Jani Vreto was born in
Postenan, a village near
Leskovik, southern
Albania on 14 January 1822. He went to the local school where he took his first lessons from
Nikolla Ikonomi, who would teach him both
Greek and
Albanian. Some years before the establishment of the
League of Prizren during the
Great Eastern Crisis, Vreto met with six other Albanian intellectuals regarding the alphabet question and he supported the use of the
Greek alphabet to write Albanian due to the
Pelasgian theory. Vreto became a member of the
Central Committee for Defending Albanian Rights (founded 1877) which was a group of Albanian intelligentsia based in Istanbul advocating for the territorial integrity and unity of Albanian inhabited areas in the Ottoman Empire. The Committee for Defending Albanian Rights appointed Vreto along with
Sami Frashëri,
Vaso Pasha and
Hasan Tahsini to create an Albanian alphabet. By 19 March 1879 the group approved Frashëri's 36 letter alphabet consisting mostly of Latin characters. In 1878, he represented the Albanian population of the Ottoman Empire alongside
Abdyl Frashëri at the
Congress of Berlin. In 1879 he became one of the founders of
Society for the Publication of Albanian Letters, (), an organization responsible for publishing Albanian textbooks and opening Albanian schools. after the organization was banned by the
Ottoman authorities. As a member of this society Vreto set up and operated the Albanian printing house of Bucharest playing an important role in the advancement of the Albanian movement. At the same time he was excommunicated by the
Orthodox metropolitan of
Gjirokastër, who accused him of having committed heresy by "creating an Albanian question". == Works ==