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Arianiti
The House of Arianiti were an Albanian noble family that ruled large areas in Albania and neighbouring areas from the 11th to the 16th century. Their domain stretched across the Shkumbin valley and the old Via Egnatia road and reached east to today's Bitola. Names The first attested surname of the family in various forms is Ar(i)aniti, which was also used as a personal name. In documents contemporary to its members ''Araniti'' is the most prevalent form, from which almost all placenames of the areas of their domains that were named after them derive. ''Arianiti'', a rare form from the first definite documentations of the family in the late 13th and early 14th century to the extinction of its male line in the mid-16th century, became prominent in early modern era works and eventually reached a common surname status in historical discourse. The etymology of the surname is unclear; it may ultimately derive from the Indo-European word ''arya'' (noble), derivations of which can be fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gjergj Arianiti
Gjergj Arianiti (1383–1462) was an Albanian feudal lord who led several successful campaigns against the Ottoman Empire. He was the father of Donika, Skanderbeg's wife, as well as the grand-uncle of Moisi Arianit Golemi. Gjergj Arianiti was Skanderbeg's ally within League of Lezhë only for a short period of time because he abandoned their alliance after the defeat in Berat in 1450, to return after a while. Robert Elsie emphasizes that Arianiti was often Skanderbeg's rival who allied with the Kingdom of Naples in 1446, left his alliance with Skanderbeg by 1449 and allied with Venice in 1456. However his daughter married Skanderbeg and he remained officially as part of the League of Lezhe and continued fighting Ottomans successfully up to his death in 1462. Name His name is most commonly known in the Albanian form, ''Gjergj Arianiti''. In English, it is usually rendered as George Arianiti. His full name in English is spelled ''George Arianiti Thopia Comneni'' in Fan Noli's tra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constantine Komnenos Arianites
Constantine Cominato Arianiti (Italian: ''Constantino Cominato Arianiti'', Albanian: ''Kostandin Komneni Arianiti''; 1456/1457 – 8 May 1530) also known as Constantine Komnenos Arianites, was a 15th and 16th-century Albanian nobleman, military leader, diplomat and pretender who lived most of his life in exile in Italy due to the conquest of his homeland by the Ottoman Empire. Constantine sought to establish himself as a leader among the Christian Balkan refugees in Italy and claimed lordship over various former Christian lands in Greece, using the titles Prince of Macedonia, Duke of Achaea and Despot of the Morea. The son of Gjergj Arianiti, an Albanian lord who had fought alongside the Albanian national hero Skanderbeg against the Ottomans, Constantine was taken to Italy for his safety in 1469, after the death of his father. In Italy, Constantine was noticed by Pope Sixtus IV, who provided him with a pension, and he quickly made a successful career for himself. In 1489, he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Komnen Arianiti
Komnen Arianiti ( 1392–1407) was an Albanian nobleman of the Arianiti family, who held an area in central Albania around Durrës. His son Gjergj became a prominent leader of the Ottoman-Albanian wars. Life The Albanian Academy treats him as the same person as Comin Spata ( sq, Komin Spata), who was mentioned between 1392 and 1407. That name appears in the Venetian archives. Gjergj Arianiti was also mentioned in contemporary documents as Aranit Spata. It is unclear whether the Arianiti adopted the name through intermarriage with the Spata family of central Albania or as a toponymic derived from the region of Shpat, which they held in the Middle Ages. Unclear is also his relation to the Komnenos dynasty; he may have descended from a paternal female ancestor who belonged to that imperial family and lived in the early-to-mid 13th century, or adopted the name as other Arianiti kinsmen had in order to strengthen his claims. His domains are mentioned in contemporary Venetian sourc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moisi Golemi
