Post by rex362 on Aug 26, 2015 15:41:46 GMT -5
An answer to the misguided concepts about Albanian history.... / a 1 minute 50 second read
…Hellenic culture, which shined throughout Mediterranean in antiquity, was extinguished by the Church. The brilliant Hellenic civilization was replaced by the Byzantine religious culture, a dogmatic culture, which practically erased the notion of Hellenic civilization even from the dictionary, because it saw it as a pagan civilization. And after the end of the brilliant Hellenic antiquity, the byzantine Greeks have not produced either a Socrates, or a Democritus, or a Plato, or a Aristotle, or Aeschylus, nor any shadow of them. They nailed their culture inside of monastery and church walls, and only outside Christian praying grounds flourished profane folk culture… Modern Greeks themselves learnt about this brilliant Hellenic civilization from the renaissance it had in the Western Europe…
…some make irrational assumptions about the culture of Albanian territories before the Turkish occupation…some think it was Hellenic… As long as the Hellenes themselves were totally detached from their classic civilization, how can it be that the Albanians would cultivate a civilization that even before they superficially had known. It is well known by now that the Albanians entered the Middle Ages with their own culture, which was neither Hellenic, or Latin, or Slavic. Even the presence of backward enclaves does not change the fact that it was an Albanian culture… During the early Medieval centuries, in the Albanian areas which were situated in the western fringes of the Byzantine Empire, contacts with the Byzantine culture were very much weakened as a result of the Slavic onslaught. They were so weakened that when political stability was reestablished, the Albanians had turned their head westward. The (people) of Albanian culture were so numerically massive that they were able to fill up Greece with Arvanite population…(But this truth is not heard in Greece)… Present Greeks, inspired by their sick nationalism, have gone so far as to side-step their brilliant XIX historian, Konstandin Sathas, only because he had abundantly documented the enormous contribution of Arvanites in the formation of modern Greece.
Albanians have inherited a multitude of Latin words, maybe a larger or may be a smaller number of Slavic words, doubtless also Turkish words. Naturally this indicates a long cohabitation and relationship with the speakers of these languages. It is interesting to note the fact that they were not Latinized or Slavonized or become Turks. We ask why Albanians borrowed from their centuries long Greek neighbors only a small number of words? Why the Orthodox liturgy names, and names of Christian saints are used to this date in the Latin form? Doubtless, this language and cultural heritage indicate that the Albanians on the eve of the Turkish occupation had already had their culture consolidated.
…(as to which-mb) region preserved untouched the Christian civilization…it is known from the Balkan literature, that there were three regions, Suli, Himara, Mirdita. It is true that these were Christian regions, but let’s not forget the fact that they were Albanian regions, and none of them was a Greek region. Religiously, only one-that is the region of Suli-was Orthodox, while Mirdita was a catholic region. Himara was also Christian, but when the Patriarchate in Constantinople became an ally of the Ottoman Empire in the division of governance, while preserving the eastern rites, via Bazilians they associated with Rome…(If some maintain that-mb) Suli preserved its autonomy due to Orthodoxy, (than) why didn’t Orthodoxy save Greece, but it relegated the brilliant Hellenes of Antiquity for hundreds of years to the role of “rajas” and lickspittles…
…Hellenic culture, which shined throughout Mediterranean in antiquity, was extinguished by the Church. The brilliant Hellenic civilization was replaced by the Byzantine religious culture, a dogmatic culture, which practically erased the notion of Hellenic civilization even from the dictionary, because it saw it as a pagan civilization. And after the end of the brilliant Hellenic antiquity, the byzantine Greeks have not produced either a Socrates, or a Democritus, or a Plato, or a Aristotle, or Aeschylus, nor any shadow of them. They nailed their culture inside of monastery and church walls, and only outside Christian praying grounds flourished profane folk culture… Modern Greeks themselves learnt about this brilliant Hellenic civilization from the renaissance it had in the Western Europe…
…some make irrational assumptions about the culture of Albanian territories before the Turkish occupation…some think it was Hellenic… As long as the Hellenes themselves were totally detached from their classic civilization, how can it be that the Albanians would cultivate a civilization that even before they superficially had known. It is well known by now that the Albanians entered the Middle Ages with their own culture, which was neither Hellenic, or Latin, or Slavic. Even the presence of backward enclaves does not change the fact that it was an Albanian culture… During the early Medieval centuries, in the Albanian areas which were situated in the western fringes of the Byzantine Empire, contacts with the Byzantine culture were very much weakened as a result of the Slavic onslaught. They were so weakened that when political stability was reestablished, the Albanians had turned their head westward. The (people) of Albanian culture were so numerically massive that they were able to fill up Greece with Arvanite population…(But this truth is not heard in Greece)… Present Greeks, inspired by their sick nationalism, have gone so far as to side-step their brilliant XIX historian, Konstandin Sathas, only because he had abundantly documented the enormous contribution of Arvanites in the formation of modern Greece.
Albanians have inherited a multitude of Latin words, maybe a larger or may be a smaller number of Slavic words, doubtless also Turkish words. Naturally this indicates a long cohabitation and relationship with the speakers of these languages. It is interesting to note the fact that they were not Latinized or Slavonized or become Turks. We ask why Albanians borrowed from their centuries long Greek neighbors only a small number of words? Why the Orthodox liturgy names, and names of Christian saints are used to this date in the Latin form? Doubtless, this language and cultural heritage indicate that the Albanians on the eve of the Turkish occupation had already had their culture consolidated.
…(as to which-mb) region preserved untouched the Christian civilization…it is known from the Balkan literature, that there were three regions, Suli, Himara, Mirdita. It is true that these were Christian regions, but let’s not forget the fact that they were Albanian regions, and none of them was a Greek region. Religiously, only one-that is the region of Suli-was Orthodox, while Mirdita was a catholic region. Himara was also Christian, but when the Patriarchate in Constantinople became an ally of the Ottoman Empire in the division of governance, while preserving the eastern rites, via Bazilians they associated with Rome…(If some maintain that-mb) Suli preserved its autonomy due to Orthodoxy, (than) why didn’t Orthodoxy save Greece, but it relegated the brilliant Hellenes of Antiquity for hundreds of years to the role of “rajas” and lickspittles…