Albanian literature stretches back to the Middle Ages and comprises those literary texts and works written in Albanian. It may also refer to literature written by Albanians in Albania, Kosovo and the Albanian diaspora particularly in Italy. Albanian occupies an independent branch within the Indo-European family and does not have any other closely related language. The origin of Albanian is not entirely known, but it may be a successor of the ancient Illyrian language.
The Archbishop of Antivari Guillaume Adam wrote a report in 1332 in which he said that Albanians used Latin letters in their books although their language was quite different from the Latin language.
The oldest surviving documents written in Albanian are the "Formula e pagëzimit" (Baptismal formula) recorded by Pal Engjëlli, Bishop of Durrës in 1462 in the Gheg dialect, and some New Testament verses from that period.
Medieval period
15th century
The expansion of the Ottoman Empire pushed many Albanians from their homeland during the period of the Western European Renaissance humanism. Among the Albanian émigrés that became known in the humanist world are historian Marin Barleti (1460–1513) who in 1510 published in Rome a history of Skanderbeg, which was translated into many other European languages, or Marino Becichemi (1468–1526), Gjon Gazulli (1400–1455), Leonicus Thomeus (1456–1531), Michele Maruli (15th century), Michele Artioti (1480–1556) and many others who were distinguished in various fields of science, art and philosophy.
16th century
The cultural resistance was first of all expressed through the elaboration of Albanian in the area of church sacrifices and publications, mainly of the Catholic confessional region in the North, but also of the Orthodox in the South. The Protestant reforms invigorated hopes for the development of the local language and literary tradition when cleric Gjon Buzuku translated the Catholic liturgy into Albanian, trying to do for Albanian what Luther did for German.
Meshari (The Missal) by Gjon Buzuku, published by him in 1555, is the first literary work published in Albanian.. The refined level of the language and the stabilised orthography must be a result of an earlier tradition of writing Albanian, a tradition that is not known. But there is some fragmented evidence, dating earlier than Buzuku, which indicates that Albanian was written at least since the 14th century AD. The first known evidence dates from 1332 AD and deals with the French Dominican Guillelmus Adae, Archbishop of Antivari, who in a report in Latin writes that Albanians use Latin letters in their books although their language is quite different from Latin. Of special importance in supporting this are: a baptizing formula (Unte paghesont premenit Atit et Birit et spertit senit) of 1462, written in Albanian within a text in Latin by the bishop of Durrës, Pal Engjëlli; a glossary with Albanian words of 1497 by Arnold von Harff, a German who had travelled through Albania, and a 15th-century fragment from the Bible from the Gospel of Matthew, also in Albanian, but in Greek letters.
Albanian writings of these centuries must not have been religious texts only, but historical chronicles too. They are mentioned by the humanist Marin Barleti, who, in his book The Siege of Shkodra (De Obsidione Scodrensi) (1504), confirms that he leafed through such chronicles written in the language of the people (in vernacula lingua). Despite the obstacles generated by the Counter-Reformation which was opposed to the development of national languages in Christian liturgy, this process went on uninterrupted. During the 16th to 17th centuries, the catechism E mbësuame krishterë (Christian Teachings) (1592) by Lekë Matrënga, Doktrina e krishterë (The Christian Doctrine) (1618) and Rituale romanum (1621) by Pjetër Budi, the first writer of original Albanian prose and poetry, an apology for George Castriot (1636) by Frang Bardhi, who also published a dictionary and folklore creations, the theological-philosophical treaty Cuneus Prophetarum (The Band of Prophets) (1685) by Pjetër Bogdani, the most universal personality of Albanian Middle Ages, were published in Albanian.
Bogdani's work is a theological-philosophical treatise that considers with originality, by merging data from various sources, principal issues of theology, a full biblical history and the complicated problems of scholasticism, cosmogony, astronomy, pedagogy, etc. Bogdani brought into Albanian culture the humanist spirit and praised the role of knowledge and culture in the life of man; with his written work in a language of polished style, he marked a turning point in the history of Albanian literature.
Another important writer of the Early Albanian Literature was Jul Variboba.
17th century
During 17th and 18th centuries, the literature of Orthodox and Muslim confessional cultural circles witnessed a greater development. An anonymous writer from Elbasan translated into Albanian a number of sections from the Bible; T. H. Filipi, also from Elbasan, brings the Dhiata e Vjetër dhe e Re (The Old and the New Testament). These efforts multiplied in the following century with the publication in 1827 of the integral text of the Dhiata e Re (The New Testament) by G. Gjirokastriti and with the big corpus of (Christian) religious translations by Kostandin Kristoforidhi (1830–1895), in both main dialects of Albanian, publications which helped in the process of integrating the two dialects into a unified literary language and in setting up the basis for the establishment of the National Church of the Albanians with the liturgy in their own language.
