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130-631: The term Laraman in Albanian refers to crypto-Christians who adhered to Islam officially but continued to practice Christianity within the household during the Ottoman era . It was derived from the Albanian adjective i larmë , meaning "variegated, motley, two-faced", a metaphor of "two-faithed" ( l'arë ), a reference to the Laramans following both Christianity (in secret) and Islam (nominally). The phenomenon

260-461: A laraman background have formally joined (or "returned to") the Catholic community. Today, the laraman phenomenon remains incompletely understood. While some experts as well as some church officials regard the laramans as remaining entirely Christian in beliefs while professing Islam due to necessity, and others have pointed to practical considerations underpinning the phenomenon. Others have noted

390-618: A Latinis, Grecis et Sclauis ita quod in nullo se intelligunt cum aliis nationibus. (Namely, the above-mentioned Albanians have a language that is different from the languages of Latins, Greeks and Slavs, so that they do not understand each other at all.) The oldest attested document written in Albanian dates to 1462, while the first audio recording in the language was made by Norbert Jokl on 4 April 1914 in Vienna . However, as Fortson notes, Albanian written works existed before this point; they have simply been lost. The existence of written Albanian

520-829: A common branch in the current phylogenetic classification of the Indo-European language family. The first written mention of Albanian was in 1284 in a witness testimony from the Republic of Ragusa , while a letter written by Dominican Friar Gulielmus Adea in 1332 mentions the Albanians using the Latin alphabet in their writings. The oldest surviving attestation of modern Albanian is from 1462. The two main Albanian dialect groups (or varieties ), Gheg and Tosk , are primarily distinguished by phonological differences and are mutually intelligible in their standard varieties, with Gheg spoken to

650-561: A common period of prehistoric coexistence of several Indo-European dialects in the Balkans prior to 2000 BC. To this group would belong Albanian, Ancient Greek , Armenian , Phrygian , fragmentary attested languages such as Macedonian , Thracian , or Illyrian , and the relatively well-attested Messapic in Southern Italy. The common features of this group appear at the phonological, morphological, and lexical levels, presumably resulting from

780-598: A deterrent, they were deported in the winter and spring of 1845 and 1846 to Anatolia , where many of them died. They were brought home in November 1848 following diplomatic intervention by the Great Powers. In 1856, Tanzimat reforms improved the situation, and no further serious abuse was reported. The bulk of reversion of Laramans back to open Catholicism took place between 1872 and 1924. The Slovenian bishop Ivan Franjo Gnidovec (bishop of Skopje 1924-1939) invested energy into

910-573: A hill near Bar . He made Bar his seat of power. Vojislav then expanded the area under his rule. Mihailo I of Duklja (ruler 1050–1081), Vojislav's son, established the Archdiocese of Antivari . He continued to fight the Byzantines in order to secure the town's independence. This led to a union of states known as the Serbian Grand Principality . From 1101 to 1166, the principality was ruled by

1040-472: A large amount (or the majority) of their sea environment lexicon. A similar phenomenon could be observed with agricultural terms. While the words for 'arable land', 'wheat', 'cereals', 'vineyard', 'yoke', 'harvesting', 'cattle breeding', etc. are native, the words for 'ploughing', 'farm' and 'farmer', agricultural practices, and some harvesting tools are foreign. This, again, points to intense contact with other languages and people, rather than providing evidence of

1170-477: A low of 4.3 °C (39.7 °F). Snow is very rare occurrence in Bar, it usually snows once in a few years. The highest recorded snowfall occurred during January 2000, when 9 centimetres (3.5 in) was measured. Summers are generally warmer, drier and sunnier than the winter months. During summer, the highest temperatures are around 27 to 28 °C (81 to 82 °F) and the lowest 18 °C (64 °F). Precipitation

1300-470: A major part of Bar's economy. Bar has a ferry line to Bari, Italy which is operated by Montenegro Lines. In season, ferries also go to Ancona , Italy. Bar is well connected with inland Montenegro, as well as with the rest of the Montenegrin coast. The Sozina tunnel , completed in 2006, shortened the road connection with Podgorica to around 50 km (31 mi). Bar is connected to other coastal towns by

1430-475: A number of isoglosses with Albanian. Other linguists linked the Albanian language with Latin , Greek and Armenian , while placing Germanic and Balto-Slavic in another branch of Indo-European. In current scholarship there is evidence that Albanian is closely related to Greek and Armenian, while the fact that it is a satem language is less significant. Armenian Greek Phrygian (extinct) Messapic (extinct) Gheg Tosk Messapic

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1560-535: A possible linguistic homeland (also known as a Urheimat ). The centre of Albanian settlement remained the Mat River. In 1079, the Albanians were recorded farther south in the valley of the Shkumbin River. The Shkumbin, a 181 km long river that lies near the old Via Egnatia , is approximately the boundary of the primary dialect division for Albanian, Tosk and Gheg . The characteristics of Tosk and Gheg in

1690-462: A radio connection between Antivari (Bar) and Bari on 30 August 1904. In 1908, the first railroad in this part of the Balkans was put into operation there. On 8 August 1914 Austria-Hungary responded to Montenegro's declaration of war by sending their protected cruisers SMS Zenta and SMS Szigetvár accompanied by the destroyer SMS Uskoke and torpedo boat 72F to conduct an unopposed bombardment of

1820-910: A strong sense of identity and are unique in that they speak an archaic dialect of Tosk Albanian called Arbëresh . In the United States and Canada, there are approximately 250,000 Albanian speakers. It is primarily spoken on the East Coast of the United States, in cities like New York City, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Detroit, as well as in parts of the states of New Jersey, Ohio, and Connecticut. In Argentina, there are nearly 40,000 Albanian speakers , mostly in Buenos Aires. Approximately 1.3 million people of Albanian ancestry live in Turkey , with more than 500,000 recognizing their ancestry, language and culture . There are other estimates, however, that place

1950-407: A vehicle for the expression of Crypto-Christian beliefs and rituals. Bektashism is a Muslim pantheistic dervish order ( tariqat ) thought to have originated in the 13th century in a frontier region of Anatolia, where Christianity, Islam and paganism coexisted, allowing the incorporation of comparable pagan and local non-Muslim beliefs into popular Islam, which facilitated the conversion process to

2080-499: A while, the issue of whether sacraments should be administered to laramans caused an "acute controversy" within the church hierarchy. He notes that for a while, successive archbishops of Skopje had held that priests should be allowed to administer sacraments to the laramans , and give them "all the assistance they needed". In 1700, the Papacy passed to Pope Clement XI , who was himself of Albanian-Italian origins and held great interest in

