Kaninë

The name of the fortified settlement of Kanina was attested for the first time at the beginning of the 11th century AD as τὰ Κάνινα. The name is significant for the history of the Albanian language since Kanina represents, unlike nearby Vlorë, a toponym that shows no sign of the dialect phenomenon of rhotacism, which is explained by the fact that the settlement was recorded with the name Kanina in a period during which rhotacism in Albanian was no longer active for some time.[3]

During the IV-III BC centuries the Kaninë Castle was built by the Illyrian tribes and was expanded by Justinian the Great in the 6th century. In the 11th–12th centuries, Kanina (Greek: τὰ Κάνινα) along with Jericho (Oricum) and Aulon, it formed a Byzantine province.[4] As the Provincia Jericho et Caninon, it appears in the imperial chrysobull granted to Venice in 1198 by Alexios III Angelos.[4] In the 13th century it was part of the Despotate of Epirus, until Michael II Komnenos Doukas gave it as dowry to his daughter Helena Angelina Doukaina when she married King Manfred of Sicily in 1258.[4] It remained part of the Kingdom of Sicily thereafter, along with Aulon, until at least the 1330s.[5]

• Donika Kastrioti
• Zihni Kanina

• Demiraj, Bardhyl (2010). "Gli insediamenti degli albanesi nell'alto medioevo" (PDF). In Gianni Belluscio; Antonino Mendicino (eds.). Scritti in onore di Eric Pratt Hamp per il suo 90 compleanno. Rende: Università della Calabria. pp. 73–83.
• Zakythinos, Dionysios (1941). "Μελέται περὶ τῆς διοικητικῆς διαιρέσεως καὶ τῆς ἐπαρχιακῆς διοικήσεως ἐν τῷ Βυζαντινῷ κράτει" [Studies on the administrative division and provincial administration in the Byzantine state]. Ἐπετηρίς Ἐταιρείας Βυζαντινῶν Σπουδῶν (in Greek). 17: 208–274. hdl:11615/19494.