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BookReviews
BookReviews
byEliaMarinovaRussanaBeyleriRaiaZaimovaBlagovestA.NjagulovLilianaSimeonovaFotini
ChristakoudiYuraKonstantinovaMalamirSpassov
Source:
BalkanStudies(Etudesbalkaniques),issue:2/2003,pages:143173,onwww.ceeol.com.
143
ACADMIE DES SCIENCES DE BULGARIE
INSTITUT DTUDES BALKANIQUES
TUDES BALKANIQUES, 2003, No 2
Comptes rendus
RECENT MONOGRAPHS AND CONTRIBUTIONS IN ALBANIAN LINGUISTICS
1
Daka, P. Bibliografi e studimeve dhe e artikujve
pr gjuhn shqipe (1945-1974). Tiran, 1975.
2
Studime filologjike (SF). Tiran, 1977, 4; 1980,
2, 3; 1981, 1; 1982, 2.
3
Thomai, J. shtje t frazeolgjis n gjuhn
shqipe. Tiran, 1981; Idem. Prejardhja semantike n
gjuhn shqipe. Tiran, 1989; Idem. Teksti dhe gjuha.
Tiran, 1992.
The primary incentive to compose this ar-
ticle is the fact that, though in the age of enhan-
ced communications, it has not become much
easier for the foreign scholars to learn about,
let alone to access the new publications espe-
cially the basic reference studies of the Albani-
an (also Kosovo and Macedonian) linguists and
literary reviewers. In 1975 scholar Palok Daka
compiled a comprehensive bibliography of lin-
guistic studies on Albanian language
1
. From
1974 to 1982 he continued to catalogue the sub-
sequent editions in the academic periodical Stu-
dime filologjike
2
. Unfortunately, there has not
been an itemized account of the philological
inventory of Albanology ever since.
This overview synthesizes about 30 recent
contributions in various layers of the Albanian
language, including some revised key publica-
tions. The chronological starting point for the
editions (1995) has been chosen to limit this
presentation and not in the least the perimeter
of what is to be considered scholarly new and
up-to-date in linguistics.
Thomai, J. Leksikologjia e gjuhs shqi-
pe. Tiran, SHBLU, 2002. 316 p. (Albanian lexi-
cology)
Professor Jani Thomai is a linguist of high-
est attainments who started his career in the six-
ties and was entrusted to lecture the basic course
of lexicology immediately after graduating from
the university. He devoted himself entirely to
that branch in the broadest sense of the concept
and covered much new ground with major mon-
ographs subsequently in lexicology, phraseolo-
gy and semantics
3
. His first Handbook of Lex-
icology was an accomplished treatise, repro-
duced in 1960 as a collection of lecture notes.
The fifth up-to-dated edition of this most indis-
pensable oeuvre comes in 2002 with a modern
and appealing frontispiece. The introduction
focuses on the rise of lexicology as theoretical
and applied science in Albania, accentuating
on the separate studies of other colleagues and
dictionaries in each of the basic divisions as
antonyms (Mio Samara), stylistics (Xhevat
Lloshi), synonymy (Shefqie Islamaj, Prishtina),
etymology (Aleksandr Xhuvani, Eqrem abej,
Idriz Ajeti-Prishtina) etc. The core of the book
are the outlines of the discipline. The string of
logic is easy to follow. The dividing lines be-
tween concepts, notions and terms are clear.
Nothing has been overlooked or unbalanced.
In this new edition there has been established
more symmetrical correlation between branch-
es of lexicology, so as to reflect the changes of
priority in modern linguistics. Thus more dis-
cussion is concentrated on semasiology, stylis-
Access via CEEOL NL Germany
144
tics and language standard, the last being a top-
ical problem in Albanian after 1972 when the
unified norm was adopted nation-wide, includ-
ing Kosovo, Macedonia and the Arbresh set-
tlements in Italy. The overview of lexicogra-
phy is strictly problematic with optimistic in-
ferences: the revised edition of the codifying
Dictionary of Modern Albanian has been com-
pleted (it turned up at the book market in the
summer of 2002 under Jani Thomais direction);
the regional lexis has been recorded and put
together in the respective dictionaries and peri-
odicals; bilingual dictionaries, mainly in Eng-
lish and Italian, have spurted responding to the
unprecedented for the country burst of contacts
(unfortunately the Albanian-Bulgarian diction-
ary is still a fiction). Some of the dictionaries
will be individually introduced further in my
presentation. The index of authors and works
at the end of the book bears useful facts about
the topics which have been subject to deeper
elaboration.
As head of the Department of Lexicolo-
gy, Lexicography and Terminology at the Insti-
tute of Linguistics and Literature in Tirana, pro-
fessor Jani Thomai is running the academic
project of the Dictionary of Synonyms in the
Albanian language.
Thomai, J. Leksiku dialektor e krahi-
nor n shqipen e sotme. Tiran, Akademia e
shkencave, 2001. 323 p. (The dialectal and re-
gional lexis in modern Albanian)
The Albanian language encompasses the
Tosk and the Gheg dialects, from which the
second tends to be more segmented than the
first. The geographical border between them is
Shkumbinj River. Dialectal studies were rank-
ing first in quantity from the sixties to the eight-
ies, because of the pressing need to fully regis-
ter the language thesaurus and enable the ema-
nation of the Standard Albanian. Praiseworthy
contributions regarding the phonetic and gram-
matical system have been achieved by well
known scholars, vast lexicon has been cata-
logued. The presented monograph offers a the-
oretical analysis of the dialectal and regional
lexical material. The first chapter defines these
two groups and delineates their distinctive fea-
tures in general. The second chapter puts the
stress on the stratification and the boundaries
of the dialectal and regional lexis and deals with
the typical dialectal patterns of word-formation.
Chapter three tackles the broad scope of inter-
action between dialects and subdialects on one
hand and dialects-standard language on the oth-
er hand. Chapter four and five together take two
thirds of the space and include respectively the
functioning of the territorial substandard words
in folklore and literature and a survey of the
lexicographical achievements in the field. The
monograph ends up with a full index of the di-
alectal words used. The authors approach has
been clear-cut, devoid of bare statistics, non-
contributing controversies and disputes. It puts
in order the principles and patterns of analysis
based on multiple examples and always in the
light of further consolidation of the national
language.
The monograph turns up at the right mo-
ment to offset the alternative pessimistic vision,
that the turbulent course of modern history and
the spread-out of English and Italian in this
country have severed the perspective for the
dialectal lexis to remain a valid source for en-
richment of the standard Albanian language.
Thomai, J. Fjalor frazeologjik i gjuhs
shqipe. Tiran, Shkenca, 1999. 1166 p. (A dic-
tionary of Albanian idioms)
National and bilingual dictionaries of all
kinds include a substantial amount of idioms,
because their figurativeness and emotiveness
makes them as frequently used as ordinary
words. A profiled dictionary of idioms targets
the more educated audience and advanced
learners, which are aware of and consciously
exploit the power of verbal expression.
The profound studies of Albanian phrase-
ology as a separate level of the language sys-
tem, carried out chiefly by professor Jani Tho-
mai, logically resulted in this full-scale special-
ized dictionary, containing about 11000 entries.
Theoretically, the English word idiom, gener-
ally accepted for denominating such dictionar-
ies, has a more confined meaning than the con-
cept of the phraseological unit. The most typi-
cal aspect of an idiom proper is its semantic
indivisibility, the absolute impossibility to de-
rive its meaning from its components. In that
sense not all phraseological units, expressing a
single notion, ready for use just like words, are
idioms, because their meaning may be still
somewhat related to the meanings of the com-
ponent words. On the other edge, prof. Thomai
makes a strict difference between phraseologi-
145
4
See Thomai, J. Prejardhja semantike n gjuhn
shqipe. Tiran, 1988.
cal units as language units and phraseological
combinations, fossilized phrases and proverbs,
called literary phraseology. The factual corpus
of the dictionary comes after 65 pages of theo-
retical thesis on fraseography, where the issues
of identification, positioning and arrangement
of the idioms have been discussed. The major
problem for the idioms remains their appropri-
ate and user-oriented formal order. According
to the authors concepts each idiom is to be
found only once in the dictionary, following the
alphabetical order of the first full-meaning word
in it. Each head-idiom is printed in bold type.
Information on syntax and stylistic use is sup-
plied and immediately after that the definitions
and the synonym expressions follow. The ex-
ample sentences, with their source marked, are
also a very important part of the text, because
they can often describe vocabulary items more
easily and more economically than the expla-
nations.
The core inventory of this dictionary
serves as a starting point for the Fjalor frazeo-
logjik ballkanik. Tiran: Dituria, 1999. 352 p.
(Dictionary of Balkan idioms), a unique time
and effort consuming project developed and
lead by prof. Jani Thomai with an international
team of linguists. Each of the other four authors
Xh. Lloshi, R. Hristova-Beyleri, K. Qiriazati
and A. Melonashi worked separately on find-
ing the closest concordances for the Albanian
expressions respectively in Serbian, Bulgarian,
Greek and Romanian. After the first phase ma-
terial was submitted, the units with no corre-
spondents in at least three languages were omit-
ted and what remained were about 5000 basic
entries. This volume offers abundant raw ma-
terial for comparative studies. Unlike diction-
aries in general it will not be easily outdated,
because the process of diversification and es-
tablishment of the phraseological units does not
happen in a uniform way with the lexical units
and new items rarely leap to immediate cur-
rency.
Kostallari, A., E. Lafe, J. Thomai, E.
Angoni. Pr pastrtin e gjuhs shqipe. Fja-
lor. Tiran, 1998. 188 p. (On the purity of Al-
banian language. Dictionary)
The dictionary had been composed and
ready for publishing since 1992. It consists of
1440 words distributed in 630 entries, previ-
ously circulated in the academic periodicals
Gjuha jone (Tirana) and Gjuha shqipe (Prishti-
na) in a special column called Fjala shqipe n
vend t fjals s huaj (Albanian word in place
of the foreign word). The material had been
constantly refined and amended over the fol-
lowing decade by its editors Emil Lafe, Jani
Thomai and Engjll Angoni renowned for their
permanent contribution in this realm. The de-
finitive edition came out in 1998 when the on-
slaught of foreign borrowings was coming to a
climax. The actual discrepancy originates from
the fact that the foreign words currently pres-
surizing the language are definitely not the same
that were alleged to be some ten or fifteen years
ago. A bulk of English and Italian vocables have
been quickly transliterated and nested in Alba-
nian alongside with functional terms denomi-
nating new phenomena. The fall from grace of
many inherent words, apart from the typical
explanation of the changing realities, has a plain
linguistic reason. The prevailing pattern of se-
mantic development in Albanian is the expan-
sion of meaning and not the flourishing of syn-
onyms
4
. Consequently, there has long been a
cutting need for lexical variety. It is thus with
understandable vulnerability that borrowings
have been and, I dare predict, will be accepted
in the language system and subsystems. The
topic is debatable, but the realistic stance should
be, by all means, flexible as the one expressed
by the leading linguist and master of pen Xhe-
vat Lloshi at the conference Standard Albani-
an and the Albanian society today, held in Ti-
rana on 11-12 November, 200. He voiced the
opinion that there is nothing distressing in the
parallel or even preferable use of recent loan-
words, given that the user is conscious of the
existence of the respective Albanian words with
the same meaning. Backing-up that standpoint
we should strongly recommend the dictionary
as an essential lexical reference for all foreign-
ers studying Albanian and for the young gener-
ation of the large national diaspora abroad. A
foreigner myself, I must highlight in particular
the detailed handling of the partial semantic
substitutes e.g. agrar-bujqesor; esenc-thelb,
tarrac-brezare or aktivitet-veprimtari, but only
aktiv, aktivizoj, aktivizim; also ekstrem-skaj, but
only ekstremist, ekstremizm etc.
10, tudes balkaniques 2
146
5
Samara, M. shtje t antonimis n gjuhn
shqipe. Tiran, 1985.
6
Dhrimo, A. Aspekti dhe mnyrat e veprimit
foljor n gjuhn shqipe. Tiran, 1996.
Samara, M. Fjalor i antonimeve n gju-
hn shqipe. Shkup, Shkupi, 1998. 418 p. (Dic-
tionary of antonyms in the Albanian language)
The dictionary of antonyms came as a re-
sult of professor Mio Samaras long-term fo-
cusing in the realm of antonyms and had been
preceded by an extensive theoretical study
5
.
The dictionary itself contains about 2000 pairs
of antonyms. The meaning of the antonyms is
explained and then illustrated by text extracts
from literature. The entries include antonyms
originating from the same root or from differ-
ent roots. Here is the proper place to note that
the first category is more difficult to acquire,
because of the variety of prefixes with similar
connotation that may be expected in Albanian
language, i.g. i mbuluar i zbuluar, i pambulu-
ar; normal anormal, jonormal; sulm-kundr-
sul, por mit-antimit etc. And again from the
foreigners point of view I would like to high-
light a very important merit of the work: Though
speech frequency research of the lexis has not
been conducted for Albanian, professor M. Sa-
mara has picked up what seems to be the most
customary inventory of the language. Doubt-
less we could only wish more quantity, but what
matters is that the dictionary can be utilized in
full amount and without hesitation in the lan-
guage practice.
Dhrimo, A., E.Tupja, E.Ymeri. Fjalor
sinonimik i gjuhs shqipe. Tiran, Toena,
2002. 612 p. (Dictionary of synonyms in the
Albanian language)
This absence of such a dictionary had al-
ways been a topic of lamentation in the Albani-
an-speaking world. Here it comes! The diction-
ary encompasses about 30000 title words,
which is quite impressive, given that the new-
est edition of the Dictionary of Modern Alba-
nian reaches about 35000 in total. The team
consists of experienced linguists under the di-
rection of professor Ali Dhrimo, well-known
for his contributions in grammar
6
. The entries
are exhaustive, completely tracing the shades
of the meaning and different connotations. The
string of synonyms includes not only lexical
units, but also expressions and idioms. Proper
style marks have been provided. Anyhow, a
foreign user should be patient to double-check
his/her choices with the explanatory dictionary
and to refrain from variety by all means for rea-
sons stretching beyond the scope of the present-
ed work: Firstly, because of the sintagmatic links
in a context. Secondly, because the synonymic
dominant (the word standing for the basic gen-
eral concept) in Albanian operates in a broader
radius than e.g., in Bulgarian, as a result of the
less active use of prefixation in word forma-
tion. Thirdly, due to the unexplored abyss of
speech frequency in-between two synonyms in
Albanian, coming to the extreme always-nev-
er, e.g. fletore (notebook) radhua, radhor. It
is only logical and necessary to long for such a
research now when the Dictionary of synonyms
has seen light.
Some other recently published profiled
dictionaries are:
A. Duro (ed.) Fjalori i termave themel-
or t mekaniks. Tiran, 2002. 1224 p. (Dic-
tionary of the Basic Terms of Mechanics Al-
banian-English-French-Italian-Russian)
Contains about 8000 units. Compiled by
a highly professional team of engineers and lin-
guists headed by prof. Agron Duro. Extremely
useful to interpreters from all languages.
