24. Peoples of Southern and Eastern Transcaucasia.

The south and east of Transcaucasia are the territories of modern Armenia and Azerbaijan. And in the second half of the 19th century, this region included the Baku, Elizavetpol, Erivan provinces and part of the Kars region. These places are inhabited by two numerous peoples - Armenians and Azerbaijanis, who in the 19th century were called Transcaucasian Tatars. Other nationalities also live here in much smaller numbers: Tats, Talyshs, Shahsevens, Kurds, Udins, Ingiloys, Shahdag peoples, representatives of some other ethnic groups. These peoples will be discussed in this review.

The following publications served as sources of textual information:

- "Peoples of Russia. Ethnographic essays", (publication of the journal "Nature and People"), 1879-1880;
- J.-J. Eliza Reclus. "Russia European and Asian", v.2, 1884;
- M.Vladykin. "Guide and interlocutor on a journey through the Caucasus", 1885;
- N. Dubrovin. "Essay on the Caucasus and the peoples inhabiting it", book 2 - Transcaucasia, 1871;
- N. Seidlitz. "Ethnographic sketch of the Baku province", 1871;
- Collection of materials for describing the areas and tribes of the Caucasus, issue 20, 1894.

The review uses photographs of those distant times, illustrations from books and magazines, paintings by artists of the 19th century.

A significant part of historical Armenia passed to the Russian Empire as a result of successful wars with the Ottoman Empire (1828-1829 and 1877-1878) and with Persia (1804-1813 and 1826-1828). The Russian authorities organized a mass resettlement in the Transcaucasus Armenians from Persia and Turkey.

Having mixed with other peoples in Transcaucasia, the Armenians settled in Georgia, constitute a significant part of the population of Tiflis and, in addition, live in settlements in Akhaltsikhe and its environs, in Kizlyar, Mozdok, Stavropol, Georgievsk. They also settled near Rostov-on-Don and founded a special city of Nakhichevan there; there are also many Armenians in Astrakhan and Crimea. In a word, this people is scattered throughout the Caucasus and Transcaucasia. In some places they live in separate villages, as if cut off from their fellow tribesmen, with whom, as immigrants from foreign countries, they actually have little in common. So, in the Kuban there is the village of Armavir, inhabited by Armenians who left Circassia in 1838 and lost their completely Armenian nationality. "Peoples of Russia"

Cunning is the distinguishing feature of the character of the Armenian; covetousness leads to deceit, and for many, the gift of speech serves as a means to hide their thoughts. They flatter and are fickle in their affection - a person who is no longer needed is forgotten very soon. In general, Armenians are intelligent and willingly follow education. In industrial and commercial relations they have no rivals. They are patient, quick-witted, moderate to the point of avarice, and are excellent at foreseeing which enterprise is profitable and which is not. Armenians are among the practical figures; they are passionate about trade and banking. All trade in our Transcaucasia is in the hands of the Armenians. Armenians are greedy and use their whole life mainly to acquire benefits, even if they are insignificant, in order to make a penny. "Peoples of Russia"

The black hair of Armenian women, lively and black eyes, sometimes outlined by beautiful eyelashes and eyebrows, make them quite attractive and beautiful; however, this is rare, and only as long as they are young and have not had time to grind, but, unfortunately, it very soon becomes their property. Armenian women are lazy, clumsy, awkward in gait, often have crooked legs, which comes partly from the Asian custom of sitting, tucking them under them, and partly from wrapping the legs of young children in rags. Armenian women are terribly fond of rich jewelry, silk fabrics of bright colors, embroidered with gold and silver, colored stones and cashmere shawls of variegated colors. Their headdress is made up of a silk scarf and tastefully arranged colored ribbons. Women consider it a sin to laugh and joke with strangers; they wear veils, never take them off, and even sleep with their heads wrapped up so that only their eyes are visible. Women spend their whole lives taking care of the household and raising children; they remain hopelessly in their home and lead a reclusive life. "Peoples of Russia"

Family life among Armenians is highly respected and has a patriarchal character. Armenians, in the opinion of many, belong to the number of the most peaceful peoples, whose vices are only a consequence of protecting and counteracting the violence to which this people was so often subjected. Byron assures that it is difficult to find another people such as the Armenians, whose chronicles would be so little stained with crimes. The Armenian family and he himself are content with a bunch of grass, a handful of lobia (beans) and a piece of stale bread, not because of a lack, but because of the prudent frugality inherent in this nation. Their usual food is the same bread as that of the Georgians, consisting of unleavened cakes. The wealthy eat pilaf, shish kebab, greens and roots. "Peoples of Russia"

The Armenians are very pious, and nothing can make them deviate from the strict observance of fasts. With a constant, moderate and fasting life, the village Armenian with monastic stamina observes all the fasts brought by them to the mortification of the flesh; the ceremonial part of his beliefs has been brought to irreproachable accuracy. Armenians are just as superstitious as Georgians. They believe in the possibility of atonement for sin or sickness through sacrifice. So, the sick make a promise in case of recovery to donate their domestic animals to the church, and the blood of these animals is poured without fail at the walls of the church, and the meat is divided among the clergy. "Peoples of Russia"

Kurds- an ancient Iranian-speaking people who ended up on the territory of the Russian Empire after the annexation of Transcaucasia. At the end of the 19th century, Kurds massively moved to the territory of Russia due to famine in Persia and Turkey caused by crop failure.

