Skanderbeg and Ottoman Albania: The League of Lezhë, Wars and Pashaliks

Ottoman forces reached the Albanian lands at the end of the 14th century and had fully subdued them by 1479. In between came a quarter of a century of war under Skanderbeg, the central hero of Albanian history. Nearly four centuries of Ottoman rule followed, with uprisings, Islamisation and the semi-independent pashaliks of Shkodër and Ioannina.

This is the third chapter of our guide to the history of Albania. It covers the period from the Battle of Savra to the death of Ali Pasha of Tepelena in 1822.

How the Ottomans reached the Balkans

The Ottomans swept through the Balkans quickly because the local rulers were divided and the Ottoman army was stronger. They took control of the Albanian lands in three stages: first vassalage, then conquest and finally direct Ottoman administration.

The Balkan rulers tried to join forces, but one coalition after another was defeated. The first was crushed on the Maritsa River in 1371. On 18 September 1385 the Albanian prince Balsha II was killed at the Battle of Savra, near Lushnjë. The third coalition was put together by the Serbian prince Lazar, and Albanian feudal lords fought in it. On 15 June 1389 the Ottomans won on the field of Kosovo, although Sultan Murad I was killed in the battle.

Around 1415 the Ottomans created the Sanjak of Albania, with Gjirokastër as its first centre. In 1431–1432 they compiled its land register, the defter. Under the timar system, land was granted to sipahis in exchange for military service.

This system sparked the great uprising of 1432–1436. One of its leading figures was Gjergj Arianiti, who won a string of victories over the Ottomans. The uprising was put down, but a few years later the Albanians found a new leader.

Gjergj Kastrioti's early years

Gjergj Kastrioti was born in 1405 to Gjon Kastrioti, lord of the lands between Lezhë and Prizren, and his wife Vojsava. His father accepted the sultan's authority and sent his sons to the Ottoman court as hostages, where young Gjergj was given the name Iskander, after Alexander the Great.

That is the origin of his famous name. The Ottomans called him Iskander Bey, and history remembers him as Skanderbeg (in Albanian, Skënderbeu). He built a military career at the sultan's court, and in 1440 he was appointed sanjakbey of Dibër.

1443: the return and the League of Lezhë

On 3 November 1443, near Niš, the Ottoman army suffered a setback against the Hungarian commander János Hunyadi. Skanderbeg deserted with hundreds of Albanians and, using a forged letter from the sultan, took Krujë on 28 November.

Over the fortress he raised a red banner with a black double-headed eagle. Other fortresses were soon freed as well: Petrela, Guri i Bardhë, Stelush and Svetigrad. The next step was to bring the princes together.

On 2 March 1444 the Albanian princes met in the Cathedral of St Nicholas in Lezhë. The Arianiti, Dukagjini, Muzaka, Spani, Topia, Balsha and Crnojević families attended. The assembly agreed to create a common army and a common treasury, and chose Skanderbeg to command the alliance's forces. The members kept their independence, and Skanderbeg was "first among equals".

Why Lezhë, and why Skanderbeg

Lezhë belonged to Venice. The textbook explains the choice like this: the town was close to the lands of every participant, and meeting on neutral Venetian territory took the edge off the rivalry between the princes. The choice was also a friendly gesture towards Venice.

Skanderbeg was picked to lead the league because of his role in the uprising of 1443, the location of the Kastrioti lands, his family and marriage ties, and his personal qualities.

Twenty-five years of war

Between 1444 and 1468, with an army of about 15,000 men, Skanderbeg fought more than 23 battles against the Ottomans and Venice. The Ottomans besieged Krujë three times, and each time the fortress held. The main events of the war were these:

The textbook also counts the battles of Kashar and Mokra among the major engagements, along with the war with Venice over the fortress of Deja. During the 1466 campaign the Ottomans built the fortress of Elbasan to keep Skanderbeg's lands under constant threat.

Not all his companions stayed loyal. In 1456 Skanderbeg's nephew Hamza Kastrioti went over to the Ottomans. The commander Moisi Golemi defected too, but he was defeated and pardoned that same year, and remained loyal to Skanderbeg until his death. Venice was no more reliable as a neighbour: a Venetian document dated 4 May 1448 shows that a plot to assassinate Skanderbeg was being discussed there.

Skanderbeg's state and allies

Over time the league grew into a state: a feudal monarchy with hereditary rule, in which Skanderbeg held the title "Lord of Albania". His lands stretched from the Dukagjin mountains in the north to the Devoll and Seman rivers in the south, and from the Adriatic to the valley of the Black Drin.

The state was run by the Assembly of Albanian Princes, a High Council and a War Council. It had its own symbols (a flag, a coat of arms and a seal), as well as a treasury and officials. To turn an alliance of princes into a single state, Skanderbeg relied on marriage alliances, voluntary accession and force.

He looked to the West for allies:

• Naples. On 26 March 1451 Skanderbeg signed the Treaty of Gaeta with King Alfonso V, accepting his protection in return for support. In 1455 Neapolitan soldiers fought alongside him at the siege of Berat. In 1460–1461 Skanderbeg returned the favour in Italy, fighting in Apulia for King Ferdinand I against the Angevins.

• The Holy See. On 23 December 1457 Pope Callixtus III made him Captain General of the Holy See and gave him the title "Champion of Christ" (Athleta Christi).

• Venice. After years of rivalry, Venice concluded an alliance with Skanderbeg against the Ottomans in 1463.

In the same year, on 27 April 1463, Skanderbeg signed the Peace of Skopje with the Ottomans, but it did not last. Earlier, on 21 April 1451, he had married Donika, daughter of Gjergj Arianiti, at the Ardenica monastery.

