Albania

Albania
Participants at International Youth Conference in Tirana, Albania, 2013.
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Location of Albania
National Office		Tirana
National Assembly		Albania
Statistics:
Total Population
-	UN 2021	2,854,710
Bahá'í pop.
-	Bahá'í source	14,125
-	Non-Bahá'í source	16,465
Clusters		11
Local Assemblies		11
History: Firsts
-	Bahá'í to visit	1929, Martha Root
-	Local Bahá'í	1931, Refo Çapari
-	Local Assembly	1991, Tirana
-	National Assembly	1992
How to contact:
-	Phone	+355 42240463
-	Fax	+355 42240464
-	Email	nsa@bahai.al
-	Address	Rruga e Dibrës nr. 9 – Tiranë
Official Website		http://www.bahai.al/
Related media
Categories: Albania • People

The Republic of Albania is a country in the Balkans in Southeast Europe. Albanian is the official language with Islam being the predominant religion.

The nation was part of the Ottoman Empire from the Middle Ages until achieving independence in 1912. It was invaded by Italy and became a protectorate of Nazi Germany in 1939 remaining under German rule until becoming a Republic at the end of the Second World War in 1946. The countries current constitution was adopted in 1998.

The Bahá’í Faith was introduced to Albania in 1929 with a community being established in the early 1930s, however the community was dispersed due to the Second World War. A community was re-established at the opening of the 1990s and remains active to the present day.

History

Likely the earliest presence of the Bahá’í Faith in Albania came when Martha Root visited the capital, Tirana, in September, 1929. She met with many prominent individuals in the city including the Prime Minister of Albania who arranged for her to have an audience with the King of Albania. She also met with the heads of several schools, met with the Czechoslovakian Minister, attended a dinner at the American Embassy, met several times with the head of the Red Cross Training School, and with the editor of a major newspaper.

In 1931 Refo Capari, an Albanian who had become a Bahá’í in America, returned to the country where he settled in Tirana. Through his efforts a Bahá’í community was established and Shoghi Effendi corresponded with members of the community. In the early 1930's Bahá’í literature was translated into Albanian with the Kitab-i-Iqan being translated in 1932 and Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era in 1933. Martha Root also made a second visit to the country in 1933.

The Second World War resulted in the community being disrupted and the early Albanian Bahá’ís being dispersed, and any possibility of a community being consolidated was prevented when the Albanian government outlawed all religion in 1967. In the 1980's efforts were made to locate Albanian Bahá’ís and a relative of Capari was found in 1985 who had been the only Bahá’í in Albania for four decades.

In 1990 the ban on religion in Albania was lifted and a Two Year teaching Plan for Albania was adopted which aimed to establish Bahá’í communities in four localities across the country, with Bahá’ís from Austria, Italy, and Germany beginning to make regular travel teaching trips to the country. The Italian Bahá’í community arranged for systematic travel teaching campaigns in 1991 and the first National Bahá’í Teaching Conference of Albania was held with the support of the Italian Bahá’í community in October that year.

Efforts to re-establish the Bahá’í community of Albania found rapid success and by 1992 there were over three thousand Bahá’ís in the country and eighteen Local Spiritual Assemblies. The rapid growth enabled the community to establish a National Spiritual Assembly in 1992 with the establishment of the body and inaugural Bahá’í National Convention of Albania receiving prime-time news coverage.

In 1993 a major exhibition of Bahá’í literature was hosted at the National Library of Albania in Tirana, and the same year the National Assembly published an open letter to the wider community of Albania which was published in five newspapers. In 1995 Rúḥíyyih Khánum attended a Regional Bahá’í Teaching Conference held in Tirana and she met with the daughter of Albania's President and gave several media interviews while in the country. Also in 1995 a Bahá’í Cultural Center was inaugurated in Tirana with the President of the Albanian Parliament attending the event, and in 1998 a National Bahá’í Center was inaugurated also in Tirana.

In 2013 a major international Bahá’í youth conference was held in Tirana providing a consultation space for youth to discuss how they could contribute to their communities. In 2022 several grassroots Bahá’í conferences were held across the country to allow for Bahá’ís to examine the roles of individuals, communities, and institutions in contributing to the material and spiritual progress of a society.