Mark Krasniqi


Mark Krasniqi was a Kosovo Albanian ethnographer, publicist, writer, and translator.

Biography

He was born on October 19, 1920 in near Peć, in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He finished elementary school in Peć in the Serbian language and due to his Catholic background attended the Catholic high school in Prizren, being one of few Albanians among mostly Croatians and Slovenes, finishing in 1941. After high school, he studied literature at the University of Padova, Italy and after World War II he studied geography and ethnography at the University of Belgrade. Krasniqi was a contributor to the Rilindja newspaper since 1945 in Prizren. After writing an article related to Marije Shllaku, he was accused of overpassing the nationalistic boundaries and his scholarship got cancelled. Despite that, he graduated in 1950.
After his graduation, until the end of 1961, he worked in the Ethnographical Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, being one of few ethnic Albanians to receive a membership in that Academy. Since 1961 he lectured at the University of Pristina ; he was also a member of Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo. Krasniqi earned his PhD in the University of Ljubljana in 1960. He published various studies and scientific books on ethnography and geography as well as textbooks.
He was most widely known as a writer, especially for his poetry for children.
Krasniqi was a member of the Assembly of Kosovo during the legislatures of 2001-2004, 2004-2007, and 2007-2010 representing Albanian Christian Democratic Party of Kosovo, part of respectively LDK, LDK, and LDD parliamentary groups. He has also served as President of Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo, Dean at the Faculty of Law and Economics, President of Albanian Christian Democratic Party, and First Head of the Association of Writers of Kosovo. Beside Albanian and Serbo-Croatian he was fluent in Italian.

Publications

Scientific studies