Hans Erich Thunmann, a Swedish historian, was born in Sweden. He was one of the first Albanologists and a professor at the University of Halle (Halle) in Germany. His interactions with students and merchants from Eastern and Southeastern Europe, including Albanians, sparked his interest in studying the language and history of these regions. In his work “Untersuchungen über die Geschichte der östlichen europäischen Völker” (“Research on the History of the Eastern European Peoples”, Leipzig, 1774), which still holds value today, Hans Tunman made the first scholarly attempt to explain the origin of the Albanians and their language. Based on historical arguments drawn from Greek, Latin, and Byzantine sources, Tunman concluded that the medieval Albanians were the direct descendants of the ancient Illyrian population, who were not Romanized like the Dacians and Thracians (ancestors of the Romanians), nor were they replaced in their territories by later migrating populations. Drawing on Byzantine sources, he provided the history of medieval Albanians as a unified ethnocultural formation and a distinct political entity. As evidence of the language of this people, for whom he expressed sympathy due to their oppressed state, Hans Tunman included in this work the dictionary of Teodor Kavalioti, which was handed to him by Konstantin Xhehani, an educated Voskopojë native with whom he met in Halle. Despite the underdeveloped state of Balkan studies at the time, Hans Tunman’s work was an important contribution to placing the issue of the formation of the Albanian people and their language on a scientific basis. He passed away in Sweden in 1778. (In the photo: The cover of the work “Research on the History of the Eastern European Peoples”, Leipzig, 1774)
Text : Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 2763.
Photo: © https://tiparituriromanesti.wordpress.com/2018/04/17/johann-thunmann-cercetari-asupra-istoriei-popoarelor-din-europa-de-rasarit-leipzig-1774/
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