Thimi Mitko

Thimi Mitko (also Euthymios Mitkos; * in 1820 in Korçë, Ottoman Empire, † March 22, 1890 in Beni Suef, Egypt) was an Albanian folk song collector.

When his uncle Peti Mitko, leader of the resistance against the Ottoman Tanzimat legislation, Albania had to leave to Thimi Mitko joined him. They went about Athens and Plovdiv to Vienna, where Thimi Mitko worked as a tailor and began to collect Albanian folklore. Thimi Mitko 1866 left Vienna and moved to Egypt, first to Han Alil and later to Beni Suef, where he opened a trading business.

In 1878 he was ( The Albanian Bee ) is a collection of southern Albanian folk songs, proverbs and stories with the title Alvaniki Melissa. It was reissued in 1924 by Gjergj Pekmezi and was particularly appreciated by foreign scientists. Mitko was in his time in Beni Suef in constant correspondence with Jan Urban Jarník, which translated his Albanian folk songs and published in Veckenstedts Journal of Folklore, and Gustav Meyer, to whom he was providing most of the texts collected after 1878 for publication for which independent but no publisher was.

Thimi Mitko died after Dhimitër S. Shuteriqi on March 22, 1890 in Beni Suef.

Works

• Alvaniki Melissa. Alexandria 1878
• Albanian songs. Translated by Jan Urban Jarník. Journal of Folklore, 1889-1891
• Bleta Shqypëtare e Thimi Mitkos. Newly published by Gjergj Pekmezi. Vienna 1924