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Muzaka
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 The earliest historical document that mention Muzaka family is written in 1090 by the Byzantine historian Anna Komnene.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 ...
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Andrea II Muzaka
Andrea II Muzaka, was an Albanian noble of the Muzaka family and the ruler of the Principality of Muzaka. His grandfather is known as one of the first notable rulers of the principality and also the titular "Marshal of Albania". His father was Teodor I Muzaka or "Keshetsi" (Gërshetësi) which means "the one with braided hair". Andrea Muzaka as a noble person of the Muzaka family became the ruler of the principality after his father's death around 1331. Andrea is known as a prominent medieval Albanian noble and a hero who defeated the king Vukasin in a great battle thus promoting the nobility of the family's rule into a Despotate, being one of the main symbols of resistance against the short-lived growing empire of Serbia, and also significantly expanding the principality of Muzaka in southern Albania. Rule First reign Andrea II Muzaka came from the noble family of Muzaka, who were wealthy in southern Albania. His grandfather Andrea I Muzaka established a de facto independe ...
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Lordship Of Berat
The Principality of Muzaka (Albanian: ''Principata e Muzakajve'') was an independent realm ruled by the Albanian Muzaka family with its capital at Berat, covering territories in Central and Southern Albania, and Western Macedonia. One of the first rulers was Andrea I Muzaka whose reign was recognized by the Byzantine Emperor. During the Battle of Savra, the Ottomans captured Berat from Balša II, together with Kruja and Ulcinj. They soon retreated from all of those towns keeping only Castoria under their permanent control. Some sources explain that Ottomans probably remained in Berat with intention to use it as foothold to capture Valona. By 1396 Muzaka family took over control of Berat. In 1417 the territories of the Principality, including Vlorë and Berat, became a part of the Ottoman Empire. History It's uncertain when the Muzaka family started to rule over Berat, however one of the first notable rulers known so far is Andrea I Muzaka who ruled over the region of Myzeqe. Pr ...
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Teodor III Muzaka
Theodor Musachi ( sq, Theodhor Koronë Muzaka) or Teodor III Muzaka, was an Albanian nobleman who led the 1437–38 revolt against the Ottomans and was one of the founders of the League of Lezhë in 1444. Family Theodor Musachi was а member of the Muzaka family whose domains extended till Kastoria (in modern-day Greece) at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th century. According to Gjon Muzaka (not completely reliable primary source) parents of Theodor Corona Musachi had three sons (Gjin, Theodor and Stoya) and two daughters (Comita and Kyranna). Muzaka explained that Theodor inherited control over Berat from his father Andrea Muzaka III. It is unknown when Muzaka family began to control Berat. Byzantine Eastern Roman sources state that the Muzaka family was in control of Berat regions since 1270 sometimes under Byzantine umbrella and sometimes as de jure independent lords. Many Albanian Princes unlike other ethnicities of the Eastern Roman Empire had the right of to ...
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Theodor Corona Musachi
Theodor Musachi ( sq, Theodhor Koronë Muzaka) or Teodor III Muzaka, was an Albanian nobility, Albanian nobleman who led the 1437–38 revolt against the Ottoman Empire, Ottomans and was one of the founders of the League of Lezhë in 1444. Family Theodor Musachi was а member of the Muzaka family whose domains extended till Kastoria (in modern-day Greece) at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th century. According to Gjon Muzaka (not completely reliable primary source) parents of Theodor Corona Musachi had three sons (Gjin, Theodor and Stoya) and two daughters (Comita and Kyranna). Muzaka explained that Theodor inherited control over Berat from his father Andrea Muzaka III. It is unknown when Muzaka family began to control Berat. Byzantine Eastern Roman sources state that the Muzaka family was in control of Berat regions since 1270 sometimes under Byzantine umbrella and sometimes as de jure independent lords. Many Albanian principalities, Albanian Princes unlike other e ...
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Teodor II Muzaka
Teodor II Muzaka was member of the Muzaka family, Albanian nobles who ruled the Principality of Berat. He died fighting during the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 on the side of the anti-Ottoman coalition led by Lazar of Serbia. Life Theodor Muzaka came from the noble Muzaka family, who were wealthy in central Albania. In 1372 Theodor succeeded his late father in the Principality of Muzaka. The capital of the principality, Berat, fell to the Serbs in 1345 together with Valona by the Serbian army leader Kersak. In 1346, John Komnenos Asen, brother-in-law of the Serbian Tsar Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, was appointed governor in Berat. Berat did not to come under the control of the Muzaka family again until 1396. Between 1383 and 1384, Theodor II, together with his brother Stoya and the monk Dionysius, had a Greek Orthodox church (St. Athanasius of Muzaka Church) built in Kastoria, which was dedicated to Athanasius the Great. The anti-ottoman coalition The coalition of the Balkan people ...
