The first editions of 'Albanian history' and 'Albania' from Naim Frasheri are published in Bulgaria

This happned on the 1st of January 1893 in the Dimitar Mole’s tavern. The chairman is the master mason Ligor Prifi Borova, and the secretary is the one and only Dimitar Mole who knew not only Albanian and Bulgarian, but also German and Greek. They also chose council members and a cashier, 53 members have joined the society. One of the members was Spiro Garo, alert young man, who a year later was sent to Istanbul to establish a connection with the brothers Sami and Naim Frasheri, Iani Vreto, Vaso Pasha, Ismail Kemali and so on.

Spiro Garo returns back excited about what he saw and heart from the members of the Drita society, the meetings in Istanbul with Naim and Sami Frasheri. From there he brings a lot of books and magazines. This way the Albanian Desire in Sofia makes a connection with the famous Frasheri brothers.

The Bulgarian authorities help the Albanian society, it’s registered in court with a regulation and a stamp.

The Bulgarian king Ferdinand sympatises to the Albanian fight for liberation and even takes 2 Albanian youngsters to study in a Bulgarian military school. These are Lek Margini from Mirdita, North Albania, and Stefan Kandilari from Korcha, South Albania. Other than that, the king invites professor Perikli Chilev to teach his sons - prince Boris and prince Kiril - Albanian language.

The educational activity of Desire continues till 1940. One of the most important initiatives that the society takes up is the establishing of a printing house in Sofia with the name Mbrotasia (Progress) that has been led by Kristo Lioarasi.

The first albanian book released by the printing house is Ditarfensi (Calendar). Next year this calendar is been released by Midhat Frasheri (also known as Liumo Skendo), son of the Albanian revival Abdul Frasheri, the older brother of Sami and Naim Frasheri. The calendar was then called National Calendar and it continued being released till the end of the First World War.

Sofia slowly started to become the new center of Albanian emigration being the closest place to the Albania itself. Bucharest and Istanbul are too far away. Liumo Skendo leads the National Calendar and Shahin Kolonia - the newspaper Drita that starts coming out in 1901.

The print house Napredak (Progress) has published many titles from which you can find one of the most famous books about the Albanian Renascence - What has been, what is and what will be Albania from Sami Frasheri. The book has been released in Sofia in Turkish and Greek. The drama Besa (Given word) from the same author has also been published and it has been translated to Bulgarian and presented on stage of the circus-theater Bulgaria. 

Napredak (Progress) that I mentioned in the beginning