[6] Korçë is named differently in other languages: Aromanian: Curceaua, Curceauã,[7] Curceau or Curciau;[8] Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian: Горица, Goritsa; Greek: Κορυτσά, Korytsa; Italian: Coriza; Romanian: Corcea or Corița;[9] Turkish: Görice.

[6][14] In 1484 Ilias Bey received, as a reward from the Sultan, seven villages located in the Korçë area: Leshnjë, Vithkuq, Peshkëpi, Boboshticë, Panarit, Treska, and Trebicka.

In the third firman (1497) the boundaries of Piskopiye were defined, establishing its demarcation between Mborje, Barç and Bulgarec, a site area corresponding to the territory of today's Korçë city.

[16] With the establishment of the religious, educational and charitable institutions in the area, Ilias Bey must have planned to make the village a local Islamic centre and to raise it to the rank of kasaba ("town"), through the registration of its inhabitants as citizens instead of farmers.

[6] Being subjected to the Kaza of Korça, the villages of Episkopi, Boboshtica, Leshnjë and Vithkuq were used in 1505 as sources of income on behalf of the five institutions of Ilias Bey's vakfa.

In the 16th century Muslims constituted the 21% of the population of the town and inhabited Kasaba, which was subdivided into the smaller neighborhoods of Çarshi, Ratak, Qoshk and Dere, including the institutions established by Ilias Bey.

[19] When the nearby town of İskopol (Moscopole or Moschopolis or Voskopojë) was destroyed by Ali Pasha's men in 1789, some of its commerce shifted to Görice (Korçë) and Arnavud Belgrad (Berat).

[24] Greek was the language of the elite and the majority of the Aromanian population engaged in commerce, crafts and international trade becoming one of the wealthiest communities in Epirus and Macedonia.

[26] Due to increasing Hellenisation by the 1870s, those sentiments became replaced with the concept of an Albanian nation based on linguistic and cultural factors through struggle against a collapsing Ottoman Empire.

[34] During the 19th century various local benefactors such as Ioannis Pangas and Anastas Avramidhi-Lakçe donated money for the promotion of Greek education and culture in Korçë, such as the Bangas Gymnasium.

Thus they suggested the introduction of Albanian language in the existing Greek Orthodox schools, a proposal which was discussed with the local bishop and the city council, the demogeronteia, and finally rejected by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

[43] It survived until 1902 under the teachers Leonidis and Naum Naça who were arrested and declared as traitors by Ottoman authorities at the request of Greek clergy with the school being closed down, vandalised and wrecked.

[48][49] The armed Albanian bands, or çeta groups, of Sali Butka, Spiro Bellkameni and Kajo Babjeni briefly liberated Korçë from the Ottomans in August 1912.

Since the passes over the Pindus mountain range were much difficult, the Greeks wished to retain this city after the 1914 occupation of parts of southern Albania because only Korçë granted the successful maintenance of communications by land between the territories of Epirus and Macedonia that were acquired by Greece in 1913.

[61] In response to the French administration supporting the Greek demands of Eleftherios Venizelos for the partition of southern Albania, Sali Butka - accompanied by Themistokli Gërmenji's small armed band - led 1,500 men towards Korçë and surrounded the city.

Sali Butka's Albanian band burned Moscopole in response to the pro-Greek behaviour of the French administration, and threatened that Korçë would share the same fate.

Meanwhile, the Venizelos Movement of National Defence was unable to dispatch reinforcements to the region, and French General Maurice Sarrail demanded the withdrawal of the local Greek garrison.

[64] The government is considered to have been a successful experiment in Albanian self-administration, as the French allowed the entity to "act as if it were an independent state", minting its own coinage, introducing its own flag, and printing its own stamps.

According to Stickney, the republic gave Albanians the opportunity for self-government under the light tutelage of the French, and they were able to build a state in the absence of the great power rivalry that had beset King Wilhelm's earlier government.

[68] It later became clear that the military tribunal had made a grave judicial error, its members having been led astray by Greek informers who wished Gërmenji removed since he was a powerful Albanian leader.

[63] The Conference of ambassadors, considering Albania's claims to the area, commissioned a League of Nations report consisting of three on the ground commissioners in December 1921.

[71] One commissioner, Finnish professor Jakob Sederholm noted in 1922 that Korçë's population was "entirely Albanian; the numbers of Greeks being insignificant"[71] and continued that "there are, however, amongst the population two parties, — one nationalist and the other Grecophile"[72] Sederholm also stated that the Orthodox inhabitants of Korçë abstained from the elections, and criticized the Albanian government for drawing electoral districts in such a way so as to practically disenfranchise the Christian inhabitants.

[citation needed] Right after World War II many people fled to Boston, United States joining a community of the Albanian-Americans, who had previously emigrated there.

[81] Temperatures generally remain cooler than western Albania, due to the middle altitude of the plain in which it is situated, but it receives about 2800 hours of solar radiation per year.

[87] After the collapse of the Socialist Republic, part of the local communities expressed a growing need to revive their cultural past, in particular with the reopening of Greek language institutions.

[103] The Orthodox Cathedral of Saint George, a significant landmark in the city, was demolished by the authorities of the People's Republic of Albania during the atheistic campaign.

According to Jan Karl Tanenbaum, this regime `acted as if it were an independent state, for it minted its own coinage, printed its own stamps, and introduced its own flag'.

In reality, as H. James Burgwyn in particular has shown, French activity was only at a local level, and for strategic as opposed to moral or national reasons.

Sarrail's reports still insisted that the Albanians had proclaimed the republic, then asked for it to be put under French protection, and that Descoins had merely complied with the wishes of the local population.

The Quai d'Orsay was far from keen to have the Albanian nationalist movement develop too far under French influence, in case it jeopardised their more important goals regarding Greece.