Chapter 4

Lezgins are a people historically living in the southern regions of modern Dagestan and in the north of Azerbaijan. The number of Lezgins in Russia is 473.7 thousand people. (According to the 2010 census), the number of Lezgins in Azerbaijan is estimated differently: from 180,000 according to official data to 800,000 according to Lezgin organizations. There is another large Lezgi community (about 40 thousand people) in Turkey.

The Lezgi language belongs to the Nakh-Dagestan language family.

The religion of the Lezgins is Sunni Islam.

Anthropologically modern Lezgins are representatives of the Caucasian type.

In honor of the Lezgins, the famous dance of the peoples of the Caucasus, the Lezginka, is named.

7th place: Kamran Mammadov- judoka, master of sports of international class. Born in 1967 in the city of Qusar (Azerbaijan). Kamran began his sports career in 1980, when he first came to the Qusar Children and Youth Sports School at the age of 13 and began to practice judo. Already in 1983, Kamran took 1st place in the championship of Azerbaijan. In 1984, he took 1st place at the 16th interschool sports contest in Tashkent. Kamran Mammadov is also a multiple winner of international tournaments in Moscow, Paris, Berlin, Chisinau, Minsk, Kyiv. 1985 - 3rd place in youth sports games in Kyiv; 1989 - 2nd place in the USSR championship in Alma-Ata; 1990 - 1st place in the World Cup in Caracas, Venezuela.

6th place: Suleiman Kerimov- Russian businessman, member of the Federation Council from Dagestan. Controls the financial and industrial group "Nafta Moscow", owns the football club "Anji". Born March 12, 1966 in the city of Derbent, Dagestan, Russia.

5th place: Serder Serderov- Russian football player, forward of the Makhachkala football club "Anji" and the youth team of Russia. Born March 10, 1994 in Makhachkala, Dagestan, Russia.

4th place: Osman Efendiev- a representative of a well-known wrestling dynasty, which began with his father Suleiman and uncle Sultan, and which today is continued by the grandchildren of these outstanding carpet masters in the past, who stood at the origins of freestyle wrestling as a sport in Dagestan. Osman worthily continued the family tradition, he was a finalist of the World Cup and the winner of the European Championship, he won the national championship and the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR.

3rd place: Emre Belözoglu- Turkish footballer, midfielder. Born September 7, 1980 in Istanbul. Player of the Fenerbahce club and the Turkish national team. Included in the FIFA 100 list.

2nd place: Arif Mirzakuliev- Soviet and Azerbaijani actor. Born on June 6, 1931 in Baku. He starred in only two films, which later became very popular throughout the Soviet Union "Meeting" in 1955 and "Not that one, then this one" in 1956.

history of lezgins video, history of lezgins
- the history of the Lezgi people from ancient times to the present day.

• 1 History of the ethnonym
  • 1.1 "Legs" and "Lacks"
  • 1.2 Ethnonym "Lezghins"
• 2 Questions of the ethnogenesis of the Lezgins
  • 2.1 Versions of the Lezgin ethnogenesis in pre-revolutionary Russia
  • 2.2 Linguistic data
  • 2.3 Anthropological evidence
  • 2.4 Role of Caucasian Albania
• 3 Middle Ages
• 4 Mongol invasion
• 5 Fight against the Safavids
• 6 Lezgi free societies
• 7 State of Haji Dawood Mushkursky
• 8 part of the Russian Empire
  • 8.1 Caucasian War
    • 8.1.1 Kyurin Khanate
  • 8.2 Rebellion of 1877
  • 8.3 Late 19th - early 20th centuries
• 9 Revolution. Civil War. Soviet period
• 10 Lezgins in Azerbaijan
• 11 Movement for the creation of a unified Lezgi state entity
• 12 Sayings about Lezgins
• 13 See also
• 14 Notes
• 15 Literature

History of the ethnonym

"Legi" and "Laks"

Around the question of the origin of the ethnonym "Lezghins" there are still disputes. Nevertheless, most researchers deduce the ethnonym "Lezgin" from the ancient "Legi" and the early medieval "Lakzi". middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. in eastern Transcaucasia, an Albanian tribal union was formed, uniting 26 tribes that spoke different languages ​​of the Nakh-Dagestan family. These included Albans, Gels (Aguls), Legs, Utii (Udins), Gargars, Chilbs, Silvas, Lpins, Tsods and others. Strabo, referring to Pompey's companion Theophanes of Mytilene, writes that "between the Amazons and Albans live Gels and Legs - Scythians", and Plutarch, speaking of "Amazons", notes that "between them and Albans live Gels and Legs". According to one of the leading experts on the history of Caucasian Albania K. V. Trever:

Mentioned next to the gels, the legs lived, apparently, in the mountainous regions of the river basin. Samur, north of the Udins and Albanians. The fact that Strabo calls the Legs and Gels Scythians gives reason to believe that ethnically these mountain tribes differed from the Udins and Albans.

