8521434 Tolerant Dimensions of Cultural Pluralism in the Ottoman Empire the Albanian Community 18001912

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Tolerant Dimensions of Cultural Pluralism in the Ottoman Empire: The Albanian

Community, 1800-1912

George W. Gawrych

International Journal of Middle East Studies , Vol. 15, No. 4. (Nov., 1983), pp. 519-536.

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Inr. J . Middle East Stud. 15 (1983), 519-536 Printed in the U nited Stares of America

George W . Gawrych

T O L E R A N T D IM E N S I O N S O F C U L T U R A L

P L U R A L I S M I N T H E O T T O M A N E M P I R E :T H E A L B A N IA N C O M M U N I T Y, 1 800 -1912

Scholars who have conducted research on the d i fferent peoples of the Ot tomanEm pire in the n ine teenth and twent ie th centur ies have , a s a genera l ru le , focusedtheir s tudies on the process by which the variou s nat iona l minori t ies gained theirindependence f rom "Turkish" ru le. T o s tudy th is complex problem , h is tor ians ofthe Balkans and of Middle Eas tern countr ies o ther than Turkey have selec ted amethodologica l f ram ework which seeks to analyze the na ture of the s t rugglesthat led to the eventual emergence of nat ion-states such as Albania, Greece,Bulgar ia , and Syr ia . Fram ing s tudies wi th th is app roac h has encouraged scholarsto eschew those sources of informat ion which present a harmonious d imensionto the re lat ions a m on g the d i fferent na t ional an d re lig ious minor it ies . F or the i rpar t , O t tom an a nd T urkish specia li s ts have tended to exhibi t a s imi lar penchantfor an e thnocent r ic perspect ive on Ot toman his tory; they have been concernedmainly with the r ise of Turkish nat ionalism and with the evolution of the O ttom anEmpire in to the Republ ic of Turkey. Though publ ica t ions of th is predi lec t ionhave cont r ibu ted t o a genera l unders tanding of cer ta in aspects of Ot tom an his-tory, they have also lef t for the historical profession a distorted picture of apol i t ica l ly polar ized and cul tura l ly exhaus ted Ot toman socie ty. This soc ie tyappe ars as a nebulous ent i ty com posed of ma ny dispara te and es t ranged cul tureswhich rece ived the i r separa te cul tura l nour ishm ent and oss if icat ion throug h theexistence of seemingly hermetic communit ies defined by nat ional and rel igiouscriteria.

While tensions, and even armed confl icts , along communal l ines existed inOt tom an society, there was a lso a subs tant ia l degree of ha rm oniou s socia l in ter-ac t ion be tween indiv iduals which t ranscended any re ligious an d n at ional b ound-aries. In this pape r, 1 wil l focus on on e minority-the Albanians-in ord er todemonst ra te tha t in the las t century of Ot toman his tory there were Ot tomanswho championed a modern not ion of cul tura l p lura l i sm in both theory andpractice. T he m ain thrust here is to analyze those forces of integrat io n thatbrought Albanians w ho possessed a na t ional consc iousness or sent iment in to a nidenti f ica t ion w i th an d a s t rong com mitme nt t o the la rger O t tom an socie ty. Thisstudy deals with those Albanians who l ived in Istanbul and in what is todayAlbania , the Janina area of nor thwestern Greece , wes tern Macedonia , and the

@ 1983 Cam bridge Universir, . Press 0020- 7 43 8/8 3/0 40 5 9- 18 $2.50



520 George W. Gawrych

Kosovo in Yugoslavia , a n area which 1 shal l designate as the w estern Balkans inthis paper.

M U LT I L I N G U A L I S M

I t is vir tually impossible to reach any scholarly consensus on the number ofAlba nians wh o lived in the Em pire over the years 1800-1912. Ot tom an censusrecords during this period, the first appearing in 1831, listed religious affiliationbut ignored ethnic or national identif icat ion. This omission presents modernscholars wi th a n insurm ountable obs tac le in determining the exact numbe r ofindividuals whose primary national identi ty would have been Albanian. In thewestern Balkans , Albanians belonged to M usl im, Greek Orth odox , and Cathol icrel igious communit ies which included members from other minori t ies, and thisfac t compounds the problem of formula t ing a method to ar r ive a t a reasonablyaccurate count of them. Various est imates for these years place Albanians asconst i tu t ing anyw here f rom over one to approx imate ly three mi l lion inhabi tants ;wi th M usl ims, Greek O rtho do x, and C athol ics represent ing 70, 20 , an d 10 per-cent of t he t ot al respectively.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, despite the imperial government 'sofficial policy of recognizing rel igious rather than national groups, many Al-banians ha rbored the ir own nat ional sent iments .J. C. Hobhouse Brough ton , anEnglishman who, along with Lord Byron, visi ted southern Albania in 1809-1810, has lef t some valuable informa t ion o n Albanian socie ty. Thro ugho ut theregions around Janina , Bera t , and Tepedelen , he could eas i ly d is t inguish Al-banians f rom Turks by the former ' s d is t inc t dress , manners , and language. 'Mu ch t o his amaz em ent, these individuals readily identif ied themselves to him asAlbanians, whereas the m embers of othe r minori ties tended t o refer to themselvesa s e ith er T u r ks o r ~ h r i s t i a n s . ~ s om eost local Musl ims wi th whom he hadconversa t ion , and here he probably meant both Turks and Albanians , couldspeak Greek. ' Fur th erm ore , ma ny Albanians could even read and wri te in tha tlanguage.4 O ne ou tsta ndi ng exam ple for this period of this regional multi lin-gua li sm in the wes te rn Ba lkans was Ali P a ~ ad. 1822), a Muslim Alba nian w howas a t tem pt ing to carve ou t for h imself a pe t ty s ta te centered a t T epedelen . AliPava, who personal ly met wi th H obh ouse and Lord Byron, knew A lbanian andTurkish and could speak Greek f luently.5 Am ong the Greek a t tend ants a t h isco urt was a at one t ime, the small circle of int imate fr iends andadvisors had included a Greek beauty (and A li Pava's mistress) , a wo ma n nam edZofreni , w ho a ppare ntly lost he r l ife because of infidelity to her Alba nian lord. 'In addi t ion to recording the presence of Albanian nat ional sent iments , not ye tdeveloped in to a poli t ical ideology, H ob ho use portrayed a degree of harm oniou srelat ions between C hrist ians a nd Muslims as well as between A lbanians an dGreeks which fostered the cultural phen om enon of mult il ingualism in the westernBalkans.

This regional m ult i lingual dimens ion of society in the western Ba lkans was nota feature un ique t o the early par t of the nineteenth century, but i t remained as ignif icant force fo r fos ter ing a n a tm osph ere of to lerance towa rd bo th re ligious



Cultural Pluralism and Ottoman Albanians. 1800-1912 521

and cul tura l d ivers i ty in to the twent ie th century. Within the las t few years ,Turkish authori t ies in the Prime Minister 's Archives of Istanbul have madeavai lable to fore ign scholars an invaluable source o n the O t tom an bureaucracy.Sicill-i Umumi (the G enera l Register) is a collection of 190 volum es of biograp hi-cal ma terial o n over f ifty tho usa nd governm ent officials-from a prime ministerto a lower-level secreta ry in th e provinces-whose lives spa nn ed the last hu ndr edyears of the Empire. Limited by t ime,I was able to look a t only three random lyselected volumes, and obtained information on the f if ty-six officials who hadbeen born in the western Balkans. A vast majori ty of these individuals laterserved in various capacit ies in the region of their bir th . Th e earl iest da te of bir thwas 1239 H / 1823 A . D . ; som e officials, bo rn much la ter, served in to the Sec ondCon sti tut ional Period (1908-1920). T he formativ e period in their upbringing,ranging fro m a ge three t o ten, included the years 1825-1878.

