Medieval Albania: From Arbanon to the 14th-Century Principalities

Medieval Albania covers the thousand years between the end of the ancient world and the arrival of the Ottomans. The Albanian lands belonged to Byzantium and were conquered in turn by the Bulgarians, Normans, Angevins and Serbs. The Albanians themselves, known then as Arbërs, founded their first principality around 1190 and several strong principalities in the 14th century.

This is the second chapter of our guide to the history of Albania. It runs from the division of the Roman Empire to the Battle of Savra and the first books in Albanian.

Early medieval Albania: from Illyria to Arbëria

After the Roman Empire was divided in 395, the Albanian lands passed to its eastern half, Byzantium. Sources go on calling the people Illyrians until the early 7th century. From the 11th century, the inhabitants of southern Illyria appear as Arbërs (Arbans) and their country as Arbëria (Arbanon).

According to the textbook, it was in the early Middle Ages that Illyrian territory shrank and the Arbër people took shape, the people who would later be called Albanians.

In the late Roman Empire these lands belonged to the Prefecture of Illyricum, which had four provinces here:

The textbook stresses that two Byzantine emperors came from this region, Anastasius I and Justinian I, whom it calls emperors of Illyrian origin. Anastasius I was born in Durrës: he fortified his home town and built a hippodrome there, and the city walls of Durrës date from his reign. Justinian created a system of fortifications stretching from the Danube to the southern Balkans, and some of these fortresses stood on Illyrian soil.

These were turbulent centuries. Goths and Huns plundered the country, burning villages and destroying towns. In the 6th–7th centuries Slavs settled in the Balkans with the permission of the Byzantine emperors. They began raiding from the Danube basin at the start of the 6th century, and in the second half of that century the Avars joined them (the Albas textbook has the Avars and the Slavs setting out together at the start of the 6th century). The Slavs settled in compact groups, forming what were known as sklavinias; this was the beginning of the Slavic colonisation of the Balkans.

Southern Illyria resisted assimilation for several reasons: its economy was more developed, its population more cohesive, its terrain mountainous and its coast well fortified. The Slavs who did reach the area were gradually absorbed into the local population. In the textbook's view, Christianity also helped the Illyrians preserve their ethnic identity. Illyrian territory nevertheless shrank considerably: the textbook describes it as a quadrilateral bounded by the Bay of Kotor, Niš, the Pindus and Arta.

In the 8th–10th centuries Byzantium reorganised its territory into themes. Each theme was run by a strategos (military governor), who held both military and civil power. A theme was a military province with its own army, recruited from local men, the stratiotai, who received a plot of land in return for their service. In the Balkans the themes of Macedonia, Thessalonica, Nicopolis and Dyrrhachium emerged. One of these themes was Dyrrhachium, today's Durrës. The theme of Dyrrhachium stretched along the coast from Bar to the Bay of Vlorë, and in the east it reached the course of the Drin.

The Koman culture and continuity

The most important archaeological evidence from this period is the early medieval Koman-Krujë culture. Finds come from Koman (Dalmaca hill), Krujë and Lezhë. Albanian historians see it as proof that the Arbërs descend directly from the Illyrians. The excavations at Koman, near Pukë, on the site of Kalaja e Dalmaces, were carried out as early as the late 19th century by A. Degrand, the French consul in Shkodër.

The school textbook groups the arguments for this continuity into three kinds:

• archaeological, such as medieval fortress walls built on ancient foundations;

• linguistic, such as personal names and the names of towns, mountains and rivers;

• ethnographic, such as elements of Illyrian dress.

The first mention of the Albanians. The Albanians appear under their own name in Byzantine sources in the 11th century. The Byzantine historian Michael Attaleiates writes about the Arvanites in connection with the events of the 1040s (the revolt of Maniakes) and the uprising of 1078–1079 in the theme of Dyrrhachium, while Anna Komnene names Arbanon when describing the events of 1081. These are the first records of the Albanians as a distinct people in Byzantine history.

