Hoxha, Shpresa 2010: British Travel Writers about the Albanians in Greece during the First Half of the

19th Century

Article 28 in LCPJ

British Travel Writers about the Albanians in Greece during the First Half of the 19th Century

Abstract The paper in question, based on the study of British travel writers, briefly presents important information relevant to history, topography, language, and above all, customs and habits in a wide regional context of the Balkans. Those who gave their viewpoints for Epirus in general and for Pachalic of Janina (Ionnina) in particular were British travelling writers, scientists, writers and diplomats in Janina and its suburbs, whereas the chief protagonist in those entirety of writings and effective marginal notes was Ali Pasha (Vezir) of Tepelni, the most powerful personality of that time. Only through him the Albanian ethnicity became a source of inspiration of the historic and literary creativity for the Albanians in the valuable works of E. Dodwell, the well known topographer and archeologist; Lord Byron, the English poet who dedicated his famous poem to Albanians Child Harolds Pilgrimage; William Martin Leake with his three works about Albania and Albanians: Researches in Greece, Travels in the Morea and Travels in Northern Greece; Smart Hughes, Henry Holland, etc., in the time when Albanians had already experienced their affirmation almost through Greece as it is known that Albania was recognized only in 1912 as an independent country on the European political level. Introduction The number of the English travelling writers who have written passionately about Albania and Albanians in the beginning of the XIX century is considerable for that time. Their presence cannot be linked only to the first years of the XIX century. On the contrary, their presence shows that such writers must have come much earlier. I have in mind above all the travels of the monk Symeon Simeonis in the XIV century in Albania, then of the knight John of New Port in the XV century, Fynes Morison in the XVI century, Doctor E. Brown during 1669 and many others after them. The interest for Albania and Albanians continued
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also in the next centuries by other following travelling writers, not just British but others as well, like French, German etc. Earlier British travel writers Simeonis, in the autumn of 1322 went down to Durrs (Dyrrhachium), and afterwards summarized his impressions from this medieval city in the work titled: The Itinerarum Symeonis Simeonis at Hygonis, Illuminatoris, Cantabrigiae, 1778, that was published four centuries and half afterwards. This book contains interesting evidence about Albanians and Durrs in 1322. In this time, according to this traveler, this big city and important port was under the rule of Anzhuins, however, Durrs was the city with prevailing Albanian population where the Albanian element was playing a great role in its economic, political and social life. In 1596 the Scotsman Fynes Morrison stopped in Corfu. In his work with travel impressions, he wrote also about high mountains of Himara, resided by Albanians. For these Albanians, for Himariots, this traveler, emphasizing their main characteristic features, their warlike and freedom-loving invincible spirit, writes: They arent subjugated neither to the Turks nor to the Venetians and to no one else. These Albanians have two inseparable friends: rifle and song. People are dressed in white clothes, coarse and clean, and are never separated from their extremely long rifles holding it on their shoulders as if they dont feel at all its weight. Then he adds: Their leader sings a harsh but pleasant melody, while the others accompany him in choir. The Albanians love for songs has also been witnessed by Brown in his work (Mema, 1988: 15, 16, 9).