Because my concern here i s to s tudy the dynamics of p lura l i sm in Ot tomansocie ty and cul ture , I shall use Sirill-i Umumi t o quan t ify the l anguage com pe-tence of these fifty-six officials. In the w estern B alkans , local Ch ristia ns spok e(probably wi th few except ions) Greek, Albanian , or a Slavic language (Serbo-Croat ian , Bulgar ian , or Macedonian) as the i r na t ive tongue, whereas Musl imsused e i ther Turkish or Albanian in the home. Those who were to some extentcom peten t in Tur kish a nd ei ther Greek o r a Slavic language had crossed-inaddit ion to national-rel igious boundaries to carry on regular dialogue with theirneighbors. Unfortunately, Sicill-i Umumi failed to provid e the religious affiliationof individuals. F ro m th e nam es a nd biographical data , it appea rs that f ive officialswere Christians, the remainder Muslims. Th e breakdow n of language competenceis given in Table 1 . Fro m th e da ta in Table 1, it i s evident tha t for ty- two out offifty-six officials (75 perce nt) ove rcam e local religious differences to learn thelanguage of an individual f ro m an oth er re ligion. T houg h the n um ber of off ic ia lsunder considera t ion here represents too smal l a sample to reach any def in i t iveconclusions concerning the scope and extent of regional mult i l ingualism in thewestern Balkans , these data point to the exis tence of cul tura l exchange amongeduc ated m embers of different rel igious an d natio nal minori ties. T o learn thelangu age of one's n eighb or certainly required a stea dy an d continu ous socialin terac t ion in which som e borrowing of cus toms an d values too k place wi tt inglyo r unconsciously. This in tu rn reflected a degree of both religious and c ulturaltolerance.

T H E C O N C E P T O F C U LT U R A L P L U R A L IS M

Ottoman reforms of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, by seekingbo th t o increase central authori ty in the provinces and t o furthe r polit ical integra-t ion of al l peoples, made imperative the need to aff irm, define, and foster thistolerant feature of the cultural plural ism in the Empire. First came the poli t icalan d then the cul tura l aspects of the imper ia l do ct r ine to crea te a new or der. Inthe second quar ter of the n ineteenth century, Sul tan Mahmud11 (1808-1839)developed the sem inal idea of Ot tom anism(Osmanlilik) which evolved into offi-c ia l governm ent policy in the Tan zim at per iod (1839- 1876). The Royal Rescript



--

522 George W . Gawrych

TABLE 1 Language comp etence of w estern Balkan officials

Number ofOfficials Percent

Conipetence in the main spoken ianguages in the regionTurkishAlbanianGreekSlavic (listed as Slavic, Serbian. B ulgarian, or Bosnian)

Com petence accorcling to a cornhination ~ f l o c u l anguagesTurkish onlyAlbanian only3-urkish and AlbanianTurkish, Albanian, and G reekTurkish, Albanian, and SlavicTurkish. Albanian. G reek, and SlavicTurkish and G reekTurkish, Greek, and SlavicTurkish and Slavic

Source: Ba~baka nltkA ~ ~ I v I , Umumr. Vols. 1 ,4 , and 45ZCI/ / - i

of the Rose Chamber, promulgated immediately by Mahmud's successor in 1839,placed the imperial government officially on record as committed to the conceptof equality, a commitment which the Imperial Rescript of 1856 restated in evenmore forceful language. As a political ideology, Ottomanism came to mean thatall subjects of the Empire, regardless of origin and religion, were Ottomans(Osmanl i lar ) , united by their equality before the law and by their commoncitizenship. This state ideology reflected the government's attempt to inculcatein every subject Ottoman patriotism directed toward the Empire and its rulingdynasty. To foster the development of Ottoman patriotism among the various

minorities, the government opened new state schools with the expressed intentionof attracting Muslim, Christian, and Jewish students; it also sought to includeincreasing numbers of Christians and Jews in the emerging modern bureaucracy.

Despite these efforts aimed at downplaying religious differences in order tocement various minorities under the umbrella of Ottomanism, Ottoman statesmenremained committed to religious tolerance, and they continued to give speciallegal status to select Christian and Jewish communities in the famous milletsystem. Islamic tenets and Ottoman tradition demanded maintenance of thiscommunal policy toward these subjugated People of the Book. However, conceptsof nationality, equality, and fraternity without distinction of religious affiliation

did weaken the place of religion in the formulation of government directives andprograms. This secular orientation in turn demanded a reevaluation of the natureof Ottoman society and culture. By mid-century, Ottoman Muslim writers beganto sacramentalize cultural as well as religious pluralism as a salient feature of the



Cultural Pluralism a n d Ottoman Albanians,1800-1912 523

imperial system. This shift thus represented a natural extension from religious to

cultu ral tolerance a s a doc trine, given the government's drive to integrate politi-cally all subjects und er the principle of O ttom anism .In the first volume of his twelve-volume study of the Em pire from 1774 to

1826 which he published in 1854, Ah me t Cevdet Paga (1822-1895), the greathistorian an d Islamic jurist of Turkish origin, presented the argum ent that thestrength of the Ottoman state lay in i ts diverse cultural heritage. For him, the"Ottom an nation" (Osm anli milleti) was a great society because its people spokemany languages and because it selected the best talents, customs, and mannersfrom among its "various nations" (milel-i mutenevvi'e). This powerful chemistryhad regenerated the Islamic nation at a point in time when it had fallen into

decay, and the Turks had played the crucial role in this regeneratiom8 Hisanalysis of Otto m an history and society, although mainly concerned with Islam,ascribed to cultural diversity a positive and creative function, and hence it gaveto Christians and Jews a positive role in the development of Ottoman culture.Other Ottom ans began to explore the contr ibut ions of minorit ies to the imperialculture, an d a nu mb er of O tto m an A lbanians, for their part, were deeply involvedin a cogen t discussion of this issue by the early 1870s.

$emsettin Sam i Bey Frasheri (1850-1904) was one such Alban ian w ho devotedhis l ife to enc ouraging cultural tolerance a nd diversity in the O ttom an E mpire.Born of an Albanian Muslim landowning family from Frasher in southern Al-

bania, Sami Bey studied at the Greek gymnasium, Zossimea, in Janina, a townlocated today in northwestern Greece. His attendance at this Christian schoolwas not an abe rratio n for the t ime; several wealthy Muslim families in Berat andJa ni na also sent their children to Zossimea, fo r they considered this institution ofhigher learning the best in the region. A mo ng the prominent Muslim Albanianswho a tt ended Zossimea were Naim ~ r a s h e r i , ~ami Bey's older brother; IsmailKemal, who becam e the first President of an ind epend ent Albania in 1912;" andMe hm ed Ferid Paga, who served as Gra nd Vezir from 1903 to 1908." $emsettinSam i, reported1.y a brilliant stu den t, finished the eight-year school in seven years,learning ancient and modern Greek, French, and I ta l ian to complement his

fluency in Turkish and Albanian. Maintaining contacts with Ottoman Greeksupon his arrival in Istanbul, where he initially worked for a brief period as ascribe in the governm ent, $em settin Sa m i joined forces with a wealthy G reekmerchant named Papa dopo ulis to found the newspaper Saba h (Morning) , thelongest-lived daily of the Empire (1876-1914), and, it must be noted, one of themo st supportive of cultural diversity. After eleven m ont hs with this paper, S am iBey returned to government service, a profession which provided him with asteady income to support his prodigi.ous research on Turkish and Albanianstudies.''

