleman and writer of Serbian historiography, and in the poem on Skender bey by the Macedonian poet Grigor Prlichev.

In the mid 17 century, the Croatian nobleman Andrija Kachik Mioshik wrote a work in which, inter alia, mentioned Skender bey. This work was published a year before his death in 1759 in Venice. In writing his work, he used a large number of Latin sources, and specifically used Marin Barletti’s Biography of Skender bey, as well as the chronicle by Anonymous of Tyvar.[5]

 In the full text of his work which is partially in prose and partially in versed poetry and which begins with events preceding and after Christ’s birth, he uses the term Slav (Slavene), to denote Ilyrians, Slavs (Serbs, Bulgarians, Croatians, and other), Albanians and all peoples of the Balkans. Most probably he assumed the Balkan and all its peoples under this term.

 Skender bey is mentioned at pages 108 through 175, i.e. his birth in 1404/1205 up until his death in 1467/68. The former years were given by A. Kachich – Mioshich, latter ones being the actual years of Skender bey’s birth and death.[6]

 A. Kachick firstly gives a brief outline of events, which were then expressed in verses. Thus, the author describes many scenes in the life of Skender bey. After describing the advances of Ottoman Turks in Albania, and the hostage – taking of Skender bey and his brothers, the author firstly glorifies the heroism of Skender bey as a hostage in Edrene, where he won the confidence of Sultan Murat II (1421 – 1451). Then, the author illustrates the battles between Ottoman Turks in the Balkans and in Albania, and the battles with the Hungarians at Nish, as well as Skender bey’s defection from the Ottomans to lead a subsequent uprising. Then follow the battles of Skender bey with Sultan Murat II, the letters by the Hungarian king Vladislav to Skender bey, the battle between Skender bey and Phirus pasha and Mustafa pasha, the wedding of his sister Mamitsa and the quarrels between the Dukagjenes and Lek Zacharya. A. Kachik describes the relationship between Skender bey and Venice and the war against Venice. Also, A. Kachich pays much attention to the battle of Svetigrad with Murat II in 1449, the siege by Turks after the town remained without water. After this, described are Sultan Murat’s efforts to take over Krya in 1451, and his death the same year.

In addition follow the battles of Skender Bey with sultan Mehmed II Fatih (1451 – 1481), describing the treason of Mose The Great (Musa as named by Kachick) and the nephew of Skender bey, Hamza Kastrioti (Amedzha as named by Kachick). A. Kachick describes the short – lasting treaty signed by Skender bey and Sultan Mehmed in 1463 (the author quotes the year 1459). In this segment, also described are Skender bey’s battles with the French barons in Italy, in his attempts tp assist his ally Ferdinand, the king of Naples.

 Additionally follows the description of battles with several Turkish armies led by Hassan bey, Yusuf bey, Balaban pasha and others, the captivity of Mose the Great and several other commanders of Skender bey, and their execution.

At the end, Andrea Kachich Mioshich gives a picture of Skender bey’s last battles with the Ottomans, the siege of Krya and his death, shifted to 1467, while the actual death happened on 17 January 1568…[7]

 The life of Skender bey left deep marks with the Serbian people, too.

Many Serb historians dealt with his life and deed, especially ones of late the 19th and early 20th century. Namely, fed with the official expansionistic aspirations toward Albanian territories notable for this period, they tried to prove to their people and to the world that Albanians had neither history nor historical figures. Hence they “were in no position to create and lead their own state”, and had to be initially civilized ‘under Serbian rule”. They tried to prove that Skender bey was Serb by origin, yet admitted the Albanian origin of his fellow fighters. These new discoveries as the author Nikola Vulich admitted on page 3 (stating there was no doubt about the Albanian origin of Skender bey), were based on the genealogy of Jon Mazurka /Nikola Vulich, Gjuragj Kastriotich Skender beg, Beograd, 1893, 3, 51 – 68, 298 and 305./This statement is based on the name of Skender bey’s grand-grand-father, who according to this genealogy was Slav. Even if this was the case, the extent to which ethnicity determines personal names is uncertain, especially in those times, i.e. 15^th century. This determination is already difficult to establish at present, let alone the middle age, when personal names were mixed up. Namely, to illustrate this, we turn to 15 cent. Ottoman census registers, wherein we find cases when the head of family (the father) would have a typical Albanian name (Gjon, Gjergj, Gjin), while some of his children would have mixed names: two sons would have Albanian names and another one would have Slav name like Petko, Milosh, etc.[8] However, these theses were never documented as all documentation, whether Latin, Greek, Ottoman, or belonging to his biographers, had never openly stated that Skender bey was of Serbian origin.

 The Serbian historiography in this period had almost identical approach to the Albanians, as seen in many of their works.[9]

Such chauvinist theses by the Serbian historiography of that time, supported and financed by the state, were completely unmasked by Dimitrije Tucovich, who actually explained it as the policy of the ruling Serbian circles.[10]

Gradually, this approach was abandoned by other Serb authors, who later published books and documents on Skender bey and his uprising, and left it to the readers to draw conclusions on each event, based on facts presented. Such was the case of Jovan Radonjich and his book published in 1942 in Belgrade.[11]

 The character of Skender bey and his uprising have greatly influenced the Macedonian people, too. He was celebrated by the people thus providing a good reason for Grigor Prlitchev to write the poem “Skender Bey”. This fact shows that Skender bey’s uprising left deep marks in the minds of Macedonians.[12] With this poem, originally written in Greek, Grigor Prlitchev participated in a competition by Athenian University in 1862. As a reminder, Grigor Prlitchev had already won the same competition with his poem “The Sardar”, also published in Greek, in 1860. He already knew the history of the Albanian people and Skender, but got to know it mostly while teaching in Tirana, between 1847-48. Prlitchev takes as central point of his poem, the third siege of Krya in 1467 and the murder of Balaban pasha by Skender bey, juxtaposing the two as main characters in the poem: Skender bey, leader of the people in defending his country, and Balaban pasha as traitor siding with the Turks against his fatherland. Although the focal point of the poem is the clash between Skender bey and Balaban pasha, Prlitchev, by using strong epic patterns, manages to synthetically evoke every important moment of the battles between Skender bey and the Ottomans, from the beginning of the uprising, to the end of the siege of Krya and Balaban’s death.[13]

 In a single word, Skender bey left deep marks in all Balkan people; his character is celebrated in the popular works of all Balkan people and wider, hence all tried to represent him as their own hero. Pontiffs considered him a fighter for the Christian cause, and the small Balkan people each tried to represent him as a local hero symbolizing their fight for independent country and identity. But it is indisputable fact, based on historical data, that Skender bey was Albanian and always called himself prince of Albania (Epirus), fighting as such against the Ottoman Turks.

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