Dr. David Harrison

Tag: Kosovo

  • A New Short Paper to Download for Free: Arthur Evans and his notes on Illyria; the snake people and cultural identity in Albania and Kosovo

    Arthur Evans and his notes on Illyria; the snake people and cultural identity in Albania and Kosovo

    For the past few years, I’ve been visiting Kosovo and Albania and have been working on a number of academic projects. One such project was to transcribe anew the Notes on Illyria from the rough handwriting of Oxford educated British archaeologist Arthur Evans. Evans was based in Croatia during the early 1880s, though he was arrested as a spy by the Austro-Hungarians in 1882 and returned back to England. He then went on to visit Greece. In 1884, Evans was appointed Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum and in the same year, he gave the Ilchester Lectures on the Slavic conquest of Illyricum, though these remain unpublished. Evans’s Notes remain interesting as they convey his ideas of the Balkans in a late nineteenth century context, Evans using his knowledge of Classical sources. It is from this, that his discussion of Cadmus emerges, and this became an idea for a paper, especially catching my interest in regards to the snake symbolism that I had seen at various locations on my visits to Kosovo and Albania. The paper that can be accessed in this post was published by Academia Letters and was an ‘orphaned’ incomplete work that was attached to the original project of the transcribing of Evans’s Notes on Illyria, which became unfinished due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns. I had transcribed a good number of pages from Notes on Illyria, and one day in the near future I will post the transcription on Academia.

    The paper can be accessed via this link and is free to download as a pdf:  (99+) Arthur Evans and his notes on Illyria; the snake people and cultural identity in Albania and Kosovo | Dr David Harrison – Academia.edu

  • Freemasonry and the Islamic Mystical Movements of Balkan – Free Paper to Download from my Academia Page

    Freemasonry and the Islamic Mystical Movements of Balkan – Free Paper to Download from my Academia Page

    During my recent visits to Kosovo and Albania, I had the honour to be invited to visit the Halveti, Saadi and Bektashi Tekke’s and to meet the various Masters. This led to some research and the writing and subsequent publication of this paper with the Philalethes Journal last year. I had previously presented the paper to the online lecture series for the S.R.I.A. (Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia). I have thus posted it up on my Academia profile where it can now be downloaded for free as a pdf, via the link immediately below. I hope you enjoy it.

    ‘Freemasonry and the Islamic Mystical Movements of Balkan’, Philalethes: The Journal of Masonic Research & Letters, Vol.74, No.2, (Summer, 2021), pp.67-71.

    Abstract

    A recent visit to Kosovo in the Balkans gave me a glimpse into three Islamic Sufi Orders; the Bektashi, Saadi and Halveti. It was interesting to talk to the Masters of these Orders, and to learn how they use initiation and a culture of secrecy, while also providing a journey of spiritual discovery and development for the initiate in a learning environment of signs and symbols, achieving levels of spiritual knowledge—a journey that is perceived by some nineteenth century writers, such as John Yarker, as being reminiscent of the spiritual journey some may experience within Freemasonry. Indeed, Bektashi, Saadi and Halveti are but three of the twelve Sufi Orders that can be found in Kosovo, other examples being Bajrami and Mevlevi. This short paper attempts to explore and examine the perceived Masonic similarities to the Islamic Mystical Movements that can be found in the Balkan region, and will also discuss how the views of nineteenth century Orientalist writers assisted in popularising this view.

  • Some videos from a recent trip to Kosovo

    Some videos from a recent trip to Kosovo

    I’ve visited Kosovo and Albania a good number of times over the last few years, where I’ve had some Albanian language editions of some of my books published, notably A Quick Guide to Freemasonry, which was published in 2020 and Genesis of Freemasonry, which will be out soon.

    What I like about both Kosovo and Albania is that they are not short of bookshops, and most of the bookshops in Pristina and in Tirana are now stocking my work, and one of the videos includes myself visiting the Dukagjini Bookstore on Skanderbeg Square in Pristina for a book signing. I have also done several media interviews while in Kosovo and Albania to support my books, and one can be seen here. Even some of the bars and restaurants have books in them, such as the Soma book station in Pristina.

    I was also inspired to write a paper about the Bektashi, Saadi and Halveti practices and their noted similarities to certain Masonic practices, after visiting some of the Tekke’s in Prizren and Gjakova. Both Prizren and Gjakova are indeed spiritual centres of Kosovo, both maintaining a rich archaeological heritage and both having some fine architecture.

    The videos can be seen below, which I hope have captured a little of the essence of Kosovo. Please feel free to subscribe to my channel.