Kosovo: Albanian Anti-Ottoman Revolt 1690

[Baki]

It is claimed by Serbs (and repeated by some western historiography) that in 1689-90 in Kosovo there were almost no Albanians and that only
after a Serbian revolt against the Ottomans during the Austrian-Ottoman wars the Serbs were pushed out and replaced by Albanians from Northern Albania.

Yet according to sources back then, gathered by the historian Noel Malcolm, the people that revolted against the Ottomans in Kosovo and joined the Austrians are mentioned as Albanian by Austrians themselves and other sources at the time.

One early account states that in Prishtina 5,000 Arnauts, having thrown off the Turks and many leaders of the surrounding places ... swore fealty to the Emperor.

Count Veterani, the commander of the Austrian campaign in this part of the Balkans in 1690, wrote in his memoirs of 20,000 Arnauts reduced to loyal obedience to the Emperor by Piccolomini

An anonymous history of the war, written in Italian (and surviving in manuscript in two forms: the full Italian text in the French Foreign Ministry archives, and an extract in German translation, entitled 'Annotationes und Reflexiones, in the Kriegsarchiv in Vienna), refers to more than 20,000 Rascians or Albanians. Some other early texts by writers who apparently had acces to original dispatches and documents specify Albanians: for example Franz Wagner, in his history of the region of Leopold I, used the words 'Arnautae' and 'Epirotae' - the latter being a term normally used to distinguish the Albanian language (and its speakers) from the Slav, ''Illyrian'', one.

And one of Piccolominis own officers, Colonel von Strasser, reported to Ludwig von Baden that Piccolomini had gone to Prizren in order to treat with 'The Albanians, Arnauts, and others (mit den Albanesernen, Arnauten und anderen')

Among the papers of Ludwig von Baden in Karlsruhe, there is a copy of an intercepted letter, in French, written by a secretary of the English Embassy in Istanbul on 19 January 1690: it reports that the 'Germans' in Kosovo have made contact with 20,000 Albanians who have turned their weapons against the Turks.

Most of this evidence points then towards the conclusion that the bulk of the people who rallied to Piccolomini in Prizren - both the 5,000 who came to the town to greet him, and the others who made up the total of 20,000 - were, by our modern criteria, Albanian

The demographics show that Kosovo had a large Albanian population before 1690. Western/Central Kosovo had an Albanian majority. Yet the Serbs and
some other historians claim the demographics started changing into Albanian only after 1690, after a ''Serbian'' revolt which resulted in a large Serbian migration yet the texts I have provided throughout this thread from that time and before show that this is nonsense. Noel Malcolm in his book about Kosovo has also demonstrated further that this demographic growth did not occur as a result of mass immigration from Northern Albania, using Ottoman records of population movements in the 1400's and 1500's into the region and North Albanian Catholic records in the 1600's that recorded families migrating in and out of the region.


I got it from Noel Malcolm's new book: Rebels, Believers, Survivors: Studies in the History of Albanians.


He talks about 'The Great Migration of Serbs in 1690' and further demonstrates most of the Serbs that migrated with Arsenije to Habsburg territory did not come from Kosovo but from Belgrade and other areas.

[Russki]

You can drop the comedy with your fake account.

[Baki]

If you don't have anything valuable to add to this discussion then I suggest stay out of this, please and don't derail this thread. Serbian historians, aware that the people in this revolt were mentioned as Albanian, basically claimed later that these Albanians were Serbs and not really Albanians, without any evidence. Yet when Albanians are mentioned fighting alongside Ottomans Serbs seem to have no doubt that it's Albanians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnaut - Arnaut was a Turkish word for Albanian.

[Dušan]

historian Noel Malcolm,

Noel Malcolm is Albanian and Bosnian Muslim lobbyist. All his "works" is anti-Serb propaganda.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Malcolm

[Baki]

The Austrian historian, Johann Georg Von Hahn, mentioned the same thing later in the 1800's, studying sources from 1690.

An interesting fact emerges from these historical events – that in 1689 Dardania had a plentiful and warrior Albanian population, because it is highly unlikely in my view that the Albanians mentioned here came over from Albania itself to join Imperial forces. The question as to whether these Albanians were Christians or Muslims is not answered in the above-mentioned work. An edition of source material about the Dardanian campaign of Imperial troops would provide a substantial contribution to our knowledge of this region and its inhabitants and would also be of great interest for our military history because names like Starhemberg and Veterani appear in it. No one would be better suited for this than the biographer of the former.

1858
Johann Georg von Hahn: Travels in Dardanian Albania


I am not sure what comedy you people are talking about. This was clearly an Anti-Ottoman Albanian revolt, only adopted later by Serbs and claimed as a purely Serbian revolt.

[Baki]

Regarding the 'Great Migration of Serbs in 1690' the historian Noel Malcolm claims most of these people did not come from Kosovo:

This essay examines both the historical facts concerning the migration of Serbs from Kosovo in 1690, and the claims made about that migration by subsequent historians—claims which, at their most extreme, suggested that hundreds of thousands of Serbs departed, with huge effects on the ethnic composition of the region. This essay demonstrates that there was no large-scale organized exodus of Serbs under the Serbian Orthodox Patriarch, Arsenije Crnojević: his departure from Kosovo in early 1690 was extremely hasty, and he had not, in any case, been leading organized resistance to the Ottomans. A large number of Serbs did move with the Patriarch to Hungarian territory later in that year; he himself gave their numbers as 30,000 or 40,000. But they had gathered, from many areas, in the Belgrade region, and only a small proportion were from Kosovo itself. One unsupported claim was made many years later, by a Serbian monk, that the Patriarch had brought 37,000 families to Hungary; and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries many Serb writers interpreted that figure maximally, while also assuming that all those people had come from Kosovo. This essay analyses the ideological influences (operating primarily on Serbs within the Habsburg territories in the nineteenth century) that helped to shape that interpretation; it also criticizes excessive claims made by modern Albanian and Turkish historians.