In the field of Albanology, Sa m i Bey created a n alpha bet (1886) for the newly

developing li terature, wrote a grammar of the Albanian language (1900), pub-lished material in Turkish on Albanian culture and customs, and even wroteunder a pseudonym a political treatise in which he put forward his vision thatAlbania would one day be an independent nation. During the years 1877-1881,



524 George W . Gawryc-h

he actively participated in Albanian cultural clubs that he had helped form witha number of othe r Albanians for the purpose of raising the national consciousness

of his compatriots through the publication of newspapers and li terary worksin the Albanian language. While Sami Bey's activity in this area has earnedfor him a prominent place in Albanian national historiography, his studies onTurkic languages and history have directly contributed to the development ofTurkish nationalism. Among his most famous publications in Turcology werea two -volume Turkis h dictionary, a treatise encouraging the simplification of theOttoman language into the Turkish dialect spoken by most Turks, and articleson pre-Ottoman Turkish culture and language.

This dua l avenu e of research and publication-which contribu ted to thenational awakening of both Turk s and Albanians-may app ear on the surface

inconsistent, parado xical, an d schizophrenic, but in actuality i t represented thenormal rhythm of l ife in the multinational Ottoman Empire with i ts multiplelayers of self-consciousness, identity, and loyalty. In a news paper article publishedin 1878,Semsettin S am i delineated tw o abiding national loyalties in his personallife-one t o the O tto m an Empire, his "general homelan d"(vatan-i umu mi) , andthe other to Albania, his "special homeland"(vatan -i hususi)." This multipleidentity represented a form of pluralism on a personal level, while Sami Bey'sli terary and scholarly outpu t constituted a cultural an d intellectual expression ofthe tolerant pluralistic dimension of Ottoman society and culture. In his playBesa yahud Ahde Vefa (Pl ed ge o f Honor or Loyalty to an O ath), $emsettin

Sami attempted to deal directly with the complex issue of cultural pluralismfrom an Ottoman Albanian perspective. The ideas expressed in this play, thema nn er of i ts presentation o n stage, an d th e history of i ts performances reveal agreat deal about the vitali ty of communal tolerance and cooperation in the lateOtto man Empire.

In 1875, a year after the first performance ofBesa in Istanbul, Sami Beypublished an introduction to it in which he clearly stated his reasons for writingthe play:

For a long time,I have dreamed of writing a literary piece in order to depict some

customs and morals of the Albanian people(Arnavut kavmi) , not becauseI am one oftheir members, but becauseI have witnessed [their] patriotic qualities which perhaps aresuitable for [presentation] on stage, such as patriotism , sacrifice, fidelity to oaths, and lowesteem for [one's own] life.l4

This desire t o introduce the general public t o Albanian culture an d values carriedwith it for S am i Bey a keenly felt responsibility to stren gthen O tto m an society asa whole. According t o him, "foreign values and morals"(ahlak-i ecnebiye) haddominated Ottoman theater to the detriment of the Empire 's "national valuesand morals" (ahlak-i milli,ve). Besa, by implication, was intended to fill thiscultural void, for i t presented "the morals and customs of the Albanian peoplewh o const i tute an integral par t of the great Islamic nat ion and w ho are membersof the O tt om an polity."1s Writing his play exactly twen ty years after the publica-tion of the first volum e of Ahm ed Cevdet Paga's history, Sem settin Sam i directlyaddressed the com plex issue of cultural pluralism by presenting, as an Ot tom anAlba nian, th ose qualit ies of his own people which he felt could contribute t o the



Cultural Pluralism and Ottoman Albanians. 1800-1912 52 5

regeneration of Ottoman society and culture. Let us look at the play in detailand see the m ajor themes which Sa m i Bey developed for his Ottom an audience.

The bare outline ofBesa, an Albanian word meaning "pledge of honor," wasas follows: Zubeyir, a noble a nd p roud Albanian highlander, and his wife Vahidehad a daugh te r named Meru~ewho was in love with Recep, her first cousin.After discovering the mutual love of his "two children," Zubeyir agreed to amarriage. Tragedy, however, hit the family before the marriage could take place.On th e wedding day, Selfo, an Alban ian wh o lived in the nearby tow n of Borshiand who also loved Meruge, kidnapped the girl, for he knew her father wouldopp ose their m arriage. In th e process, he killed Zubey ir because the fath er physi-cally tried to stop him in this dish ono rable act. Before his death, Z ubeyir enjoinedVahide to save Meruge and avenge his killing, reminding her th at family h ono r

was a t stake in this matter.While on her way to carry out this redemptive mission, Vahide saved the lifeof an individual unkno wn to her. This Albanian-Fettah Aga-turned ou t to beSelfo's fath er wh o was returning home after having fought in the Otto m an arm yfor twenty years. Without mentioning any names, Vahide unloaded her sorrowto Fettah Aga, who quickly made a besa to save Meruge and avenge Ziibeyir 'smu rder, not know ing this meant kill ing his own son. Upon finding out later thefull implication of his besa, even though many parental feelings argued againstfulfilling this promise, Fettah Aga reached the tragic conclusion that he had noreal alternative but to kill Selfo. After killing the young lad in his sleep, Fettah

Aga explained to Vahide, Meruge, and Recep what he had done. The tragedynow entered ano the r dime nsion-Fettah Aga, being the killer of his son , too khis own life in revenge for Selfo's death. Before his own death, Fettah Agamanaged to enjoin his own mother, who conveniently arrived on the bloodystage, to accept Vahide as her own sister and Recep and Meruge as her ownchildren. The play ended with this moving reconciliation of the two familiesbecause Alb ania n justice had been carried out.16

$emsettin Sa m i considered besa as an institution highly represen tative of idealAlbanian values and morals. In his introduction toBesa, the author clearlystated that Fettah Aga was the hero of the play. This Albanian, faithful to his

word, t ook the prop er action in killing his son. Besa was an object m ore sacredthan compassion in general and parental love in particular." The hero's nam eshows the author's conviction that Fettah acted properly when he killed Selfo.Fettah is one of the ninety-nine n ame s of Go d in Islam, an d it den otes His mora lexcellence. Besa, a solemn agreement tied closely to a strong sense of honor andfaithfulness, transcended the social differences in A lban ian society as representedin the person of F et tah Aga, a townsm an, and Zubeyir, a mountaineer. In onescene, Zubeyir mad e clear to Meruge the vital impo rtance of hon or(namus) t o ahighlander:

My daughter. The time span of this world consists of two periods. Today we are alive inthis world, but tomorrow we no longer will exist. It is honor which is permanent andwhich will be of use to us in both this world and the next, only honor. . . Property,wealth, goodness, everything, is nothing when compared to honor. All these perish even-tually. Only hon or remains. It is a mistak e-God forbid-to call som eon e a human beingif he is without honor because it is honor that makes human beings human."