Most Kurds are Sunni, but in general they are bad Muslims, and their rites are very different from those followed by Turks or Persians. Some Kurds who practice Christianity are almost all Nestorians. As for the pagan Kurds, they call themselves Yezidis. Ovi believe in God, Jesus Christ and the Mother of God, but to these dogmas they attach many concepts that are alien to both Christianity and Mohammedanism. They believe, for example, in the devil. They have no holy books. The dead are buried with many sticks so that they can drive away evil spirits from themselves. Old women are in great veneration with them. There will be several hundred Yezidis in the Erivan province. Another pagan sect recognizes Aliya as their god; her followers are called "Kizil-Bash", another pagan sect worships tall trees, rocks and other outstanding objects of nature. "Peoples of Russia"

The largest Transcaucasian ethnic group is the Turkic-speaking Azerbaijanis, or, as they were called in the 19th century, Transcaucasian Tatars, were incorporated into the Russian Empire as a result of the Russo-Persian wars of the early 19th century. Ethnically, the Azerbaijani people were formed from the local population of Eastern Transcaucasia and, possibly, the Iranian-speaking Medes who lived in northern Persia. In the Middle Ages, the Oghuz Turkic tribes actively participated in the formation of the Azerbaijani ethnos. At the end of the 19th century, the Transcaucasian Tatars, in addition to the territory of modern Azerbaijan, also compactly lived in Georgia, Armenia, and Dagestan.

The Tatars, although by no means as numerous in the Kura basin as the Georgians, occupy, however, almost the entire eastern part of this basin, starting from Tiflis itself. In some districts they live in a close-knit population, without mixing with other peoples; these Tatars are, in fact, Turks who have lost the name of their race. The Byzantines and Arabs united them under the common name of the Khazars, along with those tribes that lived along the banks of the Don and Volga. Among the Tatars there are all sorts of types, from the most noble to the most rude; but in general, they are hardly less beautiful and slender than their neighbors, the Kartvels. Almost everyone has a serious and stern face. The Transcaucasian Tatars, considered as a people, have such moral qualities that other inhabitants of the Caucasus do not have. Only between them can one find such rare sincerity, such honesty beyond temptation, and surprisingly cordial and refined hospitality.

Most of them are very active as pastoralists, farmers, gardeners and artisans. Also in education, in many districts they are higher than Russians, being for the most part literate. Many among them write well in Turkish - “in the language of the padishahs”, very often there are Tatars who, in addition to their language and native dialects, know two more literary languages: Arabic and Persian. The Tatars are in some respects the civilizers of the Caucasus, and their language, the proper dialect of Aderbeidzhan, serves for mutual relations between the various peoples of the Caucasus, excluding Armenians and Russians. All natives, no matter what race they belong to, are usually mistaken for Tatars, which, of course, indicates the absence of a national type. Although their religion permits them polygamy, they rarely exercise this right. Their women generally work freely, without coercion, and walk around with an open face. A remarkable feature of the Turkic population of Transcaucasia is its extreme religious tolerance. Shiites are in the majority here, but they do not oppress Sunni Muslims at all. Among the Tatars of Transcaucasia, between the two sects, there is not at all that fierce enmity towards each other, which is found in other Muslim countries. They enjoy the same tolerance on the part of Christians; in many villages with a mixed population, elders are alternately chosen from both Armenians and Tatars, in order to avoid discontent on either side. "Russia European and Asian"

The rich and fertile soil, the hot climate and the abundance of nature made the Tatars of the entire Transcaucasia an extremely lazy people. The natives are most of all inclined to trade, which does not require special activity, and often a Tatar spends his whole life in shaping a stick, in performing ablution and prayer. In the spring, a rare Tatar has food to feed himself and his family. In winter, sitting idle in his hole, he ate everything except a couple of oxen and a dozen sheep. With a pair of skinny oxen, in the month of March, the Tatar will hook the earth at random and anywhere, throw a few quarters of millet and chaltyk (millet) into it, and thus finish his field work, which, for all that, well pays off his work. The nomadic Tatars, called "tarakyama" in their way of life, do not endure either the cruelty of cold or unbearable heat, because, changing their place often and arbitrarily, they find and know well places with the same temperature. To do this, with the onset of heat, they go to the mountains, to elevated places, and in the cold they go down to the valleys, finding there new grass and rich pastures. Such a way of life is very suitable for a Tatar: satisfying, first of all, his laziness, at the same time, without any labor, he can maintain significant herds of cattle, which are the source of his means, life and wealth.

Tatars in their young years are very beautiful. A swarthy, but fresh face with regular features, black burning eyes, long eyelashes, arched eyebrows, jet black, wavy hair make them very attractive. Among the village girls come across extraordinary beauties, but, unfortunately, they themselves spoil their faces very early by excessive use of whitewash, rouge and various home-grown cosmetics. Home education imposes on the girl the obligation to be obedient and endure insults and harassment without grumbling. “This is such a girl,” the village gossips say, wanting to praise some girl, “if you cut off your hand, then she won’t make a sound.” When meeting men on the street, the girl should turn away, cover her face with her hands and not move until he passes.