Moisi Golemi, also known as Moisi of Dibra ( sq, Moisiu i Dibrës), was an Albanian nobleman and a commander of the League of Lezhë. In 1443–44 he captured all Ottoman holdings in the area of Dibër region. For a brief period in the 1450s he joined the Ottomans, but soon abandoned them and returned to the League. He died in 1464, when he was executed publicly in Constantinople after being captured by the Ottoman army. In Albanian folk tradition, Golemi became a popular hero mostly through the ''Song of Moisi Golemi'' (''Kënga e Moisi Golemit''). Family Born in the vicinity of modern Dibra he was the only son of Muzakë Arianiti, son of Komnen Arianiti and brother of Gjergj Arianiti. In 1445 he was married to Zanfina Muzaka after her divorce with Muzakë Thopia, who was married to Skanderbeg's sister Maria. They had two sons and four daughters, two of which died at an early age. His firstborn son Çezar Arianiti (Cesare Comnino Arianiti) had one daughter named Giovanna Com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donika Kastrioti
Andronika Arianiti, also known as Donika Kastrioti, (born 1428 – died 1506) was an Albanian noblewoman and the spouse of Albanian leader Skanderbeg (born Gjergj Kastrioti). She was the daughter of Gjergj Arianiti, an earlier leader in the ongoing revolt against the Ottomans. Life Donika was born in Kaninë, in 1428. Her father, Gjergj Arianiti was a member of the Arianiti family whose domain stretched across the Shkumbin valley and the old Via Egnatia road and reached to the east today's Bitola. Her mother, Maria Muzaka was a member of the Muzaka family whose domain was the Myzeqe region. A month after the Treaty of Gaeta, on 21 April 1451, Skanderbeg married Donika, and thus strengthened the ties with the Arianiti family, in the Eastern Orthodox Ardenica Monastery, in Lushnje, present-day southwestern Albania. Later her sister Angelina married Serbian ruler Stefan Branković. She is venerated as a saint in the Serbian Orthodox Church. After the Ottoman conquest of A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saint Angelina Of Serbia
Angelina Branković ( sr-Cyrl, Ангелина Бранковић, sq, Angjelina Arianiti,; ca. 1440–1520), née Arianiti, was the Albanian Despotess consort of Serbian Despot Stefan Branković (r. 1458–1459), and a daughter of Prince Gjergj Arianiti. For her pious life she was proclaimed a saint and venerated as such by the Serbian Orthodox Church as Venerable Mother Angelina ( sr, sr-Cyrl, Преподобна мати Ангелина / sr-Latn, Prepodobna mati Angelina ). Life Angelina, born as a member of Arianiti family was the sixth daughter of Albanian Nobleman Gjergj Arianiti (1383–1462) and his first wife Princess Maria Muzaka. In 1460, she married exiled Serbian ruler Stefan Branković (r. 1458–59), son of the former Serbian Despot Đurađ Branković (r. 1427–1456). They met when Stefan came to Northern Albania, to visit Albanian Prince Skanderbeg, who was married to Angelina's elder sister Andronika. The couple left Albania for Northern Italy, and acqu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muzaka Arianiti
The Muzaka were an Albanian noble family that ruled over the region of Myzeqe (southern Albania) in the Late Middle Ages. The Muzaka are also referred to by some authors as a tribe or a clan. The earliest historical document that mention Muzaka family is written in 1090 by the Byzantine historian Anna Komnene. At the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th century members of the Muzaka family controlled a region between the rivers of Devoll and Vjosë. Some of them were loyal to the Byzantine Empire while some of them allied with Charles of Anjou who gave them (and some other members of Albanian nobility) impressive Byzantine-like titles (such as Sebastokrator) in order to subdue them more easily. During a short period, Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan (r. 1331-1355) occupied Albania including domains of Muzaka family but after Dušan's death they regained their former possessions. After the Battle of Savra in 1385 the territory of Albania came under the Ottoman Empire; they ser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muzaka Arianiti II
The Muzaka were an Albanian noble family that ruled over the region of Myzeqe (southern Albania) in the Late Middle Ages. The Muzaka are also referred to by some authors as a tribe or a clan. The earliest historical document that mention Muzaka family is written in 1090 by the Byzantine historian Anna Komnene. At the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th century members of the Muzaka family controlled a region between the rivers of Devoll and Vjosë. Some of them were loyal to the Byzantine Empire while some of them allied with Charles of Anjou who gave them (and some other members of Albanian nobility) impressive Byzantine-like titles (such as Sebastokrator) in order to subdue them more easily. During a short period, Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan (r. 1331-1355) occupied Albania including domains of Muzaka family but after Dušan's death they regained their former possessions. After the Battle of Savra in 1385 the territory of Albania came under the Ottoman Empire; they ser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albanian Nobility