This statement made by Zubeyir in the early part of the play helped explain thereason for Fettah's later decision to fulfill his besa and kill Selfo despite his deep

parental love. For him, it was a question of honor, being faithful to his word.$emsettin Sami made clear throughout his play, often through subtle means,

that the high sense of morality and integrity exhibited by the main characterswas a reflection of the best in Albanian national character. Regional costumesworn by the actors and actresses reinforced the salient message that this play wasabo ut Albanians-their exemplary mora ls and values. The word "Albanian"appeared three times in the story. In the first instance, when Selfo broke down tocry because he felt M e r u ~ e as beyond reach, Tepedelenli Demir Bey, the localland magnate in the town of Borshi, appealed to Selfo's national pride as ameans of eliciting composure from him; he pointedly reminded him that "You

are a n ~ l b a n i a n . " ' ~ he other two instances concerned Vahide's imperative needto seek compensation in blood for the death of her husband and to save herdaughter from Selfo as well. To shirk these two responsibilities would have leftan indelible stain on the family name and an unhealable wound on her own soul.Vahide made clear twice in the play that as an "Albanian woman" (Arnavutkarisi) she had to take revenge and free her daughter.*' The message of the playwas clear-characters with moral integrity and probity acted out of commitmentto their homeland, i.e., Albania, and its noble traditions.

Cementing one's heart and soul to the homeland, however, involved for Al-banians a continued loyalty to the multinational Ottoman Empire. Sami Bey

made this point very clear from Fetta h Aga's own thoughts and emotions whichjuxtaposed two distinct but for him inseparable homelands (va tan ) .

Twenty years! What a long t ime! It is [almost] a l ifet ime! Oh! Homeland, sacred home-land! . . . How many t imes have I seen the homeland in my dreams.. . . Now I am finallyin my hom eland. Fro m this mo men t on, 1 will no t leave my homeland; let my bonesremain in my hom eland . H ow stran ge a situation i t is tha t a hu m an being leaves the placewhere he was born an d ra ised an d goes to ano ther a rea , a very dis tant one. But the hear tca nn ot leave-it hasn't the possibility. A person's heart is always tied to his homeland.Ispent these twenty years outsid e of my h om eland, an d w herever I found myself, tha t placewas my ho meland. Yes, Trablus is ou r homeland ; the Dan ub e is a lso our h omeland. If i t

hadn't been our homeland, we wouldn't have spilt blood defending those places! Neverthe-less, ma n has an oth er type of love to the place where he was born an d raised an d to thoseplaces where he spent his childhood and adolescence!. . . There is ano the r cha rm on thehor izon of the homeland. Whenever an individual looks a t a minute par t ic le of thehomeland's soil , an event of his childhood com es to mind ! Th e mem ory of those beautifuldays of his you th cre ates a cheerful feeling in the hear t.21

This soliloquy delineated two distinct loyalties am ong Albanians-a patrioticdevotion to the Ottoman Empire and a national commitment to the land ofAlbania, the latter more implied than stated explicitly. Both loyalties, however,complemented each other, a nd Besa gave no indication of any tension between

the two. It rather struck a judicious balance between Ottoman patriotism andAlbanian national pride.

$emsettin Sami also addressed the problem of the relations between differentnational and social groups in the Empire. This occurred in the dramatic scenewhere Demir Bey tried to convince Zubeyir to give his daughter to Selfo in



Cultural Pluralism and Ottoman Albanians, 1800-1912 527

marriage. Demir Bey let the shepherd know that for Selfo this marriage consti-tuted a step down in social ranking. When Ziibeyir promptly refused this request,

the A lbanian notable reminded him tha t a m an of his low status had to followthe wishes of his superiors. In turn, Zubeyir responded that in the face of thePadigah's law ther e remained n o difference between himself and the bey." W henthe local notable threatened the obstina te shepherd with im prisonment, Ziibeyirappealed to the new order present in the Em pire:

At on e time you could d o such things, but not today .. . . This is the era of the G loriousTanzimat (Tanzimat-i Hayriye). Today our Padigah is one who takes great pains [toprotect] our life(can) , honor ( i r z ) ,and property( m a l ) .Those times which you know havepassed, they have passed.23

This plea for honoring the Tanzimat, a reform movement in which the govern-ment committed itself to the principle of equality of all subjects, regardless oforigin o r religion, a ppeare d between those scenes which accentuated the the me ofAlbanian customs, morals, and values. Thus, Sami Bey presented here an indirectargum ent for the need of all Ottom ans to respect cultural pluralism as an integralpart of Ottoman reformism.

An important, but side, issue inBesa concerned the role of wom en in A lbanianand, by extension, Ottoman society. During the Tanzimat period, a number ofO tto m an writers, including $emsettin Sam i, began to discuss such themes as theposition of women in society, the problems associated with arranged marriages,

and the challenges confronting the family. InBesa, Sami Bey glorified womenand showed a sensitivity to their vulnerable status in society. For his audience,he idealized the Albanian mountain woman who was freer than her counterpartin the town. Ziibeyir, upon learning of the mutual love between Recep andMeruge, refused t o hear any arg um ents from Vahide ab ou t letting their daugh termarry Selfo. Though recognizing Selfo's bravery, he opposed the marriage be-cause of a deep concern for the comfort( raha t ) of M e ru ~ e . ventua lly a warwould force townsmen like Selfo to leave home and fight in distant lands, andthese townspeople lived for this eventuality so that they could exhibit theirmilitary prowess. Separation from the family could be up to twenty years, the

exact period of Fettah Aga's wanderings. Zubeyir considered this would be acruel fate for his beloved daughter. The girl had to remain in the mountainswhere she could maintain the dignity that rightfully belonged to her as a wo m an.2 4Vahide, for her part, exhibited the noble quality of bravery-in fact, equal totha t of a man-when she courage ously set ou t to single-handedly save Merugean d avenge Zubeyir's dea th. H er action reflected the Alba nian ethos, for she wasboth an Albanian and a mountain(dagl i ) wom an.25 In addition t o ennoblingdisplays of true courage, Albanian highlanders, both men and women, highlyvalued their freedom, a freedom which gave women som e parity with respect tomen.26This humanistic and idealistic portrayal of Albanian women supported

the growing concern among some Ottoman intellectuals over the need for somefor m of em ancipation of wom en in society.In Besa, $emsettin S am i judiciously connected the presen tation of Albanian

customs and values to themes and issues of broader import. Herein lay thestrength, b eauty, an d app eal of the play. It avoided polemical zeal with frequent




references t o A lbanians and their cultural separateness. R ather, the au tho r tookspecial care to develop O ttom an p atriotic sentiments throug h the glorification ofthe Ottoman homeland and through the ennoblement of the policies of theP a d i ~ a h nd the Tanzimat s ta tesmen. M any O ttomans could identi fy with boththemes of Ottoman patriotism and local national sentiment. Committed to themaintenance of the Empire, these Ottomans also felt positive sentiment andattach me nt t o the values an d traditions of their particular nationality. Sa m i Bey'sown cultural assertiveness on stage gave legitimacy to these sentiments; it alsohelped Ottom ans from other m inorities become m ore sympathetic and understand-ing tow ard th e Albanian people. Sustained ha rmo nious relations between m inori-ties were essential if the O tto m an Em pire was to remain a viable political entity forits subjects, and this had to take place, to a large extent, on the sp ontaneousinitiative of the people themselves rather than on the continuous urgings ofpolitical leaders. The history of Besa's performance on stage indicates thatSemsettin Sami's efforts toward enshrining cultural diversity found support frommem bers of other minorities, a fact which gave cultura l pluralism in the O ttom anEmpire an added dimension. In o ther words, there existed cross-communal sup-port for the Alba nians'attem pts to assert publicly their national identity.