2210-457: Is a historic city. It has not been historically established when it was created, but archaeological findings of substantial extent prove the presence of life in this location during prehistoric times. Local archaeological findings date to the Neolithic era. It is assumed that Bar was mentioned as the reconstructed Roman castle, Antipargal , in the 6th century. The name Antibarium was quoted for

2340-659: Is also spoken by 450,000 Albanian immigrants in Greece, making it one of the commonly spoken languages in the country after Greek. Albanian is the third most common mother tongue among foreign residents in Italy . This is due to a substantial Albanian immigration to Italy. Italy has a historical Albanian minority of about 500,000, scattered across southern Italy, known as Arbëreshë . Approximately 1 million Albanians from Kosovo are dispersed throughout Germany , Switzerland and Austria . These are mainly immigrants from Kosovo who migrated during

2470-693: Is also spoken in Greece and by the Albanian diaspora , which is generally concentrated in the Americas , Europe and Oceania . Albanian is estimated to have as many as 7.5 million native speakers. Albanian and other Paleo-Balkan languages had their formative core in the Balkans after the Indo-European migrations in the region. Albanian in antiquity is often thought to have been an Illyrian language for obvious geographic and historical reasons, or otherwise an unmentioned Balkan Indo-European language that

2600-583: Is an Indo-European language and the only surviving representative of the Albanoid branch , which belongs to the Paleo-Balkan group . It is the native language of the Albanian people . Standard Albanian is the official language of Albania and Kosovo , and a co-official language in North Macedonia and Montenegro , as well as a recognized minority language of Italy , Croatia , Romania and Serbia . It

2730-592: Is considered the closest language to Albanian, grouped in a common branch titled Illyric in Hyllested & Joseph (2022). Hyllested & Joseph (2022) in agreement with recent bibliography identify Greco-Phrygian as the IE branch closest to the Albanian-Messapic one. These two branches form an areal grouping – which is often called "Balkan IE" – with Armenian. The hypothesis of the " Balkan Indo-European " continuum posits

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2860-662: Is explicitly mentioned in a letter attested from 1332, and the first preserved books, including both those in Gheg and in Tosk, share orthographic features that indicate that some form of common literary language had developed. By the Late Middle Ages , during the period of Humanism and the European Renaissance , the term lingua epirotica ' Epirotan language ' was preferred in the intellectual, literary, and clerical circles of

2990-555: Is known as the Bar massacre . In 1976, Pristan was demolished, with the aim of expanding the Port in its place. The population was mainly moved to Topolica, where until urbanization there was only a complex of the Castle of King Nicholas. After the catastrophic earthquake of 1979, especially conditioned by the work of the Port of Bar, the city experienced a demographic boom. In the period until 1990, Bar

3120-642: Is low during the summer months, although rainfall can still occur, with July averaging 4.5 days with measurable precipitation. Spring and fall are transitional seasons that feature mild weather that can often be wet and unpredictable. There are, on average, 2523 hours of sunshine per year, ranging from a low of 111.6 hours in December to a high of 350.3 hours in July. The coastal part of Bar supports maquis shrubland with oak, holm oak, laurel, myrtle, Spanish broom, oleander, hawthorn, sloe, thorn, butcher's broom and asparagus. To

3250-511: Is partly an 'invented tradition' -- good for justifying the need of an 'identity baptism' more than a 'cultural baptism'", while also noting the role of the efficiency of the "social-humanitarian Catholic machine". Naim Ternava, the head of the Kosovo Islamic community, has opposed the new churches as well as the new cathedral in Prishtina. The historian Jahja Drancolli attributes the phenomenon to

3380-579: Is spoken in North-western Greece, while Arvanitika is spoken by the Arvanites in southern Greece. In addition, Arbëresh is spoken by the Arbëreshë people, descendants of 15th and 16th century migrants who settled in southeastern Italy, in small communities in the regions of Sicily and Calabria . These settlements originated from the (Arvanites) communities probably of Peloponnese known as Morea in

3510-482: Is spoken in the south, and Gheg spoken in the north. Standard Albanian is based on the Tosk dialect. The Shkumbin River is the rough dividing line between the two dialects. Gheg is divided into four sub-dialects: Northwest Gheg, Northeast Gheg, Central Gheg and Southern Gheg. It is primarily spoken in northern Albania, Kosovo , and throughout Montenegro and northwestern North Macedonia . One fairly divergent dialect

3640-914: Is supposed to be a shortened Slavic variant of Antivari . The name is thought to be derived from the Latin Antibarum or Antibari , which later in Greek was transformed into Antivárion / Antivari due to its pronunciation. "Antibari", meaning "opposite Bari ", is a name taken because of it is location across the Adriatic Sea from Bari in Italy . Variations are in Italian , Antivari / Antibari ; in Albanian , Tivari or Tivar ; in Turkish , Bar ; in Greek , Θηβάριον, Thivárion , Αντιβάριον, Antivárion ; in Latin , Antibarium . Bar

3770-560: Is the Upper Reka dialect , which is however classified as Central Gheg. There is also a diaspora dialect in Croatia , the Arbanasi dialect . Tosk is divided into five sub-dialects, including Northern Tosk (the most numerous in speakers), Labërisht , Cham , Arvanitika , and Arbëresh . Tosk is spoken in southern Albania, southwestern North Macedonia and northern and southern Greece. Cham Albanian

3900-399: Is the most probable. Although Albanian shares lexical isoglosses with Greek , Germanic , and to a lesser extent Balto-Slavic , the vocabulary of Albanian is quite distinct. In 1995, Taylor, Ringe , and Warnow used quantitative linguistic techniques that appeared to obtain an Albanian subgrouping with Germanic, a result which the authors had already reasonably downplayed. Indeed,

4030-554: Is the official language of Albania and Kosovo and a co-official language in North Macedonia and Montenegro . Albanian is a recognised minority language in Croatia , Italy , Romania and in Serbia . Albanian is also spoken by a minority in Greece , specifically in the Thesprotia and Preveza regional units and in a few villages in Ioannina and Florina regional units in Greece. It

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4160-561: The Belt and Road initiative) in 2014, large tracts of land around Bar were agreed as collateral in the event of the Montenegro government defaulting on payment of the 1 billion dollar loan. The project was financed by the Export-Import Bank of China . Contractual disputes can only be resolved through a Chinese court. Bar is located on the coastal western border of Montenegro on the shore of