Village life is generally not conducive to the rapprochement of young people of both sexes. However, among the Tatars living on the mountainous strip, girls enjoy quite a lot of freedom. Their girls freely go out of the house and even talk and flirt with young people. Unlimited freedom is enjoyed by the girls of the Tatar nomads. They spend the whole day outside the house, and it is not uncommon to see a lonely young girl grazing cattle a few miles from her haunt (kibitka). Marriage in the villages is done by calculation. Parents try to pass off their daughter as a rich man, as a result of which such inconsistencies occur: an old man of 50 or 60 years old, who has married sons and grandchildren, marries a girl of 11-13 years old, or, conversely, a boy of 6 or 7 years old marries a girl of 13-14 years old . Tatar peasants betroth their children in the cradle. In Tatar villages, one can often see such a scene: a boy of five or six years old reads a moral of the same years to a girl or beats her. You ask: “Why are you beating her?” - “She is my bride,” he answers with a proud consciousness of his rights. I once gave a five-year-old girl a piece of candy. She immediately ate one half, and carefully wrapped the other in the hem of her shirt and hid it. "For whom are you hiding?" I asked her. "For the groom!" she replied. Meanwhile, her fiancé, a boy of the same age, without pants, stood nearby and cast menacing glances in the direction of his bride. It seems that he was extremely unhappy that the girl ate half of the candy without his permission. There are times when children who have not yet been born are betrothed. This often happens when, by betrothal, they want to end a family feud that has lasted several years. Most often, Tatars arrange marriages between close relatives: a cousin marries a cousin, and a girl is more willing to marry her cousin than a stranger. A young man is ashamed if another marries his cousin, and a girl, marrying her cousin, hopes that, as a close relative, she will be guaranteed from being beaten by her husband. A Tatar father does not give any dowry to his daughter, on the contrary, he himself receives a certain amount from the groom, the so-called bride price. The amount received from the groom, which ranges from 50 to 300 rubles, the father spends entirely on his daughter, buying her dresses and items necessary for the household, very often he even applies from his own pocket. In the cities, young people choose their own brides. Urban youth are not as constrained in matters of the heart as rural ones. Collection of materials for the description of localities and tribes of the Caucasus, issue 20

The dances of the Tatars are as monotonous as their lives. A young Tatar woman, akimbo, half-covering her face with one hand and the palm of the other, begins, to the sounds of "daire", to slowly stomp on the same place, casting burning glances from under her brows at the men present, while the rest of the women, sitting in a semicircle, evenly, to the beat music, clap their hands. In the dances of women, grace, smoothness and briskness of movements do not matter. When dancing, the Tatar takes such postures or makes such movements that can only excite voluptuousness ... Collection of materials for the description of localities and tribes of the Caucasus, issue 20

About the morality of a Tatar woman is a very low concept. They are sincerely convinced that there is no absolutely moral woman in the world. In this conviction lies the reason for the Tatar's distrust of his wife and his extraordinary jealousy. He establishes strict control over his wife and forces her to lead a strictly reclusive life. There are, however, countless anecdotes about how a wife cleverly deceives her husband. It is remarkable that the Tatar is distrustful and jealous of his wife only towards his relatives and co-religionists. To non-believers, to Christians, for example, he is more condescending. Tatars, both women and girls, even in the presence of their husbands and brothers, can freely chat with Christians and flirt with them. Russian officials who deal with rural Tatars are surprised at the freedom enjoyed by the Tatars. The jealousy of the city Tatar knows no bounds. He keeps his wife locked up and does not allow her to show herself with an open face even to her closest relatives. Perhaps he is partly right, since the Tatar, as soon as she does not feel oppression over herself, morally falls and acquires lovers. A Tatar is either a husband's mistress or a common mistress. She has an innate bayadère instinct. In the lower realms of urban society, husbands turn a blind eye to the behavior of their wives and daughters. In cities inhabited by Tatars, one can often find men openly trading in their wives and daughters. In general, in this class, the moral consciousness is somehow blunted, and in some places depravity reaches terrifying proportions: bayadères, dancers come out of this environment, and this environment produces the largest percentage of prostitutes. Collection of materials for the description of localities and tribes of the Caucasus, issue 20