Skanderbeg's death and the end of the resistance

Skanderbeg died of malaria in Lezhë on 17 January 1468 and was buried there, in the Church of St Nicholas. Lekë Dukagjini took over the resistance, but without Skanderbeg it could not hold out for long: Krujë fell in 1478 and Shkodër in 1479, despite help from Venice.

His memory was kept alive almost from the start. Around 1510 a biography of him by the Shkodër humanist Marin Barleti was published in Rome. In 1636 Frang Bardhi published a work in Venice defending him.

Today Krujë is home to the National Skanderbeg Museum. He is the subject of a film, "Skanderbeg", and of a novel by Sabri Godo. The book "Skanderbeg" by the German historian Oliver Jens Schmitt sparked a debate in Albania about what the hero was really like.

Albania under Ottoman rule

After 1479 the Albanian lands remained part of the Ottoman Empire for almost four centuries. They belonged to the Eyalet of Rumelia, which was divided into sanjaks under sanjakbeys, and these were split further into kazas and nahiyes. The land belonged to the state.

State land was divided into hass, zeamet and timar holdings, which sipahis used in return for military service. Peasants paid the sipahi a tithe and other dues, and paid the state a poll tax and a livestock tax.

The mountain areas kept their self-government: they paid an annual tribute and supplied fighters for military campaigns. In the towns, craftsmen and merchants were organised into esnafs (guilds), which had their own statutes and supported religious institutions and schools.

Islam, service and emigration. After the conquest many Albanians emigrated to Italy, and their descendants, the Arbëreshë, still live in the south of the country. A large share of those who stayed converted to Islam, mainly between the 16th and 18th centuries. Conversion came about through both force and incentives: new converts received gifts, and careers in trade and the army were open mainly to Muslims. Many Muslim Albanians rose to high positions in the Ottoman administration and army.

Uprisings of the 16th–17th centuries. The textbook describes two paths open to Albanian society at this time: advancement in Ottoman service, or armed resistance. Anti-Ottoman assemblies met in Mat on 7 November 1594, in Blinisht in 1599, and again in 1601 and 1602. In 1607 an uprising broke out under Andrea Manesi. In 1614 two Balkan assemblies were held in Kuči. During the Austro-Ottoman war of 1689, Archbishop Pjetër Bogdani helped rally the Albanians of Kosovo in support of the Austrian army.

The pashaliks of Shkodër and Ioannina

As the sultan's power weakened in the 18th century, two strong semi-independent domains emerged on Albanian lands: the Pashalik of Shkodër under the Bushati dynasty (1757–1831) and the Pashalik of Ioannina under Ali Pasha of Tepelena (1787–1822). In the end the Porte crushed them both.

Shkodër: the Bushati family

The pashalik was founded in 1757 by Mehmed Pasha Bushati (the Elder). He restored order, showed tolerance towards Catholics, supported craftsmen and merchants, fought pirates and opened a library of works on Ottoman law in Shkodër. In 1771 the Porte granted the Bushati family the rank of vizier and authority over the sanjaks of Shkodër, Dukagjin, Ohrid and Elbasan.

The most powerful of the Bushati rulers was Kara Mahmud Pasha (1775–1796). In 1780–1785 he took Podgorica and Spuž from Bosnia and brought the Elbasan and Tirana area under his control. In the spring of 1786 he gathered Albanian, Montenegrin, Bosnian and Herzegovinian leaders in Podgorica and founded the "Illyrian Confederation".

On 25 November 1787 Mahmud defeated the troops sent against him from Bosnia and Rumelia. He declared an independent state and turned to Austria and Russia for help. In 1791 he led a second uprising and won again. Mahmud was killed on 22 September 1796 at the Battle of Krusi, during a campaign against the Montenegrins.

His successor, Ibrahim Pasha, remained a vassal of the sultan and was made vali of Rumelia. The last pasha, Mustafa Pasha Bushati, took part in suppressing the Pashalik of Ioannina. In 1831 Reşid Mehmed Pasha besieged him in Rozafa Castle and forced him to surrender, bringing the pashalik to an end.

Ioannina: Ali Pasha of Tepelena

Ali Pasha was born around 1743 in Beçisht (some sources say Tepelenë). His pashalik, centred on Ioannina, stretched from Ohrid and the Shkumbin in the north to Thessaly and the Pindus in the south. He created a European-style army, a police force and an intelligence service, built roads, bridges, aqueducts and fortresses, and had his own council (the divan) and treasury.

He ran his own foreign policy, dealing directly with Napoleon and Britain. In 1809 Lord Byron visited him and described the meeting in "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage". In 1820 Ali Pasha proclaimed an autonomous state covering Albanian and Greek lands, and the sultan declared him an outlaw. He fought to the end and was killed in January 1822 on an island in Lake Ioannina.

The first books and schools

Most of the first Albanian books were written and published by Catholic priests. After the Baptismal Formula of 1462 and Gjon Buzuku's Meshari ("Missal") of 1555, the works that mark the beginning of Albanian literature followed one after another.

• 1592: the Arbëresh writer Lekë Matrënga publishes the catechism E mbësuame e krishterë ("Christian Teaching").

• 1618: Pjetër Budi publishes "Christian Doctrine"; he is regarded as the first author of original prose and poetry in Albanian.

• 1635: Frang Bardhi publishes the first Latin–Albanian dictionary in Rome, with about 5,640 words.

• 1685: Pjetër Bogdani publishes the theological and philosophical treatise Cuneus Prophetarum ("The Band of the Prophets").

In the 18th century Voskopojë became an important cultural centre, home to a higher school known as the "New Academy". In the next chapter we explain how a single Albanian alphabet eventually emerged from several different writing systems.

Next: the Albanian National Awakening and independence. Previous: medieval Albania.