Post by Caslav Klonimirovic on Jan 14, 2011 8:49:23 GMT -5
History of Jihad against the pre-Islamic Albanians (1332-1920)
How the Christian Albanians struggled against the Jihad to be overwhelmed by Islam and get submerged into the Dar-ul-Islam
Many of us think that Albania and Kosovo are Muslim nations. Not many know about how the Christian Albanians became Muslims.
The saga of the Jihadi onslaught on Albania begins when the expanding Ottoman Empire overpowered the Balkan Peninsula in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. When the wild Ottoman armies burst upon Albania, the feuding Albanian clans proved no match for the armies of the sultan
Skanderbeg was the first freedom fighter for Albania’s independence from Ottoman Tyranny. He was seized as a boy and was forcibly converted to Islam. But as a warrior in the Turkish army he had not forgotten his origins. He abandoned the Turks, reverted to Christianity and waged a fierce war for the liberation of Albania.
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The division of the Albanian-populated lands into small, quarreling fiefdoms ruled by independent feudal lords and tribal chiefs made them easy prey for the Ottoman armies The Ottoman Turks expanded their empire from Anatolia to the Balkans in the fourteenth century. They crossed the Bosporus in 1352, and in 1389 they crushed a Serb-led army that included Albanian forces at Kosovo Polje, located in the southern part of present-day Yugoslavia.
Europe gained a brief respite from Ottoman pressure in 1402 when the Muslim Mongol leader, Tamerlane, attacked Anatolia from the east, killed the Turks' absolute ruler, the sultan Beyazid, and sparked a civil war amongst the Muslims. When order was restored, the Ottomans renewed their westward progress. In 1453 Sultan Mehmed II's forces overran Constantinople and killed the last Byzantine emperor. This opened the way to the full-scale invasion of the Balkans by the Ottomans.
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The march of the Islamic Jihad in what is today an almost entirely Muslim nation Albania was one of the most bloodiest in the Balkans. In fact these massacres both on and beyond the battlefield smothered Christianity and made Albania today into a Muslim nation. Thousands of Albanians laid down their lives to repulse the invasion of their ancient Illyrian homeland by the Ottoman Jihadis. Many Albanians fled these massacres and settled in Italy.
One surviving evidence of the massacres are the Arbëreshë who are an Albanian-speaking group living in southern Italy. These people settled in Italy during the 15th and 16th centuries, after the great Albanian hero Skanderbeg died. There was also a second group of emigrés from the Himarë region in Southern Albania, who left after the massacre of some 6000 people who refused to convert to Islam at the orders of Ali Pasha Tepelena. This group constitutes most of the ancestors of the inhabitants of the villages of Hora e Arbëreshëvet Piana degli albanesi and Sëndahstina (Santa Cristina Gela) in Southern Italy.
The division of the Albanian-populated lands into small, quarreling fiefdoms ruled by independent feudal lords and tribal chiefs made them easy prey for the Ottoman armies. In 1385 the Albanian ruler of Durrës, Karl Thopia, appealed to the sultan for support against his rivals, the Balsha family. An Ottoman force quickly marched into Albania along the Via Egnatia and routed the Balshas.
How the Janissaries were formed - Albanian clan chiefs had to send their sons to the Turkish court as hostages, to be converted to Islam and provide the Ottoman army with auxiliary troops.
But the principal Albanian clans soon revolted against the Turks. In response to the first Albanian rebellion against Ottoman tyranny, Sultan Murad II launched a major onslaught in the Balkans in 1423, and the Turks took Janina in 1431 and Arta on the Ionian coast, in 1449.
How the Christian Albanians struggled against the Jihad to be overwhelmed by Islam and get submerged into the Dar-ul-Islam
Many of us think that Albania and Kosovo are Muslim nations. Not many know about how the Christian Albanians became Muslims.
The saga of the Jihadi onslaught on Albania begins when the expanding Ottoman Empire overpowered the Balkan Peninsula in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. When the wild Ottoman armies burst upon Albania, the feuding Albanian clans proved no match for the armies of the sultan
Skanderbeg was the first freedom fighter for Albania’s independence from Ottoman Tyranny. He was seized as a boy and was forcibly converted to Islam. But as a warrior in the Turkish army he had not forgotten his origins. He abandoned the Turks, reverted to Christianity and waged a fierce war for the liberation of Albania.
__________________________
The division of the Albanian-populated lands into small, quarreling fiefdoms ruled by independent feudal lords and tribal chiefs made them easy prey for the Ottoman armies The Ottoman Turks expanded their empire from Anatolia to the Balkans in the fourteenth century. They crossed the Bosporus in 1352, and in 1389 they crushed a Serb-led army that included Albanian forces at Kosovo Polje, located in the southern part of present-day Yugoslavia.
Europe gained a brief respite from Ottoman pressure in 1402 when the Muslim Mongol leader, Tamerlane, attacked Anatolia from the east, killed the Turks' absolute ruler, the sultan Beyazid, and sparked a civil war amongst the Muslims. When order was restored, the Ottomans renewed their westward progress. In 1453 Sultan Mehmed II's forces overran Constantinople and killed the last Byzantine emperor. This opened the way to the full-scale invasion of the Balkans by the Ottomans.
----------------------
The march of the Islamic Jihad in what is today an almost entirely Muslim nation Albania was one of the most bloodiest in the Balkans. In fact these massacres both on and beyond the battlefield smothered Christianity and made Albania today into a Muslim nation. Thousands of Albanians laid down their lives to repulse the invasion of their ancient Illyrian homeland by the Ottoman Jihadis. Many Albanians fled these massacres and settled in Italy.
One surviving evidence of the massacres are the Arbëreshë who are an Albanian-speaking group living in southern Italy. These people settled in Italy during the 15th and 16th centuries, after the great Albanian hero Skanderbeg died. There was also a second group of emigrés from the Himarë region in Southern Albania, who left after the massacre of some 6000 people who refused to convert to Islam at the orders of Ali Pasha Tepelena. This group constitutes most of the ancestors of the inhabitants of the villages of Hora e Arbëreshëvet Piana degli albanesi and Sëndahstina (Santa Cristina Gela) in Southern Italy.
The division of the Albanian-populated lands into small, quarreling fiefdoms ruled by independent feudal lords and tribal chiefs made them easy prey for the Ottoman armies. In 1385 the Albanian ruler of Durrës, Karl Thopia, appealed to the sultan for support against his rivals, the Balsha family. An Ottoman force quickly marched into Albania along the Via Egnatia and routed the Balshas.
How the Janissaries were formed - Albanian clan chiefs had to send their sons to the Turkish court as hostages, to be converted to Islam and provide the Ottoman army with auxiliary troops.
But the principal Albanian clans soon revolted against the Turks. In response to the first Albanian rebellion against Ottoman tyranny, Sultan Murad II launched a major onslaught in the Balkans in 1423, and the Turks took Janina in 1431 and Arta on the Ionian coast, in 1449.