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140-505: Moscopole or Voskopoja ( Albanian : Voskopojë ; Aromanian : Moscopole , with several other variants ; Greek : Μοσχόπολις , romanized :  Moschopolis ) is a village in Korçë County in southeastern Albania . During the 18th century, it was the cultural and commercial center of the Aromanians . At its peak, in the mid 18th century, it hosted the first printing house in

280-669: 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

420-474: A city in the proper sense of the term. Indeed, in 1770, a priest from Moscopole felt proud to call it a city when giving evidence before foreign authorities in Hungary ( Moscopolis urbs Albaniae ). In 1791, the geographers Philippides and Konstantas also qualify it as a city. But the geographer Meletios, who predated them and was writing at Moscopole's peak in 1728, calls Moscopole a town ( πολισμα ). If we refer to

560-879: 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

700-561: 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

840-554: A few decades later in the Great Register bonds of the kaza of Korça, Bilisht and Krupishta of the year 1568/9, as a rural settlement with 330 household heads. Later, from 1647, it appears in documents Ottomans as a prerogative ( mülk ) of the Sultan's mother. The other Ottoman summary register, that of the year 1668/9, does not mention Moscopole, but the kaza of Korça to which Moscopole also belonged. The kaza of Korça appears there as

980-637: A hundred years. Towards the beginning of the 16th century, the Ohrid Archbishopric expanded its jurisdiction even over territories in Southern Italy , as well as in Dalmatia . The flock of this diocese was made of Greeks and Albanians. Towards the middle of the 16th century, the Ohrid Archbishopric lost the Diocese of Veroia , however, at the beginning of the 17th century, it gained the Diocese of Durazzo from

1120-472: 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

1260-593: A local and more reliable source, the Codex of the monastery of Saint-Prodrome, its author Michel of Shipska (1779) still qualifies Moscopole as a village ( ή χώρα Μοσχόπολις ). However, the word hora often was used to mean place , without specifying whether it is a village, a city or an entire region. On the other hand, in the Codex of the monastery of Saint-Prodrome, various documents were transcribed ranging from different periods, be they deeds of sale and purchase of properties, deeds of donation, and even some synodal decisions of

1400-475: 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

1540-535: 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

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1680-411: A rather isolated place in the mountains of southern Albania, the city rose to become the most important center of the Aromanians . Many of its inhabitants originated from the southern parts of Epirus , such as the settlements of Skamneli and Metsovo ( Aminciu , an Aromanian settlement as well) in northwestern Greece. It was a small settlement until the end of the 17th century, but afterwards showed

1820-565: A recently developed trend that claimed for the see the succession and prerogatives of the short-lived Archbishopric of Justiniana Prima (535 – c.  610 ), founded by Justinian I . This title apparently fell into disuse by John's immediate successors, possibly due to pressure from the Patriarchate of Constantinople , but in the early 13th century it was revived by the ambitious Demetrios Chomatenos (1216–1236) to support his claims of quasi-patriarchal status in his clash over authority with

1960-401: A remarkable financial and cultural development. Some writers have claimed that Moscopole in its glory days (1730–1760) had as many as 70,000 inhabitants; other estimates placed its population closer to 35,000; but a more realistic number may be closer to 3,500. According to Max Demeter Peyfuss , "the truth may be closer to this number [sc. 3500] than to 70,000. Moschopolis was certainly not among

2100-910: 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

2240-609: Is a small mountain village, and along with a few other local settlements is considered a holy place by local Orthodox Christians. It was one of the original homelands of much of the Aromanian diaspora . It has been also nicknamed as " Jerusalem of the Aromanians", "New Athens" or "Arcadia of the Balkans". In modern times, Aromanians no longer form a majority of the population, with incoming Christian and Muslim Albanians having further settled in

2380-659: 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

2520-693: 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

2660-583: 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

2800-534: Is commonly found. This is possibly due to the scribe of the Codex, Michel the former bishop of Gorë , being a native of the neighboring village of Shipskë, itself inhabited historically by an Aromanian population. However, when it comes to archival documents transcribed into the Codex, such as decisions of the Synod of the Patriarchate of Ohrid or even of the meetings of the clergy of Moscopole, Michel seems to have preferred

2940-592: 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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3080-662: 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

3220-659: Is known as Moscopole or Voscopole in Romanian . The forms Voskopolis / Voskopoja derive from the Greek word Vosko (shepherd) which refers to one of the main professions performed by the Aromanian people. Also the suffix poja / polis from the syntagm can be either linked to the Greek word polis (city, citadel) or the Slavic polje , i.e. plain. Peyfuss strongly supports the latter interpretation, reasoning that this definition fits

