Gjergj Fishta
| Gjergj Fishta | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Gjergj Fishta September 23, 1871 Fishtë, Dajç, Lezhë, modern Albania, then Ottoman Empire |
| Died | December 30, 1940 (aged 69) Shkodër, Albania |
| Resting place | Shkodër, Albania |
| Nationality | Albanian |
| Education | Catholic Theology |
| Occupation | Poet, writer, priest, translator, member of the Albanian parliament |
Gjergj Fishta (October 23, 1871 – December 30, 1940) was an Albanian Franciscan, poet, rilindas, and a translator. Notably he was the chairman of the commission of the Congress of Monastir, which sanctioned the Albanian alphabet. In 1921 he became the Vice President of the Albanian parliament, and in 1937 he completed and published his epic masterpiece Lahuta e Malcís, an epic poem written in Gheg dialect of Albanian. It contains 17,000 lines and is considered the "Albanian Iliad".
Born in Fishtë, Dajç (otherwise called Zadrimë), Lezhë, Albania (then Ottoman Empire), Fishta studied philosophy and Catholic theology in Bosnia (seminaries in Kraljeva Sutjeska, Livno, Kreševo), among Bosnian Croats. In 1902, he became the head of the Franciscan gymnasium in Shkodër (Collegium Illyricum). Fishta was under influence of Croatian Franciscan monks as a student in monasteries in Austria-Hungary, when he wrote his main work Lahuta e Malcís, influenced by the national epics of the Croatian and Serbian literature according to Robert Elsie. Elsie further hypothesized that in Lahuta e Malcís, he substituted the struggle against the Turks with struggle against the Slavs, propagating Anti-Slavic feelings. After the World War II the authorities in Yugoslavia and Albanian historiography controlled by communist regime in Tirana (influenced by Yugoslav communists) proscribed Fishta's works as anti-Slavic propaganda. In Soviet historiography he was referred to as "former agent of Austro-Hungarian imperialism" who took position against Slavic people and Pan-Slavism because they opposed "rapacious plans of Austro-Hungarian imperialism in Albania" and had a role in Catholic Clergy's preparation "for Italian aggression against Albania".
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