K. Uslar identifies the ancient Leks with modern Lezgins: “Lezgins, leagues, Leks gave their name to the mountain range separating the Kura basin from the Rion basin. Colchis was sometimes even called by the poets Lygistika, that is, the land of the leagues. It is highly probable that the leagues that Herodotus speaks of were Lezgins. According to the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron, published at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, the Laks (that is, the Laks) are “classical legs (Λήγες), at the end of the 8th century. were subjugated by the Arab commander Abumuslim, who established Islam among them and gave their country to the control of one of the descendants of the prophet, Shah-Baal, who received the title of shamkhal and wali (that is, governor) of Dagestan. The famous Soviet ethnographer L. I. Lavrov wrote about this:

It is difficult to say, however, whether the "legs" mentioned by ancient and early medieval authors are the ancestors of modern Laks, or so they called (as later - "Lezgins") in general all Dagestan highlanders. There are more reasons to consider “Gumiks” as Laks, a people mentioned by Arab authors of the 9th-10th centuries Baladzori and Masudi. According to their information, the Gumiks lived approximately on the same territory occupied by the Laks.

At the same time, L. I. Lavrov noted: “We find the oldest news about the Lezgins from ancient authors who mention the Lezgi people living in the eastern Caucasus. Arab authors of the 9th-10th centuries knew the "kingdom of the Leks" in southern Dagestan. Researcher S. V. Yushkov wrote that “apparently, the country of the Legs was part of Albania. Legi, if they are considered the ancestors of the Lezgins, should live along the Samur, that is, south of Derbent, and at present, not one of the Lezgin peoples lives north of the latitude of this ancient city. As Kh. Kh. Ramazanov and A. R. Shikhsaidov note, “the Gels or Legs cannot be attributed to any one people. Most likely, these ethnonyms should be understood as the Dagestan peoples in general, including representatives of the Lezgi group of languages.

An Arab traveler from Granada, Abu Hamid al-Garnati, who visited at the beginning of the 12th century. in Dagestan, mentions the Lakzan language among the local languages. V. F. Minorsky believed that the term “lakz” “consists of “lak” (“lag” - “man” in local languages) plus the Iranian suffix “z”, showing the origin. In Russian, the word "Lezg-in" (with metathesis) was used without distinction in relation to all the inhabitants of Dagestan, but in local use and among Arab geographers this term is applied only to the tribes of Southern Dagestan. General of the Russian army Maksud Alikhanov-Avarsky wrote that the term "Lak" is the origin of the Georgian leki, classical legi, Arabic lakzy, Persian Lazgi, Turkish Lezgi and Russian Lezghins.

Ethnonym "Lezghins"

The current Lezgins themselves call themselves Lezgi (singular), Lezgiar (plural). The term "Lezgi" has been known in written sources since the 12th century, but this name was not in the past a self-name for a separate Dagestan nationality, it was "completely alien to the Dagestan highlanders." The Persian historian Rashid ad-Din, who lived in the 13th century, first used the term "Lezgistan" in the general Dagestan sense. The same term was called Dagestan by Eastern authors. As you know, the Arab geographer Zakaria Kazvini in 1275 spoke of the Tsakhur aul Tsakhur as "the main city of the Lezgin country." According to A.N. Genko:

The identification of the “main city of the Lezghin country” with modern Tsakhur, from the point of view of an accurate ethnographic classification, could, at first glance, be prevented by the belonging of modern Tsakhurians to a special language group that is different from Lezgins ... that Kazvini Shinaz (a town from among the cities of the Lezgins) called by the same Zakariy is also not a Lezgin in the strict sense of the term, but a village Rutul in language. This last circumstance and a number of other data of Arab geographers, cosmographers and historians leave no doubt about the broader meaning of the term "Lezgin" in Muslim sources of the 9th-13th centuries. compared to modern.

