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Lists of Albanians

This is a list of lists of historical and living Albanians (including ethnic Albanians and people of full or partial Albanian ancestry) who are famous or notable, sorted by occupation and alphabetically.

Priests

 * Dhimitër Frangu (1443 – 1525), friar and scholar of a noble family, treasurer and councilor of Giorgio Castriota, in 1480 wrote the first biography, in Latin, on the life of Skanderbeg, from which all later writers drew.
 * Father Marin Barleti (1450 – 1513), Catholic ecclesiastic and writer, author of the life of Skanderbeg.
 * Gjon Buzuku (1499 – 1577), bishop Catholic, author of the oldest known document in Albanian: a translation of the Roman Missal, "Meshari" (1555).
 * Pjetër Budi (1565 – 1622), Catholic priest and writer, published three books in Albanian and I leave several poems in his native language.
 * Papa Luca Matranga (1567 – 1619), priest and scholar, author of the first literary expression arbëresh of the Albanians in diaspora.
 * Frang Bardhi (1606 – 1644), Catholic bishop, lexicographer, folklorist and ethnographer, author of the first dictionary of the Albanian language known so far.
 * Pjetër Bogdani (1630 – 1689), Catholic bishop and writer, author of the first Albanian work in prose.
 * Papa Nikollë Filja (1691 – 1769), priest and writer.
 * Nicoleta Kenini (2005-), writer and priest
 * Mons. Giuseppe Crispi (1781 – 1859), one of the major figures of the Arbëresh community of Sicily of that era, wrote a number of works on the Albanian language.
 * Papa Francesco Antonio Santori (1819 – 1894), writer, poet and playwright.
 * Nikoll Kaçorri (1862 – 1917), Catholic religious, politician and patriot, deputy prime minister with Ismail Kemal, in the first Albanian government (1912–1913).
 * Gjergj Fishta (1871 – 1940), Franciscan friar, poet, politician and translator.
 * Mons. Theofan Stilian Noli (1882 – 1965), bishop and intellectual, writer, scholar, diplomat, politician, historian, orator, founder of the Orthodox Church of Albania.
 * Papa Marco La Piana (1883 – 1958), priest and scholar, gave his contribute through his studies on Albanian language.
 * Anton Harapi (1888 – 1946), Franciscan friar, teacher, writer and politician.
 * Zef Valentini (1900 – 1979), Italian Jesuit, albanologist, byzantinist and historian, naturalized Albanian.
 * Cyril of Bulgaria (1901 – 1971), the first Patriarch of the Bulgarian Patriarchate, born of an Albanian family.
 * Father Zef Pllumi (1924 – 2007), Franciscan priest and writer, author of the memoirs of Christian religious persecution in Albania.
 * Mons. Ercole Lupinacci (1933 – 2016), Bishop of Italo-Albanian Catholic Eparchies of Piana degli Albanesi and Lungro.
 * Mons. Sotir Ferrara (1937 – 2017), the Bishop of the Eparchy of Piana degli Albanesi, a diocese of the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church in Sicily, Italy.
 * Papa Eleuterio Francesco Fortino (1938 – 2010), priest of the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church, Archimandrite in the Eparchy of Lungro in Calabria, served as the Under Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and albanolog.
 * Arch. Rrok Kola Mirdita (1939 – 2015), Catholic archbishop.
 * Mons. Angelo Massafra (born 1949), metropolitan archbishop of Scutari-Pult and president of the Albanian Episcopal Conference.
 * Mons. Donato Oliverio (born 1956), Bishop of the Eparchy of Lungro.
 * Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani, Islamic scholar (specialising in the field of Hadith sciences) and Muslim revivalist in the 20th century. He is well known for his anti-extremist leanings all over the Muslim world.

Martyrs

 * Papa Kristo Negovani (1875 – 1905), religious leader and writer for the Albanian cause.
 * Father Daniel Dajani (1906 – 1946), Jesuit religious and martyr, of the Catholic Church, killed by the regime during the communist dictatorship in Albania.

Pope

 * Pope Clement XI (1649 – 1721), Pope of the Catholic Church.

Saints and blessed

 * Saint Papa Josif Papamihali (1912 – 1948), priest of Byzantine rite, formed in the Albanian communities of Italy, martyr of the Albanian Greek-Catholic Church, arrested, sentenced to forced labor, and killed during the communist dictatorship in Albania.
 * Saint Mother Teresa (1910 – 1997), Roman Catholic religious and missionary.
 * Saint Astius (2nd century AD), bishop of Dyrrhachium, martyr and saint venerated by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.
 * Saint Pelinus (c. 620 – 5 December 662), native of Dyrrhachium and later Bishop of Brindisi in Italy.
 * Saint Angelina of Serbia (1440–1520), the Albanian Despotess consort of Serbian Despot Stefan Branković (r. 1458–1459), and a daughter of Albanian nobleman Gjergj Arianiti. She was proclaimed a saint and venerated as such by the Serbian Orthodox Church.
 * Saint John Koukouzelis (1300–c. 1350) recognized as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church.
 * Saints Eleutherius and Antia venerated as Christian saints and martyrs in Greece and Albania by both the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

A–G
• Dritëro Agolli (1931–2017)

• Thoma Avrami (1869–1943)

• Mimoza Ahmeti (born 1963)

• Nasiruddin al-Albani (1914–1999)

• Ylljet Aliçka (born 1951)

• Fatos Arapi (1930–2018)

• Asdreni (1872–1947)

• Frang Bardhi (1606–1643)

• Marin Barleti (1450–1513)

• Mario Bellizzi (born 1957)

• Dhimitër Beratti (1888–1970)

• Anton Berisha (born 1946)

• Gëzim Boçari (born 1949)

• Pjetër Bogdani (1630–1689)

• Besim Bokshi (1930–2014)

• Flora Brovina (born 1949)

• Pjetër Budi (1566–1622)

• Gjon Buzuku (16th century)

• Eqrem Çabej (1908–1980)

• Aleks Çaçi (1916–1989)

• Nicola Chetta (1740–1803)

• Gabriele Dara (1826–1885)

• Adem Demaçi (1936–2018)

• Musa Demi (1878–1971)

• Spiro Dine (1846–1922)

• Visar Dodani (1857–1939)

• Pal Dushmani (died 1457)

• Gjergj Fishta (1871–1940)

• Nezim Frakulla (1680–1760)

• Abdyl Frashëri (1839–1892)

• Midhat Frashëri (1880–1949)

• Naim Frashëri (1846–1900)

• Sami Frashëri (1850–1904)

• Llazar Fundo (1899–1944)

• Mirko Gashi (1939–1995)

• Gjon Gazulli (1400–1465)

• Sabri Godo (1929–2011)

• Mihal Grameno (1871–1931)

• Gregory IV of Athens (1871–1931)

• Luigj Gurakuqi (1879–1925)

H–L
• Anton Harapi (1888–1946)

• Sinan Hasani (1922–2010)

• Qemal Haxhihasani (1916–1991)

• Ukshin Hoti (1943–1999)

• Shefki Hysa (born 1957)

• Vera Isaku (born 1955)

• Dora d'Istria (1828–1888)

• Zef Jubani (1818–1880)

• Irhan Jubica (born 1973)

• Helena Kadare (born 1943)

• Ismail Kadare (1936–2024)

• Ilir Kadia (born 1957)

• Hasan Zyko Kamberi (18th century)

• Veli Karahoda (born 1968)

• Amik Kasoruho (1932–2014)

• Teodor Keko (1958–2002)

• Jeton Kelmendi (born 1978)

• Ardian Klosi (1957–2012)

• Musine Kokalari (1917–1983)

• Vedat Kokona (1913–1998)

• Ernest Koliqi (1903–1975)

• Fatos Kongoli (born 1944)

• Faik Konitza (1875–1942)

• Mark Krasniqi (1920–2015)

• Kostandin Kristoforidhi (1826–1895)

• Mitrush Kuteli (1907–1967)

• Teodor Laço (1936–2016)

• Eulogios Kourilas Lauriotis (1880–1961)

• Lutfi Lepaja (born 1945)

• Luljeta Lleshanaku (born 1968)

• Petro Nini Luarasi (1864–1911)

• Skënder Luarasi (1900–1982)

• Fatos Lubonja (born 1951)

M–S
• Sejfulla Malëshova (1900–1971)

• Petro Marko (1913–1991)

• Mark Marku (born 1991)

• Gjekë Marinaj (born 1965)

• Jakup Mato (1934–2005)

• Lekë Matrënga (1567–1619)

• Pjetër Mazreku (1584–16??)

• Din Mehmeti (1932–2010)

• Vangjel Meksi (1770–1821)

• Esad Mekuli (1916–1993)

• Millosh Gjergj Nikolla (1911–1938)

• Thimi Mitko(1820–1890)

• Ndre Mjeda (1866–1937)

• Hilë Mosi (1885–1933)

• Betim Muço (1947–2015)

• Besnik Mustafaj (born 1958)

• Gjon Muzaka (born 1510)

• Papa Kristo Negovani (1875–1905)

• Ndoc Nikaj (1864–1951)

• Millosh Gjergj Nikolla (1911–1938)

• Fan S. Noli (1882–1965)

• Fadil Paçrami (1922–2008)

• Ludmilla Pajo (1947–1995)

• Dhimitër Pasko (1907–1967)

• Shefqet Pllana (1918–1994)

• Ali Podrimja (1942–2012)

• Lasgush Poradeci (1899–1987)

• Foqion Postoli (1889–1927)

• Iljaz Prokshi (1907–1967)

• Gjergj Qiriazi (1868–1912)

• Rexhep Qosja (born 1936)

• Girolamo de Rada (1814–1903)

• Luan Rama (born 1952)

• Agim Ramadani (1964–1999)

• Giuseppe Schirò (1865–1927)

• Zef Serembe (1844–1901)

• Bashkim Shehu (born 1955)

• Filip Shiroka (1859–1935)

• Dhimitër Shuteriqi (1915–2003)

• Robert Shvarc (1932–2003)

• Drago Siliqi (1930–1963)

• Llazar Siliqi (1924–2001)

• Nokë Sinishtaj (born 1944)

• Ramadan Sokoli (1920–2008)

• Pandeli Sotiri (1842–1892)

• Xhevahir Spahiu (born 1945)

• Haki Stërmilli (1895–1953)

T–Z
• Hasan Tahsini (1811–1881)

• Fatos Tarifa (born 1954)

• Skender Temali (1946–2021)

• Çerçiz Topulli (1880–1915)

• Kasëm Trebeshina (1926–2017)

• Misto Treska (1914–1993)

• Konstantinos Tzechanis (1740–1800)

• Vorea Ujko (1918–1989)

• Hajro Ulqinaku (born 1938)

• Giulio Variboba (1725–1788)

• Vaso Pasha (1825–1892)

• Jan Evstrat Vithkuqari (1755–1822)

• Demir Vlonjati (1780–1845)

• Eqrem Vlora (1885–1964)

• Jani Vreto (1822–1900)

• Bilal Xhaferri (1935–1986)

• Dhimitër Xhuvani (1934–2009)

• Jakov Xoxa (1923–1979)

• Muçi Zade (18th century)

• Pjetër Zarishi (1806–1866)

• Fehim Zavalani (1859–1935)

• Petro Zheji (1929–2015)

Poets

• Thoma Avrami (1869–1943)

• Dritëro Agolli (1931–2017)

• Mimoza Ahmeti (born 1963)

• Fatos Arapi (1930–2018)

• Nasibi Tahir Babai (–1835)

• Llukë Bogdani (–1687)

• Zenel Bastari (18th Century)

• Besim Bokshi (1930–2014)

• Constantine of Berat (18th Century)