Although in opposite direction with this tendency, the culture of Voskopoja is also to be mentioned, a culture that during the 17th century became a great hearth of civilization and a metropolis of the Balkan peninsula, with an Academy and a printing press and with personalities like T. Kavaljoti, Dh. Haxhiu, G. Voskopojari, whose works of knowledge, philology, theology and philosophy assisted objectively in the writing and recognition of Albanian. Although the literature that evolved in Voskopoja was mainly in Greek, the need to erect obstacles to Islamization made necessary the use of national languages, encouraging the development of national cultures. Walachian and Albanian were also used for the teaching of Greek in the schools of Voskopoja, and books in Walachian were also printed in its printing presses. The works of Voskopoja writers and savants have brought in some elements of the ideas of the European Enlightenment. The most distinguished of them was Teodor Kavaljoti. According to the notes of H.E. Thunman, the work of Kavaljoti, which remained unpublished, in most part deals with issues from almost all branches of philosophy. It shows the influence of Plato, Descartes, Malebranche and Leibniz.
Early Modern period
One of the results of the influence of Islam and particularly Sufi orders, and the culture of the invader, was the emergence of a school of poetry known as the school of the bejtexhinj during the 18th century, or of a literature written in Albanian but by means of an Arabic alphabet. Its authors such as Nezim Frakulla, Sulejman Naibi, Hasan Zyko Kamberi, Shahin and Dalip Frashëri, and others dealt in their works with motifs borrowed from Oriental literature, wrote religious texts and poetry in a language suffocated by orientalisms and developed religious lyric and epic. The poetry of the bejtexhinj was strongly influenced by Turkish, Persian and Arabic literary models in fashion at the time both in Istanbul and the Middle east. Most of the genres and forms prevalent in Turkish and Persian verse are to be encountered in Albanian. There are either as isolated poems or within the divans: the murabba', quatrain; the ilahi, religious hymns; the qaside, the longer panegyric odes favoured by the Arabs; and the ghazal, shorter poems, often love lyrics which were favoured by the Turks and Persians. The subject matter was often religious, either meditatively intimate or openly didactic, serving to spread the faith. The speculative character of much of this verse derived its inspiration from the currents of Islam: from Sunnite spirituality to the intense mystical spheres of Shi'ite Sufism and later, to the more liberal, though equally mystical reflections of Bektashi pantheism. Secular verses occur as well: love lyrics, nature poetry and historical and philosophical verse.
The first major poet among the bejtexhinj was Nezim Frakulla (1680–1760) who wrote his first poetry in Turkish, Persian and Arabic including two divans. Between 1731 and 1735 he composed a divan and various other poetry in Albanian, as well as an Albanian- Turkish dictionary in verse form. His divan include verse ranging from panegyrics on local pashas and military campaigns, to odes on friends and patrons, poems on separation from and longing for his friends and lovers, description of nature in the springtime, religious verse, and in particular, love lyrics.
Another famous bejtexhinj is Hasan Zyko Kamberi who was one of the most commanding representatives of the Muslim tradition in Albanian literature, through his main work, a 200-page (verse collection). Kamberi's secular verse covers a wide range of themes.
19th century
The 19th century, the century of national movements in the Balkans, found Albanians without a sufficient tradition of a unitary development of the state, language and culture but, instead, with an individualistic and regionalist mentality inherited from the supremacy of clan and kinship and consequently with an underdeveloped national conscience, though with a spirit of spontaneous rebellion. In this historical cultural situation emerged and fully developed an organized ideological, military and literary movement, called Rilindja Kombëtare (National Renaissance). It was inspired by the ideas of National Romanticism and Enlightenment, which were cultivated among the circles of Albanian intelligentsia, mainly émigrés in the old settlements in Italy and the more recent ones in Istanbul, Bucharest, United States, Sofia and Cairo.
National Renaissance, nurturing the Albanian as a language of culture, the organization of national education and the establishment of a national literature on the cultural level as well as the creation of the independent state – these were the goals of this movement which gave birth to the school of Albanian Romanticism. It was imbued with the spirit of national liberation, with the nostalgia of the émigré and the rhetorical pathos of past heroic wars. This literary school developed the poetry most. Regarding the motifs and poetical forms, its hero was the ethical man, the fighting Albanian, and to a lesser degree the tragic man. It is closely linked with the folklore tradition.
The pursuit of this tradition and the publications of Rapsodi të një poeme arbëreshe (Rhapsody of an Arbëresh Poem) in 1866 by Jeronim De Rada, of Përmbledhje të këngëve popullore dhe rapsodi të poemave shqiptare (Collection of Albanian Folk Songs and Rhapsodies of Albanian Poems) in 1871 by Zef Jubani, Bleta shqiptare (Albanian Bee) in 1878 by Thimi Mitko, etc., were part of the cultural programme of the National Renaissance for establishing a compact ethnic and cultural identity of Albanians.
Two are the greatest representatives of Albanian Romanticism of 19th century: Jeronim De Rada (1814–1903), and Naim Frashëri (1846–1900), born in Albania, educated at Zosimea of Ioannina, but emigrated and deceased in Istanbul. The first is the Albanian romantic poet brought up in the climate of European Romanticism, the second is the Albanian romanticist and pantheist who merges in his poetry the influence of Eastern poetry, especially Persian, with the spirit of the poetry of Western Romanticism.