Albanian nationalism and Dervish Hima (Ibrahim Naci)

The nationalist movement that emerged with the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century, influenced the whole of Europe in a short time as a result of Napoleon's campaigns. In the same period, the people living in the Balkan geography started to rebel against the local governments due to the deterioration in the administrative mechanism. This situation turned into a national indipendence movement by the Christian Balkan's people at the beginning of the 19th century. While the Greeks, Serbs, Romanians, Montenegrins and Bulgarians from the Balkan peoples, who entered the struggle to establish a nation-state, obtained their independence; among the Albanians, who have a heterogeneous character, the idea of national independence developed at a later date. The predominantly Muslim Albanian people, who played important roles in both the state administration and the military field of the empire for centuries, joined the national movement in the last quarter of the 19th century and declared their independence in 1912 and became the last Balkan nation to leave the Ottoman empire. In the formation of the idea of independence among the Albanians, especially the intelligentsia and citizens living abroad were influential. They organized the people with their broadcasting activities and propaganda activities. In this process, Dervish Hima (Ibrahim Naci), a close friend of Ibrahim Temo, became one of the most important names that helped the development of the Albanian national movement, with his activities and the key role he played in the establishment of the gangs. Dervish Hima, who writes well, initially supported the movement with publications such as articles, statements, newspapers, magazines and brochures. In the following period, he took an active role in the establishment of armed gangs. In this study, the development of the Albanian national movement and the contribution of the Albanian nationalist Dervish Hima to the development process of the national movement has been examined on the basis of archival sources, periodical publications, related research studies and biographical works. As a result of study, the emergence and historical development of the Albanian national movement was revealed in all details, and Dervish Hima's contribution to the process was evaluated based on archival sources. In order to understand Hima's thoughts, some of his articles and works are presented as full text.