Fjalori i emrave gjeografik t Repub-
liks s Shqipris. Tiran, 2002. (Dictionary
of the Geographic Names in the Republic of
Albania)
Daka, P. Fjalor i pseudonimeve. Tiran,
1998 (Dictionary of Pseudonyms)
Ui, A. Fjalor i personazheve n veprat
e Ismail Kadares. Tiran, 1995. (Dictionary
of characters in the Ismail Kadares works)
Murati, Q. Fjalor i shqipes truallsore t
Maqedonis. Tetov, Album, 1998. 221 p.
(Dictionary of the Albanian dialects in Mace-
donia)
The Albanian speakers in the Republic of
Macedonia (FYROM) geographically belong to
the southeastern Gheg (Tetovo, Gostivar, De-
bar, Krova, Prilep, Veles, Kumanovo, Sko-
pje) and to the northeast Tosk (Struga, Ohrid,
Prespa, Bitola) dialects
7
. As elsewhere, the
standard literary Albanian has been accepted
as the public language of the Albanian com-
munity. But what Shefkie Islamaj points out for
Kosovo and namely that the norm needs to be
7
Gjinari, J. Dialektologjia shqiptare. Tiran,
1975.
147
steadily taught and learned
8
is perfectly the case
in Macedonia. Qemal Murati, senior research-
er at the Albanological Institute in Prishtina and
former head of the Albanian language cathe-
dra at the Tetovo University has been complete-
ly dedicated to that mission. His doctoral dis-
sertation Sllavizmat n t folmet shqipe t Maqe-
donis (Slavic borrowings in the Albanian dia-
lects in Macedonia) as other publications, are
prevailingly concentrated in the field of lan-
guage contacts. The dictionary contains substan-
tial lexical material, properly noted as to the
geographical region it comes from. Local idi-
oms have been autonomously arranged in a sep-
arate chapter. A list of specific family names
has been provided at the end. The dictionary
has been criticized for having sheltered too
much words of Slavonic origin that, though in-
terfering with, are not incorporated in the Al-
banian dialects. But like it or not from strictly
theoretical point of view, if something has ac-
tually been used by the Albanian people, it is
more than natural to highly appreciate the facts
registered and the practical guidance offered.
Domi, Mahir (ed.). Gramatika e gjuhs
shqipe.
I. Morfologjia. Ed. Shaban Demiraj (F.
Agalliu, E. Angoni, Sh. Demiraj, A. Dhrimo,
E. Hysa, E. Lafe, E. Likaj). Tiran, Akademia
e shkencave, 2002. 452 p. (1976; 1995)
II. Sinataksa. Ed. Mahir Domi (M. e-
liku, M. Domi, S. Floqi, S. Mansaku, R. Pr-
naska, S. Prifti, M. Totoni). Tiran: Akademia
e shkencave, 2002. 683 p. (1976, 1983, 1997)
(Albanian grammar: I. Morphology, II. Syntax)
The academic grammar is a high status
work, because it is normative and also due to
the fact that its authors are the number one spe-
cialists in the respective branches. The first
volume is devoted to morphology in the broad
sense. It explains and illustrates the grammati-
cal categories in standard Albanian with their
meaning and means of expression and also clar-
ifies the functions and usage of the parts of
speech. The word formation system has also
been encompassed. The second volume unfolds
in-depth the syntactic level. Both tables of con-
tents are drawn with the utmost detail and guide
into a serviceable, timesaving and reader-ori-
ented structure. This is the primary source of
relevant and credible scholarly information one
should resort to.
Ymeri, M., L. Buxheli (eds). Rregullat e
piksimit n gjuhn shqipe. Tiran, Shkenca,
2002. 128 p. (Rules of punctuation in the Alba-
nian language)
This slender volume is an essential tool
for all interested in learning Albanian language
abroad, apart from being requisite for every-
body in Albania proper. The importance of the
presented work should not be sought in its the-
oretical novelty, because every high school
graduate is supposed to be familiar with orthog-
raphy, but in the revelation that it is the first
available compilation of such standards for Al-
banian. The delay was particularly upsetting due
to the fact that orthography serves, among oth-
ers, as criterion of language culture. And how
could a clear judgment take place if the code
was missing? The draft project of the Rules was
initially published in 1981, following the Con-
gress of Language Standardization (1972), by
a working group under the direction of acad.
Mahir Domi and prof. Menella Totoni of the
Institute of Linguistics and Literature in Tira-
na. As it turned out impossible for the commis-
sion to finalize the project, Mariana Ymeri,
PhD, and Ludmila Buxheli, PhD, of the De-
partment of Grammar, revived the left off initi-
ative, guided by professor Emil Lafe. Though
the book constitutes no radical change of the
course set, it simplifies the explanations of the
rules and aims, as it is, to be instructive and
useful. Coming strictly to the technical point,
Albanian orthography is based on the general
wide-spread meanings of the signs in most Eu-
ropean languages and follows primarily the syn-
tactic and secondarily the semantic principle.
Regarding to the second, for example, Bulgar-
ian students will be disappointed to discover
that unlike our (that), comma is not a pre-
cursor of the respective Albanian q and se con-
junctions, especially in determinative clause.
The work is a vital supplement to the nor-
mative academic grammar of the Albanian lan-
guage.
eliku, M., M. Karapinjalli, R. Stringa.
Gramatika praktike e gjuhs shqipe. Tiran,
Toena, 2000. 496 p. (Practical grammar of the
Albanian language)
8
Islamaj, Sh. Kultura e gjuhs dhe prdorimi
estetic i saj. Tiran, 2000. 29 p.
148
The presented work has resulted out of the
common efforts of a team working at the El-
bassan University, descendant from the vener-
able first high school in the country, Normalja
e Elbasanit, later transformed to the Pedagogi-
cal Institute. The head of the triad and chief
editor of the grammar, professor Mehmet e-
liku is the acting rector of the University, where
he had lectured for many years. His doctoral
dissertation Format e pashtjelluara t foljes n
gjuhn e sotme shqipe (The unchangeable ver-
bal forms in modern Albanian) has recently seen
light as a separate edition under the same title
(Tiran: Shblu, 2000).
Contrary to the normative academic gram-
mar, the leading principle of this work is the
simplification of the definitions and the expand-
ed demonstration of the grammatical phenom-
ena using text extracts from renowned Albani-
an writers. The theoretical concepts are eluci-
dated through the arrangement and the system-
atization of the linguistic facts. An English ver-
sion of the grammar is soon to be provided for
the foreign learners.
Lloshi, Xh. Stilistika e gjuhs shqipe dhe
pragmatika. Tiran, Shblu, 2001. 362 p. (Sty-
listics and pragmatics of the Albanian language)
First ed. 1999.
Xhevat Lloshi is a productive author, who
made a reputation for himself as one of the lead-
ing linguists and master of the martial art of
words in the journalist arena. His arguments
enjoy praise and acclamation even when the
ideas they contain get mixed reception. This is
so because if strictly linguistic problems tend
to be hermetic and distant for the common read-
er, his manner of presenting them in a scholar-
ly, erudite and no perplexed manner, sounds as
sovereign personalized dialogue with the indi-
vidual reader. This monograph is comprehen-
sive in the field. It is split into two major parts
as the title prompts stylistics and pragmatics.
The first section (15 chapters) deals with three
main groups of issues: theoretical problems; the
expressive potential of the Albanian language
at all language system levels and functional
styles in modern Albanian. What is specific for
the Albanian language is that the stylistic elab-
oration of the language system has been con-
nected with the stage of its codification in a
standard language, because the literary norm is
the basic objective criteria for stylistic stratifi-
cation. The section on pragmatics views the
speech as act of personal expression and mech-
anism of communication. The common notions
are well-supplied with Albanian source mate-
rial, what makes the monograph a useful refer-
ence for in-depth studies.
Islamaj, Sh. Kultura gjuhsore dhe pr-
dorimi estetik i gjuhs. Tiran, Toena, 2002,
420 p. (The language culture and the esthetic
functions of the language)
Without tracking down the gender situa-
tion, we must mention that first-rate female
scholars are infrequent in Kosovo. Professor
Shefkie Islamaj from the Albanological Insti-
tute in Prishtina sets an admirable example of
how mother of four children may succeed in a
remarkable professional career. She is the au-
thor of the single study on synonyms in Albani-
an language
9
and co-author of the dictionary
of foreign words and expressions
10
, a valuable
tool available only in Kosovo due to the ideo-
logical restraints in Albania at the time.
The presented monograph comes to com-
plete the concepts of Albanian stylistics from
the indispensable angle of the language perspec-
tive in Kosovo. The period of standstill and
wanton destruction of Albanian culture in Ko-
sovo has gone, the dramatic war events are be-
hind and great hopes are awakened by the re-
sumed activities of the academic institutions.
The new but yet unspecified status of the former
province and the vast international presence at
all levels of public life evokes the necessity to
bring the language issues in the limelight.
The first chapter is entitled Standard lan-
guage as a great national treasure and fosters
the idea that language problems should rank
among the essential national issues. She points
out the necessity of conscious efforts to enhance
the standard language in Kosovo, where the
northern Gheg dialects are spoken, regardless
of some local short-sighted pros and cons.
Though there are technical imperfections of the
standard language, considered by many a
straightforward offspring of the southern Tosk
dialect, the unequivocal message of its exist-
ence and thriving one nation one language
9
Islamaj, Sh. shtje t sinonimeve n gjuhn
shqipe. Prishtin, 1985.
10
Fjalori i fjalve dhe i shprehjeve t huaja.
Prishtin, 1988.
149
has lost none of its vitality. Further some prob-
lems of the stylistic norm are outlined and a
picture of contemporary literature from the lan-
guage perspective is drawn. The second chap-
ter is dedicated to the classics of Albanian lit-
erature. It surveys some of the masterpieces
from the point of view of stylistics with em-
phasis on semantic enrichment of the language,
plus a cursory overview of the hues of style
coming in direct reflection of the reality. Chap-
ter three has collected short reviews of recently
published monographs in the field under the
motto The wisdom and the beauty of Albani-
an. Chapters four concentrates on some nota-
ble anniversaries, valuing the countrys cultur-
al traditions. Intellectual anxieties is a well cho-
sen title for the short fifth chapter, concerning
topical issues in the Albanian studies from the
position of intransigence towards scholarly na-
ivet, lingering and drawbacks. Some of the
chapters in the book are reprints of Sh. Islamajs
selected articles, which in view of the moment
constitute a powerful accumulation of avant-
garde ideas.
Islamaj, Sh. Gjuha e Jakov Xoxs. Prish-
tin, Koha, 2000. 420 p. (Jakov-Xoxas lan-
guage lexical-semantic and stylistic features)
The starting point for Shefkie Islamajs
monograph is the fact that the works of the lead-
ing writers in general give many opportunities
for linguistic analysis and are considered to be
a source of enrichment of the modern language.
That is valid especially for Albanian, which
compared to the other national languages of
Europe, does not enjoy a long literary tradition
(first recorded in 1555). The standard language
was shaped during the dictatorial period of En-
ver Hoxha and the creative sustenance it could
search for in literature was filtered through the
doctrinal fidelity surveillance. In a preface to
his anthology An Elusive eagle soars the out-
standing connoisseur and translator of Albani-
an literature Robert Elsie remarks that subjects
devoid of any redeeming educational value in
Marxist terms were considered alien and taboo.
That banned the stylistic horizon and only few
were the authors who could stand the trial of
individuality. Jakov Xoxa is one of them.
Though his works abide by the social and po-
litical messages required, the diversity of ex-
pression and the creative endeavors made him
representative of prose production. The lan-
guage was precisely the one that enabled Jakov
Xoxa to perform his poetical world and to dis-
tinguish among his generation. Prof. Sh. Islamaj
has chosen the language as goal of the study,
convinced that it presents a task of key scien-
tific interest. The monograph delivers observa-
tions and interpretations of essential for the
Albanian language facts. Xoxas literary work
was written in the standard literary language.
He firmly relied both on the standard language
and on the spoken folk language. According to
professor Xhevat Lloshi the average number of
words used in most distinguished novels of the
Albanian literature is approximately 5000-7000,
while only Xoxas novel Lumi i vdekur (The
dead river) is asserted to have included about
12000 lexical units, most of which are regis-
tered in the normative FGJSSH (Dictionary of
Modern Albanian Language, 1980). Xoxa gen-
erated not only quantity to the lexical stock, but
semantic enrichment, abundant phraseology and
idioms, compounds, synonyms, unique system
of figures. It is professor Islamajs merit to sum-
marize and bring to light the broad scope of lex-
ical and stylistic contributions of Jakov Xoxa
in a time when the standard language, urged by
global communications to change, needs to re-
cuperate its innate power and self-confidence.
The book is recommendable to everybody in-
terested both in Albanian language and litera-
ture, as well as in sociolinguistics.
Shamku-Shkreli, L. Procese t ndikimit
italian mbi shqipen. Rasti i emigracionit t
fundit shqiptar n Itali. Tiran, Njeriu, 1999.
120 p. (Processes of Italian influence on the
Albanian language. The case of the current
Albanian emigration to Italy)
One result of the opening of Albania has
been that, for the first time, talented young Al-
banians are being given a chance to study
abroad and to acquire specialized training and
the sound education which their people were
so long denied. One now finds Albanian stu-
dents doing masters and doctoral degrees in
New York, Boston, Moscow, Rome, Istanbul
and many other surprisingly exotic venues. A
laudable achievement of this generation of post-
graduate students is Ledi Shamkus monograph,
maybe the only scholarly research devoted to
sociolinguistics entirely reflecting the present
state of Albanian affairs. It is a pleasant sur-
prise, however, that this talented young scholar
150
now lives in Tirana. The reason which led her
to go into that topic is the obvious reality that
thousands of Albanian emigrants have settled
temporarily or on long term basis in Italy. But
whereas relevant conclusions have been drawn
concerning their life in general, the linguistic
part of it remains a missing entry. During her 7
year stay in Italy Ledi Shamku developed a se-
quence of questionnaires which aimed a sys-
tematic investigation of the bilingual Albanian
environment of more or less the same sojourn.
