1000 — 1018
Anonymous:
Fragment on the Origins of Nations
What is possibly the earliest written reference to the
Albanians is that to be found in an old Bulgarian
text compiled around the beginning of the eleventh
century. It was discovered in a Serbian manuscript
dated 1628 and was first published in 1934 by
Radoslav Grujic. This fragment of a legend from the
time of Tsar Samuel endeavours, in a catechismal
'question and answer' form, to explain the origins
of peoples and languages. It divides the world into
seventy-two languages and three religious
categories: Orthodox, half-believers (i.e. non-
Orthodox Christians) and non-believers. Though the
Serbs go unmentioned, the Albanians, still a small
conglomeration of nomadic mountain tribes at this
time, find their place among the nations of half-
believers. If we accept the dating of Grujic, which
is based primarily upon the contents of the text
as a whole, this would be the earliest written
document referring to the Albanians as a people
or language group.
It can be seen that there are various languages on earth. Of them, there are five Orthodox languages:
Bulgarian, Greek, Syrian, Iberian (Georgian) and Russian. Three of these have Orthodox alphabets:
Greek, Bulgarian and Iberian. There are twelve languages of half-believers: Alamanians, Franks,
Magyars (Hungarians), Indians, Jacobites, Armenians, Saxons, Lechs (Poles), Arbanasi (Albanians),
Croatians, Hizi, Germans.
[Extract from: Radoslav Grujic: Legenda iz vremena Cara Samuila o poreklu naroda. in: Glasnik
skopskog naucnog drustva, Skopje, 13 (1934), p. 198 200. Translated from the Old Church Slavonic by
Robert Elsie. First published in R. Elsie: Early Albania, a Reader of Historical Texts, 11th - 17th
Centuries, Wiesbaden 2003, p. 3.]
Albanian emblem engraved in stone, 1190