4290-458: The Congress of Dibra decided that Albanian schools would finally be allowed. Albanian is an isolate within the Indo-European language family; no other language has been conclusively linked to its branch . The only other languages that are the sole surviving members of a branch of Indo-European are Armenian and Greek. The Albanian language is part of the Indo-European language family and

4420-579: The Great Austro-Turkish War , Albanian Catholic leaders Pjetër Bogdani and Toma Raspasani rallied Kosovo Albanian Catholics and Muslims to the pro-Austrian cause, and they aided the Venetian general Daniele Delfino. Harsh reprisals followed the retreat of the Austrian and Venetian armies. Large numbers of Catholics fled north where many "died, some of hunger, others of disease" around Budapest . After

4550-619: The Janissary of Muhammad Ali Pasha , an Albanian who became Wāli , and self-declared Khedive of Egypt and Sudan . In addition to the dynasty that he established, a large part of the former Egyptian and Sudanese aristocracy was of Albanian origin. In addition to the recent emigrants, there are older diasporic communities around the world. Albanian is also spoken by Albanian diaspora communities residing in Australia and New Zealand . The Albanian language has two distinct dialects, Tosk which

4680-723: The Korçë District , Kamnik in Kolonja , Kolsh in the Kukës District , Rashtan in Librazhd , and Nezir in the Mat District . As in other parts of Europe, these PreIE people joined the migratory Indo-European tribes that entered the Balkans and contributed to the formation of the historical Paleo-Balkan tribes. In terms of linguistics, the pre-Indo-European substrate language spoken in the southern Balkans probably influenced pre-Proto-Albanian ,

4810-853: The League of Prizren and culminated with the Congress of Manastir held by Albanian intellectuals from 14 to 22 November 1908, in Manastir (present day Bitola ), which decided on which alphabet to use, and what the standardised spelling would be for standard Albanian. This is how the literary language remains. The alphabet is the Latin alphabet with the addition of the letters ⟨ ë ⟩ , ⟨ ç ⟩ , and ten digraphs : dh , th , xh , gj , nj , ng , ll , rr , zh and sh . According to Robert Elsie : The hundred years between 1750 and 1850 were an age of astounding orthographic diversity in Albania. In this period,

4940-609: The Ottoman Grand Vizier . Tropoja region was originally Catholic and crypto-catholics until the Ottoman conversion where still today there is a large population of catholics in the historical malesia e gjakovës region. In the late 17th and 18th centuries, especially after numerous rebellions including during the Great Turkish War and subsequent clashes with Orthodox Russia, Ottoman rulers also made concerted efforts to convert

5070-664: The Port of Bar , the Belgrade–Bar railway and the Sozina tunnel . The Port of Bar is the most recognizable feature of the city. It occupies 3,100 m (10,170.60  ft ) of seacoast, land area of 800 ha and aquatorium of 200ha. It is capable of reloading 5 million tons of goods annually. In 1976, the Belgrade – Bar railway was opened. It made the Adriatic coast accessible to tourists, and transport to

5200-799: The Vallahades of Greece, in which there was "a mixed religion... there is no evidence that they did not believe equally in both elements." Malcolm likely notes the separate phenomenon of religious amphibianism , especially noteworthy in Kosovo, where families of mixed religious affiliations practiced both religions. Such situations often arose through conversion of one family member but not others, or through interfaith marriages. Nevertheless, such cases often gave rise to situational crypto-Christianity, where Catholic family members often had both Catholic and Muslim names, and used their intimate knowledge of Islam to pretend to be Muslim when away from home so as to benefit from

5330-558: The Vukanović dynasty . However from 1166 to 1183, Bar was under Byzantine rule. In 1183, Stefan Nemanja conquered and destroyed Bar. Until 1360 it was ruled by the Nemanjić dynasty. From 1360 onward, it comes under the control of the Balšić noble family , and Queen Jelena and Balša III establish the capital there. Between 1405 and 1412. Venetians controlled Bar, and this was also the time when

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5460-505: The beginning of the 18th century. In Tropoja, a crypto-Christian population that was not Catholic but Orthodox existed until the end of the 18th century. A large Catholic minority remains in Tropoja still today. In the region of Shpati in Elbasan district, Crypto-Orthodoxy was established, and survived. The presence of crypto-Christians can be detected by the discrepancy between the statistics of

5590-457: The defter of 1875 show that Muslim Chams had surpassed Orthodox Chams in numbers. In a number of cases however, only one person, usually the oldest male member of the family, converted into Islam, in order not to pay taxes, while all other members remained Christians. As a result, historians argue that the Cham Albanians were either Christian or Crypto-Christian as late as the first half of

5720-517: The laraman legacy, Catholic Albanians in Stublla still wear the dimije , harem trousers that are typically worn only by Muslim women, among other "Muslim-like" habits. In the late Ottoman period, the town of İpek (modern Pejë / Peć ) had crypto-Christians who were of the Catholic faith. In the mid 18th century, Crypto-Catholics were widespread especially around Peja, Gjakova, and Prizren. A number of crypto-Catholics in Peja, Gjakova, and Prizren were granted official recognition as Catholics in 1845 by

5850-419: The laramanë that originally lived in these remote areas ultimately moved onto the plains and became either entirely Catholic or entirely Muslim, more often choosing the dominant religion of the place they moved to. There have been reports of Albanians in Klina and the surrounding regions, as well as Rugova and Drenica and southern Kosovo, converting to Catholicism, and asserting a laraman heritage, in which

5980-530: The 14th century, but they failed to cite specific words. The oldest surviving documents written in Albanian are the " formula e pagëzimit " (Baptismal formula), Un'te paghesont' pr'emenit t'Atit e t'Birit e t'Spertit Senit . ("I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit ") recorded by Pal Engjelli, Bishop of Durrës in 1462 in the Gheg dialect, and some New Testament verses from that period. The linguists Stefan Schumacher and Joachim Matzinger (University of Vienna) assert that

6110-536: The 160 Christian houses of Suhareka had all become Muslim while some 36-37 women had remained Christian, with locals telling him that "in our hearts we are Christians; we have only changed names [i.e. adopted Muslim names] in order not to pay taxes imposed by the Turks". The locals told Massarechius that they wanted him to come to them in secret for confessions and for communion. Reportedly, the Islamized Catholics only married Christian girls, because they did not want "the name Christian" to vanish from their houses. During