The language and name of the Arbërs

Despite centuries of Roman rule, the Illyrians were never fully Romanised: the ancestors of the Albanians kept their language. According to the textbook, in the 4th–6th centuries Illyrian developed into Proto-Albanian, or Arbër.

Dialects had begun to form even before the Slavic invasions. It was also then that rhotacism took place, the change of n to r (venë → verë), and the sound ë appeared in the southern dialect. Rhotacism did not affect words borrowed later from the Slavs, and the textbook cites this as a further argument for continuity.

The name of the country itself is thought to come from the Illyrian tribe of the Albani. They and their centre, Albanopolis, are mentioned in the Geography of Claudius Ptolemy (c. 90–160), a geographer and astronomer from Alexandria. Albanopolis lay between Durrës and Krujë; archaeologists tentatively place it at Zgërdhesh near Krujë.

Chance records also show that Albanian was heard in everyday life. A 13th-century document from a village near Ragusa mentions a voice crying out in the mountains "in the Albanian language".

The old name survived among emigrants: the Arnauts or Arvanites in Greece and the Arbëreshë in southern Italy. In Albania itself, under the Ottomans, Arbën and Arbëri gave way to Shqipni and Shqipëri, and the people came to call themselves shqiptar.

Between East and West: the 11th–12th centuries

In the 11th–12th centuries the Albanian lands lay at a crossroads, fought over by Byzantium, Bulgaria, the Normans of southern Italy and Venice. The Great Schism of 1054 also split Arbëria itself: the north became Catholic, while the south stayed Orthodox. The boundary between the two rites ran roughly along the Shkumbin.

According to the textbook, Bulgarian rule over part of the Arbër lands began in the mid-9th century and ended in 1018, when the Byzantine emperor Basil II conquered Bulgaria. That same year Berat surrendered to Byzantium without a fight.

Then came the Normans. In 1081 the forces of Robert Guiscard and his son Bohemond took Vlorë, Kaninë, Orikum, Bylis, Butrint and Corfu and besieged Durrës. According to the textbook, they failed to take the city, which was defended by the Venetian fleet. A few years later (the textbook says three) Guiscard left Arbëria, but the Normans kept coming back. Bohemond invaded again in October 1107, and in the summer of 1185 a Norman king landed on the coast once more, only to retreat to Italy within the year. The textbook considers this third campaign the most successful: the Normans took Durrës, marched along the Via Egnatia and captured Thessalonica. Anna Komnene also describes the Norman invasion of 1081 in the Alexiad, where she mentions Arbanon.

Raška and the weakening of Byzantium

The weakening of Byzantium allowed new states to emerge: the Principality of Arbanon, the Despotate of Epirus and the Serbian state of Raška.

Raška was freed from Byzantine rule by Stefan Nemanja (1168–1196), who took the title of Grand Župan of Raška. Raška became one of the neighbours threatening the Arbërs, and at the same time their kin by marriage: Prince Dhimitër's wife, Komnena, was the daughter of the Serbian king Stefan the First-Crowned and the granddaughter of Stefan Nemanja.

The Principality of Arbanon, the first Albanian state

Around 1190 the archon Progon founded the Principality of Arbër (Arbanon), centred on Krujë. It is regarded as the first Albanian state of the Middle Ages. The ground had been prepared earlier: in 1166 the sources first mention a high-ranking local ruler in Arbër.

The principality's lands lay between the Mat and Shkumbin rivers, and it reached the sea along the stretch between the Mat and Cape Bishti i Pallës.

Progon was succeeded by his sons Gjin (1198–1208) and Dhimitër (1208–1216). Under Dhimitër the principality was at the height of its power. In 1210 he signed a treaty with the Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik), promising peace and duty-free trade to Ragusan merchants, and around 1208–1209 he forged closer ties with Pope Innocent III.