She has approached and linked new and old
themes with unprecedented easiness. The first
important point concerns the logical first glance
analogy between the current exodus and the
Albanian colonization in southern Italy dating
back to the waves of refugees in 15-17 centu-
ries after the collapse of Albanian resistance
and the death in 1468 of Scanderbeg. But if the
ancestors of the present Albanian emigrants fled
away to save and replant their ethnic identity,
whilst their dialects always tended to be more
conservative and archaic than the language in
the mother country itself, we do not witness the
same development now. The on-going emigra-
tion process attempts to remedy the agony of
the post-dictatorial state through dissociation
with the past. The first element who is subject-
ed to alternation is the language. Further Ledi
Shamku aptly asks the following questions:
Who speaks Albanian in Italy now? Who speaks
only Albanian? Who speaks Albanian and who
speaks Italian? The answers are evoked based
on the educational, intellectual and demograph-
ical indicators of the Albanian speakers and on
the factual state of their finances and family
perspective in the foreign country. Different
types of language code collisions are described
and explained. The aftermath is that what has
been established now in Italy is not a replica of
the medieval national diaspora, but an unfixed
and stirring network in constant migration to
and from Albania. The lexical shift towards Ital-
ian, combined with syntactical transformations,
according to the author, cannot be looked at as
a temporary fluctuation, but as a source of in-
fection. The study gives an ample proof that
though a recent phenomenon, this new type of
language contact by no means should stay ne-
glected by the scholars. Ledi Shamku made a
promising start as a sociolinguist manifesting
obvious talent within the patterns of modern
thinking.
Demiraj, Shaban. Gramatik historike
e gjuhs shqipe. Tirana, Akademia e shken-
cave, 2002. 512 p. (Historical grammar of the
Albanian language)
This new book is a shortened updated edi-
tion (18 chapters) of Shaban Demirajs work
with the same title that appeared in 1986. A
similar abbreviated edition entitled Historische
Grammatik der albanischen Sprache (kurze
Fassung) was published in 1993 by the Austri-
an Academy of Sciences. Therefore in the
present overview we shall not further dwell on
it. Those who are interested in the details may
refer to any of the just mentioned publications.
Both Albanian versions are provided with rather
long English summaries.
Demiraj, Shaban. Prejardhja e shqipta-
rve ne dritn e dshmive t gjuhs shqipe.
Tirana, Shtpia botuese Shkenca, 1999. 284
p. (The origin of Albanians in the light of the
Albanian language evidences)
Fathoming the genesis of a people is par-
ticularly difficult in the Balkans due to the lack
of sufficient linguistic records. Academic Sh.
Demiraj seeks to sort out the facts not juxta-
posing different languages, but investigating the
valid clues steeping in the language history it-
self. Though the exact strength of the autoch-
thon element in Albanian is difficult to ascer-
tain, the author revives the past masterfully and,
on the basis of the little material available, de-
lineates the plausible arguments and offers
seeming to be right and reasonable explanations
from a decidedly Albanian perspective.
The treatise consists of five chapters and
a comprehensive summary in English (40 p.)
Chapter I The indoeuropeization of the Balkans
(the ethnic linguistic situation of the Balkan
Peninsula in antiquity) briefly describes the sig-
nificant historic events that brought about the
actual ethnic linguistic situation in the Balkan
Peninsula. Chapter II The opinions expressed
so far about the origin of the Albanian people
lists the different hypothesis on that issue. The
author concludes that most of the arguments
presented by the upholders of the Thracian or
Daco-Mysian origin of the Albanians cannot
resist criticism. That doesnt mean, however,
that the opposite thesis, namely that the Alba-
nians are the offspring of South Illyrian tribes,
has already been proved. Therefore this prob-
lem is dealt with in Chapter III The homeland
of the ancestors of the Albanians in Antiquity
151
in the light of Albanian language evidences. The
intervocalic /-n-/ > /-r-/ change (rhotacism) and
the appearance of the stressed // which gener-
ally involved only inherited words and Ancient
Greek and Latin loanwords and only in the
southern dialect is considered a pre-Slavic phe-
nomenon. The spreading of Christian terminol-
ogy and of some ancient Christian names is dis-
played and the evolution of some ancient geo-
graphical and river names is analyzed. The au-
thors tenet is that the most ancient Christian
names as Pal < Paullus, Gjon < Joannes, Pjetr
< Petrus Gjergj < Georgius have been spread
over all Albanian-speaking regions partly be-
fore the dialectal division of Albanian. The
phonetic changes undergone by the ancient
Christian names are characteristic of the Latin
loanwords of Albanian and consequently, those
names should have penetrated among the fore-
fathers of Albanians in those regions, e.g. into
the pre-Albanian language. The same results for
the geographic names.
Chapter IV concerns the denomination of
the Albanians in the course of centuries. Chap-
ter V is called The Balkan forefathers of the
Albanians and the time of the formation of the
Albanian ethnos.
The opulence of linguistic hypothesis, rep-
resenting overriding national interests, shows
that the ethnic autochthony has been and will
remain a popular topic among Balkan scholars.
Osmani, T., S. Pepa. Tabu dhe eufemiz-
ma n gjuhn shqipe. Shkodr, Isufi, 2000. 170
p. (Taboo and euphemisms in the Albanian lan-
guage)
No doubt that the volume will attract the
attention of the albanologists, especially the
young generation. The Bulgarian students of
Balkan studies are genuinely fascinated by the
complex linguistic, folkloristic and ethno-psy-
chological information it depicts and interprets
in the light of the inveterate Albanian traditions
and beliefs. The authors are well-known schol-
ars from the Shkodra University. Simon Pepas
recent demise at a relatively young age was a
tragic loss for modern Albanian linguistics.
The monograph starts with a chapter de-
voted to the terms taboo and euphemism and
offers a review of the dispersed studies and facts
on the topic in the Albanian periodicals. Five
chapters follow, which reveal the fundamental
images and superstitions, excerpted from the
folklore: the wolf; the serpent; the weasel, the
illnesses, death, the weather and the mytholog-
ical figures. As elsewhere in the world they are
presented as a reflection of social values and as
participants in the constant struggle between
good and evil. Chapters 7-9 concentrate on the
linguistic structure of the euphemisms substi-
tuting the tabooed words, including overview
of their type (modifications, substitutions), pho-
netic peculiarities and alternations compared to
the standard and sub-standard words; structur-
al classification and semantic penetration. The
reader will benefit from a short dictionary and
comprehensive bibliography on the subject.
Topalli, K. Theksi n gjuh shqipe. Ti-
ran, Shtpia botuese enciklopedike, 1995. 530
p. (The accent in the Albanian language)
A number of distinguished linguists of the
previous and present centuries have been en-
gaged in many problems that the accent presents
in the Albanian language, starting with Hahn
and Miklosich, continuing with Meyer, Peder-
sen, Pekmezi, Meyer-Lbke, Jokl. Cimochow-
ski, Baric, currently Camaj, abej, Demiraj,
Bokshi etc. Despite the full involvement of these
linguists and others, a great deal of research
work remains to be done and many points must
be clarified and completed. The goal of the pre-
sented monograph is to study the peculiarities
of the dynamic accent of the Albanian language
and the most important phonetic phenomena,
that result from its action, such as the fixing of
the stress on one of the syllables of the stem,
the position of the accent in relation to the form-
ative parts of the word, cases of its movement,
the quantity of stressed vowels, the evolution
of the unstressed vowels, the changing of the
words in the sentence because of the syntacti-
cal accent etc. Formally the first part of the book
deals with the accent of the word and the sec-
ond one with the accent of the sentence and
particularly with the phonetic phenomena in
sandhi (changes of the words in the sentence as
a result of the unification processes in the re-
lated speech). The main field of study is the
historical phonetics, but it is also related to his-
torical morphology, syntax and etymology. Con-
sidered from another angle, the phenomena of
the dynamic accent in Albanian, are correlated
to common characteristics of languages of the
Balkan Peninsula, especially of Romanian.
Moreover, according to the author, the Illyrian
152
filiations should be traced. The working meth-
od is based on the historical analysis of the lin-
guistic material reconstruction its most ancient
phases on the basis of Albanian data and those
of other languages, which Albanian has been
confronted during its history.
From the same author in the field of his-
torical phonetics:
Topalli, K. Zhvilimi historik i diftongje-
ve t shqipes. Tiran, 1998 (The historic de-
velopment of the diphthongs in the Albanian
language)
Topalli, K. Sonantet e gjuhs shqipe. Ti-
ran, 2000 (The sonants in the Albanian lan-
guage)
Topalli, K. Shndrrime historike n sis-
temin zanor t gjuhs shqipe. Tiran, 2000
(Historic changes in the vocal system of Alba-
nian language)
Topalli, K. Mbylltoret e gjuhs shqipe.
Tiran, 2002 (The occlusives in the Albanian
language)
The author would be very pleased, if this
review would stimulate the interest of research-
ers in the field of Albanian and comparative
studies.
Russana BEYLERI
153
ACADMIE DES SCIENCES DE BULGARIE
INSTITUT DTUDES BALKANIQUES
TUDES BALKANIQUES, 2003, No 2
Tomor Osmanis most popular work is a
scholarly history tracking the evolution of the
Albanian graphics, which mirrors both his fas-
cination with great figures of the past and his
appurtenance to the Shkodra town intellectual
society, vying with Tirana for the first place
concerning the merits of the national cultural
legacy.
This monograph offers a thorough study
of the succession of various Albanian alpha-
bets from the very first written evidence in Al-
banian, the baptizing formulae (1462), to the
Monastery Congress (Bitola, 1908) when the
problem of the Albanian alphabet was finally
solved. The graphic system approved at that
summit is still in function. There are 36 pho-
nemes in modern Albanian. The seven vocals
are represented by simple symbols, while the
29 consonants are reflected in 20 simple char-
acters and 9 diagrams. But the Path of the let-
ters, as the literal translation of the title reads,
was long and diffuse. Some seventy-five known
alphabets of Albanian are methodically com-
pared and graphics-based conclusions concern-
ing the linguistic and historical situation are
drawn.
The first chapter deals with the written
Albanian during the period 13
th
-15
th
century and
with facts that prove that Albanian was a popu-
lar language. N. V. ufflay wrote in the Raguza
document of 1285: I heard a voice calling in
Albanian. Another proof is found in the work
of the French clergyman Guillaume entitled
Adam-Adae (1332) which reads in Latin: Licet
Albaneses aliam omnino linguam habeant et
diversam, tamen litteram latinam habent in uso
et in omnis suis libris. These and some other
pieces of information has lead the author to
think that written Albanian tradition had existed
long before it was officially discovered. The
author has analyzed in detail the first three docu-
ments in Albanian which were The Baptizing
formulae (1462), the Vocabulary of Arnold
Von Harff (1497) and The Bible of the 15
th
c.
Besides, an enigmatic writing found between
the lines of Bellifortis, a handwritten work in
Latin, is mentioned. If these lines could be tran-
scribed in Albanian, than this document would
be the oldest one available. The use of the Latin
alphabet in writing Albanian names in the 15
th
century Venice documents is described.
The second chapter deals with Albanian
writings belonging to the 17
th
and 18
th
centu-
ries. It was precisely in that period that the first
book in Albanian Mshari (The Missal) by Gjon
Buzuku was published. The most important
problem concerning this work has been its
graphics. The alphabet used is based on the
Latin one, although other foreign influences are
quite evident. Buzukus alphabet reflected the
phonetic structure of the Albanian language of
16
th
century. His work not only paved the way
for the writings to come, which made use of
almost the same alphabet, but is considered an
indirect proof of ancestral literary tradition of
written Albanian. The oldest Arberesh (Italian-
Notices bibliographiques
Osmani, Tomor. Udha e shkronjava. Shkodr, Idromeno, 1999. 576 p. (The History of the
Albanian Alphabet)
154
Albanian) writer Luca Matranga (Lek Matrn-
g) is the first one to distinguish the Albanian
sound , denoted by him with the graphic com-
bination ae in E mpsuame e krshter (The
Christian doctrine). Pjeter Budi used a simpler
version of the Latin Alphabet than the Buzukus
one. He omitted two letters and changed some
others. Frang Bardhi, the first Albanian lexi-
cographer with his Dictionarium lation-
epiroticum (Latin-Albanian dictionary) pub-
lished in Rome in 1635 based this and other
works on Budis alphabet. Next Peter Bogdani
introduced three Greek letters, which he ex-
plained as indispensable for the complete pres-
entation of all the Albanian phonemes. His al-
phabet was well-received by his successors. The
written documents from 18
th
century, though
small in number, witness according to the au-
thor, that the system of writing in Albanian was
being consolidated.
The third chapter examines the attempts
of Teodor Haxhifilipi (Dhaskal Todri), Koste
Beratasi and Jani Vellarai at the beginning of
the 19
th
century to create original Albanian al-
phabets. These alphabets could hardly reach the
common people for material and technical rea-
sons despite the endeavors to make them wide-
spread. Another reason was that some of them
lacked of scientific conciseness and also prac-
ticality. Further attempts were made by N.
Veqilharxhi (1844) and Hasan Tahsini (1874).
The alphabets used and created in 19
th
century
highly depended on the geographical region the
writers or authors belonged to. So a new trend,
that was writing in Albanian by employing the
Greek Alphabet, appeared too, represented by
Vangjel Meksi and Marko Boari. The Islamic
influence that prevailed in Kosovo and Monas-
tery regions and also in the plains of Berat,
Elbasan and Shkodra led to alphabetical ver-
sions using the means of the Arabic-Turkish
alphabet. The author stresses that its beyond
doubts that the authors using such alphabets
were led by patriotic ideals (Nezim Frakulla,
Hasan Zyko Kamberi, Myslym Hoxha, Ali
Ulqinaku, Daut Borii etc.), but that was not in
compliance with the Albanian national aspira-
tions.
The forth chapter is dedicated to the writ-
ten Albanian in the Arbresh environment in
Italy during the period 17
th
-19
th
century. The
diversity of writing systems adapted in differ-
ent regions is presented. The Arbresh writers
in Sicily used Greek alphabet variants, while
those coming from Calabria used the Latin one.
The fifth chapter is the most important
from the point of view of unification of the al-
phabetic system during 1831-1881. The input
of Naum Veqilharxhi, Konstantin Kristoforidhi,
Pashko Vasa, Jani Vreto, Sami Frasheri, Jani
Vaja dhe Zef Jubani is highlighted. A rather
detailed description of the endeavors to com-
pile the Stambolli alphabet (Istanbul) is pro-
vided. This alphabet was approved by the
Stambolli Association on October 12
th
, 1879.
Sami Frasheri, Vaso Pasha, Hasan Tahsini and
Jani Vreto are recognized as the main authors
of this alphabet. Its appropriate to add here that
the Sofia based Albanian immigrants and press
used this alphabet for their publications before
the united alphabet was adopted.
The sixth chapter outlines the activities of
the Bashkimi (The Unification) association,
founded in 1899 by Preng Dochi, Gjergj Fishta,
Ndoc Nikaj and others. Certain data concern-
ing the alphabet compiled by that society are
exhibited. Next the Agimi association alpha-
bet directed by Ndre Mjeda is analyzed. An
important place has been given to the Albanian
press of that time. The author has distinguished
the following newspapers: Shqitari (The Alba-
nian) of Bucharest (1888-1903), Albania of Faik
Konica (1897-1899), Besa (The Oath) (1904-
1905), Pellazgu (The Pelasgian) (1905), Kombi
(The Nation) (1906-1908). The contribution of
the foreign linguists dealing with the Albanian
alphabet is revealed in this chapter too.
