ALBANIAN (native name, Skipetar; ancient name, Illyrian; called by Turks Arnaut). The native and aboriginal race or people of Albania or western Turkey. Unlike most of the so-called European "races," this is a distinct race physically and not Albanian. merely linguistically. It has the smallest population of any independent division of the Aryans in Europe and does not even appear by name in immigration statistics. The Albanians are perhaps less known in a scientific way than any other European people, unless it be certain tribes of the Caucasus. Not only is their classification uncertain in the newer science of physical anthropology, philologists also are still disagreed as to their place in the IndoEuropean family. (See article Aryan.) Misled by the Greek loan-words in it, scholars first classified Albanian as a Hellenic dialect.' Others as vainly have tried to place it in the Italic division or in the Slavic. It appears to be really one of the eight or nine distinct branches of the Aryan family tree. It is the most backward in cultivation of all. It hardly has a literature. Like the neighboring Servian or Croatian (see), it labors under the misfortune of being written in different alphabets, in both the Greek and the Latin, according to the religion prevalent in each locality. It is not surprising that the rate of illiteracy is one of the highest in Europe. From a physical point of view, a more favorable judgment can be awarded Albanians. Tall and muscular, of rather blond and regular features, the Albanian is clearly Caucasian, although subject to a race Mongolian in origin, the Turk. (See articles on these.) Yet in one respect he resembles the Asiatic type; he has one of the broadest heads not only of Europe but of the world. The face is broad, in sharp contrast with the long, oval face of the pure Greek type, which adjoins the
4 The Immigration Commission. Albanian. Albanian on the south. It is this combination of "giantism" and hyperbrachycephaly, that makes the race physically distinct and seems to warrant Deniker in giving it a separate name, the "Adriatic" or "Dinaric." It resembles most the "Celtic" or "Alpine" race, and is so placed by some. But the type is taller: the northern Albanians, like the Montenegrins, rival the Scotch and the Norwegians in stature. The Albanians are to-day a mixed race, as is every European people. From northern Albania the type shades off in every direction, most rapidly on the south, where it borders on the long-headed, darker, and shorter Mediterranean type. On the east, and especially on the north, it merges into the great wave of Slavic invasion, nearly as broad-headed as the Albanian in type but considerably shorter. The Turks are so few in number in European Turkey and have assimilated so little with the Albanians that they have had but little influence in the composition of the race. Indeed, it is not the Turkish race that incloses the Albanians on the east, but the Bulgarians of Turkey. On the southeast is a small Roumanian populatioi, the Tsintsars. (See corresponding articles.) No line can be drawn as to physical type between those Albanians who inhabit the northern border of Albania and the Serbo-Croatian peoples that adjoin them; that is, the Montenegrins, the Dalmatians, the Bosnians, and the southern Serbs. (See all these in article Croatian.) The same "Adriatic" type can be followed parallel with the sea until it merges into the " Alpine " type among the Friulans or Ladins, non-Italian Latins of the Italian border. To speak more precisely, the extremely high cephalic index of 89 has been found at Scutari, near the northern border of Albania, and the same (88) even in Epirus, Albanian. where most of the people are Greeks. The average height is about 5 feet 7 inches, although on the Herzegovinian border it reaches 5 feet 9 inches. The Albanians go under many different names. Skipetar and Arnaut are equivalents of Albanian. All mean " highlander." (Compare the Alb in Albanian with Alp.) Until about the fifteenth century they were not called Albanians but Illyrians, or even Macedonians. From them came the name of the ancient Roman province of Illyricum, embracing Epirus and parts of Macedonia, and of Napoleon's "Illyrian Provinces;" and from these latter came the name Illyrian, wrongly appropriated by all the Serbo-Croatians (Slavs) early in the last century. As already indicated, all the Slavs of the Balkan Peninsula made their settlements during the middle ages. The Albanians, or Illyrians proper, previously occupied the entire country north to the Danube. The names of the less important dialects and tribes need not be considered. Some of them are temporary; that is, dependent upon the tribal system of government which still obtains. The Gegs and the Tosks, however, are to be sharply distinguished. The Gegs, including the Malliesors and the Mirdites, are the northern Albanians; while the Tosks, including the Yapides, are those living in Epirus on the south. The Gegs are mainly Mohammedans and Roman Catholics using the Latin alphabet; the Tosks are also in part Mohammedan, but mainly Orthodox, like their neighbors, the Greeks, whose religion, civilization, and even language they have in great part adopted. The northern Gegs are more rude and warlike and generally herdsmen; the Tosks, more civilized and settled agriculturists. The Gegs are taller and more truly Albanian in type; the Tosks, darker and more like the modern Greeks.
Dictionary of Races or Peoples. 15 Albanian. The Albanians' main distinction in history is the persistence with which they have kept their independence. Even the Turkish rule in Albania has been but nominal ever since the Moslems first overran the Peninsula in the fifteenth century. It is felt only in the larger towns. They are brave, but turbulent in spirit-warriors rather than workers. Even their own tribes are at enmity among themselves and tribal and family feuds are common. Albania, somewhat indefinite in its boundaries, is but a small country, less than 300 miles long by 40 broad. It embraces the Turkish vilayets of Scutari and Janina and a part of Monastir. In the wider sense it includes ancient Epirus and a part of Macedonia. There are also Turks and Greeks Alsatian. settled in Albania, and even Roumanians (Tsintsars) in the southeast; but the basis of the population is Albanian. No census of Albanians has ever been taken. They probably number 1,500,000; some say 2,000,000. There are also some 250,000 in the eastern part of Greece and 90,000 in southern Italy and Sicily, where they established colonies centuries ago. The number in the Austro-Hungarian provinces north of Albania is still less. In Monastir they number only about 12,000. In religion the Albanians are said to be about equally divided among the Moslem, the Catholic, and the Greek faiths. Somewhat careful religious statistics have been privately collected for the greater portion of Albania, as follows: Vilayets. Mohda- Catholic. Orthodox. Jewish. Total. medan. Sctitarl............................. 133,965 81,997 6,642........ 222,604 Janina.......................................... 228,346 267,317 3,439 499,102 Total................................... 362,311 355,956 3,439 721,706 In total population Albanians rank below almost all the "races" of Europe. They perhaps outnumber the Slovenians of Austria and are half as numerous as the Norwegians, the Danes, or the Western Finns. But since they have emigrated extensively to Greece and to Italy and the rate of immigration to America on the part of their northern neighbors, the Croatians and Slovenians, is one of the highest in Europe, it would appear probable that the Albanians also are to be reckoned with as a factor of American immigration. Thus far they have not been counted separately by the Bureau of Immigration. Some of them as immigrants are called Greeks because they speak that language; others, Turks because the Mohammedan Albanians often call themselves Turks; others appear in the column of " Other peoples." In this column we find about 2,000 in 1907, 1,300 of whom came from Turkey in Europe. The number of Greeks reported from the same country was 7,000; the number of Turks, 1,100.
^Dictionary of races or peoples, United States. Immigration Commission (1907-1910), Daniel Folkmar, Elnora Cuddeback Folkmar - 1911 -
