{"id":7333,"date":"2023-11-03T21:00:08","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T21:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/albheritage.wpadmin.ch\/2023\/11\/03\/manastir-congress\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T18:52:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T18:52:07","slug":"manastir-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/albheritage.wpadmin.ch\/en\/2023\/11\/03\/manastir-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Manastir Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"

The “Monastery Congress”, a national congress held in Bitola (today Bitola in North Macedonia), began its work. The spread of schools and the teaching of the Albanian language, as well as the development of the national culture in general, put on the agenda the need to designate a single alphabet. The revivalists rightly saw the lack of a common alphabet of the Albanian language not only as a linguistic and cultural problem, but also as a political issue, a sign of disobedience, which prevented the unification of Albanians. Its solution would help both in the further cultivation of the Albanian language and literature, as well as in the consolidation of national unity and the political union of the Albanian people. Although it was basically a matter of culture, the unification of the alphabet of the Albanian language was simultaneously presented as one of the most important political problems of the time, the solution of which would depend on the development of the national movement in general. In fact, the call of the congress for the unification of the alphabet of the Albanian language became possible only in the new circumstances that were created for the cultural-national movement after the promulgation of the constitution in 1908. The initiative for the call of the congress for the unification of the alphabet of the language, was undertaken by Albanian club “Bashkimi” (“Unity”) of Manastir, which played the main role among Albanian clubs. The initiative of this club was well received by Albanian patriots and patriotic clubs and societies inside and outside the country, who were ready to send their representatives to this congress. The Congress was attended by 32 delegates with the right to vote, representing 26 different Albanian cities and societies inside and outside the country, as well as 18 other delegates as participants without the right to vote. The Congress of Bitola was thus transformed into a real pan-Albanian assembly, in which a total of 50 delegates from all parts of Albania participated, from the cities of the vilayets of Bitola, Kosovo, Ioannina and Shkodra, as well as from the Albanian societies of Bucharest, Sofia, USA, Egypt, Italy, etc. Its delegates were the most famous writers and publicists, teachers of the Albanian language, laymen and clergy, such as Gjergj Fishta, Nikollë Kaçori, Ndre Mjeda, Gjergj Qiriazi, Mithat Frashëri, Hilë Mosi, Mati Logoreci, Thoma Avrami, Sotir Peci, Shahin Kolonja , Luigj Gurakuqi, Adam Shkaba; activists of the national movement and Albanian clubs, such as Bajram e Çerçis Topulli, Mihal Gramenoja, Fehim Zavalani, Dhimitër Mole, Nyzhet Vrioni, Rrok Berisha, Leonidha Naço, Dhimitraq Buda, Akil Eftimi, Shefqet Frashëri, Refik Toptani, Gligor Cilka, Emin bej Shkupi, Hafiz Ibrahim Efendiu (from Skopje), Ramiz Daci, Xhemal Bey (from Ohrid), Fahri Frashëri (from Resna), etc. Mithat Frashëri was elected president of the Congress, while Luigj Gurakuqi and Gjergj Qiriazi were elected vice-presidents. During the first two days of the congress, extensive and open meetings were held, where, in addition to the delegates, also intellectuals and students of the schools of Bitola, as well as other residents of this city, about 400 people participated. These meetings turned into national manifestations, in which patriotic speeches were given about the need to unite all Albanians, Ghegs and Tosks, Muslim and Christian, as well as for the progress of the nation and its culture. The main place in the work of the Congress, including the open meetings, was occupied by the issue of assigning a common alphabet for all Albanians. On the third day of the work, the Congress elected a commission of 11 people, headed by Mr. Gjergj Fishta, which included the best experts in the Albanian language, supporters of the Istanbul alphabets, of “Bashkim<\/em>“, of “Agimi<\/em>“, as well as other prominent intellectuals. The Commission was given full powers to decide on the matter. After many discussions, the commission decided to create a new alphabet based on the Latin one, giving the Latin letters phonetic values in accordance with the needs of the Albanian language. But the commission encountered difficulties in assigning double letters, which were needed for those Albanian sounds that Latin lacked ( dh, gj, nj, th <\/em>, etc.). In these circumstances, after three days of discussions (November 17-19), the members of the commission, as stated in the congress decision, “pushed also by some exceptional reasons”, failed to designate a single alphabet for the Albanian language, therefore decided “to go back”, accepting the Istanbul alphabet “and with it a purely Latin alphabet, to be used and learned together among the Albanians”. Both alphabets would be compulsorily used in schools. This decision, which the Congress itself called a step back, was argued by the commission with “several exceptional reasons” and precisely with the need to print books outside Albania and for correspondence abroad with the purely Latin alphabet. In fact, external causes did not mean only purely technical ones, but also the pressure exerted on the commission by the various Albanian circles and societies, which were for the Istanbul alphabet (in South Albania) and that of “Bashkim” (“Union”) in Gegëri and especially in Shkodër. The decision to jointly use two alphabets was made in order not to cause division in the ranks of the delegates and Albanians in general. This decision put an end to the chaos that reigned until then in the issue of writing Albanian. Instead of the many alphabets that had spread in Albania and in the exile colonies, now only two would be used, and these together. What the Congress of Manastir could not bring to the end, was finally resolved by the life of the Albanian people itself. The purely Latin alphabet, being unmixed and more homogeneous in terms of the character of the letters, easier and more practical for printing, spread more and more and by the end of the First World War it already became the common and only alphabet for all Albanians , today’s alphabet of the Albanian language. (Pictured: Alphabet Drafting Commission, November 1908.)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Text:<\/span><\/strong> The history of the Albanian people – Vol. II <\/em>, Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Toena”, Tirana, 2002, page 391-394.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo: <\/span><\/strong>© <\/span>https:\/\/muzeuialfabetit.org\/historia-e-shkurter-per-kongresin-e-manastirit\/<\/span><\/a><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Graphic processing: <\/span><\/strong>AHCF<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The “Congress of Manastir” began its sessions, a national congress held in Manastir (now Bitola in North Macedonia).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ngjarje"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/albheritage.wpadmin.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/albheritage.wpadmin.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/albheritage.wpadmin.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albheritage.wpadmin.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albheritage.wpadmin.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/albheritage.wpadmin.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10423,"href":"https:\/\/albheritage.wpadmin.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7333\/revisions\/10423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albheritage.wpadmin.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/albheritage.wpadmin.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albheritage.wpadmin.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albheritage.wpadmin.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}