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{{Short description|Albanian political organization (1878–81)}}
{{Infobox organization
| name                     = League of Prizren
| native_name              = Lidhja e Prizrenit
| image                    = 
| image_size               = 88000
| caption                  = 
| map                      = File:League of Prizren Map.png
| map_caption              = The four Ottoman [[Subdivisions of the Ottoman Empire#Administrative reform.2C 1864|vilayets]] clearly divided (in red: Vilayet of İşkodra, Yannina, Monastir and Kosovo as proposed by the League of Prizren for full autonomy).
| map_size                 = 270px
| formation                = {{start date and age|1878|06|10|df=y}}
| founder                  = 47 Albanian [[Bey (title)|beys]]
| dissolved                = April 1881
| status                   = 
| purpose                  = Albanian autonomy
| headquarters             = House of the assembly of the League of Prizren, [[Prizren]], present–day [[Kosovo]]
| location                 = [[Prizren]], [[Kosovo Vilayet]] (modern [[Kosovo]])
| leader_title             = [[Chairman]] of the Administrative Albanian League of Prizren
| leader_name              = [[Abdyl Frashëri]]
| key_people               = [[Abdyl Frashëri]]<br>[[Ali Pasha of Gucia]]<br>[[Pandeli Sotiri]]<br> [[Ymer Prizreni]]
| footnotes                = 
| Bandiera                 = 
}}
{{Campaignbox|title={{resize|93%|League of Prizren conflicts}}|battles=[[Battles for Plav and Gusinje]] ([[Velika attacks (1879)|Battle of Velika]]{{·}}[[Battle of Novšiće]]{{·}}[[Battle of Murino]]){{·}}[[Battle at the Ržanica Bridge]]{{·}}[[Battle of Ulcinj (1880)|Battle of Ulcinj]]{{·}}[[Attack against Mehmed Ali Pasha|Battle of Gjakova]]{{·}}[[Battle of Slivova]]}}

The '''League of Prizren''' ({{langx|sq|Besëlidhja e Prizrenit}} or ''Lidhja e Prizrenit''), officially the '''League for the Defense of the Rights of the Albanian Nation''' ({{langx|sq|Lidhja për mbrojtjen e të drejtave të kombit Shqiptar}}), was an [[Albanians|Albanian]] political organization that was officially founded on June 10, 1878 in the old town of [[Prizren]] in the [[Kosovo Vilayet]] of the [[Ottoman Empire]]. It was suppressed in April 1881.

The Treaties of [[Treaty of San Stefano|San Stefano]] and [[Treaty of Berlin (1878)|Berlin]] assigned areas inhabited by [[Albanians]] to other states. The inability of the [[Sublime Porte|Porte]] to protect the interests of a region that was 70 percent Muslim and largely loyal forced Albanian leaders to organize their own defence and to consider the creation of an autonomous administration, as [[Principality of Serbia|Serbia]] and the other [[Danubian Principalities]] had enjoyed before their independence.<ref>{{Cite book
| last = Jelavich
| first = Barbara
| author-link = Barbara Jelavich
| title = History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
| publisher = Cambridge University Press
| year = 1999
| location = Cambridge University
| page = 361
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qR4EeOrTm-0C&q=league+of+prizren&pg=PA361
| isbn = 978-0-521-25249-2}}</ref>

The league was established at a meeting of 47 Ottoman [[bey (title)|beys]]. The initial position of the league was presented in the document known as [[Kararname (League of Prizren)|Kararname]]. With that document, Albanian leaders emphasized their intention to establish autonomy within the Ottoman Empire by supporting the Porte and "to struggle in arms to defend the wholeness of the territories of Albania". The document said nothing explicitly about reforms, schools, autonomy or the union of the Albanian population within one vilayet, but under the influence of [[Abdyl Frashëri]], that initial position changed radically and resulted in demands for an independent Albanian state and open war against the Ottoman Empire.

== Background ==
{{History of Albania}}
The [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)|1877–78 Russo-Turkish War]] dealt a decisive blow to Ottoman power in the Balkan Peninsula, leaving the empire with only a precarious hold on [[Albania]] and the eastern Balkans. The Albanians' fear that the lands they inhabited would be partitioned among [[Principality of Montenegro|Montenegro]], [[Principality of Serbia|Serbia]], [[Principality of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]], and [[Greece]] fueled the rise of resistance.<ref name="Gawrych38">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|p=38.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi3334"/> The first postwar treaty, the abortive [[Treaty of San Stefano]] signed on March 3, 1878, assigned areas claimed by the League of Prizren to Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria.<ref name="Skendi3334">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=33–34.}}</ref> [[Austria-Hungary]] and the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]] blocked the arrangement because it awarded Russia a predominant position in the Balkans and thereby upset the European [[balance of power in international relations|balance of power]].<ref name="Gawrych4445"/><ref name="Skendi43">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|p=43.}}</ref> A peace conference to settle the dispute was held later in the year in Berlin.<ref name="Gawrych45"/><ref name="Skendi4344"/>

