Sanjak Of Avlona
The Sanjak of Avlona (, ; sometimes referred to as the Sanjak of Berat because of its county town) was one of the sanjaks of the Ottoman Empire whose county town was Berat in Albania. It was established in 1466, after the construction of the Elbasan Castle of the territory that belonged to the preceding Ottoman sanjak, Sanjak of Albania. Geography The territory of the Sanjak of Avlona extended between the Shkumbin river to the north and the Ceraunian Mountains to the south. This sanjak had two kazas: kaza of Berat and kaza of Valona. Before the establishment of the Sanjak of Delvina in the middle of the 16th century, the following towns (kazas) also belonged to the Sanjak of Avlona: Delvina, Gjirokastër, Myzeqe and Labëria. Politics Valona was conquered by the Ottomans in June 1417. In 1431, the Sanjak of Albania was created out of areas in present-day western Albania. At the end of the 15th century, in order to stimulate trading, Ottomans settled small commun ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sanjak
A sanjak or sancak (, , "flag, banner") was an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans also sometimes called the sanjak a liva (, ) from the name's calque in Arabic and Persian. Banners were a common organization of nomadic groups on the Eurasian Steppe including the early Turks, Mongols, and Manchus and were used as the name for the initial first-level territorial divisions at the formation of the Ottoman Empire. Upon the empire's expansion and the establishment of eyalets as larger provinces, sanjaks were used as the second-level administrative divisions. They continued in this purpose after the eyalets were replaced by vilayets during the Tanzimat reforms of the 19th century. Sanjaks were typically headed by a bey or sanjakbey. The Tanzimat reforms initially placed some sanjaks under kaymakams and others under mutasarrifs; a sanjak under a mutasarrif was known as a mutasarriflik. The districts of each sanjak were known as kazas. These were ini ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gjirokastër
Gjirokastër (, sq-definite, Gjirokastra) is a List of cities and towns in Albania, city in Southern Albania, southern Albania and the seat of Gjirokastër County and Gjirokastër Municipality. It is located in a valley between the Gjerë mountains and the Drino, at 300 metres above sea level. Its old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city is overlooked by Gjirokastër Fortress, where the Gjirokastër National Folk Festival is held every five years. It is the birthplace of former Albanians, Albanian Communism, communist leader Enver Hoxha, and author Ismail Kadare. The city appears in the historical record dating back in 1336 by its medieval Greek name, , as part of the Byzantine Empire. It first developed in the hill where the Gjirokastër Fortress is located. In this period, Gjirokastër was contested between the Despotate of Epirus and the Albanian clan of Zenevisi family, Zenebishi under John Zenevisi, Gjon Zenebishi who made it his capital in 1417. It was taken by ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Derbendcis
Derbendcis or Derbentler were the most important and largest Ottoman military auxiliary constabulary units usually responsible for guarding important roads, bridges, fords or mountain passes. Usually, the population of an entire village near some important pass would be assigned with derbendci status in exchange for tax exemptions. Etymology The name is derived from a Persian word ''Dar-band'' meaning "pass", "gateway" or "closer of the door". History The Ottomans had common practice to exempt some of their tax-paying subjects (rayah) from paying certain taxes in exchange for some services. In case of derbendcis this also included military services such as guarding mountain passes. Usually the entire villages were assigned with this duty and exempted from paying war time taxes (), customary taxes (), service as oarsmen in the Ottoman navy and devşirme of their boys into janissaries. In the region of northern Macedonia at least 175 villages had derbendci status and enjoyed the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Muzaka Family
The Muzaka family was an noble Albanian 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 mentions the Muzaka family (around 1090) is written 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. In the 1340s, Stefan Dušan pressed further south into Albania, and by 1343-45 had taken central towns and territories in southern Albania, including domains of the Muzaka family. However, they would fall back under local control after his death in 1355. After the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ahmet Kurt Pasha
Ahmet Kurt Pasha was an Albanian pasha and the founder and the first ruler of the Pashalik of Berat, a semi-autonomous area within the Ottoman Empire. He possibly descends from the Muzaka family, which in the late Middle Ages had founded the Lordship of Berat. Creation of the Pashalik See also * Ibrahim Pasha of Berat *Ali Pasha of Yanina Ali Pasha (1740 – 24 January 1822), commonly known as Ali Pasha of Yanina or Ali Pasha of Tepelena, was an Albanian ruler who served as Ottoman pasha of the Pashalik of Yanina, a large part of western Rumelia. Under his rule, it acquired a ... * Pashalik of Berat Sources *"History of Albanian People" Albanian Academy of Science. 18th-century Albanian people Ahmet Kurt Albanian monarchs {{Albania-noble-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rumelia
