Besa (Albanian culture)

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Besa (pledge of honor)

ethical/juridical scope. The Albanian adjective besnik, derived from besa, means "faithful", "trustworthy", i.e. one who keeps his word. Besnik for men and Besa for women continue to be very popular names among Albanians. Besa is of prime importance in the Albanian traditional customary law (Kanun
) as a cornerstone of personal and social conduct.

Cultural concept and institution

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An Albanian who says besa once cannot in any way break [his] promise and cannot be unfaithful [to it].

— Mehmed Ferid Pasha, Ottoman-Albanian grand vizier, (1903)[3]

Besa is a word in the Albanian language meaning pledge of honor.[1] The concept is based upon faithfulness toward one's word in the form of loyalty or as an allegiance guarantee.[4] Besa contains mores toward obligations to the family and a friend, the demand to have internal commitment, loyalty and solidarity when conducting oneself with others and secrecy in relation to outsiders.[4] The besa is also the main element within the concept of the ancestor’s will or pledge (amanet) where a demand for faithfulness to a cause is expected in situations that relate to unity, national liberation and independence that transcend a person and generations.[4]

The concept of besa is included in the Kanun, the customary law of the Albanian people.[4] The besa was an important institution within the tribal society of the Albanian Malisors (highlanders).[5] Albanian tribes swore oaths to jointly fight against the government and in this aspect the besa served to uphold tribal autonomy.[5] The besa was used toward regulating tribal affairs between and within the Albanian tribes.[5] The Ottoman government used the besa as a way to co-opt Albanian tribes in supporting state polices or to seal agreements.[5]

During the Ottoman period, the besa would be cited in government reports regarding Albanian unrest, especially in relation to the tribes.[6] The besa formed a central place within Albanian society in relation to generating military and political power.[7] Besas held Albanians together, united them and would wane when the will to enforce them dissipated.[8] In times of revolt against the Ottomans by Albanians, the besa functioned as a link among different groups and tribes.[8]

History

In the

Latin: "o mulier, magna est fides tua"; Gospel of Matthew 15:28).[11] In the early 19th century, Markos Botsaris, in his Greek-Albanian dictionary, translated the Albanian "besa" (written "μπέσα") as the Greek "θρησκεία",[12] meaning "religion", or, by extension, "faith". In 1896, the Ottoman government provincial almanac for Kosovo titled Kosova Salnamesi had a two-page entry on besa and compared it to the French concept of parole d'honneur (word of honor).[13]

Late Ottoman period

During the

blood feuds of the Albanian tribes and issued (1892–1893) a proclamation to the people of the Ișkodra (Shkodër) area urging them to make a besa and reject the practice, in the hope that the very institution (besa) that upheld the vendetta could be used against it.[16]

In 1907, the empire sent a military inspection commission to Kosovo and one of its fact finding objectives was concerned with the prevention of a "general besa" against the Ottoman government.

Pejë) organized a meeting of 450 Kosovo Albanian notables in 1899 and they agreed to form Besa-Besë (League of Peja) to fight the Ottoman government and swore a besa to suspend all blood feuding.[23]

World War II

During World War II under German occupation, Albanians rescued and hid over 2000 Jews from Nazi persecution, motivated in part by the cultural institution of besa that emphasises aiding and protecting people in moments of need.[24][25][26]

Modern period

In

Malesia region made a besa and agreed to cease blood feuding and accept state judicial outcomes for victims and perpetrators.[27]

Cultural references

Sayings

Besa-related sayings include:[2]

  • Besa e shqiptarit nuk shitet pazarit. The Besa of the Albanian is not for sale.
  • Shqiptarët vdesin dhe Besën nuk e shkelin. Albanians would die before they violate Besa.
  • Besa e shqiptarit si purteka e arit. The Besa of the Albanian is worth more than gold

Literature, arts and politics

In 1874 Sami Frashëri wrote a play Besâ yâhut Âhde Vefâ (Pledge of Honor or Loyalty to an Oath) with themes based on an Albanian ethnicity, a bond to an ethnic based territory, ethno-cultural diversity as underlying Ottoman unity, honor, loyalty and self-sacrifice.[28] The play revolved around a betrothed girl kidnapped by a jealous villager that kills her father and whose mother vows revenge co-opting the culprit's father who gives his besa to help not knowing it is his son, later killing him and himself ending with family reconciliation.[29] At the time the play's discussion of besa signified to more astute Ottoman audiences the political implications of the concept and possible subversive connotations in future usage while it assisted Albanians in rallying militarily and politically around a national program.[30] By the early twentieth century, the themes of the play highlighting a besa for self-sacrifice of the homeland carried a subversive message for Albanians to aim at unifying the nation and defend the homeland, something Ottoman authorities viewed as fostering nationalist sentiments.[31]

