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Souliotes (Template:Lang-el, Template:Lang-sq, also spelled Souliots or Suliots) were a warlike ethnically Albanian community, that became assimilated into the Greek nation. They established an autonomous association of villages resisting Ottoman rule in 18th and 19th-century in Souli, Epirus. They belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church and to the Cham branch of Albanians.

The community became famous across Albania and Greece for the successful resistance against the local Ottoman Pashalik of Janina, ruled by Ali Pasha, an Albanian brigand. After their defeat in 1803, Souliotes were forced to move to other parts of Greece, and many of them later became active in the Greek War of Independence starting in 1821, under leaders such as Markos Botsaris and Kitsos Tzavelas.

Souliotes originally spoke their own subbranch of Cham Albanian dialect and eventually became bilingual in Albanian and Greek. After their assimilation, occurred a language shift to Greek, while Souliotic became an extinct dialect.

Geography

Souliotes were named after the village of Souli, a mountain settlement in Thesprotia, Greece, which derives from the Albanian word suli, meaning "mountain summit". Souli is a community originally settled by refugees who were hunted by the Ottomans in Paramythia, Thesprotia, Greece. In early modern times, it was inhabited by about 12,000 Souliotes. After their expulsion, the population of the region was significantly reduced. In the last Greek census of 2001, the population of the community was 748. The seat of the community is in Samonida. The core of Souli were four villages (Template:Lang-el), namely: Souli (also known as Kakosouli), Kiafa, Avariko and Samonida, which are believed to have been founded some time around 1600 AD.

History

Souliote confederation

The Souliotes established an autonomous confederacy dominating a large number of neighbouring villages in the remote mountainous areas of Epirus, where they could successfully resist Ottoman rule. At the height of its power, in the second half of the 18th century, the Souliot state is estimated to have comprised up to 12,000 inhabitants in about 60 villages.

Wars

The Ottoman Turks attempted numerous times to conquer the territories of the Souliot Confederacy. The first conflicts between the Souliotes and the Ottomans date back to 1635, if not earlier. In 1731, Hadji Ahmed, pasha of Ioannina, received orders from the Sultan to subdue the Souliotes and he lost his army of 8000 men. In 1754, Mustafa Pasha lost his army to the Souliotes too. In the following years, Mustafa Kokka came in with 4000 soldiers and Bekir Pasha with 5000. In the end, both failed to defeat the Souliotes.

In 1759, Dost Bey, commander of Dhelvinou, was defeated by the Souliotes and Mahmoud Aga of Margariti, the governor of Arta, suffered the same fate in 1762. In 1772, Suleyman Tsapari attacked the Souliotes with his army of 9000 men and was defeated. In 1775, Kurt Pasha sent a military expedition to Souli that ultimately failed. When Ali became pasha of Ioannina in 1788, he tried for 15 years to destroy the Souliotes. In 1792, his army of 3000 was eliminated. Although he had hostages (such as Fotos Tzavellas who was the son of Lambros Tzavellas), the Souliotes fought bravely under the command of Georgios Botsaris, Lambros Tzavellas, and Dimos Drakos. Even women under the command of Moscho (Lambros Tzavellas' wife) participated in the battle. Eventually, 2000 Ottomans and 74 Souliotes were killed.

The Souliotes obtained all of their supplies from Parga, and also acquired support from Europe. Russia and France provided weapons and ammunition to them. For the European powers, the Souliotes were seen as an instrument to weaken the Ottoman Empire. When the British politicians turned to the Ottoman Empire in order to strengthen their forces against Napoleon, the weapons and ammunition supplies were interrupted. Without support from outside and wearied by years of siege, the unity of the Souliot clans started to split. The Botsaris family for political reasons left Souli and parleyed with Ali Pasha. However, the remaining Souliotes in Souli gathered together in Saint George's Orthodox Church and decided either to win or die. The remaining Souliotes numbered at no more than 2000 armed men. The main leaders were Fotos Tzavellas, Dimos Drakos, Tousas Zervas, Koutzonikas, Gogkas Daglis, Yiannakis Sehos, Fotomaras, Tzavaras, Veikos, Panou, Zigouris Diamadis, and Yorgos Bousbos. The Souliotes won all of the decisive battles, which forced Ali Pasha to build castles in neighboring villages so as to prepare himself for a long siege. The Souliotes stayed without food and ammunition, but they could have held longer if not for a traitor named Pelios Gousis who helped the Ottomans to enter into the village of Souli. The Souliotes withdrew to the fortresses of Kiafa and Kughi, where they fought their last battle on December 7, 1803. They eventually capitulated and Ali Pasha promised to release them with all of their property and even weapons to the Ionian Islands.

On December 12, 1803, the Souliotes left Souli towards the coast of Epirus. A monk named Samuel remained in Kughi and set fire to the powder magazines with a massive explosion that cost him his life. In the meantime, the Ottoman army attacked the other Souliotes, neglecting the promises Ali Pasha had made to them. In a famous incident on December 16, 1803, the so-called Dance of Zalongo, 22 Souliot women were trapped by enemy troops and committed suicide to avoid capture. According to tradition they did this by jumping off a steep cliff one after the other while dancing and singing. Other Souliotes also reached the harbor of Parga, which was under Russian control at the time. The Souliotes either settled down in Parga or set off for the Ionian Islands.

Diaspora

Many Souliotes entered service with the Russians on Corfu, where they became an important component of the Legion of Light Riflemen. This was a regiment of irregulars organized by the Russians among mainland refugees; it not only included Souliotes, but also Himariotes, Maniots, klephts (Greek bandits) and armatoloi (Greek anti-klepht militias created by the Ottomans that actually supported the klephts). The Souliotes participated in campaigns in Naples in 1805, Tenedos in 1806, Dalmatia in 1806, and during the defense of Lefkada in 1807.

With the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807 and the détente between Russia and France, the Russian forces withdrew from the Ionian Islands and the French occupied them. The Souliotes and other components of Russian units entered service with the French in a unit known as the Albanian Regiment (Régiment Albanaise). During the Anglo-French struggle over the Ionian Islands between 1810 and 1814, the Souliotes in French service faced off against other refugees organized by the British into the Greek Light Infantry Regiment. Since the Souliotes were mostly garrisoned on Corfu, which remained under French control until 1814, very few entered British service.

The British disbanded the remnants of the Souliot Regiment in 1815 and subsequently decommissioned their own two Greek Light Regiments. This left many of the Souliotes and other military refugees without livelihoods. In 1817, a group of veterans of Russian service on the Ionian Islands traveled to Russia to see if they could get patents of commission and employment in the Russian army. While unsuccessful in this endeavor, they joined the Philike Etaireia ("Company of Friends"), the secret society founded in Odessa in 1814 for the purpose of liberating Greek lands from Ottoman rule. They returned to the Ionian Islands and elsewhere and began to recruit fellow veterans into the Philike Etaireia, including a number of Souliot leaders.

When there were clear signs for the beginning of a Greek insurrection against Turkish rule, Ali Pasha saw an opportunity to make Epirus into an independent state. In 1820, he called upon the Souliotes for help, and they returned to the mainland to support their former enemy against the Sultan. However, Ali Pasha's plans failed and he was killed while the Turks occupied Ioannina. The Souliotes eventually gave their support for the Greek Revolution, which started on March 25, 1821. The Souliot leaders Markos Botsaris and Kitsos Tzavellas became famous generals in the Greek War of Independence. Many Souliotes lost their lives while defending the city of Messolongi. Lord Byron, the most prominent European philhellene volunteer and commander-in-chief of the Greek army in Western Greece, tried to integrate the Souliotes into a regular army. Until 1909, the Turks kept a military base on the fortress of Kiafa. Finally in 1913, during the Balkan Wars, the Ottomans lost Epirus and the southern part of the region became part of the Greek state.

Clans

• Antonopoulou (akin to the Botsaris clan; from Vervitsa/Tropaia)
• Kapralaioi (resettled in Messenia)
• Setaioi (resettled in Messenia)
• Douskaioi (resettled in Messenia)
• Dentaioi (resettled in Messenia)
• Tzavaraioi (resettled in Arcadia)
• Zervaioi (resettled in Boetia)

See also

• Dance of Zalongo
• Greek War of Independence
• Pashalik of Janina
• Cham Albanians
• Mandritsa

References

1. ^ Culture, Civilization, and Demarcation at the Northwest Borders of Greece. Laurie Kain Hart. American Ethnologist, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Feb., 1999), pp. 196-220. (article consists of 25 pages). Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association "To begin with, the Suliotes (celebrated by Byron and in Greek national history for their role in the liberation of Greece) were a "branchof the Tchamides, one of the three great divisions of the Tosks" (Finlay 1939:42)-in other words they initially spoke Albanian."
2. Great Britain Naval Intelligence Division, Henry Clifford Darby, Greece, University Press, 1944. "...who belongs to the Cham branch of south Albanian tosks (see volume I, pp.363-5).In the mid-eighteenth century these people (the Souliotes)were a semi-autonomous community..."
3. Richard Clogg, Minorities in Greece: Aspects of a Plural Society, 2002 ISBN 1850657068, 9781850657064 "The Souliotes were a warlike Albanian Christian community, which resisted Ali Pasha in Epirus in the years immediately preceding the outbreak the Greek War of Independence"
4. ^ Miranda Vickers, The Albanians: A Modern History, I.B.Tauris, 1999, ISBN 1860645410, 9781860645419 "The Suliots, then numbering around 12,000, were Christian Albanians inhabiting a small independent community somewhat akin to tat of the Catholic Mirdite trive to the north
5. ^ Nicholas Charles Pappas, Greeks in Russian Military Service in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries, Institute for Balkan Studies, 1991
6. Katherine Elizabeth Fleming, The Muslim Bonaparte: Diplomacy and Orientalism in Ali Pasha's Greece, Princeton University Press, 1999, ISBN 0691001944, ISBN 9780691001944 "The history of the orthodox albanian peoples of the mountain stronghold of Souli provides an example of such an overlap"
7. Gerolymatos, p. 141. "The Suliot dance of death is an integral image of the Greek revolution and it has been seared into the consciousness of Greek schoolchildren for generations. Many youngsters pay homage to the memory of these Orthodox Albanians each year by recreating the event in their elementary school pageants."
8. Balázs Trencsényi, Michal Kopecek. Discourses of Collective Identity in Central and Southeast Europe (1770-1945): The Formation of National Movements, Published by Central European University Press, 2006, ISBN 963732660X, 9789637326608 p. 173 "The Souliotes were Albanian by origin and Orthodox by faith"
9. Giannēs Koliopoulos, John S. Koliopoulos, Thanos Veremēs. Greece: The Modern Sequel : from 1831 to the Present Edition: 2 Published by C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2004 ISBN 185065462X, 9781850654629 p. 184 describes Souliotes as "Orthodox and partly hellenized Albanian tribes".
10. Eric Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality Edition: 2, Published by Cambridge University Press, 1992 ISBN 0521439612, 9780521439619 p. 65
11. NGL Hammond, Epirus: the Geography, the Ancient Remains, the History and Topography of Epirus and Adjacent Areas, Published by Clarendon P., 1967, p. 31 "The Liaps held the area from Valona to Delvine and inland to Tepelene; the tsams from Delvine to Souli and inland to Ioannina and Pogoniani"
12. Helen Angelomatis-Tsougarakis, The Eve of the Greek Revival: British Travellers' Perceptions of Early Nineteenth-century Greece, Published by Taylor & Francis, 1990, ISBN 0415034825, 9780415034821
13. William Miller, The Ottoman Empire and Its Successors, 1801-1927, Published by Routledge, 1966, ISBN 0714619744, 9780714619743
14. Arnakis, George C. "The Role of Religion in the Development of Balkan Nationalism", pp. 118-119, 141 (Jelavich, Barbara and Jelavich, Charles. The Balkans in Transition: Essays on the Development of Balkan Life and Politics since the Eighteenth Century. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1963).
15. Batalden, Stephen K. Catherine II's Greek prelate: Eugenios Voulgaris in Russia, 1771-1806. East European Monographs, 1982, ISBN 0880330066, p. 142.
16. Elsie, Robert (1986), Dictionary of Albanian Literature, London, United Kingdom: Greenwood Press, p. 17, ISBN 0-313-25186-X, retrieved 2009-03-31 {{citation}}: More than one of |pages= and |page= specified (help); Unknown parameter |ean= ignored (help)
17. Jochalas, T. To hellêno-albanikon lexikon tu Marku Mpotzarê. Filologikê ekdosis ek tu autografu hypo Titu P. Giochala (Pragmateiai tês Akadêmias Athênôn, 46, Athens, 1980).
18. Gawrych, George Walter (2006). The Crescent and the Eagle. I.B.Tauris. p. 103. ISBN 1-845-11287-3. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
19. Babiniotis, G. Λεξικό της Νέας Ελληνικής Γλώσσας. Athens, 1998.
20. ^ Biris, K. Αρβανίτες, οι Δωριείς του νεότερου Ελληνισμού: H ιστορία των Ελλήνων Αρβανιτών. . Athens, 1960 (3rd ed. 1998: ISBN 9602040319).
21. PDF "(875 KB) 2001 Census" (in Greek). National Statistical Service of Greece (ΕΣΥΕ). www.statistics.gr. Retrieved on 2007-10-30.
22. Biris (1960: 285ff.) Cf. also K. Paparigopoulos (1925), Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Εθνους, Ε-146.
23. ^ Suli - Epirus
24. Kapralos, Ch. Αρκαδικοί θρύλοι. p. 160. Η οικογένεια του Αντωνόπουλου (Μποτσαραίοι) κατάγονται από το Σούλι σύμφωνα με κάποια παράδοση.
25. Kapralos, Ch. Αρκαδικοί θρύλοι. p. 70. Μα και οι Καπραλαίοι, προερχόμενοι από την Ήπειρο, έμειναν στη Μεσσηνία για κάποιο χρονικό διάστημα.
26. The National Historical Museum. Euthymia Papaspyrou-Karadēmētriou, Maria Lada-Minōtou, Ethniko Historiko Mouseio (Greece). Historical and Ethnological Society of Greece, 1994. ISBN 9608557305