C R O S S - C O M M U N A L SUPPORT

The production of Besa in Istanbul involved the famous Armenian director,Agop Vartovyan (1840-1902), a convert to Islam who is known in Turkishhistory as Gullii Agop. He had founded the first Ottoman language theater,Tiyatro-i Osmani (Ottoman Theater), in Istanbul in 1867. In April 1874, hedirected Besa using his repertory company which a t that time numbered aroun dtwenty-six actors-nineteen Arm enian s an d seven Turks-and eighteen actresses,all Armenian. Among the Christian Armenian actors were Tomas Fasulyeciyan(1842-1901) and M ardiros M inaky an (1837-1920), both of whom became excel-lent dire cto rs an d producers in their own right." Perform ance s of Besa un de rVartovyan's direction continu ed into the following year.28

After a hia tus of nine years, Besa reappe ared on stag e in Salon ica in 1884, thistime und er the direction of To ma s Fasulyeciyan who had been under the tutelageof Agop ~ a r t o v ~ a n . ~ 'he height of Besa's popularity on the Ottoman stageoccurred durin g the Secon d Con stitutional P eriod, in particular the years 1908-1912, already several years after Sami Bey's de ath . Different direc tors an d var ioustheaters in Istanbul were responsible for the revival of this play. The ArmenianMardiros Minakyan, an early collaborator of Vartovyan, directed performancesof Besa in 1908 an d 1909. Ah me t Fe him , the m ost famo us director of Turkishbackground in the Ottoman period, and Kel Hasan separately presented Besa toIstanbu l audiences, the forme r in 1908 an d the latter in both 1908 and 1912.Furthermore, the Repertory Company of the National Ottoman Theater per-formed th e play in 1908, and it also appeared at the National O ttoma n S tage in191 Reviews of the play an d responses from the audiences were generally verypositive. Ab du lha k H am id (1852-1927), a well-known poet an d playwright, ap-plauded Besa as a play tha t was contibuting to the development of an O ttoma ntheate r by its portray al of the customs and temp eram ent of one of the Empire'snumerous peoples.31



Cultural Pluralism and Ottoman Albanians, 1800-1912 529

Th ere were several reasons for this renewed interest inBesa. The military cou pof 1908, which o verthrew th e auto crati c regime of Abd ulha m id 11, ushered in abrief period of unprecedented freedom of speech and the press. A direct andconspicu ous result of this new intellectual atmosph ere was a mor e open discussionof such controversial issues as the nature of Ottomanism, the place of nationalidentity within a plural society, and the question of cultural rights for the dif-ferent minorities of the Empire. A number of Albanians, taking advantage ofthe relaxation of government censorship, established their own national clubs,schools, newspapers, and presses to foster the developm ent of nation al conscious-ness among their fellow compatriots.Besa attracted these Albanians because ofits positive and poignant portrayal of Albanian customs, morals, and values,whereas the wider Ottoman public found favor with the play's commitment toOttoman patriotism and cultural pluralism. Albanian customs and values as amedium in which to discuss the na ture of O ttom an society and c ulture lost theirrelevance when A lbania becam e an indep endent nation-state in 1912, a n eventwhich left only a handful of Albanians in the Empire. Hence,Besa was notperformed on stage in either the Ottoman Empire or Turkey after 1912. Untilthat date, continued interest inBesa reflected that, from an Albanian perspective,Ottomanism meant an ability and an opportunity for Albanians to assert theircultural identity, sometimes with the assistance of members from other nationali-ties, in this case Armenians and Turks.

Other O ttom an Albanians, in addition to S am i Bey, sought to develop Albaniannational consciousness as well as foster appreciation among other Ottomans ofthe Albanian regenerative contributions to the Empire, both past and present.D e r v i~ ima, for example, was an A lbanian from S truga who toward the end of1909 established a new spaper calledArnavut (T he Albanian) which he publishedin the Beyoglu district of Istanbul in both Albanian and Ottoman Turkish edi-tions. Th e first issue of the newspaper outlined the founder's goals:

O ur essential goal is to prepa re the way for the enlightenment of our po or fellow co untry-men who live in a state of poverty and in an environment of ignorance and boorishness;to raise their level of und erstanding an d cul ture; to foster amo ng them an ap preciat ion oftheir im portan t place in relation to other O ttom an subjects ; and to encourage entente

with those Ottom ansubject^.'^D e r v i ~Hima considered it vital forArnavut "to strengthen reverence for ourholy Albanian language and for our venerable nationality." Albanians had tomaintain and develop their separate identity, one different from that of theGreeks, Bu lgar ians , Serbs , Arabs, Turks, o r ~ r m e n i a n s . ~ ~e r v i ~Hima's viewsexpresse d here coincided with thos e of $emsettin Sam i--Albanians needed todevelop their own national consciousness, share it with other minorities, and feelan attachment to other Ottomans and to the Ottoman Empire, all aspects ofcultural pluralism in its tolerant form.

In 191 1, D e r v i~Hima edited a book entitledMusavver Arnavut (Illustrationof the Albanian) which he considered a complement to the activity of his news-paper.3 4 This boo k contained a num ber of articles by different Albanians onimp ortant Albanian figures from the Ottom an past and o n contemporary eventsin Alba nia. F or exam ple, one article-"Albania in O tto m an History,"-presenteda brief historical overview of the Albanian role in Ottoman history. Its author




was Sureyya Bey, an Albanian from Avlonya or Vlore, which is located insouthern Albania today. Beginning his discussion with the appearance of the

Turks in Albania, Sureyya Bey criticized past Ottoman historiography for itsfailure to mention Albania from the period of SuleymanI (1520-1655) to 1621.Th e purp ose of this sho rt article, only thirty-five pages in length, appea red t o betwofold. First, S ureyya Bey wanted t o inform the general Ottom an public of theimp ortant contr ibut ions that Albanians have continuously made to the E mpire.They have served as Gran d Vezirs, Janissaries, scholars, etc. Of Albanian origin,the Koprulus, a family which gave to the Empire several grand vezirs in theseventeenth century, received special mention. There was a second reason forwriting this article: Sureyya Bey wanted Albanians to maintain their separateidentity within the multination al Ot tom an Em pire, hence the stress on the conti-

nuity in Alban ian history. This short article thus helped D e r v i ~ ima in pursuingthose goals outlined in the first issue of Arnavut; it also conformed to thegeneral thrust of$emsettin Sami's studies on Albanian history, language, andculture.3s

This cultural assertiveness on the part of Albanians found allies from otherminorities. I have already discussed the support given to Besa by a number ofArmenian and Turkish directors. In the nineteenth century, several prominentOttoman writers used Albanian characters, customs, or traditions to developthemes of Otto m an identity, loyalty, and nationality. O ne excellent examp le wasNa m ik K ema l (1840- 1888) wh o was of Turk ish origin. His Vatan veyah ud Silistre

(The H om eland o r Si l is tr ia) was undoubtedly the most fam ous Ottom an play ofthe nineteenth century. P erforme d o n stage for the first t ime und er the directionof Agop Vartovyan in 1873,Vatan was a story of the O tto m an struggle to defendthe province of Silistria from an invading Russian arm y. T o present the messagethat Muslims needed to remain faithful to their religion, Namik Kemal choseIslam as the n am e for the play's hero. The m ain thrust ofVatan, however, was tohelp inculcate in the audience passionate O ttom an patriotism; the words "Otto-mans" (Osmanlilar) and "Ottomanism" (Osmanlilik) appeared in highly emotionalscenes with the intention of galvanizing public opinion into making a totalcommitment to defend the Empire at a l l costs . To set the tone of Ottoman

patriotism at the outset of the play, Namik Kemal had Zekiye Hanim, IslamBey's love, open the first scene of Vatan dressed in an Albanian costume. Herintermittent but forceful presence throughout the play reinforced the theme thatall O tto m an subjects sh ould feel a de ep bond a nd loyalty to th e ~ m ~ i r e . ~ ~n onesense, Zekiye represented Namik Kemal's subtle recognition of the Albaniansacrifice in defending Ottoman lands in the Balkans. The author, however,eschewed develop ing the theme of cultura l pluralism in this play.