British travel writers of the first half of XIX century In the context of this modest contribution I intend to focus on the segment presentation of the Albanians history in Greece, more precisely on the impressions of the English travel writers at the beginning of the XIX century. I think this presentation is of good interest with regard to Albanians history framework in Greece, because it is described with vivid colors by the English travel writers and different distinguished scholars. The first in the series of observers appears an English topographer and archaeologist Edward Dodwell, whose opinions shed light on the history of the wide Epirus, as much as the history of the Greeks, and of the Albanians as well. There is no doubt that the greatest scientific efficiency and effectiveness about
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the presence of Albanians in Greece in that time is related to the English colonel and great Balkanologist of that time William Martin Leake. That period of history, for Albanians and for the land of ancient Helada was portrayed through Ali Pasha of Tepelni. Tracing that the popularity of the Satrap of the Pachalic of Janina (Ionnina) had achieved a very high level proves the fact that he takes a special place in the European literature of the XIX century, out of the frames of the Ottoman Empire. Ali Pasha became an inspiration source, in the works of Byron, Goethe, Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas and Balzac. All of them consider him as a valuable phenomenon in their creativity1. Studying Leake, as a military and diplomatic figure, he certainly turns out to be the most fruitful and informed British about the Albanians in the Pachalic of Ali Pasha of Tepeleni. Its Him, who, naturally, having stayed longer than the others in Albania and in the Northern Greece, gives complete information on the Albanian history, language and ethnicity, in general. Finally, as travel writer, he is the most comprehensive, fully encircling his observations in the courtyard of the Janina ruler and out of it. Many years later, after leaving this part of the Balkan Peninsula, in 1835 he published his work: Travels in Northern Greece[2]. On a preliminarily basis this isnt all. Strong conclusions of his earlier researches did Leake put in his work: Researches in Greece[3]. In his observations, Leake doesnt give exactly the composition of ethnicities in the percentage of the Pachalic of Janina, considering that Greek language is useful for the entire population (Leake, 1924: 20-21,136), while some sources consider his Pachalic with approximately half a million residents, without including Mora [5]. Nevertheless, he considers the Albanian population in his creative opus with special values. Consequently, the central protagonists in his description of the history of the descendants of the ancient Illyrians in Greece also came up the Suliots at the insurmountable mountains of Suli, then the amis in amria (Tzamuria) and the Arvanits in Mora. For these three parts of our ethnic tree at the beginning of the XIX century, Leake considered Albanians, as far as language, origin, customs and habits are concerned, as distinguishable from local Greeks. And certainly Leake is one of act-writers among 50 diplomats, militaries, counts, aristocrats, recognizers and adventurers of several faithless Europeans, who described, in vivid or false colors, Ali Pasha himself, as much as the language, habits, customs and the history of the Albanians in Greece. Anyhow, Leake is less subjective with his contemporaries compared to F. Pouqville. Perhaps one Englishman, among travel writers, after Leake that has spoken and written about the Albanians in Greece was and remained the English doctor
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Henry Holland. In his work Travel in the Ionian Islands, Albania, Thessaly, Macedonia, etc., during the years 1812 - 1813 Holland gives an enviable space for the presence of Albanians in and out of Pachalic of Janina. In Prveza, he made a picturesque description of the Albanian and his clothes, whereas with vivid colors he described the life of Albanian speakers in Suli and amria. It is interesting to note that Holland understood a little differently the geographical map of Albania. For him the boundary line of the former Arbria should be set in the north of Janina, to leave Suli and amria inside it and this boundary line should meet with Montenegro. Likewise, Holland made it clear that at least since the beginning of the XV century in Attica and Mora, there were many villages, whose population was Albanian, distinguished from the Greeks in terms of language, customs and habits. Theres no doubt that among the most informed travel writers and the most absorbed ones into the history of the Albanian presence in Greece is the Scottish scholar George Finlay. His presence at the beginning of the XIX century, his movements from Athens to Mesalnghi made him a major figure of the period before the Greek Revolution of 1821 and afterwards. In his study movements, although with philhellenic spirit and heart, he didnt remain in debt to the provocative effort of learning a lot from the history of Albanians in Greece. According to the travel writer, the Albanian-speaking population had in the metropolis of Greece, in Athens, and in all its periphery, that is, in Attica, then in Beotia, in the island of Eubea in Salamina not so far from the port of Piraeus of today, even in Andros of Kilkades in Lala and Bardunia, as well as in Hydra and Spetzia, two large islands that Finlay considered Albanians as their owners (Finlay, 1861: 28). The English traveler wrote more or less in detail about the character of Albanians, separating them from the Greeks. So, for the people of Hydra he stated: There Albanian residents differ from Greeks because they love the truth and are honest and through this feature they meet their duties in everyday life (Spender, 1920: 30). However, about democratic tendencies of that time, Finlay wrote the local administration of the island Spetzia resided mainly by Albanians was the best model of governance in Greece before the Greek Revolution of 1821. According to him the Suliots were the branch of the Tzamis, among the three largest tribal divisions of Toscs. The region where they were located was characterized by bare mountains, which were stretched in the length of the river Aheron. Finlay thought that the great power of the Suli was always backed up with their military potential. There was to be done differently, because since 1730 the number of Suliot families, which could be ready to get down to the area