The overall situation influenced Albanians to organize themselves as the Local Councils for National Salvation with the aim to protect the Albanian populated lands.<ref name="Gawrych40">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|p=40.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi36"/> By the end of 1877 the issue of defending territorial integrity had become difficult. On December 13, 1877, the Serbs declared war on Ottoman Empire, as did Montenegro.<ref name="Gawrych39">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|p=39.}}</ref> Both were supported by the Russian Army and spread their attacks across the northern parts of Albania. The Albanians were unable to defend several regions and cities in the northeast and northwest of Albania.<ref name="Gawrych4344">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=43–44.}}</ref> Upon occupation of these lands, the Ottoman administrators (of mainly Albanian origin) fled the territories and/or were expelled. During the Russo-Turkish war, the incoming Serb army [[Expulsion of the Albanians, 1877–1878|expelled most of the Muslim Albanian population]] from the Toplica and Niš regions into Kosovo, triggering the emergence of what became the League of Prizren (1878–1881) as a response to the [[Great Eastern Crisis]].<ref name="Kostov40"/><ref name="Poulton65"/><ref name="Frantz460461">{{cite journal|last=Frantz|first=Eva Anne|title=Violence and its Impact on Loyalty and Identity Formation in Late Ottoman Kosovo: Muslims and Christians in a Period of Reform and Transformation|journal=Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs|volume=29|issue=4|year=2009|pages=460–461|doi=10.1080/13602000903411366|s2cid=143499467}} "In consequence of the Russian-Ottoman war, a violent expulsion of nearly the entire Muslim, predominantly Albanian-speaking, population was carried out in the sanjak of Niš and Toplica during the winter of 1877–1878 by the Serbian troops. This was one major factor encouraging further violence, but also contributing greatly to the formation of the League of Prizren. The league was created in an opposing reaction to the Treaty of San Stefano and the Congress of Berlin and is generally regarded as the beginning of the Albanian national movement.</ref>

Influenced by these events the Local Councils for National Salvation merged into a single coordination body. The Albanians, on December 12, 1877 established in Istanbul the Central Committee for the Defense of Rights of the Albanian Nation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://prizren360.com/en/360foto-en/prizren360/albanian-league-of-prizren |title=Albanian League of Prizren |access-date=2014-11-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715030215/http://prizren360.com/en/360foto-en/prizren360/albanian-league-of-prizren |archive-date=2014-07-15}}</ref><ref name="Gawrych44"/><ref name="Skendi36">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|p=36.}}</ref>

The Treaty of San Stefano triggered profound anxiety among the Albanians and Bosniaks, and it spurred their leaders to organize a defense of the lands they inhabited.<ref name="Gawrych45">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|p=45.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi353847">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=35–38, 47.}}</ref> In the spring of 1877, influential Albanians in [[Constantinople]]{{snd}}including [[Abdyl Frashëri]], the Albanian national movement's leading figure during its early years{{snd}}organized a committee to direct the Albanians' resistance.<ref name="Gawrych44"/> In May the group called for a general meeting of representatives from all the areas where Albanian communities existed during that time.<ref name="Gawrych44">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|p=44.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi3637">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=36–37.}}</ref> The Committee's members were Ali Ibra, Zija Prishtina, [[Sami Frashëri]], [[Jani Vreto]], [[Vaso Pasha]], [[Baca Kurti Gjokaj]] and [[Abdyl Frashëri]].

