Chapter 2: The Hope of Mati
Excerpts from Jason Tomes "King Zog: Self-Made Monarch of Albania" 2003)*
Chapter 1: The Hope of Mati
October 8, 1895: Though now synonymous with picturesque mountain valleys, azure waves lapping on white sand beaches, innovation, industry, and an indefatigable spirit, 19th century Albania was almost completely unknown. Over a century earlier Edward Gibbon supposedly observed that "[Albania] is a country within sight of Italy, about which less is known than the interior of America." (1) For most outside observers little had changed. Albania and her people remained concealed by a mysterious mountain fog that existed both physically and in the minds of most European statesmen. Having been dampened by the policies of Sultan Abdulhamid II, the Albanian national awakening or Relindja – rebirth -- seemed poised to fade into obscurity leaving the realm little more than another Ottoman province to be consumed by the rapacious Greeks, Serbs, and Bulgarians. The fact that Albania not only survived the perils of its birth but emerged from this obscurity can only be truly understood by understanding the life that began in the women's quarters of Castle Burgajet on that fateful day.
Xhemal Pasha Zogolli
Ahmed Muhtar Zogolli, as he was named at birth, was the third son of the Mati Chieftain Xhemal Pasha Zogolli, the first with his second wife Sadijé Toptani. While the former's title and position granted a life of privilege and education most Albanian boys could only dream of, through the latter he could trace his lineage all the way to Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, a fact he would leverage for all the symbolic weight he could later in his life. Like Zog, the 15th century Albanian patriot was born under a different name, Gjergj Kastrioti to a Catholic family perhaps in the same mountain valley of Mati. Stolen by the Turks to serve in the janissaries, Kastrioti made the best of his situation, converting to Islam under pain of death and displayed such martial genius that the sultan added the honorific Iskandar (Alexander) and -beg (Lord) to his Islamic name. Unfortunately for the sultan, upon naming Skanderbeg to the governorship of Kruja he found the same martial genius deployed against him as Kastrioti's national identity found an opportunity to shine through. For a quarter century Skanderbeg, having returned to the faith of his birth, defied the most powerful army in Europe and gained the admiration of all of Christendom. Had he not fallen to a fever in 1468 he may have succeeded in his ultimate goal of an independent and prosperous Albanian kingdom. Instead his direct heirs succumbed to the might of the Ottoman hordes resulting in Albania's subjugation and impoverishment until the rise of his successor nearly five centuries later.
Like Kastrioti, Zog's paternal ancestor, was also likely a Catholic prior to the Ottoman's subjugation of the region. Though not a fearsome janissary, he was a respected warrior in his own right who hailed from the village of Zogaj and just happened to be travelling through Mati when the Turkish governor decided to order the unmarried women of the valley to service him in a hedonistic orgy. In a manner befitting his more famous 20th century descendant, he rallied the men of the valley to fight for the honor of their women and overthrew the perverted Turkish governor. Out of gratitude, the local chief gave the wandering warrior his daughter's hand in marriage and encouraged him to settle in the valley. In keeping with tradition, the warrior took a new name: Zogu, a son of the village Zogaj. Only in the last quarter of the 15th century when faced with the prospect of Turkish genocide did his descendants change their name to the Turkish Zogolli and formally convert to Islam. In exchange they were recognized as hereditary rulers of the Mati valley which they ruled as benevolent autocrats in order to spare the people further Ottoman depredations.
Though Zog's maternal heritage would eventually come to be more valuable, at the time of his birth, his status as the chief's son was far more decisive. Having come to power after the murder of his half brother Riza Bey Zogolli, Xhemal Pasha Zogolli had gained the respect of his subjects by restoring order to the communities of the Mati valley. Of course, in 19th century Albania, "order" was a relative concept. The authority wielded by Xhemal paled in comparison to that which his son would wield a half century later and was severely constrained by local traditions -- Ottoman Law did not penetrate that deeply into the mountains -- known collectively as The Canon of Lek Dukagjini. Defined by regulations over bloodfeuds and the pacts or "besa" which ended them, Xhemal proved himself a capable mediator as his people worked out their issues using the only framework available to them. Yet as primitive as the 19th century disputes and the bloodfeuds that followed them in the Mati Valley seem to modern observers, the principle of limited government apparently lodged itself deeply within the mind of young Ahmed as he shadowed his father's performance of his duties.