A History of Greece: The Greek revolution, pt. 1, A.D. 1821-1827

By George Finlay

Part 1, Book I, Chapter II page 43 ……… Several warlike Christian tribes still retained the privilege of bearing arms in Albania. In northern Albania these tribes were Catholic, but in southern Albania they were orthodox; and among the orthodox the Suliots were pre-eminent for their warlike qualities, even among the warlike population by which they were surrounded. The Suliots were a branch of the Tchamides, one of the three great divisions of the Tosks. The constitution of their community deserves notice. The Suliots inhabited a district consisting of steep ranges of bare and precipitous mountains, overlooking the course of the Acheron ; that river, uniting with the Cocytus in its lower course, forms a marshy lake, and renders the country at its mouth so unhealthy that it was considered the shortest road to the realms beyond the grave. In the immediate vicinity of Suli the mountains afford only a scanty pasture for goats ; but when they ascend, broad ridges spread out covered with oaks; and when they rise still higher, their loftier summits protrude in rocky peaks above forests of pine. The strength of Suli lay in the difficulty of approaching it with a large body of men, and of attacking well-trained riflemen in stone buildings without artillery. The deep and dark ravine of the Acheron renders Suli inaccessible in front. The lair of the Suliots lies imbedded in a lateral valley covered by two rocky hills, where a confluent joins the black THE SULIOTS. page 43 Bk.I.Ch.II.] waters of the Acheronl. The approach is by a gorge lower down, called Kleisura, which separates the mountain fastnesses from the fertile plains. Under the Byzantine emperors it appears that the rich and well-watered soil of the lower valleys maintained a numerous population. The district was once a bishop's see, whose cathedral church stood near the entrance of the Kleisura. At present the former population is represented by the Mussulman proprietors of Paramythia and Margariti. When Sultan Murad II. conquered Joannina, the whole country, to the shores of the Ionian Sea, submitted to Mussulman domination. The territory afterwards occupied by the Suliots was granted as a military fief to a timariot, who resided at Joannina. Christian liberty and Suliot independence were in this district the growth of later years. For centuries the Christians paid haratch and the tribute of their children. The anarchy that prevailed during the victorious campaigns of the Venetians under Morosini, and the cession of the Morea by the treaty of Carlovitz in 1699, compelled many Christians to form armed companies for their protection against lawless bands of brigands. As the orthodox Greeks were at that time generally as little disposed to oppose the sultan's government as they were to unite with the Catholic Venetians, the pashas of Albania and northern Greece favoured the military ardour of the orthodox communities. Some of the companies of armed Christians, which have been confounded with the ancient armatoli, date only from this period, and the community of the Suliots cannot be traced to an earlier origin. In the year 1730 the number of Suliot families which enjoyed the privilege of bearing arms was estimated at one hundred. The precise year when the right was officially recognized by the pasha of Joannina is not kgown. The armed Suliots were the guards of a small Christian district over which they exercised the authority of feudal superiors. Their own property was small, but they formed a military caste, and despised all labour as much as the proudest Mussulman. The soil in the richest portion of their territory was cultivated by peasants, who were of the Greek race. The [Bk. I. Ch. II. 1 name of Suliots was reserved for the Albanian warriors, who ruled and protected the agricultural population like the ancient Spartans. The peasants were distinguished by the name of the village in which they dwelt. Anarchy prevailed in the greater part of southern Albania during the early part of the eighteenth century, and many Christians of the tribe of the Tchamides took refuge with the Suliot community. Its protection prevented the Mussulman communities in the neighbourhood from encroaching on the rights of .any Christians who acknowledged themselves its vassals. But about the middle of the century they extended this protection so far as to become involved in feuds with their Mussulman neighbours. The hostilities which ensued induced the Suliots to recruit their force by admitting every daring and active young Christian of the tribe of the Tchamides to serve in their ranks. If any of these volunteers distinguished himself by his courage, and was fortunate enough to gain booty as well as honour, he was admitted a member of the Suliot community, and allowed to marry a maiden of Suli. In this way the community increased in numbers and in power. It was favoured by the sultan's government, as a check on the lawless independence of the Mussulman communities of Paramythia and Margariti; and it was supplied with arms and ammunition, and encouraged to defend its independence, by the Venetian governors of Parga and Prevesa. Many attacks were made on Suli by the Mussulman agas of the vicinity, but they were always repulsed with such success that the Suliots gradually acquired the reputation of being the best warriors among the warlike Tosks. The state of Suli now became an epitome of the state of Albania. The community was divided into pharas. The chiefs of the pharas formed alliances abroad in order to increase th,eir influence at home, and the pharas were sometimes involved in civil broils. The assistance of the principal pharas was often solicited and richly remunerated by the neighbouring Mussulmans in their private feuds. The Suliot leaders, like the other Albanian chiefs of pharas, collected as many armed followers as possible; but their revenues were scanty, and the constitution of the Suliot community was democratic, so that the only way to reward followers was to make successful forays on the lands of those neighbours who ALI PASHA AND THE SULIOTS. page 45 Bk.I. Ch.II.] refused to purchase immunity from depredation. Like most Highlanders who dwell on barren mountains overlooking fertile plains, they levied contributions with unsparing rapacity whenever they could do so with impunity. Depredation they honoured with the name of war, and war they considered to be the only honourable occupation for a true Suliot. The poverty of the territory which the Suliots held in property, and their numbers, compared with the revenues of the district over which their protection extended, rendered it impossible for them to subsist in idleness without plundering their neighbours……

• Greek War of Independence
• Albanian people
• Greek people