6240-414: The 18th century, among a poor farmers. The wars of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries between Russia and the Ottoman Empire negatively impacted upon the region. Increased conversions followed, often forced. During the entire 18th century, Muslims were still a minority among the Albanian population of the region, and became the majority only in the second half of the 19th century. Estimates based on

6370-410: The 1990s. In Switzerland , the Albanian language is the sixth most spoken language with 176,293 native speakers. Albanian became an official language in North Macedonia on 15 January 2019. There are large numbers of Albanian speakers in the United States, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Canada . Some of the first ethnic Albanians to arrive in the United States were the Arbëreshë. The Arbëreshë have

6500-531: The 19th century. During the second half though the majority of Chams became fully Islamized and Crypto-Christianity ceased to exist. There continued to be laramans living in the mountainous hinterland (Karadak, also known as Skopska Crna Gora ) around Stubell, in Kosovo's Vitina municipality . There are still laramanë in this area today in "remote and almost deserted hamlets", as Duijzings notes. They opted not to openly revert to Catholicism in this area, because of traditional marriage ties to Muslim clans. Most of

6630-589: The Adriatic Sea. It is approximately 53 kilometres (33 mi) from Podgorica , the capital of Montenegro. To the east is the largest lake in South Europe , Lake Skadar . To the west, across the sea, is Italy. Bar has a borderline humid subtropical ( Cfa ) and Mediterranean climate ( Csa ) in the Köppen climate classification , since the driest month has 37 mm (1.5 inches) of precipitation, preventing it from being classified as solely humid subtropical or Mediterranean. Winters are cool and rainy, with an average high of 12.3 °C (54.1 °F) in January and

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6760-420: The Adriatic motorway, which extends from Ulcinj to Herceg Novi , and on to Croatia . Bar is also the final station of the Belgrade–Bar railway , which connects Bar with Podgorica, northern Montenegro and Serbia . Podgorica Airport is about 40 km (25 mi) from Bar. There are regular flights to Belgrade , Budapest , Zürich , Frankfurt , Ljubljana , London , Paris , Rome and Vienna . As well

6890-453: The Albanian and Germanic branches share a relatively moderate number of lexical cognates. Many shared grammatical elements or features of these two branches do not corroborate the lexical isoglosses. Albanian also shares lexical linguistic affinity with Latin and Romance languages. Sharing linguistic features unique to the languages of the Balkans , Albanian also forms a part of the Balkan linguistic area or sprachbund . The place and

7020-426: The Albanian language was on 14 July 1284 in Ragusa in modern Croatia ( Dubrovnik ) when a crime witness named Matthew testified: "I heard a voice crying on the mountain in the Albanian language" ( Latin : Audivi unam vocem, clamantem in monte in lingua albanesca ). The Albanian language is also mentioned in the Descriptio Europae Orientalis dated in 1308: Habent enim Albani prefati linguam distinctam

7150-435: The Albanian language was put to writing in at least ten different alphabets – most certainly a record for European languages. ... the diverse forms in which this old Balkan language was recorded, from the earliest documents to the beginning of the twentieth century ... consist of adaptations of the Latin, Greek, Arabic, and Cyrillic alphabets and (what is even more interesting) a number of locally invented writing systems. Most of

7280-417: The Balšićs. Stefan Lazarević and Đurađ Branković also occupied Bar in the first half of the 15th century. From 1443 to 1571, the region was ruled by the Venetians, who called it Antivari , and it was part of the Venetian Albania . It was a town with its own coat of arms , flag, statute and mint. In 1571, the Ottomans captured Antivari and held the town until 1878. The archdiocese was preserved. With

7410-465: The Bar sea shore one finds various kinds of shells, snails, echinodermata , cephalopoda and crayfish . Bar is the administrative centre of Bar Municipality , which includes the town of Sutomore and other small coastal towns. A census in 2023 recorded 46,171 people in the Bar Municipality. Bar city had 15,868 inhabitants. The municipality of Bar is divided into 12 communes ( mjesna zajednica ), consisting of 83 settlements: Ethnic composition of

7540-457: The Blueline bus company provides public bus service with the central city of Bar as well as near the city of Sutomore. There is also inter city buses as well as international buses such as Flexbus. Bar has over fifty sports clubs, and associations including a chess club. The town's major football club is FK Mornar who share the Stadion Topolica with lower league sides FK Hajduk Bar and Stari Bar team FK Sloga Bar . Bar once had two teams in

7670-462: The Catholic church in the period, which was understaffed with often illiterate priests. While in the first decade of the 17th century, Central and Northern Albania remained firmly Catholic (according to Vatican reports, Muslims were no more than 10% in Northern Albania), by the middle of the 17th century, 30–50% of Northern Albania had converted to Islam, while by 1634 most of Kosovo had also converted. The failed 1645 plot by Venice to seize Shkodër with

7800-403: The Catholic faith was maintained and transmitted by mothers, daughters and sisters, and Ramadan was celebrated alongside Christmas and Easter. The town of Kravoserije saw a new church built in 2005, and is a center where many who have "reverted" live. The Muslim community protested proposals to build a new church in Llapushnik, in the Drenica region, to serve the converts. As of 2008, a new church

7930-400: The Catholic population of Albania due to conversions to Islam, Crypto-Catholicism emerged. The first concrete evidence of Crypto-Christianity among Albanians dates to 1610, although it certainly existed before this. It was attested by Marino Bizzi , the Catholic Archbishop of Antivari , who had jurisdiction over Albania, who traveled to a village called Kalevaç, near Durres , and reported that

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8060-422: The Crypto-Christians became furious, and became bitter opponents of those who were still publicly Catholic, "whom they persecuted more than did the Moslems themselves". In 1568, a fatwa was made stipulating harsh punishments for those who outwardly professed Islam but secretly continued to be Christian. In 1650, Gregorius Massarechius (Gregor Mazrreku) of the Catholic mission in the area of Prizren reported that

8190-404: The Middle Ages. Among them the Arvanites call themselves Arbëror and sometime Arbëresh. The Arbëresh dialect is closely related to the Arvanites dialect with more Italian vocabulary absorbed during different periods of time. The Albanian language has been written using many alphabets since the earliest records from the 15th century. The history of Albanian language orthography is closely related to

8320-427: The Montenegrins recaptured the city after Russo-Turkish War, life could not be organized in it due to the destruction of war. The population first moved to Podgrađe, and the urban core was formed at the beginning of the 20th century below Volujica. The settlement is called Pristan (Novi Bar). Guglielmo Marconi , the Italian scientist and pioneer in wireless telegraphy, using Nikola Tesla 's patented technology, made

