Fan Noli

Who is Fan Noli?

Fan Noli was an Albanian bishop, writer, diplomat, and statesman who briefly served as Prime Minister of Albania in 1924. Born in 1882 in the village of İbriktepe in Ottoman Thrace, he emigrated to the United States as a young man, where he became a leading figure among the Albanian diaspora. In 1908 he founded and was ordained as the first bishop of the Albanian Orthodox Church, giving the Albanian language a formal place in Orthodox liturgy for the first time. He earned degrees from Harvard University and later Boston University, and worked as a diplomat lobbying for Albania's recognition and its admission to the League of Nations in 1920. Returning to Albania, he became Prime Minister in June 1924 during what is known as the June Revolution, attempting a program of land and political reform, but his government was overthrown by year's end by forces loyal to Ahmet Zogu, and Noli returned to exile in the United States. He was also a major literary figure, producing acclaimed Albanian translations of Shakespeare, Cervantes, and Omar Khayyam that helped establish literary standards for the Albanian language. He died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1965 and is remembered in Albania as a founder of its modern church, statecraft, and literary translation tradition.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Fan Noli" · Nicholas C. Pano, The People's Republic of Albania · Fan S. Noli, autobiographical writings and Albanian Orthodox Church archives