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of war weapons was approximately 100 (Finlay,1961: 40). Regarding the social structure, Finlay thought that their community was shared in seeds, whereas the superiors of each seed made alliance among them in order to increase impact in the region around, but sometimes the same seeds produced hostile conflicts, not only among themselves but also in the neighborhood. Dealing with robbery, the intrigues of Russian agents were instigating the sultan; according to Finlay, Ali Pasha of Tepeleni was authorized to attack Suli in order to stop robbery attacks in this part of the Ottoman Empire. Thus, in 1792 began a long hostility, almost more than 20 years, resulting in an Albanian-Albanian war, which ceased only in the threshold of the Greek Revolution. According to this British travelling writer, Ali Pasha of Tepeleni won the war against the people of Suli in 1803 when the Metropolit of Arta, Ignacio himself, who was a friend of the Pasha of Janina through an encyclical ordered the suspension of any kind of help with foodstuff to Suljots (Leake, 1814: 513). Since that time, according to Finlay the only Albanian communities in the Pachalic of Janina, which carried weapons, were those of rural mountains, among the insurmountable mountains of Himara (Finlay, 1861: 47) . In fact it was the social and political position of the Albanian Orthodox Christians of the Pachalic of Janina, when Ali Pasha of Tepeleni was declared as fermanli (a person authorized to give orders) by Sultan Mehmet. A special space was devoted by Finlay to the deeds of Ali Pasha of Tepelni. He wrote that Ali Pasha was a prominent thinker of the Greek Revolution, and that without him the history of Epirus would be poor. So, as this English travelling writer stated, it would also be poor the history of the other part of Greece, considering the Great Alexander Illyrian by mother, whereas Illyrian language as a communication language with a part of his soldiers. However, Finlay thought with full right that the history of the Greek Revolution would be treated very obscurely if not taken into consideration the importance of the Albanian element in Greece, which was strengthened significantly by the presence of its strong military caste within the Ottoman Empire itself. In regard to this, the best example was the figure of Ali Pasha of Tepelni himself and his deeds, Ali Pasha of Tepelni got definitely the rule on the Pachalic of Janina in 1878, Finlay already remained convincingly in the thought that the Albanian element before the year 1821 was an ethnic potency without which it could also be built one part of the history of Greece. He also speaks with admiration for the presence of Albanians in Attica, in Mora and in the islands of Hydra and Speca. It is however extremely valuable an
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impression of his trip to the Plaka district in the metropolis of Greece. In this regard, in one case he wrote: Having spent a fine day near the gate of the Roman Emperor, Adrianos, there opposite to Plaka district in Athens I came across some children who had made a rag ball and while playing football, they were talking in Albanian. In the chain of British writers devoted to the Albanians true description, without doubt, comes George G Byron, who is the most straightforward figure that in his creativity speaks for Albanians in general, having always minded the figure of Ali Pasha of Tepeleni in Janina and to whom he devoted large space in the second song of the excusable Child Harold. While, J.C Hobhouse, who later took the title and the name of Lord Broughton and who had accompanied Lord Byron in Albania confirmed in his impressions: I had never a map to confess clearly the line that divides the country; obviously the whole province by taking inside the Akarnania as well, can be rightly called Albania. However, in his impressions, he gives some negative estimation for the Albanian element in the present administrative borders of Albania. According to him the medieval Arbri is a very conservative element, by identifying it with the obvious superiority of men over women, respectively her less human treatment in the embryo of the Arvanitas community. Hobhouse is probably very regular on the notes about Albanians in general and for Arbri down Kalamasi in particular. He wrote passionately for several regions of the Albanians in Greece, collecting a relatively rich lexical fund of their dialect, without hesitating to collect even rich folk songs from them. Another English traveler draws attention for further information about the Albanians in Greece. It was Th. S. Hughes, who in 1813 stepped on Janina of Ali Pasha of Tepelni, while that year he visited Athens, its suburbs and many villages and cities resided by Albanians in Greece. However, the string of this presentation of English travelling writers on the inhabited regions with Albanians is preferably closed with a powerful testimony of D. Urquhart in his work Spirit of the East published in London in 1839, who while writing about the ethnic potency of the Albanians in Greece, noted that: If the Turks hadnt come, the whole Mora and Greece would have become a property of Albanians because, until then, they here would have increased and significantly strengthened. But before coming to Prveza in Vonica of the Ionian Sea, the English writer wrote: Before me I have the land of Pyrrhus, of Scanderbeg and of Ali Pasha of Tepelni.