In pre-revolutionary Russia and among the Turks, the name "Lezgins" was used to refer to numerous mountain tribes that inhabited the Dagestan region and partly the southern slope of the Main Caucasian Range. Among Russians, this name was used in relation to the southern Dagestanis, while the northern ones were called Tavlins (mainly Avars). Bartold writes about this: “The Russians, apparently, also initially called Lezgins only the peoples of Southern Dagestan, as opposed to the mountain peoples of the northern regions (tauli - from the Turkic tau “mountain”).” Interesting information was cited by the Russian general A.V. Komarov, who served as the chief of staff of the Dagestan region: “The entire eastern part of Dagestan is occupied by a special large tribe known as the kura. The Kyurs ... are divided into two parts: 1) the inhabitants of the former Kyura khanate Getegar, from the name of the village of Chekhe-Getal, which was previously considered the main one in Kura: and the second - Akhsagar, from the village of Akhsa (Akhty), which was considered the main one in the Samur valley. ... On the plane, they are generally called Lezgins. Explaining the word "Lezgin", E. I. Kozubsky notes that according to some sources in Turkish it is read as "mountain dweller", according to others, in an unknown language - "robber", and according to others it is a distorted Georgian word "legi " and means "highlander"; according to Derbent Muslim scholars, the name "Lezghins" is widespread by the Arabs and is "la-zagi", that is, unclean, opposing the inhabitants of the coastal plain, who converted to Islam before others. D. B. Butaev produced the ethnonym Lezgins from the Lak word "laksa" - high. I. Kh. Abdullayev and K. Sh. Mikailov write that the term Lezgi, which denoted Dagestanis in the Azerbaijani language,

... first of all, he referred to the closest neighbors, to the tribes of the modern Lezgi people, and in the places where the Kyurins (Lezgins) and Azerbaijanis lived together, it was the terms Lezgi and not Lezgi (that is, Azerbaijanis) that were used. In addition, the Azerbaijani language was widely spoken among the peoples of Southern Dagestan. Under these conditions, the Kyurin tribes began to call themselves in communication with the Azerbaijanis by the ethnonym Lezgi, which over time became the self-name of a separate South Dagestan people - modern Lezgins.

Gasan Alkadari, a well-known Dagestan scholar, Lezgin by origin, noted: “At present, in addition to groups speaking Azerbaijani and Jagatai Turkic languages, the rest of the Muslims are called Lezgins, and all their languages ​​are called Lezgin languages. It is also known that the word Lezgi is used with a permutation of G and Z in the form of Legzi, since in Arabic dictionaries this name is translated in the last form. The famous Ottoman traveler of the 17th century, Evliya Chelebi, testified to such use when describing Malaya Kabarda: “South of Mount Elbrus lives a people of the Christian faith, which is called Lezgi or Legzi. They have fifty thousand warriors subordinate to the Persians. The Russian and Soviet philologist and Caucasian scholar N. Ya. Marr emphasized: “Lezgins are a generic name, it embraces all the peoples and tribes of the Lezgin branch of the North Caucasian Japhetids in Dagestan and the Zakatala district.” From about the second half of the 19th century, the Kyurintsy began to use the ethnonym Lezgi as their ethnic self-name. About the fact that already in the 1860s the term Lezgins began to be used as a self-name of one of the Dagestan peoples, P. K. Uslar writes:

A. Dirr also mentions the absence of a common ethnic name among modern Lezgins, emphasizing that, like the Avars, "... Khyurkilins (that is, Dargins) and Kyurins also do not have an ethnic name." R. M. Magomedov wrote: “Even on the eve of the revolution, Lezgins did not always call themselves Lezgins, but said that he was from Kurush; others called themselves kurintsy. The Akhtyns called themselves Akhtsakhars. In relation to the current people, the term "Lezghins" began to be used from the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, using the exoethnonymic traditions of Azerbaijanis in relation to the Dagestanis and, above all, to the Lezgins themselves. After 1920, the ethnonym "Lezgins" turned into the name of one of the mountain peoples of Dagestan, known as the Kyurintsy. Kyurintsy is a special name invented by Uslar for Lezgins.

The use of the ethnonym Lezgins was also mentioned in the Small Soviet Encyclopedia of 1931: “Lezgins, a name that is incorrectly attributed to all the mountain peoples of Dagestan. L., in a more correct sense of the word, is the Lezgin (Kyurin) group of Dagestan peoples, which includes the Lezgi (Lezgins, or Kyurintsy, in the narrow sense of the word).

