Albanians of Romania
| Shqiptarët e Rumanisë | |
|---|---|
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Romania
|
|
| Languages | |
| Albanian | |
| Religion | |
| Islam, Catholic and | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Albanians |
The Albanians (Shqiptarë in Albanian, Albanezi in Romanian) are an ethnic minority in Romania. As an officially recognized ethnic minority, Albanians have one seat reserved in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies to the League of Albanians of Romania (Liga Albanezilor din România).
In the 2002 census 520 Romanian citizens indicated their ethnicity was Albanian, and 484 stated that their native language was Albanian. The actual number of the Albanian population in Romania is unofficially estimated at around 10,000 persons. Most members of the community live in Bucharest, while the rest mainly live in larger urban centers such as Timișoara, Iași, Constanța and Cluj-Napoca.
Most families are Orthodox and trace their origins to the area around Korçë. Many other Romanian Albanians adhere to Islam — according to a 1999 article by Romanian scholar George Grigore, various studies show that about 3,000 members of the Romanian Muslim community may in fact be Albanian. That section of the Albanian community is traditionally integrated into the Turk or Tatar groups, which makes its numbers hard to assess.
An Albanian community inside the Danubian Principalities was first attested in Wallachia under Prince Michael the Brave: a report drafted by Habsburg authorities in Transylvania specified that 15,000 Albanians had been allowed to cross north of the Danube in 1595; Călinești (a village in present-day Florești, Prahova County) was one of their places of settlement, as evidenced in a document issued by Michael's rival and successor, Simion Movilă, who confirmed their right to reside in the locality. The community's presence was first recorded in Bucharest around 1628. In Moldavia, an ethnic Albanian, Vasile Lupu, became Prince in 1634. Albanians are called by Romanians today Albanezi, but in the past they were known as Arbănasi, the old ethnonym dating back to the Middle Ages.
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Wikipedia