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Conclusion Based on the above information of the British travel writers of the early XIX century, there is a wide range of opinions about the Albanian people and Albania of that period of time. They are presented even in the colours of their socioeconomic circumstances in the Pashalik of Ali Pasha of Tepeleni, implying that the feudal class in the Southern Albania of the Pashalik of Ioannina was not just being constituted, but it was also being empowered considerably and it played an important part in political and economical courses of that territory. The descriptions are reliable sources of information and useful for the modern history, topography and culture. In this context, I think that those facts are serious approaches and real presentation of the Albanians autochthony beyond the borders of current Albania, especially in the northern part of nowadays Greece.

Endnotes:

1 Naturally G. G. Byron guides in this course with his famous verses Child Harolds Pilgrimage. Ali Pasha comes out as a tragic figure in front of his daughter Haydee, the personification of the main character in the novel of Alexander Dumas:Count of Monte Cristo. Also Victor Hygo in the introduction of his poetry collections, among other things describes a part of Ali Pashas life, as a Moslem Napoleon Bonaparte. H. Spender, Byron and Greece, London 1920, 26, personifying Albanian Pasha as an important figure of Balkans history. References: [1] Mema, Shptim, (1988). Shqipria dhe shqiptart n veprat e udhtarve anglez t gjysms s par t shekullit XIX . Tiran: Shtpia botuese 8 Nntori. [2] Leake, W. Martin, (1835). Travels in Northern Greece. London: J. Rodwell. [3] Leake, W. Martin, (1814). Researches in Greece. London: John Booth.
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[4] Leake, W. Martin, (1824). An Historical Outline of the Greek Revolution, London: John Murray. [5] PRO,CO 136/425 (Public Record Office, Correspondence). [6] Finlay, George, (1861). The History of Greek Revolution, London: Elibron Classics. [7] Spender, Harold, Byron and Greece, Folcroft Library Editions, London 1920. The total number of words is 2897 LCPJ Publishing 2010 by Shpresa Hoxha

Prof. Dr. Shpresa (Raa) Hoxha (born in Mitrovica in the Republic of Kosova in 1953), graduated from the Faculty of Philology, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Prishtina, in 1974. During 2005-2007 she was the Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Economy in Prishtina. Actually she teaches Business English at the Faculty of Economy and English for Specific Purposes at the Faculty of Philology in Prishtina. Head of Alb-Shkenca Institute in Prishtina. Author of the book William Martin Leaks Contribution in the Field of Albanian Studies/ Kontributi i Uilljm Martin Likut n Fushn e Studimeve Albanologjike, Prishtin 2007. Author of about 40 (fourty) papers published at home and abroad.

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