== Meeting in Prizren ==
{{Further|Kararname (League of Prizren)}}
[[File:Abdyl Frashëri.jpg|175px|thumb|[[Abdyl Frashëri]], leading figure of the League of Prizren movement]]
{{Pull quote|text=We wholeheartedly wish to live in peace with all our neighbours, Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Bulgaria... We do not want and do not ask anything of them, but we are all determined to protect that which is ours.|author=Excerpt from the League of Prizren's platform, 1878|source=<ref name="Bytyci9">{{cite book|last=Bytyçi|first=Enver|title=Coercive Diplomacy of NATO in Kosovo|year=2015|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|isbn=978-1443876681|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IgznBwAAQBAJ&q=wholeheartedly+&pg=PA8|pages=9}}</ref>}}The League of Prizren was created by a group of Albanian intellectuals to resist partition among neighboring Balkan states and to assert an Albanian national consciousness by uniting Albanians into a unitary linguistic and cultural nation.<ref name="Kostov40">{{cite book|last=Kostov|first=Chris|title=Contested Ethnic Identity: The Case of Macedonian Immigrants in Toronto 1900–1996|year=2010|location=Oxford |publisher=Peter Lang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P-1m1FLtrvsC&q=League+of+Prizren|isbn=978-3034301961|pages=40}}</ref><ref name="Poulton65">{{cite book|last=Poulton|first=Hugh|title=Who are the Macedonians?|year=1995|location=Bloomington|publisher=Indiana University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ppbuavUZKEwC&q=League+of+Prizren|isbn=978-1850652380|pages=65}}</ref> During the meeting in Prizren a ''[[Kararname (League of Prizren)|kararname]]'' was signed by 47 beys on June 18, 1878. The document represented an initial position, mainly supported by landlords and individuals related to the Ottoman administration.<ref name="Gawrych46">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|p=46.}}</ref> In Article 1 of this document, these Albanian leaders restated their intention to preserve and maintain the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans by supporting the Porte and "to struggle in arms to defend the wholeness of the territories of Albania". Article 6 of the same document restated the hostility of the [[Albanians]] to the [[independence]] of both [[Bulgaria]] and [[Serbia]]. "We should not allow foreign armies to tread on our land. We should not recognize Bulgaria's name. If Serbia does not leave peacefully the illegally occupied countries, we should send [[bashibazouk]]s (akindjias) and strive until the end to liberate these regions, including Montenegro."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts19/AH1878_2.html|title=1878 The Resolutions of the League of Prizren|first=Robert |last=Elsie |author-link=Robert Elsie |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723010347/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts19/AH1878_2.html |archive-date=July 23, 2011 |url-status=dead|access-date=February 20, 2011 |quote=We will not allow any foreign troops to enter our territory. We will not recognize Bulgaria and do not even wish to hear its name mentioned. If Serbia does not agree to give up the regions it has occupied illegally, we will deploy volunteer corps (akindjiler) against it and do our utmost to bring about the return of these regions. We will do the same with Montenegro.}}</ref>

On the first meeting of the league the decision memorandum (''[[Kararname (League of Prizren)|kararname]]'') said nothing explicitly about reforms, schools, autonomy or the union of the Albanian population within one vilayet.<ref name="Gawrychab4647">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=46–47.}} "a 16 point "decision memorandum" (kararname) said nothing explicitly about reforms, schools, autonomy, nothing even about the unification of the Albanian lands in one vilayet"</ref> It was at first not an appeal for Albanian [[independence]], or even [[autonomy]] within [[Ottoman Empire]] but, as proposed by [[Pashko Vasa]], simply the unification of all claimed territory within one vilayet.<ref name=Elsie>{{Citation |last=Elsie |first=Robert |title=Albanian literature: a short history |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ox3Wx1Nl_2MC&q=%22Memorandum+on+Albanian+Autonomy%22+%22Pashko+Vasa%22&pg=PA81|access-date=January 18, 2011 |year=2005 |publisher=I.B. Tauris in association with the Centre for Albanian Studies |location=London |isbn=978-1-84511-031-4 |page=82|quote=Far from an appeal for Albania independence, or even autonomy within empire, Pashko Vasa proposed simply the unification of Albanian speaking territory within one vilayet, and a certain degree of local government.}}</ref> The participants wanted to return to the status quo before the start of [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)|Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878]].<ref name="Gawrych47"/><ref name="Skendi45">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|p=45.}}</ref> The main aim was to defend from immediate dangers.<ref name="Gawrych47">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|p=47.}}</ref> Soon that position changed radically and resulted in demands of autonomy and open war against the [[Ottoman Empire]] as formulated by Abdyl Frashëri.<ref>{{Citation |last=Kopeček |first=Michal |title=Discourses of collective identity in Central and Southeast Europe (1770–1945)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TpPWvubBL0MC&q=Discourses+of+collective+identity+in+Central+and+Southeast+Europe|access-date=January 18, 2011 |volume=2|year=2006 |publisher=Central European University Press |location=Budapest, Hungary |isbn=978-963-7326-60-8 |quote=Soon after this first meeting,....mainly under the influence of ... Abdyl Frashëri ... new agenda included ... the fonding of an autonomous [[Albanian Vilayet]]}}</ref>

== Berlin Congress ==
[[File:Flag of the Bajrak of Kashnjeti (1878).svg|thumb|150px|Illustration of the flag of the Bajrak of Kashnjeti used at the event is the only surviving flag of that period.]]
{{Pull quote
| text = Just as we are not and do not want to be Turks, so we shall oppose with all our might anyone who would like to turn us into Slavs or Austrians or Greeks, we want to be Albanians.
| author = Excerpt from the League of Prizren memorandum to the British delegation at the Berlin Congress, 1878
| source = <ref name="Merrill229">{{cite book|last=Merrill|first=Christopher|title=Only the nails remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars|year=2001|location=Rowman & Littlefield|publisher=Lanham |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jVY2AAAAQBAJ&q=Serbian+historians+Islam&pg=PA229|isbn=978-1461640417|pages=229}}</ref>
}}In July 1878, the 60 member board of the League of Prizren, led by Abdyl Bey Frashëri, sent a letter to the Great Powers at the Congress of Berlin, asking for the settling of Albanian issues resulting from the Turkish War.<ref name="Gawrych4748" /> The memorandum was ignored by the congress, which recognized the competing claims of Serbia and Bulgaria to territories surrendered by the Ottoman Empire over those of the Albanians.<ref name="Gawrych4849">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=48–49.}}</ref> The League of Prizren feared that the Albanians would not win in their claims to Epirus over Greece, and organized an armed resistance in Gusinje, Shkodra, Prizren, and Yanina.<ref name="Gawrych495053">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=49, 50–53.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi5582">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=55–82.}}</ref> The San Stefano treaty was later superseded by the Treaty of Berlin at the insistence of Austria-Hungary and Britain.<ref name="Gawrych4445">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=44–45.}}</ref> This latter treaty, however, recognized the rival claims of other nations in the region over those of the Albanians.<ref name="Gawrych7071">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=70–71.}}</ref>

