Qiriazi family (Albanian : Familja Qiriazi) were a prominent Albanian family from Manastir (today's North Macedonia). They were educators, translators, publishers, and public figures of the Albanian National Awakening period. They are remembered for their activities in support of the consolidation of Albanian national awareness. [1] They are also known, especially Gjerasim and Gjergj, for their role as early founders of the Albanian Evangelical Movement. [2]
Gjerasim Qiriazi (1858–1894) attended a Greek school in his native Monastir and, with the assistance of his English teacher, the American missionary Jenney, studied at an American Bible college in Samokov, Bulgaria. After four years of training there, he was offered a job by the British and Foreign Bible Society, for whom he began working in Korça in 1883. He also began writing an Albanian grammar and is known to have preached in Albanian. On 12 November 1884, while traveling in the mountains southwest of Lake Ohrid, he was attacked by bandits and held for ransom for half a year. The narrative of his six-month ordeal was translated into English by J. W. Baird of Monastir as Captured by Brigands (London, 1902). The opening of the first officially recognized Albanian school in Korça in 1887 inspired him and his sisters Sevasti Qiriazi-Dako (1871–1949) and Parashqevi Qiriazi (1880–1970) to open a girls’ school. With the assistance of Naim Frashëri they received the appropriate authorizations in Istanbul and on 15 October 1891 opened the first Albanian girls’ school in Korça. The following summer, they moved the premises to a larger building to make room for more pupils. The Greek Orthodox hierarchy was fanatically opposed to the school from the start and went so far as to refuse to bury the son of one of its patrons. On 4 January 1894, Gjerasim Qiriazi died, aged 36, of the pleurisy he had contracted during his period of captivity. He was the author of poetry, songs, sketches, dialogues, and school textbooks. A selection of his writings was published by his younger brother Gjergj in the collection Hristomathi më katër pjesë (Chrestomathy in Four Parts; Sofia, 1902). [3] [4]
Gjergj Qiriazi (1868–1912), known in English as George Kyrias, attended a Greek school in his native Monastir and the American Bible college at Samokov. In 1908 he was a delegate at the Congress of Monastir. The politically active Gjergj Qiriazi was one of the founders of the Albanian language newspaper Bashkim’ i Kombit (Unity of the Nation) in 1909. In addition to his brother's chrestomathy, he published a collection of religious verse entitled Kënkë të shenjtëruara (Sacred Songs; Sofia, 1906). [4] [5]
Sevasti Qiriazi-Dako (1871–1949) studied at the prestigious Robert College in Istanbul with the help of Naim bey Frashëri, and played an active role in women's education. She was the first Albanian woman to study at this American institution, from which she graduated in June 1891. Immediately upon her return to Albania, she was instrumental in the founding of the Korça girls’ school. After World War I, this school was still known by the family name as the Kyrias School. Sevasti Qiriazi-Dako is said to have published a beginners’ grammar for elementary schools (Monastir, 1912) and edited a series of history texts. With her husband, journalist and writer Christo Anastas Dako, and her sister Parashqevi, she left for Romania and from there immigrated with them to the United States, where she collaborated on the fortnightly periodical Yll’ i mëngjezit (The Morning Star). [6] [7]
Parashqevi Qiriazi (1880–1970), also known as Paraskevi D. Kirias, also studied at Robert College in Istanbul, then returned to Albania to teach. In 1909, she published a speller for elementary schools. She later organized both children's education and night schools in southern Albania and helped set up the rudiments of a library system. In the United States, she helped found the Yll’ i mëngjezit (The Morning Star) society and published the illustrated periodical of the same name, issued in Boston from 1917 to 1920. Parashqevi Qiriazi also took part in the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 as a representative of the Albanian American community. [4] [8] [9] [10] [11]
The Kyrias (Qiriazi) family name is widely respected in all Albanian populated territories and many institution bear their name. March 7 is the official Teachers' Day in Albania, in remembrance of the Qiriazi family school opening of 1891.
Education and emancipation lay at the heart of the Reformation besides theology, a stream that crossed the Albanian lands about 300 years later. In the background of this postage stamp, at the lower part is the central pillar of the Albanian reform, the Qiriazi family: the brothers Gierasimi and Gjergji and the sisters Sevastia and Parashqevi, who among other things bore on their shoulders the spiritual revival, education and emancipation of Albanian society at the time of great historical turning point.
Musine Kokalari was an Albanian prose writer and politician in Albania's pre-communist period. She was the founder of the Social-Democratic Party of Albania in 1943. Kokalari was one of the first published female writers of Albania. After a short involvement in politics during World War II, she was persecuted by the communist regime in Albania, and not allowed to write anymore. She died in poverty and complete isolation.
