Dervish Hima (Ibrahim Naxhi, 1875–1928), Renaissance activist and publicist, was born in Ohrid. He completed primary school in his hometown and high school in Thessaloniki. He began his higher studies at the medical-military school in Istanbul, which he interrupted after two years due to persecution by the Ottoman authorities. In 1895 he secretly returned to Albania, where he worked to spread national ideas and to open Albanian schools in different parts of the country. In 1897, he left Albania and went to Bucharest, where he devoted himself entirely to the Albanian National Movement and was simultaneously associated with the Young Turk movement. With the formation of the Albanian League of Peja (1899), he published in Bucharest the Turkish call “To wake up” (Ujanëllëm), in which he reflected the national program of the League. At the request of the Sublime Porte, he was exiled from Romania and went to Italy. At the Congress of Orientalists in Rome, in 1899, he defended the Albanian issue. After he left Rome followed by the Italian government, he settled first in Paris and then in Geneva, where he dedicated himself to Albanian journalism. He participated in the Congress of Young Turks, held in Paris in 1902, where together with Ismail Qemali, Hamdi Ohrin, etc., he defended the national rights of the Albanian people and other peoples oppressed under the Ottoman Empire. After the Young Turk revolution of 1908, he returned to Albania, where he opposed the anti-Albanian policy of the Young Turks. In August 1908 he was arrested in Shkodër by the Young Turks. After four months of imprisonment in Thessaloniki, he was released under the pressure of the Albanian patriots. During his trip in 1909 to Tirana, Durrës, Elbasan, Vlorë, Berat and other cities, he worked to spread national ideas and open schools and clubs. In 1913-1918 in exile and then in the homeland, he fought for the protection of the independent state and the development of education, culture and the Albanian press. He published in collaboration with Jashar Erebara the newspaper ” L’Indépendance Albanaise” (Bucharest, 1898) in Albanian, Romanian and French; with Mehmet Frashër, the newspaper “Zani i Shalbisëri” (Rome, 1899), which he continued to publish under the name “Albania” (Rome-Geneva-Paris-Brussels, 1899-1905) in Albanian, Italian, Turkish, French; the newspapers ” Shqiptari” (“Arnavud”, 1909-1911) and “Shqiptari i ilustruar”, both in Istanbul, in Albanian and Turkish, etc. In both his published articles and his brochures, Dervish Hima worked for Albania’s liberation from Ottoman rule and for securing the national rights of oppressed peoples within the empire. He also exposed the expansionist ambitions of neighboring states’ political circles. He passed away in Tirana. (In the photo: Dervish Hima)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 2 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 925-926.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dervish_Hima
Graphic processing: AHCF
