Naim Frashëri

 

Naim Frashëri is one of the most famous Albanian Renaissance writer. An intellectual, a writer, and a poet, Naim was an outstanding Albanian patriotic figure, and noteworthy activist of Albanian movements. Today, Naim Frashëri is  considered to be the national poet of

Albania and entire Albanians. He was born in 1846 in  the village of  Frashër in Permet, Albania, where all his sweet childhood was spent.  He was a very lovely child, and successfully finished the religious classes in Mejtep in local Bektashi Mosque and Bektashi Monastery, where he practiced his Turkish and Arabic language. The family  Frashëri was able to support his education later in Janina, where
Naim, finished secondary school at the Zosiamia Secondary School. In Janina, Naim faced the western and the oriental  culture, and the knowledge of Greek, Italian, and French language.  This  education in Janina made of him a prime example of a late nineteenth-century Ottoman intellectual equally at home in both cultures, the Western and the Oriental.

Naim was able to travel a lot. His brothers were high-ranking politicians in Ottoman Turkey. Sami Frashëri was a member of Turkish assembly. The influence of  Frashëri family with the Turkish administration gave Naim an opportunity to publish  the Albanian periodical "Drita " “Light” in 1864, and the opening of the first Albanian school in Korçë in 1866. While living in Istanbul, the brothers’ Frashëri were able to open the publishing house “Dituria” or “Knowledge” which made possible to Naim and other Albanian writers to publish many Albanian works in Albanian language.  Because the Ottoman Turkey banned the use of Albanian language in schools and administration, Naim published many literature works under the initials’ N.H., N.H.F., and  N.F. Naim Frashëri is a  distinct poet, he composed poms in Persian and published first in Persian then switched to Albanian. For the poet of classical Persia and for the age of enlightenment, Naim Frashëri is the author of some twenty-two-literature works: four in Turkish, one in Persian, two in Greek, and fifteen in Albanian. Naim’s literature subjects range wide from patriotic themes including his epic "Historia e Skënderbeut" or “The History of Scanderbeu,” all the way to poms for children. His first poem "Albania" was published in 1897  which enthusiasted many Albanian patriots. The literature works of Naim Frashëri were published in Bucharest too.  The collections of poems “Bagëti e bujqësija,” or “Bucolic and Georgic,” or “Herds and Pastures” was published in 1886 in  Bucharest. The collection contains  a 450-line pastoral poem, reminiscent of Virgil who lived in 70-19 B.C. Naim Frashëri sings of the herds and flocks,  the joys, and the toil of agriculture and rural life. In the collection “Lulet e verës,” or “The flowers of spring,” published in 1890 in Bucharest. Naim paid tribute to the beauties of the Albanian countryside in twenty-three poems of rich sonority. The verse collection, “ Parajsa dhe fjala fluturake,” or “Paradise and flying word,” also published in Bucharest in 1894 together with the spiritual essays “Mësime,” or “ Teachings,” evinced his affinities for the heroes of the past and for the spiritual traditions of the Orient, in particular for the Persian mystics. The epic of 11 500 verses, “Historia e Skënderbeut" or “The History of Scanderbeu,” published in 1895 is considered as the masterpiece of this Albanian noble writer which constituted the poet’s political legacy. Three years later, in Bucharest the similar epic was published, “Qerbelaja” where Naim describes the battle of Kerbala in Iraq that took place in 680 AD . In this battle the grandson of prophet Mohammed was killed. The Frashëri family was a follower of a Bektashi religious believe, that caused this writer to write “Fletore e Bektashinjet,” or “Bektashi Notebook” in 1896 in Bucharest.  Naim Frashëri hoped that liberal Bektashi beliefs to which he had been attached since his childhood in the village of  Frashëri, it would be one day take hold as the new religion of all Albania which it did not happen. The Notebook presents an introductory profession of Bektashi faith, and ten spiritual poems which provide a rare view into the beliefs of the sect. Naim Frashëri’s literary work played a major role  in transforming Albanian into a literary language of substantial refinement. Many of his poems were set to music during his lifetime and were sung as folk songs.

All the literature works of this writer have a social-political, philosophical, and religious messages. In a tough environment, Naim Frashëri was the first intellectual to raise his voice and demand the emancipation of women in Turkey, Iran, Albania and abroad. Also, Naim was opposing the Megali idea that Greece should run Epir and Ottoman turkey, as well as opposing Panslavism  Naim Frashëëri was very highly regarded during the Communist period in Albania, and still is highly regarded not only by Albania and Albanians, but Turkey, Iran, and other. Niam  Frashëri  died in 1900.

Bagëti dhe Bujqësi Parasja Pellasgët Ujku dhe Qengji Perëndia Korça Atëdheu