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Skanderbeg was probably one of the greatest commanders of the late medieval era, and yet I (a history nerd) only heard about him like 6 months ago. Either I'm an idiot, or this Albanian dude is seriously underrated.
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Footnotes
1:21 Skanderbeg is technically the Albanian version of Iskanderbey, but there are enough linguistic oddities in the translation that some misinterpretation seemed to have occurred.
3:48 To add some context to the whole killing Muslims thing, it’s important to note that this was probably politically, rather than religiously motivated. Many Albanians had converted to Islam in order to gain political positions under the Ottomans, so by refusing to convert back to Christianity, you were essentially declaring your support for the old regime.
6:26 I should mention that when I say numbers like 100,000, I’m just referring to the numbers my sources say. I’m personally skeptical of such big figures. Medieval chroniclers would see like 5 dudes on horses and write some bs like “the enemy was as numerous as the stars.” So, yeah. The Ottoman army was big, but was it 100,000 men big? EhHhhHhhhHHH….
8:52 Hamsa did get his head cut off, but not by Skanderbeg. Skanderbeg actually forgave Hamsa and sent him back to Constantinople as a spy, but then Mehmed II was like “Hey, I know that guy!” and he got executed.
Sources:
Brackob, A. K. Scanderbeg: a History of George Castriota and the Albanian Resistance to Islamic Expansion in Fifteenth Century Europe. Histria Books, 2018.
Fine, John V. A. The Late Medieval Balkans: a Critical Survey From the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. E-book, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994
"Gjergj Kastrioti-Skanderbeg." Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, vol. 23, Gale, 2003. Gale In Context: World History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K16310.... Accessed 1 Dec. 2020.
Christmas Past, The Ghost of. Came to me in a dream and told me to finally make this video. Dumb Jokes Publishing, 2020.
Murdarasi, Karen. “Skanderbeg: A Man for Our Times? Albania’s Greatest Military Hero Dedicated His Life to Fighting for His Beleaguered Homeland.” History Today, vol. 68, no. 5, May 2018, pp. 8-11.
"Skanderbeg." Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica, 26 Feb. 2009. academic-eb-com.grinnell.idm.oclc.org/levels/collegiate/article/Skanderbeg/68069. Accessed 2 Dec. 2020.
Music
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