Sami Frashëri
Sami bey Frashëri or Şemseddin Sâmi was an Albanian writer, lexicographer, philosopher, playwright and a prominent figure of the Albanian National Awakening, together with his two brothers Abdyl and Naim. He also supported Turkish nationalism against its Ottoman counterpart, along with secularism against theocracy.
Frashëri was one of the sons of an impoverished bey from Frashër in the District of Përmet. He gained a place in Ottoman literature as a talented author under the name of Şemseddin Sami Efendi and contributed to the Ottoman Turkish language reforms.
Frashëri's message, however as declared in his book "Albania - What it was, what it is, and what will become of it" published in 1899, became the manifesto of the Albanian National Awakening. He discussed the prospects for a united, free and independent republic of Albania. In this way, beginning with a demand for autonomy and struggle for their own alphabet and education, Frashëri helped the Albanian National Movement develop its claim for independence. His lifetime goal, as that of many other members of the Albanian renaissance was the development and improvement of Albania's culture and eventual establishment of an independent country.
Life
Sami Frashëri was born in 1850 in the village of Frashër in the Vilayet of Janina, Ottoman Empire to a distinguished Muslim Albanian family of Bektashi religious affiliations. Sami, alongside his brothers Naim Frashëri, Abdyl Frashëri and 5 other siblings were the children of Halit Bey and their paternal family traditions held that they were descendants of timar holders that hailed from the Berat region before coming to live in Frashër. Halit belonged to the Dakollari branch of the Frashëri family. They were descendants of Ajaz Bey from Gramsh who in 1650–60 was given the command of Frashër. Ajaz Bey's grandfather, Hamza Bey had lost his lands in Tomorrica in 1570 when he rebelled and was exiled but the family's fortunes changed with the rise of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha who intervened on their behalf and they were pardoned. While their mother Emine Hanım was descended from Imrahor Ilyas Bey, a distinguished 15th century Ottoman Albanian commander from the Korçë area.Sami began his studies at the Bektashi tekke in Frashër. Halit Bey and Emine died in 1859 and 1861 respectively. His older brother Abdul became head of the household and moved the whole family to Yanina. There Sami attended the Greek language Zosimea high school. During that time he came in touch with western philosophy and studied Latin, ancient and modern Greek, French and Italian. He also attended a local Muslim school and learned through lessons from teachers Turkish, Arabic, and Persian. Frashëri was a bright student and finished an eight-year schooling program by graduating at the end of seven years. His reflections of the Zosimea later in life was that it was "the perfect high school". Having received a broad education in a diverse socio-cultural and religious environment at the Zosimea and through private tutors, he gained the linguistic tools to emotionally and intellectually travel between cultures during his lifetime.
In 1872 Sami and his brother Naim migrated to Istanbul and both got a job working for the Ottoman bureaucracy and as he admired French culture became involved in translating French language novels such as Les Misérables into Ottoman Turkish, later writing some short stories, plays and novels of his own. He was briefly posted in Tripoli, Libya and in 1874 returned to Istanbul becoming a writer for a newspaper. Later in 1877 he went on another short assignment being posted briefly at Rhodes. Returning to Istanbul he remained in the capital for the remainder of his life. Frashëri emerged as an accomplished Ottoman-Albanian intellectual with a reputation of having an inquisitive and sharp intellect. He assisted in founding and serving as chief editor for several journals and newspapers. In Ottoman Turkish he wrote more than a dozen books like Insan, Medeniyet-i Islamiye and Kadınlar. He compiled a French-Turkish and Turkish-French dictionary, an Arabic language dictionary and a two volume Ottoman Turkish dictionary along with a six volume encyclopedia . Additionally Frashëri authored other publications in the Albanian language that included a pamphlet on the alphabet question, a reader, a grammar and a political treatise on the Albanian question titled Albania: What she has been, What she is, What she shall be.
Involvement in the Albanian national movement
The ''Besa yahut Ahde Vefa'' play
In Istanbul 1874 Frashëri wrote a play named Besâ yâhut Âhde Vefâ in the Albanian language with themes based on an Albanian ethnicity, a bond to an ethnic based territory, ethno-cultural diversity as underlying Ottoman unity, honor, loyalty and self-sacrifice. The play revolved around a betrothed girl kidnapped by a jealous villager that kills her father and whose mother vows revenge co-opting the culprit's father who gives his besa to help not knowing its his son, later killing him and himself ending with family reconciliation. Frashëri's reasons for the play were to inform people about the morals, values, customs and traditions of Albanians whom he considered an important part of the empire and to create more local Ottoman theatre which he felt was dominated by foreign influences. The play was intended to present Albanians in a positive light to Ottoman and Albanian audiences that involved mainly Armenians directing and acting in roles with smaller numbers of Turks during its stage run. His play and its discussion of besa signified to more astute audiences the political implications of the concept and possible subversive connotations in future usage while it assisted Albanians in rallying militarily and politically around a national program.By 1901 his play was translated into Albanian by close friend Abdul Ypi and published in Sofia by Kristo Luarasi while it was part of the curriculum of the Albanian school in Korçë until its closure in 1902. The themes of the play highlighting a besa for the self-sacrifice of the homeland carried a subversive message for Albanians to aim at unifying the nation and defending the homeland, something Ottoman authorities also saw as fostering nationalist sentiments. The Ottoman government placed the Albanian language version of the play on a list of books it deemed that "incite national sentiments of the Albanians" and during the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 there were reports of Albanian guerillas acting out scenes around campfires. Frashëri's play would not appear in theatres until the aftermath of the 1908 Young Turk Revolution when performances continued for a full three years and during 1911-1912.