The last chapter dwells on the climax of
attempts to compile a unique alphabet and
namely the Monastery Congress which was or-
ganized from 14
th
to 22
nd
November, 1908. The
social conditions that led to the calling of this
league are explained. The names of the thirty-
two delegates of the Congress are given. Mithad
Frasheri was elected chairman of this congress.
The commission in charge of compiling the al-
phabet set about its task on November 17
th
,
headed by Gjergj Fishta. The discussions con-
verged in one point: The alphabet had to be a
new one based on Latin letters.
The work ends with a chronological list
of related to the topic events and a rudimentary
bibliography. The volume provides a wealth of
useful material on Albanian and should prove
to be of great service to the interested public at
large.
Russana BEYLERI
155
Let us recall that imagology, or the inter-
disciplinary academic field that studies the im-
age of the other, was born in the 20
th
century.
In a number of European countries, Bulgaria
included, scholars began to study how history
was represented in literature and what influence
it had on the young generation through the sys-
tem of education. The term stereotype, in its
meaning as the concept a given community had
of another, was also launched in the 1920s.
Analysis of how a people regard the ap-
proximate, the neighbouring in terms of terri-
tory and fate, determines the attitudes of the so-
ciety in question. European academic literature
traditionally discusses the Greeks, both in an-
tiquity and in later periods. It was through
imagology that Europe contributed significantly
to their national revival. With the Greeks them-
selves things stand in quite a different way, now
that they have the confidence of bearers of an
important civilisation and the way in which they
regard their neighbours on the Balkans. While
Europe of the Enlightenment lent a new mean-
ing to the relation civilisation-barbarism, refer-
ring it to human reason and lack or desire for
progress, the Greeks of the 20
th
century re-
mained true to its traditional meaning, shaped
as early as the ancient Hellenes.
Over the centuries there were many an en-
counter between Bulgarians and Greeks, Greeks
and Serbs as well as between the other Balkan
peoples, but was only in recent years that spe-
cial studies were dedicated to the way the indi-
vidual Balkan peoples mirror each other or how
each one of them regards the other. It is in this
direction that the study of Sanya Velkova, The
Slav Neighbour and the Greek National Self
Image 1912-1941, makes a significant contri-
bution, particularly because this is a monograph
dedicated entirely to neighbourly stereotypes.
This author has worked in cooperation with the
Greek Research Centre for Textbook and In-
tercultural Studies at the University of
Thessaloniki within the framework of European
projects and has abundant experience in the
above-mentioned field. Her excellent command
of the modern Greek language is also very im-
portant. Thanks to that she has succeeded to
comprehend the analysed texts to perfection.
The book consists of an introduction, three
chapters, a conclusion, a supplement and a bib-
liography, or a total of 190 p.
The theme is developed along the lines of
a historic-problematic aspect. The Balkan Wars
and World War I were doubtless of great im-
portance for the further development of the
Balkans and Europe. That was a time full of
wars and crises, a time that determined the atti-
tude of contemporary Greeks towards their
neighbours, a time whose reverberations could
also be felt in later years. Interest in the prob-
lems concretely related to the concept of the
neighbour is provoked by the understanding of
the involvement of Greek and Bulgarian his-
tory in the context of all-Balkan development.
The choice of the period from 1912-1922 to
World War II was conditioned by its special
place in the political and above all cultural
life of Greece after World War I.
Regardless of the wide range of recent
studies dedicated to national identities, Sanya
Velkovas monograph opens a new page in
Balkan imagology because of the fact that this
is the first study of a Bulgarian author, which
treats the problem of the Greeks and the others
on the basis of modern Greek prose. The fact
that the source base a large number of propa-
ganda brochures, travelogues and fiction is
inaccessible in Bulgarian libraries is also im-
portant. This makes the book a valuable refer-
ence for all engaged in studying the problems
of Balkan mentality, image system and stereo-
types, as well as with inter-Balkan cultural and
political relations.
Above all, Ms Velkovas work reveals the
literary reflections of historical imagology and
construes the Greek idea of the Slav neighbour,
conditioned by the specific circumstances in the
socio-economic, political and intellectual life
in Greece. In her own words, it is the authors
objective is to situate and analyse the image of
the Slav neighbour during a dramatic period in
the history of the Balkan countries by present-
ing the Greek point of view, i.e. the Greeks about
the others. This angle has its advantages since
scholars who do not belong to the respective
culture have a sharper sense and are free of the
time of stereotypes, which usually influence the
Beuroea, Caua. ~Cnanuncxnu1 cce n rpnxnu1 nannonanen ~opas A3 1912-1941r.
Co]nx, Xepon npec, 2002. 190 c.
156
analysis of members of the same nationality.
This peculiarity of the foreign view of a scholar
clearly surfaces in the text with all its positive
traits.
The image of the Slav neighbour cannot
be constructed without a detailed analysis of
the problem of the auto-stereotype, or the na-
tional self image. That is why the author had
good reason to dedicate the first chapters to it.
The self-confidence of the Greeks as a
centre of European civilisation and the world
has its explanation and roots far before the 20
th
century. The monograph makes a detailed cul-
tural and historical analysis of the spectre of
ideas that formed Hellenism after the 18
th
cen-
tury and its application in society, including in
the educational system. With Sanya Velkova, it
is comparable to the neighbouring Slav or
Christian peoples like Bulgarians, Serbs or
Croats The mutual relation between the two
images we and they runs along as the
main line of the book and has the objective of
complementing and explaining both images.
Ethnocentrism, a characteristic feature of
Balkan peoples and whose objectives were dif-
ferent conditioned the exacerbation of a nega-
tive attitude to the neighbour. The popular
soul of the Greeks, along with their language,
is an expression of the unity of Hellenic and
Byzantine, i.e. this is the national Ego. With
good reason the author regards historical think-
ing back in time as a pillar of Greek modernity
in which the civilizing role of modern Greeks
is concentrated.
Denizens of the Balkans for centuries, the
Greeks regard themselves as different from all
the rest. That is why their perception of neigh-
bours is loaded with negative characteristics.
For example, the cunning and dishonest Bul-
garian is opposed to the civilized Greek and
the invented Pan-Slavism of the Bulgarians
instinctively fights Hellenism (N. Kazasis).
The Serb proclivity balkanisation and the lack
of spiritual links between Serbs and Croats im-
press the Greek traveller (J. Sophianopoulos).
Serb emotionality contrasts with the devoid
of feelings Bulgarian. Generally speaking, the
classical barbarism, which most frequently
pertains to Bulgarians and more rarely to Serbs,
or the Oriental disorder outside the Greek en-
vironment is associated with a threat to Helle-
nism. The characteristics earthly and ill-in-
tentioned related to Bulgarians is indicative
of the attitude to them, while their precise and
adequate translation contributes to the substan-
tiation of the old and constant notion of bar-
barism. The author has outlined the image of
the Slav neighbour which, albeit with stable and
largely stereotypical features, is not uniform:
the separate images of Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats
and Slovenians were complemented with time,
which necessitated a return to their historical
roots. The subject itself inevitably necessitated
the inclusion of the perception of the Slav in
the more general perception of the other. The
stereotypical judgements and implications pass
from the purely historical works through popu-
lar historical studies, propaganda political lit-
erature and works of fiction only to preserve to
a considerable degree their stability and to un-
dergo insignificant changes due to temporary
ad hoc changes.
In the time of the National Revival his-
tory was regarded as instructive, as giving con-
fidence about the future. Today, when we turn
back in time, we should regard history as a
source of knowledge, as a past, which is con-
nected with the present. We sometimes perceive
this past painfully but let us regard it as some-
thing given and, looking on the image of the
other, let us look with hope ahead, turning our
back to the myths and delusions about ourselves.
In her book Sanya Velkova makes an optimis-
tic and hopeful conclusion about a real and
united cultural space on the Balkans.
I shall take the liberty of concluding with
the words of the French philosopher Gaston
Berger, which are quite indicative of such a type
of research: To open oneself to foreign cul-
ture does not mean to belittle ones own per-
sonality quite the opposite, it means to reno-
vate by trying oneself. What we hope for is not
a multiplication of our ideas or approaches, it
is a type of spiritual shock. The influence of a
culture on a foreigner is first and foremost a
stimulus. Isnt mutual penetration real that of
two cultures, of two presences, of two na-
tions?
It is my sincere hope that the interesting
and absorbing well-written book of Sanya
Velkova will be very helpful not only to the
academic community and students, but also to
a larger audience beyond the Balkan space of
the 21
st
century.
Raia ZAIMOVA
157
The monograph of Prof. Iannis Yannou-
lopoulos is dedicated to the national interests
of Greece and the countrys foreign policy in
the period from the defeat in the Graeco-Turk-
ish War of 1897 to the catastrophe in Asia Mi-
nor. The book seeks the peculiarities in the de-
velopment of Greek society at the end of the
19
th
and the beginning of the 20
th
century. It also
discusses a wide range of problems related to
the concrete diplomatic initiative and foreign
policy actions of the Greek governments. In
addition, there is an analysis of the reasons,
whereby national interests became an issue
of prime importance in Greek foreign and home
affairs.
Prof. Yannoulopoulos is a history gradu-
ate of the University of Athens. After he de-
fended his doctors thesis The Conference of
Lausanne 1922-1923 at London University he
worked as a research fellow at Birkbeck Col-
lege and Kings College in London. In 1979 he
began teaching 19
th
and 20
th
century history, first
at the University of Crete and now at the Pan-
dio University in Athens. Other recent publica-
tions of his include The Post-war World: Greek
and European History (1995) and, together with
other authors, History of Greece in the 20
th
Cen-
tury (1999).
The book we are discussing was complet-
ed as a monograph in 1998 and the fact that
this is its third edition is indicative of the great
interest it attracts. The interest is due to both
the presentation of events on the basis of ex-
ceptionally bountiful source material and the
original approach to them. The monograph uses
a large number of hitherto unpublished Greek
and British archival sources, personal collec-
tions, published Greek, British, American, Rus-
sian, French and Italian diplomatic and other
documents. The publications in the periodicals
of the period and the recollections (both Greek
and foreign) of participants in the events lend
vivacity and variety to the study. The fact that
documentary film material has been used makes
the publication particularly interesting. In ad-
dition, the usage of a plentiful and varied bibli-
ography (including Bulgarian) has allowed the
author to avoid a one-sided stand in discussing
such a complex and controversial issue as the
national one.
The title of the book has been borrowed
from an article of the newspaper (Bu-
gle) of June 14, 1897, which blamed Europe
for failing to intervene in order to prevent the
Graeco-Turkish War although it was aware what
the Greeks would do in their noble blindness.
The study itself is divided into two parts. The
first consists of two chapters: Ethniki Hetairia
and the War of 1897 and Political Dimensions
of the Graeco-Turkish War, which discuss the
conditions that led to the Graeco-Turkish con-
flict of 1897 and its reverberations in Greece
and in Europe. The second part of the book,
Greek Foreign Policy from the Loss in 1897 to
the Catastrophe of 1922, seeks the place of
Greece in the system of international relations
in the beginning of the 20
th
century. As the au-
thor himself has noted in the introduction, the
parts of which the book consists were written
on different occasions and at different times,
the common feature they share being the fact
that they discuss the peculiarity of national
interests in Greece. In spite of this peculiarity,
the monograph of Prof. Yanoulopoulos follows
the processes in Greek society at the end of the
19th and the first quarter of the 20
th
century.
The first chapter treats the establishment,
structure, activity and character of Ethniki Het-
airia. The author sees the germination of the
tendency, which led to the tragic for Greece war
of 1897, in the August 20, 1894 pogrom of the
office of the Acropolis newspaper by junior of-
ficers and particularly in their acquittal by the
court martial in the subsequent trial. Readers
are presented with a picture of the then exist-
ing Greek reality, severely criticised by the fa-
natic innovator and editor of the Acropolis,
Vlassis Gavrilidis. Prof. Yanoulopoulos has
used materials published in the press and the
documents from the trial of the officers to prove
that the justified criticism outraged the military
and occasioned their interference in political
life. Their act was vindicated by the opposition
which, but supporting them, simply opened yet
another front against the government (p. 23).
A precedent was created where, in the name of
Iiovvooonooo, Iivvq N. ~H cvycvq o xoot. Eoxcptkq notxtkq kot
~c0vtk 0coxo on xqv qxxo xov 1897 c xq Mtkpootoxtkq koxooxpoq. A0qvo, Eko.
Biiopoo, 2001. 382 o.
158
national interests elevated to the level of su-
preme objective, a part of society terrorised
another, a smaller one but one sufficiently nu-
merous and rational nevertheless. Prof. Yanou-
lopoulos has come to the conclusion that in
Greece national interests are not simply prob-
lems of foreign policy and defence, but are
home policy issues, directly related to the tak-
ing or preservation of power (p. 56). It is ex-
actly with the involvement of the military with
national interests that he explains the birth
and establishment of a specifically Balkan,
Greek nationalism, which is characterised by
quotation of historical rights, verbosity, dis-
crepancy between words and deeds and a com-
plete lack of professionalism (p. 55). The prob-
lem is one of society, which stimulated the irre-
sponsibility of that nationalism with its conde-
scension. From this position the author criticis-
es as untenable the theories that the foreign
plot against Greece and the noble blindness
of the nation led to the defeat in 1897.
In spite of the objective difficulties for the
scholar, related to the clandestine character of
Ethniki Hetairia and the gaps in the source
material, the author has made a precise com-
parison of the existing information to arrive to
the following main conclusions on the struc-
ture and character of the organisation: 1. Eth-
niki Hetairia was established as and through the
entire period of its existence remained a mili-
tary organisation in which civilians had a sec-
ondary role, the membership increasing gradu-
ally and under control, with the exception of
the last months before the war (p. 47); 2. The
almighty clandestine organisation is against
the policy of concession, which is not aimed at
the military forces and, although it aim at a war
with the Ottoman Empire, it practically brought
the country to it (pp. 75-80); 3. Anti-Slavism
was the priority of the society. According to
Prof. Yanoulopoulos, the programmatic anti-
Bulgarian slogans remained without practical
consequences and was directly related to the
schism and the Eastern Crisis of 1875-1878
rather than with Bulgarian-Greek relations in
that period. In his opinion, as a trend in Greek
society the sense of a Slavonic danger was nei-
ther dominant nor powerful until the end of the
1890s, which makes the demonstration of the
societys anti-Slavonic objectives before Euro-
pean public opinion absolutely incomprehen-
sible, frankly detrimental (p. 65).
The beginning of the second chapter notes
the changes in the international situation in the
1890s and their reflection in Greece. The au-
thor has deviated somewhat from the main line
of the book in the second section of this chap-
ter, making a review of the attitude of the Euro-
pean left to the Graeco-Turkish War. There are
analyses of the attitude towards the conflict of
the Second International, of the anarchists as
well as of the various parties in Britain. Further
on, the author dwells on the Cretan issue, with
a short review of the basic stages of its devel-
opment, the situation on the island and the atti-
tude of the Greek governments to the problems
and the national liberation movement. Prof.
