mid’hat bey frashëri was the son of prominent albanian politician and statesman from 19th century abdyl frashëri (who initiated the movement of a wide autonomy from ottoman empire) and nephew of the poets and nationalists naim frashëri and sami frashëri. he was born in yanya in the ottoman empire (present day ioannina, greece) in 1880 and was raised in istanbul, where his family worked in the ottoman administration and organised the albanian nationalist movement. in 1897 mid'hat frashëri was arrested by ottoman authorities for having a copy of the newspaper albania, and was released after intervention by his uncle sami frashëri. during 1901, mid'hat frashëri published a biography on his uncle naim frashëri. giving up his studies of pharmacology, he worked for the ottoman administration in the vilayet of salonika from 1905 to 1910. frashëri published a yearly almanac "kalendari kombiar" (national calendar) that was printed in sofia and distributed in the balkans from there. the publication held moderate positions were frashëri advocated for national unity, development of albanian education, schools and literature and opposed foreign power intervention in albanian affairs. frashëri also called for government reforms an alliance with macedonians to achieve those aims, but he was against armed resistance. regarding the albanian question and geopolitics, frashëri was known in albanian circles of the time to be anti-austro-hungarian and anti-italian.