• Etëhem Bey Mollaj (1783–1846)

• Flora Brovina (born 1949)

• Çajupi (1866–1930)

• Spiro Dine (1846–1922)

• Prend Doçi (1846–1917)

• Asdreni (1872–1947)

• Gjergj Fishta (1871–1940)

• Nezim Frakulla (1680–1760)

• Mid’hat Frashëri (1880–1949)

• Ndoc Gjetja (1944–2010)

• Julia Gjika (born 1949)

• Milto S. Gurra (1884–1972)

• Ervin Hatibi (born 1974)

• Ibrahim Dalliu (1878–1952)

• Irhan Jubica (born 1973)

• Kadrush Radogoshi (born 1948)

• Hasan Zyko Kamberi (18th Century)

• Karmel Kandreva (1931–1982)

• Veli Karahoda (born 1968)

• Haxhi Ymer Kashari (18th Century)

• Teodor Keko (1958–2002)

• Ernest Koliqi (1903–1975)

• Mark Krasniqi (1920–2015)

• Irma Kurti (born 1966)

• Natasha Lako (born 1948)

• Gjekë Marinaj (born 1965)

• Ndre Mjeda (1866–1937)

• Betim Muço (1947–2015)

• Faruk Myrtaj (born 1955)

• Havzi Nela (1934–1988)

• Migjeni (1911–1938)

• Fan Noli (1882–1965)

• Bernardin Palaj (1894–1947)

• Dhimitër Pasko (1907–1967)

• Arshi Pipa (1920–1997)

• Lasgush Poradeci (1899–1987)

• Girolamo de Rada (1814–1903)

• Nijazi Ramadani (born 1964)

• Giuseppe Schirò (1865–1927)

• Filip Shiroka (1859–1935)

• Llazar Siliqi (1924–2001)

• Xhevahir Spahiu (born 1945)

• Murad Toptani (1867–1918)

• Giulio Variboba (1725–1788)

• Bilal Xhaferri (1935–1986)

• Muçi Zade (18th Century)

Screenwriters
• Dhimitër Anagnosti (born 1936)

• Kujtim Çashku (born 1950)

• Elvira Dones (born 1960)

• Fatmir Gjata (1922–1989)

• Kujtim Gjonaj (born 1946)

• Hysen Hakani (1932–2011)

• Xhanfize Keko (1928–2007)

• Skifter Këlliçi (born 1938)

• Anastas Kondo (1937–2006)

• Saim Kokona (born 1934)

• Viktor Gjika (born 1937)

• Vath Koreshi (1936–2006)

• Nijazi Ramadani (born 1964)

• Llazar Siliqi (1924–2001)

• Nexhati Tafa (born 1952)

• Dhimitër Xhuvani (1934–2009)

• Gjergj Xhuvani (1963–2019)

Journalists
• Bardhyl Ajeti (1977–2005)

• Agron Bajrami (born 1964)

• Dhimitër Beratti (1886–1970)

• Berat Buzhala (born 1975)

• Ligor Buzi (1915–1994)

• Jusuf Buxhovi (born 1946)

• Anastas Byku (1830–1878)

• Visar Dodani (1857–1939)

• Diana Çuli (born 1951)

• Daut Dauti (born 1960)

• Fatmir Efica (born 1961)

• Blendi Fevziu (born 1969)

• Llazar Fundo (1899–1944)

• Fatmir Gjata (1922–1989)

• Mihal Grameno (1871–1931)

• Milto S. Gurra (1884–1972)

• Baton Haxhiu (born 1968)

• Shefki Hysa (born 1957)

• Vera Isaku (born 1955)

• Teodor Keko (1958–2002)

• Jeton Kelmendi (born 1978)

• Dashnor Kokonozi (born 1951)

• Shahin Kolonja (1865–1919)

• Pandi Laço (born 1964)

• Kristo Luarasi (1876–1934)

• Shkëlzen Maliqi (born 1947)

• Enver Maloku (1954–1999)

• Gjekë Marinaj (born 1965)

• Marin Mema (born 1981)

• Thimi Mitko (1820–1890)

• Hajdar Muneka (born 1954)

• Faruk Myrtaj (born 1955)

• Palokë Nika (1892–1961)

• Sali Nivica (1890–1920)

• Dhimitër Pasko (1907–1967)

• Alfred Peza (born 1967)

• Bedri Pejani (1885–1946)

• Leon Qafzezi (born 1953)

• Girolamo de Rada (1814–1903)

• Nijazi Ramadani (born 1964)

• Arlind Sadiku (born 1989)

• Adem Salihaj (born 1950)

• Dardan Selimaj (born 1984)

• Armand Shkullaku

• Athanas Sina

• Avni Spahiu (born 1953)

• Andrea Stefani (born 1969)

• Iliriana Sulkuqi (born 1951)

• Skënder Temali (1946–2021)

• Nexhmie Zaimi (1917–2003)

• Mihal Zallari (1894–1976)

• Fehim Zavalani (1859–1935)

• Tajar Zavalani (1903–1966)

• Avni Zogiani (born 1970)

• Bilal Xhaferri (1935–1986)

• Arbana Xharra (born 1953)

Folklorists

• Mehdi Bardhi (1927–1994)

• Anton Berisha (born 1946)

• Martin Camaj (1925–1992)

• Anton Çetta (1920–1995)

• Tahir Dizdari (1900–1972)

• Visar Dodani (1857–1939)

• Nikollë Filja (1691–1769), Nicola Figlia –  Arbëreshë Byzantine rite priest, and writer of the 18th century; known for his translations of biblical fragments into Arbëreshë for children; Arbëreshë folklorist

• Shtjefën Gjeçovi (1874–1929)  –  Catholic priest, ethnologist and folklorist; known for being the father of Albanian folklore studies

• Karl Gurakuqi (1895–1971)  –  Albanian linguist and folklorist

• Qemal Haxhihasani (1916–1991)

• Petro Janura (1911–1983)  –  a main personality of the Albanian language, literature, and folklore in Yugoslavia in the 50s through mid-80s

• Zef Jubani

• Sotir Kolea (1872–1945)  –  Albanian folklorist, diplomat and activist of the Albanian National Awakening

• Donat Kurti (1903–1983)

• Thimi Mitko (1820–1890)  –  activist of the Albanian National Awakening and folklorist

• Bernardin Palaj (1894–1947)

• Gjergj Pekmezi (1872–1938)  –  also known as Georg Pekmezi; Albanian linguist and folklorist; in 1916 became a member of the Literary Commission of Shkodër, which established the first standard form of the Albanian language

• Girolamo de Rada (1814–1903)  –  Albanian writer of Italo-Albanian literature; of Arbëreshë descent; foremost figure of the Albanian National Awakening in 19th-century Italy

• Giuseppe Schirò (1865–1927)  –  Arbëreshë neo-classical poet, linguist, publicist and folklorist

• Shefqet Pllana (1918–1994)

• Dhimitër Shuteriqi (1915–2003)

• Ramadan Sokoli (1920–2008)

Translators

• Idriz Ajeti

• Fatos Arapi

• Mehdi Bardhi

• Muharrem Blakçori

• Dionis Bubani

• Gjergj Bubani

• Gjon Buzuku

• Refo Çapari

• Costa Chekrezi

• Shaban Demiraj

• Visar Dodani

• Nikollë Filja

• Gjergj Fishta

• Kristo Floqi

• Mid'hat Frashëri

• Naim Frashëri

• Lola Gjoka

• Gregory IV of Athens

• Milto Sotir Gurra

• Ibrahim Dalliu

• Halil Jaçellari

• Petro Janura

• Zef Jubani

• Ardian Klosi

• Jolanda Kodra

• Vedat Kokona

• Ernest Koliqi

• Shahin Kolonja

• Kostandin Kristoforidhi

• Çezar Kurti

• Donat Kurti

• Henrik Lacaj

• Loni Logori

• Gjekë Marinaj

• Vangjel Meksi

• Esad Mekuli

• Betim Muço

• Faruk Myrtaj

• Fan S. Noli

• Dhimitër Pasko

• Aurel Plasari

• Lasgush Poradeci

• Athanas Sina

• Skënder Luarasi

• Luan Starova

• Misto Treska

• Ardian Vehbiu

• Jan Evstrat Vithkuqari

• Eqrem Vlora

• Isuf Vrioni

• Tajar Zavalani

• Petro Zheji

Scientists

 * Teki Biçoku (1926–2009) –  geologist; former member and president of the Academy of Sciences of Albania
 * Gjon Gazulli (1400–1465) – astronomer
 * Pandi Geço – geographer
 * Shtjefën Gjeçovi (1874–1929) –  ethnographer
 * Sotir Kuneshka – physicist
 * Rexhep Meidani –  physicist
 * Laura Mersini-Houghton –  Albanian-American cosmologist and theoretical physicist; associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; proponent of the multiverse hypothesis which holds that our universe is one of many
 * Betim Muço – seismologist
 * Ferid Murad (1936–2023) –  physician and pharmacologist; co-winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
 * Shefqet Pllana (1918–1994) – ethnographer
 * Niko Qafzezi (1914–1998) –  agronomist and pedagogue
 * Nijazi Ramadani (born 1964) –  ethnographer
 * Andrea Shundi (born 1934) – agronomist of the 20th and 21st century
 * Xhezair Teliti –  mathematician

Philosophers

 * Marin Beçikemi (1468–1526) –  15th- and 16th-century humanist, orator, and chronist
 * Sami Frashëri (1850–1904)
 * Gani Bobi (1943–1995) –  philosopher and sociologist from Kosovo
 * Ibrahim Gashi (born 1963) –  Kosovar Albanian academic and philosopher
 * Ukshin Hoti (1943–1999) –  Kosovo Albanian philosopher and activist
 * Zef Jubani (1818–1880)
 * Muhamedin Kullashi
 * Shkëlzen Maliqi (born 1947) –  Kosovo Albanian philosopher, art critic, political analyst and intellectual; was involved in politics in the 1990s
 * Arshi Pipa (1920–1997) –  Albanian-American philosopher, writer, poet and literary critic
 * Petro Zheji (1929–2015) –  linguist, translator, philosopher, and author from Gjirokastër; lived and worked in Tiranë, Albania

Social scientists

 * Gëzim Alpion –  academic, political analyst, writer, playwright, and civil society activist
 * Albert Doja (born 1957) –  social anthropologist, member of the National Albanian Academy of Sciences and University Professor of Anthropology at the University of Lille, France.

Historians
• Frang Bardhi, Frang Bardhi (Latin: Franciscus Blancus, Italian: Francesco Bianchi, 1606–1643) –  bishop and author of the early eras of Albanian literature

• Marin Barleti (1450–1512/13)  –  historian and Catholic priest from Shkodra; considered the first Albanian historian because of his 1504 eyewitness account of the 1478 siege of Shkodra; better known for his second work, a biography on Skanderbeg, translated into many languages in the 16th to the 20th centuries

• Aleks Buda (1910–1993)  –  Albanian historian

• Jorgo Bulo (1939–2015)  –  philologist, historian, and literary critic; member of the Albanian Academy of Arts and Sciences

• Eqrem Çabej (1908–1980)  –  historical linguist and scholar who, through the publication of numerous studies gained a reputation as a key expert in research on Albanian language, literature, ethnology, and linguistics

• Kostandin Çekrezi (1892–1959)

• Midhat Frashëri (1880–1949)

• Naim Frashëri (1846–1900)

• Demetrio Franco (1443–1525)  –  scholar, soldier and Catholic priest; known for Comentario de le cose de' Turchi, et del S. Georgio Scanderbeg, principe d' Epyro, a biography of the national hero of Albania Skanderbeg

• Ibrahim Gashi

• Marka Gjoni

• Qemal Haxhihasani (1916–1991)

• Muzafer Korkuti (born 1936)

• Rexhep Krasniqi (1906–1999)

• Gjon Markagjoni (1888–1966)

• Ylber Marku (1984–)

• Beqir Meta

• Ndoc Nikaj (1864–1951)  –  priest, writer, and historian

• Fan Noli (1882–1965)  –  writer, scholar, diplomat, politician, historian, orator, and founder of the Albanian Orthodox Church; as prime minister and regent of Albania in 1924 during the June Revolution

• Aurel Plasari (born 1956)

• Ilo Mitkë Qafëzezi (1889–1964)

• Skënder Rizaj (1930–2021)

• Dhimitër Shuteriqi (1915–2003)

• Stavro Skëndi (1905–1989)

• Mehmet Tahsini (1864–?)

