„А од Арбанаса Пилот“. Почеци политичке историје Албанаца

Abstract

Рад је посвећен историји Арбанаса (Албанаца) у другој половини XII и првој половини XIII века, када се у историјским изворима први пут наилази на малобројне податке о њиховој политичкој организацији. Податак који доноси Стефан Немања у својој Хиландарској оснивачкој повељи из 1198. године, како је у време рата са Византијом између 1182. и 1186. освојио, између осталог, и „од Арбанаса Пилот“, сведочи да су већ у то време Арбанаси представљали посебну политичку целину у оквиру Ромејског царства. На основу тог и још неких података из друге половине XII века може се доћи до закључка да почеци политичке организације Арбанаса, која је у свом пуном обиму посведочена у првим деценијама XIII века, припадају средини XII века.

In his founding Hilandar charter from 1198, Strefan Nemanja mentions how he had, during his conflicts with the Byzantine Empire between 1182 and 1186, conquered “among coastal land Zeta with cities, and from the Albanians Pilot, and from the Greek land Lab with Lipljan, Dubočica, Reke, Zagrlata, Levče and Belica”. Therefore, he does not see the Albanians as a part of the “Greek land” but as a separate political and geographical entity. After their first mention in the historical sources in the XI century, data on the Albanians were again found in the second half of the XII century, precisely when Stefan Nemanja ruled the Serbs (1166–1196). Thus, in an ecclesiastic ceremony held in Kotor in June 1166, present were “Albanian bishop Lazar”, “Georgije, abbot of the Albanian Saint Salvation” and “Albanian prior Andreja”, and then Pope Alexander III (1159–1181) himself sent a letter to the afore-mentioned “bishop Lazar from Albania” At the time of the great military successes of tsar Manuel I Komnenos (1143–1180) against Hungary during the 1160s that were crowned by the establishment of immediate and undisputable Byzantine power over the entire east-Adriatic coast, the region inhibited by the Albanians was separated from the Dukedom of Drač (to which it had hitherto belonged) and included into the newly-established Dukedom of Dalmatia, Croatia, Doclea and Arbana, that included all Byzantine belongings in the east Adriatic. After the death of this emperor in 1180, the Hungarians regained Croatia and Dalmatia, the Serbs did the same with Doclea, and Arban was reinserted into the Dukedom of Drač, to which it still belonged at the crossroads of the XII and XIII centuries, which can be concluded from the charter of tsar Alexios III Angelos to the Venetians and the treaty between the crusaders and the Venetians about partition of the Byzantine Empire in 1204 (Partitio Romaniae). After the fall of Constantinople to the crusaders and destruction of the Byzantine Empire in 1204, the Albanians from Drač hinterland appear as a separate political factor, led by the chiefs from the families of Djina and Dimitrije (sons of Progon), the members of which, related to Serbian and Byzantine ruling families, in the changing circumstances of Epirote, Venetian and Bulgarian domination, succeed in maintaining their positions until the “Nicaean reconquista” by the mid XIII century. Their position of political leaders of the Albanian community, that Greek sources termed „archon” (ἄρχων) and Latin ones „princeps” or „judex”, was accompanied by high Byzantine dignities derived from the dignity of sebastos (protosebastos, panhypersebastos, pansebastos sebastos…), which means that the roots of their position are to be sought in the time before 1204 and within the administrative system of the Byzantine Empire. This, as well as the fact that the Albanians were a separate political factor during the 1170s and 1180s, opens a possibility to recognize in the “Albanian prior Andrej” a predecessor of Djino and Dimitrije (Albanian leaders from the beginning of the XIII century) and to form a hypothesis that the beginnings of the political organization of the Albanians belong to the mid XII century.