Sami Frashëri: the encyclopedist of two cultures

Sami Frashëri was born on 1 June 1850 in Frashër, brother of Abdyl and Naim. He spent most of his life in Istanbul, where he worked in the Ottoman administration and in journalism. He died on 18 June 1904 in Erenköy, Istanbul. Of all the figures of the National Awakening, he was perhaps the most versatile: novelist, playwright, linguist, encyclopedist and political thinker.

A writer of two cultures

In 1873 he published in Ottoman Turkish the novel Taaşşuk-ı Talat ve Fitnat, often wrongly called the first Turkish novel (there are earlier works). In 1874 he wrote the play Besa yahut Ahde Vefa, on the theme of honouring one's given word among Albanians. But his greatest works were encyclopedic: Kâmûsü'l-A'lâm, a six-volume encyclopedia (1889–1898), and Kâmûs-ı Türkî (1899–1900), a dictionary of Turkish still used by scholars.

That is why Sami Frashëri is honoured in two countries. Albanians see him as one of the fathers of the National Awakening; Turkish scholars see him as a forerunner of the reform of Turkish language and literature. Both views have a basis.

The 1879 alphabet

In 1879 Sami drew up an alphabet for Albanian with 36 letters, mostly Latin, on the principle of "one letter for each sound". That year it was adopted by the Society for the Publication of Albanian Writings, which he had co-founded. This was the "Istanbul alphabet", one of the two alphabets accepted at the Congress of Manastir in 1908. The Society was closed by the Ottoman government in 1885. In 1886 Sami published a primer and a grammar of Albanian.

Sami Frashëri did not choose between two cultures. He served both, and in this way he also served Albanian.

"Albania: What It Was, What It Is and What It Will Be"

In 1899 a booklet with this title was published anonymously in Bucharest. It proposed an autonomous Albania, with a parliament, Albanian schools and equality among faiths. Most Albanian scholars attribute it to Sami and consider it one of the manifestos of the National Awakening; some Turkish scholars question his authorship. It is honest to mention this debate.

School and legacy

Sami helped open the Albanian boys' school in Korçë in 1887. His son, Ali Sami Yen, founded the Galatasaray football club. In Albania and Kosovo, secondary schools, streets and institutions bear his name.

How to know him today

Sami Frashëri shows us that identity is not always "either this or that". You can be part of a great culture and at the same time work so that your mother tongue has books, schools and a future.