Abdyl Frashëri

Abdyl Halid bej Frashëri or (Abdullah-Hysni Dume bej Frasheri) (Ottoman Turkish Fraşerli Abdül bey) was a prominent Hero of Albania. Frasheri was an Albanian Academic, Statesman, diplomat, and politician in the Ottoman Empire. He is one of the first Albanian political ideologues of the Albanian National Awakening^[1] being an initiator and prominent Leader of Albanian League of Prizren. He distinguished himself as a political personality from 1860's through early political assignments. He founded the Central Committee for Defending Albanian Rights in Constantinople and served as a deputy representative for the Yanya Vilayet in the Ottoman Parliament during the 1st Constitutional Era, 1876–1877.

Early life

Abdyl Frashëri was born in 1839 in the village of Frashër in the Vilayet of Janina to a distinguished Muslim Albanian family of Bektashi religious affiliations.^[2] Naim, alongside his brothers Naim, Abdyl and 5 other siblings were the children of Halit Bey (1797–1859)^[3] 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.^[2] While their mother Emine Hanım (1814–1861)^[3] was descended from Imrahor Ilyas Bey, a distinguished 15th century Ottoman Albanian commander from the Korçë area.^[2] The surname Frashëri of the family is derived from the village of Frashër.^[4] The settlement was noted in the late Ottoman era for having a mixed Albanian and Vlach population.^[2][5] Thede Kahl and the Vlach community in Albania claim that the Frashëri family were of Vlach origin.^[4][6][7]

Museum house of the Frashëri Brothers in Frashër, Përmet, Albania

Being the eldest brother of Naim Frashëri and Sami Frashëri, Abdyl Frashëri spent his youth to age 18 in his home village and eventually moved to Ioannina where he lived for more than 20 years. His father, Halit Bey Frashëri, was a Tosk Albanian chieftain and commander of an irregular army, composed of Albanian militia contingents. His military service was to bring order to the unsettled territories of the Rumelia province, mainly inside Albanian-inhabited territories. He saw duty in areas such as Toskëria (Southern Albania), Gegëria (Northern Albania), Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Thessaly and Macedonia with the last two often on the verge of uprisings by Greek rebels. During these expeditions, Abdyl was part of his father's military contingent and served as a captain of the Albanian forces.

Halit bey Frashëri died in 1859 and so Abdyl Frashëri became the head of the household, as his five brothers and two sisters were all younger than him. After two years, as his mother died. Frashëri was posted to Ioannina as a clerk and governor of the Ioannina house, along with his two younger brothers. He dedicated himself to his studies, and worked with scholars in Ioanina, in particular with the notable Albanian scientist and teacher, myderiz Hasan Tahsini from whom he learned Arabic, Persian, French,and Greek. Frashëri also studied science, philosophy and math. After he had finished the studies, he became engaged and married Ballkëze, the daughter of myfti Ibrahim Frashëri from the Lahçenja family and Xhenfize Çoku the family of Çokollarëve, who were also known as Aliçkas. Ballkëz, Frashëri's wife, bore six children. The first son was born in 1874 and was given the name of his grandfather, Halit. The child died in infancy. The second son, born in 1876, was also named Halit, and also died young, as did the two later sons, both named Feridun. Of all the children, five sons and one daughter, born to Frashëri and Ballkëz, only their third son, Mit’hat Frashëri and their daughter lived. She was named after Frashëri's mother, Emine.

Political activity

Work for the autonomy of Albania (1860s-late 1870s)

Frashëri distinguished himself as a prominent Albanian statesman and political personality in the early 1860s. However, when the Russo-Turkish War of (1877–1878) resulted in Ottoman defeat, the integrity of the Ottoman Empire and that of the Balkan Albanian Lands seemed in real jeopardy. Frashëri worked to create a unified homeland (Albanian) front for the defence. The step was first welcomed by the Porte. Frasheri then became the chairman of the Albanian Committee of Janina (Komiteti Shqiptar i Janines) with the prominent cham-Albanian leader Abedin Dino as its co-founder. There he drafted the project of Declaration of Autonomous Albania within the Ottoman Empire, a project that eventually won over the majority of the representatives from across Albania at the Albanian Congress in Prizren 1878. However, his hopes for an autonomous Albanian state were threatened by Albania's neighbours, including Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria, which were supported by the Russian Empire who strongly opposed an Albanian presence in the Balkans. Frashëri organized then with Ottoman authorities and the Sultan, and with representatives from the Khedivate of Egypt who were of Albanian ancestry, and shared their support. He also met with the representatives of Greece between July and December 1877, primarily for diplomatic grounds in order to form a military coalition to counterpart the Greater Bulgarian and threatening Slavic Expansion. The secret emissary outside of Greece Stephanos Skouloudis rejected the coalition, because he was against an autonomous Albania within its ethnic boundaries, and the talks failed. Frashëri intensified his political alliance with the Ottoman authorities and by 1877, along with many other prominent Albanian compatriots, founded the Central Committee for Defending Albanian Rights based in the Ottoman Capital, in Istanbul ^[8]

