This anthology comes as a snippet of Albanian cultural heritage, which conveys interesting facts about Chameria from its golden pen, poems such as Muhamet Cham, Hasan Tahsini, Muhamet Margrelci, Haxhi Murat Cham, Yasin Alushi, Hasan Pilavi, Hajri Muderrizi etc …
The book contains the most prominent poems of this region, which the author has collected in archives, preserved in manuscripts and in popular memory. Cham poets sing about the beauties of nature, about the homeland, about love and faith, about the grace of the daughters and the bravery of the boys. In some of the poems the morality, honor, faith and virtues of the Albanians are exalted, while in others the philosophical, religious and scientific thought is treated.
Muhamet Cham
The first poet in Cham, who embroidered Albanian on paper, in an alphabet of his own made from letters borrowed from Arabic, Ottoman and Persian. He was the first to attempt to create a secular-artistic literature, possibly to break the ice of conservatism of original literature. To date, 16 works of Muhammad Cham have been found, preserved in manuscript, but also reproduced and improved by various authors.
He preferred the Turkish writer Muhamet Bergjeviu, in whose works he received the first inspiration for writing poems that would remain in the pantheon of Albanian literature. He chose verse as the most accessible means of mass for the people who did not know how to read and write. Because he also practiced the hoja function free of charge in mosques and madrasas, Muhamet Cham used to sing his poems during classes in madrasahs, but also during the prayers in mosques.
The 2432 verse poem “Yusuf and Zulayyah” is the masterpiece of Muhammad Cham, based on the events of ancient times, also mentioned in the Qur’an. But he enriched them with additional events, heightening sensations, hurts, anxieties, excitement, and other spiritual excitement that make the reader eagerly wait, verse after verse. This poem has been edited by authors such as Sami Frashëri, Anton Zako Cajupi or Hafiz Ali Korça. It is written with great skill and profound psychological analysis, though not as dramatic as the poem “Erveheja”.
Poem with 856 verses “Erveheja”. The bread for cooking this poem was taken from the Ottoman prose book “Revza” by Ebi-l Kasem Behliu. The narratives described in this book Cham multiplied and compressed, giving the appearance of a complete and genuine Albanian work, in accordance with the Albanian worldview. Since the language used was difficult to understand, Jani Vreto undertook the replacement of Arabic, Ottoman and Persian words with Albanian words, and added 32 verses to the poem. The improved work was published in Bucharest, with 904 verses, in 1888. This work was subsequently borrowed, copied, or refined by many other authors, including distortions of the original manuscript.
The 128-verse poem “Gurbetlites” was written at a time when the author had just returned from Egypt, and bitter impressions still kept his feelings numb. This reflects the suffering and anxiety of expatriates who migrated to and from abroad, based on his personal experience as an immigrant in Cairo for studies.