Ilo Mitkë Qafzezi
Qafëzezi in the 1930s
Born5 November 1889
DiedApril 16, 1964(1964-04-16) (aged 74)
NationalityAlbanian
Occupation(s)Teacher, researcher
Known forConstantine of Berat Codex
Translation of Alipashiad
Manuscripts of Theodore Kavalliotis
Discovery of the Aromanian Missal
Notable workProtopapa Theodhor Nastas Kavalioti, Teacher of the New Academy of Moscopole, 1718-1719
Signature

Ilo Mitkë Qafzezi (November 5, 1889 April 16, 1964) was a prolific Albanian scholar and writer of historical and religious subjects.

Life

Ilo Mitkë Qafzezi was born in 1889 in Korçë, Albania (then Ottoman Empire), to a family of mixed AlbanianAromanian origins. He emigrated to Romania when he was thirteen and then to the United States. In 1924, he returned to Korçë, where he worked as a teacher and later as the school director of the Romanian school of the city, in use mostly by the Aromanian local community.[1] Until World War II, he was known as the foremost Albanian biographer.[2]

An autodidact, Qafzezi was very prolific in his publications in several literary and historical periodicals and bulletins. He also published important historical works on Moscopole, Berat and Vithkuq, and he discovered manuscripts of Theodore Kavalliotis's work, as well as a copy of the first edition of the Εισαγωγική Διδασκαλία ("Introductory instruction") of Daniel Moscopolites, published in Venice in 1794. Later, he discovered manuscripts of Kostandin Berati, as well as the primer of Naum Veqilharxhi, dated 1844. Qafëzezi translated into Albanian the Alipashiad, a poem on Ali Pasha of Tepelena, written originally in Greek, by Haxhi Shehreti.[3] He also discovered an original Aromanian liturgical text from the 18th century known as the Aromanian Missal, which was posteriorly published by the Aromanian linguist Matilda Caragiu Marioțeanu in 1962.[4]

References

  1. Stuart Edward Mann (1955). Albanian literature: an outline of prose, poetry, and drama. B. Quaritch. p. 108.
  2. Joseph Twadell Shipley (1946). Encyclopedia of literature. Philosophical Library. p. 18.
  3. Bitraku, Apostol Ilo Qafëzezi, një thesar ende i pazbuluar i kulturës. "Ilo Qafezezi, një thesar ende i pazbuluar i kulturës". Infoarkiva. Retrieved 21 September 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. Kahl, Thede (2002). "The ethnicity of Aromanians after 1990: the identity of a minority that behaves like a majority". Ethnologia Balkanica. 6: 145–169.
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