Dashnor Kaloçi
Memorie.al publishes the unknown story of Professor Mahir Domit, originally from the city of Elbasan, who, after being educated in his hometown at “Normale” school and then at the Lyceum of Korca, in 1937 he pursued his studies in France. at the Faculty of Literature of the University of Grenoble, where he defended his thesis, “Diplome d` Etudes Superjeures” in Literature. His engagement in April 1939 with a group of Albanian students, including Dimiter Shuteriqi, Bilbil Klosi, etc., in demonstrations in front of the Italian consulate against Benito Mussolini’s fascist military aggression against Albania. Mahir’s return to Albania and activism with the Anti-Fascist Movement along with Tomorr Sinani, Dimitri Shuteriqi, Ptolemy Xhuvani, Col Papariston, etc., which led to his arrest in 1943 by the Italian Carabinieri and interned at the Porto Romano camp, from where he was released in 1944 to contribute to the Elbasan District National Liberation Council.
Professor Dom’s contribution after 1945 to the most important educational and scientific projects in Albania, together with other professors, Eqerem Çabej and Kostaq Cipo, as well as his initial engagement in the Institute of Linguistics and Literature, until his founding. Tirana State University, where he was appointed as Professor of the Faculty of History at the Chair of Albanian Language, teaching at all levels of study. As well as the great participation and contribution of Professor Dom in the founding of the Academy of Sciences of Albania, where he studied and left a number of works in the field of linguistic history, being considered one of the last beneficiaries of the constellation of scholars. Albanians, dealing with the history of the Albanian language.
Nearly two decades ago, on September 19, 2000, at the age of 86, one of the prominent scholars of the History of Albanian Linguistics, considered by the late conquerors of Linguistics, Professor Mahir Domi, a member, and founder, passed away. of the Academy of Sciences of Albania. Who was Mahir Domi, where did he study and what is his contribution to the Albanian letters?
From the Elbasan Normal to the Lyceum of Korça?
Mahir Domi was born in 1914 in the city of Elbasan, a middle-class family. His father, Sul Domi, owned a small shop to carry on his business to support his family. Mahir received his first lessons in his hometown of Elbasan, known for its fond traditions with Constantine Christoforidhi, one of the leaders of the Albanian National Renaissance. After finishing six-grade elementary school, or what was then called Plotore School, in 1927-’28, Mahir attended classes at the “Normal” school in Elbasan, which he was unable to complete for health reasons. After that doctors recommended a mountain climate and he dropped out of school in Elbasan to continue in the Lyceum of Korça, which he started in 1929 and continued regularly until 1937. Mahir had matured prematurely and that in elementary school bangs he was eager to read various books and newspapers. At the age of nine, he had subscribed to the press in Tirana, Korça, Gjirokastra, as well as in Boston (“The Sun”), Kostans (“New Albania”), and “Albania” in Brussels and London. Concerning his schooling in the city of Elbasan, in his written memoirs of that time (which are stored in the family archive), Mahir writes, among other things: Elbasan’s “Normalen”, I went to study at the Lyceum of Korca, where I continued regularly until 1937, when I received my Baccalaureate, completed my high school education. During the school year 1935-’36, I stopped attending classes and returned to Elbasan for family and health reasons. All these times I stayed as a boarding student in private and state boarding schools, sometimes as an external student, but always with my family’s money. ” Some of Mahir Dom’s peers who studied with him at the Lyceum of Korca indicate that he was one of the most regular and well-versed students in that school. In particular, his tendencies were for literature where he had in-depth knowledge and often argued with professors who developed the subject. Concerning this, Mahir writes in his memoirs: “The contacts with rich literature such as French literature and acquaintance with progressive works and ideas, developed into a democratic idea, but were closed and focused on the world of books, and from the temperament was not thrown into practical life, these sympathies remained unconstitutional, and the interest in it remained as it were in the moral and theoretical plane, without arriving to be active and associated with any activity. ”
Student at the University of Grenoble
After finishing high school classical Lyceum in the city of Korca in 1937, Mahir was able to obtain a study right from King Zog’s government to further his education at one of the Western universities. This opportunity was also given by the satisfactory economic situation of his family and the desire of his father, Sulé Dom, to educate his son in France, paying himself all the financial obligations for all the school years, which he not many Albanian families at the time we’re able to do so. In this connection, Mahiri writes: “In October 1937, I went with my family money, attended nalta classes in France, and entered the Faculty of Literature at the University of Grenoble. April 7, 1939, he found me there with my fellow Albanian students in that city, such as Dimitër Shuteriqi, Bilbil Klosi, etc., with whom we made protest telegrams and made demonstrations and rallies against the Italian consulate, manifesting our position in different ways to freshen up foreign opinion. The events of April 7 moved me to take a more active interest in political problems and brought me closer to progressive circles. Thus I came into contact with progressive individuals and groups, such as Qamil Çela and Thanas Ziko’s group, and later with that of Sejfulla Maleshova. I also had correspondent contacts with Albanian volunteers in Spain, interned in concentration camps such as Skender Luarasin, Hulusi Spahiu, etc., actively contributing as secretary to the Grenoble and later French student group of the Albanian and French colonies. the anti-fascist organization “The Albanian Federation” that she set up. In the fall of 1939, I graduated from the University with a degree in Classical Literature, and I did not return to Albania in Elbasan. I went on to stay in Grenoble until 1941, preparing you for the Diploma d` Etudes Superjeures exam in Literature. I won this in April 1941, and in June I returned to Albania in Elbasan”.
