Melsen Kafilaj

This article critically examines both the historical realities and the constructed myths concerning the Jewish presence in Albania. The author argues that, based on available evidence, it is only from the 4th century C.E. onward that one can speak of a significant Jewish presence and the existence of Jewish communities in Albanian territories. The study scrutinizes the frequent misuse of the term “Jewish community” in historical literature, emphasizing the need for precise definitions grounded in Jewish religious law. It also addresses the phenomenon of “biographical Judaization” of notable Albanian figures, challenging claims unsupported by historical documentation. By advocating for a rigorous and fact- based approach to Albanian Jewish history, the article calls for the abandonment of unfounded myths and urges historians to employ a critical and scholarly perspective.

Bien que Hafiz Shirazi et la poésie persane classique aient été connus et étudiés par les intellectuels albanais de l’Empire ottoman, et que des traces de cette influence soient perceptibles dans la poésie du poète national albanais, Naim Frashëri, aucune traduction de ses poèmes en albanais n’est attestée avant les années 1940. Cet article examine précisément cette lacune historique à travers l’analyse de trois poèmes de Hafiz Shirazi : une ode (qasida) et deux ghazals, traduits en albanais par Vexhi Bukharaja et Shaikh Muharrem Mitrovica. Adoptant une approche à la fois descriptive et analytique, l’étude est structurée en deux volets. Le premier propose un bref survol du phénomène « Hafiz » dans la littérature ainsi que de l’influence de la langue et de la littérature persanes classiques depuis le XIXe siècle, en s’attardant notamment sur le contexte du XVe siècle dans l’Empire ottoman et sur les modalités par lesquelles les Albanais ont rencontré et assimilé, souvent brillamment, cette tradition linguistique et culturelle raffinée. Le second volet éclaire les raisons pour lesquelles Bukharaja et Shaikh Mitrovica ont choisi, dans le prestigieux Divan de Hafiz, de traduire précisément les poèmes mentionnés, en proposant une analyse thématique et en présentant les conclusions tirées.

Un fapt important care este adesea uitat sau chiar trecut cu vederea de către cercetători este că fondatorul celei mai vechi Academii Diplomatice din lume, anume Academia Diplomatică a Vaticanului (Pontificia Ecclesiastica Academia), în 1701, este un Papă de origine albaneză, Papa Clement al XI-lea (Albani) Înființarea acestei Academii este un eveniment major nu numai pentru natura sa și rolul jucat în diplomația papală până în zilele noastre, dar arată și viziunea acestei mari personalități. Articolul de față are drept scop să aducă lumină în contextul istoric și în perioada de timp în care a fost creată Academia și, de asemenea, să analizeze și să explice unele dintre motivele succesului sau eșecului său.

The author focuses on the Albanian-Italian Post-Cubist Master, Ibrahim Kodra, and his relationship with Pope Paul VI. He also analyzes and argues that the Second Vatican Council and the "Zeitgeist" influenced the Art of Kodra, prompting him to reflect the powerful messages of this Ecumenical Council through his paintings. He also expounds for the first time to the Albanian Academia and the Albanian Public two unknown facts: 1) one of Kodra's most significant paintings in connection with Vatican II, “Message of Peace” (1964), and 2) a photo of the Post-Cubist Master with Pope Paul VI, both historical and very meaningful for the messages they transmit to us. Last but not least, on this 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Arts of Musei Vaticani, he concentrates on the fact on how the generosity of the World Artists through their donations (amidst them also the specific painting of Kodra) and the vision of Pope Paul VI contributed to transform an Idea to an Incarnated Work and in a Reality after which the whole contemporary world is amazed in our days; The Pavillion of Modern and Contemporary Art of Musei Vaticani.

