Nr. 119
Muslim Albania. As if all the rifts within the Catholic and Orthodox religions were not sufficient, towards the end of Century XIV yet another religion arrived at the portes of the land of the Albabnians-the Muslim Faith. At that period in history, the Turks, in full and incontainable expansion, reached the lands of the Albanians. By the thirties’ of the 15th Century the Turls had established their authority over the whole country. As had happened with the two other religions previously, the nobility did not demonstrate many scruples towards the new arrival either. Gradually, to save their properties and positions, a part of the nobility began to convert to the Muslim Faith, even though, in the initial period, the converted and the converters both knew that this was merely a solution to a problem. This process was interrupted during the tumultuous period of Scenderbeg, who had had a taste of the new Faith anyway during his many years spent in the Sultan’s Court. Following this Century, and wave upon wave, growing numbers of Albanians continued to be converted to the Muslim Faith, a process that continued on through to the final wave at the end of the 18th Century. In many cases, existing places of worship were rennovated and turned into mosques, but of course, in the initial period, there was no lack of construction of new mosques. The Albanian always remained a shallow Muslim, just as he had been a shallow follower of the Catholic or Orthodox Faiths. This is linked, not with what has been described as their tolerant spirit, because that is the last thing the Albanians had, but with a kind of religious indifferentism whidch has always existed and is obvious today too. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that in the history of the Albanians, the Muslim Faith, in at least two cases, had an impact on theri national salvation. The first time, in the fourteenth Century, when, wedged in between two very corrosive empires and civilisations, Serb and Byzantinian, the Albanians faced being entirely assimilated, partially by the first civilisation and partially by the second, a process which was interrupted by the entrance of the Turks on the scene. And the second case, in the priod of the birth of the nationalist spirit, at the beginning of the nineteenth Century, the Muslim Faith of the Albanians served as a barrier against the de-nationalisation of the southern regions of the country in the face of the powerful pressure exerted by the Orthodox Church, strongly linked to the newly created Greek State.
In the first photograph there is a mosque located in a village in Diber, following the earthquake of 1940 which caused widespread devastation in the area. Due to the poverty in the areas where they were built, the village mosques were, in general very plain, there were no great artistic pretences and, in many cases, the minarets were the only object that distinguished mosques from ordinary houses. In this cases, as a result of the earthquake, the top of the minaret has toppled and fallen onto the roof of the mosque.
In the second photograph, which dates back to 1916, you can see a group of Muslim priests strolling across the outside grounds of worship in Tirana. These open area squares used for mass worship were usually encircled by beech trees. These grounds were sacred and used solely for public worship because there was no mosque big enough for the followers of the Muslim Faith. Today, the old place of worship in Tirana has been transformed into public gardens, some of the old beech trees of those times have managed to survive till this day.