Interned in Porto-Romano
Returning to Albania in 1941, Mahir relates to anti-fascist resistance groups at the head of which were communist groups. Mahir was mainly associated with the brothers, Gogo and Kozma Nushi, with whom he had a friendship from France where they were in charge of Albanian emigration. In 1942, the Ministry of Education, seeing its high results and the need for teachers (many Albanian teachers were sent to work in Kosovo), appointed him as an external professor (with classes) at “Normalen” of Elbasan. In addition to working as a professor, Mahiri also joined the Anti-Fascist Movement in that city. Concerning this, Mahir Domi writes in his memoirs: “In the fight against fascism, I contributed actively, developing anti-fascist activities and working in different environments and in different ways as appropriate, having contacts with Tomorr Sinan, Ptolemy Giovanni, Dhimiter Shuteric, and later with Col Papariston. In June 1943, I was arrested by the Italian fascist carabinieri and interned at a concentration camp in Porto Romano, near Durres. I stayed in that camp for more than two months in a separate annex, along with some 20-25 other people, among whom were comrades Manol Konomi, Thanas Gjoka and others. Then and during the German occupation, I continued to contribute actively during the last months of 1943. In 1944, I was a member of the clandestine National Liberation Council of Elbasan in 1944, working especially on maintaining on the heels of advice throughout the county. ”
With Juban and Cabejn for education
After the end of the war, Mahir Domi became fully involved in the problems of Albanian education, together with Alexander Xhuvani, Kostaq Cipon, and Eqerem Çabejin, who designed the most important projects in the field of education, mainly linguistics. Related to this, a professor from Kosovo, Rexhep Ismajli, in his study for Professor Mahir Domin, entitled “The engine that set in motion the studies of Albanian linguistics”, writes among other things: Kristaq Cipon, engaged in the most important educational and scientific projects such as Albanian orthography drafting, studies in Albanian from various aspects of teaching the philological and especially grammatical disciplines at the highest levels of education that Albania had then. With the launch of the Institute of Linguistics and History, later the Institute of Linguistics and Literature, we find Mahir Domin with all his commitment there. ” In 1957, when the State University of Tirana was founded, Mahir Domi was appointed professor of the Faculty of History at the Department of Albanian Language, teaching at all levels of study. At the Institute of Language and Literature, in addition to his work as a researcher, Professor Mahiri also performed many other organizational tasks. For many years he has been the head of the Dialectology Sector, Grammar Sector, editor for several years in the SUT Bulletin, Philological Studies, Studia Albanica, and Albanian Dialectology. Also during this time, Mahiri was the director of studies and theses conducted at this Institute and the Faculty of History and Philology, being one of the main participants in important scientific activities such as Albanalogical conferences, Spelling Congress, congress attendance. Balkanology, etc. In the post-1950s Albanological studies Mahir Domi occupies one of the most important places as a scientist of great size.
Researcher of Albanian language history
Professor Mahir Domi besides studies in the field of linguistics has long been involved with the study of the history of the Albanian language. Regarding this, Professor Rexhep Ismajli, among others, writes: “In the field of the study of the history of Albanian linguistics, Professor Mahir Domi has left his mark since the 1960s, when he published the first university textbook on“ Historical Morphology ” of Albanian ”. Until then in the history of Albanology, syntheses were made for various areas of Albanian history, and synthesized texts for the entire history of the Albanian language, by Eqerem Çabej, in 1947 and completed in 1960, i. Selman Riza in Pristina in 1952, in Sarajevo in 1959 by Henrik Baric, in Pristina in 1955, and in Sarajevo in 1959, but not in historical morphology. Mahir Domi published the dispensations on Historical Albanian Morphology, a discipline that then recognized important developments in Tirana, Pristina and elsewhere in the Albanological world. In this area, too, Mahir Domit deserves extensive research and proper philological methods of the Albanian lexicon, prior to the first papers, as well as stimulating discussions on early Albanian history, especially on relations between Albanian and Albanian. Illyrian. Basically Mahir Domi, like all the Albanian Albanology of that time, in all his discussions on that issue tried to argue the hypothesis for the Illyrian origin of the Albanian language. In the history of Literature made by many authors of the ’70s, Mahir Domi is one of the leading compilers of pieces on ancient Albanian literature, he did not deal with that literature only because he was a connoisseur of ancient Albanian and early documents. written, but because there were the basics of the Albanian language ”. Mahir Domi has been a member of the Institute of Science and a founding member of the Academy of Sciences of Albania and a member of many high educational and scientific forums of our country as well as of several international formations, where he has dignified represented Albanian science and culture. He is well known and valued outside Albania in the Albanalogical and Balkan world. For Professor Mahir Domin, all those who have known and worked with him speak with the deepest respect. One of them, Professor Ali Xhiku, recalls: “Professor Mahir Domin was always found in the library researching and ‘missing’ after work. It seemed as if no other “teasing” could detach her. But he would quit his job as soon as someone asked for help. He was not spared and was always available to others. It is no coincidence that he has made the greatest contributions in collaborative work. Distinguished Professor Eqerem Çabej once told Professor Mahir Domin: he is a rare man, he works much more for colleagues and a little for himself. Professor Mahiri was fortunate to live for a relatively long period and devoted his entire life to studies in the field of linguistics, where he has left thousands of pages published. For Albanian linguistics, his loss, though at the age of 86, was a great loss, because as one of his associates put it, “with Professor Mahir Domin, the last concealment of Albanian linguists closes.” In a farewell to the last apartment, which was given to friends by relatives and associates of Professor Mahir, one of his closest friends, Professor Dhimitër Shuteriqi, regarded as the last of the Albanian Renaissance, among others said: “Sweet and the wise Mahir. Easy is the parent land for the sons who dedicated their lives. Our Mahir left a great work, which was highly esteemed in his life, but which will gain more value and beauty in the century that has just dawned”. Memorie.al