Yannoulopoulos proves that the political circles
in Greece used the national question for nar-
row partisan objectives and were guided not by
programme differences but by a desire for pow-
er. This allowed Ethniki Hetairia to claim it was
the only leader of the nation and to become a
powerful political factor (p. 155). There is a
detailed review of the objectives and actions of
all participants in the events: the government,
the king, the opposition, Ethniki Hetairia, the
church, the press, as well as the opportunities
for another solution of the problem. The chap-
ter ends with the various opinions of the inter-
ested parties, the reasons and who was to blame
for the defeat in 1897.
The second part of the book lays the stress
on the place and role of Greece in the regional
and international conflicts that shook the world
in the beginning of the 20
th
century. The author
analyses the opportunities before Greek foreign
policy, its armed intervention in the Macedoni-
an issue and the reasons, which led to its isola-
tion from both the European powers and the
other Balkan states. Prof. Yannoulopoulos has
underscored that only the threat of the central-
ising policy of the Young Turks shifted to the
back the contradictions between Greeks, Bul-
garians and Serbs on the Macedonian issue and
led to the establishment of the Balkan alliance.
Then there is a brief review of the basic facts
of the Balkan Wars and the peace talks, with
which they ended. It is even in these events that
Prof. Yannoulopoulos sees the roots of the di-
vision of Greek society with its particularly
powerful expression in the years of World War
I. According to him, the main reason for that
was the incompatibility of the enlightened
policy of Venizelos and the conservative and
159
frankly reactionary policy of the king (p. 225).
The author dwells on the absurd situation in
Greece in the first years of the war against the
backdrop of the raging conflict in the world.
He underscores the unquestionable diplomatic
skills of E. Venizelos thanks to which he nearly
realised the Megali idea with the signing of the
peace Treaty of Svres. It is an asset of the work
that it does not remain silent about the pogroms
in Smyrna after it was taken by the Greek army.
The events that led to the defeat of the Greek
army by Mustafa Kemal are discussed with pre-
cision and a comprehensive knowledge of in-
ternational relations. There is also a review of
the relation between the internal political cata-
clysms suffered by Greece, its military actions
and the concrete interests of Entente powers.
The author has underscored the military and
diplomatic dead-end of the country after the
retirement of Venizelos, the only Greek poli-
tician with the necessary realism, authority and
political prowess to countervail the shameless
and free national speculation. (p. 277) there is
a detailed analysis of the various diplomatic
initiatives and opportunities to get out of the
impasse. The book ends with the Treaty of
Lausanne, which according to Prof. Yanoulo-
poulos, was not merely a honorary peace for
Greece, but the best possible one.
The book of Prof. Yannoulopoulos, Our
Noble Blindness Foreign Policy and Na-
tional Interests from the Defeat in 1897 to the
Asia Minor Catastrophe is a valuable piece of
academic work, written with a great familiarity
with Greek political reality and the mechanisms
of international relations. One cannot but no-
tice the authors vigorous language full of im-
agery in contrast with the usual dry and severe
style of academic work. Stepping on bountiful
and hitherto unused source material, this au-
thor has had the courage to state painful histor-
ical truths and to personify political trends. The
broadminded views and the fact that he has
managed to break through stereotypes when
dealing with national problems make the work
of Prof. Yannoulopoulos and unquestioned con-
tribution to both Greek and all-Balkan histori-
cal research.
Yura KONSTANTINOVA
Im Jahre 1984 entdeckte Prof. Virgil Cn-
dea in der Houghton Library, Harvard Univer-
sity, Cambridge, Mass. die Handschrift Lat-124
das lateinisch geschriebene Original der Ge-
schichte des Osmanischen Reichs vom weitbe-
rhmten Staatsmann und Gelehrten, dem Frs-
ten von Moldau Dimitrie Cantemir (1673-
1723). Das Ereignis wurde als die aufregends-
te Entdeckung des 20. Jh. im Gebiet der rum-
nischen Literatur bezeichnet. Bis dann war nur
die lckenhafte, von Gottlieb Siegfrid Bayer vor
1732 angefertigte Abschrift der Incrementa et
decrementa bekannt, die im Institut fr Orien-
talistik in St. Peterburg aufbewahrt wurde. So
war die wissenschaftliche Publikation des Tex-
tes erst jetzt mglich. 1999 erschien in Buka-
rest, beim Verlag Roza Vnturilor zuerst eine
facsimile-Edition der neuentdeckten Hand-
schrift, die als Grundlage fr das zuknftige
Erschlieen des Textes und fr die Vorberei-
tung einer kritischen Edition dienen sollte. Der
Band enthlt eine umfassende Einfhrung in die
Geschichte des Werks und der HandschriIt, auI
Rumnisch und auI Englisch von ProI. Cndea
verIat. Zwei Jahre spter erschien in Timisoara
auch die editio princeps der Incrementorum et
decrementorum aulae othmannicae libri tres,
die von Prof. Dan Slusanschi vorbereitet und
mit einem Vorwort von Prof. Virgil Cndea ver-
sehen wurde.
Die Wichtigkeit einer ersten kritischen
Edition des bisher nicht bekannten lateinischen
Originals ist offensichtlich. Dimitrie Cantemir
schrieb Incrementorum et decrementorum au-
lae othmannicae libri tres in der Zeit, als die
Frage ber die Nachfolger des osmanischen
Demetrii Principis Cantemirii Incrementorum et decrementorum aulae othmannicae
sive aliothmannicae historiae a prima gentis origine ad nostra usque tempora
deductae libri tres. Ed. Dan Slusanschi. Editura Amarcord, Timisoara, 2001
160
Reichs, die s.gen. Ostfrage, eine Prioritt in den
diplomatischen Agenda war. Cantemir selbst,
wie bekannt, bemhte sich in Konstantinopel
um die Befreiung der Moldau aus osmanischer
Herrschaft. Nach der Niederlage im russisch-
trkischen Krieg 1711 sollte er in Exil nach
Ruland gehen. 1714 wurde Dimitrie Cantemir
wegen seines Weltruhms als Orientalist zum
Mitglied der Akademie der Wissenschaften in
Berlin gewhlt. Eben zu dieser Zeit schlo er
die Arbeit an seiner magebenden Geschichte
des osmanischen Reichs ab. Nach der Feststel-
lung von Prof. Andrei Pippidi (1981) ist die
Geschichte des osmanischen Reichs ursprng-
lich auf Griechisch in Konstantinopel zwischen
1706 und 1710 geschrieben. Sie ist nach 1714,
whrend Cantemirs Exiljahre in Ruland be-
endet und vom Autor ins Lateinische bersetzt,
wobei Cantemir seine Notizen direkt auf La-
tein zu redigieren begann.
Bis zum Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts fh-
ren die Grundvorstellungen des Westens ber
den osmanischen Reich, seine Kultur und sei-
ne Institutionen zu Cantemirs Werk zurck.
Geschichte des osmanischen Reichs bezeich-
nete einen neuen Entwicklungsstand in der eu-
ropischen Historiographie, die sich mit der
Vergangenheit des trkischen Volkes befate.
Cantemir hatte den entscheidenden Vorteil sein
halbes Leben in Konstantinopel verbracht zu
haben und die hiesigen Gebruche und Institu-
tionen aus eigenen Beobachtungen zu kennen.
Die historische Erzhlung, die auf bis dann
unbeachtete osmanische Quellen sttzt, ist von
Cantemirs Aufzeichnungen und Kommentaren
begleitet, die als Zeugnis ber politische Ereig-
nisse, Kultur und soziale Realitt einen un-
schtzbaren Wert haben. Nach Panaitescu
(1958) sind die Annotationes sogar als der ein-
zige originelle Teil im gesamten Werk zu be-
trachten. Dabei betrgt die Geschichte in Cant-
emirs Handschrift auf 579 Seiten und die An-
notationes, die kenntnisreicher und sorgfltiger
geschrieben wirken auf 485 Seiten.
Die Herausgabe der Geschichte des osma-
nischen Reichs nach seinem Anwachse und
Abnehmen von seiner Entstehung bis auf die
neuesten Zeiten geht ber mehrere Phasen
durch. Die englische Edition, wie bekannt,
wurde in London vom Pastor Nicholas Tindal
unter dem Titel The History of the Growth and
Decay of the Othman Empire verffentlicht. Sie
erschien in zwei zusammengebundenen Bnde
(vol. I, 1734, xvi + 4 + 460 pp. und vol. II, 1735,
273 pp.) und enthielt 22 Portrte der trkischen
Sultane, einen Stadtplan von Konstantinopel
und Cantemirs Biographie, von seinem Sohn
Antioch verfat. Alle folgende Herausgaben
die franzsische Version von Mons. de Jonc-
quires (Paris, 1743), die deutsche von Johann
Lothar Schmidt (Hamburg, 1745) etc. hatten
keinen Zugang zum lateinischen Original und
folgten der englischen bersetzung von Tin-
dal. Auch das Excerptum ex operibus latinis,
das in Iasi vom Gheorghe Asachi 1833 verI-
Ientlicht wurde, war kein Exzerpt aus der ori-
ginellen HandschriIt, sondern eine lateinische
Rckbersetzung aus der Iranzsischen oder
aus der deutschen Version.
Hieraus ergibt sich, da Incrementa atque
decrementa aulae othmannicae, die in mehre-
re Sprachen bersetzt wurde und die ein stn-
diges Forschungsinteresse an sich gezogen hat,
bis 1999 nie in Original oder in einer vollstn-
digen bersetzung herausgegeben worden ist.
Hierfr hat der freie Zugang zur Handschrift
gefehlt. Andererseits bot die unvollstndige und
ziemlich freie Verarbeitung von Tindal keine
sichere Grundlage fr weitere Editionen. So
blieb die originelle Handschrift fast 250 Jahre
unbekannt.
Prof. Virgil Cndea in seinem Vorwort zur
facsimile-Edition von 1999, bietet eine detail-
lierte bersicht ber die Wanderungen der
Handschrift. Nach seiner Rekonstruktion ver-
kaufte Prinz Antioch die Handschrift dem Pfar-
rer Nicholas Tindal, der sie seinerseits dem
Count Friedrich von Thoms, einem deutschen
Diplomaten im englischen Hof weiterverkauf-
te. Nach seinem Tode im Jahre 1749 wurde die
Handschrift zusammen mit der ganzen Biblio-
thek von Count Thoms versteigert. Im Katalog
der Auktion ist sie folgenderweise bezeichnet:
Demetrii Cantemirii Incrementa et Decremen-
ta, ab Auctore ex Manuscriptis Magni Sultani
Bibliothecae, quae in Seraglia servatur, excerp-
tum et a Cantemiro suo Secretario dictatum,
manu Principis correctum, qui et ipse margi-
nalia adscripsit. Das Schicksal der Handschrift
in der Zeitspanne 1749 (die Auktion in Leiden)
1901 konnte aus dem Verlust der im Ersten
Wetkrieg verschollenen Quellen nicht geklrt
werden. 1901 tauchte sie im Antiquariat Otto
Harrassowitz in Leipzig auf, das sie der Har-
vard University, Cambridge, Massachusets
weiterverkaufte. Das Vorhandensein der Hand-
161
schrift Lat-124 in der Harvard University Li-
brary blieb mehrere Jahrzehnte unbemerkt. Wie
Prof. Cndea schreibt, im Jahre 1955 merkte
die Postgraduierte J. W. Nelson das Manuskript
in der Houghton Library, selber aber bentzte
die englische bersetzung von Tindal in ihrer
Arbeit. Prof. Cndea, der lange Zeit nach Cant-
emirs Handschrift gesucht hatte, bietet zwei
Erklrungen ber die spte Entdeckung des
Originals:
1. Die Bibliotheken der Harvard Univer-
sity sind nicht am National Union Catalog of
Manuscript Collections beteiligt, dafr aber
schickten sie ihre Karteikarten dem National
Union Catalog. Pre 1956 Imprints.
2. Fast alle Forscher suchten nach Spuren
von Cantemirs Handschrift in den russischen
Bibliotheken und Archiven und nicht in den
westlichen ffentlichen und privaten Sammlun-
gen. Der Grund war eine irrefhrende Angabe
von F. G. Mller gewesen, derzufolge alle
Handschriften, die Antioch Cantemir nach Lon-
don mitgebracht hatte, nach seinem Tode an-
geblich nach Ruland zurckgeschickt worden
seien.
Die Handschrift ist paginiert und foliiert
zugleich. Sie enthlt: Praefatio (p. 1-49), In-
crementa (Lib. I-II, p. 1-246), wobei der ur-
sprngliche Titel gestrichen und in von einer
anderen Hand gendert ist, Decrementa (Lib.
III, p. 247-530), Annotationes ad Lib. I-II, (p.
1-279), Annotationes ad lib. III (p. 1-206) und
am Schlu La vie du prince Dmtrius Cant-
emir (fol. 1
v
-18
v
), die schon 1986 verffent-
licht wurde und aus technischen Grnden in der
facsimile-Edition 1999 und in der kritischen
Ausgabe 2001 nicht reproduziert wurde.
Insgesamt enthlt das lateinische Original 1064
Seiten.
Es handelt sich um eine Abschrift des
Autorenentwurfs, wobei zwei Kopistenhnde
zu unterscheiden sind: ein Kopist hat den Text
von p. 1 bis p. 579, d.h. die Incrementa und die
Decrementa abgeschrieben und ein anderer
die Annotationes. Cantemir hat die ganze Ab-
schrift persnlich revidiert und die fr den ara-
bischen Ductus wie auch fr die Paragraphen-
titel leer gelassenen Lcken ausgefllt. Aus die-
sem Grund darf das vorliegende Manuskript als
ein abgeschlossenes Werk betrachtet werden.
Die kritische Ausgabe der Incrementorum
et decrementorum aulae othmannicae libri tres
ist im Jahre 2001 vom Prof. Dan Slusanchi vor-
bereitet und in der Reihe Dimitrie Cantemir.
Opere complete vom Verlag der Rumnischen
Akademie der WissenschaIten in Timisoara
verIIentlicht. Der Vergleich des lateinischen
Originals mit der englischen bersetzung aus
1734-1735 zeigt, da Tindal und entsprechend
alle spteren Ausgaben, die auf ihn sttzen, nur
eine gekrzte Version der Geschichte darstel-
len. Tindal hat ganze Passagen ausgelassen,
eigenmchtige Vernderungen hineingetragen
und die Zitate auf Arabisch nicht wiedergege-
ben. Tindals Trennung einer Sektion in 4 Teile
widerspricht schon dem Titel. Andererseits zer-
stckelt er die Annotationes, die im Original
eine Einheit bilden, und versetzt sie am Ende
jedes einzelnen Kapitels. Alle diese Nachteile
sind jetzt mit der kritischen Ausgabe des Ori-
ginals wiedergutgemacht.
