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Albania
Local Albanian Leaders in the Early Nineteenth Century
The weakening of Ottoman central authority and the timar system
brought anarchy to the Albanian-populated lands. In the late eighteenth
century, two Albanian centers of power emerged: Shkodėr, under
the Bushati family; and Janina, under Ali Pasha of Tepelenė. When
it suited their goals, both places cooperated with the Sublime
Porte, and when it was expedient to defy the central government,
each acted independently.
The Bushati family dominated the Shkodėr region through a network
of alliances with various highland tribes. Kara Mahmud Bushati
attempted to establish an autonomous principality and expand the
lands under his control by playing off Austria and Russia against
the Sublime Porte. In 1785 Kara Mahmud's forces attacked Montenegrin
territory, and Austria offered to recognize him as the ruler of
all Albania if he would ally himself with Vienna against the Sublime
Porte. Seizing an opportunity, Kara Mahmud sent the sultan the
heads of an Austrian delegation in 1788, and the Ottomans appointed
him governor of Shkodėr. When he attempted to wrest land from
Montenegro in 1796, however, he was defeated and beheaded. Kara
Mahmud's brother, Ibrahim, cooperated with the Sublime Porte until
his death in 1810, but his successor, Mustafa Pasha Bushati, proved
to be recalcitrant despite participation in Ottoman military campaigns
against Greek revolutionaries and rebel pashas. He cooperated
with the mountain tribes and brought a large area under his control.
Ali Pasha (1741-1822), the Lion of Janina, was born to a powerful
clan from Tepelenė and spent much of his youth as a bandit. He
rose to become governor of the Ottoman province of Rumelia, which
included Albania, Macedonia, and Thrace, before establishing himself
in Janina. Like Kara Mahmud Bushati, Ali Pasha wanted to create
an autonomous state under his rule. When Ali Pasha forged links
with the Greek revolutionaries, Sultan Mahmud II decided to destroy
him. The sultan first discharged the Albanian from his official
posts and recalled him to Constantinople. Ali Pasha refused and
put up a formidable resistance that Britain's Lord Byron immortalized
in poems and letters. In January 1822, however, Ottoman agents
assassinated Ali Pasha and sent his head to Constantinople. Nevertheless,
it took eight more years before the Sublime Porte would move against
Mustafa Pasha Bushati. The sultan sent an Ottoman general to Bitola
(then called Monastir, in Macedonia), where he invited 1,000 Muslim
Albanian leaders to meet him, and in August 1830 Reshid Pasha
had about 500 of the Albanian leaders killed. He then turned on
Mustafa Pasha, who surrendered and spent the rest of his life
as an official in Constantinople.
After crushing the Bushatis and Ali Pasha, the Sublime Porte
introduced a series of reforms, known as the tanzimat, which were
aimed at strengthening the empire by reining in fractious pashas.
The government organized a recruitment program for the military
and opened Turkish-language schools to propagate Islam and instill
loyalty to the empire. The timars officially became large individual
landholdings, especially in the lowlands. In 1835 the Sublime
Porte divided the Albanian-populated lands into the vilayets of
Janina and Rumelia and dispatched officials from Constantinople
to administer them. After 1865 the central authorities redivided
the Albanian lands between the vilayets of Shkodėr, Janina, Bitola,
and Kosovo. The reforms angered the highland Albanian chieftains,
who found their privileges reduced with no apparent compensation,
and the authorities eventually abandoned efforts to control them.
Ottoman troops crushed local rebellions in the lowlands, however,
and conditions there remained bleak. Large numbers of Tosks emigrated
to join sizable Albanian émigré communities in Romania, Egypt,
Bulgaria, Constantinople, southern Italy, and later the United
States. As a result of contacts maintained between the Tosks and
their relatives living or returning from abroad, foreign ideas
began to seep into Albania.
Data as of April 1992
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