In the mountains of all provinces, the Tatars build their dwellings from stone, as from the cheapest material and at hand. The stone buildings of the house look like Russian ones from a distance, but always with a flat roof. The inhabitants build their houses from unhewn stone, bound together by clay and wooden beams; the flat roof of the native is covered with earth. Almost every house has something like a balcony, which consists of a room with three walls with niches, and the fourth, facing the courtyard, is not built. In this room, all the Tartar's household: kettles, chuvals, jugs, wool, oil in wineskins and a rough machine for weaving carpets. Many houses are two-storeyed: the owner and his family live in the upper one, and livestock, horses live in the lower one, and one room is intended for a pantry. Whoever has a one-story house builds a special barn for everything that fits on the lower floor. Several towers have been built in each yard, where the owners spend the night, as flies and mosquitoes do not let you fall asleep in the rooms, despite any fatigue. These towers are often two or three stories, depending on the number of family members. For the rich, the mezzanine is made like an arbor with a plank roof and is painted all over with bright colors. Of course, the best buildings of houses belong to the inhabitants of cities. The facade of the city house always turns to the side of the courtyard, and a blank wall goes out onto the street, without windows and doors. The reason for such a disgrace of the building was, in the old days, the desire to hide their property and family life from prying eyes. Every Tatar knew and had a chance to make sure that if the khan or one of his close associates saw the prosperity of the inhabitant and the cleanliness of his premises, then such a part of taxes would be imposed on him that he would be equal to his poor and dirty neighbors. If it happened that a beautiful woman or girl caught the eye of the khan, or that she dresses smartly, then he tried by all means voluntarily or by force to take away his wife from her husband, daughter from her father or sister from her brother and transfer her to his harem, and when this failed, then vengeance by all means fell on the resister. "Essay on the Caucasus and the peoples inhabiting it"

Talish, or, as they were also called, Talyshins - an Iranian-speaking ethnic group living next to Azerbaijanis in the territory of the Lankaran lowland and the Talysh mountain system. There are many centenarians among the Talysh. Record holders for years lived, famous back in Soviet times, M. Eyvazov and Sh. Muslimov, who lived 152 and 168 years, respectively, were Talysh shepherds.

The Talyshins are, without a doubt, the only natives of the Baku province who have survived from time immemorial in their impregnable corner. The Talysh dialect belongs to the family of Iranian languages ​​and comes closest to the Persian language, but is not a corrupted local dialect, but developed independently. Phonetically, it is rude, dissonant, but without hissing sounds, but rich in various vowel sounds. Talishins are of medium height, well built. Their complexion is swarthy, their expression wild, but by no means ferocious; it greatly distinguishes them from the Tatars and Persians. The nose is sharp, large, more often straight than curved; a small, round skull, decorated at the temples with curls known to the Persians. The narrow face, ending in a sharp chin with beautiful large eyes, expresses more slyness and slyness than intelligence. However, people who are well acquainted with the Talyshins really find them sluggish in concept, but cunning and not devoid of intelligence; especially easy for them to learn languages. They notice in them the absence of any attachment to their relatives. Talyshins of a meek disposition, not a warlike spirit. Meanwhile, among them there are several remarkably brave hunters who have overcome more than one tiger. The women are pretty good looking.

Talysh neighbors, shahsevens, are now considered a sub-ethnos of Azerbaijanis, although in the 19th century ethnographers were inclined to regard them as a separate nationality.

The Shahsevens, who were among the Turkic settlers in the Iranian possessions, even before the accession of Talish to Russia, settled down in the north of the present Lankaran district, and after the end of our last war with Persia, settled on the left bank of the Araks. The Shakhseven nomads glorified themselves with a rude display of force and its abuses. But with these shortcomings, their moral direction is based on good beginnings: they are hospitable, trusting and honest in transactions. Their guest is a sacred person, a warm welcome always awaits him, and on the road - an escort. There has not yet been an example of a shahseven evading honest settlements on commercial transactions; also a rare exception for open theft to go unpunished. Ethnographic essay of the Baku province

tats- Iranian-speaking people living in eastern Azerbaijan and southern Dagestan. In Soviet times, the Tats were completely wrongfully identified with the Mountain Jews. Many Mountain Jews signed up as "tatami". Therefore, according to the 1989 census, the official number of Tats almost doubled compared to 1970.

The Tats speak a language that is probably nothing more than a corrupted folk dialect of the Persian language. At the very least, they assure that the Persians easily understand the Tat language, while the Talysh language requires special study. Ethnographers believe that the Tats scattered across the Baku province are the remnants of those Iranians who settled along the Caspian coast in the 4th century AD. The Tats of the Quba district are ugly, untidy, and poor. Baku Tats are a very hardworking and industrial people. Ethnographic essay of the Baku province

Ingiloys, living in the north-west of Azerbaijan, are considered a sub-ethnos of Georgians, and their language is a dialect of Georgian. Most of the Ingiloys are Sunni Muslims, and there are Christians among them.

Udine- one of the oldest inhabitants of Azerbaijan, direct descendants of the Caucasian Albanians, who had their own state here in the II - I centuries BC. The Udi language belongs to the Lezgi branch. In the 19th century, part of the Udins who adopted the Armenian faith lost their language and assimilated with the Armenians. In the 20th century, the process of "Azerbaijanization" of the Udi population was actively going on. At present, a small number of representatives of this people live in two villages, in Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Another descendants of the ancient inhabitants of Caucasian Albania are the Shahdag peoples: kryzy, people of Budukh and Khinalug people- live in the north-east of Azerbaijan in the region of Mount Shahdag.

But not everything is so simple with the people of Khinalug. The fact is that 5 km west of the Khinalyg village there is a natural gas outlet, which is translated from the local language as "the place where the fire burns." Thanks to such a natural artifact, the people of Khinalug adhered to the Zoroastrian faith before adopting Islam, that is, they were fire worshipers.