8450-515: The Orthodox Albanians of Southern and Central Albania (as well as neighboring regions of Greece and Macedonia). Like in the North, conversion was achieved through a diverse motley of violent, coercive and non-coercive means, but raised taxes were the main factor. Crypto-Orthodoxy existed in and around Dragot within Sulova (in Elbasan district) until the early 18th century, after which the inhabitants became Muslims in practice as well as in name. The village of Dragot itself converted completely to Islam in

8580-420: The Orthodox and Catholic population. In 1878, The Ottomans ceded Antivari to Montenegro at the Treaty of Berlin , after losing the Russo-Turkish War . Montenegro's initial main goal in the negotiations was its expansion into Herzegovina and the Sanjak of Novi Pazar , but Austro-Hungarian expansion made it unrealistic. The Ottomans, represented by Alexander Karatheodori Pasha , declared that they would cede

8710-413: The Ottoman conquest, the Catholic Church in the border area and the Archdiocese of Bar began to collapse, because indigenous people who began to migrate as Ottomans to that area brought a new ethnic and religious element. Because of a lack of Catholic priests, entire parishes were converted to Orthodoxy. One of the archbishops during this period was Andrija Zmajević . In 1571, The Ottomans expelled

8840-438: The Ottoman government and the Patriarchate: the Patriarchate counted thirty eight Christian villages and five Muslim villages, but the Ottomans counted twenty Muslim villages. Crypto-Orthodox individuals would often go by two names, as was the case with the Crypto-Christian Shpatarak Albanian patriot Josif Qosja (an Orthodox forename) also known as Isuf Qosja (a Muslim forename). The last traces of Crypto-Christianity were noticed in

8970-521: The Ottoman state with regards to the millet system whereby citizens of different confessions existed in different legal categories. Laraman individuals often bore two names, one Muslim and Christian, and observed a mix of Christian and Muslim rituals. Over time, many laraman communities became entirely Muslim. In the nineteenth centuries, various laraman communities, especially crypto-Catholics in Kosovo, openly declared their Christianity, and demanded to be legally once again recognized as Christians by

9100-460: The Ottoman state. While in some cases this request was granted, the laramans of Stublla were persecuted when they refused to "return" to Islam, and deported to Anatolia, until Ottoman authorities allowed their return while under Great Power pressure. In some regions of Kosovo and Central Albania, there were communities that remained laraman in the twentieth century, and in the 21st century, there are some cases in Kosovo where individuals claiming

9230-399: The Port of Bar. The food company, Primorka has been operating in Bar for more than 50 years. It produces olive oil and pomegranate juice. There are 95,000 olive trees, about 80,000 citrus trees ( lemon , orange , tangerine and grapefruit ) in the municipal area. The centre for subtropical cultures, founded in 1937, is the oldest scientific institution in Montenegro. Tourism is also

9360-698: The Shkumbin river since the Post-Roman and Pre-Slavic period, straddling the Jireček Line . Centuries-old communities speaking Albanian dialects can be found scattered in Greece (the Arvanites and some communities in Epirus , Western Macedonia and Western Thrace ), Croatia (the Arbanasi ), Italy (the Arbëreshë ) as well as in Romania , Turkey and Ukraine . The Malsia e Madhe Gheg Albanian and two varieties of

9490-412: The Tosk dialect, Arvanitika in Greece and Arbëresh in southern Italy, have preserved archaic elements of the language. Ethnic Albanians constitute a large diaspora , with many having long assimilated in different cultures and communities. Consequently, Albanian-speakers do not correspond to the total ethnic Albanian population, as many ethnic Albanians may identify as Albanian but are unable to speak

9620-503: The aftermath of World War I, and were gone by World War II. The process of Islamization of the Chams (the population of Chameria ) started in the 16th century, but it reached major proportions only in the 18th and 19th centuries. According to the population census ( defter ) of 1538, the population of the region was almost entirely Orthodox, with only a minority, estimated less than five per cent, having converted to Islam. The main instigator for

9750-409: The aid of local Catholics was followed by a wave of anti-Catholic persecution which saw increased conversion as well as flight of the Albanian population into Venetian-controlled Dalmatia. After another pro-Venetian insurrection in 1649 was crushed by the Ottoman army, another wave of persecution and apostasy followed, and Catholic missionaries were forced to leave Albania. During this rapid decrease in

9880-403: The ancestor idiom of Albanian. The extent of this linguistic impact cannot be determined with precision due to the uncertain position of Albanian among Paleo-Balkan languages and their scarce attestation. Some loanwords, however, have been proposed, such as shegë ' pomegranate ' or lëpjetë ' orach '; compare Pre-Greek λάπαθον , lápathon ' monk's rhubarb '. Antivari Bar

10010-681: The area and built a church in Dunav, a crypto-Catholic center in the Karadag; furthermore, the local Catholics tried to help the remaining laramans in their formal conversion to Catholicism. Difficulties arose due to the opposition of both the local Muslims and the Yugoslav authorities. Today, there are Catholic descendants of those laramans who survived the episode in Anatolia living in and around Stublla. Many of them are recognizable by their Islamic surnames. As part of

10140-616: The beginning of mass conversions in the region were the draconian measures adopted by the Ottomans after the two failed local revolts, in which both Christians and the Muslim (then) minority participated. In their wake, the Ottoman pashas tripled the taxes owed by the non-Muslim population, as they regarded the Orthodox element as a continuous threat. Another reason for conversion was the absence of liturgical ceremonies. The first wave of conversions began in

10270-501: The city had the most growth. The Venetians granted the Barans rights in an effort to appease and win them over, and as a result, Bar developed into a city-state . Barans had their own Statute of Communes, were in charge of their own defense, possessed judicial authority, printed their own currency, and were exempt from military service in times of war. After the Venetians, Bar was again ruled by

10400-553: The city of Lezha in northern Albania, in 1703, in order to put an end to the controversy about sacraments to laramans . The council, or Kuvend ("convention") as it became known in Albanian, ordered that those who outwardly acted as Muslims but were privately Christians—especially those who publicly ate meat on fast days and bore obviously Muslim names—would need to publicly abjure Islam and declare their Christianity, or else they would be barred from receiving sacraments. In 1743, Apostolic Visitor Nikolic reported to Pope Benedict XIV on