There was one O ttom an writer who did dwell on A lbanian customs in order toaddress themes of imperial import. Ahmed Midhat (1844-1912), a novelist,historian, and journalist of Turkish and Circassian background, included such

diverse peoples a s Arabs, C ircassians, Albanians, an d T urk s in his many novels.In 1889, for ex am ple, he wrote a novel called A rnavutlar-Solyo tlar (Albanians-Sulliotes), the plot of which centered around the love between Rustem Bey, ayoung Muslim Albanian, and Eftimi, a Greek Orthodox Suli girl .37The Suliswere Greek-speaking Ortho dox Christians wh o lived in the mo untains northwest



Cultural Pluralism and Ottoman Albanians, 1800-1912 5 3 1

of Preveze near the town of Margariti; they had a reputation of being fiercefighters. Throug h his characters, Ahmed Midhat argued that Ottomanism was a

tolerant concept; it reflected the genuine attempt by the government to fosterunity of thought among all Ottoman subjects while at the same time respectingthe religion, sect, language , and nationality(kavmiyet)of every citizen. To sup por tthis argument of inherent tolerance in the state ideology, he pointed to theimportant role that Greeks have played in both government and commerce.38The central story of the love between an Albanian Muslim man and a GreekO rth od ox wom an, set in a geographical area close to $em settin Sami's birthplace,served as an ingenious device for discussing the need for unity of thought acrossreligious and national lines. Such a love affair, even to the point of leading tomarriage, was well within the realm of possibility. For example, Ismail Kemal,

wh o, as mentioned earlier, had attended Zossimea, came to adm ire Greek cultureand e ducation . In fact, this adm iration led him to m arry a G reek woman; later inlife, he even sent his children to Greece for fur ther

Sensitive to m inority problems, Ahm ed M idhat respected $emsettin Sami'swork, for both men, who knew each other, were comm itted t o Otto ma n patriotismand cultural pluralism. AhmedMidhat paid the Ottoman Albanian a directtribute when he assisted Tomas Fasulyeciyan in presenting on stage in Salonicathree of Sami Bey's plays, includingBesa, as the first perform ances given by theArmenian's newly founded repertory company.40This cooperative venture rep-resented the best in the Ottoman plural society-individuals from various religious

and national backgrounds coming together through constructive dialogue toprovide a member of a different minority a platform for expressing his nation-ality's cultural distinctiveness. Undertaken in 1884, this direct involvment withBesa served as a source of inspiration for Ahmed Midhat to writeArnavutlar-Solyotlar five years later; he obtained at least part of his knowledge of Albaniafrom $emsettin Sami's life and work.

Cultural propaganda between minorities thus sometimes created faithful con-verts. The career of Kazim Nami Duru, an Ottoman army officer of Turkishbackground, illustrates that the positive effects of sensitive proselytizing by Al-banians continued right up t o 1912 when A lbania became an independent state.

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, Duru became involved in the Com-mittee of Union and Progress (C.U .P.),a secret society opposed to the autocraticrule of S ultan Ab dulham id 11. Transferred to Alba nia to serve as a reserveofficer, Du ru , along with a friend, took the initiative to establish a branch of theC.U .P. in Tirane in 1898. Several Alba nian landowning n otables of the areajoined this branch. One of them, Refik Bey Toptani, supplied Duru with copiesof Ahmed Riza's journalM e ~ v e r e t C o n s u lt a ti o n ),the semiofficial organ of theC.U.P. in Paris. Apparently unbeknown to Duru, Refik Bey also maintainedregular contacts with Albanian nationalist writers in Europe, a correspondencethat alluded t o the presence of strong national sentiments amo ng some Albanian

members of the Tirane branch. In fact, these Albanians showed no reticence inspeaking Albanian among themselves, and they even began to teach the receptiveDuru their native language. Duru undertook this challenge partly in order tocommunicate with his predominantly Albanian reserve unit, all of whom at therank of corporal and below could speak only Albanian. He later mastered the




new language in Be rat , ano the r r eg io n heav ily popu la t ed by ~ l b a n i a n s . ~ 'u ruremained active in the C .U .P. , helping to revitalize the secret society in Salon ica,

which remained the center of the organizat ion unt i l the ou tbreak of the B alkanW ars in 1912. In Jul y 1910, while serving o n the new spaperRumeli published inSalonica, Duru wrote an art icle f irmly advocating the policy of governmentalnoninterference in Albanian a t tem pts to develop a Thisa t i o n a l l i t e r a t ~ r e . ~ ~stance reflected the continued existence and constructive impact of meaningfuldia logue between individuals across com mu nal l ines in to the twent ie th century.Duru's init ial uti l i tarian reason for learning the Albanian language had nowturned into a hu mani tar ian advocacy for Albanian cul tural rights.

C O S M O P O L I T A N I S M

The exis tence of cul tural to lerance within the Empire carr ied for some Al-bania ns a Europea n dimension-it encouraged the developmen t of a n intellectualclimate conducive to an openness and receptivity on the part of M uslim Albaniansto the Chr i s ti an Wes t .Sicill-i Umumi conta ins evidence on this subject in con-nection with the language competence of the seven Muslim officials who knewone or more European languages, in these cases French, I tal ian, or English. Sixout of seven government officials knew Albanian, and all seven were competentin Greek, with one individual also adept in a Slavic language. Three Muslimscould read an d wri te in Greek, two of wh om h ad received a form al educat ion in

tha t language a t Zossimea. This da ta, tho ugh certainly very limited, suggests tha tfor Musl ims a cordia l re la t ionship with Chris t ian neighbors encouraged andreinforced an openness to contact wi th Europe and Europeans. The scholar lyactivity of $emsett in Sam i attests to the transf orm ation of this latent potentiali tyinto concrete thought a nd act ion.

