“Most Muslims in Albania became Muslim as a result of Ottoman rule.”

Until around 1600 the southwestern Balkans remained mostly Christian, either Orthodox or Catholic. In the course of the seventeenth century, most Albanians converted to Islam for various reasons making the region even more religiously diverse.

Until around 1600 the southwestern Balkans remained mostly Christian, either Orthodox or Catholic. In the course of the seventeenth century, most Albanians converted to Islam for various reasons making the region even more religiously diverse.

The Islamization of Albania occurred as a result of the Ottoman conquest of the region beginning in 1385. [1] The Ottomans through their administration and military brought Islam to Albania.

During the Ottoman rule in Albania after 1389, the majority of Albanians converted to Muslims.

Islam arrived in Albania mainly during the Ottoman period when the majority of Albanians over time converted to Islam under Ottoman rule.

A new religion, Islam, had wedged itself between the Catholic north and the Orthodox south of Albania and, with time, became the dominant faith of the country. … The mass conversion of the Albanian population to Islam is all the more understandable in view of the heavy poll taxes (harâç) imposed on the Christian inhabitants of the Empire (râyâ).

Albanians would later on enter in a period of Islamization, starting in the late 14th century and early 15th century, and increasing especially in the 16th and 17th centuries. … The Ottoman authorities did not stress conversion to Islam and the conversion was done initially by Albanian nobles in the end of the 14th century and beginning of 15th one and was gradually accepted by the mass. … In the 16th century and early 17th century, Albanians converted to Islam in large numbers. Within a century, the Muslim Albanian community was the largest religious community in the country, losing their previous entirely Orthodox and Catholic religious identity.

The spread of Islam in Albanian lands was a phenomenon caused by the interaction of a number of factors of different natures: political, economic, cultural and religious. However, many aspects of the policy of the Ottoman state towards the Christian countries included under its rule, and consequently also towards Albania, served as genuine causes that encouraged the process of the spread of the Islamic religion among Albanians.

In this context, the conversion to Islam in Anatolia and the Balkans during the Ottoman epoch is closely related to the development of Islamic society and the institutions of the Muslim state there.

Unlike other neighbouring nations, who accepted Ottoman hegemony but continued to adhere to their traditional confession, among Albanians we observe a gradual change in religious affiliation that began with the settlement of the Ottomans in this area. … Thus, both Ottoman cadastral registers and Western archival documentation testify primarily to a portion of the elites who had converted to the Islamic faith by becoming part of the Ottoman administration and military class, letting us understand that the trend of conversion came from the upper classes towards the common people.

One of the major legacies of nearly five centuries of Ottoman rule was that the majority of Albanians had converted to Islam. Therefore, the nation emerged as a Muslim-majority country after Albania's independence in November 1912.

The great majority of the Albanians, probably more than three-fifths, are Moslems. … The conversion of the Christian population to Islam appears to have taken place during the 16th and 17th centuries.

A complex approach is necessary to find the roots and to understand the phenomenon of the massive conversion of Albanians to Islam throughout the Ottoman period. … The lack of a "national" church, the weak organisation of the Christian churches after the Ottoman conquest, and the establishment of Ottoman rule with a great measure of finality, were the most important factors which caused the gradual process of massive conversion to Islam.

Unlike other neighbouring nations, who accepted Ottoman hegemony but continued to adhere to their traditional confession, among Albanians we observe a gradual change in religious affiliation that began with the settlement of the Ottomans in this area. … The spread of the Islamic faith among Albanians during this time also marked the shaping of their religious map, where the population of this geography now consisted of three major religious groups: Roman Catholic, Christian Orthodox, and Muslim.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, however, economic pressures and coercion produced the conversion of about two-thirds of the empire's Albanians.

By the end of the sixteenth century the Ottoman Empire had reached its political zenith and Albania was now firmly encompassed within it. The coming four centuries of Ottoman colonization changed the face of the country radically. The new religion, Islam, had wedged itself between the Catholic north and the Orthodox south of Albania and, with time, was to become the dominant faith of the country.

In the absence of an Albanian national church, which would have greatly influenced the preservation of religious unity among Albanians, a significant part of the nobility and other classes living in Skopje, Bitola, and other cities of the eastern regions began to embrace Islam en masse.

The most characteristic example is that of Albania, where the religious split between the Northern, predominantly Catholic, and the Southern, Orthodox, part of the country left indelible marks in the religious worldview of the Albanians, the continuous strife between the Papacy and the Patriarchate of Constantinople helped in blurring their religious views and in alienating them from the church.

"Such was also the situation of the Albanians, because Albanians began to convert to the Islamic faith after the conquest, and no one was interested in their ethnicity," he says.

Contemporary historians (Oliver Jens Schmitt, Noel Malcolm, Nathalie Clayer) argue that Islamization lasted about 4-5 centuries. Conversion often started from the top down, mainly among the elites who aimed to preserve their wealth and pursue military or administrative careers.

The article concerns the beginnings of the organization of the Ottoman system in Albanian lands from the late fourteenth to the mid-fifteenth century.

The text examines the islamization of Albanian populations in Kosovo and Macedonia during the Ottoman period.

The Albanians, the vast majority loyal to the empire, vehemently opposed the territorial losses.

The Albanians, because of the preponderance of Muslims link with Islam and their internal social divisions, were the last of the Balkan peoples to develop a national consciousness, which was triggered by fears that the Ottoman Empire would lose its Albanian-populated lands to the emerging Balkan states--Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Greece.