3360-470: Is not by chance that this change of status in the Ottoman system of land ownership corresponds to the period of the flourishing of Moscopole. Historically, the main economic activity of the city was livestock farming. This activity led to the establishment of wool processing and carpet manufacturing units and the development of tanneries, while other locals became metal workers and silver and copper smiths. During

3500-579: 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

3640-482: 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

3780-447: Is that the Codex of Saint-Prodrome, published by Ioakeim Martianos in 1939, makes several mentions of another older codex which he calls "the old codex" or “the great codex”, on the indications of which relied the monk Michel, who wrote in 1779 the second, newer codex known today. Subject to any reservations as to the possibility of an ancient or paleo-Byzantine substratum of the site, it is likely that Moscopole has existed, at least since

3920-560: 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

4060-658: Is the most common term of reference for the see because for the duration of its existence; from 1020 to 1767, its seat was in the city of Ohrid . Shortly after 934, the Byzantine emperor Romanos I Lekapenos recognized the head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church , Archbishop Damian, to the rank of patriarch , following the terms of the peace treaty that ended the Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 913–927 . In 971, Emperor John I Tzimiskes dismissed Damian after annexing

4200-399: 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,

4340-554: 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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4480-520: The Archduchy of Austria , and the Kingdom of Hungary , especially to the respective capitals of Vienna and Budapest , but also to Transylvania , where they had an important role in the early national awakening of Romania. The city never rose back to its earlier status. However, a new school was established at the end of the 18th century whose headmaster in 1802 was Daniel Moscopolites . This school functioned

4620-611: The Codex Dimonie , a collection of Aromanian-language biblical texts translated from Greek, may have also originated from Moscopole. The 1769 sacking and pillaging by Muslim Albanian troops was just the first of a series of attacks to the city. Moscopole was attacked due to the participation of the residents in the preparations for a Greek revolt supported by the Russian Empire known as the Orlov Revolt . Its destruction culminated with

4760-458: 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

4900-533: The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople . Since then and until its abolishment in 1767, the Archbishopric neither lost nor gained a diocese under its jurisdiction. The autocephaly of the Ohrid Archbishopric remained respected during the periods of Byzantine, Bulgarian, Serbian and Ottoman rule; the church continued to exist until its abolition in 1767, when it was abolished by the Sultan's decree, at

5040-477: The Greek language (which was the language of culture of the Balkans at the time) and Aromanian , written in the Greek alphabet . In 1770, the first dictionary of four modern Balkan languages ( Greek , Albanian , Aromanian and Bulgarian ) was published here. Daniel Moscopolites , an Aromanian native priest of Moscopole, compiled a quadrilingual lexicon of Greek , Aromanian , Bulgarian and Albanian , that aimed at

5180-532: The Hellenization of the non-Greek-speaking Christian communities in the Balkans . Due to the high level of intellectual activity and Greek education, Moscopole was nicknamed as New Athens or New Mystra . As such, the city became an important 18th century center of the modern Greek Enlightenment . The Aromanian Missal , an 18th-century liturgical book in Aromanian, was likely written in Moscopole. The authors of

5320-619: 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

5460-723: 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 ,

5600-853: 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,

5740-565: The Sanjak of Avlona during the winter. It is precisely there that their conflict with the authorities of the Sanjak of Avlona started, as the sanjak 's authorities started demanding fictitious or arbitrarily-increased taxes, which led them to complain to the Sublime Porte . However, only a few decades later, in 1700, the inhabitants of Moscopole had complained again to the Sultan, but this time because of

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5880-550: The kaza of Korça (which included Moscopole), which from that time onwards was placed under the dependence of the nahiyah of Monastir . However, it lists villages in the area more to the north, those of Maliq and the Gora , such as Marian , Niça, Shkoza, Manastirica, Maliq, Symiza, Këmbëthekra, all villages located in the north of Moscopole. Oso is the only village in the Opar region that appears on this register. Moscopole appears with certainty

6020-702: The 13th and the first half of the 14th centuries, the territory of the Archbishopric was contested by the Byzantine Empire, the Latin Empire , the Despotate of Epirus , the Second Bulgarian Empire and later Serbia . After the fall of Constantinople to the Latins in 1204 and with the foundation of the new states on the territory under the jurisdiction of the Ohrid Archbishopric, autonomous churches were founded in

6160-679: 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

6300-454: The 14th century, in its initial function of pastoral agglomeration. Moscopole continued to retain the appearance of a typically pastoral settlement even when it began to be covered by Ottoman documentation. The register for the year 1568/9 indicates that agricultural activity had already begun alongside that of stockbreeding. However, the Sigils of Berat retain two firmans of Sultan Ibrahim , of