An overly serious, pale boy, Ahmed quickly lost patience with the childrens' tales and games in the women's quarters at Castle Burgajet. Instead, he gravitated towards the realm of his father, one of his first memories was sneaking into his father's meeting hall at the age of three to listen to the affairs of state. Such behaviour stood in stark contrast to that of his elder brother Xhelal, who though 14 years older, was far more interested in engaging with the games of drink and dice which occupied so many Albanian men when they were not engaged in bloodfeuds. With no small amount of encouragement from Sadijé, Xhemal adopted young Ahmed as his heir apparent over his debauched brother. While Xhelal wasted his inheritance, the young Ahmed sat in front of his father in the saddle of his horse and accompanied him on his daily journeys through the valley.
This is the only photo I could find of Castle Burgajet as it was never rebuilt by Zog and was subsequently destroyed by the Communist Regime
Leaving Burgajet had a formative experience on Zog, who, as his mother's only son, had led a sheltered life within the walls of the squat rectangular castle. His father had spared no expense in ensuring that his family wanted for nothing. His house was the only one with glazed windows, carpets, European furniture, and countless other luxuries that could be transported via packhorse to the isolated valley. The people they ostensibly ruled lived vastly different lives defined by the grinding poverty that arose from not only Albania's lack of development but their cultural obsession with the bloodfeud. Unlike Castle Burgajet, the homes of the average Albanian in the Mati valley had neither windows nor furniture. Subsisting off a meager diet of cornmeal porridge and occasional pieces of meat, the average Albanian man left his wife to do most of the work while he sought to protect his honour with his family's most valuable possession, a rifle, often gilded with silver, which never left his side. Such was life in the Albanian highlands, it had changed little over the past centuries and though Xhemal disapproved, he had little hope of enacting real reform.
Young Zog on the other hand had yet to be worn down by the realities of the world and dreamed of change. It is well known that the plight of Albanian women revealed to him during this period was particularly impactful. While their husbands feuded and drank, these admirable women not only cared for their children but undertook almost all of the physical labour required to scratch out a living in the Albanian mountains. Plowing fields, cutting firewood, repairing roofs and walls, all of this was done in addition to more traditional feminine tasks such as making and repairing clothing and cooking. Their only comfort was that Mati was one of Albania's more fertile mountain valleys. Their sisters to the north in Dibra had it far worse. Though his father accepted the status quo, the stark disparity between the sexes and wasted energy of so many Albanian men struck Zogu hard and remained with him until his dying days.
Fortunately, he realized early on that his desire for reform and change would not be received well. Instead he spent his childhood with his father impressing everyone in the valley with his intelligence. A keen ear and an even keener mind allowed the young Zog to quickly become one of his father's greatest assets. Taking advantage of the low esteem with which most traditional Albanian men held children, Zog acquired and recounted key pieces of information which helped Xhemal mediate everything from grazing disputes to ongoing feuds. Soon news began to spread throughout the valley. Standing in stark contrast to his older brother, even before he left to pursue a European education he had been well established as the heir apparent to his father.
Under normal circumstances, Zog would never have left the Mati valley and would have continued his private lessons and apprenticeship under his father in preparation for assuming the chieftainship. Fortunately for the people of Mati and indeed the people of Albania, Xhemal was aware that the coming years would be anything but normal. With the Ottoman Empire on the verge of collapse and with the fires of nationalism rising in the Balkans, Xhemal agreed with his wife that in order to lead his people their son would need additional education before assuming the position of chieftain. (2) Thus in 1906, Zog was sent to the Turkish cadet school in Monastir (Bitolj) to begin his formal education. For two years he learned under some of the best teachers that the Ottoman Empire had to offer, the same luminaries who produced the sharp minds behind the Young Turk movement, and began to accommodate himself to the larger world.