The [[Congress of Berlin]] ignored the memorandum from the league with German chancellor [[Otto von Bismarck]] even proclaiming that an Albanian nation did not exist and that Albania was "just a geographic notion".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bogdani|first1=Mirela|last2=Loughlin|first2=John|title=Albania and the European Union: the tumultuous journey towards integration and accession|year=2007|location=London|publisher=IB Tauris|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=32Wu8H7t8MwC&q=Bismarck+albania&pg=PA229|isbn=978-1845113087|pages=299}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=October 2019}} Bismarck showed his disdain for excessive involvement in Balkan affairs, saying "The whole Balkan is not worth the healthy bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Bismark: the Story of a Fighter|last=Ludwig|first=Emil|publisher=Little|year=1927|pages=511}}</ref> The congress ceded to Montenegro the cities of [[Bar, Montenegro|Bar]] and [[Podgorica]] and areas around the mountain towns of [[Gusinje]] and [[Plav, Montenegro|Plav]], which Albanian leaders considered Albanian territory.<ref name="Gawrych496163">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=49, 61–63.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi383951">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=38–39, 51.}}</ref> Serbia also gained some territory with an Albanian population.<ref name="Gawrych49"/> The latter, the vast majority of whom were loyal to the empire, vehemently opposed the territorial losses.<ref name="Gawrych4748">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=47–48.}}</ref>

== Formation ==
[[File:League of Prizren, group photo, 1878.jpg|thumb|250px|Group photo of some of the League of Prizren delegates]]
On June 10, 1878, about eighty delegates, mostly Muslim religious leaders, clan chiefs, and other influential people from the Ottoman ''[[vilayet]]s'' of Kosovo, [[Bitola|Monastir]] and [[Ioannina|Yanina]], met in the city of Prizren, Kosovo (then [[Ottoman Empire]]).<ref name="Gawrych4546">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=45–46.}}</ref> Around 300 Muslims participated on the assembly, including delegates from Bosnia and the mutasarrif (administrator of sanjak) of Prizren as representative of the central authorities, and no delegates from [[Scutari Vilayet]].<ref>{{Citation |last1=Kopecek |first1=Michal |first2=Ahmed|last2=Ersoy|first3=Maciej|last3=Gorni |first4=Vangelis |last4=Kechriotis |first5=Boyan |last5=Manchev |title=Discourses of collective identity in Central and Southeast Europe (1770–1945)|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k5Vsjg508EYC&q=%22albanian+vilayet%22+%22Greater+albania%22&pg=PA349|access-date=January 18, 2011 |volume=1|year=2006 |publisher=Central European University Press |location=Budapest, Hungary|isbn=978-963-7326-52-3 |page=347 |chapter=Program of the Albanian League of Prizren |quote=There were no delegates from Shkodra villayet and a few Bosnian delegates also participated. Present was also mutasarrif (administrator of sandjak) of Prizren as representative of the central authorities}}</ref> The delegates set up a standing organization, the League of Prizren, under the direction of a central committee that had the power to impose taxes and raise an army.<ref name="Skendi3756">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=37, 56.}}</ref> The league of Prizren consisted of two branches: the Prizren and the southern branch.<ref name="Skendi434454">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=43–44, 54.}}</ref> The Prizren branch was led by Iljas Dibra and it had representatives from the areas of Kırçova ([[Kicevo]]), Kalkandelen ([[Tetovo]]), Priştine ([[Pristina|Prishtina]]), Mitroviça ([[Mitrovica, Kosovo|Mitrovica]]), Vıçıtırın ([[Vushtrri]]), Üsküp ([[Skopje]]), Gilan ([[Gjilan]]), Manastır ([[Bitola]]), Debre ([[Debar]]) and [[Gostivar]]. The southern branch, led by [[Abdyl Frashëri]] consisted of sixteen representatives from the areas of [[Kolonjë]], [[Korçë]], [[Arta, Greece|Arta]], [[Berat]], [[Parga]], [[Gjirokastër]], [[Përmet]], [[Paramythia]], [[Filiates]], [[Margariti]], [[Vlorë]], [[Tepelenë]] and [[Delvinë]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Skendi|first=Stavro|title=Beginnings of Albanian Nationalist and Autonomous Trends: The Albanian League, 1878–1881Author|journal=American Slavic and East European Review|volume=12|page=4|jstor=2491677|quote=The southern branch of the League was formed at Gjinokastër (Argyrokastro), where;Albanian leaders held a meeting at which the districts of Janina, Gjirokastër, Delvina, Përmet, Berat, Vlora (Valona), Filat, Margariti, Ajdonat, Parga, Preveza, Arta, Tepelena, Kolonja, and Korca were represented.}}</ref> In these regions the movement was primarily Muslim, due to the fact that most of the Orthodox population was under Greek influence.<ref name="Skendi108">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|p=108.}}</ref> On the other hand, in the northern regions both Muslim and Catholic populations supported the objectives of the League of Prizren.<ref name="Skendi38108">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=38, 108.}} "While in the south the movement of the League was primarily Moslem – most of the Orthodox Christians being under Greek influence – in the north both Moslems and Catholics had made common cause."</ref>