6440-484: The 1520s, the Archbishopric of Ohrid had managed to put practically the entire Serbian Church under its jurisdiction, however, by the intervention of Sokollu Mehmed Pasha in 1557, the latter was renewed and reorganized. During the 15th century, dioceses from the other side of the Danube , from the duchies of Wallachia and Moldova , fell under the jurisdiction of the Archbishopric. Nevertheless, this did not last for more than

6580-410: 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

6720-453: 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

6860-426: 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

7000-435: 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

7140-457: The Albanian public. In 2002, the five standing churches were put on the World Monuments Fund 's 2002 World Monuments Watch . Today, Moscopole is just a small mountain village and ski resort. During recent years, a Greek language institution and a joint Greek–Albanian initiative has operated in Moscopole. The first Ottoman register of the area of Korça and Permet at the end of the 14th century does not mention Moscopole, and also omittes many of

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7280-419: The Albanians) neighbourhood. This community would soon assimilate into the Aromanian population of the city. A number of the Orthodox Albanian families from the city also settled in the city of Prilep during the beginning of the 19th century. There they formed a small but notable community, before eventually assimilating into the Bulgarian and to a lesser extent Greek corpus. Some of the commercial elite moved to

7420-491: The Balkans, visited Moscopole which he describes as a village (Dorf) of only 220 families, half of whom were Albanian and the other half Aromanian . In 1900, a report by the Greek consul Betsos gave details of the demographic composition of Moscopole. It noted that the 18th century destruction of the settlement resulted in the dispersal of its Aromanian population and that some old remaining families moved to other places, in particular Korçë. Around 30 old families remained, with

7560-425: The Balkans. Characteristically, their murals are comparable to that in the large monastic centres at Mount Athos and Meteora , both in Greece . The architectural design is in general specific and identical: a large three-aisled basilica with a gable roof. The churches are single-apsed, with a wide altar apse and internal niches that serve as prothesis and diaconicon . Most churches also have one niche, each on

7700-399: The Byzantine empire in 1282–1283, cities of Skopje and Debar were annexed and local eparchies transferred to the jurisdiction of Serbian Archbishopric of Peć . Serbian expansion reached its apogee at the time of king and tsar Stefan Dušan (1331–1355). Dušan had conquered Ohrid around 1334. Under Serbian rule the Archbishopric of Ohrid kept its autonomy. On 16 April 1346 ( Easter ), at

7840-404: 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

7980-437: The Ohrid Archbishopric, mostly because of their tolerance for monotheistic religions, and left the people to govern themselves regarding religion. When the last medieval Serbian Patriarch died in 1463, there were no technical options to elect a new one, so the Ohrid Archbishopric had laid its claim over many of the Serbian Patriarchate's eparchies on the basis of its old 1019 territorial rights, predating Serbian autocephaly. By

8120-438: The Ottoman Balkans outside Constantinople , educational institutions and numerous churches. It became a leading center of Greek culture but also with elements of Albanian and Aromanian culture, all with great influence from Western civilization . One view attributes the decline of the city to a series of raids by Muslim Albanian bandits. Moscopole was initially attacked and almost destroyed by those groups in 1769 following

8260-414: The Patriarchate of Constantinople abolished the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć in the same manner, and its dioceses adjoined to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Greek language quite early replaced Old Church Slavonic as the official language of the Archbishopric. All documents and even hagiographies of saints, for example the hagiography of Clement of Ohrid , were written in Greek. Despite this,

8400-480: The Patriarchate of Ohrid. One of the latter, from 1686, describes Moscopole as a politeia ( πολιτεία ), which brings it closer in meaning to a city proper, but without explicitly identifying it as one. In his work Faith , published in Venice in 1732, Nektar Terpo , a native of Moscopole, attributes both names to this city. Speaking of certain archons of the city who worked to gain power by unjust means, he specifies for his part that these people were not liked by both

8540-429: The Serbian capital city of Skopje , a joined state and church assembly ( Sabor ) was held, attended by Serbian Archbishop Joanikije II , the Archbishop Nicholas I of Ohrid , the Patriarch Simeon of Bulgaria and other hierarchs and dignitaries, including monastic leaders of Mount Athos . The assembly proclaimed the raising of the autocephalous Serbian Archbishopric to the rank of Patriarchate. The Archbishopric of Ohrid

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8680-443: 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

8820-415: The Slavonic liturgy was preserved on the lower levels of the Church for several centuries. The Archbishopric of Ohrid was an autocephalous church , with full internal ecclesiastical self-governance. Only after the Ottoman conquest, as part of the millet system, did it come under the supreme ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople . At the time of its establishment,

