Laramans

Roman Catholic church in Stublla.

The Laramans (Albanian: laramanë) was an ethnic Albanian crypto-Catholic community in Ottoman-era southern Kosovo, inhabiting the historical parish of Letnica, centered in Stublla (Vitina municipality). The community originated from Roman Catholic Albanian migrants from the northern Albania highlands who had settled in Kosovo in the beginning of the 18th century, who converted into Islam in order to secure supreme position in relation to the local Serbs.[1] According to Albanian Catholic priests and church historians, they were only nominal Muslims, having converted in order to escape repression or avoid paying Christian taxes (jizya, etc.).[1] Efforts to convert the community began in 1837, however, the effort was violently suppressed – the local Ottoman governor put laramans in jail.[2] Crypto-Catholics in Prizren, Peja and Gjakova were recognized as Catholics by the Ottoman Grand Vizier in 1845; when the laramans of Letnica asked the district governor and judge in Gjilan to recognize them as Catholics, they were refused, and subsequently imprisoned, and then deported to Anatolia,[3] from where they returned in November 1848 following diplomatic intervention.[4] In 1856, Tanzimat reforms improved the situation, and no further serious abuse was reported.[5] The bulk of conversion of laramans, almost exclusively newly-borns, took place between 1872 and 1924.[6]

The term laraman was derived from the Albanian adjective i larmë, meaning "variegated, motley, two-faced".[7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Duijzings 2000, p. 91.
  2. ↑ Duijzings 2000, p. 92.
  3. ↑ Duijzings 2000, p. 93.
  4. ↑ Duijzings 2000, p. 94.
  5. ↑ Duijzings 2000, p. 96.
  6. ↑ Duijzings 2000, p. 99.
  7. ↑ Duijzings 2000, p. 89.

Sources

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