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Gjergj Fishta, the “Albanian Homer,” and Edith Durham, the “Albanian Mountain Queen”: Observers of Albania’s Road to Statehood

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The Balkan Wars from Contemporary Perception to Historic Memory

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Abstract

This chapter addresses the contribution of Gjergj Fishta and Edith Durham to the Albanian national movement and their perspectives on the independence of Albania and on the Balkan Wars. Fishta represents the position of an Albanian nationalist who aspired for the formation of an independent Albania on ethnic grounds. Durham’s view and activities were based on what she perceived as the right of the Albanians in accordance with the principle “the Balkans for the Balkan people.” Not least because of the atrocities committed against Albanians by the armies of the Balkan League, Durham distanced herself from sympathizing with the Serbian and Montenegrin national cause. Durham’s and Fishta’s impact is still felt today as a strong legacy in Albanian literature and collective memory.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This overview is based on Albanian literature. See: Tajar Zavalani, Histori e Shqipnis [History of Albania], vol. 2 (London: Drini, 1966), 5–49.

  2. 2.

    A recent book which focuses on Albanian statehood and atrocities committed against Albanians is Historia e popullit shqiptar [The history of the Albanian people], vols. 1 and 2, published in Tirana in 2002. The book is a compilation of works by a group of well-known Albanian historians. It is widely used as a history textbook in middle schools and higher education, including universities in Albania and Kosovo.

  3. 3.

    In 1902, the Sultan ordered the closure of the few Albanian schools and publications that existed in Albania. In 1908, the Albanian language and schools were legalized by the Young Turks after the promise they made to Albanian leaders to join them. But the Young Turks soon changed their minds and figured that schools and language were promoting Albanian nationalism. After they came to power, they closed down the schools and banned publications.

  4. 4.

    Cf. Robert Elsie, Historical Dictionary of Albania (Plymouth: Scarecrow Press, 2010), 139.

  5. 5.

    Cf. Robert Elsie and Janice Mathie-Heck, eds., Songs of the Frontier Warriors: Kenge Kreshnikesh. Albanian Epic Verse in a Bilingual English–Albanian Edition, An Albanian Epic (Mundelein, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci, 2004); cf. also Robert Elsie, Albanian Literature: A Short History (London: I. B. Tauris, 2005), 121–22.

  6. 6.

    Elsie, Albanian Literature, 129.

  7. 7.

    Gjergj Fishta, The Highland Lute, trans. Robert Elsie and Janice Mathie-Heck (London: I. B. Tauris, 2005), xvi.

  8. 8.

    As cited in Elsie, Albanian Literature, 130.

  9. 9.

    ‘Lahuta e Malcís’—himn atdhedashurie [‘The Highland Lute’—country loving hymn], Gazeta Telegraf, December 17, 2012, http://telegraf.al/kulture/lahuta-e-malcis-himn-atdhedashurie, accessed on June 22, 2016.

  10. 10.

    Xhavit Beqiri, Lahuta e Malcís—një vepër misioni [The Highland Lute—mission’s work], Drita, February 9, 2015, http://www.drita.info/2015/02/09/lahuta-e-malcis-nje-veper-misioni/, accessed on June 23, 2016.

  11. 11.

    In several Balkan Slavic languages, the meaning of kum[ara] is “godfather.”

  12. 12.

    Fishta, The Highland Lute, 59–61.

  13. 13.

    Ibid.

  14. 14.

    Shkëlzen Gashi, Trashëgimia kulturore: Një histori e patreguar—trashëgimia kulturore në tekstet mësimore të historisë së Kosovës—Cultural Heritage: An Untold Story—Kosovo’s Cultural Heritage in Kosovo’s History Textbooks (Prishtinë: Ec ma ndryshe, 2016), 4.

  15. 15.

    Kristaq Prifti, ed., Historia e popullit shqiptar [The history of the Albanian people], vol. 2 (Tirana: Toena, 2002), 230–34.

  16. 16.

    British National Archives (BNA), Foreign Office (FO) 424/129, No. 100, Green to Granville, June 11, 1883.

  17. 17.

    Ibid.

  18. 18.

    Ibid.

  19. 19.

    John B. Allcock and Antonia Young, eds., Black Lambs and Grey Falcons. Women Travelling in the Balkans (New York: Berghahn Books, 2000), 9–10.

  20. 20.

    Ibid., 11.

  21. 21.

    Marcus Tanner, Albania’s Mountain Queen. Edith Durham and the Balkans (London: I. B. Tauris, 2014), 54.

  22. 22.

    Eugène Michail, The British and the Balkans. Forming Images of Foreign Lands, 1900–1950 (London: Bloomsbury, 2011), 11.

  23. 23.

    Edith Durham, Struggle for Scutari (London: Edward Arnold, 1914), 3–8.

  24. 24.

    Allcock and Young, Black Lambs and Grey Falcons, 16–17.