Rumelia (; ; ) was a historical region in Southeastern Europe that was administered by the Ottoman Empire, roughly corresponding to the Balkans. In its wider sense, it was used to refer to all Ottoman possessions and Vassal state, vassals in Europe. These would later be geopolitically classified as "the Balkans", although Hungary and Moldova are sometimes excluded. In contemporary English sources, Rumelia was known as Turkey in Europe. Etymology ''Rûm'' in this context means 'Roman' and ''ėli'' means 'land', and thus ''Rumelia'' (, ''Rūm-ėli''; Turkish language, Turkish: ''Rumeli'') means 'Land of the Romans' in Ottoman Turkish language, Ottoman Turkish. It refers to the lands conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, most of which formerly belonged to the Byzantine Empire, known by its contemporaries as the Eastern Roman Empire, Roman Empire. Although the term ''Byzantine Empire'' is used by modern historians, the empire's citizens and emperors called themselves Ro ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Beglerbeg
''Beylerbey'' (, meaning the 'commander of commanders' or 'lord of lords’, sometimes rendered governor-general) was a high rank in the western Islamic world in the late Middle Ages and early modern period, from the Anatolian Seljuks and the Ilkhanids to Safavid Iran and the Ottoman Empire. Initially designating a commander-in-chief, it eventually came to be held by senior provincial governors. In Ottoman usage, where the rank survived the longest, it designated the governors-general of some of the largest and most important provinces, although in later centuries it became devalued into a mere honorific title. The title is originally Turkic and its equivalents in Arabic were ''amir al-umara'', and in Persian, ''mir-i miran''. Early use The title originated with the Seljuks, and was used in the Sultanate of Rum initially as an alternative for the Arabic title of ''malik al-umara'' ("chief of the commanders"), designating the army's commander-in-chief. Among the Mongol Ilkh ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Morea
Morea ( or ) was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The name was used by the Principality of Achaea, the Byzantine province known as the Despotate of the Morea, by the Ottoman Empire for the Morea Eyalet, and later by the Republic of Venice for the short-lived Kingdom of the Morea. Etymology There is some uncertainty over the origin of the medieval name "Morea", which is first recorded in the 10th century in the Byzantine chronicles. Traditionally, scholars thought the name to have originated from the word ''morea'' (μορέα), meaning morus or mulberry, a tree which, though known in the region from the ancient times, gained value after the 6th century, when mulberry-eating silkworms were smuggled from China to Byzantium. The British Byzantinist Steven Runciman suggested that the name comes "from the likeness of its shape to that of a mulberry leaf". History After the conquest of Constantinople by ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cyprus
Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of islands in the Mediterranean, third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean, after Sicily and Sardinia. It is located southeast of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel and Palestine, and north of Egypt. Its capital and largest city is Nicosia. Cyprus hosts the British Overseas Territories, British military bases Akrotiri and Dhekelia, whilst the northeast portion of the island is ''de facto'' governed by the self-declared Northern Cyprus, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is separated from the Republic of Cyprus by the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus, United Nations Buffer Zone. Cyprus was first settled by hunter-gatherers around 13,000 years ago, with farming communities em ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sanjakbey
''Sanjak-bey'', ''sanjaq-bey'' or ''-beg'' () was the title given in the Ottoman Empire to a bey (a high-ranking officer, but usually not a pasha) appointed to the military and administrative command of a district (''sanjak'', in Arabic '' liwa’''), hence the equivalent Arabic title of ''amir liwa'' ( ) He was answerable to a superior ''wāli'' or another provincial governor. In a few cases the ''sanjak-bey'' was himself directly answerable to the sultan in Constantinople. Like other early Ottoman administrative offices, the ''sanjak-bey'' had a military origin: the term ''sanjak'' (and ''liva'') means "flag" or "standard" and denoted the insigne around which, in times of war, the cavalrymen holding fiefs (''timars'' or ''ziamets'') in the specific district gathered. The ''sanjakbey'' was in turn subordinate to a ''beylerbey'' ("bey of beys") who governed an ''eyalet'' and commanded his subordinate ''sanjak-beys'' in war. In this way, the structure of command on the battlefield r ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gedik Ahmed Pasha
Gedik Ahmed Pasha (; died 18 November 1482) was an Ottoman statesman and admiral who served as Grand Vizier and Kapudan Pasha (Grand Admiral of the Ottoman Navy) during the reigns of sultans Mehmed II and Bayezid II. Very little was known about Gedik Ahmed Pasha in primary sources until late in historiography. Serbia and Albania had both been proposed as geographical regions for his birthplace and Mükrimin Halil Yinanç had even claimed that he was descended from the Byzantine Greek Palaiologos dynasty based on unnamed Western sources Yinanç claimed to have access to. Later research in the Ottoman archives of Vranje (southeastern Serbia) by Aleksandar Stojanovski established that Gedik Ahmed Pasha was a member of the local Serbian feudal families of the area and was born in the village Punoševce. Leading the Ottoman Army, he defeated the last Anatolian beylik (principality) resisting Ottoman expansion in the region, the Karamanids. The Karamanids had been the strongest p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |