Talk:Moscopole

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Macrakis, do you have any source on Albanians in Voskopoja? From the sources I read, back then there was no significant Albanian population in the city. bogdan 19:11, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

See page 9 of [1]:

Orthodox culture in eighteenth-century Albania is intimately linked to the rise of the city Voskopojë.... Many Greek scholars of note came to teach at Voskopojë among the Aromunians, who made up the majority of the population, the Albanians and the Greeks.

The multilingual glossaries published there (Kavaliotis, Daniil) also indicate that Albanian was one of the local languages. I'd be happy to see more sources. --Macrakis 20:59, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

I don't dispute the fact that there were Albanians or Greeks in Voskopoja. All Balkan commercial towns had lots of ethnicities at the time, it's just that most sources say Voskopoja was overwhelmingly Aromanian.

Johann Thunmann (1746-1778) who actually visited the town said that "everyone" in the city spoke Aromanian and many also spoke Greek.

Maria N. Todorova wrote in "Balkan Identities: Nation and Memory" (2004):

"My Aromanian interviewees referred to Voskopoja as formerly exclusively Aromanian/Vlach, highly developed, urban centre of Balkan trading."

bogdan 21:26, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

What current Aromanian informants say isn't very helpful for the 18th century -- and we have to be careful of ethnic boosterism, as Peyfuss points out:

Peyfuß offers a refreshingly critical review of the town's rise and history, noting that much of the literature on Moschopolis is unreliable and influenced by wishful thinking on the part of mostly nationalist authors from the Balkans. As an historian he relies on the facts as far as they can be determined.

(from cited Elsie review) I have no axe to grind here. It is clear that Moschopolis was destroyed by Muslim Albanians; the role of Christian Albanians seems less clear, and I'd be happy to see more evidence one way or the other. (see also http://www.farsarotul.org/nl17_1.htm -- nothing decisive, but interesting) --Macrakis 21:32, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Moscopole or Voskopoja

Both the Swedish & Deutch Wiki use the Albanian name Voskopoja for the article, and not the Greek one. The Albanian name Voskopoja also have more google hits than the Greek name Moscopole! Plus the city is situated in Albania not Greece!

--Albanau 12:32, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Albanau this article refers mainly to the 18th century commercial center not to the poor little village it is nowadays. It's name back then was Moscopole, i think we have all agreed on that. Also... uhmmm Greece? this city was MAINLY part of Aromanian history not Greek or Albanian and Moscopolea is how they call it.86.104.216.79 13:08, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

Voskopoja also is a Greek-origin name Voskos shepherd and poli city poja(slavicized or aromanized maybe)