This paper aims to study the Vatican City-State and the Holy See. It focuses on “soft power,” a concept coined and introduced in the 1990s by Harvard scholar Joseph Nye, and on the tools, mechanisms, or instruments that the Holy See uses to influence various issues in International Relations, whether bilateral or multilateral. For this study, there are used Vatican's websites with a range of official documents, newspapers as: La Stampa, Corriere della Sera, L'Osservatore Romano, America, Monday Vatican, Inside the Vatican, Catholic World Report, Diplomat Magazine, books and also a set of paper- studies by scholars who have researched on this subject, such as: T. Byrnes, J. Troy, J. Haynes, L. Cushley, F. Rooney, B. Cox, D. Philiphot, etc. The conclusions show that the Holy See, being an actor of transnational character exerts soft power not only through the Pope as the head of this institution, but also through Secretary of State, Papal Nuncios, Pontifical Council for Culture, Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and many Catholic organizations of humanitarian, social and peacemaking character such as: Caritas, Diaconia, Jesuit Refugee, Saint Egidio Community, etc.

This academic article focuses on the poetic text of Rreshpja, one of the best contemporary Albanian poets. Given that a hermeneutical analysis is broad and combines in itself a whole set of elements, we will concentrate on two of them: the influence and the correlative aspect. Artistic influence, as it is said by the great poet T.S. Eliot, is inevitable as breathing. Through the process of artistic creation, we are all open to influences. The interpretive nature of this analysis aims to trace and point out precisely these sources of influence and aesthetic correlation in the poetic text of Rreshpja, as they are lived in the coagulation and incarnation of that kind of particular poetry that raises Rreshpja to the pedestal of one of our best contemporary lyrics.

This paper focuses on the Vatican II Council and changing the Catholic Church’s lenses regarding the Jews, an aggiornamento with a huge theological shift led by three different Popes and directly impacted the improvement of relations between both religions. It also deals with a particular historical figure, Pope John Paul II, a great man and a very courageous religious leader who not only took concrete actions to strengthen this relation but also to raise awareness on many sensitive issues of our time in connection with the Jews as Anti-Semitism or Holocaust denial. He asked for forgiveness in the name of the Catholic Church for the bad treatment of the Jews in the Past, paving the way for a better understanding, mutual friendship and brotherhood between both religions in the future. Under his direction, for the first time, another great event with a political impact would happen; the establishment of diplomatic relations and the recognition of the State of Israel by the Holy See 45 years after his foundation.

One of the main specifics of Confucian thought, in addition to practicality, is its institutional dedication. Confucius himself and his disciples have paid special attention to the cultivation of administrative ethics, or, if we speak in contemporary terms, "Public Ethics". Since evil, regardless of the environment in which it operates, is the same everywhere, we think that his universal pedagogy will be a good medicine for curing the gangrenization of Albanian public administration. The aim of this paper is not only to highlight those problems but also to treat them through this ideological worldview. Confucius is concerned about the sense of Justice, and he connects this notion with Ethics and the Public Good. The question is how this ethics-justice relationship will be within institutions, and to what degree of quality will the services received by the individual or political body (the People) from the public administration be. This paper is conceived in 2 parts. The first part offers an introduction to the social-historical context in which this worldview was conceived, and it considers its role and social contribution. While the second part deals with the Confucian concept of public administration in parallel with the Albanian public administration regarding the method of recruitment, organization, functioning, etc, as well as the relevant conclusions.

The scope of this paper is to compare and analyze two different approaches that Gersonides and Crescas have on a very essential topic discussed during the Medieval Times, that on the Immortality of the Soul. Aristotle, after characterizing the mind and its activities, in his philosophical tractate “De Anima”, III.5 introduces an occult and at the same time a new revolutionary phrase: “When mind (Active Intellect - gr. nous poiêtikos) is set free from its present conditions it appears as just what it is and nothing more: this alone is immortal and eternal” (Aristotle 1961:1239).What is this immortal Active Intellect?! This phrase led to the need for interpretation, and since then, many Commentaries have been written about it; Greek Commentaries [Alexander of Aphrodisias, Themistius, Simplicius, John Philoponus] and Arabic ones [Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, Ibn Bajja and Ibn Rushd] (Mashbaum 1981:11).Gersonides, who is a follower of Aristotle and digests the “Great Greek” through the “Commentaries” of Averroes in Hebrew, has a unique perspective on the immortality of the soul. He argues that the soul is not inherently immortal but can achieve immortality through intellectual and moral development, or said technically through the acquired intellect which is, per se, a personal immortality but not in the sense as religion understands it. Crescas, from the other side challenges the Gersonidian view on soul by saying that the “followers of Aristotle” (Maimonides and Gersonides) are wrong twice; 1) First, on the fact that they want to reach God through the Reason which is unattainable and unimaginable and 2) Second, they neglect the core beliefs of Judaism by substituting them with abstract and metaphysical principles and consequently by subjugating Judaism through Philosophy. In Crescas' view, the soul is a spiritual substance with a potential for knowledge that strives for union with the Divine, and this union can be reached only through love for God. This spiritual substance is eternal and immortal, and when it departs from the body, it clings to a higher existence when it experiences a greater love and a blessed union with God.

