Edward Lear in Albania – Journals of a Landscape Painter in the Balkans
There is ‘luxury and inconvenience on the one hand, liberty, hard living and filth on the other’. So Edward Lear described the mysterious and often misunderstood country of Albania. Edward Lear’s travels through Albania and Macedonia in 1848 came about when an outbreak of cholera closed off all other routes out of Salonica – the port in which he arrives as these journals begin – setting him off on this unusual adventure. His meticulous journals offer a unique insight into the Balkans in this period; the difficulties and romance of travelling in Albania – especially as an Englishman, visiting More >
The Crescent and The Eagle – Ottoman Rule, Islam and the Albanians, 1874-1913
“The Crescent and the Eagle” examines the awakening of Albanian national identity from the end of the 19th century to the outbreak of the First World War – a period of intense nationalism in the Balkans – from an Ottoman perspective. Drawing on Ottoman and European archival material, the book undermines the customary negative stereotypes of Ottoman rule, offering a more nuanced interpretation. Gawrych provides a critical but objective examination of the evolution of government policies toward Albanians, from attempts to mould them into an “iron barrier” to the establishment of a uniform More >