And the most famous temple of fire worshipers in Azerbaijan - Ateshgah - is located 30 km from the center of Baku, near the village of Surakhany. Until 1902, several sources of inextinguishable fire burned in Ateshgah - natural gas, breaking out, ignited from contact with oxygen.

In the 1860s-70s, a community lived under Ateshkhyag Hindus Parsis (fire worshipers) led by a priest sent from Bombay.

And at the end of this part of the review, let's pay attention to two ethno-confessional groups of Russians living in Transcaucasia - Doukhobors and Molokan. Their habitats were villages in Javakhetia (Georgia) and in Azerbaijan.

Russian sectarians who settled in 1838, 1840 and in subsequent years on the southern side of the Caucasus Range are mostly Molokans and Dukhobors who came here from the river. Dairy, in the Taurida province. Both those and others, thanks to the harmony that prevails among them, enjoy much greater comforts of life than their neighbors, the Tatars and Georgians. But at the same time, the same well-being and moral isolation make them stick to the once established routine. In many respects they are inferior to other Slavic colonies. The Dukhobors, who are almost completely deprived of any education and know only a few religious songs from memory, are respected by everyone for their purity of morals. The Molokans are more educated, more refined, willing to trade, but less loved by their neighbors. "Russia European and Asian"

This concludes our ethnographic journey through the Caucasus and Transcaucasia in the second half of the 19th century, which took as many as 4 parts of the review. So far, Central Asia, Siberia, the Far East, and the Far North remain uncovered. We will go to one of these regions in the next part.

The Transcaucasian Tatars and the highlanders of the Dagestan and Lakhzgin mountains are completely different people. Although those and other Muslims, devoted to the law of Mohammed, they are of completely different interpretations: the highlanders are Sunnis, like Turks; and the Transcaucasian Tatars, for the most part Shiites, are like Persians. The enmity between these two sects, Sunnis and Shiites, has been going on since their very inception, since the death of the prophet, the legislator of Islam. Dying in Mecca, in 632 A.D. Mohammed did not appoint himself an heir, and he had no sons. His followers were divided: some followed the teachings of Abubakr, his stepfather, with his two sons Omar and Osman. They were recognized as the true heirs of the prophet and faithful distributors of the true teachings in the book of the Sunnah they compiled. They are called Sunnis. Others decided that Omar and Osman were impostors, introducing a schism into the faith, and that the real preachers of Islam were Ali, Mahomet's cousin, married to his own daughter, Fatima, and their sons, the great caliphs Hassan and Hussein. These were called Shiites. Because of the enmity of the descendants of Mohammed and the murder of his grandson Hussein, a bloody feud broke out, forever rooting discord in Mohammedanism.

Tatars of Baku, Elizavetpol, Erivan and partly Tiflis provinces have now become richer, especially urban ones. They are built in a common way: their houses are also several stories high, with a flat roof, differing only in different windows, large enough to fill entire walls, made of the smallest, colored glass carved with beautiful patterns. There is almost no furniture in the rooms, except for chests, and sometimes an ottoman - a very wide and low bench covered with a carpet, like among Armenians and Georgians. The latter spend their whole lives on these ottomans: they sleep on them and eat, but the Tartar can only put a visiting guest on it, while he himself sits and sleeps on the floor. For that, the poorest have carpets, while the wealthy have all their houses covered with them inside. All around the reception room goes under the very ceiling of the shelf, on which all kinds of dishes are displayed: silver, copper or clay jugs and various native utensils. In the main wall there is a fireplace, with elaborate decorations, with twisted columns. All this is only for the rich. The simply prosperous most often have one room, separated by several partitions, behind which are all the household and household belongings. There are also chests covered with felt or matting; there are also beds with blankets, tucked away for the day in purposely made niches in the walls. In one corner, richer dishes, weapons, horse harness; in another chuval with flour, tubs of cheese, pots of butter; and who is poorer, so he has the only room together and a stable and a barn. Some, instead of living quarters, have only a wooden platform at one end of a large shed, built like almost all buildings in the Caucasus, from unhewn stone. The platform is separated from the premises of horses and bulls only by carved railings. In the same way, both Greeks and Armenians live in the villages. But still, these are not the poorest Tatars, but those who have some kind of settled way of life. Most, except for some portable felt wagons for the summer, and earthen burrows for the winter, have nothing. Those traveling through the Transcaucasian plains, mountains or forests can see how green hillocks stretch on both sides of the road: children and chickens swarm between them; smoke pours out of the underground door and ragamuffins in red ram hats crawl out into the light of God. With pipes in their mouths, they gather in open places to chatter about worldly affairs: these are the Tatar saklis, the winter residences of nomads.