  25. 25.

    Bejtullah Destani, ed., Albania’s Greatest Friend—Aubrey Herbert and the Making of Modern Albania (London: I. B. Tauris, 2011), 108.

  26. 26.

    Bejtullah Destani, M. Edith Durham, Albania and Albanians. Selected Articles and Letters 1903–1944 (London: Centre for Albanian Studies, 2001), 2.

  27. 27.

    Michail, The British and the Balkans, 81.

  28. 28.

    Edith Durham, The Burden of the Balkans (Edward Arnold: London, 1905), 81.

  29. 29.

    Edith Durham, Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1920), 83.

  30. 30.

    Durham, Burden of the Balkans, vii–viii.

  31. 31.

    Durham, Twenty Years, 87.

  32. 32.

    A. J. P. Taylor, The Trouble Makers (London: H. Hamilton, 1957), 96.

  33. 33.

    Tanner, Albania’s Mountain Queen, 150–51.

  34. 34.

    Maringlen Verli, Shqiptarët në optikën e diplomacisë austro-hungareze 1877–1918 [Albanians in the view of Austria-Hungarian diplomacy 1877–1918] (Tiranë: KLEAN, 2014), 199–201.

  35. 35.

    BNA, FO, 195/2406, Durham to Foreign Office, December 28, 1911. The letter was delivered to the Foreign Office through Henry W. Nevisan, a well-known British journalist and war correspondent from the Balkans.

  36. 36.

    Ibid.

  37. 37.

    Kristo Frashëri, The History of Albania. A Brief Survey (Tirana: s.n., 1964), 491.

  38. 38.

    Ramiz Abdyli, Lëvizja kombëtare shqiptare 1911–1912 [The Albanian national movement], vol. 2 (Prishtinë: Instituti i Historisë, 2004), 380–82.

  39. 39.

    Durham, Twenty Years, 195–96.

  40. 40.

    Tanner, Albania’s Mountain Queen, 167.

  41. 41.

    Ibid., 160–61.

  42. 42.

    Leo Freundlich, Albania’s Golgotha: Indictment of the Exterminators of the Albanian People, http://www.albanianhistory.net/1913_Freundlich_Golgotha/index.html, accessed on July 1, 2016.

  43. 43.

    Cf. Prifti, Historia e popullit shqiptar, 503.

  44. 44.

    Fishta, The Highland Lute, 390.

  45. 45.

    Durham, Twenty Years, 202.

  46. 46.

    See Prifti, Historia e popullit shqiptar, 507.

  47. 47.

    Frank Maloy Anderson and Amos Shartle Hershley, Handbook for the Diplomatic History of Europe, Asia, and Africa 1870–1914 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1918), 333–34.

  48. 48.

    Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 (London: Penguin, 2013), 282.

  49. 49.

    Durham, Twenty Years, 204.

  50. 50.

    Tanner, Albania’s Mountain Queen, 177.

  51. 51.

    Ibid., 215.

  52. 52.

    Archives of Kosovo, Prishtina, Govor Kralja Nikole: ‘Harbri moji vojnici’ [King Nikola’s speech: My brave soldiers], XXIV/K.1-1-1913.

  53. 53.

    Durham, Twenty Years, 205.

  54. 54.

    See the Final Decision of the London Conference on Albania in Robert Elsie, 1913. The London Conference, http://www.albanianhistory.net/1913_Conference-of-London/index.html, accessed on July 1, 2016.

  55. 55.

    Durham, Twenty Years, 240.

  56. 56.

    Tanner, Albania’s Mountain Queen, 215.

  57. 57.

    Allcock and Young, Black Lambs and Grey Falcons, 9–10.

  58. 58.

    Enver Hoxha, The Anglo American Threat to Albania. Memoirs of the National Liberation War (Tirana: 8 Nëntori, 1982), 134.

  59. 59.

    Shkëlzen Gashi, Kosova 1912–2000 in the History Textbooks of Kosova, Albania and Serbia (Prishtina: KAHCR and KEC, 2012), 14–15.

  60. 60.

    As cited in Christian Medawar, Mary Edith Durham and the Balkans 1900–1914 (Montreal: McGill University Press, 1995), 145, http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=23726&local_base=GEN01-MCG02 accessed on July 1, 2016.

  61. 61.

    Gashi, Kosova 1912–2000, 50–54.

  62. 62.

    Ibid., 14–15.

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  1. Department of History, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Daut Dauti

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  1. Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg, Germany

    Katrin Boeckh

  2. Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg, Germany

    Sabine Rutar

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Dauti, D. (2016). Gjergj Fishta, the “Albanian Homer,” and Edith Durham, the “Albanian Mountain Queen”: Observers of Albania’s Road to Statehood. In: Boeckh, K., Rutar, S. (eds) The Balkan Wars from Contemporary Perception to Historic Memory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44642-4_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44642-4_4

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