Zef SEREMBE
Biography Poetry Zef SEREMBE Italo-Albanian lyric poet Giuseppe Serembe (1844-1901), known in Albanian as Zef Serembe, was a restless soul destined to bear the heavy burden of human suffering. The atmosphere of despair and tragedy that haunted him throughout his life surfaces time and time again in his verse. Serembe was born on […]
Sulejman NAIBI
Biography Poetry Sulejman NAIBI Sulejman Naibi, also known as Sulejman Ramazani, was a gifted Albanian poet of the Muslim tradition, a contemporary of Nezim Frakulla. He was born in Berat where he lived most of his life and died in 1771 [1185 A.H.]. Little else is known of him except that he got […]
MESIHI of Prishtina
Biography Poetry MESIHI of Prishtina Mesihi of Prishtina (ca. 1470-1512), known in Turkish as Pristineli Mesihi, was one of the most original among the early Ottoman poets. He stemmed from Prishtina and, although we do not know for certain whether he was an Albanian or a Turk, we assume he must have lived in […]
Lekë MATRËNGA
Biography Poetry Lekë MATRËNGA Lekë Matrënga (1567-1619), known in Italian as Luca Matranga, was an Orthodox cleric of the Italo-Albanian community of Sicily. He was also the author of the second major work of early Albanian literature entitled E mbsuame e krështerë, Rome 1592 (Christian Doctrine), which is a twenty-eight page catechism translated from the Latin. […]
Hasan Zyko KAMBERI
Biography Poetry Hasan Zyko KAMBERI Hasan Zyko Kamberi was born in the second half of the eighteenth century in Starja, a southern Albanian village near Kolonja at the foot of Mount Grammos. Of his life we know only that he took part in the Turkish-Austrian Battle of Smederevo on the Danube east of Belgrade […]
GREGORY of Durrës— Elbasan Gospel Manuscript (1761)
GREGORY OF DURRËS Gregory of Durrës (Gk. Grêgorios ho Dyrrakhíu), also known as Gregory of Voskopoja, was an Orthodox cleric who was appointed Archbishop of Durrës in 1768 and who died some time before May 1772. He is known to have made Bible translations in an alphabet he invented himself, and most historical and linguistic […]
Nezim FRAKULLA
Biography Poetry Nezim FRAKULLA Nezim Frakulla (ca. 1680-1760), alternatively known as Nezim Berati or Ibrahim Nezimi, was the first major poet among the Bejtexhinj, popular poets in the Muslim tradition who wrote in Albanian but used Arabic script. He was born in the village of Frakull near Fier and lived a good deal of his life in Berat, […]
Yahya DUKAGJINI
Biography Poetry Yahya bey DUKAGJINI Yahya bey Dukagjini (ca. 1498-ca. 1582) was a sixteenth-century poet of Albanian origin who wrote in Turkish. He is known in Turkish as Dukagin-zâde Yahyâ bey or Taslicali Yahyâ bey, i.e. Yahya Bey of Dukagjini or Yahya Bey of Tashlidja (Pljevlja) A scion of the Dukagjini tribe inhabiting the […]
Nicola CHETTA
Biography Poetry Nicola CHETTA Italo-Albanian writer and poet Nicola Chetta (1740?-1803), Alb. Nikollë Keta, was born in Contessa Entellina (Alb. Kundisa), the oldest Albanian settlement in Sicily, founded between 1450 and 1467. He was educated at the Greek seminary in Palermo. In 1777, Chetta himself became rector of the seminary himself. As a poet, he wrote […]
Gjon BUZUKU
Biography Prose Gjon BUZUKU Gjon Buzuku, a northern Albanian Catholic cleric, who probably lived in or around Venice, was the author of the first book written and published in Albanian, a 188-page translation of the Catholic missal. Since the frontispiece and the first sixteen pages of the only copy of the book we possess, […]