Since early spring, these low-lying dwellings have been abandoned: the Tatars gather their herds, pack home belongings, put old women and children on horses and bulls and go to the mountains. As it gets hotter, and the cattle eat away the grass in the vicinity, the nomad camp is removed and goes higher into the mountains, to cooler sites.
The Tatars are well aware of the terrain and climate conditions at different times of the year: it costs them nothing to take out the poles supporting the felt cover of their haunted wagon and put them on the back of a bull. Tartars value their horse too much; he does not like to give away for a pack - that is, pack animals - donkeys, mules, and bulls. He himself will sit on a horse, or a lot that his mother, or his beloved wife, will plant. Any migration is a holiday and an excuse for robbery and theft. Today they migrated past a village or village, but tomorrow the peasants or the landowner lack a few pieces of cattle here. Look for the wind in the field, sue the Tartar passerby! .. Their first merit is a clever theft and the very murder is not uncommon. It is even considered a great merit to kill a Christian. In the morning the Tatar will receive him as a dear guest; treat and, kneeling down, take off his shoes. As soon as a guest wraps up his hut or hut, the Tatar will not consider it a sin to rob him like sticky, and if necessary, he will put a dagger in his back. A Tatar girl will not marry a quiet guy who obviously did not steal anything and did not rob anyone. In other Tatar societies, it is considered shameful for a man to die a peaceful death at home. No one will regret this, while everyone mourns with great honors the one who died from wounds received in a robbery.

Every Tatar tries to have a special room in his dwelling, or at least a separate corner for women: not a single man, except the owner of the house, dares to set foot there. The position of the Tatar woman is terrible: she has no voice in the family, no rights. The husband can drive her away, exchange her for another, take her back if he wants to, beat him to his heart's content, even kill with impunity, if the government does not find out and stand up. Once there was such a thing: a Tatar tied his wife by a scythe to a tree and began to fire at her until he shot her completely. When they took him and brought him to court, he refused to plead guilty, saying that he did not want to kill, did not even aim, but only wanted to intimidate the “shaitan” (devil) who was sitting in it and drive him out. If a bullet hit her, it means that she loved Satan more than her husband and he, with her consent, sent a bullet at her himself.
“But why do you think that she had a devil in her?” they asked him.
- I know that for sure! - answered the busurman. - After every sunset, having performed namaz (prayer), I used to expel him from my wife; and always, when I approached her after praying, she trembled all over, so "he" beat her!

In the best case, the most kind husband has a wife's position that is hopeless. She is a silent, disenfranchised slave, unaware of rest. A man will never help her, he will never lay a finger on her work, even if a woman is overworked with labor before his eyes. He almost always regrets, not only his horse, which occupies an honorable place in the family of every Tatar, but any domestic animal, more than his wife.

Since the herds of sheep are the main and almost the only wealth of the Tatars, they are much more concerned about their convenience than about their own. They even have a proverb that says "He is not the master who is not the servant of his ram." And a rare Tatar would not exchange all his wives for a good horse. Still would! the wife is almost always a traitor, and there is one everywhere; and a good horse is a true friend of a rider-dzhigit! his breadwinner is on the run, his savior is in danger.

A jigit - a daring and a rider - every Tatar strives to be, starting from 10 years old. Dzhigitovka, that is, a jump, is together the glory and pleasure of a Tatar. On a holiday, the Tatars go to the nearest meadow and horseback riding begins - a daring gallop with shooting, with capsizing under the horse's belly, with tossing weapons. At full gallop, flying at breakneck speed, the horseman and the gun loads, holding his hat in his shirts, and shoots at the target without a miss, and at once, as if falling, he bends to the ground, picks up his dad, and sometimes a small coin thrown into the dust of the road; then instantly straightens up in the stirrups and rushes again, waving a weapon over a hammered head, or, stretching out to its full length on the back of a horse, barely holds on to its mane and flies, pretending to be a dead body.

The agility of the Tatars on horseback is amazing! In the Caucasus, they have no rivals in riding, as well as in theft. They themselves admit that they have neither a commoner, nor a bek (nobleman), nor an agalar (prince), nor even a khan who would not be a thief and did not consider robbery to be daring. In the same way, despite the fact that if it happened to a Tatar, sometime in the morning or in the evening, not to pray, not to pray at sunrise and sunset, he would consider himself a lost sinner, each of them does not think about taking a false oath. They consider it neither sinful nor dishonorable to give false testimony in court.

Meanwhile, this people also has good sides. He is brave, will not betray those who trust him and is capable of development and change for the better where he sees justice for himself and respect for his feelings, faith and laws. The Transcaucasian Sunnis are even very submissive to the authorities and devoted to the Russians, on the grounds that in the Koran, the holy book of Mohammedan laws, it is ordered to obey the authorities, especially Sardar, the Tsar. The Shiites are worse in this case: they claim that this is commanded only about the Muslim Sardar. Everyone who has lived for a long time among the Transcaucasian Tatars knows among them good, kind, grateful and memoryful people. The whole thing lies more in their peculiar and perverse concepts.