Mehdi bey Frashëri was an Albanian intellectual and politician. He served as Prime Minister of Albania in the 1930s and as Chairman of the Provisional Administration Committee in the Albanian puppet government under Nazi Germany.
The Congress of Manastir was an academic conference held in the city of Manastir from November 14 to 22, 1908, with the goal of standardizing the Albanian alphabet. November 22 is now a commemorative day in Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia, as well as among the Albanian diaspora, known as Alphabet Day. Prior to the Congress, the Albanian language was represented by a combination of six or more distinct alphabets, plus a number of sub-variants.
Urani Rumbo was an Albanian feminist, teacher, and playwright. She founded various associations promoting Albanian women's rights, the most important of which was the Lidhja e Gruas, one of the first prominent feminist organizations of Albania.
Parashqevi Qiriazi was an Albanian teacher of the Qiriazi family who dedicated her life to the Albanian alphabet and to the instruction of written Albanian language. She was a woman participant at the Congress of Manastir, which decided the form of the Albanian alphabet, and the founder of the Yll' i Mengjesit, a women's association. Parashqevi was also a participant in the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 as a member of the Albanian-American community. She was the sister of Sevasti Qiriazi, who was the director of the first Albanian School for girls in Korça, opened in 1891.
Gjerasim Qiriazi was an Albanian Protestant preacher, Bible translator and distributor, educator, and activist of the Albanian National Awakening. In the early 1890s he founded the Albanian Evangelical Protestant community and the first Albanian school for girls in Korçë, Albania, then part of the Ottoman Empire.
Gjergj Qiriazi was an Albanian patriot, author, educator, translator, Protestant Bible distributor, organizer of the First Congress of Monastir (1908), and activist of the Albanian National Awakening.
Kristo Dako (1880–1941), son of Anastas Dako, was an Albanian patriot, author and educator of the early 20th century.
Athanas Sina, also known as Thanas Sina, was an Albanian journalist, teacher and activist of the Albanian National Awakening. Sina was the second headmaster of the Mësonjëtorja, the first officially recognized Albanian-language school in the Ottoman Empire. He was also member of the Bashkimi organization, whose alphabet proposal in the Congress of Monastir would become the official alphabet of Albania.
Bernardin Palaj was an Albanian Franciscan friar, folklorist and poet.
Sevasti Qiriazi-Dako was an Albanian patriot, educator, Protestant missionary, author, pioneer of Albanian female education, and activist of the Albanian National Awakening.
Skënder Petro Luarasi was an Albanian scholar, writer and anti-fascist activist.
Kristo Floqi was an Albanian patriot, playwright, politician, and lawyer.
The "Honour of the Nation" Decoration is the highest decoration to be given in Albania, among the Civil awards and decorations of Albania, and was instituted by special law No. 8113, of 28 March 1996, entitled Për dekoratat në Republikën e Shqipërisë, later amended by law No. 112/2013 Për dekoratat, titujt e nderit, medaljet dhe titujt vendorë të nderit në Republikën e Shqipërisë.
The Congress of Elbasan, also known among Albanians as the Congress of the Albanian schools, was held from 2 to 8 September 1909 in Elbasan, today's Albania, back then part of the Vilayet of Monastir of the Ottoman Empire. The congress, sponsored by the local Bashkimi literary club, was attended by 35 delegates from central and southern Albania.
Gjergj Pekmezi was an Albanian linguist, philosopher, folklorist and diplomat. In 1916, he became a member of the Literary Commission of Shkodër, which established the first standard form of the Albanian language.
Naum Dhimitër Naçi (1871–1927), also known as Nuçi Naçi, was an Albanian teacher and patriot. He was the brother of Leonidha Naçi. With his intellectual and political activities, he played an important role during the late period of the Albanian National Awakening that sought independence from the Ottoman Empire and the creation of an Albanian national state. He wrote some books that discussed contemporary issues of education among Albanian communities in the Ottoman Empire, headed a Yanina-based patriotic newspaper named Zgjimi i Shqiperise, and participated in several nationalist groups. His 1901 Korça dhe fshatrat perreth saje was published in Sofia, where other major works in the development of Albanian nationalism and Albanian literature were concurrently published, including Naim Frasheri's Historia e Shqiperise and Deshira e vertete e Shqiptareve, Gjerasim Qiriazi's Hristomathi, and Sami Frasheri's Besa and Tosk primer. Naçi served for some time as the director and teacher of Mësonjëtorja, the first secular school in the Albanian language within Ottoman Albania that was opened in Korçë. At first he managed to get support from the local Ottoman governor general based in Monastir. However, in 1902 Naçi was arrested and incarcerated in Salonica by Mehmed Ali Pasha Delvina, the new Ottoman governor of Korçë.
Parashqevi Qiriazi was a member of the delegation the organization sent to Paris
