Maqedonia Perëndimore në historinë e arbërve të shek. V I I - XV
The importance of Western Macedonia in the history of the Albanians from the 7th to the 15th century

Summary/Abstract: This study intends to throw light on the historic territory of this internal region, which is commonly called Western Macedonia. Until the beginning of Medieval, the ancient authors affirmed that the frontier between the Iliyrian and the Greek world was somewhere in the north of Thessaloniki. Even during the medieval centuries the regions of Kostur, Ohrid, Skopje and Dibra are linked with the neighbor regions of Arbër, Devoll, Kolonja, being part of the same economic, administrative, military and church system. The data brought in this case, show that even from an ethnic point of view, the territories of the western Macedonia were part of the Albanian cosmos. The Slavic invasion and settling during the sixth and seventh century touched the part of western Macedonia as well, even if the region was not on their principal trajectory. However, considering the great strategic role of these regions, where the principal arteries that linked Constantinople to Durrës and other ports passed, the Byzantine emperors from the eighth to the eleventh century applied a policy of displacement of the Slav settlers from these territories to the Asia Minor. As a result, the western Macedonian territories became a stronghold of security for the Byzantine Empire, during her confrontations with the Normans, the western crusades, the Anjouins and the Serbian royalty, on the eleventh and fourteenth century. The historic sources clearly emphasize the role of the descendants of the Arianits, Skurrajs, Gropajs, Muzakajs, Kabasilis on leading posts in the central and local byzantine administration or the structures of the churches in the regions mentioned. During the fourteenth and fifteenth century, the regions of Macedonia became part of the Albanian feudal owning. They became an arena of conflict with the successors of the Serbian Tsar Stefan Dushan and later with the new Ottoman invaders. The ottoman danger directly touched the interests of the Albanian holders of those lands, and this was the reason why, being led by Teodor Muzaka, the holder of Berat and Kostur, they participated in the battle of Kosovo on 1389.

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