Great Migration Of Serbs - 1690

[Colonel Frank Grimes]

Noel Malcolm is Albanian and Bosnian Muslim lobbyist. All his "works" is anti-Serb propaganda.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Malcolm

What I found odd about Malcolm is he published his book two months after the war in Kosovo began. There would be no reason (in other words not profitable) to write a book for the English speaking public about an obscure region that 99.9% of the English speaking world would have no interest unless there was a conflict.

The book was written and suspiciously published very quickly as you would expect of a work of propaganda.

[Baki]

To confirm even further that these people were Albanian we can just look at the demographics of Kosovo at that time or before the whole Austrian-Ottoman wars.

For example, according to the Turkish traveler Evliya Celebi who travelled Kosovo in the 1660's, Western and Central Kosovo had an Albanian majority:

Pulaha noted most Christians in Opoja in 1591 had Albanian names[57].Catholic bishop Pjetër Mazreku noted in 1624 that the Catholics of Prizren were 200, the Serbs (Orthodox) 600, and Muslims, almost all of whom were Albanians, numbered 12,000.[58]In his 1662 work, Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi noted that the residents of Vushtrri were mostly Albanians.[59].In 1660's he noted most of western Kosovo as inhabited by Albanians

This was like 30 years before Austrian-Ottoman Wars which confirms further these people revolting against Ottomans were Albanians.

[Baki]

This is what I have been saying for years. Most of the Serbian claims on that place are completely nonsense. They are claims invented in the 19th-20th century during the Balkan state formation process and form of nationalism. They started accusing Albanians of having all co-operated with the Ottomans, genocide Serbs etc without no evidence. They adopted the first battle as some national defining moment, despite there were Albanians fighting in that battle on the Serbian side, and in the second battle the Serbs actually became Ottoman vassals and went against anti-Ottoman Albanian troops. Battle of Kosovo (1448)

They expelled 60,000+ (Some claim up to 150,000 Albanians were expelled out of their homes) Albanians out of Nish and Leskovac which they had captured from the Ottomans despite these Albanians were peaceful people. Expulsion of the Albanians 1877–1878

This grew Albanian hatred towards Serbs and actually started the whole conflict. These Albanians became refugees in Kosovo which was then still Ottoman territory. As a result there were revenge attacks by some of these Albanians, they expelled Serbs and Kosovo from then on gained an absolute Albanian majority. From there Kosovo became an Albanian enclave. There
was again an Anti-Ottoman Albanian revolt there in 1912 and in Macedonia which the Albanians won. The Serbs took advantage of a defeated Ottoman Empire and invaded and started massacring Albanians. Albanian revolt of 1912

The Serbs also started pushing into Macedonia and Albania where they massacred the Albanian population. Skopje which had a population of 70% Albanian ended up losing half of it's Albanian population. They also historically claimed Macedonia and Albania.

Western powers ended up giving them Kosovo despite Italy and Austria voted to give it to Albania. It was a huge mistake as from 1912 to 1939 the Serbs murdered and expelled Albanians and started colonizing it with Serbs. See the colonization of Kosovo. World War II stopped the colonization and then Tito took over Yugoslavia. He gave Albanians more rights and made Kosovo an autonomous province.


It was also planned by the Serbs to colonize Macedonia.

[Baki]

Regarding Nish, except that it was inhabited by Illyrians and Thracians for thousands of years, it was also Bulgarian for hundreds of years. I wonder what claim do the Serbs have to
that city ?

Same with Kosovo, out of entires Kosovo's history, the Serbs held Kosovo only for like 250 years or so.

History, for the Serbs, started in the early 7th century, when they settled in the Balkans. Their power base was outside Kosovo, which they fully conquered in the early 13th, so the claim that Kosovo was the "cradle" of the Serbs is untrue.

What is true is that they ruled Kosovo for about 250 years, until the final Ottoman takeover in the mid-15th century. Churches and monasteries remain from that period, but there is no more continuity between the medieval Serbian state and today's Serbia than there is between the Byzantine Empire and Greece.

Kosovo remained Ottoman territory until it was conquered by Serbian forces in 1912. Serbs would say "liberated"; but even their own estimates put the Orthodox Serb population at less than 25%. The majority population was Albanian, and did not welcome Serb rule, so "conquered" seems the right word.

But legally, Kosovo was not incorporated into the Serbian kingdom in 1912; it remained occupied territory until some time after 1918. Then, finally, it was incorporated, not into a Serbian state, but into a Yugoslav one. And with one big interruption (the second world war) it remained part of some sort of Yugoslav state until June 2006.

Is Kosovo Serbia? We ask a historian

They also never legally annexed it. Then it was only incorporated into a Yugoslav State.

Macedonia never even had a Serb majority yet during the Balkan Wars the Serbs also went for Macedonia. It was held by various different empires. They planned to colonize it like they did with Kosovo.

They also went for Albania which was held by various empires. What historical claims did Serbs have to Albania ? They went for Albanian inhabited parts
of Montenegro. Tim Judah tried to justify Serbian claim on Shkodra, a city which was Illyrian for thousands of years and at the Serbian occupation had an Albanian majority.


Most of these Serbian historical claims to these places is completely nonsense and certainly have nothing to do with ancient hatreds. It's basically Serbian expansionism
at display. They were looking to push their borders and started an ethnic conflict.