Principality of Muzakaj

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Coat of arms of the Muzaka family from 1372

The Principality of Muzakaj ( Albanian  Principata e Muzakajve ) was a principality in central and southern Albania that existed from 1335 to 1444. Its founder was Andrea II. Muzaka from the noble family of the Muzaka , who shortly before his death (1372) received the despot from the Byzantine emperor John V.

Simplified representation of the area of ​​influence of the league under Skanderbeg (1444–1479)

Andrea II expanded his territory to its maximum: from the Adriatic between the Vjosa and Devoll rivers to the east, including the Korça plain. The capital was Berat in southern Albania.

From 1336 the Serbian King Stefan IV Dušan subjugated the Albanian principalities in several campaigns. Andrea Muzaka's territory was also incorporated into the new empire, although his troops were able to defeat a Serbian contingent on the Pelister in 1340.

When Andrea II Muzaka died in 1372, he was followed by his eldest son Theodor II , who also assumed the title of despot. He died in 1389, possibly in the battle of the Amselfeld . His younger brother Gjin I. Muzaka ruled Korça and Kastoria as Sebastokrator until 1389/90 .

In 1396, the Muzaka family regained control of Berat.

Theodor III. Muzaka , who was involved in the fight against the Ottoman Empire , led in the years 1432-36 and 1437/1438 uprisings against the Ottomans, who were suppressed by the Ottomans. On March 2, 1444 he allied himself with other Albanian princes in the League of Lezha under the leadership of Georg Kastriota and the principality was thus dissolved.

The principality was ruled by the following princes:

literature

  • Robert Elsie : John Musachi: Brief Chronicle on the Descendants of our Musachi Dynasty . In: Early Albania: A Reader of Historical Texts, 11th-17th Centuries . Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-447-04783-6 , p. 34 (English, online preview in Google Book Search).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Edwin E. Jacques: The Albanians: An Ethnic History from Prehistoric Times to the Present . McFarland & Company, McFarland & Co, 1995, ISBN 0-89950-932-0 , pp. 167 (English, online preview in Google Book Search).
  2. ^ Carl Hermann Friedrich Johann Hopf : Chroniques gréco-romanes inédites ou peu connues . Weidmann, Berlin 1873, p. 281 (Italian, archive.org ).
  3. ^ John Van Antwerp Fine: The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest . University of Michigan Press, 1994, ISBN 0-472-08260-4 , pp. 291 (English, online preview in Google Book Search).
  4. Erich Trapp , Hans-Veit Beyer, Ewald Kislinger: Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit . In: Fascicle: Μιχαὴλ - Ξυστούρης . tape 1/8 . Publications of the Commission for Byzantine Studies, Vienna 1986, ISBN 3-7001-0775-7 , p. 92 .
  5. ^ John Van Antwerp Fine, p. 391
  6. ^ Kristo Frashëri: The History of Albania: A Brief Survey . Tirana 1964, p. 65 (English).