Forsaken Albania

By Artan lame
Upper Albania in the 1920’s-1940’s. In the last edition I spoke about the custom and the familiarity Albanians used to have with weapons. Towards the second half of the 19th Century, this custom began to lose its real function. As time went by, this process deepened, until finally, the south of the country almost entirely lost the custom of possessing rifles, while the custom of wearing a pistol in a waist band was only done on ceremonial occasions or if a family were in a blood feud. In the North of the country, the situation differed due to the requirements of the feudal Law and the inefficiency of the law enforcement bodies of the State. In this case, irrespective of the situation of widespread poverty, where families had little or no possessions to safeguard, the majority of the adult males did carry weapons on their person and rifles when they were traveling. After the twenties’ these arms gradually became ornaments that adult males tucked into their broad, embroidered waistbands waist bands, but even their numbers were dwindling because of new restrictions by the law.
The warrior in the larger photograph is dressed in folk costume from the North, with the characteristic embroidered waist coat and felt skull cap. He wears an army style jacket over this waistcoat, a 1925 model. Around his neck hangs a large, silver chain watch chain attached to his watch inside the pocket in his waist coat. On the jacket you can see the Skenderbeg’s shield bearing the family’s arms and the badge of the Albanian Fascist Party (!) Around his waist there is a munitions belt and a small silver pouch, which although it belongs to the 19th Century it was still used for an oiling cloth to clean guns. You can also see the ivory handle of a Mauzer pistol(1910 model) protruding from the waist band. The photograph of the frowning man with his moustache constitutes a real catalogue of epochs. Locally made waist coat and woolen skull cap, Turkish silver pouch and watch chain, the jacket dating back to the time of King Zog, a German pistol from World War One, the emblem of Fascism on his chest, and the person himself, who has managed to accumulate a token from all these epochs.
The second photo is a studio shot taken in the Marubi Studios and it bears the original caption, “Men from Miredita taking aim.” Even without this explanation, you immediately recognize the folk costume from Miredita and can see that they are preparing to do target practice, which was one of their preferred pastimes when they didn’t have any other targets to deal with. Many years later in 1997, on more than one occasion, vehicles that were traveling along the roads were used for target practice by persons who had stolen rifles from the army arms depots.
At least two of the Miredita men have shaved heads, a custom that dates back to the Middle Ages which was already going out of fashion in the time when this photograph was taken. An interesting fact is that they are all armed with British made Martini-Henry rifles which were used by the army as early as at the end of the 19th Century, but which were always a very popular weapon for the Albanians because they made a lot of noise.