Shahin Frashëri was an

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

bejtexhi of the 19th century. His ''Mukhtarnameh'' poem is one of the longest and earliest epics in Albanian literature.

Life and work

Shahin (Shahinin) Kaso Frashëri was born in Frashër, today's

Përmet District Përmet District ( sq, Rrethi i Përmetit) was one of the 36 districts of Albania, which were dissolved in July 2000 and replaced by 12 newly created counties. It had a population of 25,837 in 2001, and an area of . Its area has an Aromanian mino ...

, back then part of the Janina Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. He was the younger brother of the other poet

Dalip Frashëri use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = Konitsa, Ottoman Empire , death_cause = , nationality = , other_names = Hyxhretiu ...

, and uncle of the Albanian poets and National Awakening activists Naim, Sami, and

Abdyl Frashëri Abdyl Dume bey Frashëri ( tr, Fraşerli Abdül Bey; 1 June 1839 – 23 October 1892) was an Ottoman Albanian civil servant, politician during the First Constitutional Era of the Ottoman Empire, and one of the first Albanian political ideologues ...

.World Bektashi Headquarters Teqeja e Frashërit - Vatër e zjarrtë (in Albanian)

Not much is known on his life. He left his name in the Albanian literature with his poem ''Mukhtarnameh'' (Book of Mukhtar), sq, Myhtarnameja, an epic poem of around 12,000 verses. It describes the events post Battle of Karbala of 680 AD where

Husayn ibn Ali Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, أبو عبد الله الحسين بن علي بن أبي طالب; 10 January 626 – 10 October 680) was a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a son of Ali ibn Abi ...

got killed, an important event in the chronology of

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

. Frashëri describes the rebellion of Mukhtar al-Thaqafi of 66 AH (corresponding to 685-6 AD), and the Alid movement in vengeance for the death of Husayn ibn Ali.
Frashëri finished his work in 1868. He used a

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

version as base or intermediary model, though the original is in Persian. It is one of the latest major Bektashi- Shia work written in

using the

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and the ...

. By that time, the National Awakening had started and Bektashis of Albania switched to the new Albanian scripts. According to the Jordanian professor Muhammad Mufaku al-Arna'ut, who has studied in detail the early Arabic script based Albanian poetry, the ''Mukhtarnameh'' together with the ''Garden of the martyrs'' (Alb: ''Kopshti i te mirevet'') of Frashëri's brother Dalip, established a subgenre of its own within the Albanian poetry. They served as base model for the later work of the Albanian nationalist poet Naim Frashëri named ''Qerbelaja'' (

Karbala Karbala or Kerbala ( ar, كَرْبَلَاء, Karbalāʾ , , also ;) is a city in central Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad, and a few miles east of Lake Milh, also known as Razzaza Lake. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorat ...

), and also for the epic ''Istori' e Skenderbeut'' (History of Scanderbeg), published in Bucharest in 1898. Very short excerpts of ''Muktarnameh'' have been published so far.

References

{{Albanian Literature , state=collapsed 19th-century Albanian poets People from Gjirokastër County Sufi poets Albanian Sufis Bektashi Order People from Janina vilayet Albanian-language poets Shahin

Life and work

See also

References