Head of Central Committee for Defence and Rights of the Albanian People: Founding of the League of Prizren

At the end of 1877, Frashëri, then a member of the 1st Parliament of the Ottoman Empire), was elected chairman of the Central Committee for Defending Albanian Rights (Komiteti i Stambollit), which was formed in Istanbul. He gave an important contribution to the elaboration of the political platform that the national movement should adopt after the Russian victory over the Ottoman Empire, and especially after the sign-off of the Treaty of San Stefano. According to Frashëri the conditions created by the expansionist trends of Russia and the interests of Western powers to keep the Ottoman Empire alive, and the intentions of Albania's Balkan neighbors to annex Albanian lands, the most appropriate solution would be the creation of an autonomous Albanian state under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire, or, at least by creating a unique vilayet under the Ottoman Empire. If this unique Albanian vilayet would be realized, it would sanction Albania's borders, and would give Albanians an upper hand in better preparations for the self-defence of their homeland.

The establishment of the Provisional Government of Albania and declaration of the autonomous Albanian vilayet

The Treaty of San Stefano and later the Berlin Conference triggered profound anxiety among the Albanian population and it spurred their leaders to organize a national defence of the lands they inhabited. Thus in the spring of 1878, influential Albanians met in Constantinople, headed by Frashëri, and other Albanian national movement's leading figures during its early years. They organized a committee to direct the Muslim Albanians' resistance. In May the group called for a general meeting of representatives from all the Albanian-populated lands. On June 10, 1878, about eighty delegates, mostly Muslim religious leaders, clan chiefs, and other influential people from the four Albanian-populated Ottoman vilayets, met in the Kosovo city of Prizren. The delegates set up a standing organization, the League of Prizren, under the direction of a central committee that had the power to impose taxes and raise an army. The League of Prizren worked to gain autonomy for the Albanians and to thwart implementation of the Treaty of San Stefano and that of Berlin Conference, but not to create an independent Albania. Rather than as implanted by Frashëri, a summons of the 4/5 vilayets into a single Albanian Vilayet, under the Ottoman Suzerainty.

From the beginning the Ottoman authorities supported the League of Prizren, and had special relations with its head members of the League, especially with Frashëri who held the post of foreign minister of the League, and spokesman to the Sublime Porte.

As one of the main authors of the political platform of the Central Committee of Istanbul, which Frashëri publicly stated through articles published in several organs of the Ottoman and European press during the spring of year 1878, he participated actively in establishing the League of Prizren. After the founding of the League, which adopted this platform, Abdyl Frashëri distinguished himself as the leader of the League. Its main activities developed especially in areas of the Janina and Kosovo vilayets. He participated in almost all the major assemblies organized by the General Council of the League of Albanian or its interregional committees. In the League of Prizren's founding assembly he was elected chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. On 1 November 1878 he represented Toskëria in the First Assembly of Debar, where a resolution was adopted to formally require from the Sublime Porte the creation of the autonomous united vilayet of Albania. He was the principal organizer of the Assembly of Preveza in January 1879, which managed to prevent Çameria being ceded to Greece.

In the spring of the year 1879 Frashëri headed the Prizren League delegation to visit the capitals of major Powers to protect the integrity of the Albanian lands and the rights of the Albanians. Frashëri was also the main promoter to form an interim government. He also led the National Assembly of Gjirokastër that took the decision to create an autonomous Albanian state. He was part of the movement proposing that the Albanians should be armed. Frashëri defended the program of Gjirokastër in the Second Assembly of Debar, where as always led the radical wing of the movement. Although the autonomy program was not accepted by representatives of the moderate power. he moved to Kosovo and there he started to put into action the decisions taken at Gjirokastër.

In 1881 in the founding of the Autonomous interim government that was formed in Prizren in early 1881, headed by Prime minister Ymer Prizreni, Frasheri was elected Minister of its Foreign Affairs, he made important contributions to the political and military preparations that were made for the protection of autonomy against the Ottoman military expedition against the League.

Suppression of the League of Prizren, arrest and imprisonment

After the Provisional Government of the League was eventually suppressed by the Ottoman Empire, and numerous battles were held between the League Army and Ottoman Forces, fought in summer of 1881, Frashëri along with many other members and feudal lords of the Prizren League, was captured and arrested by the commander in chief Mareshall Dervish Pasha and was temporarily sentenced to death by an Ottoman Special Trial. However the sentence was reduced to life in prison and he was incarcerated in a castle jail in Prizren for 3 years. After 3 years in prison (1882–1885) and an extradition to Istanbul, he was finally released for health reasons in 1886, with the conditional to give up any political or patriotic activity. Although ill and isolated, he never gave up his patriotic ideas until his death on 23 October 1892 in Istanbul. His remains were brought to Tirana in 1978, on the 100th anniversary of the League of Prizren.

External links

• Frashëri family tree (Last update: 2015-05-19)

References