8960-412: 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

9100-414: The West entered. The existence of Moscopole should not have escaped the chronicler Gjon Muzaka . Having left Albania in 1478, he describes in detail all the surrounding villages, including Voskop which, at the time of his writing in 1510, was according to him abandoned "una terra che si chiama Vescop, la quale è distrutta" . In the case of Voskop mentioned by Muzaka it is probably the modern village with

9240-483: The administration of the Autonomous Province of Korçë . During the Greco-Italian War , on 30 November 1940, the town was captured by the advancing Greek forces. In April 1941, after the capitulation of Greece, Moscopole returned to Axis control. The remaining buildings were razed three times during the partisan warfare of World War II : once by Italian troops and twice by the Albanian nationalist Balli Kombëtar organization. Fifteen partisans from Moscopole died during

9380-434: 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 '. Archbishopric of Ohrid The initial title of

9520-960: The archbishopric comprised 32 suffragan sees . However, over the following decades many of the bishoprics removed from other jurisdictions and accorded to Ohrid by Basil II were returned to their original metropolises. Despite the creation of new bishoprics from existing ones, by the middle of the 12th century the number of suffragans—apart from Ohrid itself—had decreased to 23 (modern names in parentheses): Kastoria , Skopia (Skopje) , Belebousdion ( Velbazhd ), Sardike or Triaditza ( Sofia ), Malesobe or Morobisdion (unlocated), Edessa or Moglena , Herakleia (Bitola) or Pelagonia , Prisdiana, Tiberioupolis or Stroummitza (Strumica) , Nisos , Kephalonia or Glabinitze, Morabos or Branichevo, Sigida or Belegrada (Belgrade) , Bidine (Vidin), Sirmion (Sremska Mitrovica), Lipenion, Rhasos (Ras) , Selasphoros or Diabolis (Devol) , Slanitza or Pella , Illyrikon or Kanina , Grebenon (Grevena) , Drastar (Silistra) , Deure (Debar) , and

9660-446: The archbishopric was completely independent in any other aspect, its primate was selected by the emperor from a list of three candidates submitted by the local church synod . In three sigillia issued in 1020 Basil II gave extensive privileges to the new see. Although the first appointed archbishop ( John of Debar ) was a Bulgarian from Kutmichevitsa , his successors, as well as the whole higher clergy, were invariably Byzantine,

9800-439: The archbishopric was simply Bulgaria ( Greek : Βουλγαρία ), but under the famous archbishop Theophylact Hephaistos (1078–1107) it was expanded to All Bulgaria ("Whole Bulgaria") ( πᾶσα Βουλγαρία ). John IV (1139/42–1163/64), the cousin of Emperor John II Komnenos , was the first to use the title Archbishop of Justiniana Prima and All Bulgaria ( ἀρχιεπίσκοπος Πρώτης Ἰουστινιανῆς καὶ πάσης Βουλγαρίας ) in 1157, reflecting

9940-456: The area, even when the aspect of a craft and commercial town had become predominant in relation to its historically pastoral profile. The Codex of this monastery explicitly attests that at the end of the 17th century, butter, cheese and other livestock products were still the foodstuffs by which dues were paid or donations were made to it. A printing press operated in Moscopole, which produced religious literature and school textbooks in Greek. It

10080-417: The authorities not to rely exclusively on the data on nationality collected during the census in determining its policy on the protection of national minorities." Furthermore, the census was boycotted by a significant number of the Greek community of Albania , typically of Eastern Orthodox denomination. The remaining churches in the region are among the most representative of 18th century ecclesiastical art in

10220-600: The capital city of Great Preslav and parts of northeast Bulgaria , but the Bulgarian patriarchate was probably restored under Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria . During his rule, the residence of the Bulgarian patriarchs remained closely connected to the developments in the war between Samuel and the Byzantine emperor Basil II . Thus, the next Patriarch German resided consecutively in Moglena (Almopia) , Vodena (Edessa) and Prespa . Around 990,

10360-424: The citadel of Museion , one of the 46 fortresses that, according to Procopius of Caesarea , Emperor Justinian I (527–565) had built in the province of Macedonia to defend against barbarian attacks. However, to this day, there is no trace of ancient construction in this place, albeit the area has not been excavated, not even in archaeological surveys. But, in the absence of the latter, it can be said that Moscopole

10500-448: The configuration of the high plateau type terrain. According to Xhufi, it would be difficult to designate as a “plain” an isolated habitat at an altitude of 1,220 meters above sea level, preferring a link to the Greek word polis. The city appears under the Albanian rendering Voskopoja in Ottoman documents from the 16th-17th centuries. In Venetian and French commercial documents, both

10640-451: 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

10780-542: The country and the city ( ή χώρα καί πολιτεία ). This gives credence to the translation of ' hora as a neutral name that could mean either village or country, regardless of its size and its economic and social typology. With regard to the other name given to Μoscopole, πολιτεία , as per the examples above, this word likely designated the community of Moscopole as a politically organized entity which as such maintained relations with other entities. Although known in Europe, Moscopole

