The The inhabitants (called by the Turks by the Serbians °Arba nassip and by themselves (Lshicipetar") are the descendants of the ancient Pelasgs and are di vided into two main groups: the who live in the north, and the Tosks, who live in the south. They have an hereditary aristocracy and a kind of feudal system. The Ghegs are divided into tribes, the principal of which are the Malissori and Minidits. They are half civilized mountaineers; frank to a friend, vin dictive to an enemy. They are constantly under arms, live in perpetual anarchy, every tribe be ing at war with its neighbor, and manage their affairs according to their own peculiar customs and code of honor, so called They are haughty, simple and brave and have always been excellent soldiers. The Tosks are more civilized and have hitherto been under the guidance of a system of beys or chiefs and acknowledged the Ottoman code of law. But in reality their tribes ("fissesp) have self created an administration of a somewhat aris tocratic-republican character with a gvoyvode (duke) as chief leader in war and peace who is at the same time the head of a council of chosen senators. At the beginning of the 15th century the Tosks had a legislator called Dukashin. Their ancestors, the Pelasgs, were at first sub jugated by the ancient Hellenes and later by the Romans. About two-thirds of the Albanians are Moslems ; the northern Christians are mostly Roman Catholic, the southern Orthodox Greek. There are a few Roman Catholic and Orthodox schools, but education may scarcely be said to exist as yet. The free schools, which were founded by a Serbian scholar and celebrated writer, Dositey ObradovM, in the beginning of the 18th century, died out as soon as their founder left the country.
History.— The Albanians are among the oldest peoples in Europe. Their country formed part of the Roman provinces of Illyria and Epirus, and after the dismemberment of the Roman Empire it became part of the Byzantine Empire. In 640 A.D. northern Albania was in vaded by the Serbians, with whom they adopted later (1288) the Christian faith, and in the 9th century southern Albania was conquered by the Bulgarians. The Normans, Venetians and Byzantines disputed the territory with them, but until the 14th century the Albanians re mained the greater part of the time nominally under Serbian rule, never, however, losing in any high degree their nationality. 'Upper Al bania and part of southern Albania were ruled by the Montenegrin princely family of Balk,. or Balsici of Provençal origin. In 1360, after the death of the Serbian Emperor Dufian the Mighty, they regained complete independence under native chiefs until 1431, when the Turks captured Yanina. The Albanians, united for the first time under their great leader George Kasriot, or Skanderbeg (1404-67), successfully resisted in 1443 the Turkish invasion, but on the death of Skanderbeg (1467) the principal ity he had founded was taken over by the Venetians, and after the fall of Scutari in 1478 the Albanians passed nominally under Turkish rule. They still preserved intact their racial and
national characteristics and maintained a large degree of independence augmented by their conversion to Mohammedanism in the 16th and 17th centuries. This was a cause of further estrangement from their neighbors, the Bul garians, Greeks and Serbs, who remained Christians, and their aloofness was encouraged and utilized by the Turks, who in the second half of the 18th century through the pashas of the notorious Bushatli family succeeded in ac quiring from the Sublime Porte the right of succession in northern Albania and Kara-Mah mud Pasha made himself an absolute satrap after several battles which he won from the Turks. But in 1796 he perished in a battle against the Montenegrins. In the 18th and early 19th century Albania regained for a brief period her independence under Ali Pasha of Janina (1740-1822). Mustafa Pasha made (1831) a decisive effort to shake off Turkish dominion but was utterly defeated by the Grand Vizier Reshid at Skadar and surrendered. After that disaster Albania came definitely under the Ottoman sovereignty but the liberty-loving Albanians rose in rebellion against their op pressors in 1833, 1836 and 1842. The Albanians in the south followed the example of their northern brothers and rebelled in 1843 and 1847, but were mercilessly suppressed and crushed by Omer Pasha. Among other rebel lions that took place in Albania mention must be made of that of 1872 when the Meredits joined hands with the Montenegrins and re sisted stubbornly Dervish Pasha. Stimulated by the Turkish revolution of 1908 and the des potism of the Young Turks the powerful Ma lissori contributed to bring about the Balkan war (q.v.) of 1912. The Balkan allies wished to divide Albania among themselves, but were opposed by Austria-Hungary and Italy. At Va lona 28 Nov. 1912 Albania was declared inde pendent, a provisional government was set up under Ismail Kemal Bey and on 20 Dec. 1912 the London Ambassadorial Conference of the Great Powers acknowledged the autonomy of Albania, and later approximately defined the frontiers and appointed Prince William of Wied sovereign (in Albanian °M'pret,° a cor ruption of Imperator) of the new country, to be supported by an International Commission of Control of six members. The Prince ar rived in Durazzo 7 March 1914, but after the outbreak of the European war fled from the country with most of the members of the com mission. An attempt made by Essad Pasha to set up a military form of government failed (5 Oct. 1914) and Albania fell into a state of anarchy. On 25 Dec. 1914 the Italians captured Valona. Had the new principality survived its area would probably have been 10,000 to 11,500 square miles and its population between 800,000 and 850,000. But the total Albanian population is computed to 1,700,000, of which number 250, 000 live in Greece, 100,000 in southern Italy, while many thousands live in Asia Minor and in European Turkey.