Zenel Bastari

Zenel Bastari or Zenel Hyka (c. 1767 – c. 1837) was an Albanian poet of the Bejtexhinj literary movement. A native of Tirana, he lived and worked from the end of 18th century until mid 19th century. Together with Hasan Zyko Kamberi and Nezim Frakulla he was part of the Bejtexhinj who focused on social and political criticism rather than Islamic moral and life. A precursor of the bourgeois critical-realism, he is also considered one of the first anti-feudal writers in Albania.

Life Zenel was born in Tirana, back then Sanjak of Scutari of Ottoman Empire, in late 18th century, and is mentioned to have lived in the era of Ali Pasha Tepelena. It is believed that the year of birth is 1765–70. He was the son of Ramë Hyka, a villager from nearby Bastar who had settled in Tirana (thus the family name Bastari) and a local woman. He had a brother named Rexhep. Zenel took his first lessons in the mejtep (religious school) in Tirana. He later entered the Madrasa of Tirana. Meanwhile, he worked as an assistant in a local esnaf shop dealing with silk and embroidering, therefore he mastered that profession (Albanian: gajtanxhi). After finishing the madrasa, he worked as a hodja for the rest of his life. There is no information on his religious teachers or people who influenced him, but from his work is derived that he was very well prepared in Islamic Mysticism and he was a follower of the Bektashi order of Sufism. Year of death is accepted to be between 1835 and 1840. He mentions in his poetry Baba Shemin, an actual public and Bektashi religious figure from Fushe-Kruje who died in 1831. Another study, based on Gjyli's work, came from Mahmut Hysa, published in the Gjurmime Albanologjike (Albanological Reconnaissance) magazine of the Albanological Institute of Pristina in 1988. Meanwhile, Hasanaj continued the task of collecting Bastari's poems until 1970, and added 145 odes, finally bringing the diwan to the structural and content level as known today. The full diwan was published only in 2003 with the support of the Bektashi community of Albania, and its leader Haxhi Dede Reshat Bardhi. murdered by orders of Kapllan Pasha Toptani - nothing more than a local expression of the Ottoman rule arrogance. This affiliation gives his work a soundful social content, as a reflection of the transitional period of a society in strong moral crisis, where decent castes find themselves insecure and threatened.

Legacy A street in Tirana is named after him.