As the young Zog was accommodating himself to the larger world, tragedy struck closer to home when his father passed away in 1908, a mere two years into his studies. Though still not old enough to assume the position of chieftain, Zog remembered wanting to return to the valley to take his father's place. Instead, Ottoman officials had taken notice of his intelligence and ordered that he transfer to the Imperial Lycée of Galata Saray. With the tribes of Northern Albania becoming more and more restive by the day, evidently some within the Ottoman administration saw him as a key figure in ensuring future tranquility in the region. (3) Travelling across tempestuous Macedonia with a pair of Mati's best armed guards, Zog arrived in Istanbul and began to accommodate to the most cosmopolitan city in the region. It quickly became apparent that this would be a long and arduous process as Zogu found himself overwhelmed by the cosmopolitan atmosphere and the rigours of his new courses.
As he attempted to adapt to his new surroundings, Zog adopted a serious tone and the image of a modern young gentleman. Impeccably dressed and groomed, the quiet boy did his best to navigate the halls of Istanbul's elite which were in the middle of nothing less than a full-blown revolution. As was the wont of many young men in Istanbul, Zog too was swept up in the enthusiasm for reform that was omnipresent in the capital city following the rise of the Young Turks. While that enthusiasm did prompt a greater interest in foreign languages and history, particularly the history surrounding Napoleon Bonaparte, it did not translate to good grades. A life of privilege and natural brilliance had inculcated a slothful attitude that would take the young boy decades to tame and which left him consistently at the bottom of his class.
Issues of motivation also played a role in the young chieftain's poor academic performance as his initial enthusiasm over the prospect of modernization under the Young Turks turned to horror as the realities of their policies manifested. Like many Albanians, Zog initially hoped that the new ostensibly democratic Turkish government would abandon the pan-Islamic policies of Abdulhamid by granting regional and cultural autonomy to the Albanian vilayets which had just finalized a national alphabet at the 1908 Congress of Monastir. Instead it quickly became apparent that the young Turk's vision of a modernized Ottoman Empire had no place for Albanian autonomy. Not only was the Albanian language and its nascent alphabet suppressed, but the privileges Albanians had enjoyed for centuries under the Sultan began to be rolled back in favour of an aggressively expanding Turkish state. These policies were hammered home to Zog in 1909 when his own people rose in an ill-considered revolt against the infringement of their traditional freedoms. From this point on, any interest in becoming an instrument for this state and the modernizing policies that were so deleterious to his own people quickly drained out of Zog, leaving him despondent in the capital.
Though he seriously considered returning to Albania, Zog recognized that any attempt at independence at this juncture would be foolhardy. Having spent over a year in the city and become well acquainted with the rest of the world he too had recognized the necessity of a modern education. So Zog opted to remain in the capital. No longer interested in the opinions of his teachers, the young Albanian adopted a course of independent study at the expense of his official schoolwork. Books on science, engineering, economics, and law as well as considerable visits to the hordes of tinkerers on the outskirts of the city filled his time as he sought to take in as much knowledge as possible. At the same time, Zog worked to develop a network with the Albanian community in Istanbul and the burgeoning Albanian nationalist movement all the while watching unfolding events with a keen eye.
