The Struggle for Scutari

by Mary Edith Durham

“The Struggle for Scutari,” originally published in 1914, was the fourth book of the English traveller and writer Edith Durham (1863-1944). She had already made a name for herself with “Through the Lands of the Serb” (1904), “The Burden of the Balkans” (1905) and especially “High Albania” (1909). This book is perhaps Durham’s most ambitious piece of writing. It is the fruit of her longest stay in the Balkans (mostly in Montenegro and Albania) – three and a half years from April 1910 to September 1913. “The Struggle for Scutari” deals with the border conflict, and then with the bloody war waged by the tiny Kingdom of Montenegro under King Nikola upon a crumbling Ottoman Empire, of which Albania was still a part. Caught in the middle of the conflict, between a rock and a hard place, were the Albanian highland tribes that Edith Durham knew and loved. “The Struggle for Scutari” is not only a reliable source of history for the period between 1910 and 1913, based as it is on first-hand experience, but also facilitates an understanding of events in the Balkans up to this very day.

368 pages, Hardcover

First published September 4, 2015

About the author

Traveller, artist and writer who became famous for her anthropological accounts of life in Albania in the early 20th century.

Reviews

[Polina Çeço · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ky është libri më i bukur i Durhamit për Shqipërinë!

Sigurisht, "Shqipëria e Epërme" është një ditar i mrekullueshëm dhe plot ngjyra, kurse "Brenga e Ballkanit" hedh një hap përpara në albanologji...

Mirëpo "Lufta për Shkodrën" është dëshmia personale e Durhamit për mizorinë në trajtimin e çështjes shqiptare nga fqinjët e vendit a Fuqitë e Mëdha në një stil dokumentar. Aty janë shqiptarët e së përditshmes, brengat e mendimet e tyre, shpresat, vuajtjet e nevojat të shkruara siç janë thënë.

Një dokument tejmase i vyer, që unë në të 26-at, si shqiptare, po e lexoj tepër vonë.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very terrible recounting of the author’s experiences as a journalist, impromptu field nurse, and humanitarian during the Balkan war from 1910-1913. I had no idea the Montenegrins (and Serbians and even Greeks to an extent) tried to wholesale slaughter, starve, and torture the bordering Albanians to ethnically cleanse and claim their land. The depravity of man (and woman) really is bottomless and dehumanization is a hell of a thing. After taking part in crimes against man and humanity, the Serbians would face their own attempted genocide at the hands of the Croatian Ustaše regime during WWII. The Balkans have really had a harrowing history.

[Ujana Zajmi · Rating 5 out of 5]

what the fuck Montenegro

[GazMeti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pas asnje dyshim, nje nder librat me te rendesishem te historise se re shqiptare.