Chandra Prakash Bhongir, Civil Engr, May04 - Repositories

not until 1043 that Byzantine sources referred to these lands as albanoi. 6 Apart from
‘Illyrian’ and ‘Albanoi’, the inhabitants were referred by Byzantine chroniclers also as
‘Macedonian sive Albaniam’, and ‘Epirotes’ with no relation to modern day Greek and
Macedonian lands. 7
Marin Barleti, the first Albanian historian and contemporary of Scanderbeg,
confirmed the use of these terms as analogous to one another when he wrote his history
on the life of Scanderbeg. He referred to him both as ‘Scanderbegus Albanorum’ and
‘Scanderbegus Epirotarum.’ 8 Scanderbeg himself in his correspondence with other
foreign dignitaries used these terms interchangeably when he referred to himself. He
signed a letter to king Ladislaus of Hungary, ‘Scanderbeg Prince of the Epirotes,’ and in
a letter to King Ferdinand Ferrante he called himself, ‘...Scanderbeg, Prince of Albania.’ 9
The reasons why Abanians were not mentioned in sources again until the tenth
century, are both geographical and political. First, their cultural heritage was not
developed in the same scale of its neighbors the Greeks and Romans. Second, the
country’s geography in relation to other neighbor states was important. Geography has
played both a positive and negative role in the shaping of Albanian society. Through out
6 Kristo Frasheri, “Trojet e Shqiptareve ne Shekullin e XV”, I (November,1989):9; Fan Stylian
Noli, George Castrioti Scanderbeg:1405-1468, (New York: International University Press, 1947):7.
7 Kristo Frasheri, “Trojet e Shqiptareve ne Shekullin e XV,” Studime Historike I
(November,1989): 14-15; Edmond Dulaj, “Koncepti Epir dhe Epirot ne Shekullin e XII-XIV”, Studime Per
Epoken e Skenderbeut, Vol.I (March, 1989):29.
8 Marin Barleti, Historia e Jetes dhe e Veprave te Skenderbeut, trans. Stefan Prifti, (Tirane:Tirane
University Press,1967):37,44,55,60, 69.
9 Nelo Drizari, Scanderbeg: His Life Correspondence Orations, Victories and Philosophy,
(California: National Press,1968): 23, 64.
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