Like many Balkan observers, the Italian invasion of Libya in late September 1911 was decisive for the young Ahmed Zogolli. With firm evidence that the Great Powers were now increasingly likely to favour the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, Zog recognized that the Albanians were about to be thrust into a vastly different Balkan Peninsula whether they were ready for it or not. Slipping away from Istanbul, Zog travelled to Salonika where he met up with a cousin attending school there. Together they stole away in secret and made their way back to Mati where his mother was serving as regent. After a tearful reunion with his family, Zog assumed his father's position as the hereditary chieftain of the Mati, his reputation and western education ostensibly compensating for his lack of age and experience. He would not have to wait long for his first trial by fire. Mere months later, in April 1912, when it came time for Mati to contribute to a pan-Albanian coalition mass uprising against the Young Turks, two thousand warriors gathered in front of Castle Burgajet and were ready to shed blood for the privilege of leadership. Amidst the crackle of warning shots, Zog emerged resplendent in an Ottoman uniform and on a black charger. With the cry of "Down with your guns! I will give the orders here! Lurë to the vanguard!" he rode into the fray and to the surprise of everyone, Zog included, the grizzled mountain warriors shouldered their arms and fell in behind him to join the fight for their homeland.(4)
Often seen in light of the Balkan wars which followed mere months later, the Albanian revolt of April 1912 was a fundamentally different phenomenon. Recognizing that Albania and particularly Albanian nationalism needed time to develop, the leaders of the revolt, Zog among them, were seeking not independence but autonomy within the Ottoman Empire. An autonomous Albania within a broader Ottoman framework was to be the first step of a fundamental reorganization of the Empire along national lines. Despite having not responded well to earlier demands along the same lines, the Albanian armed revolt was too widespread to counter without fatally weakening the Empire. The Young Turks had no choice but to accept, raising both hopes and fears that they would adopt a similar policy elsewhere. Had they listened to the earlier peaceful demands of the Albanians and other nationalities within the Empire, history might have been different, but instead their capitulation occurred precisely when both the Great Powers and the Balkan nations were prepared to completely revise the political situation in the Balkans.
Having only seen action in a small skirmish during the revolt itself, Zog would not have to wait long for more combat. The ink was barely dry on the agreement surrounding Albanian autonomy when the offensive aspects of the Balkan League were finalized. The League's subsequent offensive ushered in the beginning of not only the First Balkan War but a decade long Albanian struggle for independence. Caught between the armies of Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia, Albanian lands were under attack from all sides and had no choice but to defend the Empire and the fragile position they had carved within it. Once again Zogu rode out of Mati at the head of nearly two thousand warriors to join his countrymen in the fray under the Crescent flag. Marching northeast from Mati, his force engaged elements of the Montenegrin army at Kakarriq south of Shkodra in a bloody battle. Zog compensated for his underdeveloped tactics with bravado, rallying the men of Mati time and time again to repulse the Montenegrins despite having several horses shot out from under him.
Though the men pictured above hail from Mirdita, one of the neighbouring tribes, Zog's men in 1912 would have been very similarly dressed and equipped
Unfortunately for the Albanians and indeed the rest of the Ottoman Empire, Zog's performance was a rare bright light in the conflict. With their best forces trapped in Asia Minor by the Greek Navy, the Ottoman Empire's forces in Albania and elsewhere collapsed. As a result, Zog found his position exposed after his victory at Kakarriq and was left with the unpalatable options of either joining Ottoman forces within fortified positions at Shkodra or returning to Mati which now found itself defenseless following defeats in Kosovo and directly in the path of the Serbian army's march to the sea. Recognizing that his men would not fight if their homes and families were left to fend for themselves against the merciless Serbian army, Zog turned his men around and returned to defend the mountain passes of Mati. Though bloodied by the Montenegrins and heavily outnumbered by the Serbs, Zog and his men were confident. They knew the passes better than anyone. If the Serbs wanted Mati they would pay with rivers of blood.
Fortunately the people of Mati, the battle they feared never came as the Serbians opted to bypass the valley in search of easier conquests. (5) Yet news from the rest of the peninsula darkened what would otherwise be a bloodless victory as successive defeats in 1912 left the Ottoman Empire on the verge of collapse. Recognizing that if they continued to side with Istanbul, they risked national annihilation in the coming peace, Albanian patriots, Zog among them, agitated for a declaration of independence to escape impending disaster. "Our country has on one side the shining vision of liberty; on the other it is menaced by the tremendous danger of a partition and new slavery. We hope that international justice will not abandon us" he said upon leaving to join the first Albanian national congress in Vlora.