10530-618: The combination of the desire to return to one's roots, as well as the desire to demonstrate a "Euro-Atlantic" orientation. A number of scholarly works when discussing laramans have largely held the narrative upheld by the laramans and the priesthood that there was a "continuity" of crypto-Catholic practice in Kosovo, in which laraman communities simulated Muslim identity while retaining an uncorrupted Catholic identity at home, involving not going to mosque, going to church, inviting priests to their homes, and celebrating important Christian feasts, and baptising their children. Laramanism, in this sense,

10660-556: The community back to Catholicism began in 1837; however, the effort was violently suppressed – the local Ottoman governor put laramans in jail. After crypto-Catholics in Prizren , Peja and Gjakova were recognized as Catholics by the Ottoman Grand Vizier in 1845, twenty-five laramans in the parish of Letnica went to Gjilan (which was the district capital) to persuade the governor and sharia court judge to recognize them as Catholics;

10790-451: The contact between the various languages. The concept of this linguistic group is explained as a kind of language league of the Bronze Age (a specific areal-linguistics phenomenon), although it also consisted of languages that were related to each other. A common prestage posterior to PIE comprising Albanian, Greek, and Armenian, is considered as a possible scenario. In this light, due to

10920-683: The cultural orientation and knowledge of certain foreign languages among Albanian writers. The earliest written Albanian records come from the Gheg area in makeshift spellings based on Italian or Greek. Originally, the Tosk dialect was written in the Greek alphabet and the Gheg dialect was written in the Latin script . Both dialects had also been written in the Ottoman Turkish version of the Arabic script , Cyrillic , and some local alphabets ( Elbasan , Vithkuqi , Todhri , Veso Bey, Jan Vellara and others, see original Albanian alphabets ). More specifically,

11050-496: The declaration of Catholicism had more to do with avoiding military service, and "crypto-Christian" practice became more tenable after the Catholic church re-established a stable presence in the area in the late nineteenth century. Skendi meanwhile notes that "there is a possible confusion between Crypto-Christianity and an imperfect Moslem conversion in which the converts retain at least traces of their previous religion", noting prior remarks by R. M. Dawkins in analogous cases concerning

11180-429: The destroyer SMS Uskoke also conducted a brief bombardment. The Austrians made their largest raid to date on the evening and night of 1–2 March 1915 when their destroyers SMS Csikós , SMS Streiter , and SMS Ulan covered a raid by three torpedo-boats into Antivari harbour. The latter destroyed the main wharf and stocks of food and ammunitions along the waterfront, and captured the Montenegrin royal yacht Rumija , which

11310-405: The existence of individuals who believed equally in both Christianity and Islam. The laraman heritage has come to symbolize in Kosovo the perception of having a "Western" identity despite integration into the "Eastern" Ottoman system. In the 1600s, the Ottomans organized a concerted campaign of Islamization that was not typically applied elsewhere in the Balkans, in order to ensure the loyalty of

11440-455: The first literary records of Albanian date from the 16th century. The oldest known Albanian printed book, Meshari , or "missal", was written in 1555 by Gjon Buzuku , a Roman Catholic cleric. In 1635, Frang Bardhi wrote the first Latin–Albanian dictionary. The first Albanian school is believed to have been opened by Franciscans in 1638 in Pdhanë . One of the earliest Albanian dictionaries

11570-514: The first time in the 10th century. In the 6th and 7th centuries, Slavs occupied the Balkans . Duklja , a Slavic state, was mentioned in the 10th century. Jovan Vladimir (ruler 1000–1016), of Skadarska Krajina is the first ruler of Duklja whose history is known. Stefan Vojislav (ruler 1018–1043), the eponymous founder of the Vojislavljević dynasty , defeated the Byzantines in a battle on

11700-682: The flight of Serbs, in 1690, the Pasha of Ipek (Albanian Peja, Serbian Pec) forced Catholic Albanians in the North to move to the newly depopulated plains of Southern Serbia, and forced them to convert to Islam there. An ethnic Albanian crypto-Catholic community of laramans existed in Ottoman-era southern Kosovo , inhabiting the historical parish of Letnica , centered in Stublla ( Vitina municipality). The community originated from Roman Catholic Albanian migrants from

11830-448: The governor refused, and tried to persuade them to change their minds. When they said they were in fact Catholics, he imprisoned them in Skopje and Constantinople. A few months later, they returned with an official ferman recognizing them as Catholics, but they were instead imprisoned again. Because the Muslim elite in Kosovo feared their shift to Catholicism could have a domino effect , as

11960-457: The higher social position and privileges afforded to Muslims in the Ottoman system. Such practices were especially common in Malësia e Madhe . Malcolm also notes cases where families of crypto-Christians in Kosovo actually became biconfessional , sincerely practicing both faiths. A number of scholars explain the spread of Bektashi Sufi order among Albanians in part because it allowed itself to be

12090-534: The language. Standard Albanian is a standardised form of spoken Albanian based on Tosk . The language is spoken by approximately 6 million people in the Balkans, primarily in Albania, Kosovo , North Macedonia , Serbia , Montenegro and Greece . However, due to old communities in Italy and the large Albanian diaspora , the worldwide total of speakers is much higher than in Southern Europe and numbers approximately 7.5 million. The Albanian language

12220-593: The larger number of possible shared innovations between Greek and Armenian, it appears reasonable to assume, at least tentatively, that Albanian was the first Balkan IE language to branch off. This split and the following ones were perhaps very close in time, allowing only a narrow time frame for shared innovations. Albanian represents one of the core languages of the Balkan Sprachbund . Glottolog and Ethnologue recognize four Albanian languages. They are classified as follows: The first attested written mention of

12350-465: The latter alphabets have now been forgotten and are unknown, even to the Albanians themselves. Albanian constitutes one of the eleven major branches of the Indo-European language family , within which it occupies an independent position. In 1854, Albanian was demonstrated to be an Indo-European language by the philologist Franz Bopp . Albanian was formerly compared by a few Indo-European linguists with Germanic and Balto-Slavic , all of which share

12480-429: The names for fish and for agricultural activities (such as ploughing ) are borrowed from other languages. A deeper analysis of the vocabulary, however, shows that could be a consequence of a prolonged Latin domination of the coastal and plain areas of the country, rather than evidence of the original environment in which the Albanian language was formed. For example, the word for 'fish' is borrowed from Latin, but not

12610-465: The new Muslims. It was the official order of the Ottoman troops of Janissaries , who seem to have introduced it in Albania, where it became a sect for the local population and spread as nowhere else in the Balkans. The great expansion of Bektashism in southern Albania is considered to have occurred from the beginning of the 19th century under the influence of Ali Pasha Tepelena who ruled a region where Christians and Muslims coexisted. Ger Duijzings notes

