Chandra Prakash Bhongir, Civil Engr, May04 - Repositories

and just a couple years earlier in 1445, when he married his sister, Mamica, to the
heir of the Thopia principality he added the center portion of the country to his
alliance system. 20
Scanderbeg was John’s youngest son. According to Turkish records,he joined
his brothers as a hostage to the Sultan in Adrianople in 1423. Initially Scanderbeg’s
hostage status to the Porte was beneficial to his father, who realized that the Ottoman
threat would not disappear for years to come. His presence in Turkey, allowed his
father, John, to keep his lands intact. While in the Sultan’s court, Scanderbeg was
educated at the Palace School in military arts. Like his father, Scanderbeg realized the
importance of outward conversion to Islam in order to gain the trust of the Sultan, but
upon his return to his homeland, he made his intentions clear, in a speech which he
delivered to the Albanian people upon seizing the Castle of Kroya.
“Although we lived together as a family, as it were, in one and the same
course of life, although we ate at the same table and though we did in a
manner breathe the jointly with one and the same soul, nevertheless, neither
they, nor any man alive ever heard me mention my country... Neither was
there any man that heard me use any speech, or utter any word at any time,
which might reveal me to be a Christian or a free man.” 21
When Scanderbeg returned to Albania in 1443, his main goal was to regain
the lands his father had lost and to unite the country against the Ottoman Turks. His
call to the Albanian people was not to take the cross and repel the infidels, but to,
“...lead on and conduct in the recovery of the rest of our country...,” 22 by all means
20 Ibid., 41; Fan Stylian Noli, George Castrioti Scanderbeg:1405-1468, (New York:
International University Press, 1947):39.
21 Nelo Drizari, Scanderbeg: His Life Correspondence Orations, Victories and Philosophy,
(California: National Press,1968): 2.
22 Ibid., 3.
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