In his younger years, Ali was not a very strict Mahometan; but he has lately become religious, and entertains several Dervishes at his court; yet he does not at all relax in his ambitious efforts; and having no use for books, employs all the hours that he is absent from his harem in designs of future conquest. He is still an active horseman, and there is scarcely a village in his dominion which he does not visit once a year. I believe him, from good authority, never to have received even the education usually given to the Albanians. Besides his native tongue, he talks Greek fluently, but of the Turkish language he knows very little; and, like Justin and Theodoric, the contemporary lords of the Eastern and Western Empires, has raised himself to his present power, without perhaps knowing the letters of any alphabet.
He is doubtless a great man; but without saying or knowing that he is the worthy successor of Pyrrhus, whom, according to one author (Survey of the Turkish Empire, page 373), he is accustomed to call Piros, and, as another will have it (Voyage en Albanie, page 24), Bourrous. But he that does not smile at Mr Eton may believe Doctor Pouqueville.
Yours &c, &c.
[extract from: John Cameron Hobhouse: A Journey through Albania and Other Provinces of Turkey in Europe and Asia to Constantinople during the Years 1809 and 1810, London 1813.
Ky eshte nje tjeter konfirmim qe emri Pyrrhus ne shqip, nuk do te thote gje tjeter vecse burrë dhe para formimit te shtetit grek(ne kohen qe eshte shkruajtur libri), gjithkush nuk vinte ne dyshim prejardhjen e shqiptareve(epiroteve te rinj) nga epirotet e vjeter.