• Pashko Vasa (born 1825–1892), also known as Vaso Pasha, Wasa Pasha or Vaso Pashë Shkodrani  –  writer, poet and publicist of the Albanian National Awakening, and Governor of Lebanon from 1882 until his death

• Marenglen Verli (born 1951)

• Eqrem Vlora (1885–1964)

• Mihal Zallari (1896–1976)

• Tajar Zavalani (1903–1966)

Economists

 * Kostandin Boshnjaku (1888–1953) –  banker, politician, one of the earliest Albanian communists
 * Shkëlqim Cani (born 1956) –  Governor of the Bank of Albania, 1997–2004
 * Sokrat Dodbiba (1899–1956) –  economist and politician who served as Minister of Finance of Albania, 1943–44
 * Ardian Fullani (born 1955)
 * Ilir Hoti (1957–2016) –  economist and banker
 * Arben Malaj (born 1961)
 * Qirjako Mihali (1929–2009)
 * Filip Noga (1867/1868–1917) –  politician; Minister of Finance of the country for four months in 1914; also known as Philippe Nogga
 * Gramoz Pashko (1955–2006) –  economist and politician
 * Ferit Vokopola (1887–1969)
 * Vrioni family –  one of the great aristocratic and biggest landowner families of Albania

Publishers
• Dionis Bubani

• Gjergj Bubani

• Anastas Byku

• Kostandin Çekrezi

• Xhovalin Delia

• Vehbi Dibra

• Milo Duçi

• Arlinda Dudaj (Hovi)

• Midhat Frashëri

• Milto Sotir Gurra

• Baton Haxhiu

• Ibrahim Dalliu

• Irhan Jubica

• Ataol Kaso

• Ernest Koliqi

• Shahin Kolonja

• Rexhep Krasniqi

• Kyrias family

• Anselmo Lorecchio

• Kristo Luarasi

• Fatos Lubonja

• Halil Mëniku

• Thimi Mitko

• Ndoc Nikaj

• Sotir Peçi

• Marigo Posio

• Leon Qafzezi

• Gjergj Qiriazi

• Girolamo de Rada

• Drago Siliqi

• Risto Siliqi

• Flaka Surroi

• Veton Surroi

• Gëzim Tafa

• Fatmir Toçi

• Jani Vruho

• Bilal Xhaferri

• Fehim Zavalani

• Tajar Zavalani

Scholars and linguists
• Naum Veqilharxhi

• Fatmir Agalliu

• Androkli Kostallari

• Eqrem Çabej

• Martin Camaj

• Shaban Demiraj

• Mahir Domi

• Tahir Dizdari

• Sami Frashëri

• Karl Gurakuqi

• Androkli Kostallari

• Mirela Kumbaro

• Henrik Lacaj

• Ndoc Nikaj

• Gjergj Pekmezi

• Namik Resuli

• Parashqevi Qiriazi

• Sevasti Qiriazi

• Namik Resuli

• Selman Riza

• Jan Evstrat Vithkuqari

• Petro Zheji

Rulers

 * Skanderbeg (1405–1468) – 15th-century Albanian lord; "Hero of Christianism"; initiated and organized the League of Lezhë, which proclaimed him Chief of the League of the Albanian people

Politicians and diplomats

 * Ramiz Alia (1925-2011)
 * Taulant Balla (born 1977)
 * Sali Berisha (born 1944)
 * Enver Hoxha (1908-1985)
 * Besiana Kadare (born 1973)
 * Ravesa Lleshi (born 1976)
 * Ilir Meta (born 1969)
 * Fatos Nano (born 1952)
 * Agim Nesho (born 1956)
 * Ismail Kemal (1844-1919)
 * Edi Rama (born 1964)
 * Ibrahim Rugova (1944-2006)
 * Mehmet Shehu (1913-1981)
 * Hashim Thaçi (born 1968)
 * Esad Toptani (died 1920)
 * Ahmet Zogu (1895-1961)

Multimedia artists

 * Ilia Xhokaxhi (1948–2007) –  scenographer
 * Saimir Strati (born 1966) –  multi-media artist, achieved six Guinness World Records
 * Anri Sala (born 1974) – contemporary artist
 * Burim Myftiu (born 1961) – contemporary photographer
 * Armando Lulaj (born 1980) - contemporary artist
 * Pleurad Xhafa (born 1984) - contemporary artist

Architects

 * Andrea Alessi (1425–1505) – architect, painter and sculptor
 * Sedefkar Mehmed Agha (1540–1617) – chief architect of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque.
 * Architect Kasemi (1570–1659) –  master of Ottoman classical architecture
 * Carl Ritter von Ghega (1802–1860) – engineer and designer of railways
 * Qemal Butka (1907–1997) –  architect, painter, politician and postage stamps engraver
 * Enver Faja (1992–1996) –  architect and diplomat
 * Valentina Pistoli (1928–1993) –  architect

Painters

• Marco Basaiti (c. 1470–1530) – Renaissance painter

• Onufri (16th century) –  Orthodox icon painter and Archpriest of Elbasan

• David Selenica (17th century)  –  painter of the late 17th and the early 18th century

• Kostandin Shpataraku (1736–1767) – Orthodox icon and fresco painter of the Post-Byzantine period in the eighteenth century.

• Zografi Brothers (18th century) – painters of post-Byzantine icon art

• Kolë Idromeno (1860–1939)  –  painter, sculptor, photographer, architect and engineer

• Sadri Ahmeti (1939–2010)  –  painter and poet

• Sabri Berkel  (1907–1993)  –  modernist painter

• Abdurrahim Buza (1905–1986)  –  painter

• Xhovalin Delia (born 1959)  –  painter, publicist and film director

• Abdullah Gërguri (1931–1994)  –  artist in restoration and conservation of icons and frescoes

• Helidon Gjergji –  contemporary artist

• Fatmir Haxhiu (1927–2001)  –  painter

• Omer Kaleshi (1932–2022)  –  painter

• Ibrahim Kodra (1918–2006)  –  painter and writer

• Zef Kolombi (1907–1949)  –  painter

• Nexhmedin Zajmi (1916–1991)

• Andrea Kushi (1884–1959)  –  painter

• Gazmend Leka (born 1953)  –  painter, artistic director and scholar

• Ndoc Martini (1880–1916)  –  painter

• Vangjush Mio (1891–1957)  –  painter

• George Pali (born 1957)  –  painter, contemporary visual artist

• Chatin Sarachi (1899–1974)  –  painter and politician

• Zef Shoshi (born 1939)  –  painter

• Arthur Tashko (1901–1994)  –  modern painter, lawyer and musician

• Esat Valla (born 1944)  –  painter

• Eltjon Valle (born 1984)  –  painter

• Agim Zajmi (1936–2013)  –  painter

Cartoonists and illustrators

 * Ali Dino (1889–1938) –  cartoonist
 * Shyqri Nimani (1941–2023) –  graphic designer
 * Fahri Axhanela –  cartoonist
 * Agim Sulaj (born 1960) –  illustrator and cartoonist

Sculptors

 * Dhimitër Çani (1904–1990)
 * Agim Çavdarbasha (1944–1999)
 * Sadik Kaceli (1914–2000)
 * Kristina Koljaka (1916–2005)
 * Genc Mulliqi (born 1966)
 * Vasiliev Nini (born 1954)
 * Janaq Paço (1914–1991)
 * Odhise Paskali (1903–1985)
 * Ardian Pepa (born 1977)
 * Agim Rada (1953–2023)
 * Kristaq Rama (1932–1998)
 * Murad Toptani (1867–1918)
 * Sislej Xhafa (born 1970)
 * Helidon Xhixha (born 1970)

Photographers

 * Fadil Berisha (born 1973) –  official photographer for Miss Universe, Miss USA and Rolex
 * Emin Kadi – fashion photographer, journalist, art director and magazine publisher
 * Gegë Marubi (1907–1984) –  photographer
 * Kel Marubi (1870–1940) –  photographer
 * Gjon Mili (1904–1984) –  photographer known for his work published in Life Magazine
 * Burim Myftiu (born 1961) –  photographer
 * Kristo Sulidhi (1858–1938) –  photographer and writer
 * George Tames (1919–1994) – photographer for The New York Times
 * Mimoza Veliu (born 1979) –  photographer

Actors and actresses
• Melihate Ajeti (1935–2005)

• Arben Bajraktaraj (born 1973) – actor, best known for his role as the Death Eater Antonin Dolohov in the Harry Potter films

• Faruk Begolli (1944–2007)

• James Belushi (born 1954)  –  American actor; of Albanian descent; brother of John Belushi

• John Belushi (1949–1982)  –  American comedian, actor, and musician; one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live; also known for 1978 film Animal House and as one of The Blues Brothers; of Albanian descent

• James Biberi (born 1965)

• Luli Bitri (born 1976)

• Cecilia Bolocco (born 1965)  –  Chilean actress, TV host and beauty queen; Miss Universo Chile 1987 and Miss Universe 1987; of Albanian descent

• Rajmonda Bulku (born 1965)

• Marjeta Meti (born 1967)

• Tracee Chimo  –  has Albanian ancestry

• Melpomeni Çobani (1928–2016)

• Pjetër Gjoka (1912–1982)

• Blerim Destani  –  actor and producer; best known for his roles in Time of the Comet and Dossier K.

• Besim Dina (born 1971)

• Arta Dobroshi (born 1980)  –  first Kosovar actress to walk the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, the Berlin International Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival, and to be nominated for the European Film Award

• Eliza Dushku (born 1980)  –  of Albanian descent

• Halit Ergenç (born 1970)  –  Turkish actor; mother of Albanian descent

• Bekim Fehmiu (1936–2010)  –  Yugoslavian theater and film actor of Albanian ethnicity;  first Eastern European actor to star in Hollywood during the Cold War

• Victor Gojcaj (born 1983)

• Ana Golja (born 1996)  –  Canadian actress and singer of Albanian descent, best known for playing Zoë Rivas in the teen drama Degrassi: Next Class and Ariana Berlin in the TV movie Full Out

• Katarina Josipi (1923–1969)

• Agim Kaba (born 1980)  –  American actor, artist and filmmaker of Albanian descent; best known for his role of Aaron Snyder on As the World Turns

• Mirush Kabashi (born 1948)

• Florina Kaja (born 1982)

• Flonja Kodheli

• Tinka Kurti (born 1932)

• Marie Logoreci (1920–1988)

• Jon Lolis

• Ndrek Luca (1927–1995)

• Masiela Lusha (born 1985)  –  Albanian-American actress, author, producer and humanitarian; played Carmen Consuela Lopez on the globally syndicated ABC sitcom George Lopez

• Pjetër Malota (born 1959)  –  best known for his appearances in films starring Jean-Claude Van Damme; has over 40 years Tae Lwon Do/Hapkido experience

• Violeta Manushi (1926–2007)

• Alexander Moissi (1879–1935)  –  stage actor

• Yllka Mujo (born 1953)

• Robert Ndrenika (born 1942)

• Antoneta Papapavli (1938–2013)

• Drita Pelingu (1926–2013)

• Enver Petrovci (born 1954)

• Sulejman Pitarka (1924–2007)

• Sandër Prosi (1920–1985)

• Kadri Roshi (1924–2007)

• Skënder Sallaku (1935–2014)

• Laert Vasili (born 1974)

• Liza Vorfi (1924–2011)

• Albert Vërria (1936–2015)

• Nik Xhelilaj (born 1983)  –  film and stage actor; has won several "Best Actor" Awards in various international film festivals

• Margarita Xhepa (born 1932)

Comedians and satirists

 * Spiro Çomora (1918–1973)
 * Besim Dina (born 1971)
 * Zyrafete Gashi (1955–2013)

Film and television directors
• Dhimitër Anagnosti (born 1936)

• Besnik Bisha (born 1958)

• Kujtim Çashku (born 1950)

• Arian Çuliqi (born 1960)

• Kristaq Dhamo (1933–2022)

• Stan Dragoti (1932–2018)

• Shqipe N. Duka (born 1980)

• Gëzim Erebara (1929–2007)

• Kujtim Gjonaj (1946–2021)

• Hysen Hakani (1932–2011)

• Xhanfise Keko (1928–2007)

• Saim Kokona (1934–2012)

• Saimir Kumbaro (born 1945)

• Gjergj Xhuvani (born 1963)

• Ibrahim Muçaj (1944–2010)

• Kristaq Mitro (1945–2023)

• Andamion Murataj (born 1970)

• Leon Qafzezi (born 1953)

• Isa Qosja (born 1949)

• Shaqir Veseli (born 1957)

Dancers and choreographers

 * Esdalin Gorani –  ballet dancer
 * Tringa Hysa –  ballet dancer
 * Ilir Kerni –  ballet dancer
 * Spartak Hoxha –  ballet dancer
 * Kledi Kadiu –  dancer on the popular talent show Amici di Maria De Filippi; starred in Passa a Due in 2005
 * Altin Kaftira –  ballet dancer
 * Eno Peçi –  ballet dancer
 * Enkel Zhuti –  ballet dancer
 * Tony Dovolani (born 1973) –  Albanian-American professional ballroom dancer, instructor and judge; known for his involvement in the American version of Dancing with the Stars; appeared in Shall We Dance?; spent time coaching actress Jennifer Lopez
 * Angelin Preljocaj (born 1957) –  choreographer of contemporary dance
 * Ferbent Shehu –  dancer and choreographer

Models and beauty pageant participants
• Almeda Abazi (born 1992) –  Miss Globe 2008

• Kleoniki Delijorgji (born 1996)  –  Miss Globe 2012

• Lorinda Kolgeci (born 1999)  –  Miss Globe 2020

• Hygerta Sako (born 1977)  –  semi-finalist at Miss Europe 1996

• Anisa Kospiri (born 1980)  –  Miss Universe 2002 Top 10

• Zana Krasniqi (born 1988)  –  Miss Universe 2008 Top 10

• Hasna Xhukiçi (born 1988)  –  Miss Universe 2009 Top 10

• Marigona Dragusha (born 1990) Miss Universe 2009 Second Runner Up

• Diana Avdiu (born 1993)  –  Miss Universe 2012 Top 16

• Claudia Conserva (born 1974)  –  Chilean actress, model and television presenter; of Arbëreshë) descent

• Angela Martini (born 1986)  – Miss Universe 2010 Top 6

• Afërdita Dreshaj (born 1986)  –   Miss Universe 2011 Top 16

• Cindy Marina (born 1998)  –  Miss Universe 2019 Top 20

• Drita Ziri (born 2005)  –  Miss Earth 2023

• Martina Ivezaj (born 1991)  –   Miss World Germany 2012

• Egzonita Ala (born 1995)  –  Miss World Germany 2014

• Albjona Muharremaj (born 1996)  –  Miss World Germany 2015

• Adriana Gerxhalija (born 1992)   –  Miss World Finland 2017

• Erika Kolani (born 1996)  –  Miss World Greece 2019

• Leona Novoberdaliu (born 1997)  –  Miss World Slovakia 2020

• Cindy Toli (born 1993)  –  Greece's Next Top Model Season 2 Winner

• Aleksia Trajko (born 2003)  –  Greece's Next Top Model Season 7 Winner

• Angela Tanuzi (born 2002)  –  beauty queen

• Erbi Ago (born 1990)  –  model and actor

• Yllka Berisha (born 1990)  –  beauty queen

• Emina Cunmulaj (born 1984)  –  High Fashion Model in the USA

• Erjona Ala (born 1995)  –  High Fashion Model

• Endi Demneri (born 1999)  –  model and beauty queen

• Adrola Dushi (born 1993)  –  model and beauty queen

• Sara Gjoni (born 1997)  –  model and beauty queen

• Egla Harxhi (born 1991)  –  beauty queen

• Adelina Ismajli (born 1979)  –  model and singer

• Oriola Marashi (born 1996)  –  model and one of the main faces of Guess

• Trejsi Sejdini (born 2000)  –  beauty queen

• Mirjeta Shala (born 1994)  –  beauty queen

• Monika Zguro (born 1971)  –  beauty queen

• Ledina Çelo (born 1977)  –  model and singer

Television personalities

 * Blendi Fevziu (born 1969) – television host
 * Ardit Gjebrea (born 1963) – producer, television host, singer-songwriter
 * Baton Haxhiu (born 1967) – journalist, television host
 * Claudia Conserva (born 1974) – Chilean actress, model and television presenter; of Italian-Albanian (Arbëreshë) descent
 * Benet Kaci (born 1978) – Kosovan television personality; from Kosovo
 * Florina Kaja (born 1982) – American reality-television participant, singer and actress
 * Drita D'Avanzo – reality TV star on the VH1 series Mob Wives

Composers
• Lejla Agolli (born 1950)

• Lorenc Antoni (1909–1991)

• Tish Daija (1926–2004)

• Limoz Dizdari (born 1942)

• Simon Gjoni (1925–1991)

• Tonin Harapi (1925–1991)

• Feim Ibrahimi (1935–1997)

• Prenkë Jakova (1917–1969)

• Akil Mark Koci (born 1936)

• Kristo Kono (1907–1991)

• Mustafa Krantja (1921–2002)

• Agim Krajka (1937–2021)

• Mustafa Krantja (1921–2002)

• Palokë Kurti (1858–1920)

• Neço Muko (1899–1934)

• Avni Mula (1928–2020)

• Rexho Mulliqi (1923–1982)

• Aleksandër Peçi (born 1951)

• Thomas Simaku (born 1958)

• Gjon Simoni (1936–1999)

• Vasil Tole (born 1963)

• Ibrahim Tukiqi (1926–2004)

• Çesk Zadeja (1927–1997)

• Nikolla Zoraqi (1921–1991)

Pianists

 * Ilir Bajri (born 1969)
 * Mariela Cingo (born 1978)
 * Lola Gjoka(1910–1985)
 * Paul Leka (1943–2011)

Violinists

 * Shkëlzen Doli (born 1971)

Guitarists

 * Dren Abazi (born 1985)
 * D.J. Ashba (born1972)

 * Petrit Çeku (born 1985)
 * Faton Macula (born 1972)
 * Bledar Sejko (born 1972)

Singers
• Vedat Ademi

• Arilena Ara

• Edita Aradinović

• Laver Bariu

• Action Bronson

• Ardian Bujupi

• Eugent Bushpepa

• Miriam Cani

• Capital T

• Pirro Çako

• Ledina Çelo

• Elhaida Dani

• Elina Duni

• Eli Fara

• Ermal Fejzullahu

• Eleni Foureira

• Aurela Gaçe

• Ilira Gashi

• Adrian Gaxha

• Elvana Gjata

• Ingrid Gjoni

• Rosela Gjylbegu

• Alida Hisku

• Antonia Iacobescu

• Adelina Ismajli

• Genta Ismajli

• Era Istrefi

• Nora Istrefi

• Leonora Jakupi

• Shpat Kasapi

• Ava Max

• Besa Kokëdhima

• MC Kresha

• Irma Libohova

• Elsa Lila

• Dua Lipa

• Vesa Luma

• Majk

• Soni Malaj

• Jonida Maliqi

• JMSN

• Ermal Meta

• Flori Mumajesi

• Frederik Ndoci

• Rona Nishliu

• Noizy

• Rita Ora

• Nexhmije Pagarusha

• Bebe Rexha

• Fitnete Rexha

• Anjeza Shahini

• Parashqevi Simaku

• Albert Stanaj

• Rovena Stefa

• Tuna

• Alban Skënderaj

• Lyrical Son

• Unikkatil

• Çiljeta

• Loredana Zefi

• Vaçe Zela

• Dafina Zeqiri

• Kastro Zizo

Tenors and sopranos
• Kristaq Antoniu (1907–1979)

• Jorgjia Filçe-Truja (1907–1994)

• Agim Hushi (born 1964)

• Ermonela Jaho (born 1974) – described by The Economist as "the world's most acclaimed soprano".

• Tefta Tashko (1910–1947) – singer of the 1930s, was posthumously awarded the title People's Artist of Albania.

• Marie Kraja (1911–1999)

• Palokë Kurti (1858–1920)

• Inva Mula (born 1963) – known for portraying the voice of the Diva Plavalaguna in the film The Fifth Element

• Kristaq Paspali (1928–2001)

• Saimir Pirgu (born 1981) – Pirgu was recognized with the Franco Corelli award in 2009 in Ancona and with the "Pavarotti d'Oro Award" in 2013.

Football players

 * Ansi Agolli (born 1982)
 * Kosovare Asllani (born 1989)
 * Fatmire Bajramaj (born 1988)
 * Migjen Basha (born 1987)
 * Valon Behrami (born 1985)
 * Besart Berisha (born 1985)
 * Erjon Bogdani (born 1977)
 * Loro Boriçi (1922–1984)
 * Lorik Cana (born 1983)
 * Sulejman Demollari (born 1964)
 * Mehmet Durakovic (born 1965)
 * Blerim Džemaili (born 1986)
 * Elseid Hysaj (born 1994)
 * Andi Lila (born 1986)
 * Cyme Lulaj (born 1989
 * Admir Mehmedi (born 1991)
 * Perlat Musta (born 1958)
 * Shkodran Mustafi (born 1992)
 * Panajot Pano (1939–2010)
 * Altin Rraklli (born 1970)
 * Armando Sadiku (born 1991)
 * Hamdi Salihi (born 1984)
 * Artim Shaqiri (born 1973)
 * Xherdan Shaqiri (born 1991)
 * Ervin Skela (born 1976)
 * Thomas Strakosha (born 1995)
 * Igli Tare (born 1973)
 * Rudi Vata (born 1969)
 * Qemal Vogli (1929–2004)
 * Granit Xhaka (born 1992)
 * Taulant Xhaka (born 1991) - captain the Switzerland national team.

