MIT’HAT FRASHËRI, GJERGJ FISHTA DHE NDRE MJEDA: ARKITEKTË TË KONGRESIT TË MANASTIRIT MIT’HAT FRASHËRI, GJERGJ FISHTA AND NDRE MJEDA: ARCHITECTS OF THE CONGRESS OF MANASTIR

After the League of Lezhë and the League of Prizren, the Congress of Manastir is undoubtedly the most significant national event, where crucial decisions were made for the future of Albanians. However, unlike the first two events, the Congress of Manastir reveals a broader spectrum of issues related to the diverse national problems addressed by its decisions. In addition to cultural and linguistic resolutions, the Congress also adopted 17 other political and administrative decisions, all of which were interconnected and functioned in harmony. It is important to highlight that, for the first time, Albanians were conceptualizing the realization of their national history of unification and separation from foreign domination through spiritual unity, embodied in the Albanian language with a unified Latin alphabet. Cultural and linguistic unity through the standardization of the alphabet not only created a more natural national spiritual cohesion among Albanian speakers but also served to sever the Albanians from the alphabets of neighboring countries, which openly or covertly pursued assimilationist goals against them. Many scholars, including historians, linguists, literary critics, educators, and political scientists, have examined and analyzed this event from various perspectives, producing complex studies. These studies often explore interrelated issues that influenced one another or focus specifically on a single aspect of the Congress’s decisions. This reflects the fact that the Congress of Manastir was an inclusive national historical product. It tackled a complex array of political, social, cultural, and educational problems, bringing together the most prominent national elite of the time to address these fundamental issues, starting with the unification of the alphabet and expanding decision-making beyond alphabet standardization. The unification of the alphabet became the cultural bedrock where all efforts for national unity converged, aiming to bridge the North-South divide, unite Muslims and Christians, break away from the Ottoman Empire and neighboring countries, and lay the foundations of the Albanian state. This Congress succeeded in addressing the concerns troubling Albanians at the time and brought together patriotic intellectuals and activists, who had been working in isolation on specific issues, to collectively seek solutions. Moreover, the Congress identified the ‘key’ to resolving these challenges, starting with the establishment of a unified and inclusive alphabet, which simultaneously marked a departure from other alphabets and the ill-intentioned countries that promoted them. Keywords: Congress, Manastir, alphabet, unification, Latin, letters