At first the Ottoman authorities supported the League of Prizren, but the [[Sublime Porte]] pressed the delegates to declare themselves to be first and foremost Ottomans rather than Albanians.<ref name="Gawrych4560616567">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=45, 60–61, 65, 67.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi43105">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=43, 105.}}</ref> Some delegates, led by [[Sheikh Mustafa Ruhi Efendi]]<ref>Nuray Bozbora, The Policy of Abdulhamid II Regarding The Prizren League</ref> of [[Kalkandelen]], supported this position and advocated emphasizing Muslim solidarity and the defense of Muslim lands, including present-day [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]]. This initial position of the league, based on the religious solidarity of the [[landlords]] and the people connected with the [[Ottoman Porte|Ottoman administration]] and the religious authorities, was the reason for naming the league The Committee of the Real Muslims ({{langx|sq|Komiteti i Myslimanëve të Vërtetë}}).<ref>{{Citation |last1=Kopecek |first1=Michal |first2=Ahmed|last2=Ersoy|first3=Maciej|last3=Gorni |first4=Vangelis |last4=Kechriotis |first5=Boyan |last5=Manchev |title=Discourses of collective identity in Central and Southeast Europe (1770–1945)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k5Vsjg508EYC&q=%22albanian+vilayet%22+%22Greater+albania%22&pg=PA349|access-date=January 18, 2011 |volume=1|year=2006 |publisher=Central European University Press |location=Budapest, Hungary|isbn=978-963-7326-52-3 |page=348 |quote=The position of the League in the beginning was based on religious solidarity. It was even called ''Komiteti i Myslimanëve të Vërtetë'' (The Committee of the Real Muslims)... decisions are taken and supported mostly by landlords and people closely connected with Ottoman administration and religious authorities..}}</ref> Other representatives, under Frashëri's leadership, focused on working toward Albanian autonomy and establishing and Albanian state by creating a sense of Albanian identity that would cut across religious and tribal lines.<ref name="Gawrych5360">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=53–60.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi89929495">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=89–92, 94–95.}}</ref> The Ottoman state briefly supported the league's claims viewing Albanian nationalism as possibly preventing further territorial losses to newly independent Balkan states.<ref name="PutoMaurizio172">{{cite book|last1=Puto|first1=Artan|last2=Maurizio|first2=Isabella|chapter=From Southern Italy to Istanbul: Trajectories of Albanian Nationalism in the Writings of Girolamo de Rada and Shemseddin Sami Frashëri, ca. 1848–1903|editor1-last=Maurizio|editor1-first=Isabella|editor2-last=Zanou|editor2-first=Konstantina |title=Mediterranean Diasporas: Politics and Ideas in the Long 19th Century|year=2015|location=London|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1472576668|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y2TdCgAAQBAJ&q=League+of+Prizren&pg=PT235|pages=172}} "Within its early decades intellectuals had been primarily concerned with the historical and cultural features of an 'Albanian nation', in the last quarter of the nineteenth and the early twentieth century, Albanian nationalism became more politicized. The Congress of Berlin (1878), which assigned to the newly founded Balkan states, such as Montenegro, Serbia, and Greece, Ottoman territories inhabited by Albanian-speaking populations, prompted more nationally-minded Albanian activists to present demands on behalf of an 'Albanian nation', calling for an autonomous Albanian ''vilayet'' inside the Ottoman Empire, instead of various 'Albanian' lands scattered across a number of vilayets."</ref><ref name="Goldwyn255">{{cite book|last=Goldwyn|first=Adam J.|chapter=Modernism, Nationalism, Albanianism: Geographic Poetry and Poetic Geography in the Albanian and Kosovar Independence Movements|editor1-last=Goldwyn|editor1-first=Adam J.|editor2-last=Silverman|editor2-first=Renée M.|title=Mediterranean Modernism: Intercultural Exchange and Aesthetic Development|year=2016|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1137586568|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F3bhDAAAQBAJ&q=League+of+Prizren|pages=255}}</ref>

