| Siege of Shkodra Rrethimi i Shkodrës | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Ottoman–Venetian War (1463–1479) | |||||||||
 Gatteri's 1860 etching of the 1478 siege | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Ottoman Empire |
Republic of Venice Lordship of Zeta | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
Modern estimations: 62,000[3] |
1,600 inside the garrison[7]: 15 Unknown number of forces outside the garrison 8,000 albanian warriors[8] | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
At least 12,000 on July 22 Allegedly one-third of the Ottoman forces on July 27[6]: 364 |
Approximately 1,000 inside the garrison[7]: 15 200 sailors and 2 galleys from Lezhë 300 captives from Drisht | ||||||||
The siege of Shkodra (Albanian: Rrethimi i Shkodrës) took place from May 1478 to April 1479 as a confrontation between the Ottoman Empire and the Venetians together with the League of Lezhe and other Albanians[9][10][11] at Shkodra (Scutari in Italian) and its Rozafa Castle during the First Ottoman-Venetian War (1463–1479). Ottoman historian Franz Babinger called the siege "one of the most remarkable episodes in the struggle between the West and the Crescent".[6]: 363 A small force of approximately 1,600 Albanian and Italian men and a much smaller number of women[7]: 10–13 faced a massive Ottoman force containing artillery cast on site[12]: 134 and an army reported (though widely disputed) to have been as many as 350,000 in number.[13]: 160 The campaign was so important to Mehmed the Conqueror that he came personally to ensure triumph. After nineteen days of bombarding the castle walls, the Ottomans launched five successive general attacks which all ended in victory for the besieged. With dwindling resources, Mehmed attacked and defeated the smaller surrounding fortresses of Žabljak Crnojevića, Drisht, and Lezha, left a siege force to starve Shkodra into surrender, and returned to Constantinople. On January 25, 1479, Venice and Constantinople signed a peace agreement that among other concessions ceded Shkodra to the Ottoman Empire. The defenders of the citadel emigrated to Venice, whereas many Albanians from the region retreated into the mountains.[14] Shkodra then became a seat of the newly established Ottoman sanjak, the Sanjak of Scutari. The Ottomans held the city until Montenegro captured it in April 1913, after a six-month siege.
- ^ Shpuza, Gazmend (1969), "Lufta per mbrojtjen e Shkodrës në vitet 1474 dhe 1478–1479" in Konferenca e Dytë e Studimeve Albanologjike, Instituti i Historisë dhe i Gjuhësisë, p. 214,
Porse interesimi dhe angazhimi i Venedikut për mbrojtjen e Shkodrës përcaktoheshin vetëm nga interesat e ngushta të Republikës. Të vetmit që ishin të interesuar për ta mbrojtur deri në fund Shkodrën qenë shqiptarët."
- ^ Zamputi, Injac (1969), Dokumenta të sheullit XV për historinë e Shqipërisë, Instituti i Historisë dhe i Gjuhësisë, pp. 33–34,
El se rosono de soa libera volonta ne la cita de Scutari 350 Albanesi del contado de la dicta terra i qual romaxeno nel assedio, tra i qual ne sono rimasti solamente 110 vivi, la probita, gagliardia, constantia, virilita e fede de i qual non e necessario explicar, che la esperientia ne ha ben dechiarita e mostrata (from Venetian Archive Arch. St. Ven., Sen. Mar, R° 11, c. 22).
- ^ {{Fatih Sultan Mehemmed Han (Ciltli) İki Karanın Sultanı, İki Denizin Hakanı, Kayser-i Rum Prof. Dr. Halil İnalcık | TÜRKİYE İŞ BANKASI KÜLTÜR YAYINLARI}}
- ^ Barletius, Marinus (1504). De Obsidione Scodrensi (in Latin). Venice: Bernardinus Venetus de Vitalibus. pp. 58–59.
Ex quo rerum periti, & qui alias cum ipso Meumethe militauerant, censuerunt ccc.[trecenta] & quinquaginta millia Barbarorum in castris fuisse. Quae tam innumera pene multitudo fidelissimos Christianos ad contemplationem & admirationem sui traxit.
- ^ Bešić 1970, pp. 314, 315
Говорећи о турским снагама, хроничари, по обичају, наводе огромне бројке, које достижу 150.000, па чак и 300.000 војника. Помињу и 10.000 камила. Може се претпоставити да је ту било неколико десетинахиљада бораца...Отприлике у исто вријеме султан је напустио бојиште. Повео је са собом већи дио војске, тако да је, према хроничарима, остало око 8.000 људи да чувају заузете положаје и наставе са опсадом
- ^ a b c Babinger, Franz. Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1978.
- ^ a b c Buda, Aleks. "Hyrja" published in Barleti, Marin. Rrethimi i Shkodrës. Tiranë: Instituti i Historisë, 1967.
- ^ Grand Turk John Freely
- ^ L. Nadin, Migrazioni e integrazione. Il caso degli Albanesi a Venezia (1479-1552), Bulzoni, Contesti Adriatici
- ^ Archives of Venetian Senate, Sen. Mar, Rº 11, c. 22, 08 May 1479. Documented in Zamputi, Injac. Dokumenta të shekullit XV për historinë e Shqipërisë, vol. 4, pt. 1. Tirana: Akademia e Shkencave të Shqipërisë, 1967.
- ^ Kemal Pashazade (ca. 1520) cited from Ibn Kemal, Tevarih-i al-i 'osman, def. VII (Ankara 1957), cited in Pulaha, Selami. Lufta shqiptaro turke në shekullin XV: burime osmane. Tirana: Universiteti Shtetëror i Tiranës, 1968. p. 207
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Kinrosswas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
Von Hammerwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Shpuza, Gazmend. “La Lutte pour la défense de Shkodër dans années 1474 et 1478–1479,” in Studia Albanica, VI, 1968, pp. 181–90.