Sulejman Naibi (Ramazani) was an
Albanian early period poet of the
bejtexhinj era.
Life
Not much is known from his life. He was a contemporary and arguably less-important to the other ''bejtexhi''
Nezim Frakulla. Naibi was born in
Berat
Berat (; sq-definite, Berati) is the ninth most populous city of Albania and the seat of Berat County and Berat Municipality. By air, it is north of Gjirokastër, west of Korçë, south of Tirana, and east of Fier.
Berat is located i ...
,
Sanjak of Berat
The Sanjak of Avlona ( tr, Avlonya Sancağı, al, Sanxhaku i Vlorës; sometimes referred to as the Sanjak of Berat because of its county town) was one of the sanjaks of the Ottoman Empire which county town was Berat in Albania. It was establis ...
, and part of the
Janina Vilayet of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
. Naibi lived most of his life in Berat and died there in 1771
or 1772.
He was a
bektashi
The Bektashi Order; sq, Tarikati Bektashi; tr, Bektaşi or Bektashism is an Islamic Sufi mystic movement originating in the 13th-century. It is named after the Anatolian saint Haji Bektash Wali (d. 1271). The community is currently led by ...
.
Poetry
Some of his works were written in
Elbasan
Elbasan ( ; sq-definite, Elbasani ) is the fourth most populous city of Albania and seat of Elbasan County and Elbasan Municipality. It lies to the north of the river Shkumbin between the Skanderbeg Mountains and the Myzeqe Plain in central ...
, presumably he was married there.
Naibi's
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
is purer and with less loaned
Oriental
The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of '' Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the ...
words. His verse is influenced a lot from the
Arabic tradition. He probably lived in
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
or
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...
for some time.
Sulejman Naibi is the author of a
diwan of poetry in Albanian, a manuscript of which survived in
Fier
Fier (; sq-definite, Fieri) is the seventh most populous city of the Republic of Albania and seat of Fier County and Fier Municipality. It is situated on the bank of Gjanica River in the Myzeqe Plain between the Seman in the north, the Vjo ...
until 1944, but was then unfortunately lost. Only a few of his poems have surfaced in other manuscripts or have survived orally in central Albanian folk songs, such as ''Mahmudeja e stolisurë'' (Mahmude, Well-Adorned One), which the Albanian critic Koço Bihiku calls "the Dandy burning with Love". Among the little of this eight and twelve-syllable verse which has been published, we find delicate lyrics of a certain metrical precision. Naibi is the first Muslim poet to devote verse to the beauty of women, most other poetry in the Oriental tradition being composed by men to the beauty of young men.
See also
*
Nezim Frakulla
*
Hasan Zyko Kamberi
*
Ottoman Albania
Albania under the Ottoman Empire refers to a period in Albanian history from the Ottoman conquest in the late 15th century to the Albanian declaration of Independence and official secession from the Ottoman Empire in 1912. The Ottomans first e ...
References
{{Albanian Literature
People from Berat
Albanian-language poets
Albanian Sufis
18th-century Albanian people
18th-century Albanian poets
People from Janina vilayet
1772 deaths
Bektashi Order