League of Prizren period
During the Great Eastern Crisis, the Central Committee for Defending Albanian Rights was founded in 1877 and headed by elder brother Abdyl with Sami, Hasan Tahsini, Pashko Vasa and Jani Vreto being members. The Committee aimed at the territorial unity and integrity of Albanian inhabited land within the Ottoman Empire with its members sending protests and visiting European embassies while urging Albanians in the Balkans to resist partition. Early in 1879, this committee formed a commission for the Albanian alphabet. The Committee appointed Sami along with Tahsini, Vasa and Vreto to create an Albanian alphabet. During discussions about the Albanian alphabet Frashëri and Vreto wanted the inclusion of a Greek alphabet character on the premise that Albanians and Greeks have the same ancestors, the Pelasgians. Frashëri created a new Albanian alphabet based on the Latin script and a one letter, one sound principle that contained certain Greek letters and others invented by him for sounds that a Latin alphabet was unable to convey. By 19 March 1879 the Society for Albanian Writings adopted Frashëri's 36 letter Istanbul alphabet consisting mostly of Latin characters that resulted in the publication of Albanian books and toward the late nineteenth century his alphabet had spread among Albanians. On 20 June 1878 Sami was one of ten signatories to a memorandum addressed to Berlin Congress hosts chancellor Bismarck and Count Andrassy calling for reforms and Albanians to remain in the Ottoman state with their rights, desires, interests and traditions being respected.Amidst this time Frashëri worked for the Ottoman newspaper Tercüman-ı Hakikat and he reported coverage on the geopolitical situation and events in Albania. In an article published on 24 December 1878 about the Albanian question, he expressed that Albania was his special vatan and he felt connected to the wider Ottoman motherland stressing that Albanians were loyal to the empire and ready to defend it. He referred to two threats facing Albanians, one military due to irredentist claims of neighbouring powers on Albanian inhabited land and the other was cultural where Slavs and Greeks had established schools that used their languages in Albanian areas. The solution for him was the unification of Albania into one vilayet that could establish an effective resistance force. Frashëri continued to write a series of articles expanding his views by maintaining that Albanians wished to read and write in their language and those abilities he thought would allow Albanians protection from the influences of Hellenism and Slavism.
By 2 January 1879 he developed his thoughts further and stressed that the Ottoman constitution of 1876 guaranteed this right to all peoples of the empire to read and write in ones native language. Frashëri viewed the plight of his fellow Albanians as based upon poverty and ignorance that disadvantaged them when it came to dealing with Hellenism and Slavism. He considered those factors as placing Albanians at risk of being severed from the empire for the benefits of foreign powers and peoples with Frashëri stating that both Christian and Muslim Albanians were thinking alike on these issues.
Frashëri also founded and headed in Istanbul the Society for the Publication of Albanian Writings in October 1879, where Albanian scholastic books and texts were compiled by him and his brother Naim. He expressed that the Society had difficulties in its work due to a lack of "liberty" in the empire and for Frashëri the aims of the organisation went further than publishing books but to revive the Albanian language and unify its dialects. In a correspondence of 1881 with Girolamo De Rada regarding the Albanian question Frashëri expressed sentiments supporting Albanian unity that transcended Muslim and Christian divisions with religion being separate from the state. By 1884 he had developed a reputation for championing the Albanian cause. The Society for Albanian Writings was forced to close by the Ottoman Government in 1885. In 1885, Frashëri managed to get permission from the Ottoman sultan for the opening of an Albanian boys school in Korçë. On 7 March 1887 it opened in Korçë with some two hundred enrolled students of Muslim and Christian faiths and due to a lack of education material Sami, his brother Naim and several other Albanians wrote textbooks in Albanian for the school. In 1896 he made an assessment of education in the Vilayet of Monastir claiming that Greeks, Bulgarians and Aromanians had more progressive schools and advanced education than Muslim Albanians.