"Il diluvio della infedeltà orientale". Islam in the view of the Old Albanian authors (16th - 18th centuries)

This article examines the portrayal of Islam and the Muslims in the printed works and letters of the main Old Albanian authors from the 16th to the 18th centuries. These authors were exclusively Albanian Roman Catholic clergymen, educated in Italy (Loreto and Rome). As basis of this examination the following major Old Albanian texts have been evaluated: Gjon Buzuku ("Missal", Venice 1555), Pjetër Budi (Dottrina Christiana, Rituale Romanum, Speculum Confessionis, all Rome 1618-1621), Frang Bardhi (Dictionarium, Rome 1635), Pjetër Bogdani (Cuneus Prophetarum, Padua 1685), and the anonymous Kuvendi i Arbënit (Rome 1706). In addition to these works the letters of Pjetër Budi, Frang Bardhi and Pjetër Bogdani written in Italian and/or Latin have been analyzed. This analysis is exclusively linguistically based. The interest is to find out how the Old Albanian authors describe the Muslims in their printed works and letters: what kind of argumentation strategies did they use? what terms did they use? is there a fixed formulaic wording?