Threats came from three directions: the Serbian kingdom of Raška, the Venetians in Durrës and the Despotate of Epirus. After Dhimitër's death in 1216, the principality fell under the control of the Despotate of Epirus, one of the Byzantine successor states. Power passed to Grigor Kamona and then to Golem. In 1256–1257 the Empire of Nicaea annexed Arbër.

The Despotate of Epirus

The Despotate of Epirus. After the Fourth Crusade of 1204, Byzantium temporarily collapsed and Venice seized Durrës. In 1205 Michael I Komnenos Doukas founded the Despotate of Epirus in the south, with Arta as its main capital. It became one of Arbëria's most powerful neighbours. In 1230, however, the Bulgarians defeated its ruler Theodore Komnenos Doukas at Klokotnitsa, and the despotate went into decline.

The despotate arose on the lands of the former theme of Nicopolis. The textbook also calls its founder, Michael I, Michael I Angelos. He extended his domain northwards beyond the Shkumbin, took Durrës and in the south reached the Gulf of Corinth. Michael I met his end in the fortress of Berat, where he was murdered.

Power passed to his brother Theodore Angelos, known for his boldness and energy. In 1224 Theodore took Thessalonica, and he was later crowned emperor.

The medieval Kingdom of Albania and the Serbian conquest

On 21 February 1272 Charles I of Anjou was proclaimed King of Albania (Regnum Albaniae) under an agreement with the Albanian nobility and the townspeople of Durrës. Durrës became the capital, and the Angevins held on to the coast for almost a hundred years.

Meanwhile Serbia was growing stronger in the north. King Stefan Dušan exploited a Byzantine civil war to capture most of the Arbër lands in 1343–1345, and by 1348 he had reached Thessaly. In 1349 Stefan Dušan's Code appeared.

Serbian rule weighed heavily on the Arbërs. Their leaders were arrested and stripped of their land, and estates were handed over to Serbian feudal lords. People were forcibly converted to Serbian Orthodoxy, and Slavic names spread. When Dušan died in 1355, his realm quickly broke up, and local noble families rose to power in the Albanian lands.

The Angevins and the Battle of Berat

How did the Angevins end up in the Balkans? In the Middle Ages the Kingdom of Sicily was ruled by three dynasties: the Norman (French), the Hohenstaufen (German) and the Angevin (French). After Manfred of Hohenstaufen was killed in 1266, Sicily passed to the Angevins.

The Angevins never managed to extend their kingdom inland. In 1281 Byzantium dealt them a heavy defeat at the Battle of Berat. Byzantine rule was then restored in Arbëria, and for a few more years the Angevins kept only their coastal fortresses.

The Albanian principalities of the 14th century

By the second half of the 14th century almost all the Albanian lands were shared among a handful of princely families. The strongest were the Thopia in Durrës, the Balsha in Shkodër and the Muzaka in Berat. Each principality had its own institutions, symbols, seals and coins.

After 1355 the Thopia and Balsha principalities arose in the north, and the Muzaka, Zenebishi, Losha and Shpata principalities in the south. The textbook also names other families that built their own domains: the Arianiti, Dukagjini and Kastrioti.

• Thopia. Tanush Thopia founded the Principality of Durrës. It reached its peak under Karl Thopia, who took Durrës from the Angevins in 1368.

• Balsha. The Balsha ruled Zeta and the coast from their administrative centre in Shkodër (roughly 1362–1421). The principality was governed by Balsha I and his three sons, Stracimir, Gjergj I and Balsha II. Each held his own region, but they presented a united front to the outside world. Through marriage the family acquired Berat and Vlorë. Their income came from tithes, customs duties, the salt trade and land. The Balsha recognised the town statutes, and in 1368 they converted from Orthodoxy to Catholicism, which brought them closer to the papacy and the West. At their peak their lands stretched from Bar (Tivar) to Vlorë. By taking Durrës, the Balsha linked their northern and southern possessions, which the textbook calls the largest medieval polity in the Arbër lands. In 1396 Gjergj II Balsha ceded Shkodër to Venice, keeping Ulcinj and Bar.