In this article, I discuss the portrayal of Jews in European art. By offering a brief introduction to this phenomenon, the periods and the technological-artistic inventions that moved it forward, I pose the question of whether or not exists an image of the Albanian Jew in European art. By basing my research on data from the Leo Baeck Institute Archives, the most interesting finding that comes from it is the fact that there is an image of the Albanian Jew created in the first half of the 20th Century by the Jewish-German artist, Herman Struck. This image that I treat for the first time in this article is so far the only image of the Albanian Jew in European Art.

In this research article, I focus on the translation of the world masterpiece "1001 Nights" and the authors who brought it to the Albanian language for the first time. Through it, I trace the versions from Western languages on which they have based these translations, associating them with the respective characteristics, “inherited” from the specific version on which they have relied, an aspect that has not been previously addressed in Albanian academic literature. Alongside Konica and Greblleshi, previously known for their translation of “1001 Nights”, a translator who is revealed and addressed for the first time through this article is the intellectual Dhimitër Falo, shot by the Communist Regime, denied his work during and after the System, while his contribution was buried in oblivion. In closing, in addition to emphasizing the contribution of Konica, Falo, and Greblleshi with the translation of this work into Albanian, giving us an added value for Albanian culture, I also emphasize its fundamental importance in terms of intercultural communication.

This study focuses on the analysis of the unfinished manuscript of the Orientalist Vexhi Buharaja in relation to Islamic and Jewish Philosophical Thought. Its aim is not only to highlight the ideological importance of this manuscript but also to examine, clarify, supplement, highlight and criticize its substantive nature in the light of new academic sources, facts and references. The method used for this paper is the hermeneutic one which deconstructs the text and offers an interpretation of it on the basis of the internal evidence and proofs it contains. For this purpose, a comparative approach between the text itself and new bibliographical sources is more than necessary. The article is conceived in 3 parts. It offers a brief introduction to the author's translation activity from oriental languages ​​and his specific interest in Mysticism and Islamic philosophical thought. This section highlights his translation contribution from Eastern languages ​​such as Persian, Ottoman, Modern Turkish and Arabic, with the arrival in Albanian of masterpieces such as: Firdaus' "Shahnameh", Sa'adi Shirazi' s "Bustan and Gulistan", Naim Frashëri' s "Tahayyülat" & "Fusuli erbea", Hasan Tahsini' s "Psikoloji yâhûd İlm-i Rûh" (Psychology or the Science of the Spirit) but also of polyhedral figures such as Riza Tefik Bylykbashi, Muḥammad Farīd Wajdī, Taha Hussein, etc. The second section proposes a possible hypothesis regarding the time of writing of the manuscript in question. In my judgment, this manuscript was likely written during the period 1940-1944, when Buharaja was working at the editorial office of the Albanian Muslim Community magazine "The Islamic Culture". The form, the writing style, its apologetic nature (most likely forged as a writing in the heat of controversy in the Time Press with the Italian Jesuit Missionaries) but also the youthful vigor and pathos are a clear and supportive indicator of the aforementioned hypothesis. Also, by analyzing the historical context and facts from the Buharaja' s life, the reasons why this manuscript remained unfinished are given. While in the last part, the content of this manuscript is analyzed, which begins with the birth of Islamic Civilization, continues with translation activity and the birth of Islamic Philosophical Thought, culminates with the biographies of its two first thinkers, Al Kindi and Al Farabi, and ends with the great Jewish thinker Moses Maimonides, also part of the Golden Age of Islamic Civilization. The original text of Buharaja, its interpretation and commentary are merged as a single body within this study, the values ​​of the manuscript are judged in relation to the time of writing, while at its conclusion, some recommendations are offered and the relevant conclusions are given.

