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The Arianiti were an Albanian noble family that ruled large areas in Albania and neighbouring areas from the 11th to the 16th century. Their domain stretched across the Shkumbin valley and the old Via Egnatia road and reached to the east today's Bitola. ==Names== The first attested surname of the family in various forms is Ar(i)aniti, which was also used as a personal name. In documents contemporary to its members ''Araniti'' is the most prevalent form, from which almost all placenames of the areas of their domains that were named after them derive. ''Arianiti'', a rare form from the first definite documentations of the family in the late 13th and early 14th century to the extinction of its male line in the mid-16th century, became prominent in early modern era works and eventually reached a common surname status in historical discourse. The etymology of the surname is unclear; it may ultimately derive from the Indo-European word ''arya'' (noble), derivations of which can be found as placenames, denonyms or ethnonyms in many areas ranging from western Europe to Iran and northern India (cf. Areiane, the Greek name for eastern Iran) or the Albanian word ''arë'' (field).〔 If the placenames in Albania that are akin to ''arya'' are related to the Arianiti family and don't derive from the rule of the family over those areas, their presence as a clan could be traced back to the late 9th century in the theme of Dyrrhachium, however, its members until the late 13th century are disputed as the surname appears to have been adopted by unrelated to each other low-born individuals after they came to positions of power. An unlikely theory links the surname with the Illyrian tribe of the Arinistae/Armistae that lived around Dyrrhachium in the Hellenistic and Roman era.〔 A secondary surname used by the Arianiti family since the 14th century was ''Komneni'' surname, which derives from the Byzantine imperial house of Komnenos. The first of the family to bear was possibly married to a female descendant of Golem of Kruja and could be related to a ''Comneni Budaresci princeps'', who lived around 1300 in central Albania, although any connection to any member can't be verified as all Arianitis used ''Komneni'' as a second surname by the mid to late 14th century as a means to strengthen their noble status and territorial claims. The surname ''Shpata'' appears in Latin sources of the late 14th and early 15th century in reference to a ''Comin Spata'', who could possibly be Komnen Arianiti, father of Gjergj Arianiti, who was also mentioned in contemporary documents as ''Aranit Spata''. It is unclear whether the Arianitis adopted it through intermarriage with the Shpata family of central Albania or as a toponymic that derives from the region of Shpat, which they held in the Middle Ages. If the intermarriage theory is correct, the adoption of the surname must have happened in the 14th century. ''Golemi'' was used as a byname by some members of the Arianiti family. It first appears in a 1452 document of the chancellery of Alfonso V of Aragon, where Gjergj Arianiti is mentioned as ''Aranit Colem de Albania'', while Marin Barleti mentions him as ''Arianites Thopia Golemus''. The word itself may come from the Slavic ''golem'' (grand) or as a distortion of the name ''Gulielm''. Attempts to relate it to Golem of Kruja or personalities named ''Gulielm Arianiti'' are resultless as no archival evidence exists. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Arianiti family」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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