The mission of the intellectual

In this Prishtina Talks presentation, Rudian Zekthi takes up in depth the concept of “the intellectual” — what it means to be one today, what his mission in society is, and why the role is particularly hard for Muslims in the contemporary Albanian context. He begins with a genesis of the term, following its origin in modern Western culture with the Dreyfus affair and Émile Zola, down to Jean-Paul Sartre, who set the theoretical frame of “the engaged intellectual”.

Zekthi argues that among Albanian Muslims there is an anomaly: Muslim intellectuals are often stigmatised or pushed to the margins precisely because they are Muslim, while the figures who appear as “intellectuals” in the public sphere often do not come out of an Islamic tradition and shift the very meaning of intellectual life. He examines why this happens, what the historical roots of the break are, and what it costs the quality of public discourse in Albania and in Kosovo.

In the second half, Zekthi proposes an alternative frame: the Muslim intellectual cannot simply be an “expert” in a field, he has to be a witness as well — a figure carrying the responsibility of the prophetic tradition of bearing witness before society. He ties this frame to the arguments of his earlier cycle “Towards a sociology of prophecy”, and ends with the practical question of how to build a community of Muslim intellectuals that takes on its own historical mission under the postmodern conditions of our time.

Some of the points covered: 📌 The modern Western origin of the term “intellectual” (Zola, the Dreyfus affair, Sartre) 📌 The Albanian anomaly: the Muslim intellectual stigmatised 📌 Why the Muslim intellectual voice is missing from the Albanian public sphere 📌 The difference between the Western intellectual tradition and the Islamic one 📌 The intellectual as expert against the intellectual as witness 📌 The link with the prophetic tradition, and the mission of bearing witness 📌 The postmodern challenge of building a Muslim intellectual voice

📍 Prishtina Talks

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