In Late Antiquity and the Medieval period, Latin fides took on the Christian meaning of 'faith' or '(religious) belief,' a sense that persists in modern Romance languages and was borrowed into Albanian as feja.
[5] Besa contains mores toward obligations to the family and a friend, the demand to have internal commitment, loyalty and solidarity when conducting oneself with others and secrecy in relation to outsiders.
[5] The besa is also the main element within the concept of the ancestor’s will or pledge (amanet) where a demand for faithfulness to a cause is expected in situations that relate to unity, national liberation and independence that transcend a person and generations.
[12] In the early 19th century, Markos Botsaris, in his Greek-Albanian dictionary, translated the Albanian "besa" (written "μπέσα") as the Greek "θρησκεία",[13] meaning "religion", or, by extension, "faith".
In 1896, the Ottoman government provincial almanac for Kosovo titled Kosova Salnamesi had a two-page entry on besa and compared it to the French concept of parole d'honneur (word of honor).
[18] During the Young Turk Revolution of July 1908, Kosovo Albanians that gathered at Firzovik (Ferizaj) agreed to a besa toward pressuring sultan Abdul Hamid II to restore constitutional government.
[23] Haxhi Zeka, a landowner from Ipek (Pejë) organized a meeting of 450 Kosovo Albanian notables in 1899 and they agreed to form Besa-Besë (League of Peja) to fight the Ottoman government and swore a besa to suspend all blood feuding.
[24] During World War II under German occupation, Albanians rescued and hid over 2000 Jews from Nazi persecution, motivated in part by the cultural institution of besa that emphasises aiding and protecting people in moments of need.
[28] Families and other extended kin in the Malesia region made a besa and agreed to cease blood feuding and accept state judicial outcomes for victims and perpetrators.