By: Julian Vlashi. Translation Petrit Latifi

Some of the leaders of Mirdita, photographed by Pjetër Marubi (Pietro Marubbi: Ded Tuci (Gjomarkaj) from Nëdërfushasi; Përded Ndoj, Elder of Gojan; Mustafa Ajazi, Elder of Lura; Lorenc Gurakuqi (former secretary of captain Bib Doda); Mark Tuci (Gjomarkaj) from Nëdërfushasi; Dod Melyshi, bannerman of Kthellë, etc.

In the file of the Marubi Photo Library Archive, which bears the date 1875 in the register, it is written: “Krent e Mirdita, me ocasi o murtë e Bib Doda”. But Captain Bib Doda died on July 18, 1868.

We think that the photograph must be on the Montenegrin front in 1880 (at the time when the Mirditas were fighting to protect Hoti and Gruda from the Montenegrins), considering an illustration: “The Heads of Mirdita, on the Border with Montenegro” (which is referred to in a photograph by Marubi), published in the Hungarian newspaper “Vasárnapi Ujság” on September 9, 1880 and in the British magazine “The Illustrated London News” on September 11, 1880.

In the 1880 illustration (photograph) published in “Vasárnapi Ujság” and “The Illustrated London News”, fifteen men pose. While in the photograph in question, twelve of them pose (in the same place). On August 15, 1880, the newspaper “Vasárnapi Ujság” published an illustration (photograph) of Prince Preng Bib Doda, who led the Mirdita forces. In a telegram from the Austro-Hungarian Consulate in Tivar, dated July 4, 1880, it is stated: “For several days now, the highest command of the Albanian League has been entrusted to Preng Bib Doda, the leader of the Mirditas.”

According to a document preserved in the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, dated May 10, 1880: 2,200 Mirditas led by Preng Bib Doda had gone to Tuz to protect the northern Albanian territories from the Montenegrin forces.