There were two well-known robbers in Tiflis, the Tatars Ibrahim and Mansur. The first was hanged for crimes; the second was killed in a fight with the Zemstvo police. Meanwhile, these two monsters, famous for murders and robberies, spent about ten years of their lives calmly and honestly - all the time they had a good, fair boss. This smart and kind man rescued Ibrahim and Mansur from prison, taking them on bail; brought them closer to him, like policemen; he gave them orders, using their influence on other Tatars, and trusted them so much that, when leaving, he entrusted his family and the whole house to their protection. And they lived, I must say, in the most robbery area. The colonel was the county chief in Borchaly. The Borchaly Tatars are the most restless in the whole region. Meanwhile, while their beloved leader was alive, the robbers not only led an honest life themselves, but helped him with their influence and knowledge of their people and customs, which has never been so calm in Borchaly, neither before nor after. When this colonel died, an absurd, arrogant person was appointed in his place, who did not want to look at the Tatars as people and began to treat Mansur and his comrade cruelly, thinking to intimidate them. They were not afraid of him, but left, disappeared, and terrible robberies began again between Tiflis and Elizavetpol. But here's what is worthy of amazement: for several years, until Ibrahim was caught and Mansur was ruined, the widow and children of the late colonel now and then, no one knows where and from whom help came, without which it would be very difficult for them to exist. Both Tatars knew that an honest Russian family would not use the loot of their own free will, so they came up with their own gifts to deliver so that no one would know about it. The colonel's widow and children used to get up in the morning, and in their yard, during the night, God sent profits: several rams were tied; now a purse with a domestic bird, now a chuval of flour or rice, tubs of butter or cheese. Two or three times Mansur, who especially loved the family of his benefactor, even visited them. All the children loved him very much, especially one boy of about twelve, whom the Tatar almost nursed in his arms. How many times the colonel asked him, persuaded him to obey, to surrender to the mercy of the government ... "No! He said: Sardar is far away, and his generals will not believe me: there is no other like your husband was! .." They both ended badly. Ibrahim was captured by the Cossacks, and Mansur was shot dead. After the death of these Tatar robbers, there was no doubt that they delivered supplies to a poor family, because they stopped immediately and forever. Thus, among the Tatars, not all are heartless predators, but there are kind people and memory for good. However, there are two tribes of Tatars in Transcaucasia, who are known for being quiet and hardworking: these are Shekintsy and Talyshintsy, in the Baku province. There are no robberies between them at all, and theft or arbitrariness is a rarity.

The Crimean Khan Kiplan Giray conquered Kabarda very quickly, unexpectedly appearing there with his army. Unprepared for defense and confused from a sudden attack. Kabardians declared obedience. Khan took hostages from them and stayed for some time in Kabarda. He stationed his army in villages. There were two Crimeans in each yard. The Tatars mocked the poor Kabardians in every possible way. After dinner, the latter had to, as a sign of humility, harness themselves to carts and carry their guests until they got bored. In the evenings, the Tatars went from house to house and examined Kabardian women to take them to them.
This went on for about half a year. Half of the Crimean troops were camped on Mount Dagger, at the foothills of Elbrus. The Kabardians drove cattle there to feed their enemies.
In the village of Ashabovo lived a noble Kabardian named Minshak Ashabov, while the prince of the Kabardians was Kurgoko Atazhukin. One Crimean pasha noticed that Meishak had a beautiful wife and ordered that she be brought to him. In the evening, people came to Minshak for his wife, but he refused to give her up. The next day they called Minshak to the khan, who put his big pipe on Minshak's head, turning it upside down with burning ashes and holding it until the fire in the pipe burned out; Minshak stood without batting an eyelid, as if he didn't feel any pain, marveling at his firmness. spirit, the khan let him go home.

On the river Mazekha, the right tributary of the Malka, stood the village of Karmov. There were two brothers here. Khan himself visited them and was married to their sister. This khan had a pelyuan (wrestler), whom no one could hitherto defeat. Once the khan ordered to enclose a place for wrestling with a wattle fence and to let know by auds who wants to fight with the pelyuan. The Karmov brothers had a peasant - Bey, who was so strong that, going into the forest, to cut down the hubs, wheel rims and all the wooden accessories of the cart, he tied it to a large beam and carried it on his shoulders, not feeling heavy, as if it were a bundle of firewood. This Bey wanted to fight the khan's pelyuan. The fight has begun. Peluan himself screamed and roared like a lion, challenging rivals. Behind him sat the khan smoking from a long pipe. Suddenly, Bey approached the pelyuan, grabbed it with muscular hands, lifted it up and threw it on the ground with such force that the pelyuan only groaned in pain, lying barely alive. Khan, who did not expect anything like this, was so amazed that he jumped up, rushed at Bey and hit him in the head.

This and other actions revolted the conscience of the Kabardians and their hatred against enemies grew. They called the heralds of the princes to a meeting, listed all the insults from the Tatars and decided the next night to kill all the Tatars located in the houses of the Kabardians. Bey was at the head of the dissatisfied. At night, he broke into the house of the Karmov brothers, killed the khan with his saber and raised a rebellion. Kabardians under the command of Prince Kurgoko also attacked the Tatars' camp. They destroyed half of the army, and put the rest to flight. Thus ended the domination of the Tatars in the Caucasus in 1703.

Farforovsky S. Tatars in the Caucasus (According to the legends of the Kabardians). Russian archive. M., 1915, book. 2, no. 7, p. 260-261.

