Toptani family

Toptani
Coat of arms
Current region	Central Albania
Place of origin	Krujë
Members	Essad Pasha Toptani Abdi Toptani Sadijé Toptani Murat Toptani Fuat Toptani
Estate(s)	50,000 hectares between Durres and Tirana

Abedin Toptani's serail in Tirana

The Toptani were a leading noble family in central Albania at the beginning of the 20th century.^[1] They belonged to a small number of noble families appointed by the Ottomans who used local chieftains to control Ottoman Albania more easily.^[2] Essad Pasha Toptani, a family patriarch, claimed that the family descended from the Thopia family.^[3] According to some sources, the name is derived from the word top, which means cannon, as the family owned a cannon at a time when artillery was rare.^[4]

Estates

The Toptani family initially lived in Krujë before moving to Tirana during the 17th century, when many sipahis moved from rural regions of the Ottoman Empire to cities.^[5] Their move from Krujë to Tirana probably contributed to the development of sharecropping in Albania.^[6]

The Toptani family possessed around 50,000 hectares near Tirana and Durrës^[7] and remained one of the main landowners until the end of the Second World War.^[8]

In July 2023, it was announced that Oppenheim Architecture had won the competition to restore Albania's Besa Museum housed in Tirana's Former House of Toptani Family, aiming to showcase Albania's historic Besa code and its role in providing refuge, from the Holocaust to contemporary times.^[9]

Notable members

Notable members of the family include:

• Abdi Toptani
• Blendi Fevziu (adopted)
• Essad Toptani
• Fuad Toptani
• Gani Toptani
• Murad Toptani
• Sadije Toptani, Queen Mother of the Albanians
• Refik Bej Toptani

^[10]

References

1. Elsie, Robert (24 December 2012). A Biographical Dictionary of Albanian History. I.B.Tauris. p. 444. ISBN 978-1-78076-431-3. ... the leading Toptani family of central Albania,...
2. Gawrych, George (26 December 2006). The Crescent and the Eagle: Ottoman Rule, Islam and the Albanians, 1874-1913. I.B.Tauris. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-84511-287-5.
3. Durham, M. Edith (22 July 2005). Albania and the Albanians: Selected Articles and Letters, 1903-1944. I.B.Tauris. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-85043-939-4. Essad Bey Toptani, of Tirana, was the head of the Toptani family, who claim descent, though with little proof, from the Chieftain Topias, and are believed to have been exterminated by the Turks when they overthrew Albania.
4. Price, George Ward (1918). The Story of the Salonica Army. E. J. Clode. p. 310. He comes of an old Albanian family called the Toptani. (Top means cannon; his family once had a gun at a time when artillery was rare.)
5. Braudel, Fernand (1995). The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. University of California Press. p. 724. ISBN 978-0-520-20330-3.
6. Stoianovich, Traian (1992). Between East and West: The Balkan and Mediterranean Worlds. A.D. Caratzas. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-89241-501-4.
7. Roszkowski, Wojciech (1995). Land reforms in East Central Europe after World War One. Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences. p. 51. ISBN 978-83-85479-85-7.
8. Oakley-Hill, Dayrell; Smiley, David (2002). An Englishman in Albania: memoirs of a British officer 1929-1955. Centre for Albanian Studies. p. 228. ISBN 978-1-903616-20-8.
9. "Oppenheim Architecture Wins Competition to Restore the Besa Museum in Albania". ArchDaily. 2023-07-27. Retrieved 2024-06-18.
10. "Refik Toptani".

External links

• Toptani family website