Who are the Albanians?: The Illyrian Anthroponymy and the Ethnogenesis of the Albanians – A Challenge to Regional Security

Introduction

The main research problem addressed in this article is Albanian ethnogenesis and national identity framed by the “Illyrian” theory of Albanian ethnic and cultural origin and the regional consequences to political security implicated by the implementation of this theory, which was accepted by the Rilindja (the renaissance)—the Albanian national awakening movement in 1878–1913. The methodology used to solve the problem is the analysis and comparison of different historical sources, scientific literature, and ideological propaganda works with opposing views by authors from different ethnic and educational backgrounds.

First, we must be clear on the meaning of Albanian autochthony, anthroponymy, and ethnogenesis. Actually, the question is, have the Albanians lived without interruption in the present-day “ethnic” territories of the Albanians (i.e., Albania, eastern Montenegro, Kosovo and Metohija, southern central Serbia, western Macedonia, and Northern Epirus in Greece) since ancient Greek and Roman times? In other words, are the Albanians really the indigenous people of the Balkans, as they claim, or just newcomers to their present-day ethnic territories? It is true, however, that the question of the Illyrian ethnic and cultural background of present-day Albanians (i.e., the ethnogenesis of the Albanians) has been politicized subsequent to the Second World War. The question is related both to the ancient history of the Albanians and to the pre-history of their language.

For some German and Austrian 19th-century linguists and historians, it was evident that the Albanians had been an autochthonous population in Albania since pre-Greco-Roman times. These scholars accepted the theory that the 19th-century Albanian nation represented a direct ethnic continuity of the autochthonous Balkan people—the ancient Illyrians. For Albanian scientists, it is incontestable that not only cultural but also ethnic continuity extends from the ancient Illyrians to present-day Albanians. Many 20th-century scholars, especially after the Second World War, however, held the opposite opinion, i.e., that the theory of the Illyrian origin of the Albanians is not supported by a single historical source! They claimed that the Albanians are not a native Balkan population but newcomers to present-day Albania from more or less distant regions.

The two main arguments for the second “anti-Illyrian” hypothesis or theory are (1) the Dacian-Albanian-Romanian linguistic connections (but not the Illyrian-Albanian one) and (2) place names in Albania, which indicate a lack of Illyrian-Albanian continuity. Nevertheless, the second approach to the question of Albanian ethnogenesis, i.e., that Albanians are the newcomers to the Balkan Peninsula compared to all Albanian neighbors, is backed by several historical sources.

The Albanians believe themselves to be the last pure and direct descendants of the ancient Illyrians, the Balkan people who lived on the peninsula in antiquity. Many scholars consider the Albanians the offspring population of the ancient inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula, either the Pelasgians or the Illyrians, i.e., the population residing in this part of Europe before the Middle Ages. During the mid-19th century, and especially after the establishment of the Albanian national political organization the First League of Prizren in 1878, the Romanticist understanding of nationhood based on the linguistic principle prevailed among Albanian intellectuals, particularly among those living as emigrants in Italy (the Arabëresh, as the Italo-Albanians called themselves).¹

The Albanian national movement Rilindja assumed an anti-South-Slavic (mostly anti-Serbian) and anti-Greek politico-ideological orientation, which, in any case, cannot be considered anti-Christian. Albanian national identity is derived from confrontation with and differences relative to their neighbors. The majority of Albanian political activists from the time of the Rilindja accepted the German Romanticist principle of “linguistic” nationhood, and they created the notion of the designation of Albanians as an ethnic group as their mother tongue was the Albanian language.² However, referring to the linguistic evidence, some scholars defend the thesis that the Albanians are descendants of the ancient Dacians who inhabited the lands south of the Danube River (the Roman provinces of Moesia Superior and Moesia Inferior) and migrated southwest...