BATTLE AT MOUNTAIN DAGGER

Years flow like water in a river, but the memory of past times is alive among the people. This legend tells about the fierce battle of the Kabardians with the hordes of the Crimean Khan.
It was in the foothills of Elbrus - where Mount Dagger separates the Baksan and Malka rivers.
In 17**, Khan Giray invaded Kabarda with a large army. Enemies brought with them a lot of grief. Taken by surprise, the Kabardians were unable to fight back.

The hardship was hard. The invaders behaved in the Kabardian villages like at home: they imposed tribute on the inhabitants, the most beautiful women were forcibly taken as their wives, men were forced to work for themselves and harnessed to carts instead of horses.
Bread, cattle, sheep, horses - everything that caught my eye was selected by the khan's pickers. The Crimean army, encamped at Mount Dagger, kept the inhabitants in submission and fear.
For a long time the people endured all the torments, but at last their patience was exhausted. Once, Kabardians gathered in one of the villages and began to hold advice: what to do next? And they decided:
- We will send our messengers to the khan. Let them ask that they reduce the tribute and order their people not to be self-willed like that.
Prince Kurgoko was chosen as the chief among the messengers - brave, resolute, direct in character.
A little time passed - and the Kabardian ambassadors arrived in the Crimea. They brought rich gifts to the khan. Khan accepted the gifts and asked why the ambassadors had come.
Then Kurgoko stepped forward and said:
- Your pickers are ruining our auls. The people were exhausted and sent us to ask you: reduce the amount of tribute and let us pay it ourselves. And so that your word is inviolable, give us a letter about it.
The Khan listened, sitting on velvet cushions with his legs tucked under him, his face dark with anger.
When Kurgoko had finished his speech, Giray sat silently for a long time, pondering his answer and looking askance at the Kabardians standing in front of him. And then he said through his teeth:
- Good. Go to Kabarda and announce to the people about my mercy.
The Kabardians drove back satisfied, believing the promise. But while they were getting home, the khan's gatherers were ahead of them. Giray ordered them to collect tribute three times more than before. Moaning and crying stood in the villages when the ambassadors of the people returned there.

Soon the khan himself arrived in Kabarda. Among his bodyguards was one Peluan, of enormous stature and extraordinary strength. No one could defeat him, and the khan was very proud of this.
Once Girey ordered to fence a place for wrestling with a wattle fence and call a call to the villages: would any of the Kabardians want to measure their strength with his peluan.
For a long time there was no hunter to fight with such a strong man, but then a peasant named Bey came from one village. Bey was very strong. He could lift the arba with one hand, like a bundle of firewood. Looking at the vaunted Crimean strongman, Bey grinned and volunteered to fight.
The day of the fight has come. The people gathered darkness-darkness. Khan sat in a conspicuous place, smoking from a long pipe. Peluan stood grinning smugly, his chest like a wheel, his legs like logs.

Bey stepped out of the crowd, stopped in front of Peluan, and before he had time to come to his senses, the peasant grabbed him, easily lifted him up, swung and threw him to the ground with force. Peluan remained motionless: Bey knocked the spirit out of him.
Beside himself with anger, the khan ran up to Bey and hit the pipe so hard on the head that it pierced it. Bay fell. The Kabardians lifted the peasant up and carried him away. Women bandaged Bey's head, applied healing herbs. After seven days, the wound healed.
And the khan's collectors continued to rob the people without hesitation. Then the elders gathered for a secret council. We discussed for a long time and decided:
- I can't take it anymore. We must exterminate the enemies.
Khan and his bodyguards were invited to one of the richest houses in the village. Suspecting nothing, the Krymchaks ate and drank and, as always, mocked the Kabardians. Night fell, and the drunken guests fell asleep. At a signal from Kurgoko, the beating of the enemies began. Bey killed several of Giray's bodyguards, but the khan himself managed to escape to the Crimea.
In the meantime, the Kabardians under the command of Kurgoko attacked the Khan's camp near Mount Dagger. Half of the Krymchaks were killed right there.” The survivors took to their heels along the gorge, but the Kabardians overtook them and drowned them in Malka. The rest were herded into a pine forest in the Lahran valley. Almost all the enemies were killed there under the blows of Kabardian sabers.
After the battle near Mount Dagger, Kurgoko gathered the people and ordered to bring the prisoners, whom the Kabardians deliberately left alive. He told them:
- Go to the Crimea and tell your khan about everything you have seen and heard. And also say that we no longer recognize his authority.

Upon learning of what had happened, the enraged Khan sent a large army to Kabarda.
Giray's army was stationed where the Kich-Malka river flows into the Malka. It was here that a battle broke out, which had never happened before on Kabardian soil.
There were twenty Krymchaks for one Kabardian, but people fought bravely, preferring death to the shame of captivity. Children stood next to the adults, and the ancient old men took up arms.
The enemies could not withstand the onslaught of the Kabardians and fled. The Kabardians drove them to Mount Dagger and killed almost all of them. Only the pitiful remnants of Giray's army returned to the Crimea.
So the people were freed from the khan's oppression. Mount Dagger is still considered to be a glorious monument of the heroic battle of the Kabardians with the Crimean conquerors.

Akritas P., Stefaneeva E. Legends of the Caucasus. Nalchik, 1958. S. 58-61.