== Military resistance ==
[[File:Ali pasha i Prizrenska liga (1).jpg|left|thumb|250px|[[Ali Pasha of Gusinje]] (seated, left) with [[Haxhi Zeka]] (seated, middle) and some other members of the [[Prizren League]]]]
Failing to win their claims on a diplomatic level, Albanians embarked on the route of military conflict with their Balkan neighbors.<ref name="Gawrych4850">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=48–50.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi4344">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=43–44.}}</ref>

The Prizren League had 30,000 armed members under its control, who launched a revolution against the Ottoman Empire after the debacle at the Congress of Berlin and the official dissolution of the League ordered by the Ottomans who feared the League would seek total independence from the empire.<ref name="Skendi379697101107">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=37, 96–97, 101–107.}}</ref> The first military operation of the league was the [[attack against Mehmed Ali Pasha]], the Ottoman marshal who would oversee the transfer of Plav-Gucia area to Montenegro.<ref name="Gawrych49">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|p=49.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi5758">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=57–58.}}</ref> On December 4, 1879 members of the league participated in the [[Battle of Novšiće]] and defeated Montenegrin forces who tried to take control over [[Plav, Montenegro|Plav]] and [[Gusinje]].<ref name="Gawrych6162"/><ref name="Skendi6061">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=60–61.}}</ref><ref name="Balkanologie140">{{cite book|last=Zeitschrift für Balkanologie|title=Volumes 19–20|year=1983|publisher=R. Trofenik|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GHY8AAAAIAAJ&q=Nokshiq|pages=140}} "ihnen auf dem Berliner Kongreß als Gebietsabtretung der Türkei zugesprochen worden waren, militärisch einzunehmen. Die Bewohner des Gebirgstals am oberen Lim verteidigten unter Leitung des Ali Pascha von Gusinje ihre Heimat gegen die Montenegriner. Die historische Schlacht bei Novšiće (alb. Nokshiq) vom 4. Dezember 1879 endete mit einem Sieg der Albanischen Liga; die Montenegriner mußten sich zurückziehen."</ref> After the breakout of open war the League took over control from the Ottomans in the Kosovo towns of [[Vushtrri]], [[Peja]], [[Mitrovica, Kosovo|Mitrovica]], [[Prizren]] and [[Gjakova]].<ref name="Gawrych6667">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=66–67.}}</ref> In 1880, northeastern Albanian delegates proposed creating an autonomous Albanian province, with Monastir or Ohrid as its capital, locally appointed officials, and partial revenue allocation to the Ottoman central government. This proposal, presented by the Prizren League to the sultan, was echoed in an October 1880 assembly in Dibra, which called for Albania's unification. Prominent figures, including Xhemal Bey, Abdul Bey Frashëri, and Dervish Mustafa Efendi, worked to rally support and foster unity across northern and southern Albania.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Ippen |first=Theodor |date=1916 |title=Nineteenth-Century Albanian History |url=http://www.albanianhistory.net/1916_Ippen/index.html#:~:text=Theodor%20Ippen%3A-,Nineteenth%2DCentury%20Albanian%20History,he%20was%20appointed%20vice%2Dconsul. |journal=Texts and Documents of Albanian History}}</ref>

In January 1881, [[Sulejman Vokshi]] of Gjakova led League troops in the capture of Skopje and Prishtina. In February, the League's forces captured Dibra and forced the Ottoman administration to withdraw. Guided by the autonomous movement, the League rejected Ottoman authority and sought complete secession from the Porte.<ref name=":0" />

In August 1878, the Congress of Berlin ordered a commission to trace a border between the Ottoman Empire and Montenegro.<ref name="Gawrych61">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|p=61.}}</ref> The congress also directed Greece and the Ottoman Empire to negotiate a solution to their border dispute.<ref name="Gawrych6068">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=60, 68.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi52">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|p=52.}}</ref> The Albanians' successful resistance to the treaty forced the Great Powers to return [[Gusinje]] and [[Plav, Montenegro|Plav]] to the Ottoman Empire and grant Montenegro the mostly Albanian-populated coastal town of [[Ulcinj]].<ref name="Gawrych6162">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=61–62.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi6162">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=61–64.}}</ref> There the Albanians refused to surrender. Finally, the Great Powers blockaded Ulcinj by sea and pressured the Ottoman authorities to bring the Albanians under control.<ref name="Gawrych6263">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=62–63.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi6568">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=65–68.}}</ref> Albanian diplomatic and military efforts were successful in wresting control of [[Epirus]], however some lands were still ceded to Greece by 1881.<ref name="Gawrych6368">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=63, 68.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi6982">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=69–82.}}</ref> The Great Powers decided in 1881 to cede Greece [[Thessaly]] and the district of [[Arta (regional unit)|Arta]].<ref name="Gawrych68">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|p=68.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi82">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|p=82.}}</ref>

