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 Albanian literature stretches back to the Middle Ages and comprises those literary texts and works written in Albanian language, Albanian. It may also refer to literature written by Albanians in Albania, Kosovo and the Albanian diaspora particul ...

Life and work

Shahin (Shahinin) Kaso Frashëri was born in Frashër, today's Përmet District, back then part of the

Janina Vilayet The Vilayet of Janina, Yanya or Ioannina () was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire, established in 1867. In the late 19th century, it reportedly had an area of .

of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. 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 Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ne ...

, and

Abdyl Frashëri Abdyl Dume bey Frashëri (, or ''Abdullah Hüsni''; 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), , an epic poem of around 12,000 verses. It describes the events post

Battle of Karbala The Battle of Karbala () was fought on 10 October 680 (10 Muharram in the year 61 Hijri year, AH of the Islamic calendar) between the army of the second Umayyad Caliphate, Umayyad caliph Yazid I () and a small army led by Husayn ibn Ali, th ...

of 680 AD where

Husayn ibn Ali Husayn ibn Ali (; 11 January 626 – 10 October 680 Common Era, CE) was a social, political and religious leader in early medieval Arabia. The grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and an Alids, Alid (the son of Ali ibn Abu Talib ibn Abd a ...

got killed, an important event in the chronology of

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

. Frashëri describes the rebellion of

Mukhtar al-Thaqafi Al-Mukhtar ibn Abi Ubayd al-Thaqafi (; – 3 April 687) was a pro- Alid revolutionary based in Kufa, who led a rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate in 685 and ruled over most of Iraq for eighteen months during the Second Fitna. Born in Ta ...

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 version as base or intermediary model, though the original is in

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

. It is one of the latest major

Bektashi Bektashism (, ) is a tariqa, Sufi order of Islam that evolved in 13th-century western Anatolia and became widespread in the Ottoman Empire. It is named after the wali, ''walī'' "saint" Haji Bektash Veli, with adherents called Bektashis. The ...

Shia Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...

work written in

using the

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic (Arabic alphabet) and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script), the second-most widel ...

. 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 Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

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 is a major city in central Iraq. It is the capital of Karbala Governorate. With an estimated population of 691,100 people in 2024, Karbala is the second largest city in central Iraq, after Baghdad. The city is located about southwest ...

), and also for the epic ''Istori' e Skenderbeut'' (History of

Scanderbeg Gjergj Kastrioti (17 January 1468), commonly known as Skanderbeg, was an Albanians, Albanian Albanian nobility, feudal lord and military commander who led Skanderbeg's rebellion, a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in what is today Albania, ...

), published in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

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 Bejtexhinj

Life and work

See also

References