Martial artists

 * Enver Idrizi – Karate World Champion
 * Majlinda Kelmendi – Judo World and Olympic Champion (2017)
 * Xhavit Bajrami – boxer and kickboxer
 * Elis Guri – wrestler
 * Besim Kabashi – kickboxer
 * Majlinda Kelmendi – judoka
 * Luan Krasniqi – boxer
 * Ilir Latifi – MMA fighter
 * Azem Maksutaj – kickboxer
 * Sahit Prizreni – wrestler
 * Kreshnik Qato – boxer
 * Shaban Sejdiu – wrestler
 * Nuri Seferi – boxer
 * Naim Terbunja – boxer
 * Shaban Tërstena – wrestler
 * Valdrin Vatnikaj – kickboxer
 * Gzim Selmani –  MMA fighter and pro wrestler

Other sports

 * Ermal Kuqo (born 1980) – basketball player for the Turkish team Anadolu Efes
 * Aldo Zadrima (born 1948) – former national chess champion
 * Erjon Tola (born 1986) – Olympic skier
 * Frank Leskaj (born 1971) – Olympic swimmer
 * Donald Suxho (born 1976) – US Olympic team volleyball player
 * Adem Yze (born 1977) – Australian rules footballer
 * Emerson Jeka (born 2001) - Australian rules footballer
 * Harley Reid (born 2005) - Australian rules footballer -
 * Tie Domi (born 1969) – ice hockey player
 * Molly Qerim (born 1984) – sports anchor and moderator for ESPN's First Take.
 * Rrapush Papoj (born 1965) – cyclist, coach

Ottoman era Albanians
• Marinus Becichemus Scodrensis – Venetian-Albanian chronicler

• Hayreddin Barbarossa (c. 1478–1546), Ottoman-Albanian Admiral(Possible)

• Sedefkar Mehmed Agha (1540–1617)

• Ballaban Badera – commander of Ottoman Empire

• Marin Barleti –  historian and Catholic priest; considered the first Albanian historian, especially because of his biography on Skanderbeg, translated in many languages in the 16th to the 18th centuries

• Bekim Berisha

• Bardhok Biba

• Isa Boletini

• Ibrahim Bushati

• Kara Mahmud Bushati (1740–1796)

• Mehmed Bushati

• Mustafa Bushati

• Prek Cali

• Dervish Cara –  leader of the Albanian Revolt of 1843–1844

• Pope Clement XI (Giovanni Francesco Albani) (1649–1721)

• Bajram Curri

• Ahmet Delia (1850–1913)  –  freedom fighter

• Ali Demi (1918–1943)

• Lekë Dukagjini –  prince and member of Dukagjini family; contemporary of Skanderbeg; known for the Kanuni i Lekë Dukagjinit, a code of law instituted in northern Albania

• Pal Engjëlli –  Catholic clergyman; Archbishop of Durrës and Cardinal of Albania; in 1462, wrote the first known sentence retrieved so far in the Albanian language

• Mehmet Âkif Ersoy (1873–1936) –  of Albanian descent

• Nezim Frakulla (1680–1760)

• Shote Galica

• Carl Ritter von Ghega (1802–1860) –  designer of the Semmering Railway

• George Ghica –  founder of the Ghica family

• Shtjefën Gjeçovi (1873–1929) –  Catholic priest, ethnologist and folklorist; known for being the father of Albanians' folklore studies

• Luigj Gurakuqi

• Hamëz Jashari

• Branko Kadija

• Hamza Kastrioti

• Ali Kelmendi

• Ded Gjo Luli

• Iljas Mirahori (1408–1512)

• Hasan Moglica (1854–1915)  –  also known as Hoxhë Moglica  scholar, educator, leader, engineer, philosopher, patriot, nationalist figure proclaimed "martyr of Albanian language and nation" by the Albanian government

• Selam Musai

• Bule Naipi

• Zahir Pajaziti

• Ahmet Kurt Pasha

• Ali Pasha of Tepelena (1740–1822)

• Ali Pasha of Gucia (1828–1885)

• Edhem Pasha (1851–1909)

• Ibrahim Pasha of Berat

• Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt (1789–1848)

• Kara Murat Pasha

• Koca Davud Pasha (14??–1498)

• Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed Pasha (1635–1676)

• Köprülü Mehmed Pasha (1575–1661)

• Lütfi Pasha (1488–1564) –  grand vizier of Ottoman Empire

• Mahmud Dramali Pasha (1780–1822)

• Muhammad Ali of Egypt (1769–1849)

• Ismail Kemal (1844–1919) –  leader of the Albanian national movement; founder of the modern Albanian state and its first head of state and government

• Mustafa Reshiti

• Perlat Rexhepi

• Haxhi Shehreti

• Hodo Sokoli (1836–1883)

• Karl Topia (1331–1388) –  prince of Albania

• Pretash Zekaj Ulaj (known as Pretash Zekaj)

• Mujo Ulqinaku

• Cafo Beg Ulqini

• Vrana Konti (Count Vrana) (1442–1458) –  Skanderbeg's general

• Omer Vrioni

• Muhamet Xhemajli

• Tahir Zemaj

Others

 * Joseph Ardizzone (born 1884, vanished 1931) –  organized crime boss
 * Joseph J. DioGuardi (born 1940) – American certified public accountant and a Republican politician; his family traces its roots to the Arbëreshë people
 * Kara DioGuardi (born 1970) – American contemporary composer of Albanian descent
 * Donald Lambro (1940–2023) – American journalist; chief political correspondent of The Washington Times; columnist nationally syndicated by United Feature Syndicate
 * Laura Mersini-Houghton – Theoretical Physicist-Cosmologist; Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
 * Martin Shkreli (born 1983) –  Pharma executive and convict.
 * Ermal Mandija (born 1987) – Businessman, American attorney, intelligence and information analytics expert.

Native communities

 * Arbanasi
 * Arbëreshë people
 * Arvanites
 * Cham Albanians
 * Albanians in Kosovo
 * Albanians in Montenegro
 * Albanians in North Macedonia

title: Lists of Albanians


text:
George Lansbury

George Lansbury (22 February 1859 – 7 May 1940) was a British politician and social reformer who led the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935. Apart from a brief period of ministerial office during the Labour government of 1929–31, he spent his political life campaigning against established authority and vested interests, his main causes being the promotion of social justice, women's rights, and world disarmament.

Originally a radical Liberal, Lansbury became a socialist in the early 1890s, and thereafter served his local community in the East End of London in numerous elective offices. His activities were underpinned by his Christian beliefs which, except for a short period of doubt, sustained him through his life. Elected to the UK Parliament in 1910, he resigned his seat in 1912 to campaign for women's suffrage, and was briefly imprisoned after publicly supporting militant action.

In 1912, Lansbury helped to establish the Daily Herald newspaper, and became its editor. Throughout the First World War, the paper maintained a strongly pacifist stance, and supported the October 1917 Russian Revolution. These positions contributed to Lansbury's failure to be elected to Parliament in 1918. He devoted himself to local politics in his home borough of Poplar, and went to prison with 30 fellow-councillors for his part in the Poplar Rates Rebellion of 1921.

After his return to Parliament in 1922, Lansbury was denied office in the brief Labour government of 1924, although he served as First Commissioner of Works in the Labour government of 1929–31. After the political and economic crisis of August 1931, Lansbury did not follow his leader, Ramsay MacDonald, into the National Government, but remained with the Labour Party. As the most senior of the small contingent of Labour MPs that survived the 1931 UK general election, Lansbury became the Leader of the Labour Party. His pacifism and his opposition to rearmament in the face of rising European fascism put him at odds with his party, and when his position was rejected at the 1935 Labour Party conference, he resigned the leadership. He spent his final years travelling through the United States and Europe in the cause of peace and disarmament.

East End upbringing
George Lansbury was born in Halesworth in the county of Suffolk on 22 February 1859. He was the third of nine children born to a railway worker, also named George Lansbury, and Anne Lansbury (née Ferris). George senior's job involved the supervision of railway construction gangs; the family was often on the move, and living conditions were primitive. Through his progressive-minded mother and grandmother, young George became familiar with the names of great contemporary reformers—Gladstone, Richard Cobden and John Bright—and began to read the radical Reynolds's Newspaper. By the end of 1868, the family had moved into the East End of London, the district in which Lansbury would live and work for almost all his life.

The essayist Ronald Blythe has described the East End of the 1860s and 1870s as "stridently English ... The smoke-blackened streets were packed with illiterate multitudes [who] stayed alive through sheer birdlike ebullience". Interspersed with spells of work, Lansbury attended schools in Bethnal Green and Whitechapel. He then held a succession of manual jobs, including work as a coaling contractor in partnership with his elder brother, James, loading and unloading coal wagons. This was heavy and dangerous work, and led to at least one near-fatal accident.

During his adolescence and early adulthood, Lansbury was a regular attender at the public gallery at the House of Commons, where he heard and remembered many of Gladstone's speeches on the main foreign policy issue of the day, the "Eastern Question". He was present at the riots which erupted outside Gladstone's house on 24 February 1878 after a peace meeting in Hyde Park. Shepherd writes that Gladstone's Liberalism, proclaiming liberty, freedom and community interests was "a heady mix that left an indelible mark" on the youthful Lansbury.

George Lansbury senior died in 1875. That year young George met fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Brine, whose father Isaac Brine owned a local sawmill. The couple eventually married in 1880, at Whitechapel parish church, where the vicar, J. Franklin Kitto, had been Lansbury's spiritual guide and counsellor. Apart from a period of doubt in the 1890s when he temporarily rejected the Church, Lansbury remained a staunch Anglican until his death.

Australia

In 1881 Lansbury was a railway contractor employing three men and living in Whitechapel with his wife Elizabeth and the first of twelve children, the new-born Bessie; another daughter, Annie, followed in 1882. Seeking to improve his family's prospects, Lansbury decided that their best hopes of prosperity lay in emigrating to Australia. The London agent-general for Queensland depicted a land of boundless opportunities, with work for all; seduced by this appealing prospect, Lansbury and Bessie raised the necessary passage money, and in May 1884 set sail with their children for Brisbane.

On the outward passage, the family experienced illness, discomfort and danger; on one occasion the ship came close to foundering during a monsoon. On arrival at Brisbane in July 1884, Lansbury found that, contrary to the London agent's promises, there was a superfluity of labour and work was hard to come by. His first job, breaking stone, proved to be too physically punishing; he moved to a better-paid position as a van driver, but was sacked when, for religious reasons, he refused to work on Sundays. He then contracted to work on a farm some 80 miles inland, to find upon arrival that his employer had misled him about living conditions and terms of employment.

For several months, the Lansbury family lived in extreme squalor before Lansbury secured release from the contract. Back in Brisbane, he worked for a while at the newly built Brisbane cricket ground. As a keen follower of the game he hoped to see the visiting English touring team play but, as Lansbury's biographer Raymond Postgate records, "he learned that cricket watching was not a pleasure for workmen".

Throughout his tenure in Australia, Lansbury sent letters home, revealing the truth about conditions facing immigrants. To a friend he wrote in March 1885: "Mechanics are not wanted. Farm labourers are not wanted ... Hundreds of men and women are not able to get work ... The streets are foul day and night, and if I had a sister I would shoot her dead rather than see her brought out to this little hell on earth". In May 1885, having received from his father-in-law Isaac Brine sufficient funds for a passage home, the Lansbury family left Australia for good and returned to London.

First campaigns
On his return to London, Lansbury took a job in Brine's timber business. In his spare time he campaigned against the false prospectuses offered by colonial emigration agents. His speech at an emigration conference at King's College in London in April 1886 impressed delegates; shortly afterwards, the government established an Emigration Information Bureau under the Colonial Office. This body was required to provide accurate information on the state of labour markets in all the government's overseas possessions.

Having joined the Liberal Party shortly after his return from Australia, Lansbury became first a ward secretary and then general secretary for the Bow and Bromley Liberal and Radical Association. His effective campaigning skills had been noted by leading Liberals, including Samuel Montagu, the Liberal MP for Whitechapel, who persuaded the young activist to be his agent in the 1885 general election. Lansbury's handling of this election campaign prompted Montagu to urge him to stand for parliament himself. Lansbury declined this, partly on practical grounds (MPs were then unpaid and he had to provide for his family), and partly on principle; he was becoming increasingly convinced that his future lay not as a radical Liberal but as a socialist. He continued to serve the Liberals, as an agent and local secretary, while expressing his socialism in a short-lived monthly radical journal, Coming Times, which he founded and co-edited with a fellow-dissident, William Hoffman.

