Bajazid Doda

• Name — Bajazid Elmaz Doda • Born — 1888 • Birthplace — Štirovica, Ottoman Empire (modern North Macedonia) • Died — 25 April 1933 1888 • Place of death — Vienna, Austria • Death Cause — Gunshot wound (Homicide) • Occupation — photographer, ethnographer, author • Partner — Franz Nopcsa

Bajazid Doda was born in 1888 in Štirovica, an Albanian-inhabited village of the Upper Reka region of Macedonia in what was then the Ottoman Empire. He went to Romania to work abroad, like many other Upper Reka inhabitants. In Bucharest, Romania, in 1906, he met the Hungarian baron and scholar Franz Nopcsa (1877–1933), who hired him as his servant. The two became lovers and began to live together. Nopcsa and Doda left Bucharest for the Nopcsa family mansion in Săcel, Transylvania, and thereafter spent some several months in London where Doda fell ill with influenza. In mid-November 1907, the two traveled to Shkodër, where they maintained a house from 1907 to 1910 and again from October 1913. They travelled around Mirditë and were kidnapped by a famous bandit Mustafa Lita. After their release in Prizren, they travelled to Skopje and went to visit the home of Doda in Upper Reka. Back in Shkodër, they went and visited the lands of tribes Hoti and Gruda. Both traveled together and separately throughout the Albanian lands. During the First World War in 1915–1916, Nopcsa took Doda with him while serving in the Austro-Hungarian army in Kosovo. After the war, they lived mainly in Vienna where Nopcsa published several books and became known not only as an albanologist, but also as a paleontologist and geologist. However, for about three years they went on a tour through Europe on a motorcycle, looking for fossils. On April 25, 1933, suffering from depression, Nopcsa killed Doda in his sleep and then committed suicide.

• Illustration — An Albanian salep merchant in Skopje, 1907 • Illustration — Albanian halva merchants in Skopje, 1907 • Illustration — Two Upper Reka men: A man from Reč on the left and a man from Strezimir on the right. • Illustration — Arrival of a wedding party in Štirovica. • Illustration — Two young men of Štirovica showing off opingas (leather skin footwear). • Illustration — Man smoking, in the upper Reka valley near Debar. • Illustration — An Albanian groom one day after his marriage. • Illustration — Young Albanian in the upper Reka valley near Debar. • Illustration — Albanians in the Upper Reka valley near Debar. • Illustration — New house in Brodec, 1907 • Illustration — Brodec village, 1907 • Illustration — Štirovica village, 1907 • Illustration — Albanian in from Upper Reka valley near Debar, 1907 • Illustration — Shepherd in a sheepskin cloak with some men from Štirovica, 1907 • Illustration — Men of Štirovica conversing on a hillside, 1907 • Illustration — Wedding party in the mountains of Upper Reka, 1907 • Illustration — Turkish gendarmerie in Upper Reka, 1907

Bajazid Doda is recorded with the occupation photographer. Recorded as photographer and ethnographer.