A differenza dell'approccio olistico di alcuni studiosi che si sono occupati dell'opera di Camaj, questo articolo ha un carattere particolare. Il focus della mia analisi è specificamente sulla natura della poesia prodotta da Camaj e sul suo asse esistenziale. Sono proprio questo asse esistenziale e la poesia contemplativa che introducono l'homo philosophicus di Heidegger in una correlazione ideologica con l'homo poeticus di Camaj, unendo i nostri due Martin in una serie di prospettive. L'articolo è concepito in tre parti. Nella prima parte, verrà affrontata la concezione heideggeriana della poesia e il suo ruolo essenziale di illuminatore del significato dell'Essere (Dasein). La seconda parte riflette sull'asse esistenziale e sulla natura della poesia contemplativa di Camaj. Mentre nell'ultima parte, attraverso l'analisi filosofica di una poesia di Camaj, si intende mostrare che è proprio questo profondo esistenzialismo in essa contenuto e il linguaggio autentico con cui lo esprime, ciò che fa di Camaj nel mondo il veicolare del messaggio universale.

Fan S. Noli is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding personalities of the Albanian culture and has made an extraordinary contribution to it. A first-class savant, with such a culture and erudition, comparable in terms of breadth and depth even with the peers of the European Intellect of his Time. But with all the sun of its brightness, two of the rays of this sun would be the faintest; a) Dramaturgy and b) Politics. This article focuses on Nolian dramaturgy and the only dramatic work published by him, i.e. “The Israelites and the Philistines” (Boston, 1907). By offering a comparative approach between the biblical text and the Nolian dramatic text and seeing it in the light of biblical, rabbinic, historical and philosophical criticism, this paper offers a deconstruction of it and the reasons in my opinion that make it a weak drama, or as Noli himself would put it a "childish" drama.

A central concept in the viewpoint of the scholar Yehuda Bauer is that of “rethinking” the Holocaust and of the actors & factors that brought in the fulfillment of one of the most terrible bloodsheds in world history. Rethinking, as a notion, implies not only reconsidering this period but also rewriting it holistically. A main critique Bauer raises of the other Holocaust scholar, Zygmunt Bauman, is that he treats this phenomenon in a particular manner. In Bauman’s scientific lens, Holocaust is seen as a product of bureaucracy, industrialism and modernity. But is the Holocaust a consequence of a particular cause, or were there many factors that produced it? Can we consider the Holocaust “a closed file” from the scientific viewpoint, or should its history be reconsidered and still be rewritten?! The scope of this paper is to do a comparative study between the mental approach of both authors, to offer a clear explanation of the phenomenon in words and also emphasize some valuable lessons from history, to say “Never Again” to our dehumanization in the future.

Barleti's works have been seen, treated and analyzed in different directions. Despite this serious academic engagement with them, we still think that one aspect has remained untreated: they have not been studied from a philosophical perspective. To our knowledge, in the Albanian academic environment does not exist any specific study to shed light on the influence and incorporation of philosophical ideas inside Barleti’s works. Besides the traces of classic literature, we encounter in Barleti’s works many ideas from Greek and Roman Philosophy but also from thinkers of his time. The scope of this paper is to identify precisely this fact. Through his basic texts “Siege of Scodra”(1504) and “History of Scanderbeg”(1508-10) the purpose of those two philosophical investigations is to offer a clear tablo of philosophical point of views to which Barleti is referring and to note also the ideo-cultural background of this great man, writer and humanist of Scanderbeg’s Era.

