Ismail Qemal-Bey
Qemal-Bey, Ismail
(Ismail Qemali). Born Feb. 25, 1844, in Vlorë (Vlona); died 1918 in Paris. Albanian political figure and statesman. Born into a wealthy feudal family of Vlorë beys.
Qemal graduated from a Greek Gymnasium in Ioannina. After the revolution of the Young Turks in 1908 he was a parliamentary deputy (1908–12) and one of the leaders of the Ahrar Party, which was founded in December 1908 to represent the interests of the feudal-comprador circles of the Ottoman Empire. He became a member of the Albanian committee founded on Corfu in 1911 and of the Albanian committee founded in Nice in early 1912, which claimed to lead the Albanian national movement. After proclamation of Albania’s independence on Nov. 28, 1912, he headed the provisional government until Jan. 22, 1914. In 1914 he emigrated.