IMMIGRATION & FAMILY ABANDONMENT

A Social Plague Seen through a Divorce Act from 1850

Gjirokastra
Artenis PEKA
Freshman Law Student
University of New York Tirana

In this paper I am glimpsing into an 1850 case of divorce caused by the

husbands immigration and family abandonment. In doing so, I am
investigating the social and family ramifications of a centuries-old human
tribute of Albanian lands, immigration; through the case of a woman who
was issued a divorce after 14 years of marriage on account of her husbands
immigration in Varna, Bulgaria and family abandonment. I am drawing
distinctions between immigration and family abandonment and am
penetrating into the legal procedure, justification for and ramifications of the
divorce act in favor of the bride. This paper is therefore dealing with family
tribulations from long-term immigration and normative aspects of marriage
dissolution as a consequence thereof.

The Original Divorce Document

f. 98r

1850, 21 / February 21, 1850

Divorce document of Lambro [daughter] of
.
Ioannis from the village Guver.
|2

|2 This present ecclesiastical document of

|3
[marriage] dissolution and divorce, |3 is to state
,
that, in the course of our Humbleness |4 prelacy
|4 in the Holy Metropolis [of Dryinoupolis and

|
Gjirokastr] an assembly was held with the
5,
honourable elders |5 [in which] Labro, daughter

|6
of Ioannes Taskos from the village Guver |6 of


,
our province presented herself and testified in
|7
great suffering that having been married

|8
according to the Law fourteen years ago |7 with
, Athanasios [son] of Georges Papas from |8 Dolo,
|9

he departed to his journey in Varna [Bulgaria].


[Thenceforth], he never |9 cared about sending
, |10
her a single penny to her sustenance. As she was |
, |
10 waiting in tribulation throughout all this time,
11,


she
, |
suddenly |11 found out that her husband got
12
married there in Varna, as has been stated |12 in
|13 the written testimony of his returning fellow .

villagers |13 from Dolon, Vasileios Thanou and
|14
,
Zoes Gatzou. Such being |14 the case, the woman
, |15 asked persistently to be divorced [from him], |15

so that she can get another husband to live the rest

|16
of her life. |16 Since there was no longer remedy,

we decided by authority to dissolve [their
|17


marriage and divorce] them |17 from each other


in accordance with the divine and sacred laws and
|18,

ecclesiastic canons. |18 They are hereafter to be

and be called entirely alienated and estranged |19
, |19
[to each other], having no marital intercourse. The
,
said woman Lambro is free to|20 marry a second
|20
time with another man according to the Law.
. |21
[Hence], as |21 evidence thereof, this

ecclesiastical document of divorce was issued |22
|22 and validated by my Humbleness, and was given

|23 .
21 () (1)850. .

to the woman for |23 her safety.

February 21, 1850.
Gjirokastr.

The Ottoman Empire was one of the strongest and most powerful empires to
have ever existed. It covered at his height over 2 million square miles, from
the gates of Vienna to the West, all the way to Basra in Iraq to the East. It
was one of the most multilingual, multiethnic empires which lasted for
almost a thousand years. During her golden age culture and trade flourished,
art and architecture reached new heights unseen before in the Islamic World.
As a pragmatic empire, the ottomans had various religious communities
(millet) multi-ethnic and multi-cultural where it provided a space for selfregulation in a wide spectrum of civil law matters. Indeed we see a peculiar,
striking multi-legalist system with parallel jurisdictions operating in the
Ottoman world.
Marriage was of pivotal importance in the Albanian society, it was not
however a particularly stable institution. Divorces and Remarriages seem to
have been a common response to frequent economic and social stagnations
which the society passed during that time. There is no way of knowing the
real portion of these divorces, since the resources provided are limited

however the evidence available is enough to represent some important

developments untouched before by the historians.
The divorce case that we will analyze was judged by the Official authorities
of the Orthodox Church which according to an agreement with the Ottoman
authorities had the right to administer and therefore decide in regards to
issues concerning the orthodox community. This is one of the cases which
was administered and decided upon the will of the patriarch, with the
exaptation that in this case the orthodox elite from the city of Gjirokaster
also participated in the decision making process. This case of divorce talks
about a family who as a result of immigration (abandonment) was forced to
terminate their marriage. The request for divorce was made by Lambro
daughter of Ioannis after she found out from compatriots (also emigrants)
that his husband had abended her and had formed a new life in the small
black sea port of Varna (Modern Day Bulgaria).
Through this document we are able to uncover some important
characteristics of the society and some of its developments during 18 th
century Ottoman Empire. For example one of the first important observations
that we can understand from this divorce document is the fact that there was
an immigration trend at that time thanks to this network of immigrants (in
our case in Bulgaria). During this period from other historical sources* we
learn that immigration had become something normal, a phenomena which
the society was used to. As a result the boys when came on age were first
married, and then went to immigration. The economic situation might have
been very difficult as indicated by the already existing trend of immigration
networks. This system of marriages at early age as the 19 century scholar
Lampridis suggests, it was done with the intention to avoid permanent
migration, meaning that the men who migrated had to come back home to
take care of their families. This apparently wasnt the case for Lambro the
daughter of Ioannis, whose husband Athanasios emigrated like the rest but
didnt came back and started a new life. It was part of the cannon law of the

church at that time which said that if the husband didnt provided the bride
with financial means to live and sustain herself, she could request a divorce.
Under such legal boundaries she requested divorce, and also the right be
allowed to remarry so that she could live the rest of her life with someone
else. The jury in this specific divorce case was comprised of the metropolitan
of Dryinoupolis and the orthodox elite of Gjirokaster.
The evidence brought before the judges were two testimonies signed
by two compatriots who had been to Varna and had witnessed Athanasioss
betrayal. Convinced by the two immigrants testimonys and since there was
no longer remedy for this case the Judges decided to divorce Lambro the
daughter of Ioannis from Athanasios the son of Georges Papas from Dolo.
During the research I found out that almost all cases that had witnesses, had
to give testimonies in written form in order to be considered valid by the
Churchs legal authorities.
The general impression that emerges from marriage settlements is
that our legal history during the ottoman period is not as previously thought
comprised of chthonic customary law (The Kanun) only. From the countless
legal documents we see that we not only have parallel jurisdictions operating
in the country but above all a legal awareness and consciousness by the
general population for the laws and legislation which were used by the
Albanians in the 18th century.
Divorce does not appear to have been difficult to obtain by the
Orthodox Church as long as there was a valid reason (in our case
abandonment) including mutual unwillingness to continue the marriage as
some of the ecclesiastical divorce documents suggests. The churchs
decision spoke in favor of the womans claim however as of the dowry of this
marriage we know that is one of the rare examples that compensation was
not issued for the guilty party. Why? Its still unclear for us; however we may
suggest that Islamization was probably behind this decision. The church
probably knowing this presumed fact did not issued compensation since he
was no longer entitled to follow Orthodox ecclesiastical law.

In short the importance of such ecclesiastical divorce cases is of huge

importance for the legal history of Albania. It proves that Albanians were not
a tribal based society but rather a group who followed laws and obeyed them
like any other contemporary society of its time. Nevertheless our Legal
History is not without flaws, and there are loopholes which we as legal
historians must uncover. Although that divorce cases are a very small portion
of the whole legal framework operating in Albania during that time, it is
obvious that they played a major role in the social life of most Albanians.