ALBANIAN CITIES IN SAMI FRASHERI’S ENCYCLOPEDIA “KAMUSU’L-A’LAM”

• Main Author: KUJTİM NURO
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Osmanlı Mirası Araştırmaları Dergisi 2019-07-01
• Series: Journal of Ottoman Legacy Studies
• Subjects: albania cities; sami frasheri; kamusu’l-a’lam
• Online Access: http://www.osmanlimirasi.net/dergi//albanian-cities-in-sami-frasheris-encyclopedia-kamusul-alam-pp-309-315201907f1b662f.pdf

Sami Frasheri, historically known as Şemseddin Sami Bey, is one of the greatest scholars of Albanian and Turkish cultures. Although he lived a short life (1850 - 1904), his extensive works in the fields of linguistics, literature, history, geography, religion and more, have given great contributions not only to the history of two above-mentioned cultures, but also to other cultures and civilizations of the world. Sami Frasheri’s works are written in either Turkish or Albanian and they account to more than 60 works. Among them, there are published and unpublished works such as, studies, novels, dictionaries, dramas, thesaurus, and translations. An important work in his collection is the encyclopedia titled, “Kamus-ul a'lam”. An important section of this encyclopedia is composed of the data that Sami Frasheri wrote about the history and geography of Albanian cities, which were under the Ottoman administration. These cities were separated into four Albanian provinces, an administrative division that was made by the Sublime Porte (Babıali) in the year 1864. According to this division, Albanian cities were placed under the provinces of Ioannina, Kosova, Monastir and Shkodra. In this encyclopedia, Sami Frasheri described into details 68 cities.