By Shevki Sh. Voca:  Monday, 23-11-2009, 06:54pm (GMT+1) 

The Toptanis were a great landowner family with  bey titles, who had great influence in Tiranë and the central Albania. Distinct personalities emerged from the ranks of this family, who, though having differing tendencies, they gave our national history several very important personalities.
There is a legend in the literature about the Toptani family, allegedly told for the first time by the French consul A. Degrand.  The French consul had heard this legend in Tirana told by the mouth of Fuat Bey Toptani (first cousin to Murat Toptani), whose guest he was while visiting this city during the last years of XIX century (1898).  The legend, more or less, goes as follows: