Pashko Vasa
Vaso Pasha | |
---|---|
Vilayet of Beirut, Ottoman Empire | |
Other names | Albanus Albano Pashko Vasa Vaso Pashë Shkodrani Wasa Pasha Wassa Efendi[1][2] |
Organization(s) | Central Committee for Defending Albanian Rights, Society for the Publication of Albanian Writings |
Movement | Albanian National Awakening |
Signature | |
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Pashko Vasa (17 September 1825 – 29 June 1892), known as Vaso Pasha or Wassa Pasha (
Biography
Vaso Pasha was born in Shkodër on September 17, 1825.[3] He was a Catholic Albanian who held high positions within the Ottoman Empire.[4][5]
Secretary in the British Consulate
From 1842 to 1847 he worked as a secretary for the
1847-1848: The Italian Year
In 1847, he set off for Italy on the eve of turbulent events that were to take place there and elsewhere in Europe in 1848. There are two letters written by him in Bologna in the summer of 1848 in which he expresses openly republican and anti-clerical views. He later went to Venice where he took part in fighting in Marghera in October 1848, part of a Venetian uprising against the Austrians. After the arrival of Austrian troops, Pashko Vasa was obliged to flee to Ancona where, as an Ottoman citizen, he was expelled to Istanbul.
He published an account of his experience in Italy the following year in Italian-language La mia prigionia, episodio storico dell'assedio di Venezia, Istanbul 1850 (My imprisonment, historical episode from the siege of Venice).[5]
1848-1863: In Istanbul
In Istanbul, after an initial period of poverty and hardship, he obtained a position at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
1863-1864: In Bosnia-Herzegovina
In 1863, thanks to his knowledge of Serbian, he was appointed to serve as a secretary and interpreter to
A few years later he published another now rare work of historical interest, Esquisse historique sur le Monténégro d'après les traditions de l'Albanie, Constantinople 1872 (Historical sketch of Montenegro according to Albanian traditions).
Administrator of Edirne vilayet
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/1879-Ottoman_Court-from-NYL.png/220px-1879-Ottoman_Court-from-NYL.png)
In 1879, Pashko Vasa worked in
Importance to Albania
League of Prizren Organization
Against this hostility and enmity, we [Albanians] found ourselves in defense of the rights of [our] ethnicity-nationality.
— Pashko Vasa, 1880, [8]
Despite his functions on behalf of the Porte, Pashko Vasa never forgot his Albanian homeland. In the autumn of 1877 he became a founding member of the
Creation of the Albanian alphabet
Vasa as a member of the Committee for Defending Albanian Rights was appointed along with
Governor of Lebanon
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/Pashko_Vasa.jpg/220px-Pashko_Vasa.jpg)
In 1978, the centenary of the League of Prizren, his remains were transferred from the Lebanon back to a modest grave in Shkodra.
Literary works
During 1879 The Truth on Albania and Albanians was a book published by Vasa and appeared in French, English, German, Greek and Albanian translations that advocated for the Albanian cause and to inform a European readership about Albanians.
O moj Shqypni (Oh Albania)
"Albanians, you are killing kinfolk,
You're split in a hundred factions,
Some believe in God or Allah,
Say "I'm Turk," or "I am Latin,"
Say "I'm Greek," or "I am Slavic,"
But you're brothers, hapless people!
You have been duped by priests and hodjas
To divide you, keep you wretched....
Who has the heart to let her perish,
Once a heroine, now so weakened!
Well-loved mother, dare we leave her
To fall under foreign boot heels ?...
Wake, Albanian, from your slumber,
Let us, brothers, swear in common
And not look to church or mosque,
The Albanian's faith is Albanianism [to be Albanian]!
Excerpt from O moj Shqypni by Vaso Pasha, 1878.[19]
To make the Albanian language better known and to give other Europeans an opportunity to learn it, he published a Grammaire albanaise à l'usage de ceux qui désirent apprendre cette langue sans l'aide d'un maître,
In 1884, shortly after his appointment as Governor General of the Lebanon, his second wife from Shkodër, Katerina Bonati, died of tuberculosis, as did his surviving daughter Roza in 1887. Bardha de Témal, scènes de la vie albanaise, Paris 1890 (Bardha of Temal, scenes from Albanian life), is a French-language novel which Pashko Vasa published in Paris under the pseudonym of
Though most of Pashko Vasa's publications were in French and Italian, there is one poem, the most influential and perhaps the most popular ever written in Albanian, which has ensured him his deserved place in Albanian literary history, the famous O moj Shqypni e mjera Shqypni (Oh Albania, Poor Albania).[20] Frustrated by Albanian societal divisions, this stirring appeal by Vasa for a national awakening and unity transcending religious and other identities is thought to have been written in the period between 1878, the dramatic year of the League of Prizren, and 1880.[7][20][21] Vasa overall continued to inform European readers on Albanians and Albania through his French publications, as he had done from the time of the Unionist Societies.[15]
Published works
- Rose e spine (1873)
- Études Sur L'Albanie Et Les Albanais (Constantinopol, 1879)[1]
- Grammaire albanaise à l'usage de ceux qui désirent apprendre cette langue sans l'aide d'un maître, (London, 1887)
- L'alphabet Latin appliqué à la langue albanaise, (Constantinopol, 1878)
- Bosnie et Hercegovine pendant la mission de Djevdet Effendi, (Constantinopol, 1865)
- La vérité sur l'Albanie et les Albanais, (Paris, 1879)
- Esquisse historique sur le Monténégro d'après les traditions de l'Albanie, (Constantinopol, 1872)
- O moj Shqypni (1880)
- Barda de Témal, (Paris, 1890)
See also
- Albanian literature
- Rilindja Kombëtare
- O moj Shqypni on YouTube(Albanian)
References
- ^ a b Effendi WASSA (1879). Études Sur L'Albanie Et Les Albanais (in French).
- ^ Efendi, Wassa. "Études Sur L'Albanie Et Les Albanais". www.abebooks.fr.
- ^ "190 vjet Pashko Vasa, Labirinthete jetës së një patrioti të madh - Shqiptarja.com". shqiptarja.com (in Albanian). Retrieved 2020-07-09.
- ^ Skendi 1967, p. 57.
- ^ a b c d e Gawrych 2006, p. 57.
- ISBN 963-7326-60-X,
Italian, French, English, Serbian, Arabic and, of course, Turkish
- ^ ISBN 978-1-78076-431-3.
- ^ Gawrych 2006, p. 38.
- ^ a b Gawrych 2006, p. 44.
- ^ a b Skendi 1967, pp. 90–91, 170.
- ^ Gawrych 2006, pp. 47–48.
- ^ a b Gawrych 2006, p. 59.
- ^ Skendi 1967, p. 139.
- ISSN 1364-5137.
- ^ a b c d e f g Gawrych 2006, pp. 85–86.
- ^ Akarlı, Engin (1993). The Long Peace: Ottoman Lebanon 1861-1920. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 51–52.
- ^ Akarlı, Engin (1993). The Long Peace. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. Chapter 7, footnote 1.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Gawrych 2006, pp. 57–59.
- ISBN 9783643108500.
- ^ ISBN 9781400847761.
- ISBN 9781845112875.
External links
Media related to Pashko Vasa at Wikimedia Commons
- Robert Elsie, Pashko Vasa
- Pashko Vasa's works: text, concordances and frequency list (Albanian and English)