Like m any reformers an d wri ters of the Tanz imat era , $emsett in Sam i soughtto regenerate the in te l lectual and cul tural foundat ions of the Ot toman Empirethrough a measured and select ive exposure of Ot tomans to the West . One areaconcerned Western l i tera ture , an d S am i Bey t ransla ted into Turkish s ix Frenchnovels, including Victor Hugo'sLes Miserables. His French-Turkish an d Turkish-

French dic t ionar ies ,Dictionnaire Franqais- Turc ( 1885) an d Dictionnaire Turc-Fran~ais 1898), provided Ottom ans w ith a n indispensable tool in learning Fr enchan d then in reading publ icat ions in tha t language.43Kamus al-Alum, o r Diction-naire Universe1 d'Histoire et de Geographic, a six-volume encyclopedia on his-tory, geography, an d fam ous people , was Sam i Bey 's greates t work in exposingOttom ans to the West . In the in t roduct ion to th is magn um opus, Semset tin Sam ioutlined his reasons for un dertak ing this massive project which required ap prox i-mately ten years for completion (1889-1899). According t o him, the Islamicworld lacked a n up- to-date work on i ts own his tory an d geography as well as ontha t of the rest of the world . These two sciences were im po rtan t for the develop-

ment of civilizations, and thus required the m ost current inform ation. Translatingan encyclopedia f rom a European language was inadequate , for such worksemphasized Eur ope an d gave minim al a t tent io n to the Is lamic world . Accordingto S emset t in Sam i, O t tom an s urgently needed a work w el l-grounded in theirhistory an d trad it ions a s well.Kamus a/-Alum filled this info rm atio na l deficiency



Cultural Pluralism and Ot tom an Albanians, 1800-1912 533

by providing special regard to famous Islamic and Ottoman individuals andcountries, but not at the expense of vital information on the This encyclo-

pedia thus served a dual purpose-to disseminate knowledge on the West and toincrease understanding of the Islamic and Ottoman pasts. Because Ottomanhistory contained contr ibut ions made by many peoples, Sami Bey found a placefor his Albanians in this encyclopedia. In the article "Albanians" (Arnavutlar) ,he praised Sultan Abdulhamid I1 for allowing the Albanian people ( k a v i m ) toestablish their own schools and to use the Albanian language in publications.According to him, this laudable imperial policy would foster the creation of anAlbanian "national literature" (edebiyat-i mill iye),a necessary development forthe preservation of the "Albanian race" (Arnavutlarin cinsiyeti). In this briefarticle, $emsettin Sami credited Albanian Christians with much of the literary

output and educational activities.45Several important pillars in $emsettin Sami's thought reappeared in Kamus

al-Alum: a staunch loyalty to the Islamic and Ottoman foundations of Empire; afirm belief in the national distinctiveness of Albanians; a resolute commitment tocultural pluralism; and an intellectual receptivity to Europe. For his part, AhmedMidhat stood a counterpart to Sami Bey from another minority. In addition tohis novel on Albanians and his involvement in the revival of Besa, AhmedMidhat translated a number of French novels into Turkish and published, amongmany other items, books on Islam, Ottoman history, and universal history, thelatter in three volumes.46 Both men, linked together by common interests and asimilar weltanschauung, exemplified the best dimension of cultural pluralism inOttoman society-an acceptance of cultural and religious differences within theEmpire which nurtured a critical openness to the West. In other words, thereexisted for some Ottomans a direct relationship between a tolerant posture towardcultural pluralism in the Empire and a measured support for the continuedexposure to Western values and thought as a means of helping to regenerateOttoman society. In his introduction to Besa, for example, $emsettin Sami at-tempted to justify Fettah killing Selfo by appealing to the work of AlexandreDumas (the younger) entitled Le Regent Mustel in which a father had to kill his

4 7own son.

C O N C L U S I O N

An integrative framework for the study of the Albanian community in thenineteenth and early twentieth centuries results in the inclusion of tolerant andvital aspects of Ottoman society and culture in the last 125 years of the Empire'sexistence. This positive picture, however, forms only one side of a two-sidedcoin. The last century of Ot toman rule in areas inhabited by Albanians certainlysaw social tensions and armed conflicts caused by economic troubles and nation-alist ideologies. This explosive situation, whenever it involved clashes along

national or religious lines, precipitated communal clashes and murder, exacer-bating minority relations. At the end of the nineteenth century, growing numbersof Turkish intellectuals and officials began gradually to abandon Ottomanismfor Turkish nationalism, a development which alienated many non-Turks andwhich helped hasten the disintegration and dissolution of the Empire. This harsh



5 3 4 George W . Gawrvch

reali ty const i tu tes a n integral par t of any com prehensive s tudy of la te Ot tom anan d A lbanian his tory; in other words , there exis ts a da nger of overemphasiz ingthe harm onious re la t ions between A lbanians an d o ther minorit ies .

Certain qualif ications need mention. Multi l ingualism by i tself did not neces-sari ly indicate a widespread presence of mutual compassion and respect amongindividuals from different communities. An Albanian could have learned hisneighbor's native tongue while still possessing an internal psychological state ofsubdued tensions , repressed hatreds , and harbored suspicions which somet imesfound outwa rd express ion in in tolerant act ions toward mem bers of othe r minori -t ies. Certainly, m any p robably fell into this category. Fu rthe rm ore , later negativeexper iences , such as the m urd er of a relat ive or a socia l aff ront by a non-Albanian , could null ify for a n Albanian, ei ther M uslim o r Christ ian, any com mit-ment t o to lerance which had been based on posi tive cross-comm unal enc ountersof youth. Moreover, Alban ian a t tem pts a t cul tural asser t iveness represented to acertain extent a defensive or negative motivation, i .e. , a need to preserve andfoster Albanian national consciousness which some Albanians considered threat-ened by the growing nat ional ism of Ot toman Greeks , Serbs , Bulgar ians , andM ace don ians an d by the irreden tist policies of neighboring B alkan states. In thisla t t e r l igh t , the Alban ian cu l tu ra l rev iva l re f lec ted nascen t , and somet imesintolerant , nat ional ism. So m e Albanians , c onfronte d with t he dis tinct possibi li tyof the eventual establishment of new rulers in Albania, expressed the view thatAlbania 's future independence would be the only way to avert this nationaltragedy. This outlook, however, usually included genuine good will and a firmcomm itment to the O t tom an Empire, a nd the career of $emsett in Sam i il lus tra testhis point . T hou gh such a n a t t i tude placed a rest r ic t ion o n loyalty to the Empire ,few, if any, commitments in l ife come without some personal reservations andlatent tensions. F inal ly, Ot to ma n off ic ia ls d iscouraged an d even prohibi ted a nycultural assert iveness with st rong poli tical overtones.

The qualif ications outl ined above (and others can be made) have receivedample a t tent ion in past scholarship . However. s t rong integrat ive and toleranttendencies also existed in O tto m an society a nd culture , and these requ ire seriousconsideration by scholars who study minorit ies in the Empire. That Albanianwriters, while assert ing the cultural uniqueness of their comm unity. en courage dtheir fellow A lbanians t o m aintain a f irm loyalty to th e Em pire indicates thecompat ibi l ity of Ot tom an patr iotism a nd Albanian nat ional sent iment . Th at anumber of Albanians in government were competent in the languages of theirneighbors a l ludes to the fact that cul tural p lural ism extended outs ide the verysmall circle of to p O tto m an officals and Albanian intellectuals to include m em bersof the general public who left no record of their thoughts on this subject . In alater stu dy. 1 shall discuss the role of the Mevlevi o rde r in fostering religious a n dcul tural to lerance both am ong the e li tes and the co mm on people . That Albanianswere able to contribute to the national consciousness of other minorit ies as wellas receive assistance from them attests to the existence of meaningful dialogueand cross-communal suppo rt for the com mo n endeavor to make cul tural to lerancea growing reali ty in Ottoman society and culture.In conclusion, the continuedpresence of regional multi lingualism, the existence of a mo der n no tion of cultural



Cultural Pluralism and O ttom an Albanians, 1800-1912 535

plural ism, the presentat ion of Albanian cul ture on s tage and in l i tera ture , thesup por t g iven to th is activity by me mb ers of other minorit ies , an d the app are ntdirect relationship between cultural and religious tolerance and the cosmopoli-t an i sm an d in te rna t iona li sm am on g some educa ted Ot t om an Alban ians dem on-strate the validity of studying the tolerant dimensions of late Ottoman history,not only with respect to Albanians but with respect to other minorit ies as well .Only such research will give proper credit to the contradictions, complexit ies,an d vitali ty of late Ot tom an society and cu lture.

