Islamization of Albania
The Islamization of Albania occurred as a result of the Ottoman conquest of the region beginning in 1385. The Ottomans through their administration and military brought Islam to Albania.
In the first few centuries of Ottoman rule, the spread of Islam in Albania was slow and mainly intensified during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was one of the most significant developments in Albanian history as Albanians in Albania went from being a largely Christian population to one that is mainly Sunni Muslim, while retaining significant ethnic Albanian Christian minorities in certain regions. The resulting situation where Sunni Islam was the largest faith in the Albanian ethnolinguistic area, but other faiths were also present in a regional patchwork, played a major influence in shaping the political development of Albania in the late Ottoman period. Apart from religious changes, conversion to Islam also brought about other social and cultural transformations that have shaped and influenced Albanians and Albanian culture.
History
Early Ottoman period
Albanians began converting to Islam when they became part of the Ottoman Empire in the late 14th century. Albania differs from other regions in the Balkans such as Bulgaria and Bosnia in that until the 1500s, Islam remained confined to members of the co-opted aristocracy and sparse military outpost settlements of Yuruks. In the early 1430s, Ottoman rule was challenged by Albanian feudal lords from northern and central Albania and the Ottomans responded with two military campaigns. The Albanian defeats resulted in the Ottomans awarding much land to timars from Anatolia and a quarter to Albanians from the elite. The first conversions to Islam by some of the Albanian Christian elite allowed them to retain some previous political and economic privileges, and to join the emerging class of timar or estate holders of the sipahis in the new Ottoman system.Among some of these aristocratic figures were George Kastrioti who while in the service of the Ottomans was a convert to Islam and later reverted to Christianity during the late 15th century during the northern Albanian uprising he initiated. In doing so, he also ordered others who had embraced Islam or were Muslim colonists to convert to Christianity or face death. Skanderbeg received military assistance from the Kingdom of Naples that sent in 1452 Ramon d’Ortafà who was appointed as viceroy of Albania and tasked with maintaining Catholicism among the local population from the spread of Islam. During the conflicts between Skanderbeg and Ottomans the various battles and raiding pushed Sultan Mehmet II to construct the fortress of Elbasan in the lowlands to counter resistance coming from the mountain strongholds. During Skanderbeg's uprising, many of the Muslims and Jews in the Vlorë area were killed and some fled to Italy or Istanbul. Prior to and after Skanderbeg's death parts of the Albanian aristocracy migrated to southern Italy with some number of Albanians to escape the Ottoman conquest whose descendants still reside in many villages they settled. Another Albanian uprising against Ottoman rule happened in 1481.
Even long after the fall of Skanderbeg, large regions of the Albanian countryside frequently rebelled against Ottoman rule, often incurring large human costs, including the decimation of whole villages. In the 1570s, a concerted effort by Ottoman rulers to convert the native population to Islam in order to stop the occurrence of seasonal rebellions began in Elbasan and Reka, and a failed rebellion in 1596 among Catholics in the North preceded a series of heavy punitive measures that induced conversion to Islam. The peak of Islamization in Albania occurred much later than other Islamized or partially Islamized areas: 16th century Ottoman census data showed that sanjaks where Albanians lived remained overwhelmingly Christian with Muslims making up no more than 5% in most areas while during this period Muslims had already risen to large proportions in parts of Bosnia, Northern Greece, urban Macedonia and Eastern Bulgaria. Later on, in the 19th century, when the process of Islamization had halted in most of the Balkans it continued to make significant progress in Albania, especially in the South.
In the early period of Ottoman rule, the areas that form contemporary Albania were reorganised into an administrative unit named Sancak-i Arnavid or Sancak-i Arnavud. During the onset of Ottoman rule only prominent churches with significant symbolic meaning or cultural value of an urban settlement were converted into mosques. Most early mosques constructed in Albania were mainly built within fortresses for Ottoman garrisons at times by Ottoman Sultans during their military campaigns in the area like Fatih Sultan Mehmet Mosque in Shkodër, the Red Mosque in Berat and others.
As a rule, Ottoman rule largely tolerated Christian subjects but also discriminated against them, making them second-class citizens with higher taxes and various legal restrictions like being unable to take Muslims to court, have horses, have weapons, or have houses overlooking those of Muslims. While the Ottoman authorities were chronically suspicious of Catholicism, they largely allowed the Orthodox church to function unhindered, except during certain periods when the church was suppressed with expulsions of bishops and seizure of property and revenues. During the Ottoman period, most Christians as well as most Muslims employed a degree of syncretism, still practicing various pagan rites; many of these rites are best preserved among mystical orders like the Bektashi Order.
