Osman Resul Taka (died 1887) was a

Cham Cham or CHAM may refer to: Ethnicities and languages *Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia **Cham language, the language of the Cham people ***Cham script ***Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script *Cham Albanian ...

Albanian dancer and unclear personage from 19th century. The

Dance of Osman Taka The Dance of Osman Taka ( sq, Vallja Çame e Osman Takës); el, Οσμαντάκας or Σαμαντάκας) is a traditional dance in Albania and Greece. In Albania it is mainly danced by Cham Albanians. The dance bears the name of Osman Taka, ...

is named after him. His early life is not clear. He belongs to the Taka clan of

Filiates Filiates ( el, Φιλιάτες; ) is a town and a municipality in Thesprotia, Greece. It is located in the northernmost part of the regional unit, bordering western Ioannina regional unit and southern Albania. Name The region of Filiates was kno ...

, also known for Alush Taka, an Albanian patriot.
According to narrative sources, his name became well-known during the mid 19th century. He was probably a ''

kachak Kachaks ( sq, kaçak, sr, качаци / ''kačaci'') is a term used for the Albanian bandits active in the late 19th and early 20th century in northern Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia, and later as a term for the militias of Albania ...

'' or ''

klepht Klephts (; Greek κλέφτης, ''kléftis'', pl. κλέφτες, ''kléftes'', which means "thieves" and perhaps originally meant just "brigand": "Other Greeks, taking to the mountains, became unofficial, self-appointed armatoles and were know ...

'' fighting the

Ottomans The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

Chameria Chameria ( sq, Çamëria; el, Τσαμουριά, ''Tsamouriá''; tr, Çamlık) is a term used today mostly by Albanians to refer to parts of the coastal region of Epirus in southern Albania and Greece, traditionally associated with the Alban ...

region. Other sources connect him with the

Albanian National Awakening The Albanian National Awakening ( sq, Rilindja or ), commonly known as the Albanian Renaissance or Albanian Revival, is a period throughout the 19th and 20th century of a cultural, political and social movement in the Albanian history where the ...

of late 19th century. He was jailed in Yanina and was sentenced to death. When he was asked to give his final wish, he wanted to dance. The folk tradition says that his dance was so beautiful that the local Albanian gendarmes of the Ottoman army, did not execute him. After some days he was caught again and was killed in

Konispol Konispol ( sq-definite, Konispoli) is the southernmost town in Albania. It sits one kilometer away from the Border crossings of Albania, Albanian-Greek border. The settlement is inhabited by Muslim Cham Albanians. Konispol is the modern centre of t ...

.Nigel Allenby Jaffé, Folk Dance of Europe, Folk Dance Enterprises, 1990, , Anamali, Skënder and Prifti, Kristaq. Historia e popullit shqiptar në katër vëllime. Botimet Toena, 2002, .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taka, Osman 1887 deaths People from Konispol Cham Albanians 19th-century Albanian people 19th-century people from the Ottoman Empire Year of birth unknown 19th-century dancers