Colleagues, friends and collaborators joined on Saturday in Struga, at the scientific stand in honor of the now deceased professor and researcher, Mehdi Polisi. He has been described as a great researcher and knowledgeable and modest lecturer. Above all, a great figure of scientific activity, who also gave a voice in Albanian to the works of Sami Frashër
Mehdi Polisi, one of the first orientalists in the country, was remembered on Saturday, on his 70th birthday. His scientific, literary, translation creativity, especially that of Sami Frashëri, was the headline at the tribune held in Struga, organized by the branch in this city of the Association of Albanian Historians in North Macedonia. Polisi - who died on May 21, 2014 in Pristina, at the age of 61 - is remembered as a great scholar and a knowledgeable and modest teacher. Above all, a great figure of scientific activity who made the works of one of the great writers speak Albanian.
Such are "Talati's Love with Fitneten" by Sami Frashëri, his Works 9, 10 and 11, "Anecdote", "Sky", Earth", "Man", "Man Again" and "Mythologies". The list of authorial publications with studies mainly about Frashëri is also long.
In the press release "Archival and publishing activities of Prof. dr. Mehdi Polisit" by the researcher Mixhait Pollozhani includes the creativity of Professor Polisit. Pollozhani said that he dedicated his whole life to national and religious culture.
"If Professor Mehdi Polisi was still alive, there could certainly be more to include in this statement, who dedicated his entire being to our national and religious culture," Pollozhani said. in the event organized in the hometown of Polis.
The researcher Isa Memishi has singled out the translations of Sami Frashëri's works into the Albanian language.
"Many foreign and Albanian researchers had written about the creativity of Sami Frashëri, but Professor Mehdi Polisi, with his scientific competence, managed to present most of the scientific and literary creativity of Sami Frashëri to the Albanian public in the Albanian language". said Memishi, who presented the statement "Contribution of dr. Mehdi Polis in the Magazine 'Islamic Knowledge'". Liri Ziba also remembered this part of his creativity.
"Professor dr. Mehdi Polisi was a great figure of scientific activity. The professor's greatest contribution was the translation and publication of the works of the Albanian scholar and renaissance, Sami Frashëri. His activity is quite rich in other fields as well", said professor Liri Ziba who presented the press release "Catalog of scientific publications of prof. dr. Mehdi Polisi".
Professors Isak Sherifi and Ismet Krosi have appreciated him as a great researcher, silent, knowledgeable and modest lecturer.
Professor Nebi Dervishi has said that Polisi died at the peak of his creativity.
"There were many other projects, but when it was most expected, when he was at the peak of creativity and professionalism, he passed away. But he left behind many works that will serve many generations", said Dervishi, who presented the statement "How I met Prof. Dr. Mehdi Polisin".
Mehdi Polisi completed primary school in Dobovjan and Veleshte in Struga, and secondary school in Pristina at the "Alaudin" madrasa in 1973. In the same year, he enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy (now Philology) of the University of Pristina, in the Department of Oriental Studies and graduated in 1977. He was a student of the first generation and an exemplary student. After graduation, he worked at the Historical Archive in Ohrid and from 1980 he started working at the Faculty of Philology in Pristina in the Department of Oriental Studies.
Researcher Ilmi Veliu quoting from "My evocations to my colleague and friend prof. dr. Mehdi Polisi" has said that "professor Mehdi Polisi as a student raised his voice for the freedom and independence of Kosovo".
For his scientific research, the first-generation orientalist also stayed in Istanbul. In 1988, at the Faculty of Philology in Prishtina, he defended his master's thesis with the title "Phonetic and morphological adaptations of oriental loanwords in the Albanian language" and in 1997, in the same Faculty, he defended his doctoral dissertation with the title "Turkism in the Albanian dialects of Macedonia" and thus received the degree: Doctor of Philological Sciences. In two mandates, he was head of the Department of Oriental Studies. In the period from 2004 to 2012, he was the vice-dean of the Faculty of Philology of the University of Pristina.
His colleague, Eljesa Ismaili, at the scientific table presented "Grammar of the Turkish language (Phonetics and Morphology), precious contribution of prof. dr. Mehdi Polis". "I got to know Mehdi Polis through his works, while I am proud to have contributed as his assistant", he said.
Polisi has also been engaged in the University of Tetova since its foundation in 1994, in the Department of History for the subject of Ottoman. For the Turkish-Ottoman language subject, he was also engaged in the Faculty of Islamic Sciences in Skopje, also from its establishment (1997), until June 2002.
He was a member for the drafting of the Encyclopedia of the Republic of Kosovo, according to the project of the State of Kuwait: The Encyclopedia of Kuwait for the Islamic World and Muslim Minorities. He has actively participated (with papers) in scientific gatherings, conferences, tables, seminars, symposiums, etc., both in the country and abroad.
Professor Zejni Mazllami said that "without the works of Professor Mehdi Polis, Sami Frasheri would probably speak, but he would speak in a lower voice", he said. At the event organized in Struga, he presented the statement "Prof. dr. Mehdi Polisi, the researcher who enabled 'Sami Frashëri to speak Albanian'".
A few months after the death of Polis, the international scientific symposium "110th anniversary of the death of Sami Frashëri" was organized for the activity of Sami Frashëri. Professor Abdullah Hamiti was going to read the statement of the Police entitled, "Sami Frashëri in the field of linguistics".
"It has been a long, long time, 110 years, since Sami Frashëri left this life, however, his name, thanks to his numerous and undoubtedly qualitative work, continues to be in the memory of every person who is related to the world of letters. Many studies have been done on Sami Frashër and his work, both by local, Albanian researchers, and by foreign researchers", Hamiti had read the work of the late Polisi.
Asked in an interview about his commitments as vice-dean and lecturer and at the same time author and translator, Professor Polisi said that the roads have not been easy or paved with flowers.
"We have always had problems, since 80, 81, and so on, we have always been under various pressures, but the desire to achieve more to help students in all fields in the professional fields can , even though in problems with suffering", he had said.
He had added that the will to help others, primarily the country's culture, had pushed him towards scientific work. Texts were missing at that time.
"Such a work has been well appreciated by the students, it is a professional text. I have always wanted to deal with a historically valued personality like Sami Frashërin. When I first came in contact with his works, I researched many of them. I also have my personal library. I have a lot of works. Sami is an author who has written a lot, in all fields of knowledge. He was an encyclopedist of natural sciences, he was a polyglot, a linguist, a philologist... In many parts, in many works, in many fields, he is a pioneer, he is the first to set foot in the world of the Ottoman Empire, at that time in the 2012th century , and the desire to achieve, since he wrote in Turkish, Ottoman, in fact all his activities are in Ottoman, I had to deal with the problems as a professional of that", he said in XNUMX for the magazine "Orientalizmi Shqiptar ".
Polis's studies include the publications "About some Orientalisms in the Dictionary of today's Albanian language", "Phonetic adaptations of Arabicisms in the Albanian language", "Some words about Kamus al-a'lam: Abdul Beu (Frashëri)", "Sami Frashëri - encyclopedist", "The use of Islamic terminology in the Albanian language" and many others. Professor Polis was among the diligent researchers of history and oriental studies. His life and work constitute a body of work and commitment to the education and education of generations as well as commitment to the illumination of the Albanian past.