Koto Hoxhi

Konstandin Hoxhi, known as Koto Hoxhi (1824–1895) was an advocate of the Albanian language.^[1] He taught the language secretly to his students in Qestorat in Southern Albania. He was imprisoned and died in prison for his beliefs.

Biography

Koto Hoxhi was born in

Hoxhi was a teacher in the Greek seminary school in Qestorat^[3] which conducted all its lessons in Greek. In 1874, Hoxhi was responsible for writing one of the first plays performed in Albanian. The play was called A Wedding in Lunxhëria and it was performed in Gjirokastër.^[4]

He secretly started to teach his students at Qestorat written Albanian and later requested from the Ottoman governor of Ioannina permission to set up an Albanian school.^[3] For these activities Koto Hoxhi came into trouble with the Greek consulate of Ioannina and was excommunicated by the bishop of Gjirokastër of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.^[5][3] He was arrested and first imprisoned for this in the jail of Gjirokastër. Eventually he was transferred to the Yedikule prison in Istanbul where he died in 1895.^{[citation needed]}

Whilst Hoxhi was a prisoner in Istanbul he was visited by

Two of his students, Pandeli Sotiri and Petro Nini Luarasi, would notably continue his work.^{[citation needed]}

Urani Rumbo founded a primary school for girls in his name in Gjirokastër in 1920.^[7]

Works

• A Wedding in
  Lunxhëri
  , play, 1874

References