page_title: League of Prizren
section_title: Formation
hierarchical_section_title: League of Prizren / Meeting in Prizren / Formation
caption_attribution_description: English: League of Prizren, group photo, 1878. Baca Kurti standing second from the right. Shqip: aca Kurti - i dyti nga e djathta (në këmbë) me pjesëmarrësit e Lidhjes Shqiptare të Prizrenit.
context_page_description: The League of Prizren, officially the League for the Defense of the Rights of the Albanian Nation, was an Albanian political organization officially founded on June 10, 1878 in the old town of Prizren, in the Kosova Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire, and suppressed in 1881.
  The treaties of San Stefano and Berlin both assigned areas that were also inhabited by Albanians to other states. The inability of the Porte to protect the interests of a region that was 70 percent Muslim and largely loyal forced the Albanian leaders not only to organize their defense, but also to consider creation of an autonomous administration, like those Serbia and the other Danubian Principalities had enjoyed before their independence.
  The league was established at the meeting of 47 Ottoman beys. An initial position of the league was presented in the document known as Kararname. With this document Albanian leaders emphasized their intention to preserve and maintain the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans by supporting the porte, and "to struggle in arms to defend the wholeness of the territories of Albania".
context_section_description: On 10 June 1878, about eighty delegates, mostly Muslim religious leaders, clan chiefs, and other influential people from the Ottoman vilayets of Kosovo, Monastir and Yanina, met in the city of Prizren, (Kosova then Ottoman Empire). Around 300 Muslims participated on the assembly, including delegates from Bosnia and the mutasarrif (administrator of sanjak) of Prizren as representative of the central authorities, and no delegates from Scutari Vilayet. The delegates set up a standing organization, the League of Prizren, under the direction of a central committee that had the power to impose taxes and raise an army. The league of Prizren consisted of two branches: the Prizren and the southern branch. The Prizren branch was led by Iljas Dibra and it had representatives from the areas of Kırçova (Kicevo), Kalkandelen (Tetovo), Priştine (Pristina), Mitroviça (Kosovska Mitrovica), Vıçıtırın (Vucitrn), Üsküp (Skopje), Gilan (Gnjilane), Manastır (Bitola), Debre (Debar) and Gostivar. The southern branch, led by Abdyl Frashëri consisted of sixteen representatives from the areas of Kolonjë, Korçë, Arta, Berat, Parga, Gjirokastër, Përmet, Paramythia, Filiates, Margariti, Vlorë, Tepelenë and Delvinë. In these regions the movement was primarily Muslim, due to the fact that most of the Orthodox population was under Greek influence. On the other hand, in the northern regions both Muslim and Catholic populations supported the objectives of the League of Prizren.
  At first the Ottoman authorities supported the League of Prizren, but the Sublime Porte pressed the delegates to declare themselves to be first and foremost Ottomans rather than Albanians. Some delegates led by Sheikh Mustafa Ruhi Efendi of Kalkandelen, supported this position and advocated emphasizing Muslim solidarity and the defense of Muslim lands, including present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina. This initial position of the league, based on the religious solidarity of the landlords and the people connected with the Ottoman administration and the religious authorities, was reason for naming the league The Committee of the Real Muslims (Albanian: Komiteti i Myslimanëve të Vërtetë). Other representatives, under Frashëri's leadership, focused on working toward Albanian autonomy and creating a sense of Albanian identity that would cut across religious and tribal lines. The Ottoman state briefly supported the league's claims viewing Albanian nationalism as possibly preventing further territorial losses to newly independent Balkan states.
caption: Group photo of some of the League of Prizren delegates
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "19", "Image YResolution": "19", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Centimeter", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2018:06:06 16:04:08", "Image ExifOffset": "154", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "292", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6890", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1400", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2000"}