10920-730: 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,

11060-426: The documentation it produced, the name "Voskopoja" was very common among the lay population, and even among the lower clergy. Furthermore, Albanian surnames such as Ngushta , Vrusho and Krunde are found among the signatories of the agreement mentioned above, which represented the three districts of the city, perhaps the districts inhabited mainly by Albanians. Modern Moscopole is located 21 km from Korçë , in

11200-433: The east of the settlement. This theory is further supported by the fact that Muzaka distinguishes several times between agglomerations and individual settlements, sometimes doing this for settlements which in later periods came to form one settlement, such as the case of Drago and Stagna , modern Dragostunjë . At the current state of knowledge, an ancient existence of Moscopole can only be assumed. As for its appearance in

11340-455: 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

11480-577: The following decades, thanks to donations and bequests by baron Simon Sinas . The diaspora of Moscopole located in Austria and Hungary continued the tradition of their ancestors by sponsoring institutions beneficial to the Greek people. During this period, many members of the Aromanian diaspora who migrated to Budapest and Vienna started developing a unique Aromanian identity, being one of the first Aromanian populations to do so. These cities became gathering centers for Aromanians and Aromanian language and culture

11620-407: The form Voskopoja . This is also the case regarding the events of the years 1660–1687, in which in the agreements concluded between the monks of the monasteries, the notables and the archons of the three districts of the city, the name of the city is given in the form Voskopoja . Thus, the use of the forms Voskopoja/Moschopolis is not a certain conclusion of ethnic and social belonging, as even in

11760-584: The forms Voscopolis and Moschopolis , the latter rendering being associated with the Aromanian -speaking population, appear to be used interchangeably. In the edicts of the Patriarch of Ohrid , the city appears under the form Moschopolis . The 18th century, author Meletios Mitros uses the form Voskopolis in his work Geography . In the Codex of the Monastery of St. John the Baptist, the Aromanian rendering Moschopolis

11900-412: The indication En Moschopolei . Claims by some Balkan scholars about the possible existence of multilingual prints or prints in Albanian, Aromanian or Slavic have not been verified. Kavalliotis later became director of the city's prestigious educational institution, which from 1744 was known as New Academy or Hellenikon Frontistirion , sponsored by wealthy foreign merchants. This institution became one of

12040-574: The jurisdiction of the Tarnovo Archbishopric but nevertheless managed to expel the Greek bishops and install Bulgarians instead. The next Bulgarian rulers were constantly trying to reunite the Ohrid Archbishopric with the Tarnovo Archbishopric. The Latin conquests, the restoring of the Bulgarian Empire and the formation of an independent Serbian state reduced the jurisdiction of the Ohrid Archbishopric immensely, but it did not disappear. During

12180-436: The kaza which had the largest number of inns listed (569) within the framework of the sandjak of Rumelia (Monastir). Even if one attributed to Moscopole the majority of these 569 inns, compared to the register of a century earlier, that of 1568/9 which mentions 330 household heads, a noticeable growth is not evident, likely meaning Moscopole had yet to experience the massive growth it would become known for. Although located in

12320-534: 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

12460-593: 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

12600-495: The largest Balkan cities of the 18th century". Following the first fatal blow suffered around the middle of the 18th century, the city was reduced to a degraded agglomeration with some 200 houses. It continued to be so even at the dawn of modern times. According to the Swedish historian Johann Thunmann , who visited Moscopole and wrote a history of the Aromanians in 1774, everyone in the city spoke Aromanian; many also spoke Greek, which

12740-402: The last patriarch, Philip, moved to Ohrid . Following his final subjugation of the Bulgarian state in 1018, Basil II , to underscore the Byzantine victory, established the Archbishopric of Ohrid by downgrading the Bulgarian patriarchate to the rank of the archbishopric. The now archbishopric remained an autocephalous church, separate from the Patriarchate of Constantinople . However, while

12880-465: 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

13020-497: The latter case, not only the unification with Beci of the heights of Opar, but also the fact of having included it in the same context with other known villages of this area, such as Dushkar, Lavdar , Marian and Opar, suggest that it may be Moscopole (in the mountains) and not Voskop (in the plain). This may represent a typical case of the existence of two nearby settlements bearing the same name, something also observable in nearby Moscopole: Upper Goskova and Lower Goskova , located to

13160-444: The leading centers of learning for Orthodox Christians in western Balkans. The language of education was Greek while renowned Greek teachers were invited to provide lessons. The city also hosted an orphanage , known as Orphanodioiketerion , possibly the first in the post-Byzantine Orthodox world; and also a hospital and a total of 24 churches. A cultural effervescence arose in Moscopole, and many authors published their works in both

