Albanian

The Albanians are a Balkan people whose language forms its own Indo-European branch, widely held to descend from the ancient Illyrians' speech; the name Albanoi appears in second-century records, and Byzantine chroniclers place Albanians around Krujë and Durrës by the eleventh century. The Shkumbin River divides them into northern Ghegs and southern Tosks.

In 1190 Progon founded the Principality of Arbanon at Krujë, and the Angevins organized a Kingdom of Albania in 1272. Fourteenth-century native families ruled shifting principalities until the Ottomans took Krujë in 1415.

In 1444 the nobles united at Lezhë under Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, who held off the Ottomans until his death in 1468. Under Ottoman rule many converted to Islam from the seventeenth century; Albanians supplied over forty grand viziers. Around 1800 semi-independent pashaliks emerged, Ioannina ruled by Ali Pasha until 1822.