Forsaken Albania

Tirana: The 20-ties and 30-ties. For Centuries they have been in our midst, but they never integrated and this is not only due to the “condescension” of the Albanians, but also because of the lack of any desire of this community to merge with us. I refer to the Egyptians, the nomad population that arrived in the Balkans in the Middle Ages. They had the habit of following armies on the move and they would do the odd jobs for the army that no one else would do; blacksmiths, cooks, kitchen hands, grave diggers, wheelers and dealers for army supplies and many other things. As time passed, they began to stabilize abodes clustered around castles and fortresses, on the outskirts, continuing to survive by exercising the same vocations for the garrisons of the fortresses. Gradually, the fortresses were transformed into townships, with the clusters of Egyptians living on the outskirts. This presence asserted itself in almost all the Balkan or Albanian cities. Tirana at the turn of the XX Century, had two such city quarters, one on the other side of the Lana, close to the location where the Elbasan Street Bridge is today and another city quarter in the zone, where the big fountain is today in central park of Tirana. The neighborhoods of the Egyptians were located along the banks of the Lana, the central watercourse that runs through Tirana, which served a dual purpose of providing water and carrying off refuse. The first photograph shows one of the neighborhoods of the Egyptians of Tirana. This photograph is taken from the roof of the Dajti Hotel, with the Boulevard in the forefront, which has still not been tiled, along which a horse drawn cart moves. Further on you can see the Field of the Shallvar췥, where the Central Park is today. In the distance, through the tree branches and the bushes you can discern the huts of the neighborhoods of the Egyptians. The white building discernible even further on, is the first one of the apartment blocs known to this day as the “Aviation Buildings”. The second photograph presents a corner of the neighborhood of the Egyptians at Elbasan Street. More than anything else, what is most visible is the large number of children running backwards and forwards one of the distinguishing features of this people today too. It looks as though it is Winter because the poor babies are wrapped up from head to toe in old cloths and rags. Judging from what the boy behind the group of women, is wearing, the photo could be dated back to the twenties of last century. Behind the children you can see the cylindrical wall of a well, on which a large tin box has been placed, obviously the bucket for the well. The women wear floral patterned, cotton baggy trousers, Turkish fashion. The last photograph shows a family of Egyptians but it is difficult to work out their relationship to one another. Perhaps the man with the moustache in the center of the photo stands next to his wife and that is his daughter on the other side of him, holding her own baby. Their clothing which is very tattered reveals the social scale they belong to, but, nonetheless the photograph adequately conveys not only the exhaustion of a lifetime of hardship. But also a certain human dignity, which, unfortunately is lacking entirely amongst their modern successors.