12740-451: The north and Tosk spoken to the south of the Shkumbin river . Their characteristics in the treatment of both native words and loanwords provide evidence that the split into the northern and the southern dialects occurred after Christianisation of the region (4th century AD), and most likely not later than the 6th century AD, hence possibly occupying roughly their present area divided by

12870-471: The north and the mountains, there are oak and beech forests. Citrus fruits including tangerine, orange and lemon grow in the Bar area as do pomegranates, olives, grapevines and figs. Ginkgo biloba grows in the park of King Nikola's palace. Skadar Lake is rich in bird life including the pelican. Game animals are found in Ostros, Rumija, Lisinj, Sutorman and Sozina and include rabbit, badger, fox, wolf and boar. At

13000-402: The northern Albania highlands who had settled in Kosovo in the beginning of the 18th century, who converted into Islam in order to secure supreme position in relation to the local Serbs . According to Albanian Catholic priests and church historians, they were only nominal Muslims, having converted in order to escape repression or avoid paying Christian taxes ( jizya , etc.). Efforts to convert

13130-509: The number of people in Turkey with Albanian ancestry and or background upward to 5 million. However, the vast majority of this population is assimilated and no longer possesses fluency in the Albanian language, though a vibrant Albanian community maintains its distinct identity in Istanbul to this day. Egypt also lays claim to about 18,000 Albanians, mostly Tosk speakers. Many are descendants of

13260-412: The only surviving representative of its own branch , which belongs to the Paleo-Balkan group . Although it is still uncertain which ancient mentioned language of the Balkans it continues, or where in the region its speakers lived. In general, there is insufficient evidence to connect Albanian with one of those languages, whether Illyrian , Thracian , or Dacian . Among these possibilities, Illyrian

13390-698: The poll tax. Malcolm notes one early 1637 report from Fra Cherubino, working as part of a Franciscan mission, which notes a household where Catholicism, Islam, and Orthodox Christianity were all practiced, and that clan ( fis ) and other familial relationships were more socially important than religious differences, with various clans including Krasniqi, Thaçi, and Berisha. In the 1930s and 1940s, there continued to be significant numbers of Albanian extended households in Kosovo of mixed Catholic and Muslim faiths; at feast days, Catholics traditionally refrained from consuming pork or wine out of consideration for their Muslim brethren, but both drank raki . Skendi notes that for

13520-449: The port of Spizza to Montenegro but not Bar and other areas because they claimed they were primarily inhabited by Catholics and Muslim Albanians. After negotiations between Foreign Ministers Gyula Andrássy (Austria-Hungary) and Pyotr Andreyevich Shuvalov (Russia), it was agreed that Bar would be ceded to Montenegro in return for Russian support for Austrian control over Herzegovina . The city-port of Bar itself became militarily neutral,

13650-400: The port of Antivari, targeting its wireless station and harbour facilities. They were driven away by coastal batteries and destroyed only a wireless station. The Austrians declared a formal blockade of the Montenegrin coastline on August 10. On August 16, SMS Zenta and an accompanying destroyer were ambushed and trapped off Antivari by a very large French fleet (over twelve battleships), and in

13780-409: The rebellious Albanian population. Although there were certain instances of violently forced conversion, usually this was achieved through economic incentives – in particular, the head tax on Christians was drastically increased. While the tax levied on Albanian Christians in the 1500s amounted to about 45 akçes, in the mid-1600s, it was 780 akçes. Conversion to Islam was also aided by the dire state of

13910-601: The situation of the " church of Serbia ", which Skendi notes was the diocese territory of Prizren and Skopje, and "in various ways linked to Albania proper", especially since the population was mostly Albanian and had been under the jurisdiction of Antivari". Nikolic noted that there were thousands of "secret Catholics" in "Serbia and Albania", and that although provincial synods and the Propaganda Fide agreed that such Catholics could not partake in sacraments, bishops and missionaries were still allowing them to. Nikolic feared that

14040-551: The situation would ultimately turn them "heart and soul" over to Islam, and he requested that the Pope issue an order "chiaro e chiarissimo" that the sacraments would be withheld from such Christians; Benedict XIV did just that on 2 February 1744. Nonetheless, the Pope's decree did allow priests to baptize the children of Crypto-Christians specifically when they were about to die. Skendi notes that Benedict XIV's decree did not bring about its intended effects. Far from returning to Christianity,

14170-529: The subsequent Battle of Antivari the Zenta was sunk with considerable loss of life. The destroyer escaped. On the 18 September following, the Austro-Hungarian coastal battleship SMS Budapest with supporting warships bombarded Antivari, the port and facilities, causing major damage, and on October 17–18 the destroyers SMS Scharfschutze , SMS Streiter and SMS Ulan bombarded Antivari's harbour. On November 18

14300-478: The time that the Albanian language was formed are uncertain. The American linguist Eric Hamp has said that during an unknown chronological period a pre-Albanian population (termed as "Albanoid" by Hamp) inhabited areas stretching from Poland to the southwestern Balkans. Further analysis has suggested that it was in a mountainous region rather than on a plain or seacoast. The words for plants and animals characteristic of mountainous regions are entirely original, but

14430-501: The time, and used as a synonym for the Albanian language. Published in Rome in 1635, by the Albanian bishop and writer Frang Bardhi, the first dictionary of the Albanian language was titled Latin : Dictionarium latino-epiroticum ' Latin-Epirotan dictionary ' . During the five-century period of the Ottoman presence in Albania , the language was not officially recognised until 1909, when

14560-461: The top tier, with OFK Bar featuring in the 2010–11 season alongside FK Mornar. KK Mornar Bar is the local basketball club. There are numerous sports facilities in the Bar hotels and schools. In the centre of town, most of the facilities are in the Sports and Recreation Centre. Water sports such as diving are common. Sports tourism is promoted because of the proximity to the sea and lake. Bar hosted

14690-428: The total number of Montenegrin vessels in the port was placed under limitations and Austria-Hungary acquired the right of patrol of Bar's coastline. In 1885 the castle of King Nikola was built. The king had it constructed for his daughter Princess Zorka and his future son-in-law Prince Petar Karađorđević . It has a chapel, watchtower, winter garden, small and huge castles, and a park. A wooden pier for docking ships