13300-462: The looting of their caravan in the Kaza of Tomorrica of the Sanjak of Avlona, where they usually passed to trade with their pastoral activity, which continued to be an important economic activity, and was therefore superimposed on commercial activity of these inhabitants: henceforth, it was the merchants of Moscopole who complained of raids on their caravans directed towards the ports of Durrës, Vlorë, etc.. It

13440-636: The main feelings in this Aromanian literary phenomenon. Romanian historian Sorin Antohi described the Aromanian elites engaging in this utopic literary discourse about Moscopole as having an exalted feeling of finding of a "magnetic beauty and without any imperfection of a brilliant city" which "evokes a dreamlike image". The founder of this Aromanian literary trend was Leon Boga , but it also includes works by Nicolae Constantin Batzaria , Nicolae Caratană , Ion Foti , Kira Mantsu and Nicolae Velo . In 1914, Moscopole

13580-747: The middle of the 18th century, the city became an important economic center whose influence spread over the boundaries of the Archbishopric of Ohrid , and reached further the Ottoman-ruled Eastern Orthodox world. This trade involved as far as the Archduchy of Austria, the Kingdom of Hungary , and the Upper Saxony . Until 1769, the town traded on a large scale with renowned European commercial centres of that time, such as Venice , Vienna and Leipzig . Sources are divided in considering Moscopole as

13720-456: The monastery in question was built in 1630, "two hundred and fifty or three hundred years after the foundation of the town of Moscopole itself", indicating that the latter must have been founded around the year 1330. However, this codex does not link the founding of Moscopole to the Muzaka family, as asserted by Hahn, who has probably consulted another unknown and possibly lost codex. Moreover, the fact

13860-473: The most famous of them being Saint Theophylact (1078–1107). The Archbishops were chosen from among the monks in Constantinople. Adrianos Komnenos, under his monastic name of John (IV) (1143–1160), was the cousin of Emperor John II Komnenos and was the first Archbishop who held the title of Archbishop of Justiniana Prima. The later archbishop John V Kamateros (1183–1216) was a former imperial clerk. In

14000-420: The mountains of southeastern Albania , at an altitude of 1160 meters, and is a subdivision of Korçë municipality; its population in 2011 was 1,058. The municipality of Moscopole consists of the villages of Moscopole, Shipskë, Krushovë, Gjonomadh and Lavdar. In 2005, the municipality had a population of 2,218, whereas the settlement itself has a population of around 500. Pouqueville identified Moscopole with

14140-469: The name, located at the foot of the heights that lead to Moscopole. Muzaka seems to link Voskop to a still flat land when he asserts that Voskop was part of what he calls "paese di Devoli maggiore" , therefore the Greater Devoll region. However, in another passage of his chronicle, Muzaka mentions Voskop again, but this time adding to it the name Beci , a village in the Opar zone proper " Voscopebeci ". In

14280-429: 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

14420-467: The newer residents were pro-Romanian (from a total of 20 older families), led by an unfrocked priest named Kosmas. Moscopole, known in Albania as being a traditionally Christian settlement, is a neighbour to various Muslim and Christian Albanian villages that surround it, although the latter ones have become "demographically depressed" due to migration. During the communist period, some Muslims from surrounding villages settled in Moscopole, making locals view

14560-451: 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

14700-540: The northern and southern walls, next to the prothesis and the diaconicon. Along the southern side there is an arched porch. Of the original around 24–30 churches of Moscopole, besides the St. John the Baptist Monastery ( Albanian : Manastiri i Shën Prodhromit or Manastiri i Shën Gjon Pagëzorit ; Greek : Μονή Αγίου Ιωάννου του Προδρόμου ) in the vicinity of the town, only five have survived into modern times: Some of

14840-509: 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

14980-412: 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

15120-464: The part of the Codex written by the hand of the Aromanian Michel, we nevertheless find cases where he also uses the form Voskopoja . What can be said with certainty is that both forms experienced cases of interchangeable usage, which is a strong indication of a long cohabitation and a close integration of the two communities. This may indicate that, at the time, except for the religious hierarchy and

15260-463: The participation of the residents in the preparations for a Greek revolt supported by the Russian Empire. Its destruction culminated with the abandoning and destruction of 1788. Moscopole, once a prosperous city, was reduced to a small village by Ali Pasha of Ioannina . According to another view, the city's decline was mainly due to the relocation of the trade routes in central and eastern Europe following these raids. Today Moscopole, known as Voskopojë,