The Albanian nobility was an elite hereditary ruling class in Albania, parts of the western Balkans and later in parts of the Ottoman world. The Albanian nobility was composed of landowners of vast areas, often in allegiance to states like the Byzantine Empire, various Serbian states, the Republic of Venice, the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Naples in addition to the Albanian principalities. They often used Byzantine, Latin or Slavic titles, such as sebastokrator, despot, dux, conte and zupan. Byzantine Empire The Muzaka family was loyal to the Byzantine Empire. For their loyalty to Byzantium, the head of the family Andrea II Muzaka gained the title of Despot in 1335, while other Muzakas continued to pursue careers in Byzantine administration in Constantinople. Principality of Arbanon The first Albanian state in the Middle Ages it was ruled by the Progoni family and extended from the Drin river to the southern boundary of the Ohrid lake. Its rulers were known in Ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares land borders with Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, North Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south. Tirana is its capital and largest city, followed by Durrës, Vlorë, and Shkodër. Albania displays varied climatic, geological, hydrological, and morphological conditions, defined in an area of . It possesses significant diversity with the landscape ranging from the snow-capped mountains in the Albanian Alps as well as the Korab, Skanderbeg, Pindus and Ceraunian Mountains to the hot and sunny coasts of the Albanian Adriatic and Ionian Sea along the Mediterranean Sea. Albania has been inhabited by different civilisations over time, such as the Illyrians, Thracians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians, and Ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Arianites
David Areianites or Arianites ( el, ) was a high-ranking Byzantine commander of the early 11th century. Origin The origin of the surname is uncertain and different theories have been proposed ranging from various anthroponomastic and toponymic derivations of the Indo-European word ''arya'' to the name of a minor Illyrian tribe, the Arinistae/Armistae. The name "Ar anites" is hence variously considered to have been of Albanian or Iranian origin. David is sometimes considered to be the first member of the Arianiti clan, which was active in late medieval Albania, but the connection can not be verified due to lack of sources. Life David Arianites first appears in 999/1000, holding the rank of ''patrikios''. In that year he was named by the Byzantine emperor Basil II as the '' doux'' of Thessalonica (or possibly, although this is not stated explicitly, ''domestikos ton scholon'' of the West) in succession to Nikephoros Ouranos, who was moved to the governorship of Antioch. He prob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kastrioti Family
The House of Kastrioti ( sq, Dera e Kastriotëve) was an Albanian noble family, active in the 14th and 15th centuries as the rulers of the Principality of Kastrioti. At the beginning of the 15th century, the family controlled a territory in the Mat and Dibra regions. The most notable member was Gjergj Kastrioti, better known as Skanderbeg, regarded today as an Albanian hero for leading the resistance against Mehmed the Conqueror's efforts to expand the Ottoman Empire into Albania. After Skanderbeg's death and the fall of the Principality in 1468, the Kastrioti family gave their allegiance to the Kingdom of Naples and were given control over the Duchy of San Pietro in Galatina and the County of Soleto, now in the Province of Lecce, Italy. Ferrante (died 1561), son of Gjon Kastrioti II, Duke of Galatina and Count of Soleto, is the direct ancestor of all male members of the Kastrioti family today. Today, the family consists of two Italian branches, one in Lecce and the other in Napl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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