London County Council elections, 1889
In 1888 Lansbury agreed to act as election agent for Jane Cobden, who was contesting the first elections for the newly formed London County Council (LCC) as Liberal candidate for the Bow and Bromley division. Cobden, an early supporter of women's suffrage, was the fourth child of the Victorian radical statesman Richard Cobden. The Society for Promoting Women as County Councillors (SPWCC), a new women's rights group, had proposed Cobden as the candidate for Bow and Bromley and Margaret Sandhurst for Brixton. Lansbury counselled Cobden in the issues of greatest concern to the East End electorate: housing for the poor, ending of sweated labour, rights of public assembly, and control of the police. Specific questions of women's rights were largely avoided during the campaign. On 19 January 1889 both women were elected; these triumphs were, however, short-lived. Sandhurst's qualification to serve as a county councillor was successfully challenged in the courts by her Conservative Party opponents on the grounds of her sex, and her subsequent appeal was dismissed. Cobden was not immediately challenged, but in April 1891, after a series of legal actions, she was effectively neutered as a councillor by being prevented from voting on pain of severe financial penalties. Lansbury urged her, during the hearings, to "go to prison and let the Council back you up by refusing to declare your seat vacant". Cobden did not follow this path. A Bill introduced in the House of Commons in May 1891 permitting women to serve as county councillors found little support among MPs of any party; women were not granted this right until 1907.

Lansbury was offended by his party's lukewarm support for women's rights. In a letter published in the Pall Mall Gazette he made an open call to Bow and Bromley's Liberals to "shake themselves free of party feeling and throw the energy and ability they are now wasting on minor questions into ... securing the full rights of citizenship to every woman in the land". He was further disillusioned by his party's failure to endorse the eight-hour maximum working day. Lansbury had formed the view, expressed some years later, that "Liberalism would progress just as far as the great money bags of capitalism would allow it to progress". By 1892 the Liberals no longer felt like Lansbury's political home; most of his current associates were avowed socialists: William Morris, Eleanor Marx, John Burns and Henry Hyndman, founder of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF). Nevertheless, Lansbury did not resign from the Liberals until he had fulfilled a commitment to act as election agent for John Murray MacDonald, the prospective Liberal candidate for Bow and Bromley. He saw his candidate victorious in the July 1892 general election; as soon as the result was declared, Lansbury resigned from the Liberal Party and joined the SDF.

Social Democratic Federation

Lansbury's choice of the SDF, from several socialist organisations, reflected his admiration for Hyndman, whom he considered "one of the truly great ones". Lansbury quickly became the federation's most tireless propagandist, travelling throughout Britain to address meetings or to demonstrate solidarity with workers involved in industrial disputes. Around this time, Lansbury temporarily set aside his Christian beliefs and became a member of the East London Ethical Society. One factor in his disillusion with the Church was the local clergy's unsympathetic approach to poor relief, and their opposition to collective political action.

In 1895 Lansbury fought two parliamentary elections for the SDF in Walworth, first a by-election on 14 May, then the 1895 general election two months later. Despite his energetic campaigning he was heavily defeated on each occasion, with tiny proportions of the vote. After these dismal results, Lansbury was persuaded by Hyndman to give up his job at the sawmill and become the SDF's full-time salaried national organiser. He preached a straightforward revolutionary doctrine: "The time has arrived", he informed an audience at Todmorden in Lancashire, "for the working classes to seize political power and use it to overthrow the competitive system and establish in its place state cooperation". Lansbury's time as SDF national organiser did not last long; in 1896, when Isaac Brine died suddenly, Lansbury thought that his family duty required him to take charge of the sawmill, and he returned home to Bow.

In the general election of 1900 a pact with the Liberals in the Bow and Bromley constituency gave Lansbury, the SDF candidate, a straight fight against the Conservative incumbent, Walter Murray Guthrie. Lansbury's cause was hindered by his public opposition to the Boer War at a time when war fever was strong, while Guthrie, a former soldier, stressed his military credentials. Lansbury lost the election, though his total of 2,258 votes against Guthrie's 4,403 was considered creditable by the press. This campaign was Lansbury's last major effort on behalf of the SDF. He became disenchanted by Hyndman's inability to work with other socialist groups, and in about 1903 resigned from the SDF to join the Independent Labour Party (ILP). At around this time, Lansbury rediscovered his Christian faith and rejoined the Anglican Church.

Poor Law guardian
In April 1893 Lansbury achieved his first elective office when he became a Poor Law guardian for the district of Poplar. In place of the traditionally harsh workhouse regime that was the norm, Lansbury proposed a programme of reform, whereby the workhouse became "an agency of help instead of a place of despair", and the stigma of poverty was removed. Lansbury was one of a minority socialist bloc which was often able, through its energy and commitment, to win support for its plans.

Education for the poor was one of Lansbury's major concerns. He helped to transform the Forest Gate District School, previously a punitive establishment run on quasi-military lines, into a proper place of education that became the Poplar Training School, and was still in existence more than half a century later. At the 1897 annual Poor Law Conference Lansbury summarised his views on poor relief in his first published paper: "The Principles of the English Poor Law". His analysis offered a Marxist critique of capitalism: only the reorganisation of industry on collectivist lines would solve contemporary problems.

Lansbury added to his public duties when, in 1903, he was elected to Poplar Borough Council. In the summer of that year he met Joseph Fels, a rich American soap manufacturer with a penchant for social projects. Lansbury persuaded Fels, in 1904, to purchase a 100-acre farm at Laindon, in Essex, which was converted into a labour colony that provided regular work for Poplar's unemployed and destitute. Fels also agreed to finance a much larger colony at Hollesley Bay in Suffolk, to be operated as a government scheme under the Local Government Board. Both projects were initially successful, but were undermined after the election of a Liberal government in 1906. The new Local Government minister was John Burns, a former SDF stalwart now ensconced in the Liberal Party who had become a firm opponent of socialism. Burns encouraged a campaign of propaganda to discredit the principle of labour colonies, which were presented as money-wasting ventures that pampered idlers and scroungers. A formal enquiry revealed irregularities in the operation of the scheme, though it exonerated Lansbury. He retained the confidence of his electorate and was easily re-elected to the Board of Guardians in 1907.

In 1905 Lansbury was appointed to a Royal Commission on the Poor Laws, which deliberated for four years. Lansbury, together with Beatrice Webb of the Fabian Society, argued for the complete abolition of the Poor Laws and their replacement by a system that incorporated old age pensions, a minimum wage, and national and local public works projects. These proposals were embodied at the commission's conclusion in a minority report signed by Lansbury and Webb; the majority report was, according to Postgate, "an ill-considered jumble of suggestions ... so preposterously inadequate that no attempts were ever made to implement it." Most of the minority's recommendations in time became national policy; the Poor Laws were finally abolished by the Local Government Act 1929.

Campaigner for women's suffrage
In the general election of January 1906 Lansbury stood as an independent socialist candidate in Middlesbrough, on a strong "votes for women" platform. This was his first campaign based on women's rights since the LCC election of 1889. He had been recommended to the constituency by Joseph Fels, who agreed to meet his expenses. The local ILP leadership was committed by an electoral pact to support the Liberal candidate, and could not endorse Lansbury, who secured less than 9 per cent of the vote. The campaign had been managed by Marion Coates Hansen, a prominent local suffragist. Under Hansen's influence Lansbury took up the cause of "votes for women"; he allied himself with the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), the more militant of the main suffragist organisations, and became a close associate of Emmeline Pankhurst and her family.

The Liberal government elected in 1906 with a large majority showed little interest in the issue of women's suffrage; when they lost their parliamentary majority in the general election of January 1910 they were dependent on the votes of the 40-odd Labour members. To Lansbury's dismay, Labour did not use this leverage to promote votes for women, instead giving the government virtually unqualified support to keep the Conservatives out of power. Lansbury had failed to win election as Labour's candidate at Bow and Bromley in January 1910; however, the continuing political crisis which developed from David Lloyd George's controversial 1909 "People's Budget" led to another general election in December 1910. Lansbury again fought Bow and Bromley, and this time was successful.

Lansbury found little support in his fight for women's suffrage from his parliamentary Labour colleagues, whom he dismissed as "a weak, flabby lot". In parliament, he denounced the prime minister, H. H. Asquith, for the cruelties being inflicted on imprisoned suffragists: "You are beneath contempt ... you ought to be driven from public life". He was temporarily suspended from the House for "disorderly conduct". In October 1912, aware of the unbridgeable gap between his own position and that of his Labour colleagues, Lansbury resigned his seat to fight a by-election in Bow and Bromley on the specific issue of women's suffrage. The suffragettes sent Grace Roe to help with the campaign. He lost to his Conservative opponent, who campaigned on the slogan "No Petticoat Government". Commenting on the result, the Labour MP Will Thorne opined that no constituency could ever be won on the single question of votes for women.

Out of parliament, on 26 April 1913 Lansbury addressed a WSPU rally at the Albert Hall, and openly defended violent methods: "Let them burn and destroy property and do anything they will, and for every leader that is taken away, let a dozen step forward in their place". For this, Lansbury was charged with incitement, convicted and, after the dismissal of an appeal, sentenced to three months' imprisonment. He immediately went on hunger strike, and was released after four days; although liable to rearrest under the so-called "Cat and Mouse Act", he was thereafter left at liberty. In the autumn of 1913, at the invitation of Fels, Lansbury and his wife travelled to America and Canada for an extended holiday. On his return, he devoted his main efforts to the recently founded newspaper, the Daily Herald.

War, Daily Herald and Bolshevism
The Daily Herald began as a temporary bulletin during the London printers' strike of 1910–11. After the strike ended, Lansbury and others raised sufficient funds for the Herald to be relaunched in April 1912 as a socialist daily newspaper. The paper attracted contributions from distinguished writers such as H. G. Wells, Hilaire Belloc, G. K. Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw, some of whom, Blythe notes, "weren't socialists at all but simply used [the paper] as a platform for their personal literary anarchy." Lansbury contributed regularly in support of his various causes, in particular the militant suffrage campaign, and early in 1914 assumed the paper's editorship.

Before the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the Herald took a strong anti-war line. Addressing a large demonstration in Trafalgar Square on 2 August 1914, Lansbury blamed the coming conflict on capitalism: "The workers of all countries have no quarrel. They are ... exploited in times of peace and sent out to be massacred in times of war". Lansbury's position was at odds with that of most of the Labour movement, which allied itself with the wartime coalition governments of Asquith and, from 1916, Lloyd George. In the prevailing jingoistic mood, numerous readers looked to the Herald—reduced by wartime economies to a weekly format—to present a balanced news perspective, untainted by war fever and chauvinism. During the winter of 1914–15, Lansbury visited the Western Front trenches. He sent eye-witness accounts to the paper, which supported calls for a negotiated peace with Germany in line with President Woodrow Wilson's later "peace note" of January 1917. The paper also gave sympathetic coverage to conscientious objectors, and to Irish and Indian nationalists.

Lansbury used the pages of the Daily Herald to welcome the February 1917 revolution in Russia as "a new star of hope ... arisen over Europe". At an Albert Hall rally on 18 March 1918 he hailed the spirit and enthusiasm of "this Russian movement", and urged his audience to "be ready to die, if necessary, for our faith". When the war ended in November 1918, Lloyd George called an immediate general election, correctly calculating that victory euphoria would keep his coalition in power. In this triumphalist climate, candidates such as Lansbury who had opposed the war found themselves unpopular, and he failed to retake his Bow and Bromley seat.

