12 Facts About Naum Veqilharxhi

Naum Veqilharxhi avoided the use of Latin, Greek or Arabic alphabets and characters because of their religious associations and the possibility of causing divisions among Albanians of different religions.

In 1845 Naum Veqilharxhi sent a polemic open letter written in the Greek language to his nephew, who had called his patriotic ideas chimera: the letter is considered to be one of the first written documents to record the main ideas of the Albanian National Awakening movement.

Naum Veqilharxhi's death is thought to have been from poisoning by orders from the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

Outside of his native land Naum Veqilharxhi in Wallachia was a figure that thrived within the security of the Albanian diaspora where both worlds became linked together, a dynamic that led thereafter to the development of Albanianism by other Albanians.

Naum Veqilharxhi lamented the "backwardness" of his homeland and attributed it to centuries of Ottoman rule, and argued that a new unifying Albanian alphabet was necessary to overcome the stagnation and unify the country.

Naum Veqilharxhi was concerned by the lack of Albanian schools, and saw the development of written Albanian as a necessary precursor to cultural and political development.

Naum Veqilharxhi felt that education in one's mother tongue was important toward acquiring knowledge and "culture".

Naum Veqilharxhi is considered to be the first written ideologue of Albanian nationalism and the first to formulate its ideals, as well as the first enlightener of the Albanian National Awakening.

Naum Veqilharxhi conceived of Albania as a nation with its own language, customs and history, and its own territory.

Naum Veqilharxhi helped Albanian nationalism take its ultimate course of using language, rather than religion as other Balkan nationalisms did, as its primary unifier.

The books by Naum Veqilharxhi were lithographed in Bucharest by George Venrich, as was recently discovered.

The script by Naum Veqilharxhi, is known as Vithkuqi script, because of the place of birth of its author.