Northern Albania
The Ottoman conquest of certain northern cities from the Venetians happened separately to the initial conquest of Albania from local feudal lords. Cities such as Lezhë fell in 1478, Shkodër during 1478–79 and Durrës in 1501 with the bulk of their Christian population fleeing. Over the course of the sixteenth century, the urban populations of these cities became primarily Muslim. In the north, the spread of Islam was slower due to resistance from the Roman Catholic Church and the mountainous terrain which contributed to the curbing of Muslim influence in the 16th century. The Ottoman conquest and territorial reorganisation of Albania though affected the Catholic church as ecclesiastical structures were decimated. In the 16th century, the sanjak of Shkodër was reported as having a Muslim population standing at 4.5% of the total, while Dukagjini had 0% and Prizreni had 1.9%.Catholic Albanian rebellions, often in the context of Ottoman wars with Catholic powers of Venice and Austria in the seventeenth century resulted in severe reprisals against Catholic Albanians who had rebelled which accentuated conversion to Islam. In 1594, the Pope incited a failed rebellion among Catholic Albanians in the North, promising help from Spain. However the assistance did not come, and when the rebellion was crushed in 1596, Ottoman repression and heavy pressures to convert to Islam were implemented to punish the rebels. Steep decreases occurred during the 1630s-1670s where for example the number of Catholics in the diocese of Lezhë declined by 50%, whereas in the diocese of Pult Catholics went from being 20,000 to 4,045 adherents, with most converting to Islam and a few to Orthodoxy.
During the Great Austro-Turkish War, Albanian Catholic leaders Pjetër Bogdani and Toma Raspasani rallied Kosovo Albanian Catholics and Muslims to the pro-Austrian cause. After the war, when Kosovo did not end up part of the Habsburg empire, harsh reprisals followed. Large numbers of Catholic Albanians fled north where many "died, some of hunger, others of disease" around Budapest. After the flight of Serbs, the Pasha of Ipek forced Catholic Albanians in the North to move to the now depopulated plains of Southern Serbia, and forced them to convert to Islam there.
Conversion among Catholics in communities of Northern Albania involved males outwardly embracing Islam, often to avoid payment of taxes and other social pressures which in the Ottoman system targeted men while females of the household remained Christian. Christian wives were sought by converted Muslim men to retain a degree of Catholicism in the household. In 1703, pope Clement XI, himself of Albanian heritage, ordered a synod of local Catholic bishops that discussed stemming conversions to Islam which also agreed to deny communion to crypto-Catholics in Albania who outwardly professed Islam. Some Albanians maintained a Crypto-Christian culture, known as "Laramans". In Northern Albania, conflict with Slavs emerged as an additional factor toward conversion to Islam. Sharing the faith of Ottoman authorities allowed northern Albanians to become allies and equals in the imperial system and gain security against neighbouring Orthodox Slavs.
In some areas adjacent to the east of Northern Albania, Islam became the majority faith faster: for example, official Ottoman statistics of Nahiya of Tetova across the border with Macedonia show Muslim families outnumbering Christian families for the first time in 1545, where there are 2 more Muslim families than Christian families, and 38 of the Muslim families had recently converted from Christianity, while in Opoja in Kosovo near Prizren, Muslims are shown to have the majority in 1591.
Central Albania
Consisting of plains between northern and southern Albania, central Albania was a hub on the old Via Egnatia, a road that facilitated direct Ottoman administrative control and Muslim religious influence. The conversion to Islam of most of central Albania has thus been attributed in large part to the role of geography in the socio-political and economic fortunes of the region.Official Ottoman recognition of the Orthodox church resulted in the Orthodox population being tolerated until the late 18th century, and the traditionalism of the church's institutions slowed the process of conversion to Islam amongst Albanians. The Orthodox population of central and south-eastern Albania was under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Orthodox Archbishopric of Ohrid, while south-western Albania was under the Patriarchate of Constantinople through the Metropolis of Ioannina. Differences between Christian Albanians of central Albania and archbishops of Ohrid led to conversions to Bektashi Islam, whose lighter emphasis on ritual observance made it more appealing than mainstream Islam.
In the early 16th century, the Albanian cities of Gjirokastër, Kaninë, Delvinë, Vlorë, Korçë, Këlcyrë, Përmet and Berat were still Christian and by the late 16th century, Vlorë, Përmet and Himarë were still Christian, while Gjirokastër became increasingly Muslim. In the earlier parts of the 16th century, the sanjak of Elbasan reportedly had a population that was 5.5% Muslim, more than any other Albanian-inhabited sanjak. In 1570, a concerted effort by Ottoman authorities to convert the restive Christian populations of Elbasan and Reka began. In the area around Durrës, it was reported by a Greek traveler that, due to Islamization, there were no longer any Orthodox Christians. Conversion to Islam in cities overall within Albania was slow during the 16th century as around only 38% of the urban population had become Muslim. The city of Berat from 1670 onward became mainly Muslim, its conversion being attributed in part to a lack of Christian priests able to provide religious services.