Initiative to rename Kosovo to Dardania – is there a connection between Kosovo Albanians and Dardanians?

Officials in Pristina have yet to comment on the initiative by a group of citizens proposing that Kosovo be renamed to Dardania. However, when historians address whether today's Kosovo Albanians descend from the ancient Balkan Dardanians, the prevailing consensus is that there is no evidence to support such claims. Even those who support the hypothesis often acknowledge that further research is needed to clarify the history of the Illyrian-Thracian tribe of Dardanians.

Written by Dusica Radeka Djordjevic

A group of citizens in Pristina recently launched a petition to rename Kosovo to Dardania, aiming to gather 10,000 signatures to present to the Kosovo Assembly.

The flag with the name "Dardania" has been displayed in the office of Vjosa Osmani since 2020, when she assumed the role of acting President of Kosovo. While her decision faced criticism at the time for potentially causing confusion among countries that recognized Kosovo, Osmani continues to keep the banner alongside Kosovo's official flag during meetings with foreign officials.

At a December campaign event for Kosovo’s Prime Minister and Self-Determination Movement leader Albin Kurti in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, where Kurti met with members of the diaspora, several such symbols were prominently displayed.

The flag was originally introduced by Ibrahim Rugova, founder of the Democratic League of Kosovo and a former president of Kosovo. His coffin was even draped with it at his funeral.

Supporters of the name change believe that "Dardania represents the true identity of the people of Kosovo." What does history say about this claim?

Srdjan Pirivatric, Senior Research Fellow at the Byzantine Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and President of the Serbian Committee for Byzantine Studies, tells Kosovo Online that there is no evidence of a connection between today’s Albanians in Kosovo and the Dardanians who lived in the area in late antiquity. Furthermore, he says there is no link between the Roman province of Dardania and the modern concept of Kosovo and Metohija, which emerged much later.

Pirivatric explains that there is no continuity between the Romanized population of the former Roman province of Dardania and today’s Albanian inhabitants of Kosovo and Metohija. Based on current sources, he says, no proof or well-founded hypothesis can be presented to support such continuity.

“The Dardanians were an ancient Balkan people whose origins are not well understood. In their earliest beginnings, they might be connected to populations from Asia Minor, but this link is not clearly established. In late antiquity, the population was Romanized or partially Romanized, but it disappeared with the arrival of the Slavs and the subsequent Slavicization of the area, as evidenced by corresponding toponyms. There are no traces of Albanian toponyms or proto-Albanian vocabulary in the area. Therefore, no evidence exists in written records, archaeological findings, or linguistic sources, language as a monument, of any continuity between the Dardanians and today’s Albanians. This is a political construct, and history and scientific historiography have long since rendered a verdict on the matter, although it tends to be forgotten,” Pirivatric stated.

As he explains, the Kingdom of Dardania covered a territory that was later approximately encompassed by the Roman province of Dardania, however, he notes that Roman emperors often determined the boundaries of provinces based on administrative and practical political needs, rather than continuity with a previous political structure that they had overthrown, conquered, and integrated into their state organization.

“More precisely, we can speak more about the Roman province of Dardania than the boundaries of the Dardanian Kingdom. The Dardanians, at least at the time of their conquest by the Romans, are considered a branch of the Illyrians, located in an area of interaction between the Illyrians and the Thracians. The Roman province of Dardania was bounded by the Western and Great Morava rivers and the Drim River in Kosovo, extending south to the Sar Mountains, with its capital in Skopje. Therefore, it is interesting that there is an attempt to link the modern concept of Kosovo and Metohija to a Roman province whose capital is not located within today’s Kosovo and Metohija,” Pirivatric concluded.

By contrast, historian Bedri Muhadri of the Historical Institute in Pristina takes a different view, asserting that the historical continuity of "the people of Kosovo, from antiquity to today, has its identity rooted in Dardania."

Muhadri believes the initiative to rename Kosovo to Dardania is historically justified. He points to similar practices in other countries, using Poland as an example of a nation that has changed its name multiple times.

“Nations with their own history rightly seek and attempt to reclaim their identity. It is necessary to find a name that reflects identity and holds historical, political, and ethnic significance. I believe this civic initiative is justified historically. However, how things unfold in terms of modern political pragmatism, whether this is advisable, and when the circumstances for it will be created, are entirely different matters. This certainly requires clearer historical and scientific explanations,” Muhadri told Kosovo Online.

He explains that historical data and sources indicate that during antiquity, the territory of Kosovo, though not in its current borders but in a broader region, was called Dardania, and that the Dardanian tribe inhabiting this area was one of many Illyrian tribes.

