Apostol Mărgărit

Apostol Mărgărit (Avdella, 5 August 1832 – Bitola, 19 October 1903) was an Aromanian school teacher and writer.

He was born in Macedonia, the Ottoman Empire. In 1862, Mărgărit became a school teacher in Vlaho-Clisura, teaching the children in Aromanian, together with Greek. Persecuted by the Patriarch of Constantinople, he had to leave the school, but stayed in Clisura, where he taught private lessons of Vlach.

Due to his activity, he was accused of treason by the Greeks, of being either an Austrian or a Catholic agent. There were several assassination attempts against him: he was stabbed with a dagger in Salonika, thrown twice in the Vardar River and shot while in the Ohrid Mountains. He was eventually sent to prison, but managed to escape and settled in Bucharest, where he obtained support from the Romanian king.

After the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878 and the independence of Romania, the Ottoman government accepted him as school inspector of the Romanian schools on Turkish territory. Under this position, Mărgărit founded many of the Vlach schools of Macedonia. He was made a member of the Romanian Academy on 3 April 1889.

Apart from a number of petitions addressed to the Sublime Porte on behalf of the Aromanian people, he also wrote:

*"Réfutation d'une brochure grecque" par un Valaque épirote ("Refutation of a Greek brochure by an Epirote Vlach", 1878)
*"Etudes historiques sur les Valaques du Pinde" ("Historical studies of the Vlachs of Pindus", 1881)
*"Les Grecs, les Valaques, les Albanais et l'Empire turc" par un Valaque du Pinde ("'The Greeks, Vlachs, and Albanians of the Turkish Empire' by a Vlach from Pindus" 1886)
*"La politique grecque en Turquie" ("Greek policy in Turkey", 1890)
*"Raport despre persecuţiile şcoalelor române în Macedonia din partea Grecilor" ("Report on the persecution of Romanian scholars in Macedonia on the part of Greeks", 1875)
*"Memoriu privitor la şcoalele de peste Balcani" ("Memoirs of the overseer of schools beyond the Balkans", 1887)

References

*Dimitrie R Rosetti (1897) "Dicţionarul contimporanilor", Editura Lito-Tipografiei "Populara"
*Curierul Naţional, [http://www.curierulnational.ro/?page=articol&editie=352&art=25267 "Omagiu academic pentru Apostol Margarit (1832-1903)"]