Written by Petrit Latifi.

Hafez Ali Korça (Korça, 5 April 1873 – Kavajë, 7 January 1957) was a hoxha, hafiz, hatip, publicist and translator of masterpieces of oriental religious and artistic literature. With his work Bolshevism a çkatrim i çeşmeşnimit he was marked as the first Albanian denouncer of communism.

Biography

He was born in Korça, the son of Iljaz efendi Kadiu, and came from a family that had been religious scholars for generations. He received his primary and secondary education in his hometown, at the iptidaije and idadiye schools. He completed his higher studies at the “Çifte Minareli” madrasa in Istanbul. He entered the national movement in 1889, when he began teaching free of charge at the Albanian boys’ school in Korça and a year later at the idadiye of Korça.

During the debate pushed by several circles in Istanbul about the type of alphabet for the Albanian language, Hafëz Aliu supported the Latin alphabet. He gave the main speech at the Congress of Dibra. He supported the Congress of Elbasan, September 2, 1909, which laid the foundations of national education.

In 1916, in the government of Esad Pasha Toptani, by Minister Shahin Bey Dino Hafëz Aliu was appointed Director of Education for Tirana, Durrës, Elbasan, Dibra, Mati and Pogradec. He was a member of the Literary Commission of Shkodra, where in 1916 he became the chief mufti in the High Council of Sharia. He moved to Tirana in 1918 to the High Council of Sharia.

He was a co-founder and teacher at the Tirana Madrasah, where he undertook curriculum reforms and designed textbooks for students to facilitate their studies in higher education institutions abroad. After the publication of his work The Seven Dreams of Albania, which caused his dismissal from his job.

Works

From his knowledge of traditional Eastern languages, he translated religious and literary masterpieces such as “Mevludi” in 1900, “303 Words of Imam Ali” published in Korça in 1910, Saadi’s Gjylistani and Bostani in 1918 and the Rubaiyat of Khayyam in 1930 from Persian. There was a wide debate with Noli about the translation of Khayyam’s work, who had translated it from an English version. Hafez Ali argued how much of the original was lost in Noli’s translation and how much the absence of Sufism in his version contributed to this alienation.

In 1925, he wrote Bolshevism a çkatrim i çënçeminim, marking himself as the first Albanian denouncer of communist ideology.
Honors. On February 15, 2017, the President of the Republic Bujar Nishani posthumously awarded him the “Honor of the Nation” decoration with the motivation:

“For his important and selfless role and contribution to the benefit of the national cause: as a martyr of the Albanian nation and culture, as a distinguished patriotic cleric and ardent activist for the liberation of the country from foreign rule, as a unique intellectual figure, becoming one of the most brilliant scholars of Islamic philosophy in Albania”.

Titles of works and translations

Mevlud. By Hafez Ali Hatib of Korça. (Korça 1909 [1325 A.H.]) 16 ff.
Primer by Hafez Ali Hatib of Korça. (Korça 1910 [1326 A.H.]) 26 ff.
The Three Hundred and Three Words of Imam Ali by Hafez Ali, Hatib of Korça. (Korça 1910 [1326 A.H.]) 20 ff.

Death

On January 7, 1957, Hafez Ali Korça, passed away in Kavajë. With his work ‘Bolshevism a çkatrim i mënëzimit’, he was marked as the first Albanian denouncer of communism. He was born in Korça, where he received his primary and secondary education.

In the photo, some of the members of the Devoll Brigade under the leadership of Hafëz Ali Korçës, who is holding a poster that reads ‘Albania or Death’.

References

^ Th. Çollaku, Calendar of the Albanian World, Tirana: Omsca-1, 2010. ISBN 978-99943-41-71-9
^ a b Robert Elsie (1995), History of Albanian Literature, translated by Abdurrahman Muftiu, Tirana & Peja: Dukagjini, 1997.
^ S. Bega, Hafiz Ali Korça, a reflection of patriotism for the new generation, Tirana: “Islamic Culture”, 1941 No. 3-4, pp. 102-107.
^ I. D. Hoxha, Hafiz Ali Korça – His activity in the field of Albanian patriotism and education-culture, orientalizmi.wordpress.com, 5 February 2014. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
^ M. Yvejsi, Hafiz Ali Korça 1873-1956, sa-kra.ch, retrieved 10 February 2018.
^ H. Matoshi, Atdheu në poezinë e Hafiz Ali Korçës, Prishtina: Buletini, 2012. pp. 249-253.
^ Hafiz Ali Korça – Documentary 2017, by the Muslim Community of Albania
^ Balaban, Adem; Çağlayan, Bünyamin; Ombashi, Rahim (2015). “An Approach to Study of Tasavvuf in Albanian Literature: From Conception to the Tasavvuf Attendance”. European Journal of Language and Literature Studies (in English). 3 (1): 120. ISSN 2411-4103.
^ I. Ahmedi, Hafiz Ali Korça: life and works, Skopje: Logos-A, 2006. ISBN 978-9989-58-239-4
^ President Nishani awards Hafiz Ali Korça (posthumously) with the “Honor of the Nation” Decoration[dead link], 15 February 2017.