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September when the Ottomans ceased their efforts (Polo and Puto 1981: 89). Likewise
Himarë/Himara, the places around Dukagjin, Mirdita, Shpat and Labëria also won autonomy
and the right to keep their venomes 73 (the right of self-government). Along with the people of
Himarë/Himara they were not obliged to follow the long list of obligations prescribed for
rayah, though they had to pay the haraç, a tax that symbolised their submission (ibid.).
The local writer Spiro Rusha (2001: 57) provides some additional data about autonomy that
was recognized only for the inhabitants of eight villages of Himarë/Himara area: Palasa,
Dhërmi/Drimades, Ilias, Vuno, Himarë/Himara, Pilur, Kudhes and Qeparo. These villages
kept their autonomy until the Second World War (1941). Later on Rusha describes the rights
which included: local government led by the elderly and respectful men; right of kapedans or
the war leaders to carry the arms and the permission to visit Sultan of Delvina and Vlorë; free
navigation with their own ships; right to export goods without taxes; and finally the right to
have a representative in the government of Istambul. Besides the rights autonomy also
included different obligations such as haraç, a tax which was paid by the kapedan; and the
obligation to fight, under their own flag, for the Ottoman army whenever they were asked for
(ibid.).
Thëngjilli, another scholar in the edited collection published by the Albanian Academy of
Science, sees the economic benefits as the reason for later military cooperation of
Himarë/Himara people with the army of Naples as well as with the armies of other countries:
Though the Himariots won the position of self-governing provinces, they strove to
exploit any circumstance internationally favourable, addressing to the Catholic
Powers, such as Spain, Naples, Austria, Russia, etc. [sic.] (Thëngjilli 2004: 147-148).
Thëngjilli (2004: 149) argues that this kind of collaboration was based on the goal of “driving
the Ottomans out of the Balkans”:
Himariots have expressed the willingness to participate in all the actions for driving
the Ottomans out of the Balkans, in many cases they have trusted in the promises, but
they have found themselves alone in front of the Ottomans, and in a few cases, they
have secured collaboration and their victories have been apparent (ibid.).
All scholars in this section agree that Himarë/Himara people were in the 16 th century
autonomous. Their writings, again, differ regarding the national and local interpretations of
73 Venome or the unwritten law on which the local administration of the particular area was based (Pollo and
Puto 1981: 293).
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