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Albanian Settlements in the

F. W. Hasluck

The Annual of the British School at Athens / Volume 15 / November 1909, pp 223 - 228 DOI: 10.1017/S0068245400017615, Published online: 18 October 2013

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0068245400017615

How to cite this article: F. W. Hasluck (1909). Albanian Settlements in the Aegean Islands. The Annual of the British School at Athens, 15, pp 223-228 doi:10.1017/S0068245400017615

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Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/ATH, IP address: 61.129.42.30 on 06 May 2015 ALBANIAN SETTLEMENTS IN THE AEGEAN ISLANDS.

AN investigation of the very scattered literature of the Greek islands, designed primarily to supplement Mr. Dawkins's researches on the dialects, has led me to unexpectedly interesting results touching the Albanian settlements, which may be worthy of independent publication. Besides printed sources I have consulted the Grand Insulaire of Andre Thevet (Paris, Bibl. Nat. MSS. Fr. 15, 453 (1586))1 and the Isolarii of Antonio di Milo (B.M. (a) Julius, E. II (1587), (b) Add. MSS. 10,365 (1591)), and Francesco Lupazolo of (B.M. Lansd. 792 (1638)). The stages by which the Albanians penetrated into are well known.. They appear in force in Thessaly about I35o,2and shortly after in the north-west provinces of Aetolia and Acarnania.3 Their soldierly qualities were at once recognized : they served as mercenaries under the despots of the Morea,4 and were invited to settle in Attica by the Catalans,5 and in by the Venetians.6 Ten thousand of them, finally, migrating evidently under pressure of the Turks further north, were admitted into the Peloponnese by Theodore I. Palaeologus, and by him settled on waste and upland sites. To the end of the Byzantine dominion they were an important military asset, and at the present day form a con- siderable element in the population of Arcadia and Argolis.

1 The author travelled in the Levant 1549-54, publishing some of his material in his Cosmographie du Levant (1554) and Cosmographie Universelle (1575). Though his information must be used with caution, he travelled widely in Greek lands and collected much fresh material. 2 Miller, Latins in Levant, 247. 3 Ibid. 293. i Ibid. 283. s Ibid. 317 (1381). 6 Ibid. 366 (early xv. c.). B. Randolph (1687) says that the Christian population of Euboea was in his day almost entirely Albanian, the having fled in 1471. 224 F. W. HASLUCK

The Aegean islands in which Albanian settlements are recorded fall into three groups: (i) of the islands of the Saronic Gulf, , Spetsa, (Kalauria), Koulouri (Salamis); (2) of the , , Nios (), Thermia (), and Zea (Ceos), and of the N. , ; (3) of the Asiatic islands, , , Kasos. Hydra is fortunate in having a local historian, who bears the famous name of Miaoulis1: the family records of the island seem to have been carefully kept, and if we may rely on them we can form some idea when and how the island was colonized. The first settlers, whose names are recorded, came in 15802 from Troezene. Other immigrants at different periods in the seventeenth century hailed from various parts of the Morea, Euboea, Parga, Suli, Avlona, and Kythnos: all these may have been Albanian. We hear further of a non-Albanian or at least doubtful element from Vourla (in Asia Minor) and Tenos. Towards the close of this century the population was assessed at i.ooo.3 In the eighteenth the dis- turbed state of the mainland, especially the reconquest of the Morea by the Turks and the effects of Orloff's expedition, augmented the numbers of the inhabitants by successive relays of refugees, but the Albanian element remained predominant. Then followed the growth of the Hydriote carrying-trade, and the consequent prosperity brought the population to the astounding total of 22,ooo.4 The sister-island of Spetsa evidently had a similar history, though no details have come down to us. We know only that it was already inhabited in 15 So,6 and that the population was assessed at 1,000 in 1670,6 and rose during the period of prosperity to 2i,ooo.7 As to Poros and Koulouri we have no more than a bare mention of their Albanian population at the end of the seventeenth century.8 The Albanians of Andros occupy the northern deme of Gavreion and

