[1] He was born in Elbasan and from 1847 studied at the Zosimea Greek college in Ioannina, where he became friends with Johann Georg von Hahn by helping him learn Albanian and write a German-Albanian dictionary.

He stayed in Malta until 1860 in a Protestant seminary, finishing the translation of The New Testament in the Tosk and Gheg dialects.

[8] During the Great Eastern Crisis, Kristoforidhi criticized some League of Prizren notables and viewed their actions as being based on self interest, preservation of the sultan's power and "Muslim dominance" instead of the national interest.

[7] The result of those endeavours was his most important work, The Dictionary of the Albanian Language (Greek: Λεξικόν της Αλβανικής Γλώσσης) – (Albanian: Fjalori i Gjuhës Shqipe), was published[6][10] in Athens, Greece, in 1904, 25 years after it had been drafted by Kristoforidhi and after his death.

[11] He knew Albanian (Tosk and Gheg dialects), Greek, Latin, Hebrew, English, Italian, Turkish, Bulgarian, Arabic, French and German.