Kristaq Prifti, historian, turkologist, professor, academic, was born in Berat. He finished high school in his hometown. He completed higher studies at the Faculty of History at the Pedagogical Institute in Moscow (1951–1955). In the years 1955-1975 he worked as a lecturer of general history and of Albania (The Renaissance period) at the Faculty of History and Philology of the University of Tirana, where he was also in charge of the history department (1960-1975), in the year 1962 vice dean and in the years 1969-1975, dean. He gave lectures in the magistracy course at the University of Prishtina (1972-1980). From 1982 he was a scientific worker at the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences, in 1991-1993 he was the director of this institute. He developed his scientific activity in the field of the history of Albania (for the Renaissance period), where he especially dealt with topics such as: the Albanian League of Prizren (1878–1881), the Albanian League of Peja (1899–1900), Albanians and the Young Turks Revolution , the political-cultural movement in Albania (1908–1910), the Congress of Manastir (1908), the Declaration of Independence of Albania and the Provisional Government of Vlora, as well as the problems of today’s history of Kosova, etc. He is the author of several monographs and publications with documents, the author of a number of study articles published in scientific journals within and outside the country. During the years 1998-2007, he directed the project “Historia e popullit shqiptar” (“The history of the Albanian people”) in four volumes and is co-author and scientific editor of vol. II (2002) and scientific editor of vol. III (2007). He is the co-preparer and co-editor of several volumes with documents and studies of the Academy of Sciences, such as: “Alfabeti i gjuhës shqipe dhe Kongresi i Manastirit” (“The Albanian language alphabet and the Congress of Manastir”) (1972), Sami Frashëri, “Vepra” (“The Work”) (vol. I and II, 1988), “E vërteta mbi Kosovën dhe shqiptarët në Jugosllavi” (“The truth about Kosova and Albanians in Yugoslavia”) (1993), “Çështja e Kosovës një problem historik dhe aktual” (“The Kosova issue a historical and current problem”), Tiranë, 1996; co-author and co-editor of the work “Himara në shekuj” (“Himara through centuries”) (2004) etc. He was decorated with the “Red Flag of Labor” order of the first class; received the Republic Award of the second degree. He passed away in 2017. (In the photo: Kristaq Prifti)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 2087-2088.
Photo: © https://alb-spirit.com/2017/12/09/ndahet-nga-jeta-akademik-kristaq-prifti/
Graphic processing: AHCF