14820-591: The town in 2011: The main religion in Bar is Orthodox Christianity. However, there are churches from both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic traditions as well as mosques built by Ottomans in the Islamic tradition. Bar is the birthplace of Saint Jovan Vladimir . In 1089, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bar , was founded and included most of Montenegro and Serbia. The economy of Bar relies upon

14950-411: The town. In the late 1850s, the town had 4,000 inhabitants, 62.5% of which were Muslims. More than half of its population left or was expelled after 1878. The first population register of the town under Montenegrin administration in 1879, counted 1,879 inhabitants. Muslims were 30.9% of the population, 24.6% were Catholics (mostly Albanians) in addition to Orthodox (mostly Montenegrins and Serbs). When

15080-458: The treatment of the native words and loanwords from other languages are evidence that the dialectal split preceded the Slavic migrations to the Balkans , which means that in that period (the 5th to 6th centuries AD), Albanians were occupying nearly the same area around the Shkumbin river, which straddled the Jireček Line . References to the existence of Albanian as a distinct language survive from

15210-484: The trend has been mixed. Converts frequently cite a laraman heritage, or at least an ancestral link to Catholicism, as do some Albanian academics and clergy on the topic, such as Don Shan Zefi and Father Lush Gjergji. Albertini notes that converts also noted that "Western countries do not like Muslims", while at the same time they were seeking support and protection from the West. Albertini argues that "the 'crypto-Catholic' route

15340-589: The usage of laramans , especially the "martyrs of Stublla" in Albanian nationalism to enforce a sense of defiance and a sense of "defending Albania" under Turkish occupation. In modern times, Kosovar Albanians have shown interest in and referred to Albanian Christian origins and heritage, in particular the laraman heritage, which is recruited to present Albanians as European despite being Muslim. Albanian language Albanian ( endonym : shqip [ʃcip] , gjuha shqipe [ˈɟuha ˈʃcipɛ] , or arbërisht [aɾbəˈɾiʃt] )

15470-491: The village's sixteen houses were "Moslem" but nevertheless had a priest because all the wives were Christian. Bizzi was approached by a man who professed Islam, but told him that in his heart he still held the Christian faith, and wanted to live and die in it. Bizzi noted that this was one of many such cases, and within Ottoman territories, this was above all widespread in Albania, where entire villages had apostatized to avoid paying

15600-533: The welfare of his Catholic Albanian kinsmen, and would become known for composing the Illyricum sacrum . Fearing that before long there would be no more Christians left in his Albanian ancestral homeland, in 1703 he convened the Albanian Council ( Kuvendi i Arbënit ) in order to find ways to prevent further apostasy in Albania, and preserve the existence of Catholicism in the land. The Provincial Church Council met in

15730-421: The word for 'gills' which is native. Indigenous are also the words for 'ship', 'raft', 'navigation', 'sea shelves' and a few names of fish kinds, but not the words for 'sail', 'row' and 'harbor'; objects pertaining to navigation itself and a large part of sea fauna. This rather shows that Proto-Albanians were pushed away from coastal areas in early times (probably after the Latin conquest of the region) and thus lost

15860-530: The writers from northern Albania and under the influence of the Catholic Church used Latin letters, those in southern Albania and under the influence of the Greek Orthodox church used Greek letters, while others throughout Albania and under the influence of Islam used Arabic letters. There were initial attempts to create an original Albanian alphabet during the 1750–1850 period. These attempts intensified after

15990-534: Was a response to Ottoman persecution of Christians and pressure for conversion to Islam. Duijzings, meanwhile, suspects that the Crypto-Christian tradition is in part a "re-invented" identity. He suspects that laramanism had become "obselete" in Karadag (Letnica) due to the early 19th century lack of priests and churches in the area, and wonders how Catholic the identities of inhabitants of Stublla really were before their "martyrdom". He suggests that for many of them,

16120-454: Was being built in Klina as well to serve the "converts" (who do not identify as "converts", asserting to have had a Catholic heritage that was simply hidden). The local Catholic cleric, Don Shan Zefi, says the Catholic church has not been seeking converts, but that instead Kosovar Albanians are contacting him and he asserted in 2008 that there were "tens of villages" looking to convert. Discourse on

16250-409: Was closely related to Illyrian and Messapic . The Indo-European subfamily that gave rise to Albanian is called Albanoid in reference to a specific ethnolinguistically pertinent and historically compact language group. Whether descendants or sisters of what was called ' Illyrian ' by classical sources, Albanian and Messapic , on the basis of shared features and innovations, are grouped together in

16380-506: Was later torpedoed. The destruction of the wharves prevented larger ships from unloading supplies at the port restricting Allied shipments of food and munitions to the Montenegrin army. The Allies realised that with the Austro-Hungarian naval base of Cattaro close by there was little they could do. In 1918, Bar became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes . In 1945, Albanians in Bar were massacred by Yugoslavs partisans. This event

16510-517: Was located in front of the structure. Additionally, there is a sizable flower shop with unique construction, a gift from King Emmanuel of Italy, and a catering establishment called " Knjaževa bašta ." The former castle complex is now the Bar Heritage Museum, which hosts cultural events. In the new Montenegrin Orthodox state, Bar went through urban depopulation because many of its urban inhabitants were Muslims, who either left or were expelled from

16640-510: Was one of the crucial ports of SFR Yugoslavia , which was invested in and which became the political, industrial, tourist, cultural, sports center of the region. This was especially contributed by the opening of the roads Bar-Titograd in 1959 and Bar-Belgrade in 1976. When Montenegro signed an agreement with the Chinese Government to build a motorway from Bar to the Serbian border (part of

16770-609: Was widespread in the mid to late Ottoman era among both northern and southern Albanians , and arose after half-hearted conversions in the contexts of anti-Christian persecution, to avoid payment of poll taxes , and to obtain worldly advantages such as government employment. While the Orthodox church typically tolerated crypto-Christians among its flocks, Catholic policy varied by place and time between having priests travel to laraman houses in secret, and categorically refusing anyone who called themselves Muslim in public sacraments. Legally, laraman individuals were considered as Muslims by

16900-605: Was written in 1693; it was the Italian manuscript Pratichae Schrivaneschae authored by the Montenegrin sea captain Julije Balović and includes a multilingual dictionary of hundreds of the most frequently used words in everyday life in Italian, Slavic, Greek, Albanian, and Turkish . Pre-Indo-European (PreIE) sites are found throughout the territory of Albania. Such PreIE sites existed in Maliq , Vashtëmi , Burimas , Barç , Dërsnik in

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