Avdyli Family History & Genealogy

Summary

The Avdyli family originated in an area now comprising the country of Albania (for a history of this area, see "nationality/ethnicity" below). The family is Albanian and Caucasian.  The meaning of the surname "Avdyli" is unknown, as is a history of this family, famous people in the family, and alternate spellings of Avdyli.  If you have more information about the Avdyli family, please add it to this page.

History

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Name Origin

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Spellings & Pronunciations

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Nationality & Ethnicity

The Avdyli family, at least according to one branch of the family, originated in Albania. The Avdyli family  is of Albanian nationality and its ethnicity is Caucasian. The known history of Albania emerged in the 4th century BC, with early accounts of Illyria found in Greco-Roman history records. The modern territory of Albania has no counterpart in antiquity, in the past comprising parts of the Roman provinces of Dalmatia (southern Illyricum) and Macedonia (particularly Epirus Nova). The territory remained under Roman (Byzantine) control until the Slavic migrations of the 7th century, and was integrated into the Bulgarian Empire in the 9th century. The territorial nucleus of the Albanian state formed during the Middle Ages, then known as the Principality of Arbër and the Kingdom of Albania. The first records of the Albanian people as a distinct ethnicity also date to this period.
At the dawn of the establishment of the Ottoman Empire in Southeast Europe, the geopolitical landscape was marked by scattered kingdoms of small principalities. The Ottomans erected their garrisons throughout southern Albania by 1415 and established formal jurisdiction over most of Albania by 1431.[24] Along with theBosniaks, Muslim Albanians occupied an outstanding position in the empire, and were the main pillars of Ottoman policy in the Balkans.[25]
Enjoying this privileged position in the empire, Muslim Albanians held various administrative positions, with over two dozen Grand Viziers of Albanian origin, such as Gen. Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, who commanded the Ottoman forces during the Ottoman-Persian Wars; Gen. Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed, who led the Ottoman army during the Austro-Turkish War (1663–1664); and, later, Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt. In the 15th century, when the Ottomans were gaining a firm foothold in the region, Albanian towns were organised into four principle sanjaks. The government fostered trade by settling a sizeable Jewish colony of refugees fleeing persecution in Spain (at end of the 15th century). Vlorë saw passing through its ports imported merchandise from Europe such as velvets, cotton goods, mohairs, carpets, spices and leather from Bursa and Istanbul. Some citizens of Vlorë even had business associates in Europe.[26]
Albanians could also be found throughout the empire, in Iraq, Egypt, Algeria and across the Maghreb as vital military and administrative retainers.[27] This owed largely to their early use as part of the Devşirme system. The process of Islamization was an incremental one, commencing from the arrival of the Ottomans in the 14th century (to this day, a minority of Albanians are Catholic or Orthodox Christians, though the vast majority became Muslim). Timar holders, the bedrock of early Ottoman control in Southeast Europe, were not necessarily converts to Islam, and occasionally rebelled; the most famous of these rebels is Skanderbeg (his figure would be used later in the 19th century as a central component of Albanian national identity). The most significant impact on the Albanians was the gradual Islamisation process of a large majority of the population, although such a process only became widespread in the 17th century.[28] Mainly Catholics converted in the 17th century, while the Orthodox Albanians followed suit mainly in the following century. Initially confined to the main city centres of Elbasan and Shkoder, by this period the countryside was also embracing the new religion.[29] The motives for conversion according to scholars were diverse, depending on the context. The lack of source material does not help when investigating such issues.[30]
Albania remained under Ottoman control as part of the Rumelia province until 1912, when the first independent Albanian state was declared. The formation of an Albanian national consciousness dates to the latter 19th century and is part of the larger phenomenon of the rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire.

Famous People named Avdyli

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Early Avdylis

These are the earliest records we have of the Avdyli family.