Frashëri wrote a political treatise Albania: What she has been, What she is, What she shall be (1899) on the Albanian question and proposed that Albanians make a besa to demand the empire and Europe recognize Albanian national rights, especially by applying pressure upon the Ottomans to achieve those aims.[32][33]

Besa is a key theme in the novel Kush e solli Doruntinën (usually abbreviated in English to "Doruntine") (1980), by Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare.[34]

In the 1980s until 1994, a bimonthly newspaper named Besa was published by the

Arvanite community of Greece.[35]

In the 2010s, the cultural institution of besa featured in an international exhibition named Besa: A Code of Honor by photographer Norman H. Gershman and in an award-winning documentary film Besa: The Promise on the survival of Jews in Albania during the Holocaust.[36][24][25]

In 2015, an Albanian political party named

Republic of Macedonia.[37]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Gawrych 2006, pp. 1, 9.
  2. ^ a b Kushova, Alma (July 21, 2004). "Besa". Open Democracy. Retrieved 2009-11-08.
  3. ^ Gawrych 2006, p. 132.
  4. ^
    doi:10.1111/j.1469-8129.2006.00252.x
    .
  5. ^ a b c d Gawrych 2006, p. 36.
  6. ^ Gawrych 2006, p. 119.
  7. ^ Gawrych 2006, pp. 119–120.
  8. ^ a b Gawrych 2006, p. 120.
  9. ^ Klosi, Ardian (30 October 2002). "Statutet e Shkodrës - kujtesa historike e rigjetur". Shekulli (in Albanian). 297: 1, 17.
  10. ^ Vehbiu, Ardian (27 September 2009). "Etiketat shtegtare". peizazhe.com (in Albanian).
  11. ISBN 9783830015901
    .
  12. ^ Yochalas, Titos (1980). Το Ελληνο-Αλβανικόν Λεξικόν του Μάρκου Μπότσαρη [The Greek-Albanian Dictionary of Markos Botsaris]. Academy of Greece. p. 213.
  13. ^ Gawrych 2006, p. 115.
  14. ^ Gawrych 2006, pp. 1, 46–48, 210.
  15. ^ Gawrych 2006, pp. 67, 210.
  16. ^ Gawrych 2006, p. 118.
  17. ^ Gawrych 2006, pp. 95–96, 120.
  18. ^ Gawrych 2006, pp. 152, 177, 210.
  19. ISBN 9781400847761
    .
  20. ^ Gawrych 2006, p. 166.
  21. ^ Gawrych 2006, p. 177.
  22. ^ Gawrych 2006, p. 210.
  23. ^ Gawrych 2006, pp. 125–126.
  24. ^ a b Barberá, Marcel Gascón (25 January 2019). "Exhibition Tells How Jews Found Refuge in WWII Albania". Balkan Insight. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  25. ^ a b Lipshiz, Cnaan (19 January 2019). "What made Muslim Albanians risk their lives to save Jews from the Holocaust?". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  26. ^ Axelrod, Jim (8 November 2009). "The Righteous". CBS News Sunday Morning. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  27. ^ a b Kajosevic, Samir (29 June 2020). "Montenegro Albanians Take Pride in Abandoning Ancient Blood Feuds". Balkan Insight. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  28. ^ Gawrych 2006, pp. 1–2, 8, 36–37.
  29. ^ Gawrych 2006, pp. 9–11.
  30. ^ Gawrych 2006, p. 88.
  31. ^ Gawrych 2006, pp. 148–149.
  32. ^ Skendi 1967, p. 168.
  33. ISBN 9781845112875
    .
  34. ISBN 9781845110314
    .
  35. ^ Sintès, Pierre (2010). "Construction des discours d'appartenance en migration: l'exemple des Albanais en Grèce". Anatoli. 1. para. 20.
  36. ^ Tabachnick, Toby. "Besa Albanian Muslims took vow to save Jews, photographer says". The Jewish Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2011-07-24. Retrieved 2009-11-08.
  37. ISBN 9781544327112
    .

External links
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