15400-478: The patriarchs of Constantinople in exile at the Empire of Nicaea . The designation finally became accepted by Constantinople and the Byzantine imperial chancery after 1261, and a fixed part of the archbishops' titulature; in the fullest form, the see was hence known as the Archbishopric of Justiniana Prima, Ohrid and all Bulgaria ( ἀρχιεπίσκοπὴ Πρώτης Ἰουστινιανῆς Ἀχριδῶν καὶ πάσης Βουλγαρίας ). Archbishopric of Ohrid

15540-593: The population did not specify its ethnicity. In term of religion, the same census claimed Moscopole as a Muslim-majority village by 76.07% with an Eastern Orthodox minority of 11.69%. However, on the quality of the specific data the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities stated that "the results of the census should be viewed with the utmost caution and calls on

15680-488: The pre-Ottoman Middle Ages, an affirmation of Johann Georg von Hahn , in which he recounts having read a codex of Moscopole in 1843, during his tenure as consul of Austria-Hungary . In it, he describes having read that the city was founded in 1338 by the head of the Muzaka family . It is unclear as to what codex Hahn is referring to. The Codex of the monastery of Saint-Prodrome in Moscopole, does affirm in its introductory part that

15820-440: The razing of 1788 by the troops of Ali Pasha of Ioannina . Moscopole was practically destroyed by this attack, with some of its commerce shifting to nearby Korçë and Berat . The survivors were thus forced to flee, most of them emigrating mainly to Thessaly and Macedonia . Orthodox Albanians from Moscopole which migrated in the beginning of the 19th century to Kruševo would found the so called Ohtul di Arbinesh (Hill of

15960-731: The ruined churches include the following: There is a combination of mild valley climate in the lower parts and true Alpine climate in the higher regions. Favorable climate conditions make this center ideal for winter, summer, sport and recreation tourism, so there are tourists during the whole year, and not only from areas of Albania, but also foreigners. People born in Moscopole: Others with roots in Moscopole: Albanian language Albanian ( endonym : shqip [ʃcip] , gjuha shqipe [ˈɟuha ˈʃcipɛ] , or arbërisht [aɾbəˈɾiʃt] )

16100-507: The socio-political crisis that engulfed the nearby Opar region resulting in Albanian Christians leaving their previous homes and settling in Moscopole. Aromanians from two nearby settlements also resettled in Moscopole. In 1900, Moscopole was populated by a total of 200 families, consisting of 120 Albanian and 80 Aromanian families. Most of the older Aromanian families had a Greek national consciousness while 3 families along with some of

16240-459: The states which did not accept the jurisdiction either of Constantinople or of Ohrid. After 1204, the Empire of Nicaea claimed the Byzantine imperial heritage and provided refuge to the exiled patriarchs of Constantinople. In the restored Second Bulgarian Empire , a new Archbishopric was founded with its see in Tarnovo. Tsar Kaloyan (1197–1207) did not succeed in putting the Ohrid Archbishopric under

16380-529: The surrounding villages in the region mountain range of Opar . However, this document can not serve as a basis for drawing a conclusion on the existence of the settlement at that time as the mountainous region of Opar had not yet been fully conquered by the Ottoman Empire and as such the region was not of interest to the register. The summary register of Rumelia of years 1520-1530 includes the nahiyes of Ohrid , Beral ( Vlora ) and of Elbasan , while omitting

16520-535: The time of Archbishop Demetrios Chomatenos , the autocephaly of the Archbishopric was confirmed with the act of anointing the despot of Epirus, Theodore Komnenos Doukas , as Emperor and in correspondence with the Patriarch. The southward expansion of the Serbian state in the second half of the 13th century was also followed by changes in ecclesiastical jurisdiction of some sees. After the successful Serbian campaigns against

16660-478: 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

16800-501: 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

16940-500: The town varies between Μοσχόπολις (transliterated into Moschópolis, Moscopolis, Moskopolis ) and its vernacular equivalent form Μοσχόπολη ( Moschópoli ). The Βοσκόπολη/Βοσκόπολις ( Voskópoli/Voskópolis/Voscopolis ) variant is also used in various occasions in Greek. The town is called İskopol or Oskopol in Turkish and Москополе ( Moskopole ) in Bulgarian . It

17080-593: The transition and was legalized by new Ottoman authorities. Not long after the fall of the Bulgarian Patriarchate in 1394, some of the bishoprics under its jurisdiction also entered the Ohrid Archbishopric. Thus, at the beginning of the 15th century, the Archbishop of Ohrid, attached the dioceses of Sofia and Vidin to the Archbishopric. In 1408, Ohrid came under Ottoman rule. Still, the Ottomans did not reach after