1 'IoropCa Tt)s"Y8pas (1874). 2 The colonization of Hydra, however, began at an earlier date, at latest 1550, since Thevet ({. 169) represents the island as inhabited in his day. Local tradition then affirmed that an older population had fled to the mainland in the reign of the despot Constantine Falaeologus, to escape the pirales. 3 De Fleury in Rycaut, Gk. Chtirch, p. 365. 4 Pouqueville, v. 303. 5 Thevet, f. 99 v. 6 De Fleury, loc. cit. 7 Pouqueville, v. 307. These tremendous figures seem hardly credible considering that the present population of Hydra is assessed at 7,172, of Spetsa at 4,492. 8 Wheler, 424, Dapper, 284, Pouqueville, vi. 307 (Poros); Dapper, 283 (Koulouri). ALBANIANS IN THE AEGEAN. 225 form a third of the total population of the island. They retain their language, and their villages (Arna, Amolochos, and Gavreion) are distinguished from the Greek by their lofty sites and widely-spaced houses. The dialect of Albanian spoken in Andros is said to resemble that of Poros, but the villagers themselves say they come from Karystos in Euboea.1 The date of the colony is said to be subsequent to the Turkish conquest,2 which is both in itself probable and borne out by such records as we have. Arna and Amolochos (Gavreion is a modern settlement of 1821) are mentioned first by Lupazolo, and Braconnier (writing in 1701} says that Albanians were called in to cultivate Andros 'about a hundred years ago.'3 Nios is said to have been settled with Albanians from the Morea by Marco Crispo (c. 1418).4 Whether this be true or no, the Albanians who were recognizable in Sauger's time had nothing to do with this colony, since the island was absolutely depopulated in 1558 by fourteen Barbary galliots, and remained desert till 1575, after which it was repopulated by Albanians :5 they numbered about 200 persons in 1638.6 We gather from Sauger that their language survived till the latter part of the seventeenth century ; it is now extinct. Thermia (Kythnos) was, according to Antonio di Milo, for many years deserted and in his own time settled by Albanians.7 Thevenot's statement that Albanians had seized the Latin bishop's property in Thermia rests on the authority of Lupazolo.8 Towards the end of the seventeenth century Sauger speaks of the population of both Thermia and

1 Miliarakis, "AvSpos, 40, 81, 133 ; Sauger, Hist, des Dues, 339, says they are from the Morea. a Tournefort (Amst. 1718), 134. 3 In Aime-Martin, Lettres Edir. el Curieuses, i. 67; Bordone (1528, xli.) speaks of the island as quasi deserta. 4 Sauger, 215, from whom Tournefort, 95 ; cf. Fasch, 33. 5 Ant. di Milo, (b) f. 84 (cf. (a) f. 48): 'fu disabitata l'ano 1558 da 14 galiotti qual porto via tute le anime da quel tempo fino la guera pasata si e stata disabitata.' 6 Lupazolo, f. 74: 'e poco tempo che e stata habitata d'Albanesi il numero di 200 anime incirca' ; cf. Thevenot, i. 333. 7 (b) f. 68 v. : ' rnolto tempo disabitata ma ora da pouera giente si e abitata sono andati ad abitare molti Albanesi'; (a) has 'al presente da Albanesi abittatta.' Thevet {Cosmog. Univ. i. 235) says that all the males of Tnermia were massacred by the Turks 'about fifty years ago,' but that it was now repeopled by neighbouring Greeks. 8 f. 72 ; cf. Thevenot, i. 345.

Q 226 F. W. HASLUCK

Zea as for the most part Albanian.1 For the Albanian population of Skopelos Antonio di Milo is our only authority.2 Of the Turkish islands Samos and Psara received their share of Albanian settlers : both had been possessions of the Giustiniani of Chios, who in the latter half of the fifteenth century, finding that their subjects were much vexed by corsairs and being unable to protect them otherwise, deported the populations to Chios. Authorities are fairly agreed that Samos and Psara were deserted for a hundred years. Jerome Justinian speaks of their repopulation after the fall of Chios (1566) by ' une nouvelle nation estrangere.1 8 This is explained easily enough in Samos by the existence of two villages (Arvanitochori and Leka) of acknowledged Albanian origin,4 which probably date from the settlement of Samos by Kilidj Ali6 and still spoke Albanian at the end of the seventeenth century.5 The inhabitants are said to have come from the Peloponnese.7 In the case of Psara, the local historian, Nikodemos, writing in 1862, says that he had it from the oldest inhabitants of the island that the Albanian language was never spoken there.8 But Pouqueville, who visited the island in 1799 and as former consul at Jannina should certainly have recognized Albanians, describes the Psarians as such.9 Nikodemos, how- ever, dates the repopulation of the island (by Euboeans, Thessalians, and Western Epirotes) about 1650, which is manifestly erroneous, since Thevet

