Mahidjul Maksut (née Šope) was born in 1939 in the quarter Tanaska Rajća (Terzi Mahala) in Prizren, Kosovo (formerly Yugoslavia). She grew up in Prizren. At the beginning of the 1970s, she went as a migrant worker to Vienna, Austria where she lived with her family and worked until her retirement. Mahidjul Maksut died in Vienna in 2013.

Her mother tongue was a variant of Romani čhib related to Arli dialects and specific to Terzi Mahala, which she completely mastered. Characteristic of the dialect of Terzi Mahala, unlike other Arli dialects, are lexemes such as hanka (now) or hito, hitoj (he is, she is) and hiton (they are). The verb džal (to walk), which is common in Romani, has disappeared in this variant and has been replaced by nakhel (originally, to pass by).

Apart from Romani, Mahidjul Maksut spoke Albanian, Turkish, Serbo-Croatian and German, which she quickly picked up in Vienna. She was highly esteemed as a storyteller thanks to her proficiency in languages and her creative imagination.

(Translation P. Cech)