I , 'NIVERSITY OF KANSAS, LAWRENCET H E S C H O O L O F I N T E R N AT I O N A L S T U D I E S , F O RT B R A G G

NOTES

' J . C . H o b h o u s e B r o u g ht o n ,A Jou rnr, ~ , hrough Albania (Philad elphia: 1817; New York: 1971),p. 28.

'lbid., p. 131.b bid., p. 35.

41bid.. p. 128.b bid.. pp. 112-1 13.

?bid.. pp. 98-99.b bid., p. 1 12.

' Ah m ed C e v de t P a ~ a .arih-i Crvclrt, Vol. I (Istanbul: 1854). p. 15.' h e r F a ru k A k u n, " Se m se tt in S a m i, "Islam Ansiklopedi.~;, I (Istanbul: 1970), p. 411 .

h e Mrmoirs oflsmail Kemal Br.r ' . edited by Somerville Sto ry (New York: 1920). p. 17."Ba jhakan l ik A r~ iv i , i c, il l- i Um umi ,Vol. 45, p. 346. Of th e oth er 55 officials l isted in this sourc e,

two could read an d wri te in Creek: on e of them had at tended Zossimea.'"or general biog raphies on Sam i Bey. see Aku n. pp . 41 1-422; A gah Sirri Levend,$cvn.settin

Surrri (A nk ara : 1969): an d Kris to Frasheri , "Semseddin Sam i Frasheri-- ideologue du m ouvem entnat ional a lbanais ,"Sturliu Alhunicu. 3 (1966 ). 95-1 10.

asan anKale$, "Semsettin Sam i Fraveri 'nin Siyasi Cii ru~ leri. "VII, Turk Turih Kongresi (Ankara :1973). p. 647.

' 4 ~ ( e m s e d d i n ) a m i .Br.vu Yuhurl Ahcle Vcfu (Ista nb ul: 1292 Hicri,i 1875). p. 5."lbid.. pp. 5-6."lbid.. pp . 17- 180. Th ere is an English transl atio n of this play by Nelo D rilar i calledPlrclge of

Ifon or: An Alhoniun Trugecl~,New Yo rk: 1945). This t ranslat ion has num erous and ser ious mistakes.Dri7ari used the A lbanian translatio n by A bdul Ypi, and he leaves the reader with the false impressiont h a t Brsu is highly Albanian in spir i t when i t actual ly has both an Albanian and an Ottoman tone.Henceforth. references to the play will be t o the O ttom an or iginal .

171bid., pp . 11-12. '"bid.. p. 39. 191bid., pp. 97-98 . '"lbid., pp . 120. 122. "lb id.. pp. 128-129. ,, ' - lbid.. p. 105."lbid., p. 106. In his translation of these two im portan t parts of the play. Drizari made no m ention

of the P ad i~a h 's aw nor of the Tan zima t . Instead. Zubeyir said in the fi rst instance "Now there is nodis t inct ion between us" an d in the second "Today everybody is independent . There is no dis t inct ionwha tsoeve r between us." This translatio n left Zubeyir 's arg um en t based o n a universal value rathertha n on recently prom ulgated Ot tom an laws. (See pp. 67-68 of the reference cited in foo tno te 16.)

"lbid.. p. 71.




26 An early scene in the play is one in which M e r u ~ e nd Recep sing a song glorifying the beauty

and freedom ( h i i r r ) of mountain life in sharp contras t to that in the town. Ibid., pp. 21-24." ~ e t i n And, A H istory of Theatre and Popular Entertainntent in Tur ke j, (Ankara: 1963-1964).

p. 69." ~ e t i n And. Tanzirnat tve stihdat D iinerninde Ti irk Tiyatrosu 1839-19 08 (An kar a: 1972). p. 455.

In his brief description of Beso. the author failed to mention that the play was about Albaniancustoms, values, and traditions. (See pp. 372-374.)

29Ibid.. p. 455.

10 Metin And, M e ~ r u t i j ' e tDiinetninde T urk E~i,.atrosu 908- 1923 (Ankara: 197 I), p. 293.3 I Levend, p. 67. This general assessment is based on the author's own recollections. For Abdulhak

Hamid's views, see Ahmed Hamdi Tanpinar, Ondokuzuncu Asir Turk Edebi.vati Tarihi, 2nd ed.,(Istanbul: 1956). p. 564.

32Arnatwt . 3 1 Kanunievvel 1325.

331bid.34D e r v i ~ Hima, ed., M u s a \ v e r A r n a ~ , u r Ist anbul: 1327 Hicri / 191 1). It must be pointed out that

D e r v i ~Hima was quite ada mant and un compromising in his Albanian nationalism. By 191 1. manyAlbanians feared that Albania might be occupied by neighboring Balkan states. Consequently, Dervi~Hima devoted his time and energy toward encouraging only Albanian national consciousness. unlikeSami Bey who also had studied Turkish language and culture. Independence for the Albanians wasactually one year away.

31 Avlonyali Sureyya Bey, "Tarih-i Osmani'de Arnavutluk," in ibid., pp. 9-46.36 Namik Kemal. Vutan Veyahud Sili.rtre (Istanbul: 1308 Hicri l 1880). passint.17 Orhan Okay. Bat ; Mer /en i~ .e t iKar.~isint /o Ahmet MitN7ut Efencli (Ankara: 1975). p. 199. 1 was

unable to obtain a copy of this novel, and thus am dependent on Okay's brief comments on. andquotes from. this novel.

38

Ibid.. pp. 262-263.391srnail Kernnl, p. 38.40

And, Tunzirnar ve Isribdar, p. 189.41

Kazim Nami Duru. Arna\w tluk rve Makedon.va H atiralarim (Istanbul: 1959). pp. 6. 11-12 andIrtihat ve Terakki Hatiralarint (Istanbul: 1957). pp. 6-8. 12-13. For Refik Bey Toptani's Albaniannational sentiments see Faik Bey Konitza. "Memoire sur le mouvement national albanais," (Bruxelles:January 1899). Haus-H q/=uncl Staat.sarc,hi\,, Polit i.~c.h e rc,hi\,. xiv; 18. Albanien xii; 2. p. 81.

1 2Duru. Arnavut luk , pp. 19-20, 37-38 and I t t ihat ve Terakki. p. 43.41

Akun, pp. 414-416 and Levend, pp. 203-205.44

Semsettin Sami Bey Frasheri, Kanlus a/-Alum. Vol. 1 (Istanbul: 1889), pp. 14-16.45 Ibid., p. 148. Sult an Abdulhamid eventually prohibited publications in the Albanian language.46 Bernard Lewis, "Ahmad Midhat," Enqclop edia qf ls larn, 2nd ed., Vol. I (London: 1960). pp. 289-

90 and Sabri Esat Siyavusgil, "Ahmed Midhat," I.rlant Ansik/oltet/i.ti . I (Istanbul: 1950). pp. 186-187.47

Semsettin Sami, Besa. p. 13.

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8521434 Tolerant Dimensions of Cultural Pluralism in the Ottoman Empire the Albanian Community 18001912