Toptani family explained
| Toptani |
| Crest: | Stema e Toptanëve.svg |
| Caption: | Coat of arms |
| Region: | Central Albania |
| Origin: | Krujë |
| Estate: | 50,000 hectares between Durres and Tirana |
The Toptani were a leading noble family in central Albania at the beginning of the 20th century.[1] They belonged to a small number of noble families appointed by the Ottomans who used local chieftains to control Ottoman Albania more easily.[2] Essad Pasha Toptani, a family patriarch, claimed that the family descended from the Thopia family.[3] According to some sources, the name is derived from the word top, which means cannon, as the family owned a cannon at a time when artillery was rare.[4]
Estates
The Toptani family initially lived in Krujë before moving to Tirana during the 17th century, when many sipahis moved from rural regions of the Ottoman Empire to cities.[5] Their move from Krujë to Tirana probably contributed to the development of sharecropping in Albania.[6]
The Toptani family possessed around 50,000 hectares near Tirana and Durrës[7] and remained one of the main landowners until the end of the Second World War.[8]
In July 2023, it was announced that Oppenheim Architecture had won the competition to restore Albania's Besa Museum housed in Tirana's Former House of Toptani Family, aiming to showcase Albania's historic Besa code and its role in providing refuge, from the Holocaust to contemporary times.[9]
Notable members
Notable members of the family include:
[10]
External links
Notes and References
- Book: Elsie, Robert. Robert Elsie. A Biographical Dictionary of Albanian History. 24 December 2012. I.B.Tauris. 978-1-78076-431-3. 444. ... the leading Toptani family of central Albania,....
- Book: Gawrych, George. The Crescent and the Eagle: Ottoman Rule, Islam and the Albanians, 1874-1913. 26 December 2006. I.B.Tauris. 978-1-84511-287-5. 85.
- Book: Durham, M. Edith. Albania and the Albanians: Selected Articles and Letters, 1903-1944. 22 July 2005. I.B.Tauris. 978-1-85043-939-4. 12. Essad Bey Toptani, of Tirana, was the head of the Toptani family, who claim descent, though with little proof, from the Chieftain Topias, and are believed to have been exterminated by the Turks when they overthrew Albania. .
- Book: Price, George Ward. The Story of the Salonica Army. 1918. E. J. Clode. 310. He comes of an old Albanian family called the Toptani. (Top means cannon; his family once had a gun at a time when artillery was rare.).
- Book: Braudel, Fernand. Fernand Braudel. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. 1995. University of California Press. 978-0-520-20330-3. 724.
- Book: Stoianovich, Traian. Traian Stoianovich. Between East and West: The Balkan and Mediterranean Worlds. 1992. A.D. Caratzas. 978-0-89241-501-4. 26.
- Book: Roszkowski, Wojciech. Wojciech Roszkowski. Land reforms in East Central Europe after World War One. 1995. Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences. 51.
- Book: Oakley-Hill. Dayrell. Smiley. David. David Smiley. An Englishman in Albania: memoirs of a British officer 1929-1955. 2002. Centre for Albanian Studies. 978-1-903616-20-8. 228.
- Web site: 2023-07-27 . Oppenheim Architecture Wins Competition to Restore the Besa Museum in Albania . 2024-06-18 . ArchDaily . en-US.
- https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q56478691