The Herald re-emerged as a daily paper in March 1919. Under Lansbury's direction it maintained a strong and ultimately successful campaign against British intervention in the Russian Civil War. In February 1920 Lansbury travelled to Russia where he met Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders. He published an account: What I Saw in Russia, but the impact of the visit was overshadowed by accusations that the Herald was being financed from Bolshevist sources, a charge vehemently denied by Lansbury: "We have received no Bolshevist money, no Bolshevist paper, no Bolshevist bonds". Unknown to Lansbury, the allegations had some truth which, when exposed, caused him and the paper considerable embarrassment. By 1922 the Heralds financial problems had become such that it could no longer continue as a private venture financed by donations. Lansbury resigned the editorship and made the paper over to the Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress (TUC), although he continued to write for it and remained its titular general manager until 3 January 1925.

"Poplarism": the 1921 rates revolt
Throughout his national campaigns, Lansbury remained a Poplar borough councillor and Poor Law guardian, and between 1910 and 1913 served a three-year term as a London County Councillor. In 1919 he became the first Labour mayor of Poplar. Under the then-existing financial system for local government, boroughs were individually responsible for poor relief within their boundaries. This discriminated heavily against poorer councils such as Poplar, where rates revenues were low and poverty and unemployment, always severe, were exacerbated in times of economic recession. Under this system, Postgate argues, "The wealthy West End boroughs were evading responsibility, as though the desolate and silent docks were the results of a failure by the Poplar Borough Council". In addition to meeting the costs of its own obligations, the council was required to levy precepts to pay for services provided by bodies such as the London County Council and the Metropolitan Police. Lansbury had long argued that a degree of rates equalisation across London was necessary, to share costs more fairly.

At its meeting on 22 March 1921 the Poplar Council resolved not to make its precepts and to apply these revenues to the costs of local poor relief. This illegal action created a sensation, and led to legal proceedings against the council. On 29 July the thirty councillors involved marched in procession from Bow to the High Court, headed by a brass band. Informed by the judge that they must apply the precepts, the councillors would not budge; early in September, Lansbury and 29 fellow-councillors were imprisoned for contempt of court. Among those sentenced were his son Edgar and Edgar's wife, Minnie.

The defiance of the Poplar councillors generated widespread interest and sympathy, and the publicity embarrassed the government. Several other Labour-controlled councils (including Stepney whose mayor was the future Labour leader Clement Attlee) threatened similar policies. After six weeks' incarceration the councillors were released, and a government conference was convened to resolve the matter. This conference brought a significant personal victory for Lansbury: the passage of the Local Authorities (Financial Provisions) Act, which equalised the poor relief burden across all the London boroughs. As a result, the rates in Poplar fell by a third, and additional revenues of £400,000 was gained by the borough. Lansbury was hailed as a hero; in the 1922 general election he won the parliamentary seat of Bow and Bromley with a majority of nearly 7,000, and would hold it for the rest of his life. The term "Poplarism", always identified closely with Lansbury, became part of the political lexicon, applied generally to campaigns where local government stood against central government on behalf of the poor and least privileged of society.

Labour backbencher
In May 1923 the Conservative prime minister, Bonar Law, resigned for health reasons. In December his successor, Stanley Baldwin, called another election in which the Conservatives lost their majority, with Labour in a strong second place. King George V advised Baldwin, as leader of the largest party, not to resign his office until defeated by a vote in the House of Commons. Defeat duly occurred on 21 January 1924, when the Liberals decided to throw in their lot with Labour. The king then asked Labour's leader, Ramsay MacDonald, to form a government. Lansbury caused royal offence by publicly implying that the king had colluded with other parties to keep Labour out, and by his references to the fate of Charles I. Despite his seniority, Lansbury was offered only a junior non-cabinet post in the new government, which he declined. He believed that his exclusion from the cabinet followed pressure from the king. At the 1923 Labour Party conference, while declaring himself a republican, Lansbury opposed two motions calling for the abolition of the monarchy, deeming the issue a "distraction". Social revolution, he said, would one day remove the monarchy. MacDonald's administration lasted less than a year before, in November 1924, the Liberals withdrew their support; Blythe comments that the first Labour government had been "neither exhilarating nor competent". According to Shepherd, MacDonald's chief priority was to show that Labour was "fit to govern", and he had thus acted with conservative caution. The December general election returned the Conservatives to power; Lansbury maintained that Labour's cause "marches forward irrespective of electoral results". After the defeat Lansbury was briefly touted as an alternative party leader to MacDonald, a proposition he rejected. In 1925, free from the Daily Herald, he founded and edited Lansbury's Labour Weekly, which became a mouthpiece for his personal creed of socialism, democracy and pacifism until it merged with the New Leader in 1927. Before the General Strike of May 1926, Lansbury used the Weekly to instruct the Trades Union Congress (TUC) on preparations for the coming struggle. However, when the strike came the TUC did not want his assistance; among the reasons for their distrust was Lansbury's continuing advocacy of the right of communist organisations to affiliate to the Labour Party—he privately opined that British communists on their own "couldn't run a whelk-stall".

Lansbury continued his private campaigns in parliament, saying "I intend on every occasion to ... hinder the progress of business". In April 1926 he and 12 other opposition MPs prevented a vote in the House of Commons by obstructing the voting lobbies; they were temporarily suspended by the Speaker. During frequent clashes in the House with Neville Chamberlain, the Minister of Health responsible for Poor Law administration and reform, Lansbury referred to the "Ministry of Death", and called the minister a "pinchbeck Napoleon". However, within the Labour Party itself, Lansbury's status and popularity led to his election as the party's chairman (a largely titular office) in 1927–28. Lansbury also became president of the International League Against Imperialism, where among his fellow executive members were Jawaharlal Nehru, Mme. Sun Yat-sen and Albert Einstein. In 1928, short of money following the failure of the family business, Lansbury published his autobiography, My Life, for which he received what he termed "a fairly generous cheque" from the publishers, Constable & Co.

Cabinet minister, 1929–31

In the 1929 general election Labour emerged as the largest party, with 287 seats—but without an overall majority. Once again, MacDonald formed a government dependent on Liberal support. Lansbury joined the new cabinet as First Commissioner of Works, with responsibilities for historic buildings and monuments and for the royal parks. This position was widely regarded as a sinecure; nevertheless, Lansbury proved an active minister who did much to improve public recreation facilities. His most notable achievement was the Lido on the Serpentine in Hyde Park; according to the historian A. J. P. Taylor "the only thing which keeps the memory of the second Labour government alive". A circular memorial plaque to Lansbury can be seen on the exterior wall of the Lido Bar and Cafe. Lansbury's duties brought him into frequent contact with the King, who as Ranger of the royal parks insisted on regular consultation. Contrary to the expectations of some the two formed a cordial relationship.

The years of MacDonald's second government were dominated by the economic depression that followed the Wall Street Crash of October 1929. Lansbury was appointed to a committee, chaired by J.H. Thomas and including Sir Oswald Mosley, charged with finding a solution to unemployment. Mosley produced a memorandum which called for a large-scale programme of public works; this was rejected by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Snowden, on grounds of cost. At the end of July 1931 the May Committee, appointed in February to investigate government spending, prescribed heavy cuts, including a massive reduction in unemployment benefit.

During August, in an atmosphere of financial panic and a run on the pound, the government debated the report. MacDonald and Snowden were prepared to implement it, but Lansbury and nine other cabinet ministers rejected the cut in unemployment benefit. Thus divided, the government could not continue; MacDonald, however, did not resign as prime minister. After discussions with the opposition leaders and the king he formed a national all-party coalition, with a "doctor's mandate" to tackle the economic crisis. The great majority of Labour MPs, including Lansbury, were opposed to this action; MacDonald and the few who followed him were expelled from the party, and Arthur Henderson became leader. MacDonald's move was broadly welcomed in the country, however, and in the general election held in October 1931 the national government was returned with an enormous majority. Labour was reduced to 46 members; Lansbury was the only senior member of the Labour leadership to retain his seat.

Party leader
Although defeated in the election, Henderson remained the party leader while Lansbury headed the Labour group in parliament—the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP). In October 1932 Henderson resigned and Lansbury succeeded him. In most historians' reckonings, Lansbury led his small parliamentary force with skill and flair. He was also, says Shepherd, an inspiration to the dispirited Labour rank and file. As leader he began the process of reforming the party's organisation and machinery, efforts which resulted in considerable by-election and municipal election successes—including control of the LCC under Herbert Morrison in 1934. According to Blythe, Lansbury "represented political hope and decency to the three million unemployed." During this period Lansbury published his political credo, My England (1934), which envisioned a future socialist state achieved by a mixture of revolutionary and evolutionary methods.

The small Labour group in parliament had little influence over economic policy; Lansbury's term as leader was dominated by foreign affairs and disarmament, and by policy disagreements within the Labour movement. The official party position was based on collective security through the League of Nations and on multilateral disarmament. Lansbury, supported by many in the PLP, adopted a position of Christian pacifism, unilateral disarmament and the dismantling of the British Empire. Under his influence the party's 1933 conference passed resolutions calling for the "total disarmament of all nations", and pledged to take no part in war. Pacifism became temporarily popular in the country; on 9 February 1933 the Oxford Union voted by 275 to 153 that it would "in no circumstances fight for its King and Country", and the Fulham East by-election in October 1933 was easily won by a Labour candidate committed to full disarmament. Lansbury sent a message to the constituency in his position as Labour Leader: "I would close every recruiting station, disband the Army and disarm the Air Force. I would abolish the whole dreadful equipment of war and say to the world: 'Do your worst'." October 1934 saw the emergence of the Peace Pledge Union. In response to the Peace Pledge Union, the League of Nations Union conducted the 1934–35 Peace Ballot, an unofficial public referendum, which produced massive majorities in support of the League of Nations, multilateral disarmament, and conflict resolution through non-military means - though crucially, a three-fold majority supported military measures as a last resort. Meanwhile, Adolf Hitler had come to power in Germany, and had withdrawn from the international Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. Blythe observes that Britain's noisy flirtations with pacifism "drowned out the sounds from German dockyards", as German rearmament began.

As fascism and militarism advanced in Europe, Lansbury's pacifist stance drew criticism from the trade union elements of his party—who controlled the majority of party conference votes. Walter Citrine, the TUC general secretary, commented that Lansbury "thinks the country should be without defence of any kind ... it certainly isn't our policy." The party's 1935 annual conference took place in Brighton during October, under the shadow of Italy's impending invasion of Abyssinia. The national executive had tabled a resolution calling for sanctions against Italy, which Lansbury opposed as a form of economic warfare. His speech—a passionate exposition of the principles of Christian pacifism—was well received by the delegates, but immediately afterwards his position was destroyed by Ernest Bevin, the Transport and General Workers' Union leader. Bevin attacked Lansbury for putting his private beliefs before a policy, agreed by all the party's main institutions, to oppose fascist aggression, and accused him of "hawking your conscience round from body to body asking to be told what to do with it". Union support ensured that the sanctions resolution was carried by a huge majority; Lansbury, realising that a Christian pacifist could no longer lead the party, resigned a few days later. His deputy, Clement Attlee, succeeded him as party leader prior to the 1935 general election; Lansbury thus contested no general elections as party leader. , he is the last Labour leader to stand down without contesting a general election.

