Oso Kuka

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Oso Kuka based on the 1901 magazine Albania

Osman Bejtullah Kuka called Oso Kuka (born around 1820 in Shkodra ; died 1862 ) was an Albanian border warrior in Ottoman service on the Albanian-Montenegrin border . He became a symbol of the Albanian national movement .

Life

The exact date of birth of Oso Kuka is not known. He is said to have been born around 1820 in Shkodra, in the north of today's Albania .

Oso Kuka arrived in 1862 at the head of a small group (çeta) of border warriors at Vranjina , whose fortress was besieged by a Montenegrin armed force consisting of several thousand members. Once there, Oso Kuka and his warriors took over the defense of a side tower of the fortress. When the Montenegrin troops stormed the tower, Oso Kuka blew it up, killing himself and many of the enemy soldiers.

reception

In the famous heroic epic The Lute of the Highlands (Lahuta e Malcís) by Gjergj Fishta , the cycle of Oso Kuka includes the first five songs. There the story of Oso Kuka is received in such a way that he was angry about a saying by the Pasha of Shkodra, in which the Albanians were accused of passivity, although the Montenegrins cross the border to kill herdsmen and steal cattle. Oso Kuka then went to the Pasha and asked for a handful of men to protect the border. When an Albanian shepherd was then killed and robbed by Montenegrins, which was against the law , Oso Kuka avenged the shepherd and hunted down the robbers. The Montenegrin general Djokovic Pera was so angry that he sent 500 soldiers to kill Oso Kuka and his people. After several battles, Oso Kuka was besieged and trapped in his tower. When the situation was hopeless and the Montenegrins stormed the tower, Oso Kuka climbed the top of the tower and fired at a powder keg and thus killed himself, his people and the attacking Montenegrins.

The idiom to be included like Oso Kuka (Me je mbyllur brenda si Oso Kuka) means in Albanian that one is so busy with domestic duties that one rarely gets around to accepting invitations and maintaining friendships.

House of Oso Kuka - Shkodra Historical Museum

The Shkodra Historical Museum is housed in the traditional old Oso Kuka house .

literature

  • Robert Elsie : A Biographical Dictionary of Albanian History. London 2013: IB Tauris / Center for Albanian Studies. ISBN 978-1-78076-431-3 .
  • Robert Elsie: Albanian Literature: A Short History. London / New York 2005: IB Tauris / Center for Albanian Studies / Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1-84511-031-5 .
  • Gjergj Fishta: The Highland Lute (Lahuta e Malcís). The Albanian National Epic. Translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie & Janice Mathie-Heck. London / New York 2005: IB Tauris / Center for Albanian Studies / Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1-84511-118-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Elsie: A Biographical Dictionary of Albanian History. P. 263.
personal data
SURNAME Oso Kuka
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Osman Bejtullah Kuka
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Albanian border warrior
DATE OF BIRTH around 1820
PLACE OF BIRTH Shkodra
DATE OF DEATH 1862