In areas like Kastoria, Prilep, Bitola and Veles where an Albanian population was present, the local Bulgarian movement of the day was defeated when armed Bulgarian groups were repelled by the League of Prizren who opposed Bulgarian geopolitical aims.<ref name="Rama90">{{cite book|last=Rama|first=Shinasi A.|title=Nation Failure, Ethnic Elites, and Balance of Power: The International Administration of Kosova|year=2019|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3030051921|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oJaDDwAAQBAJ&q=Velesht|page=90}}</ref>

The Ottoman Empire sought to suppress the League and they dispatched an army led by Ottoman commander Dervish Pasha, that by April 1881 had captured Prizren and crushed the resistance at the [[Battle of Ulcinj]].<ref name="Gawrych626668">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=62, 66, 68.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi676899103107" /> The leaders of the league and their families were either killed or arrested and deported.<ref name="Gawrych8081" /><ref name="WallerDrezov173" />

== End of the league ==
Faced with growing international pressure to "pacify" the refractory Albanians, the sultan dispatched a large army under Dervish Turgut Pasha to suppress the League of Prizren and deliver [[Ulcinj]] to [[Montenegro]].<ref name="Gawrych62636668">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=62–63, 66–68.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi676899103107"/> This culminated in conflict between the League and the innumerable forces of the Ottomans, particularly the [[Battle of Slivova]], in which a small, poorly-armed force of Albanian resistance fighters were defeated by an Ottoman expeditionary force of 20 battalions, albeit not without great cost for the Ottomans. Albanians who were loyal to the empire supported the Sublime Porte's military intervention. In April 1881, Dervish Pasha's 10,000 men captured Prizren and later crushed the resistance at Ulcinj.<ref name="Gawrych626668"/><ref name="Skendi676899103107">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=67–68, 99, 103–107.}}</ref> The League of Prizren's leaders and their families were arrested and deported.<ref name="Gawrych8081"/><ref name="WallerDrezov173">{{cite book|last1=Waller|first1=Michael|last2=Drezov|first2=Kyril|title=Kosovo: The politics of delusion|year=2001|location=London|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-1135278533|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eVmhAwAAQBAJ&q=League+of+Prizren+families&pg=PA173|pages=173}}</ref> Frashëri, who originally received a death sentence, was imprisoned until 1885 and exiled until his death seven years later.<ref name="Gawrych8081"/><ref name="Skendi105106">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=105–106.}}</ref>

== Legacy ==
{{more citations needed section|date=June 2022}}
[[File:2011 Prizren, Budynek Ligi Prizreńskiej 02.jpg|thumb|230px|The [[Monumental Complex of the Albanian League of Prizren]] from inside the courtyard, and up in the background is the [[Prizren Fortress]]]][[File:League of Prizren, Kosovo.JPG|thumb|230px|View from the street]]
[[File:Legadiprizren.jpg|thumb|230px|League of Prizren Street in [[Santa Cristina Gela]] in honor of the [[Arbëresh]] contribution to Albanian independence]]
Formidable barriers frustrated Albanian leaders' efforts to instill in their people an Albanian rather than an Ottoman identity.<ref name="Gawrych82123"/> Divided into four vilayets, Albanians had no common geographical or political nerve center.<ref name="Gawrych82123">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=8, 21–23.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi89">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|p=89.}}</ref> The Albanians' religious differences forced nationalist leaders to give the national movement a purely secular character that alienated religious leaders. The most significant factor uniting the Albanians, their spoken language, lacked a standard literary form and even a standard alphabet. Each of the three available choices, the Latin, Cyrillic, and Arabic scripts, implied different political and religious orientations opposed by one or another element of the population. In 1878 there were no Albanian-language schools in the most developed of the areas claimed by the League, [[Gjirokastër]], [[Berat]], and [[Vlorë]]{{snd}}where schools conducted classes either in Turkish or in Greek.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

The League of Prizren was among the most obvious Albanian reactions to the dramatic withdrawal of the Albanians' imperial patrons, the Ottoman Empire, after almost four centuries of dominance in the Balkans. The aftermath of the Russo-Turkish war of 1878 produced the Treaty of San Stefano, which recognised the independence and/or territorial claims of Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia. After the Russo-Turkish war of 1877&ndash;1878. Albanian leaders from [[Peja]], [[Gjakova]], [[Gusinje]], [[Luma region|Luma]], and from [[Debar]] and [[Tetovo]] met in [[Vardar Macedonia]] to discuss the development of what would only later be regarded as a national platform. The group of proto-nationalists received all manner of material and financial support from the Ottoman Empire, which was faced with the realities of having to withdraw yet again from its occupied territories in the Balkans. The League of Prizren received funding, the highest quality weaponry, and diplomatic support from the Porte, which established the [[Central Committee for Defending Albanian Rights]] in Constantinople in 1877.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