“Dardania has its historical continuity. From prehistory, through the fall of the Roman Empire, to the Middle Ages, the territory of Kosovo was known as Dardania. In the 4th century BCE, Dardania included many economically developed cities of the time, such as Skopje, Nis, Pristina, and Ulpiana. It even formed its own kingdom, which flourished until it fell under Roman rule. The Roman Empire, upon conquering Dardania, encompassed a significant part of the Balkans. In 279 CE, under Emperor Diocletian, who established the Illyrian prefecture that included all Illyrian tribes, the region was divided into four provinces. One of these was Dardania, with Skopje as its capital,” Muhadri stated.

“In the Middle Ages, across the Balkans, new ethnic entities emerged – Albanian, Serbian, Bulgarian, and Romanian. Within this context, the Albanian people also formed their identity, as documented by historical and archaeological sources. The most recent archaeological evidence from Ulpiana was found in a Christian church mosaic floor, referencing Emperor Justinian and Dardania, from the period 527–557 CE. The Arber people are the successors of the Illyrian population, and we can say that Dardania, as an ethnic and geographical concept, existed until the Middle Ages,” Muhadri explained.

Afterward, as he adds, major upheavals occurred on the Balkans with the arrival of Slavic peoples, “who spread across the region, especially in the territories of Serbia and Kosovo.”

“In terms of the name Dardania and its historical continuity, we gradually lose documented sources. By the late 14th century, after the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the toponym of this area becomes known as Kosovo. The battle occurred on the Kosovo Plain. The etymology of the word Kosovo in linguistic terms does not belong to the Albanian period. All records by the greatest scholars linguistically classify the term Kosovo as part of Slavic languages, not Albanian. Thus, Kosovo begins to appear in various records and maps, but not in the sense of the entire territory of Kosovo, rather as a portion, including Zvecan, Pristina, and Vucitrn. In 16th-century maps, Kosovo is mentioned as a territory traversed by certain routes,” Muhadri concluded.

When assessing the ultimate goal of the petition to rename Kosovo to Dardania, historian Aleksandar Gudzic suggests the objective is to erase the Serbian character of Kosovo from collective memory and artificially establish an Albanian historical continuity in the region.

As he adds, this is not new and will continue to happen in the future.

“Albanian intellectuals are already advancing the thesis that Serbian churches and monasteries are actually Albanian and that they were occupied by Serbs at some earlier time. All of this aims to demonstrate ‘Albanian continuity and Serbian usurpation,’” Gudzic explains for Kosovo Online.

He points out that there is no historical evidence that Albanians are the direct descendants of the Dardanians, Illyrians, Pelasgians, or other peoples.

“Everything the Albanian academic community in Pristina and Kosovo tries to prove is unprovable,” Gudzic states.

Speaking about the Dardanians, he notes that they were a Paleo-Balkan people who, at some point, disappeared from the historical stage.

“It is not uncommon in history for some peoples to establish states or even serious empires and then suddenly disappear from the historical scene. The Avars are perhaps the most famous example. At one point, they ruled Central and Eastern Europe and parts of the Balkans, but then they vanished from history. Among the Serbian people, the saying ‘Disappeared like the Avars’ became common. Similarly, the Dardanians had a state in the Balkans, ruled parts of it, and eventually disappeared,” Gudzic explains.

He explains that there is an eight-century gap between the Illyrians and Albanians, as the Illyrians are last mentioned in the 3rd century, during the time of Emperor Diocletian, while Albanians are first mentioned in the 11th century in Anna Komnene’s “Alexiad,” where she refers to the ”Albanion region.”

“In those eight centuries, neither Illyrians nor Albanians are mentioned in any sources. I support the scientific position that Albanians are not the direct descendants of the Illyrians. At some point, they appeared in the Balkans and settled there, but we lack historical evidence of when this happened. They had a region under their control, but they are a nation that arrived much later than the Illyrians and is not directly connected to them,” Gudzic emphasizes.

Kosovo, he emphasizes, is the region most deeply tied to Serbian national sentiment, a sacred land.

“More than 90 percent of place names attest to the Serbian character of Kosovo and the Serbian presence there in the past. Over the last two centuries, the ethnic makeup of Kosovo has changed due to various international and internal circumstances. Serbs left Kosovo, and Albanians settled in the vacant areas. However, the place names, churches, and monasteries all testify to Serbian presence and history in Kosovo,” Gudzic concludes.