1897 — Very Good Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928) Original autograph document/letter sealed by Abidin Pasha. 33x21 cm. In Ottoman script. 1 p. Seven lines. With a letterhead of The Province of Cezâyir-i Bahr-i Sefîd [i.e. The province of the Mediterranean Island and Aegean Archipelago]. Abidin Pasha was an Albanian patriot, politician, ideologue and diplomat; and the governor of Rhodes, Aden, Algeria, Ankara, and Adana. As a rilindas involved in the Albanian National Awakening, he was one of the founders of the League of Prizren and its chief representative for Epirus (1878). Dino was one of the main promoters in the need for the creation of the Autonomous Albanian Vilayet under the Ottoman suzerainty, and later a contributor to Albanian independence. Abedin Dino was from Chameria and he was born in Preveza on March 23, 1843, to one of the most notable and noble families of the city (the Dino family). During the Great Eastern Crisis Dino was one of ten signatories to a memorandum addressed to Berlin Congress hosts chancellor Bismarck and Count Andrassy on 20 June 1878 calling for reforms and Albanians to remain in the Ottoman state with their rights, desires, interests, and traditions being respected. Dino strongly supported the territorial integrity of Albanian inhabited lands remaining within the Ottoman state. Together with Abdul Frashëri, Vesel Dino, and Mehmet Ali Vrioni he established local League branches of the Albanian Committee of Janina and Assembly of Preveza. On 11 January 1879, a meeting in Preveza of Albanian notables and leaders at Dino's house agreed to oppose Epirus joining Greece, even though military force if an unsatisfactory agreement was imposed by the Great Powers and to express that view to the Berlin Congress. The free movement of Dino in Preveza and his appointment as a commissioner for delineating the border was representative of the support the Ottoman Empire gave to the League during this time. From 10 June - 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 Abedin Pasha. Abdul Hamid II appointed Dino as he wanted to strengthen the Ottoman position during negotiations about the border with Greece. [.] 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 wâli (governor) of Aden and from 1904 Vizier (minister) in the Ottoman government headed by fellow Albanian Avlonyali Mehmed Ferid Pasha. Abedin Bej Dino was also an evaluated poet, publisher, writer, and translator. He wrote many songs, including the famous one "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 on Albanian language poems of a 13th-century Persian poet, and Sufi mystic Rumi. His son, Rasih Abidinpasazâde Dino (who has a book titled 'Üç Mektup') was a co-founder of the first Albanian school in the city of Preveza and in 1913 he was the head of the delegation of Albania that signed the Treaty of London that recognized Albania an independent state. Abidin Pasha is the grandfather of famous Turkish painter Abidin Dino, (1913-1993).
