A few months ago, halfway through my History of Achaemenid Persia class, I came to Professor John Lee to present a few ideas for a final essay. To my delight, Professor Lee accepted my first idea with much more enthusiasm than I could have expected. The idea was a comparative analysis of the formation of modern national identities in Albania and Iran, incorporating key historical figures, striking similarities and vast differences between the two cultures. He encouraged me to make the essay as personally relevant as possible. I quickly forgot about the other ideas I’d been musing and set to work.
Among the elements of the class that most caught my attention was the paradigmatic figure of Cyrus II (the Great). The founder of the Achaemenid Empire, he served as the ultimate guiding figure for all subsequent Persian leaders, both of the Achaemenid dynasty and beyond. I was immediately reminded of Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, the 15th century leader of the most significant anti-Ottoman revolt in southeastern Europe, regarded as the Albanian national hero, whose figure has been used extensively by the Rilindja movement and every post-independence regime since 1912. The changing interpretation of the two paradigmatic figures over generations led me to a broader analysis of the striking similarities and contrasts in the development of the two nations.
I am infinitely grateful to Professor Lee for his guidance and encouragement on making this the first (relatively) scholarly work on this site. Without understanding identities – the very way we perceive ourselves – we can understand neither how we have gotten where we are, nor where the future we are building is taking us.
"The Albanian people claim their presence in the region of Europe now known as the western Balkans for thousands of years. This lineage is most commonly traced back to the ancient Illyrians, though the extent to which the two peoples are directly related has long been a matter of dispute among scholars. The modern Iranian people likewise emphasize their connection to the illustrious history of Achaemenid Persia, which enjoys more extensive coverage by ancient sources. This essay will analyze the similarities and varied differences in the role played by interpretations of both peoples’ histories in the formation of their modern national identities. It will primarily focus on two paradigmatic figures: Cyrus the Great, the Achaemenid Empire’s founder in the case of Iran, and Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, the 15th-century warrior who led a revolt against the Ottoman Empire, regarded by Albanians as their national hero. The connection between the cultures will first be analyzed through Naim Frashëri, regarded as the Albanian national poet, including a brief analysis of Persian literary influence on his work. Other similarities, including the role of ideologically driven regimes in shaping historical interpretations, and both nations' proclivity to use their histories to embrace universal concepts will also be analyzed. Nuance will be added by analyzing the differences between the two inherited historical realities, namely the universalist legacy of Achaemenid Persia, contrasted with the defensive nature of Skanderbeg’s legacy. Personal interviews of family members whose historical understandings were shaped in two vastly different periods of modern Albanian history, namely the communist and democratic (pre and post-1990) eras, will provide a closer understanding of evolving narratives of Albanian history.
The connection between the two cultures is best personified by the historical figure of Naim Frashëri. Born in the village of Frashëri in present-day Albania during the Ottoman period, Frashëri, like most of the Empire’s Albanian elite, learned Persian alongside Turkish and Arabic, as Persian was considered the language of literature. Frashëri’s deep interest in Persian led him to author his first two books on Persian grammar and poetry, respectively, while teaching the language in Istanbul. He is not so much remembered for his contributions to Persian literature, however, as for pioneering the literary and ideological movement known as Rilindja Kombëtare (the National Renaissance, 1878-1912), which bears primary responsibility for the formation of the modern Albanian national identity. Even in Frashëri’s major work on the national hero, “The History of Skanderbeg”, one can find traces of Persian poetry, with Frashëri’s epic borrowing directly from Ferdowsi’s renowned Shahnameh. Frashëri’s dramatized account of Skanderbeg’s life is among the foundational works of the Rilindja period, defining the perception of Skanderbeg as a figure around whom a national identity could be formed. The national hero is described as possessing every human virtue, including wisdom, strength, physical and moral beauty. The most enduring characterization, though, is of a warrior defending his ancestral land against an Ottoman Empire characterized as “the wild beast emerging from Asia.”
This interpretation’s enduring effect can be observed in the speech delivered by Ramiz Alia, Albania’s last communist ruler, to the United Nations in 1991, just as the country was stepping back onto the world stage after 45 years of Stalinist isolation. Alia, citing Skanderbeg as his primary example, stated: “in the thousands of years of existence, the Albanian people has never attacked anyone, nor incited any aggressive war… To the contrary, it has been martyred to defend itself and aid others.” This shows the lasting effect of the characterization constructed by Frashëri and other Rilindja figures on Albanians’ perceptions of their history, with Skanderbeg’s resistance seen as the apogee of a virtually uninterrupted struggle for self-preservation.
