Albania - The Ancient Illyrians

|  | AL Literature | AL History | AL Photography |  | Contact  Texts and Documents of Albanian History Robert Elsie           As a geographical and cultural entity, and as a nation, Albania has often been enigmatic and somewhat misunderstood. In the eighteenth century, English historian Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) described it as a land within sight of Italy and less known than the interior of America. The present collection of texts endeavours to throw light on this corner of Europe, which is often ignored by historians and scholars. This website is not designed as a history of Albania or of the Albanians, but is simply a compilation of historical texts - some important and some less important - from the eleventh to the twentieth centuries, which will add to an understanding of the history and development of Albania and its people. Many of these works have never appeared before in translation. The Albanian people were originally a small herding community in the mountainous terrain of the southwestern Balkans. They were nomadic tribes in the interior of the country who seem only rarely to have ventured down onto the marshy and mosquito-infected coastline of the Adriatic. As such, they long went unnoticed, and their early history is thus shrouded in mist. Much has been written and speculated about their origins, in particular b...