Albania

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (Retd.)

---

Map of Albania

Albania is a country in South-eastern Europe. It is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic with the capital in Tirana, the country's most populous city and main economic and commercial centre.

Variants

• Albanians (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 155, 161, 164.)
• Albani (Pliny.vi.11)
• Albania = "mountainous country"
• Labania = Albania
• Lavana = Albania

Jat Gotras Namesake

• Albal = Albani (Pliny.vi.11)
• Labana = Labania = Albania (Pliny.vi.11)
• Lun = Labania = Albania (Pliny.vi.11)
• Nun = Lavana = Albania (Pliny.vi.11)

Jat Gotras Namesake

• Albal = Albanians (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 155, 161, 164.)

• Labana = Labania = Albanians (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 155, 161, 164.)

• Lun = Labania = Albanians (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 155, 161, 164.)

• Nun = Lavana = Albanians (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 155, 161, 164.)

Location

Albania lies in the southwestern portion of the Balkan Peninsula bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east, and Greece to the south and southeast. Most of the country is mountainous, including the Albanian Alps in the north, the Korab Mountains in the east, the Ceraunian Mountains in the south and the Skanderbeg Mountains in the center. The country's coast touches the Adriatic Sea to the northwest and the Ionian Sea to the southwest including the Albanian Riviera. It is less than 72 km (45 mi) from Italy across the Strait of Otranto that connects the Adriatic to the Ionian.

Geography

The country spans 28,748 square kilometres (11,100 square miles) and had a total population of 3 million people as of 2016. It is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic with the capital in Tirana, the country's most populous city and main economic and commercial centre. The country's other major cities include Durrës, Vlorë, Sarandë, Shkodër, Berat, Korçë, Gjirokastër and Fier.

Birthplace of Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa, the Nobel Prize winner, was born in Albania. She spent most of her life in Calcutta, India, where she established the Missionaries of Charities trust.

History

Alexander Cunningham mentions: Albania in Panjab, identified with Labania or the Sanskrit Lavana (salt), 157 ; famous for its fighting dogs, 157......Now, we know from the united testimony of Strabo, Diodorus, and Curtius, that the Indian king who presented Alexander with these fighting dogs was Sophites, and he, therefore, must have been the king of Albania. For this name I propose to read Labania, by the simple transposition of the first two letters. AABAN would, therefore, become AABAN, which at once suggests the Sanskrit word lavana, or ' salt,' as the original of this hitherto puzzling name. The mountain itself is named Orumenus by Pliny, who notes that the kings of the country [p.158]: derived a greater revenue from the rock salt than from either gold or pearls. This name is probably intended for the Sanskrit Raumaka, which, according to the Pandits, is the name of the salt brought from the hill country of Ruma. H. H. Wilson, however, identifies Ruma with Sambhar ;¹ and as rauma means " salt," it is probable that the term may have been applied to the Sambhar lake in Rajasthan, as well as to the Salt Range of hills in the Panjab.

Jat History

• Zete - Yugoslavia, Montenegro, Albania, Serbia (List of variants of Jat )

Mention by Pliny

Pliny mentions Albania, Iberia, and The Adjoining Nations....The whole plain which extends away from the river Cyrus is inhabited by the nation of the Albani¹, and, after them,² by that of the Iberi³, who are separated from them by the river Alazon⁴, which flows into the Cyrus from the Caucasian chain.

---

1 According to Strabo, Albania was bounded on the east by the Caspian, and on the north by the Caucasus. On the west it joined Iberia, while on the south it was divided from the Greater Armenia by the river Cyrus. By later writers, the northern and western boundaries are differently given. It was found to be the fact that the Albani occupied the country on both sides of the Caucasus, and accordingly Pliny, in c. 15, carries the country further north, as far as the river Casius, while in this Chapter he makes the river Alazon, the modern Alasan, the western boundary towards Iberia. To the west of Albania.

2 To the west of Albania

3 Iberia lay south of the great chain of the Caucasus, forming an extensive tract bounded on the west by Colchis, on the east by Albania, and on the south by Armenia, and watered by the river Cyrus. It corresponded very nearly with modern Georgia.

4 The modern Alasan.

Mention by Pliny

Pliny mentions 'The Caspian Sea and Hyrcanian Sea.'....Bursting through, this sea makes a passage from the Scythian Ocean into the back of Asia,¹ receiving various names from the nations which dwell upon its banks, the two most famous of which are the Caspian and the Hyrcanian races. Clitarchus is of opinion that the Caspian Sea is not less in area than the Euxine. Eratosthenes gives the measure of it on the south-east, along the coast of Cadusia² and Albania, as five thousand four hundred stadia; thence, through the territories of the Anariaci, the Amardi, and the Hyrcani, to the mouth of the river Zonus he makes four thousand eight hundred stadia, and thence to the mouth of the Jaxartes³ two thousand four hundred; which makes in all a distance of one thousand five hundred and seventy-five miles. Artemidorus, however, makes this sum smaller by twenty-five miles.

---

1 His meaning is, that the Scythian Ocean communicates on the northern shores of Asia with the Caspian Sea. Hardouin remarks, that Patrocles, the commander of the Macedonian fleet, was the first to promulgate this notion, he having taken the mouth of the river Volga for a narrow passage, by means of which the Scythian or Northern Ocean made its way into the Caspian Sea

2 The country of the Cadusii, in the mountainous district of Media Atropatene, on the south-west shores of the Caspian Sea, between the parallels of 390 and 370 north latitude. This district probably corresponds with the modern district of Gilan.

3 Now the Syr-Daria or Yellow River, and watering the barren steppes of the Kirghiz-Cossacks. It really discharges itself into the Sea of Aral, and not the Caspian.

Mention by Pliny

Pliny mentions 'The Caspian Sea and Hyrcanian Sea.'....At the entrance, on the right hand side,⁹ dwell the Udini, a Scythian tribe, at the very angle of the mouth. Then along¹⁰ the coast there are the Albani, the descendants of Jason, it is said; that part of the sea which lies in front of them, bears the name of ' Albanian.' This nation, which lies along the Caucasian chain, comes down, as we have previously stated,¹¹ as far as the river Cyrus, which forms the boundary of Armenia and Iberia. Above the maritime coast of Albania and the nation of the Udini, the Sarmatæ, the Utidorsi, and the Aroteres stretch along its shores, and in their rear the Sauromatian Amazons, already spoken of¹².

---

10 He here means the western shores of the Caspian, after leaving the mouth of the Volga.

11 In c. 11.

12 See the end of c. 14.

10 He here means the western shores of the Caspian, after leaving the mouth of the Volga.

11 In c. 11.

12 See the end of c. 14.

External Links

Albania at Wikipedia

---