Abedin Dino

Abedin Dino

Abedin bej Dino (born April 5, 1843, Preveza - died May 9, 1906, Istanbul, Ottoman Empire) was a Cham Albanian Patriot, politician, Ideologue, Diplomat, rilindas, and one of the founders of the Albanian League of Prizren, as well its chief representative for Epirus (1878). He was one of the main promoters in the need for the creation of the Autonomous Albanian Vilayet under the Ottoman suzerainty, and later a contributor in the Albanian independence.

He was born in the southern city of Chameria, in Preveza on March 23, 1843 to one of the most notable and noble families of the city, the Dino family. His father Ahmed Dino Bey (1785–1849) was an Albanian military leader and politician. He studied in the Zosimaia School and the University of Paris. In 1876 he became one of the legislators of Kanûn-ı Esâsî, the first constitution of the Ottoman Empire.

in 1878, he was appointed as the chief representative of the League of Prizren for Chameria. Together with Abdyl Frasheri, Vesel Dino and Mehmet Ali Vrioni he established the local League branches of Albanian Committee of Janina and Assembly of Preveza From June 10, 1880 to April 1881, he was briefly the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ottoman Empire, by having this task he was successful to prevent and did much pressure against the annexation of the Albanian territories to both Greece and Montenegro. He became a wāli (governor) of Aden and from 1904 Vizier (minister) in Avlonyalı Mehmed Ferid Pasha (who was of Albanian origin, too) government.

Abedin Bej Dino was also an evaluated poet, publisher, writer, and translator. He wrote many songs, including the famous one "Këngë për Shqipërin" (alb. "Song for Albania", in 1879), "Të nxiturit e Shqipërisë duke përpjeturë" (1880), "Poema e Shenjtë" (Poema of Saint, 1884), "Poetry" (1888). He translated on Albanian language poems of a 13th-century Persian poet, and Sufi mystic Rumi.

His son, Rasih Dino was a co-founder of the first Albanian school in the city of Preveza and in 1913 he was the head of the delegation of Albania that signed the Treaty of London that recognized Albania an independent state.