Five centuries of Ottoman rule will leave…

Five centuries of Ottoman rule will leave the Albanian people fractured along religious, regional, and tribal lines.

The first Albanians to convert to Islam are young boys forcibly conscripted into the sultan's military and administration.

In the early seventeenth century, however, Albanians will convert to Islam in great numbers.

Within a century, the Albanian Islamic community will be split between Sunni Muslims and adherents to the Bektashi sect.

The Albanian people will also become divided into two distinct tribal and dialectal groupings, the Gegs and Tosks.

In the rugged northern mountains, Geg shepherds live in a tribal society often completely independent of Ottoman rule.

In the south, peasant Muslim and Orthodox Tosks work the land for Muslim beys, provincial rulers who frequently revolt against the sultan's authority.

In the nineteenth century, the Ottoman sultans will try in vain to shore up their collapsing empire by introducing a series of reforms aimed at reining in recalcitrant local officials and dousing the fires of nationalism among its myriad peoples.

The power of nationalism, however, will prove too strong to counteract.