• Muzaka. The Muzaka ruled Berat and Myzeqe. Andrea II Muzaka founded the principality, which reached its greatest extent under Teodor II. In 1335 the domain became a despotate, and it lasted until the Ottoman conquest in 1417.

So why did none of them last? The textbook gives three reasons: powerful neighbours, internal feuds and the splitting of lands among heirs.

The Battle of Savra. On 18 September 1385, near Lushnjë, the Ottomans defeated Balsha II, who died in the battle. Karl Thopia had called them in to help him. Afterwards most local lords became vassals of the sultan. The Balsha dynasty died out in 1421, when Balsha III died childless.

Karl Thopia and the Principality of Durrës

The Thopia principality saw itself as the successor to Arbanon. It lay between the Mat and the Shkumbin, and in the east it reached the lands of the Gropa (Dibër–Ohrid). Karl Thopia expanded it from the Drin in the north to the Seman in the south, taking in the Muzaka lands.

Karl Thopia opposed Angevin (Neapolitan) rule, took Durrës in 1368 and sought an alliance with Hungary, and later the backing of Venice. He bore the titles "Lord of all the land of Arbanon", "Count of Durrës" and "Citizen of Venice", and had his own coat of arms and chancery. After his death the principality weakened and broke apart.

Meanwhile, in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, Venice took over a chain of ports and fortresses along the coast from Budva to the Gulf of Corinth; Durrës became Venetian in 1392. Vlorë and Kaninë were not part of this chain.

The southern principalities: Zenebishi and Shpata

The Zenebishi principality lay in the Drino valley: Dropull, Delvinë and part of Vagenetia (Chameria). Its centre was Gjirokastër, first mentioned in 1336 by John Kantakouzenos. The best-known member of the family was Gjin Zenebishi. In 1418 the Ottomans, invited in by Carlo Tocco, attacked the Zenebishi and subjugated the principality.

Further south lay the Shpata principality. It included Aetolia and Acarnania down to the Gulf of Corinth and bordered the Zenebishi lands to the north. It was ruled by Gjin Bua Shpata, who died on 29 October 1399; the chronicles called him a mighty man and the glory of Arbëria.

Towns and countryside in medieval Albania

Medieval Arbër towns and the land around them were self-governing communes, each with its own statutes, seal and coinage. A council of nobles ran the town and elected its head, the kont (count). Society was divided into the nobility and the ordinary townspeople, the popolani (commoners). Craftsmen were organised into guilds, and merchants into guilds and confraternities.

A town also owned the surrounding villages: in 1343 the territory of Krujë included 17 villages. According to the textbook, Durrës had a population of around 25,000 in the 14th century.

Medieval Shkodër was known far beyond Arbëria for its swords, its bell-founding and its gold and silver work. In the countryside, land was divided into the bashtinë (family holding), common land and church land. Military service was rewarded with grants called stratiotika and pronoia. Dependent peasants were known as paroikoi.

The bashtinë was private property held with full rights, the only category of land that could be bought or sold.

Pronoia and paroikoi

A pronoia was a plot of land with several peasant households, granted by the emperor in return for service to the state. Byzantium introduced the system to strengthen the empire militarily. The textbook links the first evidence of pronoias in Arbëria to two deeds of grant from 1018 and 1020, under which the emperor assigned revenues to several Albanian bishoprics.

The holder of a pronoia, the pronoiar, was obliged to serve the emperor and to provide a set number of horsemen and foot soldiers at his own expense. He was not its full owner: a pronoia could not be sold, leased, given away or passed on by inheritance.

The peasants on pronoias, the paroikoi, paid dues both to the state and to the pronoiar, in money and in kind. They also owed labour service, the angareia; in some parts of Arbëria it took up two days a week.