Die gesonderte Paginierung jedes Teils im
Original wurde in der kritischen Ausgabe von
Prof. Slusanschi vereinheitlicht, so da die Zh-
lung von S. 13 bis S. 524 durchgngig luft. Im
Cantemirs Text stehen die Anmerkungen und
Kommentare vor dem Wort, das errtert wird,
und in der kritischen Edition sind sie nachge-
stellt. Die Reihenfolge ist meistens die folgen-
de: 1) die lateinische Transkription; 2) der Be-
griff im ductus Arabicus; 3) die lateinische
bersetzung; 4) der eigentliche Kommentar.
Am Ende der kritischen Ausgabe steht ein al-
phabetischer Index Cantemirii annotationum (p.
525-546), wo neben der lateinischen Transkrip-
tion des arabischen Wortes eine bersetzung
(wenn ntig), ein Hinweis auf das Buch und
das Kapitel, worauf sich die Bemerkung be-
zieht, der Buchstabe, mit dem sie bezeichnet
wurde und ihre Seite in den Annotationes ste-
hen. Die Anmerkungen werden durch die Buch-
staben des lateinischen und des griechischen
Alphabets zuerst einfach und dann verdop-
pelt gezhlt. Prof. Slusanschi hat berall, wo
es notwendig war, das summarium paragrapho-
rum aus den Marginalien abgeleitet, z. B. in I,
3 und II, 1. Alle Eigennamen und Toponymen
sind in Fettschrift gegeben.
Die Geschichte von Dimitrie Cantemir
zeigt einige sprachliche und orthographische
Eigenschaften, die charakteristisch fr das spt-
humanistische Latein sind.
Cantemir bekam in seinen Jugendjahren
die bliche Ausbildung, die Latein, Griechisch,
artes liberales und Theologie einschlo. Wh-
rend seines 22 Jahre langen Aufenthalts (1688-
11, tudes balkaniques 2
162
1710) in Konstantinopel, wo er seine Ausbil-
dung fortsetzte, bekam er Zugang zur Quelle
der antiken byzantinischen Weisheit in der Aka-
demie des oekumenischen Patriarchats, lernte
die islamische Literatur und Doktrin, wie auch
die Prinzipien des aus Westeuropa durch Di-
plomaten, Hndler und Gelehrten importierten
Spthumanismus kennen. Cantemir selbst ruft
in Erinnerung die Gelehrten, mit denen er in
Konstantinopel im stndigen Kontakt stand
das waren vor allem der Grammatiker und Phi-
losoph Jacob Manos aus Argos, Alexander
Mavrocordato, der die Universitt in Padua
beendet hatte, der Philosoph Meletius aus Arta,
der Polyhistor Chrisant Notaras, der Rhetorik-
lehrer Elias Miniates. Cantemir hatte Freunde
auch in den diplomatischen Milieus der Haupt-
stadt, zwischen den griechischen intellektuel-
len Kreisen des Phanar und den europischen
Gruppen in Galata. Seine Zeitgenossen loben
Cantemirs klaren, angenehmen und rhetorisch
geprgten Stil. Auslndische Diplomate in Iasi
erzhlten, da Cantemir so einwandIrei Latein
beherrschte, da er sich ber die 'VerpIlich-
tungen der FreundschaIt Ilieend unterhalten
konnte.
Cantemirs Sprache trgt viele Besonder-
heiten des humanistischen Lateins die Vor-
liebe zu deminutiva, die im klassischen Latein
nicht bezeugt sind, z. B. molliuscule (p. 302),
sub urbecula (p. 75), der Gebrauch von Adver-
bien, die im Vulgr- oder mittelalterlichen La-
tein vorkommen hucusque, eousque sind dabei
besonders beliebt, imposterum, quantocyus =
quantocius, sigillatim v. l. st. singulatim. Die
orthographischen Eigenheiten wurden im Prin-
zip in der kritischen Ausgabe beibehalten: die
Verwendung eines Diphtongs an der Stelle ei-
nes langen Vokals, das hyperkorrekte y statt i,
z. B. hyberna, caeterum, lacrymae, Formen, in
denen ein doppelter Konsonant anstelle eines
einfachen erscheint, z. B. caussa st. causa. Als
eine Eigenschaft der Interpunktion darf die
durchgngige Absonderung des Abl. absolutus
erwhnt sein: z. B. At, Persis nec verbis, nec
factis respondentibus... (p. 21) ) Wie Prof.
Slusanschi beobachtet, bentzt Cantemir vor
einer Parenthese die Konstruktion ACI, und
innerhalb und nach der Parenthese die NCI.
Cantemirs syntaktisch und morphologisch
vollkommen klassisches Latein zeigt eine Rei-
he seltener oder in der Antike nicht bezeugter
Ausdrcke, Worte, Praepositionengebrauch
u.a.: z. B. ad extra discessi (p. 22), sanguinivo-
rus (nicht bezeugt im klassischen Latein), ex-
auctoratur (ein seltener im klassischen Latein
Ausdruck), coniecturare, eiusdem farinae (aus
dieser Art), castrametor (cf. Vulg. ein Lager
abstecken). Man mu die Mehrzahl griechi-
scher Wrter in Cantemirs Text, dessen erste
Version auf Griechisch geschrieben wurde, in
Betracht nehmen: z. B. amnestia (p. 311), agon
st. certamen, zelus (p. 433), sancta lipsana (p.
457). Aufschlureiche Quelle ber Cantemirs
Kreativitt und freies Umgehen mit der Spra-
che sind vor allem die lateinischen bersetzun-
gen arabischer Worte, Toponyme, berhmter
Verse oder Sprichwrter, die den besonderen
Reiz seines Stils ausmachen. Um nur einige
Beispiele zu nennen, ist Divan chane als do-
mus iudicii bersetzt, Hodza als praeceptor, der
Ausruf Arslanum als Leo mi!, Bostandzi Bas-
za als praefectus hortulanorum. Die Portrte
der Sultane sind im glnzenden Stil der klassi-
schen lateinischen Historiographie gehalten,
z.B. das Portrt vom Sultan Sulejman (p. 62)
oder das Portrt vom Sultan Murad (p. 75).
berall sind die arabischen wie auch die grie-
chischen Zitate auf Latein bersetzt.
Die vorliegende erste kritische Edition des
mehr als zwei Jahrhunderte nicht bekannten
lateinischen Originals bietet nicht nur die
Grundlage fr eine sptere kommentierte und
auf Rumnisch bersetzte Ausgabe der Ge-
schichte des osmanischen Reichs, sondern auch
die Mglichkeit grndliche Forschungen ber
Cantemirs Latein zu beginnen. Diese Verffent-
lichung ist ein wissenschaftliches Ereignis, das
in jeder Hinsicht begrungswert ist.
Elia MARINOVA
163
The book contains a list of illustrations,
acknowledgements, a family tree and maps, an
introduction, four chapters, conclusion, sources
and notes, and an index.
While Charles Diehls Byzantine Em-
presses (Studion Publishers Inc., 1998) ranks
among the classics in its genre, the systematic
study of women in Byzantine rulership dates
only to the early 1990s when female historians
set about reconstructing womens historical
experience as rulers of the Byzantine Empire.
Amazon.com lists at least seven works dedicated
to women in power or women in general in
Byzantium. These are: E. James. Empresses and
Power in Early Byzantium; L. Garland. Byzan-
tine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzan-
tium, AD 527-1204; A. L. McClanan. Repre-
sentations of Early Byzantine Empresses: Im-
age and Empire; B. Hill. Imperial Women of
Byzantium 1025-1204; I. Kalavrezou. Byzan-
tine Women and Their World; The Empress
Theophano: Byzantium and the West at the Turn
of the First Millennium. Ed. By A. Davids; and
J. Herrins Women in Purple.
J. Herrins book is characterized by hon-
est scholarship, imaginative interpretations, and
lucidity. Her study is dedicated to three Byzan-
tine women mothers, wives and widows of
emperors whose life and work covers the pe-
riod between the 780s and the 850s. These are:
Irene, wife of Leo IV and mother of the ill-fated
Constantine VI; her granddaughter,
Euphrosyne, who was a second-wife to Michael
V, step-mother of Theophilos and mother-in-
law of Theodora; and Theodora, who was a wife
of Theophilos and mother of Michael III. While
marrying into the ruling dynasty gave these
women a special relationship with the all-per-
vasive authority of the Byzantine ruler (p. 3),
as widows they continued to exercise imperial
power and changed the course of Byzantiums
history by succeeding, against all odds, in re-
storing the icon-veneration. The three em-
presses do, in fact, represent three successive
generations of women who placed themselves
at the head of the iconophile movement while
dealing with the day-to-day tasks of the impe-
rial administration.
When dealing with the contemporary and
later Byzantine sources, Herrin is well-aware
of the traps set up by the male historians who
wrote about Byzantine empresses, traditionally
representing them as weak, ill-equipped to rule,
and heavily leaning on their eunuch aides (p.
7). Herrin shows convincingly that the rhetoric
of male historians and the gender stereotypes
that go with it cannot obscure the true role
these three women played in the political and
religious events of their day. Further, in the
sources and notes at the end of the book,
Herrin reviews the main sources she has used
with fairness and scholarly objectivity.
Throughout the book, her use of a wide variety
of sources is exemplary, as is her placing of each
of the three Byzantine empresses Irene,
Euphrosyne and Theodora within the frame-
work of imperial government policy, icono-
clasm, and the sustaining of dynastic responsi-
bilities in adverse conditions.
Chapter one examines Constantinople and
the world of Byzantium (pp. 9-50). This is, in
essence, an introductory chapter which presents
the historical setting in which the three em-
presses lived and ruled. The public spaces in
the imperial capital, the court ceremonial, the
public rituals and the role which eunuchs played
at the imperial court, the establishment of he-
reditary rule and the practicing of imperial phi-
lanthropy are some of the topics that shape up
the readers idea of what Constantinople was
like on the eve of Irenes ascent to the throne.
Also, Byzantiums relations with the surround-
ing world and Romes reaction to the Byzan-
tine emperors iconoclastic policy, as well as
Greeces provincial administration and eccle-
siastical organization throw additional light on
the overall developments in the empire at the
time when young Irene married into the ruling
dynasty.
The chapter titled Irene: the unknown em-
press from Athens (pp. 51-129) is dedicated to
Irene, the celebrated empress who succeeded
in restoring, albeit temporarily, the icon vener-
ation (787) but who is also known as the break-
er of male-dominated dynasties in Byzantium.
The study of Irenes family background (pp. 53-
Herrin, Judith. WOMEN IN PURPLE. RULERS OF MEDIEVAL BYZANTIUM.
London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001. 304 p.
164
58) is quite tentative, due to the paucity of the
sources. She appears in the works of contem-
porary historians above all, Theophanes Con-
fessor only after she has left her native Cen-
tral Greece, to become an imperial bride. The
description of Irenes wedding and inaugura-
tion as empress rests on a tenth-century source,
Constantine Porphyrogenituss De cerimoniis.
Herrin argues that, in his description of an im-
perial wedding and coronation ceremony, Con-
stantine clearly drew on earlier precedents
which is the reason why his work can serve as
a guide for Irenes coronation and inauguration
(p. 268, nn. 17, 18). However, inasmuch as
Constantines earlier sources remain uniden-
tified, we do not know if they were applicable
to the eighth century or not. The same could be
said about Irenes supposed participation in the
baptism of her infant son (p. 66; see also p. 269,
n. 24). But Irenes presence at the coronation
of the five-year old Constantine VI as his fa-
thers co-ruler is well-documented (p. 69).
The primary source for the study of Irenes
regency (780-790) is the eulogistic account of
Theophanes. Herrins account of these years is
unbiased and truthful. While arguing that Irenes
personal views on iconoclasm remain unknown
(p. 85), Herrin takes into account both the gen-
eral climate that preceded the convocation of
the Seventh Ecumenical Council and the skillful
policy of the empress who, with the help of her
trusted protoasekretis, Tarasios, succeeded in
restoring the icon veneration in the Byzantine
church (pp. 83-89). This was followed by a res-
toration of iconophile art of which the empress
was a patron (pp. 89-92). In the years 790
through 797, the struggle between Irene and her
son ended up with the blinding of Constantine
VI, who died shortly afterward. Irenes policies
as sole ruler (797-802) were marked by a se-
ries of measures through which she strove to
gain the favor of her subjects at home as well
as by the marriage negotiations with Charle-
magne, which she carried out as part of her for-
eign policy (pp. 109-113). If we have to believe
Theophanes, all the mistakes, which Irene
made, originated in the fact that, being unable
to rise above her feminine weakness, the em-
press relied heavily on eunuchs.
Herrins Irene is both repulsive and admi-
rable a highly controversial figure, which
nonetheless could be described as one highly
successful empress (p. 3), at least as far as the
staging of the Second Council of Nicaea (787)
is concerned. The assertion that her downfall
was primarily due to her failure to tackle the
question of succession (pp. 127-128) sounds
slightly exaggerated. But one can agree with
Herrin that the one person that did come out as
a winner in the controversy surrounding Char-
lemagnes coronation was Pope Leo III who
emerged from the events of 800 with additional
powers (p. 128).
Euphrosyne: a princess born in the pur-
ple (pp. 130-184) is the title of chapter two, de-
dicated to Irenes granddaughter. Euphrosyne
was the child of an unhappy marriage between
Irenes only son, Constantine VI, and Maria of
Amnia. Maria was just another young imperial
bride, brought over from the provinces to mar-
ry into the ruling dynasty. Before long, she and
her two small children were exiled to a nun-
nery, on one of the Princes Islands. The most
interesting part of this chapter is certainly he
description of the bride-show at the palace (pp.
136-138). Much of the rest is based on conjec-
ture: the life of Maria as a nun, Euphrosynes
growing up in the nunnery and her upbringing.
It is true that Euphrosyne brought to Michael II
a genuine link with the highly successful mil-
itary rulers of the Isaurian dynasty (p. 155).
And she did arrange for her familys commem-
oration in the monastery, which was her foun-
dation (pp. 161-162). However, the description
of her imperial activities (pp. 162-164) is not
convincing. She does not appear in the sources
on any other occasion but the bride-show she
organized for stepson. Upon which she with-
drew to a nunnery, whether voluntarily or un-
der duress (pp. 174-178). As for her secretly
helping Theophilos children become acquaint-
ed with icon veneration, the only source that
alludes to this is Symeon Magister (p. 283, n.
184).