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Andrea I Muzaka
Andrea I Muzaka, Ndrea Muzaka (also Andrew Musachi died 1319) was an Albanian prince of the Muzaka family and the ruler of the Lordship of Berat, Principality of Berat. Life Andrea Muzaka came from the Muzaka noble family, who were wealthy in southern Albania. In 1279, his relative Gjon Muzaka, as an ally of the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, fought the expansionist efforts of Charles I of Anjou, Charles I, who in 1272 founded the ''Kingdom of Albania (medieval), Regnum Albaniae'' ("Kingdom of Albania") in 1272 around the important port city of Durrës (Dyrrhachion). Andrea Muzaka de facto became vassal of Charles, who awarded him the title "Marshal of Albania" After the Anjou were largely expelled from Albania (1281) by a coalition of Byzantines and local Albanian forces, Andrea Muzaka established a de facto independent territorial rule, which later included the Myzeqe area west of Berat between the Devoll (river), Devoll and the Vjosa. Since he had the high Byz ...
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Teodor I Muzaka
Theodore Musachi or Teodor I Muzaka was an Albanian nobleman that ruled the Lordship of Berat between 1319 and 1331. According to John Musachi, he had the nickname “këshetesi”, meaning the one with braided hair. He had a brother Count Mentula Muzaka of Clissura or today called Kelcyra. Life Theodor I, the son of Andrea I Muzaka, inherited his father's property after his death in 1319. The area ranged from Myzeqe with the center Berat in what is now Central Albania, via Skrapar, Tomorricë to Këlcyra in what is now southern Albania. Theodor I, who carried the high Byzantine Empire court title of Protosebastus, lived in troubled times. After the murder of Despots of Epirus, Thomas Komnenos Dukas Angelos (1296–1318), by his nephew Nicholas Orsini, the Palatinate of Kefalonia became this new despot of Epirus. This usurpation of the throne called the Byzantines, Anjou and Serbs on the scene. Everyone tried to secure a share in the shattered despotate. The Serbian kin ...
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Arianiti Family
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 ...
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Myzeqe
The Myzeqe (; sq-definite, Myzeqeja; rup, Muzachia) is a plain in the Western Lowlands of Albania. The Myzeqe is the largest and widest plain, measured by area, in the Lowlands. Location The Myzeqe plain is a large alluvial plain traversed by three main rivers, the Shkumbin, Seman and Vjosë. The Vjosë gives a rough approximation of the southern extent of the Myzeqe, while the Shkumbin is roughly its northern extent. Administratively, the region falls mainly within Lushnjë and Fier District. Other terms like ''Myzeqeja e Vogël'' (Small Myzeqe), ''Myzeqeja e Beratit'' (Berat's Myzeqe), or ''Myzeqeja e Vlorës'' (Vlora's Myzeqe) are used to point respectively to the Fier part of the region, and to tiny parts that fall into the adjacent districts of Berat and Vlorë. It stretches 65 km north–south and 50 km east–west, with a total area of around 1350 square kilometers. The oldest population to inhabit the Myzeqe plain are the Albanian tribe of the ''Lalë''. E ...
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Gjon Muzaka
Gjon Muzaka ( fl. 1510; it, Giovanni Musachi di Berat ) was an Albanian nobleman from the Muzaka family, that has historically ruled in the Myzeqe region, Albania. In 1510 he wrote a ''Breve memoria de li discendenti de nostra casa Musachi'' (Short memoir on the descendants of our Myzeqe lineage). The work was published in Karl Hopf's ''Chroniques gréco-romaines'', Paris 1873, pp. 270–340. According to his memoirs, Gjon's father died before Ottomans captured Berat in 1417. The memoir of Gjon Muzaka (1515) His memoir is considered to be the oldest substantial text written by an Albanian. It was originally written in Latin and his name was listed as Giovanni Musachi. In it he mentions several interesting things that were confirmed to have been accurate by Noel Malcolm. Among other things he claims that, according to family history, the name "Musachi" is derived from a corrupted form of the name "Molossachi", ancient tribesmen of Epirus known as the Molossians. Name His ...
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Skanderbeg
, reign = 28 November 1443 – 17 January 1468 , predecessor = Gjon Kastrioti , successor = Gjon Kastrioti II , spouse = Donika Arianiti , issue = Gjon Kastrioti II , royal house = Kastrioti , father = Gjon Kastrioti , mother = Voisava Kastrioti , birth_name = Gjergj ( see Name) , birth_date = 1405 , birth_place = Principality of Kastrioti , death_date = 17 January 1468 (aged 62) , death_place = Alessio, Republic of Venice , place of burial = Church of Saint Nicholas, Lezhë , religion = Islam Catholicism , occupation = Lord of the Principality of Kastrioti, , signature = Dorëshkrimi i Skënderbeut.svg Gjergj Kastrioti ( la, Georgius Castriota; it, Giorgio Castriota; 1405 – 17 January 1468), commonly known as Skanderbeg ( sq, Skënderbeu or ''Skënderbej'', from ota, اسکندر بگ, İskender Bey; it, Scanderbeg), was an Albanian feudal lord and military commander who led a rebellion ag ...
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House Of Kastrioti
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 ...
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