Aristotle is a thinker with a wide influence in both Eastern and Western Philosophy. Being an untreated issue in the Albanian academic environment and at this direction a challenge and novelty, this paper aims to offer a comparative approach between the thinkers taken in this study, to highlight the influence of Aristotelian thought in the philosophical system of Avicenna and Maimonides and at the end to expound the essential contribution of each thinker. The paper is structured in three sections: The first section explains the reasons why we have chosen these thinkers and gives a short historical introduction to how manner in which Greek thought was assimilated into the Arabic and Jewish world. In the second section, we trace Aristotle’s influence and offer a comparative analysis of the thinkers and their mental approach in fields of study like Metaphysics, Logic, Ontology, Ethics etc. The last section of this study summarizes the importance of these ideas in Arabic & Jewish cultural contexts and some ending conclusions around them.

Wonder is the first step towards the seeking of Truth. As in Philosophy, it also plays an essential role in mysticism; in this case, in Islamic Mysticism (Sufism). Wonder in Sufism is deeply connected with the beauty of Creation which is in itself the beauty of the Creator. One of the ways to express this sense of Wonder aesthetically and metaphysically is undoubtedly through poetry. Many Sufi Masters, tariqas, mystics and poets have used poetry to express their sense of wonder and to describe their mystical experiences or their Self-Awareness of Divine Love. The scope of this paper is to emphasize and treat the element of wonder as a ladder that climbs you up to this Self-Awareness and to explain the symbolism of Light and its role in the poetry of the Albanian National Poet, Naim Frashëri and the National Poet of Iran, Hafez Shirazi. This paper is divided into three sections. A brief introduction will describe how Bektaşism was created and spread and how Hafiz together with the Persian language and Literature were acquired from Naim and other Albanian Intellectuals under the Ottoman Empire. The first part gives a general account of the sense of wonder in the poetry of both respective poets. The second deals with how this sense of wonder has brought both poets into Divine Self-Awareness, illustrating it with some examples from their poetry and the last section is focused on the symbolism of Light and the different ways that it is used in the poetry of Naim Frashëri and Hafez Shirazi, companied with some concluding remarks.

Averroes is one of the leading thinkers of Islamic philosophy and the Andalusian school. He made a valuable contribution not only with the "Commentaries" he wrote on Aristotle that made him popular and appreciated in the West but also with several other works such as "Fasl al-maqāl", which is also the central object of this paper. In Albania, unfortunately, this work is very little known and this paper has received a lot of attention for this reason as well. Seemingly a minor treatise, not voluminous and "weightless", but it has special importance in terms of form, treatment and message. By analyzing this text, this paper aims to highlight its intrinsic values and provide some thoughts and considerations about it and the historical context in which this work was created. Although he is not the first to seek a reconciliation between philosophy and religion, as Al Kindi and Al Farabi attempted, Averroes deserves the fact that he places a central role on intellect and demonstrative reasoning, as an essential process that leads us to the truth. He expresses this opinion in the Tractate above when he states that the study of philosophy is not merely permissible but obligatory (wajib) and a series of philosophical truths given allegorically are also found in the Qur'an. He intends to reconcile the Aristotelian worldview with the religious one, arguing that even the theses of incompatibility raised by the Ashʿarite theologian Al Ghazali towards them are inconsistent. Keywords: Averroes, Fasl al-maqāl, Al Andalus, Reconsideration, Reconciliation, Rationalism, Ash'arite theology, etc.

Leaving behind of Second Millennium and the coming of the new one has left Albania in a deep mental and cultural crisis. This phenomenon is reflected not only in the progress of mental barbarism and decreasing civic level but also in a low level of the political culture of individuals who represent us. Philosophy as an academic discipline has closed itself inside its corner with a bunch of lectured “Ism-us” and other theoretical approaches, losing in this way its civic and public character. In front of this paralytic situation that risks the future of our country, an emergent issue is offered for treatment; a need for a public philosophy in Albanian society. My paper is divided into two sections; In the first section, I discuss three misconceptions about why Albanians are not “so familiar” with philosophy and stay away from it. In the last part, I focus on the coming out of philosophy from the university castle and its “return” to Agora, in the function of public utility for our society.