Herrin is right in pointing out that, in later
sources, Theodoras mother, Theoktiste, is the
one to take all the credit for the practicing of
covert female opposition to Theophilos icono-
clasm and that Euphrosyne is assigned no role
in this imagined reconstruction of the reign of
Theophilos (p. 181). But the making of the
myth that iconoclasm was a most dangerous
heresy did not originate in Photioss feeding
the flames of intolerant iconophilism, as Herrin
erroneously asserts (p. 181). The patriarch, who
rigorously opposed the ecclesiastical policy of
165
oikonomia, was not Photios but Ignatios,
Theodoras protg. And it was Ignatioss un-
bending attitudes with regard to former icono-
clasts that caused a new schism in the ranks of
the Byzantine clergy and eventually brought
about his downfall. As for Photios, he was what
F. Dvrornik called a moderate.
Chapter four is concerned with Theodora:
the Paphlagonian bride (pp. 185-239). Follow-
ing the tradition of bringing country girls to the
palace, Euphrosyne staged a bride-show for her
stepson. A beauty from rural Paphlagonia won
the contest. The embellished version of this
story reminds us of the myth of Paris, as has
been noted by Herrin (p. 170). Theodoras fam-
ily background seems to have been quite mod-
est, and her Life does not mention any special
qualities, which that girl might have possessed
in order to become eligible for a marriage into
the ruling dynasty (pp. 185-190).
Her alleged commitment to icon venera-
tion seems to have been the most serious as-
pect of her private life in the years 830 through
842 (pp. 191- 193). Herrin is right in pointing
out, however, that the antagonism setting up the
heretic Theophilos against his saintly wife may
be the invention of later, tenth-century sources
(p. 195). Further, one must also agree with
Herrin that the sources describing Theodoras
role in the restoration of icon veneration are
biased, full of later interpolations, more leg-
endary than factual (p. 203). The Triumph of
Orthodoxy (843) was followed by a temporary
renewal of the figurative art, which gave way
only somewhat later to icon painting (pp. 210-
213). The years of Theodoras regency (842-
856) fall back on stereotypical generations
(pp. 214-215). Her foreign policy did not result
in significant victories against the empires
neighbors, except for the naval victory at
Damietta. Theodoras career in the palace had
a sad ending, with her favorite, Theoktistos,
being savagely murdered (856) and her and her
five daughters being expelled from the palace
(858). Her son, Michael, claimed the power for
himself while new personages first his uncle
Bardas, then his favorite, Basil came to play
a central role in his government. The image of
Theodora, propagated by her Life as well as by
later sources, is that of a saintly woman and a
fearless leader. She did cause a dramatic change
in ecclesiastical policy and was subsequently
canonized by the Orthodox Church.
Judith Herrins book is essential reading
for students of medieval women in power. Re-
gretfully, the author of this well-researched and
well-written work has overlooked a number of
factual errors. Some of the errors refer to ec-
clesiastical history: e. g., the western church
subscribed to the view that there were only three
Sacred Languages Hebrew, Greek and Latin
(p. 16). Or, one of the matters that provoked
divisions between the Old Rome and the New
Rome was the wording of the creed, where the
additional Latin clause filioque was accepted
only in the West (p. 35). In the ninth and tenth
centuries, however, the papacy did not subscribe
to the so-called trilingual doctrine, whose ori-
gins could be traced back to Isidore of Seville.
This doctrine was popular in the Eastern and
Western Frankish Churches but not in Rome
(see R. Haugh. Photius and the Carolingians.
The Trinitarian Controversy. Belmont, Mass.,
1975). At the same time, the surviving sources
show that the papacy believed in the liturgical
equality of Greek and Latin (Hebrew is not
mentioned at all) while the Byzantines believed
in the pre-eminence of Greek for liturgical pur-
poses and viewed even Latin as inadmissible to
the Holy of Holies. Similarly, in the ninth and
tenth centuries, it was the Frankish Churches
that added the filioque clause to the Halcedonian
Creed while the papacy did not recognize that
addition until much later (Gregory VII).
Herrin is also wrong in asserting that al-
though Ignatios had been consecrated in the
normal fashion, uncanonical practice was later
detected. And Pope Nicholas I would use it as
a means of interfering in Byzantine affairs in
the 860s (p. 215). However, it was Photios,
and not Ignatios, whose election was regarded,
by Nicholas I, as uncanonical. As for Ignatios,
he spent the years of Photioss patriarchate and
Nicholas Is pontificate (858-867) in exile, with
Nicholas I regarding him as the canonically
elected patriarch and writing a number of let-
ters in his support. For a full survey of all the
facts related to the relations among Nicholas I,
Ignatios and Photios and their supporters and
adversaries, as well as of the existing publica-
tions dealing with these matters, consulting the
monograph of L. Simeonova. Diplomacy of the
Letter and the Cross. Photios, Bulgaria and the
Papacy, 860s-880s. Amsterdam, 1998 might
have proved helpful.
References to the contemporary political
166
events are not completely devoid of errors, ei-
ther. Thus, on p. 218, one comes across a Byz-
antine embassy of 844, led by Theoktistos,
which transmitted letters to Khan Boris. And
later, this missionary effort began with
Theodora and her contacts with the Bulgarian
leader, Boris, in the 840s (p. 219). However,
Boris did not ascend the Bulgarian throne until
much later (852). Finally, Herrin also reIers to
Theophanes Continuatus`s account oI the monk
Koupharas and the Bulgarian ruler`s sister (p.
291, n. 74) an account whose legendary na-
ture has been the subject oI many publications.
But the best one I. Dujcev. Lgendes byzantin-
es sur la conversion des Bulgares (in: Sbornk
prac filosofsk faculty Brnenske Universitetu
10, rada hist. 8, 1962, pp. 7-17) is not cited
by Herrin.
While these as well as some other factual
errors may be viewed as minor mistakes, they
are nonetheless annoying. A second edition of
Herrins Women in Purple would greatly ben-
efit from their correction. As a whole, J. Herrin
has presented a fine piece of research that is
well-referenced and illustrated with a good se-
lection of photographs. And, as the blurb on
the books jacket informs us, it throws fresh
light on the relationship of women to power.
Liliana V. SIMEONOVA
167
ACADMIE DES SCIENCES DE BULGARIE
INSTITUT DTUDES BALKANIQUES
TUDES BALKANIQUES, 2003, No 2
The Bulgarian Society for the Study of the
18
th
Century (www.c18.slovar.bg) organised a
conference titled Money, Words, Memory, held
at the St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia
on April 3 and 4, 2003. Participants in the event
included scholars from the institutes of the Bul-
garian Academy of Sciences, the universities
in Sofia, Plovdiv, Blagoevgrad and Shoumen,
the St. Cyril and St. Methodius National Library,
as well as from the Institute of Slavonic Stud-
ies with the Polish Academy of Sciences and
the University of Skopje. The conference, which
gave rise to lively debate and beneficial ex-
change of opinion, was yet another event to the
credit of the Bulgarian Society for the 18
th
Cen-
tury Studies, an associate member of the Inter-
national Society for the 18
th
Century Studies
based in Oxford.
The society has already published two
volumes featuring the reports presented at the
previous conferences Lets Think the Other.
Images, Stereotypes, Crises, 18
th
-20
th
cc. (2001)
and Modernity Yesterday and Today (2003). The
latest forum, Money, Words, Memory, featured
the following reports:
Nikolai Chernokozhev. The Faces of Mo-
ney
Nadezhda Andreeva. Money and the Free-
dom of Speech or Bite the Hand that Feeds You
Nadya Danova. Oh damned money!!!
or a Biography of the Mirozrenie Journal in Fig-
ures.
Elena Popova. Gold in Bulgarian Folk
and Ecclesiastic Culture in the Ottoman Period.
Margarita Harbova. Money-Art-Memo-
ry.
Svetlana Ivanova. The Large Vakfs on
Bulgarian Territory in the 18
th
c.
Nikola Robev. Word and Money for the
Resurrection of a People.
Alexander Antonov. Time is Money: the
Ottoman Postal Service in the 18
th
c.
Roumyana Radkova. Self-organisation
in Financing Bulgarian Culture during the Na-
tional Revival.
Dancho Gospodinov. Home Money
Travel.
Sava Sivriev. On Wealth and Money in
the Vita of St. Sophronius, Bishop of Vratsa.
Lydia Mihova. Rich Man, Poor Man. Mo-
ney and Words in National Revival Literature.
Nikoleta Patova. Moral Judgement of the
Material (with examples from National Revival
Drama).
Nikolai Aretov. Money in Literature. Vas-
sil Popovichs Novelette Times Were.
Raya Zaimova. Europes Memory: the
Bulgarian Case.
Lyubomir Georgiev. Bulgarian Histori-
cal Memory in the Works of Two Franciscan
Friars of the Middle of the 18
th
c.
Nedka Kapralova. Words-Money,
Words-Memory or the Crown of Immortality for
Literary Charity.
Vie scientifique
MONEY, WORDS, MEMORY (Sofia, April 2003)
168
Plamen Bozhinov. Charity and National
Unity after the April Uprising.
Yulia Nikolova. Tally.
Roumyana Damyanova. Signs of Mem-
ory.
Vessela Dimova. Money through the Eyes
of I. Bogorov, I. E. Geshov and P. R. Slaveykov.
Dessislava Lilova. Vassil Aprilovs Be-
quest: the Fruitless Project for a National Re-
vival University.
Elena Tacheva. Social Imagination and
Poetics of National Revival Arithmetic Books.
Nadezhda Alexandrova. Zachari
Knyazheski and Education of Girls or the Traf-
fic of Educated Bulgarian Women in Russia.
Grazina Svat-Galabova (Warsaw). The
Memory of History. A Balance of Stefan
Tsanev.
Jasmina Mojsieva-Guseva (Skopje). In-
tellect and Acquisition.
Ivan Pavlov. Czech Money as a Sign and
Symbol.
Eliana Raicheva. Does Gavroche Have
a Penny, or Kozette a Coin?
Radoslava Ilcheva. Evaluation of Liter-
ary Work in Russia (Historical Aspects).
Hristo Manolakev. Money and the Birth
of Sentimental Love Stories.
Yordanka Bibina. Banks and Culture in
Modern Turkey.
Antoaneta Balcheva. Trajectory of
Memory.
Lilly Kirova. Words and Memory of East-
European Intellectuals (the First Decades of the
20
th
c.).
Jolanta Suezka (Warsaw). The Memory
of Freedom. Bulgaria 1878. Macedonia 1945.
An Attempt at Typology.
Roumyana L. Stancheva. The Rich and
the Poor. The Balkans in the Anthropological
Perspective of Lucian Blaga.
One of the central problems discussed by
quite a number of scholars, was related to money
regarded through the prism of the mentality of
Bulgarian and Balkan society, or even further.
From the 17
th
century to this day money contin-
ues to be a central problem for a large number
of people In both summary and more con-
crete form the authors discussed the circle of
problems related to money and all their expres-
sions, starting with their face or with the faces
on it. Time is money, time is a coating over
money. With the passage of time, figures and
faces of time adhere to its face. By the choice
of the face on it, money becomes the bearer of
value other than its face value. The faces on
money change with time and with each con-
secutive issue, bearers of the encoded informa-
tion about the processes causing these changes.
Anonymous faces from pictures are gradually
substituted for the familiar faces of individuals
bearing concrete semantics. Strictness, deter-
mination and confidence succeed carelessness
and hesitation in search of faces on money. The
symptomatic choice of the faces on money in-
evitably denominates it, to recede before ex-
planations, which win confidence. The pathos
of the National Revival falls back before the
modern, which gradually acquires the outlines
of Europes bridges and gates on the faces on
an imposed but uniform currency.
Time makes money, but money does not
make time. Time is a value, money not neces-
sarily. The lion of Czech money and one of the
first Czech forgers, Vaclav Hanka, were born
within a not so long space of time.
Other papers place money in the centre of
the arithmetic of Bulgarian National Revival
individuals, who regarded it not as a science of
numbers but as a means of calculating money.
That is why the text problems in National Re-
vival arithmetic textbooks resemble a miniature
commodity market. There homo arithmeticus
does not exist, contrary to homo oeconomicus.
And since time is money, the Ottoman
Empire made attempts to reform its courier serv-
ice, beginning with the introduction of fees for
the use of horses and ending with an institution
after West European fashion, albeit much later.
In fact, the attempt at reform transformed the
post stations into centres, which swallowed state
money. Similar studies of other financial docu-
ments from the same period in turn provide
evidence of the increased self-confidence of
Bulgarians regarding the authorities of the Sub-
lime Porte.
This, however, did not stop some scholars
from dubbing Sophronius of Vratsa, for exam-
ple, an unromantic Robinson Crusoe of the end
of the 18
th
century, the stress lying on the prob-
lem of money in his Vita. They offset the ro-
mantic novel against the Vita, where the motif
of leaving home and wandering becomes a pro-
saic staging, a sign of the fallen in disgrace, of
the outsider. For Sophronius the road was
169
mainly a source of improving material welfare,
of changing ones fate, there being nothing bad
in money. At the end of the 18
th
century the pres-
ervation of life continued to be regarded as
Gods first commandment, but it already re-
quired money.
With a stress on money in Sophroniuss
Vita, some authors see then as capital rather than
treasure. The traditional understanding of treas-
ure becomes outmoded and treasure becomes
capital. It is no longer a give buried fact, which
is inherited, but something movable, which is
created.
From treasure, money in the National Re-
vival became capital and from capital a nar-
rative element equal to love. Discussing some
of the so-called educational novels of Vassil
Droumev and Lyuben Karavelov, some authors
find money there, hand in hand with inarticu-
late illiteracy. Others discussed the problem of
money through the eyes of a man of letters, a
banker and a poet Ivan Bogorov, Ivan E.
Geshov and P. R. Slaveykov. In their case money
undergoes a transformation from an end to a
means, a movement towards a uniform language
of the world.
If money is the uniform language of the
world that makes it a starting point for studying
the concept of the other. In the light of imalogy,
the idea of the rich man and the poor man in-
fluences the stereotypical concepts of Balkan
neighbours in terms of their creative potential.
Such, according to some studies, is the anthro-
pological perspective of the Romanian writer
Lucian Blaga.
Research of the intriguing problem related
to money has crossed the borders of Bulgaria
and the Balkans to seek answers even in a
French masterpiece like Les Misrables, peep-
ing in the pockets of Gavroche and Kozette.
One encounters interesting discoveries in
the studies dedicated to the Balkan vanity fair,
i.e. the conflict between modernity and patriar-
chal lifestyle in National Revival drama. It may
be that to it we owe the discovery of a new char-
acteristic of money that it can be spent, not
only hoarded. In National Revival drama, ma-
terial culture as a view of modernity symbol-
ises the alien, the evil; the foreigner is the
Tempter, while the wife is the ideological and
financial enemy of the head of the family. It
turns out that the liberating power of money is
difficult to bear in a restricted patriarchal world.
The liberating power of money is the fac-
tor, which is absent in a biography in figures of
Ivan Dobrovskis journal Mirozrenie. The jour-
nals of Constantine Fotinov, Lyuboslovie and
Balgarski Orel, suffered the same fate. Accord-
ing to the sad conclusion of the author of this
study, the publication of National Revival peri-
odicals was a causa perduta, a deadly risk in
the name of an idea. At a time when the inter-
est in such publications was absolutely insuffi-
cient, the cost in Vienna, where some of the
publications came out, was unthinkably high,
while in Constantinople where such an un-
dertaking was most feasible there were three
types of censorship on the prowl. Oh, damn
money!
