Jacob Philipp Fallmerayer, an Austrian historian, Byzantinist, publicist, and member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, embarked on a series of journeys to the Eastern countries, including Turkey, Macedonia, and Greece, where he became acquainted with the Albanian population. Fallmerayer expressed extreme views in his works regarding the origin of the Greek people, making him one of the most controversial figures in Greece. He argued that the Greek people have “not a drop of blood from the ancient Greeks,” claiming it to be a mixture of Albanians and Slavs and that there is no continuity of ancient cultural heritage in their folklore. For the history of Albania, his works “Geschichte der Halbinsel Morea während des Mittelalters” in two volumes (History of the Morea Peninsula during the Middle Ages, Munich 1830-1836) and “Das albanesische Element in Griechenland” in three volumes (The Albanian Element in Greece, Munich 1857-1861) are still significant. These works primarily deal with the history of the migration and widespread presence of Albanians in Greek territories. To understand this migration, Fallmerayer also examines the history of Albanians in the territories they originated from, within the framework of the Byzantine Empire and their encounter with the Ottomans, which he considers a historical tragedy, the “acts” of which he follows through the war led by Skanderbeg. Jacob Philipp Fallmerayer highly appreciates the struggle of Albanians as a people with great vitality and “fantastically freedom-loving.” He also values Skanderbeg as a fighter for freedom. Although he does not rely on archival sources but rather on narrative sources such as Marin Barleti, Fallmerayer’s second work draws attention to a series of original perspectives in assessing the popular struggle of the Albanians, characterizing it as a guerrilla war with all its distinctive features. He passed away in Germany in 1861. (In the photo: Jakob Filip Falmerajer)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 1 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 644.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_Philipp_Fallmerayer
Graphic processing: AHCF