Ports and trade

Maritime trade depended on the port towns: Kotor, Bar (Tivar), Ulcinj, Shkodër, Lezhë, Durrës, Vlorë and Butrint. Trading posts grew up at the mouths of rivers:

Great lords and the Black Death

In the 13th–14th centuries land became concentrated in the hands of a few. In the 14th century the great landowners broke free of central control: they built castles and fortresses, kept their own armies and passed their lands on by inheritance. This ushered in the age of the feudal principalities.

The year 1348 dealt the country a heavy blow. The Black Death, which swept across Europe, also struck the Arbër towns. On top of the plague came earthquakes, floods and fires.

Faith, art and the first books in Albanian

Christianity reached Illyria as early as the 1st century and spread widely after the 4th century; Shkodër, Durrës and Nicopolis became centres of the faith. It bore the marks of popular Christianity. Medieval Arbëria left behind Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic churches, mosaics, icons painted on wood, masterpieces of embroidery and the oldest surviving examples of Albanian writing.

Church art drew heavily on Constantinople and Rome. Wall and floor mosaics carried on the ancient tradition. Fortresses from the period come in both round and rectangular forms. Schools were attached to churches, and literature was mostly religious: codices and lives of saints.

Besides church architecture in the Byzantine, Romanesque, Gothic and mixed styles, civil architecture has also survived: fortresses and traditional houses.

Frescoes, mosaics and icons

The church painting of Arbëria consists of mosaics, frescoes and icons. The best-known early Christian mosaics adorn the basilica at Lin and the baptistery of Butrint (6th century; the Albas textbook says 7th century).

Frescoes are first attested in the 9th–10th centuries and flourished in the 13th–14th centuries; the frescoes of the church at Rubik stand out in particular. Icons were painted on wood; among the later masterpieces is the icon of the Baptism of Christ by the master Onufri (16th century).

Around 100 codices survive from twelve centuries. They include the Vlorë, Korçë, Shkodër and Përmet codices, and the most famous are Beratinus 1, the "Purple Codex", and Beratinus 2, the "Golden Codex".

Church and schools

Church schools are recorded in the coastal towns of the 13th–14th centuries, including Ulcinj, Kotor, Durrës, Shkodër and Bar.

The languages of administration and the church were Greek, Latin and to some extent Slavonic. Princes chose a language to suit the circumstances: Karl Thopia and the Balsha used all three.

The key monuments

• The Berat Codices. The first (Beratinus 1) is a 6th-century Greek Gospel written in silver ink on purple parchment. The second (Beratinus 2) dates from the 9th century and is written in gold ink on purple parchment. In 2005 both were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.

• The Epitaph of Glavenica is a masterpiece of medieval embroidery, made in 1373 for Gjergj Arianiti, who commissioned it.

• The baptismal formula of 8 November 1462 is the oldest known written document in Albanian. It was composed by Pal Engjëlli, Archbishop of Durrës.

• Gjon Buzuku's Meshari (The Missal, 1555) is the first printed book in Albanian, written in the Gheg dialect. It uses the Latin alphabet with a few characters borrowed from Cyrillic and Greek. The book has 188 pages.

A note from 1332 shows that Albanians were writing in the Latin script long before these texts. In it the Dominican friar Guillaume Adam (Brocardus) remarked that they used Latin letters in their books. To find out how these different scripts gave way to today's alphabet in 1908, see our page on the Albanian alphabet.

Albanian in 15th-century records

For a long time Albanian remained a language of everyday speech: there are no written documents in it before the 15th century. In the 15th century it is attested in both dialects at once and in two alphabets, Latin and Greek.

• The Easter Pericope (late 15th century) is written in the southern dialect in Greek letters.

• Arnold von Harff's "Dictionary" (1496) contains Albanian words, phrases and numbers with German translations.

• Around 1510 Gjon Muzaka wrote, in Italian, the History of the Muzaka Family, about the feudal families of Arbëria.

Next: Skanderbeg and Ottoman Albania. Back: The Illyrians and ancient Albania.