ALBANIA present a record of interminable conflicts between the tribesmen and the Turks, between the Christians and the converts to Islam, or between all combined and the traditional Montenegrin enemy. The decline of the Ottoman power, which began towards the end of the 17th century, was marked by increasing anarchy and lawlessness in the outlying portions of the empire. A Moslem chieftain, Mehemet of Bushat, after obtaining the pashalik of Scutari from the Porte, succeeded in establishing an almost independent sovereignty in Upper Albania, which remained hereditary in his family for some generations. In Southern Albania Ali Pasha of Tepelen (6. about 1750), an able, cruel, and unscrupulous man, subdued the neighbouring pashas and chiefs, crushed the Suliotes and Khimarrhotes, and exercised a practically independent sovereignty from the Adriatic to the JEgean. He introduced comparative civilization at lannina, his capital, and maintained direct relations with foreign powers. Eventually he renounced his allegiance to the Sultan, but was overthrown by a Turkish army in 1822. Shortly afterwards the dynasty of Scutari came to an end with the defeat of Mustafa Pasha, the last of the house of Bushat. The opposition of the Albanians, Christian as well as Moslem, to the reforms introduced by the Sultan Mahmud II. led to the devastation of the country and the expatriation of thousands of its inhabitants. During the next half-century several local revolts occurred, but no movement of a strictly political character took place till after the Berlin Treaty (13th July 1878), when some of the Moslems and Catholics combined to resist the stipulated transference of Albanian territory to Austria-Hungary, Servia, and Montenegro, and the Albanian League was formed by an assemblage of chiefs at Prizren. The movement, which was instigated by the Porte with the object of evading the provisions of the treaty, was so far successful that the restoration of Plava and Gusinye to Albania was sanctioned by the Powers, Montenegro receiving in exchange the town and district of Dulcigno. The Albanian leaders, however, soon displayed a spirit of independence, which proved embarrassing to Turkish diplomacy and caused alarm at Constantinople ; their forces came into conflict with a Turkish army under Dervish Pasha near Dulcigno (November 1880), and eventually the league was suppressed. A similar agitation on a smaller scale was organized in Southern Albania to resist the territorial concessions awarded by the Powers to Greece. These movements, however, were far from displaying a genuinely national character. In recent years attempts have been made by Albanians resident abroad to propagate the national idea among their compatriots at home ; committees have been formed at Brussels, Bucharest, Athens, and elsewhere, and books, pamphlets, and newspapers are surreptitiously sent into the country. Unity of aim and effort, however, seems foreign to the Albanians, except in defence of local or tribal privileges. The growth of a wider patriotic sentiment will depend on the spread of popular education : up to the present no appreciable progress has been made in this direction. Albania abounds in ancient remains, which as yet have been little explored. Fragments of Cyclopean structures were discovered by Hahn at Kretzunista, Arinista, 11111 anc tics' ' ^ °ther sites in the district of Argyrokastro; the walls, partly Cyclopean, of an ancient city (perhaps Bullis) are visible at Gradista on the Yiossa. The remains of the classical epoch attest the influence of Boman rather than of Greek civilization. At Pollina, the ancient Apollonia, are the remnants of a Doric temple, of which a single column is still standing. A little north of Preveza are the considerable ruins of Nikopolis, founded by Octavian to commemorate the victory of Actium. At Khimara (ancient Chimcera) the remains of an old Greek
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city may still be seen; at Santa Quaranta (ancient Onchesnws) the walls and towers of a later town are in good preservation. Few traces remain of the once celebrated Dyrrhachium. The ruins of Pandosia, Ephyra, Elatea, Phoenike, Buthrotum, Akrolissos, and other towns may be identified. The most important and interesting remains, however, are those of Dodona, near lannina, the seat of the famous oracle of the Pelasgian Zeus. The ruins, which were excavated by Mr Constantine Carapanos of Athens in 1875, furnished a rich yield of inscriptions, statuettes, vases, and other objects. The temple of Zeus stood in the upper part of a tenienos or sacred precinct, together with two other buildings, one of which was probably a sanctuary of Aphrodite; the inclosure was approached by propykea. A remarkably large theatre is situated in a neighbouring valley. For details see Mr Carapanos’s work, Dodone et ses Ruines (Paris, 1878). Of the mediaeval ruins those of Kroi'a, the stronghold of Skanderbeg, are the most interesting. Albanian is peculiarly interesting as the only surviving representative of the so-called Thraco-Illyrian group of languages which formed the primitive speech of the peninsula. It has afforded an Language‘ attractive study to philologists, amongst whom may be mentioned Malte-Brun, Leake, Xylander, Hahn, Miklositch, and G. Meyer. The analysis of the language presents great difficulties, as, owing to the absence of literary monuments, no certainty can be arrived at with regard to its earlier forms and later development. The groundwork, so far as it can be ascertained, and the grammar are Indo-European, but a large number of words have been borrowed from the Latin, or Italian, and Greek, and it is not always easy to decide whether the mutilated and curtailed forms now in use represent adopted words or belong to the original vocabulary. There is also a considerable admixture of Turkish and Slavonic words. Notwithstanding certain points of resemblance in structure and phonetics, Albanian is entirely distinct from the neighbouring languages; in its relation to early Latin and Greek it may be regarded as a co-ordinate member of the Aryan stock. It possesses seven vowels; among the consonants are the aspirated d and t, as in Greek, and many other sounds, such as 6, d, sh, zh (French j), and hard g, which are wanting in Greek, but exist in the Slavonic languages. There are three declensions, each with a definite and indefinite form; the genitive, dative, and ablative are usually represented by a single termination: the vocative is formed by a final o, as memmo from memme, “ mother.” The neuter gender is absent. There are two conjugations; the passive formation, now wanting in most Indo-European languages, has been retained, as in Greek: thus kerko-iy, “ I seek,” forms kerko-n-em, “ I am sought.” The infinitive is not found; as in Greek, Rumanian, and Bulgarian it is replaced by the subjunctive with a particle. The two auxiliary verbs are kdm, “ I have,” and yam, “ I am.” An interesting and characteristic feature of the language is the definitive article, which is attached to the end of the word : e.g., mik (“friend,” amicus), mik-u (“the friend”); kien (“dog”), kein-i; Shkumb, Shkumb-i. The suffix-article likewise appears in Rumanian and Bulgarian, but in no other Latin or Slavonic language. Another remarkable analogy between the Albanian and the neighbouring languages is found in the formation of the future; the Albanian do (3rd pers. sing, of dova, “ I will,”) like the Greek 6a, is prefixed without change to all persons of the verb: a similar usage in Servian and Bulgarian, as well as in Rumanian (especially the Macedonian dialect), is peculiar to these languages in the Slavonic and Latin groups. These and other points of similarity have led to the conjecture that the primitive S. I. — 32