More concrete observations of some au-
thors describe the principal way in which such
undertakings were financed during the National
Revival, i.e. self-sufficiency on the personal
initiative of the donors in an environment lack-
ing a centralised institution to that end. A care-
ful study of these processes makes a transfor-
mation of culture quite visible, with the first
tentative attempts at establishing mechanisms
for a centralised collection of funds, in which
self-sufficiency on the initiative of various so-
cieties and associations was dominant. On the
other hand, donation gradually turned towards
secular fields like printing. The book in mod-
ern times became a commodity, a fact of trade
dependent on the demand/supply correlation.
Some of the scholars seek the place of sponsor-
ship under those new conditions, where it fea-
tured as an undertaking in the name of honour
alone, with dividend coming only in the form
of lengthier dedications as the one in the
Chrestomathy of Raino Popovich.
Shattering events like the April Uprising
(1876) or the Russo-Turkish War (1878) put an
end to the attempts to create a mechanism for
centralised collection of funds. Some scholars
came upon an interesting phenomenon while
following the trace of those processes. Gener-
osity and ktetorship stepped back before char-
ity, a fountain that gushed forth in the wake of
historical reverberations. An unprecedented
charity campaign was undertaken for the dona-
tion of money, clothes, food, etc. for the vic-
tims of military action, followed by similar cam-
paigns abroad. Organisations like the Bulgar-
ian Womens Charity Society in Constantino-
ple were set up, aided by foreign missions and
170
individual foreign philanthropists. The geog-
raphy of philanthropy expanded across Bulgar-
ian territories themselves and beyond.
Ktetorship is a cultural phenomenon,
which some authors have studied starting back
from the 13
th
-14
th
century ktetor inscriptions.
Research on another cultural and historical phe-
nomenon relate it to the idea of ktetorship, par-
ticularly in view of the problem related to money
i.e. the large vakf properties in the Ottoman
Empire. It is interesting to note that these Mus-
lim religious Ioundations had proven ambitions
and even attempts at establishing entire towns,
as in the case with the Islmli kasaba in the
Rhodopes. Other studies on contemporary proc-
esses in neighbouring Turkey put forth the posi-
tive example of the K. According to
these observations, today major financial insti-
tutions and banks in Turkey endorse an envi-
able cultural policy favouring all valuable cul-
tural phenomena.
Time makes money but money does not
make time. Money, however, can make culture,
which is one of the things worth spending time
on. The quicker we realise this the more time
we will have to cloak in reason.
And isnt it culture that saves us from the
shipwreck of life, Ortega y Gasset once wrote.
Although engrossed in the problem related to
money, the authors have also reserved words
for memory. For, to Southeast European intel-
lectuals, the culture that they breathe has al-
ways been related to tradition and continuity,
on all occasions carefully built with their words
and their memory. Certain more profound theo-
retical studies give rise to concern with their
conclusions on the recent changes in the world.
They indicate a mankind returning to the bar-
baric, with an ever-widening chasm between
intellect and gain.
Attraction and repulsion in the intellect/
gain correlation or, if one would prefer, words/
money are nothing new under the sun. Dur-
ing the National Revival assistance and dona-
tion were obligatory for godforsaken publish-
ing for no state pays to be imprecated. Good-
ness is returned by the same measure, good-
ness in this case being money. A good turn calls
for gratitude and obliges the recipients. At that
time, however, society was far from the thought
of giving money for an idea, not for an indi-
vidual. Although Voltaire said he did not agree
with what was being said but he was ready to
give his life for the right of the individual to
say it, it is hardly by chance that those are words
featured in his Utopia.
Intellect and gain, words and money, lit-
erary work and its evaluation, Russia of the 18
th
and the 19
th
century the conclusions of the
authors who worked on these subjects are quite
indicative. In medieval Russia literary talent
was exchanged for shelter and the board of a
prince. In the 18
th
century, literary work had
material value which, however, was not con-
vertible. It was only at the end of the 19
th
cen-
tury that patrons were to be substituted for book-
sellers. The men of letters did not rely on their
literary work for a living. Even the classics of
Russian literature, with a good enough income
from writing (with the exception of the poor
and impractical Dostoevsky), did not rely on
that for their living. A new point of view sees
the problem related to money in the Russian
sentimental love novels as an ideological meta-
phor of observation, i.e. money as a factor de-
termining the aspect of noticing. In this sense,
there were peculiar changes in the manner in
which the other was regarded that gradually
developed in the course of centuries. Through
the prism of money the noticing of poverty was
refracted in compassion in the 18
th
century, in
work in the 19
th
century and in revolution in the
20
th
century.
Money, words, memory to a certain ex-
tent this phrase could have sounded in the fol-
lowing way during the National Revival: money
tally memory. Research of some scholars
has revealed that the tally, that stick for keep-
ing accounts, was a complex National Revival
tool, which combined the function of calendar
and tax register, while tallying was a compli-
cated and unfailing system of remembering
money (keeping account). Today one can dis-
cern the signs of the tally on a variety of house-
hold, mythical and sacred objects like the shep-
herds pipe or crook, the distaff or even the fes-
tal bread.
A study of Bulgarian popular psychology
seems to indicate that the market value of money
is ignored unlike the magical property of the
metal. The symbol of gold accompanies man
from his birth, on his wedding right to the day
when he has to give that last obolus to Charon.
The symbol of metal, with its extremely com-
plicated semiotics, seems to pierce all levels of
life of Bulgarians and Balkan man in general
171
from myth to ordinary everyday, from past to
present.
What of all we have said by now would
we have without memory? The question is a
rhetorical one as the attention of some of the
authors is drawn to the problem related to
memory, to the memory of Europe and particu-
larly the Bulgarian case from the first men-
tioning of the Orient in western encyclopaedias
to this day. When the stress is laid on the his-
torical memory of Bulgarians one can see the
outlines of its problem character: the lack of
mutual memory or the mutual lack of memory
for the dispersed parts of the Bulgarian people,
for example. Or the fact that, for one reason or
another, we judge about our history from for-
eign sources, while our historical memory has
acquired the selective ability of western
encyclopaedism. Other studies supported the
thesis of the problematics of Bulgarian histori-
cal memory, a comparative examination of the
works of medieval Franciscan friars in a quest
for Bulgarian history in them. It turned out that
to think our glorious past we cannot but com-
pare, for example, Paisii of Chilandar on the
one hand, and the histories of Blasius Kleiner
and that of the parish of Stari Besenov, on the
other, as well as the works of Caesar Baronius
and Mauro Orbini. The face of Bulgarian his-
torical memory thus acquires the form of a col-
lage.
There are many faces of memory as well
as numerous and varied signs of memory. Fol-
lowing these signs, some scholars discover it
again in books, this time in dedications and in-
troductions, where these two elements are a
centrifugal and centripetal force, an exit to the
real and a hermeneutic entry, words publicis-
ing and creating memory the former for man,
the latter for the book; in other words, the dedi-
cations and introductions in books seen as signs
of memory.
With a comprehensive study of an imagi-
nary trajectory of memory on the Balkans other
authors have managed to hark the complicated
rhetoric of memory with the southern Slavs,
which tells of the contradiction between the
polytheism of imagination and the monotheism
of memory.
Gods and Ants. A Chronicle of the 20
th
c.
the study of this modern Bulgarian novel
strikes a balance of Stefan Tsanev, one with
which this trajectory of memory ends for the
time being. A history of memory or a memory
of history, which has made the Bulgarian a
Homo antihistoricus and a Homo patience, a
history of power and subordination in a syn-
chronous and diachronous aspect, which is ac-
tually an analysis of the dark side of things, of
the image of Bulgarian melancholy caused by
history. The trajectory of memory here ends
with a chronicle of the 20
th
century, which
proves a peculiar dissection of the heterogene-
ous vision of Bulgarian national psychology,
torn between paganism, the esoteric and Chris-
tianity in the course of thirteen centuries.
Photini CHRISTAKOUDI
Malamir SPASSOV
Les transformations politiques et sociales
depuis 1989 et surtout les guerres en ex-You-
goslavie ont attir lattention de la communaut
internationale sur la pninsule Balkanique
cette rgion si vulnrable du vieux continent.
La ncessit dexperts verss dans la probl-
matique balkanique, ainsi que danalyses dans
ce domaine, a suscit la renaissance de la
balkanologie dans les pays de lEurope occi-
dentale, y compris en France. Ainsi, en 1990
des tudiants de lInstitut National des Langues
et Civilisations Orientales Paris (INALCO)
ont cr lAssociation Homo Balcanicus.
Stant largie des tudiants, des enseignants
et des chercheurs issus dautres institutions
universitaires ou scientifiques, et aprs avoir
lanc la revue Balkanologie, au printemps 2000
Homo Balcanicus sest transforme en Asso-
ciation franaise dtudes sur les Balkans
(AFEBALK).
LASSOCIATION FRANAISE DTUDES SUR LES BALKANS ET LES
PREMIRES RENCONTRES DES TUDES BALKANIQUES EN FRANCE
172
LAFEBALK a pour objet ltude des so-
cits des pays de la pninsule Balkanique dans
une approche interdisciplinaire. En dcembre
2002, elle rassemblait plus dune soixantaine
de membres, chercheurs, enseignants et tu-
diants, qui se penchent sur les Balkans. Les
activits de lassociation sorganisent autour de
plusieurs axes: publication de la revue
Balkanologie, animation dun site Internet, or-
ganisation de manifestations publiques et dun
sminaire de recherche, dveloppement de la
collaboration scientifique au niveau franais et
europen.
Le principal objectif de la revue semes-
trielle Balkanologie est de contribuer une
meilleure comprhension des ralits balkani-
ques contemporaines. Son premier numro est
paru en juillet 1997. Directeur de la publica-
tion est Patrick Michels (Universit Paris X,
Nanterre), directeur scientifique est Bernard
Lory (INALCO, Paris) et secrtaire de la r-
daction est Diane Masson (IEP, Paris). La re-
vue publie des textes en franais, mais aussi en
anglais. Les pays les plus souvent abords sont
lex-Yougoslavie et la Bulgarie. Les sciences
politiques, lhistoire et lanthropologie sont les
mieux reprsentes parmi les sciences humai-
nes et sociales. Un certain quilibre apparat
entre les auteurs rsidant en France, aux pays
anglo-saxons et aux pays balkaniques.
Le site Internet de lassociation (http://
www.afebalk.org) est cr en septembre 1997
comme un moyen de mieux connatre la revue.
Depuis 1998, il a pris la forme dun site portail
sur les Balkans. Outre la prsentation de la re-
vue, de sa rdaction et des numros parus, le
site propose: un annuaire des ressources (sites
Internet rpertoris), les actualits des tudes
balkaniques, un dossier dactualit (crise de
Kosovo, crise politique en Yougoslavie, Bosnie-
Herzgovine aprs les accords de Dayton, etc.),
des chronologies, bibliographies, etc. Le site est
devenu un outil et une rfrence pour de nom-
breux chercheurs, enseignants et tudiants fran-
cophones qui tudient les Balkans.
Les confrences organises par lAFE-
BALK, qui peuvent prendre la forme de demi-
journes ou de journes dtudes, permettent
daborder des questions dactualit ou de la
toute dernire heure, qui ne sont pas souleves
dans la revue. Depuis lanne universitaire
2000/2001, lassociation organise galement un
sminaire de recherche sur les Balkans. Il se
tient une fois par mois la Maison des Scien-
ces de lHomme Paris. LAFEBALK a initi
un rseau europen devant contribuer au dve-
loppement et la promotion des tudes sur les
Balkans.
Dans le cadre des manifestations publi-
ques, le 19 et 20 dcembre 2002, lAFEBALK
a organis les premires rencontres des tu-
des balkaniques en France tudes balkani-
ques: tat des savoirs et pistes de recherche.
Cette manifestation tait organise avec le con-
cours du Ministre dlgu la recherche et
aux nouvelles technologies, de la Bibliothque
de documentation internationale contempo-
raine, de la Maison Ren Ginouvs dArcho-
logie et dEthnologie et de lUniversit de Pa-
ris X-Nanterre. Le Comit scientifique et le
Comit dorganisation regroupaient les ensei-
gnants et les chercheurs les plus connus qui font
des recherches sur les Balkans en France. La
coordination tait effectue par Yves Tomic et
Miladina Monova.
Les sances taient ouvertes et closes par
Bernard Lory au nom du Comit dorganisa-
tion. Les rencontres ont runi plus de 200 per-
sonnes, dont 59 intervenants. La plupart ve-
naient des institutions universitaires et de re-
cherche en France. Voil pourquoi on peut dire
que ctait un forum surtout de la balkanologie
franaise. Dautre part, une grande partie des
intervenants taient originaires des pays balka-
niques. Il convient de noter galement la parti-
cipation active des tudiants et des jeunes cher-
cheurs. La manifestation comprenait neuf ate-
liers thmatiques, notamment: Migrations et
diasporas, Socits balkaniques en mutation,
Urbanit et ruralit, Hritages dEmpires,
Frontires et territoires, Rformes conomi-
ques et politiques sociales, Dmocratisation
et intgration europennes, Balkans et rela-
tions internationales, Identits et pratiques
religieuses. Les thmes des contributions
taient trs varis. Pour cette raison, les dbats
taient concentrs sur chaque contribution s-
parment. Labsence dapproches politiques ou
idologiques favorisait les dbats dont laccent
tait mis sur linterprtation scientifique des
ralits balkaniques contemporaines. Le thme
de la sance plnire de clture tait Perspec-
tives des tudes balkaniques en Europe. Ont
t abords les problmes des tudes balkani-
ques en Grande-Bretagne, aux tats-Unis
dAmrique et en France, le rle des sciences
173
sociales au cours des transitions dmocratiques
des pays de lEst, les rapports entre la balkano-
logie et les autres disciplines, les liaisons entre
les chercheurs et les institutions universitaires
et de recherche en Europe, les aspects de lex-
pertise, etc.
tant les premires du genre, les rencon-
tres des 19 et 20 dcembre 2002 Paris taient
organises autour dune problmatique plus
vaste. Il sagissait de dresser un panorama des
savoirs et des recherches en cours, et de dga-
ger les pistes des recherches et les synergies
possibles, tant en France qu lchelle euro-
penne. Les rencontres ont rassembl, dans une
perspective pluridisciplinaire et europenne,
des chercheurs, enseignants et tudiants en
sciences humaines et sociales qui se penchent
sur les Balkans. Elles ont contribu renforcer
la visibilit des tudes balkaniques en France,
et favoriser les changes avec les milieux
universitaires et scientifiques des tats du Sud-
Est europen et de lUnion europenne.
LAFEBALK se propose dorganiser de
nouvelles rencontres des tudes balkaniques.
Les contributions des premires rencontres se-
ront publies dans la revue Balkanologie ou sur
le site Internet de lassociation.
Blagovest NJAGULOV