Nga Ben Blushi-
One of the greatest enigmas of Tirana is the origin of the city’s name.
So what does Tirana mean?
Who first said this word?
In what year?
Why was this name used and not another?
Five versions have circulated, and I will summarize them.
Some say the name Tirana comes from a castle, some say it comes from a wine producer, some believe it comes from the word cheese, some from the weaving of a woolen cap, and some others say it comes from Tehran, the current capital of Iran.
In short, Tirana was founded in 1614 as a kind of New Tehran, or New Teheran, a European Teheran.
But in my view, the name does not come from a piece of cheese, nor from a woolen cap, nor from the drunken wine producer, nor from the castle of Turjan, and not from Tehran either.
I believe the name Tirana comes from the word tiran, which is a Pelasgian word describing a person who overthrows kings and governs in the name of the people.
At first, the tyrants were democratic and popular, but over time they became savage and bloodthirsty.
No one should be upset that the word Tirana comes from the word tiran.
To understand the arguments that have led me to believe that the first tyrant lived several thousand years ago in the area of today’s Tirana, giving our city his own name, read my novel Historitë e Cmendura të Tiranës, which is in every bookstore.