By FRANK LEDWIDGE
As all sensible Albanians know, their country is hardly a byword for good governance. Politicians there (as indeed in Britain where I live) are reviled for inefficiency, dishonesty and corruption. But when it comes to ruling other countries, the legacy of Albanians is little short of glorious.
In the early 17th cenury, things were going seriously downhill in Istanbul. the constant shifts of power, crippling inefficiency and a serious failure of leadership had left the Empire on its knees, facing rebellion and a regaining of hard-won lands by the Habsburg Empire. It had lost its way. Most damagingly the Venetians were blockading the Dardanelles and challenging for dominance of the Aegean. And then came the Koprulu family, Albanian by origin from near Berat, this dynasty of Ottoman viziers (essentially Prime Ministers) began with Mehmet Pasha Koprulu. He was born in 1575 near Berat and had a distinguished career as an administrator until, thoroughly fed up with the corruption of the Ottoman court of the time, he resigned and fully intended to retire. In 1656, however, the Sultans mother recommended him as Vizier and this was an offer he literally could not refuse.
One of his first acts on taking power was to take the rather simple step of advising the somewhat useless Sultan Mehmet IV to take longer holidays, do a bit of hunting -anything he liked. But whatever his Majesty did, he was to stay out of Istanbul and leave the governing to Koprulu.
He then acted quickly to remove the Venetian blockade of the Dardanelles, and recover the military situation in the Aegean and what is now Romania. By the end of his five years as Vizier, ended by his death in 1661, the Ottoman Empire had been re-established on the world scene, and its armies were probing at the borders of Austria.
This pattern continued with his four Koprulu successors, one of whom pushed the Ottoman borders all the way up to the walls of Vienna in 1685. They were stopped there of course with the intervention of the Polish King Jan Sobieski. No doubt very many of that formidable army standing at the gates of Vienna were from Albanian lands. (incidentally its artillery was Serbian-so much for their anti-Ottoman credentials). It was, arguably the high water of the Empire. Once they were driven back from Vienna, they would never recover that fearsome reputation built up over the previous centuries.
Like all Abanians (and indeed non-Turks) in Ottoman military or civil service, Mehmet Pasha Koprulu had been recruited through the ‘devshirme’ system as a youth. Whilst this was basically a system of conscription, many parents were happy to see their children taken. It was a sure way to advancement in a poor society, being largely meritocratic This was an innovation which essentially helped to produce what amounted to the worlds first, and arguably only truly multi-ethnically ruled Empire.
By the way, supposedly the most famous Albanian Dervishme graduate -one Gjerg Kastriot – never left Albania; there is no evidence at all that the young noblemand was ever in Turkish service.
There is a book waiting to be written about the Albanian contribution to Ottoman success.
At a time when Albania itself is notably badly governed, there is something to be said for the notion that once its sons were a byword not only for military prowess but efficient and effective governance.
