The presence of the albane population in the geographical area of Dardania—Kosovo and Northwestern Macedonia—during the middle ages before the Ottoman Empire's conquest of the Balkans

Abstract

In this paper, we have brought some data from both foreign and domestic researchers who have addressed the issue of the Albanian ethnic population. Their studies indicate that this population resided in the areal of Dardania during the medieval period, even prior to the conquest of the Balkans by the Ottoman Empire. In addition to these findings, in this paper, we however introduce and analyze several new pieces of information that have not been published before. We provide insights into the remnants of certain churches and monasteries constructed by Albans [predecessors of Albanians] during the medieval era, many of which no longer exist today and some of which were appropriated during the occupation and rule of the medieval Slavic state of Raška and the Orthodox Church. Primarily, we have examined archival sources that offer evidence of the existence of settlements of ethnic Albans in the territory of Dardania during the medieval period, relying on historical toponyms as well as the traces of Christian monuments of cult built by nobles and merchants of Alban ethnicity, which clearly demonstrate their existence prior to the Slavic invasions in this geographical area. On the other hand, Slavic historiography, anthropogeography, and ethnology make maximum and ongoing efforts to deny the existence of Christian settlements and monuments of cult-such as churches and monasteries of the Alban [Albanian] ethnicity-during the medieval period in the territory of Dardania, which encompasses present-day Kosovo and Northwestern Macedonia.