17220-563: 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

17360-470: The urging of the Greek Eastern Orthodox leaders of Istanbul, and was placed under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople. The division into phanariotes and autochthonists which occurred among the diocesan bishops of the Ohrid Archbishopric and, the difficult financial position of the Ohrid Archbishopric over a longer period of time, contributed to its abolishment. Just a year before,

17500-629: The village population as mixed ( i përzier ) and lamenting the decline of the Christian element. In modern times, Aromanians no longer form a majority of the population, with incoming Christian and Muslim Albanians having further settled in the village, especially after the Second World War. According to the 2011 Albanian census, out of the 1,058 inhabitants, 69.57% declared themselves as Albanian, 5.48% declared themselves as Aromanian, 0.47% declared themselves as Macedonians, and 0.09% as Greek. The rest of

17640-487: The village, especially after World War II. Still, Moscopole has held a key place within Aromanian nationalism , and many Aromanian writers have written about Moscopole in a mythical and utopian way, mourning the city's destruction. The town is known as Voskopojë ( definite form : Voskopoja ) in Albanian . The Aromanian name of the town varies between Moscopole , Moscopoli , Muscopuli , Voscopole , Voscopoli and Voshopole . The Greek name of

17780-407: The war. In their honor, a lapidar  [ de ] was erected in the village with the names of the partisans engraved. Of the old city, six Orthodox churches (one in a very ruined state), a bridge and a monastery survive. At 1996 the church of Saint Michael was vandalized by Albanian adolescents under the influence of a foreign Muslim fundamentalist, an incident that shocked and dismayed

17920-421: 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

18060-530: 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

18200-484: The year 1647, where the latter ordered the local authorities of Vlora not to impose arbitrary taxes and obligations on "the rayah of Moscopole" who were, according to him, "nomadic shepherds" and who "since their elders, each year, arrived with their sheep to the winter pastures of the sanjak of Vlora”. In the middle of the 17th century, the inhabitants of Moscopole were still largely "nomadic herders" who moved with their flocks from summer pastures in Moscopole to those of

18340-468: Was an inner trade node which, at least since the Byzantine period, linked the Korça basin to Berat, Vlora and Durrës . It would therefore be difficult to think that Justinian I would not have undertaken military fortifications in the area, which formed a corridor that in the future would be one of the most important passageways through which the migrating Slavic populations coming from Macedonia and moving towards

18480-409: 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

18620-483: Was nevertheless considered only a village ( dorf ) being referred to as such in an official Austrian document from 1716, therefore from the period were its growth had already started. However, the extent of the information and knowledge that the Habsburg Empire had of this center located in the middle of the mountains of Albania remains to be clarified. For an early 18th century Austrian, Hungarian or Venetian, Moscopole

18760-629: Was not annexed to the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć and kept its autonomy, recognizing only the honorary seniority of the Serbian Patriarch. After the Battle of Maritsa in 1371, and Battle of Kosovo in 1389, much of the territory of the Archbishopric of Ohrid was affected by the expansion of Ottoman Turks , who conquered Skopje in 1392 and annexed all southern regions after the death of Prince Marko in 1395. The archbishopric managed to survive

18900-475: Was part of the Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus . The now village was destroyed again in 1916 during World War I by the marauding Albanian bands of Sali Butka , who set Moscopole on fire and killed a number of local civilians. Butka is considered among Aromanian circles as a criminal due to this event. This incident was followed by the looting of the village's churches by French soldiers belonging to

19040-414: Was promoted. With the destruction of Moscopole and the birth of Aromanian literature , many Aromanian writers, predominantly those young Aromanians educated in Romanian schools , began to write about Moscopole in a utopian way, with feelings and elements such as love, nostalgia, superstitions, mentalities, emotions and everyday aspects of life being predominant. Depression and nostalgia for the city became

19180-416: Was the exotic homeland of skillful, but somewhat rough and rude merchants who supplied their markets with wool, skins and wax, particularly sought after in the specific conditions of the 17th-18th centuries. Along with agriculture, animal husbandry remained a vital part of the economic activity of Moscopole. The mountain above the monastery of Saint Prodrome continued to serve as a pasture for the inhabitants of

19320-618: Was the second printing press in Ottoman Europe to be established after that of Constantinople, having been founded by monk Georgios Konstantinidis . This establishment produced a total of nineteen books, mainly the collection of the Services to the Saints but also the Introduction of Grammar by the local scholar Theodore Kavalliotis . All locally printed books were exclusively written in Greek with

19460-410: Was used for writing contracts. In fact the city is said to have been mainly populated by Aromanians. The fact was confirmed by a 1935 analysis of family names that showed that in the 18th century the majority of the population were indeed Aromanians, but there were also Greeks, Albanians and Bulgarians present in the city. In 1894, Gustav Weigand , a researcher who was interested in the populations of

19600-708: 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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