Idriz Seferi was born to an Albanian family in the village of Sefer (in modern-day Preševo, Serbia) in the Karadaku region,[2][3] at that time part of the Kosovo Vilayet under the Ottoman Empire.

[3] During the Great Eastern Crisis, Idriz Seferi lead a Cheta of Albanian Kachak warriors, fighting against the Ottoman authorities and the Serbo-Bulgarian gangs.

As a result of this war, the Principality of Serbia, which joined the Russian army against the Ottoman Empire, had made progress towards the south, conquering the Sanjak of Niš, Pirot, Vranje, Leskovac and had reached Gjilan.

[6] During the Plav War, Idriz Seferi commanded a group 100 Albanian Warriors, which participated in the Battle of Nokšić, where the Montenegrin army suffered a heavy defeat.

[6] On January 4, 1881, during the League of Prizren-Ottoman War, Idriz Seferi and his Cheta joined Albanian forces commanded by Sulejman Vokshi which attacked Skopje.

In July he fought and killed Dragoljub Nikolić and Rade Radivojević, both high ranking Serbian Chetniks, alongside their entire Cheta in Pasjane and Gjylekar.

[2][3][10][11][12][13] In response to the revolt, the Ottomans sent a large army commanded by Shevket Turgut Pasha, which clashed with the Albanians who had blocked the railway.

This forced the rebels to withdraw, and although Seferi and Boletini managed to evade capture, thousands of Albanians were killed, imprisoned and interned.

[19] On March 5, 1911, Idriz Seferi together with Isa Boletini faced an Ottoman army sent by Osman Pasha to crush the Albanian rebels.

[21] On 20 May 1912, Albanian chiefs Bajram Curri, Isa Boletini, Riza Gjakova, Idriz Seferi, Hasan Prishtina, Nexhib Draga, and others, decided on a general armed insurrection throughout the Kosovo Vilayet.

[2] [16][22] On August 18, the moderate faction led by Prishtina managed to convince Seferi and the other leaders Isa Boletini, Bajram Curri and Riza Bey Gjakova of the conservative group to accept the agreement with the Ottomans for Albanian sociopolitical and cultural rights.

[23][24] In a bid to conquer Albanian-inhabited territories that stretched from Kosovo and Ulqin to Durrës as well as Lake Ohrid to the Adriatic Sea, Serbo-Montenegrin forces attacked the Ottoman state in October 1912.

The Serbians had hoped that the statistical manipulation of the regional demographics would strengthen their claims before the Great Powers convened in London in December 1912 to finalise the new borders in the Balkans.

[26] Seferi and his men engaged in a fierce battle at the Končulj pass in an attempt to halt the advance of the third Serbian Army, which consisted of approximately 76,000 soldiers, on their way to the city of Gjilan.