Abedin Dino

Abidin Pasha Dino or Abedin bey Dino , also Abedin Pasha

Biography Abidin Pasha Dino was from Chameria, and his father Ahmed Dino Bey (1785–1849) was an Albanian military leader and politician, his mother was Saliha Çapari an Albanian woman from Capari. 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. Dino was also a Commissar of Bursa. Dino strongly supported the territorial integrity of Albanian inhabited lands remaining within the Ottoman state. Dino became a prominent League of Prizren leader in 1878 and a member of its central committee representing Chameria. A delay in border negotiations occurred and Greek authorities thought it was due to Dino convening the Preveza meeting and to make Albanian leaders sign petitions against an annexation of Epirus by Greece.

From 10 June to 12 September 1880 Dino briefly served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ottoman Empire for four months and was elevated to the rank of Pasha, becoming known as Abidin Pasha. He argued to keep both Jannina, the regional capital and Preveza, its trading port within the Ottoman state. Local Ottoman officials had reservations about arming Albanians due to concerns that weapons in future could be used against the sultan. However, Dino placed his own people as governors of various areas including his brother in law Kazim Bey in Preveza. In part due to his efforts and activities, the Vilayet of Janina did not join Greece and remained within the Ottoman Empire until 1912. He became a wāli (governor) of Aden and from 1904 Vizier (minister) in the Ottoman government headed by fellow Albanian Avlonyalı Mehmed Ferid Pasha.

Abidin Pasha was also a poet, publisher, writer, and translator. He wrote many songs, including the famous "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 Albanian language poems of the 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 Filiates and in 1913 he was the head of the delegation of Albania that signed the Treaty of London that recognized Albania an independent state. His grandchildren from his son Rasih were, Ali Dino, Leyla Dino Ileri, Abidin Dino (named after his grandfather, Abidin Pasha himself) and Ahmet Dino (named after his great grandfather Ahmed Dino, Abidin's father)