Final years
Lansbury was 76 years old when he resigned the Labour leadership; he did not, however, retire from public life. In the general election of November 1935 he kept his seat at Bow and Bromley; Labour, now led by Attlee, improved its parliamentary representation to 154. Lansbury devoted himself entirely to the cause of world peace, a quest that took him, in 1936, to the United States. He addressed large crowds in 27 cities before meeting President Roosevelt in Washington to present his proposals for a world peace conference. In 1937 he toured Europe, visiting leaders in Belgium, France and Scandinavia, and in April secured a private meeting with Hitler. No official report of the discussion was issued, but Lansbury's personal memorandum indicates that Hitler expressed willingness to join in a world conference if Roosevelt would convene it. Later that year Lansbury met Mussolini in Rome; he described the Italian leader as "a mixture of Lloyd George, Stanley Baldwin and Winston Churchill". Lansbury wrote several accounts of his peace journeys, notably My Quest for Peace (1938). His mild and optimistic impressions of the European dictators were widely criticised as naïve and out of touch; some British pacifists were dismayed at Lansbury's meeting with Hitler, while the Daily Worker accused him of diverting attention from the aggressive realities of fascist policies. Lansbury continued to meet European leaders through 1938 and 1939, and was nominated, unsuccessfully, for the 1940 Nobel Peace Prize.

At home, Lansbury served a second term as Mayor of Poplar, in 1936–37. He argued against direct confrontation with Mosley's Blackshirts during the October 1936 demonstrations known as the Battle of Cable Street. In October 1937 he became president of the Peace Pledge Union, and a year later he welcomed the Munich Agreement as a step towards peace. During this period he worked on behalf of refugees from Nazi Germany, and was chairman of the Polish Refugee Fund which provided relief to displaced Jewish children. On 3 September 1939, after Neville Chamberlain's announcement of war with Germany, Lansbury addressed the House of Commons. Observing that the cause to which he had dedicated his life was going down in ruins, he added: "I hope that out of this terrible calamity will arise a spirit that will compel people to give up the reliance on force."

Early in 1940 Lansbury's health began to fail; although unaware, he was suffering from stomach cancer. In an article published in the socialist magazine Tribune, published on 25 April 1940, he made a final statement of his Christian pacifism: "I hold fast to the truth that this world is big enough for all, that we are all brethren, children of one Father". Lansbury died on 7 May 1940, at the Manor House Hospital in Golders Green. His funeral in St Mary's Church, Bow, was followed by cremation at Ilford Crematorium, before a memorial service in Westminster Abbey. His ashes were scattered at sea, in accordance with the wish expressed in his will: "I desire this because although I love England very dearly ... I am a convinced internationalist".

Tributes and legacy
Most historical assessments of Lansbury have tended to stress his character and principles rather than his effectiveness as a party political leader. His biographer Jonathan Schneer writes: "Lansbury was a talented politician, speaker, and organizer. What made him remarkable was the stubbornness with which he clung to his principles... [He] became one of the best-loved and most-respected figures in the labour movement. Lansbury's legacy has been the adamantine insistence among an element within the Labour Party that Britain must stand for moral principles, must set the world a moral example. Concretely, this has meant demanding the total abolition of capitalism and unilateral disarmament, policies that Labour's leaders have usually thought utopian or worse."

Historian A. J. P. Taylor labelled Lansbury as "the most lovable figure in modern politics" and the outstanding figure of the English revolutionary left in the 20th century, while Kenneth O. Morgan, in his biography of a later Labour leader, Michael Foot, regards Lansbury as "an agitator of protest, not a politician of power". Journalists commonly accused Lansbury of sentimentality, and party intellectuals accused him of lacking mental capacity. Nevertheless, his speeches in the House of Commons were often flavoured with historical and literary allusions, and he left behind a considerable body of writing on socialist ideas; Morgan refers to him as a "prophet". Foot, who as a young man met and was influenced by Lansbury, was particularly impressed by the older man's achievements in establishing the Daily Herald, given his complete lack of journalistic training. Nevertheless, Foot felt that Lansbury's pacifism was unrealistic, and believed that Bevin's demolition at the 1935 conference was justified.

There is much agreement among historians and analysts that Lansbury was never self-serving and, guided by his Christian socialist principles, was consistent in his efforts on behalf of the poorest in society. Shepherd believes that "there could have been no better leader for the Labour Party at the collapse of its political fortunes in 1931 than Lansbury, a universally popular choice and a source of inspiration among Labour ranks". In the House of Commons on 8 May 1940, the day following Lansbury's death, Chamberlain said of him: "There were not many hon. Members who felt convinced of the practicability of the methods which he advocated for the preservation of peace, but there was no one who did not realise his intense conviction, which arose out of his deep humanitarianism". Attlee also paid tribute to his former leader: "He hated cruelty, injustice and wrongs, and felt deeply for all who suffered ... [H]e was ever the champion of the weak, and ... to the end of his life he strove for that in which he believed".

After the Second World War, a stained glass window designed by the Belgian artist Eugeen Yoors was placed in the Kingsley Hall community centre in Bow, as a memorial to Lansbury. His memory is further sustained by streets and housing developments named after him, most notably the Lansbury Estate in Poplar, completed in 1951. A further enduring memorial, Attlee suggests, is the extent to which the then-revolutionary social policies that Lansbury began advocating before the turn of the 20th century had become accepted mainstream doctrine little more than a decade after his death.

His name and picture (and those of 58 other women's suffrage supporters) are on the plinth of the statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London, unveiled in 2018.

Personal and family life
George Lansbury married Elizabeth Jane (Bessie) Brine on 22 May 1880 in Whitechapel, London. Four years later, in May 1884, he took his wife and their three young children to Australia as emigrants with high hopes based on British government propaganda, which suggested plentiful work and a rosy life there. The truth was otherwise, with paid work very hard to find, and terrible living conditions for many. By May 1885 they had had enough of Australia, and returned to London. Lansbury took up work in his father-in-law's Whitechapel sawmill and began his political career speaking about the harsh conditions in Australia.

For most of their married life, George and Bessie Lansbury lived in Bow, originally in St Stephen's Road and from 1916 at 39 Bow Road, a house which, Shepherd records, became "a political haven" for those requiring assistance of any kind. Bessie died in 1933, after 53 years of a marriage that had produced 12 children between 1881 and 1905.

Of the 10 children who survived to adulthood, Edgar followed his father into local political activism as a Poplar councillor in 1912, serving as the borough's mayor in 1924–25. He was for a time a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). After the death of his first wife Minnie in 1922, Edgar married Moyna Macgill, an actress from Belfast; their daughter Dame Angela Lansbury (1925-2022), became a stage and screen actress. George Lansbury's youngest daughter, Violet (1900–72), was an active CPGB member in the 1920s, who lived and worked as a translator in Moscow for many years. She married Clemens Palme Dutt, the brother of the Marxist intellectual Rajani Palme Dutt.

Another daughter, Dorothy (1890–1973), was a women's rights activist and later a campaigner for contraceptive and abortion rights. She married Ernest Thurtle, the Labour MP for Shoreditch, and was herself a member of Shoreditch council, serving as mayor in 1936. She and her husband founded the Workers' Birth Control Group in 1924. Dorothy's younger sister Daisy (1892–1971) served as Lansbury's secretary for over 20 years. During the suffragette protests in 1913 Daisy Lansbury helped Sylvia Pankhurst to evade police capture by disguising herself as Pankhurst. In 1918 she married the left-wing writer and historian Raymond Postgate, who was George Lansbury's first biographer, and founder of The Good Food Guide. Their son Oliver Postgate was a successful writer, animator and producer for children's television. The Conservative MP Penny Mordaunt is a distant relative of Lansbury.

The Lansbury home at 39 Bow Road was destroyed by bombing during the London Blitz of 1940–41. There is a small memorial stone dedicated to Lansbury in front of the current building, named George Lansbury House, which itself carries a memorial plaque. There is also a memorial to Lansbury in the nearby Bow Church, where Lansbury was a long-term member of the congregation and churchwarden.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: George Lansbury


text:
Talk:Constrained writing

haiku, tanka, and senryu
removed:

 * haiku, tanka and senryu

I don't think constraints of rhythm / syllables count -- otehr wise most poetry would be constrained writing, and it isn't -- Tarquin 20:07 Jan 8, 2003 (UTC)

 * To be fair, those forms (haiku and tanka at least) are a bit more constrained than simple syllable counting. But I agree they shouldn't be here - they're very rarely referred to as "constrained writing" (a term which seems to suggest something contrived rather than anything coming out of a tradition). --Camembert

 * Haikus in English are pretty much just syllable countinng, sadly. Though read the end of Pratchett's Good Omens for some excellent ones -- Tarquin 11:13 Jan 15, 2003 (UTC)

 * I added "Dui lian Chinese couplet (對聯)" sometime ago, but someone removed it. In Dui Lian, one would write a phrase in free form, then the second phrase must match the first phrase in sentence structure.  It is often played as games to challenge another person to come up with good poetic responses on the spot.  The pattern has no tradition, but a contraint contrived on the spot.  I wonder if the person who deletes other people's edits pay any respect to other people's contribution that they are ignorant of?  Kowloonese 18:35, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)

 * The first sentence defines, "Constrained writing is a literary technique in which the writer is bound by some condition that forbids certain things or imposes a pattern." Haiku fits the description perfectly.  I disagree that you should dismiss haiku as a form of constrained writing.  If you disagree, you'd need to expand on the definition statement to exclude syllable count or character count as contraints.  Not all poetry are constrained, but Japanese and Chinese poetry are.  You should not take them out from the article.  Kowloonese 18:22, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)

hey what about this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kir%C4%81t%C4%81rjun%C4%ABya#Linguistic_ingenuity tell me if it fits :) Pratpandey13 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 14:34, 12 June 2013 (UTC)

Constrained poetry
It is inappropriate the remove the list of constrained poetry from this list. Though there are some overlaps, poetry is not necessary constrained writing. So the constrained kind still belongs here. Kowloonese 18:55, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)

Lipograms
A French novel La Disparition written by Georges Perec and an English one Gadsby are meant to be written without the letter 'e'. Should those be counted? --PuzzletChung 17:13, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)

 * These are already mentioned at lipogram. --Chinasaur 18:42, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)

"Geometric writing"
Removed this:

Geometric writing is a form of contrained writing developed at LysKOM. It is a text written as a geometric shape. For this to work requires that you use a fixed space font. Adding extra spaces is of course cheating. Some examples:

Geometriska inlägg blir svårare att Geometriska inlägg med långa konstruera, rader är enklare att skriva. när spalten är smalare.

Bricktext is very old and very obvious, and barring some good sources I simply refuse to believe (or tell our readers) that it was invented "at LysKOM" (whatever that means—LysKOM appears to be software). 82.92.119.11 01:37, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

 * No objections from me, but FYI there's now a Wikipedia article on LysKOM. --Maggu 19:29, 18 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Geometric writing sounds an awful lot like ASCII art to me. Runa27 22:06, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Microcontent - restricted length writing
I left a question at WP:Reference desk/Language concerning the various forms of writing that are defined by length-restrictions, as well as some closely related concepts. (Eg. Six-Word Memoirs, twitter, txt msg limit, minisaga, drabble, flash fiction, and a few others). Possibly someone watching this page, will have useful input over there (or just find it interesting, months from now when it's archived). Thanks. –Quiddity (talk) 23:11, 29 May 2013 (UTC)

Rhyme
Since alliteration is (properly) considered CW, then rhyme should be added, aqnd noted that it is the most common constraint in poetry. 64.53.191.77 (talk) 14:59, 31 May 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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Proposed merge of Constrained comics into Constrained writing
Not enough material on page to justify why these subjects should be separate. It's essentially the same exact idea, just with comics as opposed to other mediums. Since it's covering artwork-related restraints as well as writing restraints, it would be worth having its own section. QuietHere (talk | contributions) 06:09, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
 * I agree with the merge proposal. Half of the article is just describing Constrained Writing anyways. Moritoriko (talk) 04:23, 12 April 2024 (UTC)
 * ✅ Klbrain (talk) 12:57, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Constrained writing