Albanian pederasty

Albanian pederasty was a practice reported by many Western travelers in the nineteenth century [1] [2] including Edvard Westermarck [3], John Cam Hobhouse, who in his diary [4], indicates that pederasty was " openly practiced, "and Johann Georg von Hahn [5], also known as" the father of Albanian studies. "[6] According to these reports was comunente and socially accepted that young people between sixteen and twenty-four years seduce boys of twelve to seventeen. [5]

In literature, the older lover is called Ashik (from the Arabic ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, dyllber (from turkish Dilber, "beautiful") [7]. A Gheg married at the age of 24 or 25 years, and then usually but not always, gave up the love with the boys.

The practice was limited with the advent of communism in 1944. [8]

Although homosexual relations were common among the predominantly Muslim, have been reported even among Christians, for whom there was also a special ceremony performed by a priest in church to seal the union, called vellameria (Albanian vella, "brother" and marr, "to accept"). Jealousy was a frequent occurrence, and sometimes men arrived to commit murder because of a boy. [9]

According Naecke: "Albanians in the north have a love of all excited to spend time with beautiful young men. Their passion and their jealousy is so strong that even today sometimes there are cases of suicide ... In addition, it is true that when are held union-fellowship they are blessed by the priests - the two partners who share the Eucharist immediately after "[10].

Travelers who visited the country, including the French historian François Guillaume Frederick (Baron de Vaudoncourt) and George Gordon (Lord Byron) also mention of Ali Pasha of interest for this kind of love, describing his harem of beautiful young , which drew not only her lovers, but even his most trusted associates, like the greek Athanase Vaya, who became his right arm as well as a general [11].

Some Western observers signaled the practice with a negative light. François Pouqueville, the consul general of Napoleon in Albania between 1805 and 1815, the Albanians accused of being "no less profligate in this regard that the other inhabitants of modern Greece, without any apparent idea of ​​the enormity of the crime." [ 12]

Others present it as overwhelmingly positive, particularly in light of European cultural values ​​of the educated public of the period, which was intended for publication.

Hahn documents a number of poems homosexual Ghega, such as:

S'gjen ndonji ZOK qi Kendon, you gjithe jane and little qajne. The Duron mjeri Ashik knows little fort, and some Prejano dyllberit dajne. Dilli, qi len mengjes it is you, or Djali, kur Kur me I zallandise kthen SYT 'and SEZ' Shpirt ment Prejano Kres' I gremise. You will not find any bird that sings, They all sit and weep alone. The poor lover, how strongly resists, [because] it is separated from his beloved. When the sun rises in the morning, is like you, boy, when you're near me. When your dark eye rests on me, It leaves the reason of my head.