In Dajç of Zadrima, Dom Nikollë Gazulli was born, Catholic clergyman, ethnographer, historian, lexicographer and linguist, founder of Albanian toponymy and onomasticity. He received his first lessons in the village school, he continued his secondary education in Shkodër, and his higher education in Austria. He worked in the Malësi e Madhe area (in the parish of Shkreli) for many years. By tracing in the villages of this parish and elsewhere, such as in Kelmend, Hot, Pukë, Dajç of Buna Coast, Ulcin, etc., he collected and analyzed with scientific seriousness, for years, thousands of rare words, phraseological expressions, onomastic materials (such as names of places, rivers, tribes, etc.), legends, historical, mythological facts, etc., which he summarized in his two major works “New Dictionary” (rare words used in the North of Albania), Tirana, 1941, included in the series “Visaret e kombit”, vol. XI, and “Onomastic Dictionary”, published under the pseudonym “Gelasius” in the magazine “Hylli i Drita” 1939, a total of 21 issues. After the murder of his brother, Dom Gjon Gazulli, in the years 1924-1930 he was imprisoned in Gjirokastër. He was killed by the pursuit forces in Vrith of Malësi e Madhe, in 1946. (In the photo: Nikollë Gazulli)
Text: Encyclopedic dictionary of victims of communist terror – Vol. II , “West Print”, Institute for the Study of Crimes and Consequences of Communism, Tirana, 2013, page 332-333.
Photo: © Institute for the Study of Crimes and Consequences of Communism
Graphic processing: AHCF