A sharp contrast can be drawn between this emphasis on self-defense and the Achaemenid legacy inherited by modern Iranians. The imperial founder’s historical significance is made plain in the Cyrus Cylinder, which reads: “I am Cyrus, king of the universe, the great king … king of the four quarters of the world.” This claim to universal authority is further emphasized in the reliefs at Persepolis, which depict 23 nations bringing tribute to the Achaemenid king and holding up his throne, both displays of the support the great king enjoyed from his various subjects. Just as Frashëri’s Skanderbeg was described as possessing all the human virtues, the Achaemenid king was said to be “not just great, but smart, brave, just and pious,” with the important distinction that his “power stretched to the ends of the earth.” This emphasis on universalism and a symbiotic relationship with subject peoples clearly illustrates that the differences in the two nations’ historical interpretations are not only informed by contemporary geopolitical interests, with Iran being a significant and often destabilizing power in the Middle East, while Albania is a small state on the southeastern end of Europe whose political future largely depends on entering the European Union. These interpretations are informed by historical realities, namely the emergence of the Achaemenid Empire as an ancient superpower, and the perpetually defensive nature of warfare in Albanian history.
The formation of these interpretations, though, cannot be fully understood without analyzing the role different regimes, which are important in the modern histories of both nations, played while pursuing their own ideological goals. In Iran’s case, as Professor John Lee notes, “in the 1800s, Ancient Persia became a growing source of national pride” for the Iranians. This sentiment was most notably seized upon by the Pahlavi dynasty, with Reza Shah and subsequently his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi utilizing it to build an image of a secularizing and modernizing nation living up to the glory of Cyrus’ time, who was now portrayed as the “father of the nation.” The Shah sought to trace a direct link between Cyrus and his own rule, culminating in the opulent celebration of the Iranian monarchy’s 2,500th anniversary. This close connection with the Pahlavi dynasty is partially responsible for the largely negative interpretation of Cyrus’s legacy by many leaders of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. This is best demonstrated by the Chief Justice of the Revolutionary Courts Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhali’s proposal to raze the tomb of Cyrus and ancient Persepolis. Another significant contribution to this condemnation was the view of many Shi’ite scholars of the Achaemenid Empire as a symbol of jahiliyyah, the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. Cyrus’s tomb and Persepolis remain standing, but the turmoil has never fully ceased, with the debate over whether the culture of Iran or that of Islam should be primarily emphasized persisting at the core of Iranian society.
Since the Albanian state declared its independence in 1912, the figure of Skanderbeg has, as the historian Michael Schmidt-Neke put it, “been defined according to the goals of the regime in power.” While the regimes of the first half of the century largely emphasized and imitated Skanderbeg as a means of instilling national consciousness and legitimizing their rule, it is the communist regime of Enver Hoxha, lasting from the end of the Second World War until 1991, which left the most significant and complex legacy. Under the Hoxhaist regime, the national struggle represented by Skanderbeg was complemented and even eclipsed by a social one informed by Marxist historical materialism. This understanding emphasized the “progressive” elements of Skanderbeg’s history, namely his connection to the people in struggling against foreign occupiers, while denouncing his "regressive” status as a feudal prince.
In order to better understand this narrative, I interviewed my grandfather, who was raised in the regime’s educational system. “Hoxha’s message,” he explained, “is that throughout our history, we have been encircled by stronger, bloodthirsty enemies, but that we had nothing to worry about because the Party protected us both from external anti-Albanian and internal reactionary forces.” It is striking how closely this resembles the text of the 1976 constitution of the People’s Republic, seen as one of the regime’s most important documents. It begins: “The Albanian people has blazed its path through history sword in hand.” This aptly summarizes the historical interpretation of a regime which, not unlike its predecessors, utilized elements of its nation’s history which were ideologically or practically advantageous, while introducing a new lens of interpretation in the form of Marxist-Leninist theory.
An additional similarity can be found in both nations' tendency to use elements of their history to build a claim to universal principles and movements. This phenomenon can be observed in Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s interpretation of the Cyrus Cylinder as the first human rights declaration nearing the Achaemenid Empire’s 2500th anniversary in 1971. Despite historical analysis showing that the Cylinder was created in the mold of preceding ancient Mesopotamian texts, as opposed to being a progenitor of modern human rights declarations, this connection has successfully been established in the consciousness of many, be they Iranians or not.
A similar connection is made between the figure of Skanderbeg and phenomena transcending the confines of Albanian history. Frashëri’s epic portrays Skanderbeg as an indispensable defender not only of Albania, but Europe and the West more broadly. This facet of Frashëri’s interpretation, largely ignored during the communist period, found new importance as the country sought a rapprochement with the West.
For an understanding of the modern, post-Communist narrative, I interviewed my father, who best represents his generation’s Western-oriented ethos. “He was a brilliant strategist,” he began, “whose victories matter not only to us, but all of Europe and, in his time, all of Christendom.” This desire to establish the importance of Albanian history within a larger European civilization can only be understood in the context of centuries of separation from Western Europe during the Ottoman period and nearly five decades of hermetic isolation under the Hoxhaist regime. Considering these developments have occurred in a rapidly globalizing world defined by exchanges of ideas across national boundaries and increasingly important supranational structures, the most relevant of which being the United Nations and the European Union, this desire to establish one’s historical significance and contemporary relevance becomes easily understandable.
While inheriting vastly different historical legacies and harboring different geopolitical interests, definite similarities can be observed in the way Albanians and Iranians have interpreted their histories to construct a national identity. Understanding these legacies and motivations is key to grasping the roles of both nations in world history."
Works Cited:
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