1 P- 353' In 'ne case °f Zea this is backed by a curious folk-tradition collected by Thevet to the effect that the towers in the island were built by the Albanian national hero Scanderbeg (Tnsulaire, f. 174: 'George Castriot dit Scanderbeg ayant renonce a la foy du faux prophete se saisit de plusieurs Isles de l'Archipelague faisant la guerre au Prince Amurath et a son fils Mahetnet second du Nom. Estant en possession paisible de l'isle de Zea y fit faire plusieurs forts pour tenir en bride ses ennemis'). 2 (a) f. 41 ; cf. Braconnier (1706) in Aime-Martin, Lettres Edif. et Curieuses, i. 81 : 'On dit que cette ile se trouvant deserte il y a deux cents ans le chef de cuisine du Grand Seigneur, ou, selon d'autres, le chef des boulangers de Constantinople, l'obtint du prince en faisant venir des Grecs des environs.' The island was one of those ruined by Barbarossa in 1537-8. 3 Histoire de Chio (1606), 166. The settlement of Samos (1562) is slightly earlier than the fall of Chios. 4 Stamatiades, Sapidicd, ii. 8. 5 They are mentioned already in Georgirenes' Present State of Samos; cf. also Aime-Martin, Lettres Edif. et Curieuses, i. 40, where they are said to be a hundred years old in 1714. 6 Georgirenes, op. rit. ; it is now, I am told, extinct. ' Kretikides, ToircYp. Tfjs 2dfj.oxi, 104, but many of this author's statements seem to be mere guesses. 8 "Yird(i,vi)(i.a rfjs v

1 Insulaire, f. 162. . 2 (b) f. 80. 3 f. 65 v. 4 Gr. Inscln, iii. 36 (cf. Lacroix, 199, copied by Cuinet, 399, but he is not supported by Pouqueville). It is significant that Kasos possessed a firman of Suleiman the Magnificent, an energetic coloniser (E. Randolph, Archipelago, 30). Ross also hints at Albanian colonization in Astypalaea (ii. 59), not in itself improbable, as it was one of the islands sacked by Barbarossa. 5 J.H.S. xxix. 9, 10 (Marmara ; the colonization can be put back to 1550 on the authority of the Grand Insulaire); 16 (Halone); 17 (Koutali). 6 The villages of Musatcha and Hautcha on the Aesepus, certainly earlier than 1670, the date on a church. 7 B.S.A. xiii. 304. 8 Kleonymos, BiOvviKct, pp. 93, 155. 9 Cobham, Excerpt. Cypr. 167 (Porcacchi); Hackett, Ch. in Cyprus, 73. Thevet, Cosmog. Univ. i. 202, says they still shaved the front of their heads, leaving their hair long behind. 10 Charriere, Negotiations de la France, i. 374. n Present Slate of Samos (1678), p. 16. Q 2 228 ALBANIANS IN THE AEGEAN. which the chief articles were that every settler might take up what land he desired, and be free from all imposts for seven years, that no Turk should settle in the island, and that the internal administration should be in Christian hands.1 From the government point of view this colonization was expedient, since waste land was brought under cultivation and the treasury eventually enriched thereby; further, islands with good ports, if left untenanted, became inevitably the haunts of pirates.2 Albanians were doubtless preferred as settlers for their hardiness and spirit, while on the other hand their still semi-nomadic state rendered them willing emigrants. The Albanian element in the population of the islands, never a large proportion, tends always to become absorbed in the Greek, owing first to community of religion with the Greeks, which promotes intermarriage, and secondly to the constant intercommunication of the islands and the pre- dominance over the whole area of the , which slowly but surely stamps out the Albanian: in the important and solid Albanian colonies of Hydra and Spetsa the traditions of the Revolution add to these forces a strong Greek national feeling.3 The information I have collected cannot therefore pretend to be complete: it is probable that other islands have also contained an Albanian element, of which later travellers may find traces in language and custom. But, considering the date of the Albanian migrations and the progress of Hellenization since, it seems unlikely that important additions will be made to the present summary. F. W. HASLUCK.

1 Stamatiades, 2a|naKd, ii. 7. The original firman disappeared like so many others in the ' reform' period. 2 In this connection it is interesting to note that a strict look-out for suspicious vessels was an enforced duty of the Samians (Georgirenes, 6), and doubtless of other privileged islanders. 3 Quite characteristic is the reply I received from an old woman of Spetsa on asking whether the language was still spoken in the island : ' TO. '£evpo/j.ev, fw. Zkv elvoi naKa., rival &