Albanian nobility in the beginnings of the Ottoman era: the metamorphoses of a social stratum

Abstract

This year in Albania and abroad marks the celebration of the 600- birth anniversary of Gjergj Kastrioti-Scanderbeg. His place and role in the Albanian and European history are of an extraordinary importance. He organized and led for circa a quarter a century the Albanian people war against the Ottoman rule, a war full of sacrifices against the greatest military power of the time, becoming the brightest example of the centennial Albanians resistance to preserve the freedom and their national identity. Being an unequal war, but full of successes and victories, the Albanians resistance headed by Scanderbeg, turned their country into a powerful bulk walk for the defense of Western Europe by the Ottoman invasion. In this war, the Albanian people with his victorious sacrifices and wars, not only gave a priceless help for the protection of the western civilization values, but also became an inspiration source of hope for the entire Europe's peoples in their efforts for freedom and social progress. 

It's clear that to be better understood Scanderbeg's epopee, his personality and work, it is required to be scientifically analyzed the constituent elements of the social and political background on which were developed the impressive events of the XV century. Of course, in these frames, an essential question that deserves to be examined with special seriousness, is the position of the Albanian nobility in front of the dramatic turn that was marked in the Balkans and Albania with the establishment of the Ottoman rule in these spaces.