Despite his best intentions, Zog arrived too late to sign the declaration of independence due to the realities of war forcing him to take a circuitous route, crossing Serbian held territory at night in order to reach the sleepy port city of Vlora. Still his success at Kakarriq and serious demeanor left a positive impression on the other members of the Congress. His youth, western education and status as a northern chieftain gave him an enviable political position within the nascent movement which compensated for his relative lack of means. Furthermore, his views on modernization coupled with the fact that he was theoretically able to bridge the gap between the more developed southern portion of the country and the more tribal north made many attendees of the Congress regard him as politically dangerous. Still, as news of the Congress' declaration was slow to disperse and completely ignored by the Greeks and Serbians it seemed that Zogu's fears of a new partition of Albania were about to come true. Lacking a viable strategic position or an army capable of facing the Balkan League's, Zog advocated that the nascent Albanian nation's forces disperse and defend their home valleys in the hopes that they could bleed the Balkan League enough to force them to the table. Left with little other choice, the Congress agreed and Zogu once again made his way across enemy territory to return to his home valley.
Any actions of Zog or his tribesmen were to have little impact on this phase of Albania's development as it quickly became a bone of contention in the ongoing peace efforts to bring an end to the First Balkan War. At this particular junction, Albania's future would not be determined by strength of arms but rather by a stark divide between the Great Powers' desire for stability and the Balkan League's aims of a total partition. Unable to successfully bridge the gap, diplomats settled on a compromise, a neutral Albanian principality which ceded many traditional Albanian lands and over half of the region's Albanian speaking population but left no one power the true benefactor. Yet without clear maps such an appealing proposal struggled to become a reality. Serb, Montenegrin, and Greek armies remained on Albanian lands and the vicious guerrilla war continued in the background of the end of the First Balkan War and the beginning of the Second.
Amidst this low-level conflict, members of the Albanian National Congress and diplomats from the Great Powers struggled to bring stability to the region. Chief among them was Zog's distant cousin Essad Bey Toptani, the commander of the Ottoman garrison besieged at Shkodra who reportedly sold the city to the Montenegrins for the opportunity to set up an Albanian republic at Durres in April 1913 to rival the authority of the Vlora congress. Replete with a broad villainous mustache, Toptani did his best to lure Zog and his Mati warriors to his side only to find the young ruler hesitant. Zogu, recognizing the role of the Great Powers and wary of Essad's views on modernization and ties to Serbia, opted to wait and focus on his responsibilities to the people of Mati. His caution proved to be well founded. Unwilling to risk an Albanian civil war, the Great Powers' Conference of Ambassadors took a more direct hand in the development of the nascent state, placing it under an International Control Commission in January 1914 until the arrival of their chosen candidate: Wilhelm of Wied on March 7, 1914. As Albania put their hope in the international recognition of a German prince, the valley of Mati put their hopes on the shoulders of the young Ahmed Bey Zogolli who had proven more than capable of bearing them up until this point.
NOTES
This update is adapted from Tomes' OTL book of the same name. In TTL the title is fitting in more ways than one.
AFAIK Gibbon never wrote this quote but it was attributed to him in the 20th century by Faik Konitza. In TTL as in OTL it remains one of the more commonly repeated quotes about Albanian obscurity.
In OTL Sadije played a massive role in Zog's life and thus is prominently featured in his biographies. In TTL this relationship is downplayed…
See #2. In OTL, it is assumed, based on Zog's statements that Sadije played a key role into getting him into the Imperial Lycée.
The story is from OTL only it is told in connection to the First Balkan wars rather than the Albanian revolt.
In OTL Zog maintained that the reason the Serbs bypassed Mati was because he sowed confusion between the advancing Serbian regiments and caused two of them to fire on each other with devastating effect. In TTL he feels less of a need to embellish his achievements in the Balkan Wars.
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