Naim Frashëri, poet, Enlightenment thinker, activist of national education and culture of the National Renaissance, passed away in Istanbul. He was born in Frashër, Dangëllia, in 1846. He received his first lessons in his hometown, where he began to learn Persian near the Bektashian school. In 1865, his family moved to Ioannina, where together with his brother, Sami, they attended the “Zosimea” high school, graduating in 1869. After his studies, he worked for a short time in Istanbul as a junior clerk in the press office (1870). , but he developed tuberculosis and returned to his homeland for a better climate. Naim Frashëri participated in the events of the Albanian League of Prizren; was at the side of his older brother, Abdyl, at the meeting of the Southern branches of the Albanian League, in Frashër (1878). The powerful influence of these events and the patriotic and cultural activity of the Istanbul Society, headed by Sami, completely included him in the national movement. He devoted himself to the work of national awakening through the cultivation of the Albanian language and national literature and to the establishment of the Albanian school and its equipping with textbooks in the mother tongue. In 1882, he finally settled in Istanbul, where he worked first as a member and then as chairman of the Publications Commission at the Ministry of Education. He was one of the main founders of the magazine “Drita” (“Light”) later “Dituria” (“Knowledge”), where he published his first creations, poetry, scholarly prose and poems for the first schools. With his dedication and intense patriotic and cultural activity, Naim Frashëri became the central figure of the National Renaissance. For less than twenty years, he published a wide range of works in Albanian and other languages, poems, collections of lyrics, artistic prose, as well as poems and texts for schools and translations. In the first poem in Albanian entitled “Shqipëria” (“Albania”) (1880) he brought forward the patriotic poetic ideas, which became the leitmotif of his work and all the poetry of the Renaissance. His most notable poetic works are the lyric poem “Bagëti e bujqësija” (“Livestock and agriculture”) (1886), the collection of patriotic and philosophical lyrics “Luletë e verësë” (“Summer flowers”) (1890), the epic poems “Istori e Skënderbeut” (“History of Skanderbeg”) (1898). For schools, he published the collection of poems “Vjersha për mësonjëtoret të para” (“Poems for the first schools”)(1886), the book in two parts with pieces of singing for the schoolgirls “E këndimit çunavet këndonjëtoreja” (1886), the educational texts “Istori e përgjithshme për mësonjëtoret të para” (1886) (“General history for the first schools”), “Istori e Shqipërisë” (“History of Albania”) (1899). Naim Frashëri elevated the Albanian language to a poetic and scholarly level, displaying a unique creative linguistic force. His work played a fundamental role in refining the new literary Albanian, which he wrote in a pure form, enriching it with a particular richness of vocabulary and especially phraseology, primarily based on the living language and the folk storytelling tradition. He enriched it especially with words from the scholarly and cultural spheres, which stood the test of time, giving Albanian the face of a modern language of the modern culture of Albanians. The impact of Naim Frashëri’s work established a lasting tradition and exerted significant influence, not only on his contemporaries but also on later generations of writers. His works have been widely published and continue to be frequently reprinted. They have been integrated into school curricula and have become subjects of scholarly research. Numerous schools and institutions in the Albanian-speaking world are named after Naim Frashëri, and he is also honored with high distinctions in Albania, bestowed upon outstanding figures in culture, art, and science. (In the photo: Naim Frashëri)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 1 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 726-728.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naim_Frash%C3%ABri
Graphic processing: AHCF
