Dom Nikollë Gazulli, catholic clergyman, ethnographer, historian, lexicographer and linguist, founder of Albanian toponymy and onomasticity, was killed in Vrith of Malësi e Madhe. He was born in Dajç, Zadrima, in 1894. 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. Tracing through the villages of this parish, such as Kelmend, Hot, Pukë, Dajç of Bregu i Bunës, Ulcin, etc., he gathered and analyzed with scientific seriousness, for years on end, thousands of rare words, idiomatic expressions, onomastic materials (like place names, rivers, tribes, etc.), oral traditions, historical and mythological facts, etc., which he compiled in his two major works “Fjalorth i ri” (fjalë të rralla të përdoruna në Veri të Shqipnisë) (“The new dictionary”), Tirana, 1941, included in the series “Visaret e kombit” (“The treasures of the nation”), vol. XI, and “Fjalori onomastik” (“The onomastic dictionary”), published under the pseudonym “Gelasius” in the magazine “Hylli i Dritës” 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. (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: © https://albemigrant2011.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/dom-nikoll-gazulli-3.jpg
Graphic processing: AHCF