== Aftermath ==
The [[Ottoman Empire]] continued to crumble after the [[Congress of Berlin]] and Sultan [[Abdül Hamid II]] resorted to repression to maintain order.<ref name="Gawrych9091104105108113139">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=90–91, 104–105, 108–113, 139.}}</ref> The authorities strove without success to control the political situation in the empire's Albanian-populated lands, arresting suspected nationalist activists.<ref name="Gawrych8081">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=80–81.}}</ref> When the sultan refused Albanian demands for unification of the four Albanian-populated vilayets, Albanian leaders reorganized the League of Prizren and incited uprisings that brought the region, especially [[Kosovo]], to near anarchy. During the twenty five years that followed the abolition of the league the various uprisings were local in character and occurred mostly in the northern regions and especially in the [[Vilayet of Kosovo]].<ref name="Skendi213">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|p=213.}} "It can be said that the Albanian insurrections of the first twenty-five years after the abolition of the League of Prizren remained local in character. They occurred mostly in the north, especially in the vilayet of Kosovo."</ref> The imperial authorities disbanded a successor organisation, the [[League of Peja]] ''(Besa-Besë)'' founded in 1897, executed its president [[Haxhi Zeka]] in 1902, and banned Albanian-language books and correspondence.<ref name="Gawrych125127">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=125–127.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi195198">{{harvnb|Skendi|1967|pp=195–198.}}</ref> In Macedonia, where [[Bulgaria]]n-, [[Greece|Greek]]-, and [[Serbia]]n-backed guerrillas were fighting Ottoman authorities and one another for control, Muslim Albanians suffered attacks, and Albanian guerrilla groups retaliated.<ref name="Gawrych131135136">{{harvnb|Gawrych|2006|pp=131, 135–136.}}</ref><ref name="Skendi200204206212">{{cite book|last=Skendi|first=Stavro|title=The Albanian national awakening|year=1967|location=Princeton|publisher=Princeton University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8QPWCgAAQBAJ&q=The+Albanian+National+Awakening&pg=PR15|isbn=978-1400847761|pages=200–204, 206–212}}</ref> In 1905 Albanian leaders meeting in [[Monastir, Ottoman Empire|Monastir]] (Bitola) established the [[Secret Committee for the Liberation of Albania]].<ref name="Gawrych147">{{cite book|last=Gawrych|first=George|title=The crescent and the eagle: Ottoman rule, Islam and the Albanians, 1874–1913|year=2006|location=London|publisher=IB Tauris|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wPOtzk-unJgC&q=The+crescent+and+the+eagle:+Ottoman+rule,+Islam+and+the+Albanians,+1874-1913+lexicon|isbn=978-1845112875|pages=147}}</ref>

While it was active, the league managed to bring Albanian national interests before the Great Powers and paved the way for the League of Peja, which had greater foreign support from both Italy and the Austria-Hungarian Empire.

Despite it ultimate failure, the League of Prizren accomplished a great deal. Both Montenegro and Greece received less Albanian-claimed territory{{when|date=June 2022}} than they would have otherwise received without the organized protest. This was the first step toward a national organization.<ref>{{Cite book
| last = Jelavich
| first = Barbara
| author-link = Barbara Jelavich
| title = History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
| publisher = Cambridge University Press
| year = 1999
| location = Cambridge University
| page = 366
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qR4EeOrTm-0C&q=league+of+prizren&pg=PA366
| isbn = 978-0-521-25249-2}}</ref>

{{Wikisource|Kararname|Kararname (resolutions) of the Prizren Committee for National Defence}}

== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Albanian Vilayet]]
* [[Albanian Committee of Janina]]
* [[Albanian nationalism and independence]]
* [[Central Committee for Defending Albanian Rights]]
* [[Convention of Dibra]]
* [[Expulsion of the Albanians, 1877–1878]]
* [[League of Peja]]
* [[Rilindja Kombëtare]]
* [[Second League of Prizren]]
* [[Third League of Prizren]]
* [[Partition of Albania]]
* [[Treaty of London (1913)]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050211111834/http://www.albanian.com/main/countries/kosova/prizren/ The City of Prizren]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050207020223/http://snd-us.com/history/dusan/index.htm Kosovo Chronicles]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070205192917/http://www.alb-net.com/juka2.htm The Albanians in Yugoslavia in Light of Historical Documents]

{{Albania topics}}
{{Albanians under the Ottoman Empire}}
{{Great Eastern Crisis}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:League Of Prizren}}
[[Category:Organizations established in 1878]]
[[Category:Albanian revolutionary organizations]]
[[Category:Organizations based in Kosovo]]
[[Category:History of Prizren]]
[[Category:Albanian Question]]
[[Category:Kosovo vilayet]]
[[Category:League of Prizren]]
[[Category:History of Kosovo]]
[[Category:Conflicts of the Albanian National Awakening|League of Prizren Secessionist War]]