Issues of the ethnogenesis of the Lezgins

Versions of the Lezgi ethnogenesis in pre-revolutionary Russia

It was said above about the history, development / formation of the ethnonym "Lezghins". Regarding the ethnogenesis of the Lezgi people, it does not remain completely clear. pre-revolutionary sources and early studies cited various points of view regarding the origin of the peoples of the Lezgin language group, including the Lezgins themselves. The authors of "Tarihi Derbent-name" considered the Lezgins to be the descendants of the Hunnic tribes. According to Bakikhanov, the inhabitants of the Lezgi village of Mikrakh, as well as the inhabitants of the Lak village of Kumukh, “belong to the remnants of the Russ (or Slavs) tribe who moved here during the rule of the Khazars,” and “the inhabitants of the part of Tabasaran, the western side of the Kuba district, the Samur district and the Kyurinsky possession , for the most part, consist of ancient peoples mixed with later newcomers. A. Berger in 1858 put forward a version about the Indian origin of the Lezgins. This version is based on some anthropological similarity of the Dagestanis with representatives of the Burishki (Burishi) tribe in the north-west of Hindustan. At the beginning of the 20th century, K. M. Kurdov expressed the opinion that the Kyurintsy (that is, the Lezgins) "... were miscegenated by representatives of the Semitic family, mainly Mountain Jews." According to Evgraf Savelyev, the Dagestanis are “the most numerous and brave people in the entire Caucasus; they speak, actually Samur, in a light, sonorous language of the Aryan root, but thanks to influence, starting from the 8th century. according to R. Chr. Arab culture, which gave them their script and religion, as well as the pressure of the neighboring Turkic-Tatar tribes, have lost a lot of their original nationality and now represent an amazing, difficult to study mixture with Arabs, Avars, Kumyks, Tarks, Jews and others.

In 1899, the Norman Dane V. Thomsen, studying the Asia Minor relations of the peoples of the Caucasus, noticed: in the North Caucasian (Lezgin) languages, the plural of nouns is formed through -r, -ru, -ri, -ar.

But also in Swedish through -ar, -or, -er, -n: draken (dragon), dragons - drakar. Bay, bay - vik, bays, bays - vikar. Danish through -er, -e, -r: Vikings - vikinger. Norwegian - close to Danish. Lezgins call themselves Lezgiar. Lezginka "originally was the dance of warriors", she is "the prototype of ancient ritual dances in the Caucasus." According to Sturluson, the ancestors of the Vikings lived in the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov and the Caucasus, and the priest and historian P. A. Florensky considered the ancient Caucasian Albanians to be close to the Phoenicians and Lezgins.

Linguistic Data

In fact, the origin of the Lezgins, as well as the neighboring mountain peoples, should be considered comprehensively, taking into account the data of linguistic, archaeological, anthropological and ethnographic works. Lezgins speak a language belonging to the Lezgin branch of the Nakh-Dagestan language family. Linguists believe that the representatives of this family are interconnected by a common origin and are the oldest inhabitants of the Caucasus. In connection with this, the question of the existence of a single proto-language is acute, which over time broke up into many other languages. E. A. Bokarev suggests that such a parent language-base existed in an era not closer than the III millennium BC. e., during the Eneolithic period. Therefore, H. Kh. Ramazanov and A. R. Shikhsaidov indicate that in the III millennium BC. e. the Lezgin language group stands out from the common Dagestan proto-language, further breaking up into separate languages.

Considering the significant proximity of Agul with the Lezghin and Tabasaran languages, Z.K. Tarlanov suggests that the ancient Eastern Lezghin dialect, which was part of the Lezghian parent language, broke up relatively late into separate East Lezghian languages ​​- Lezghin proper, Tabasaran and Agul. Based on the Swadesh methodology, he comes to the assumption that this happened somewhere at the turn of our era, but “with a more rigorous selection of units of the total pool, the coincidences are 35% and the boundaries of the selection of the same languages ​​are moved back, respectively, to the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e.".

The hypotheses put forward long ago about the relationship of modern North Caucasian languages ​​with the most ancient languages ​​of Western Asia have received serious confirmation. So, I. Dyakonov and S. Starostin discovered over 100 common roots between the Hurrian-Urartian and Nakh-Dagestan languages, which showed the undoubted kinship of the Hurrian and Urartian (which already existed separately from each other in the third millennium BC) languages ​​with modern East North Caucasian (Nakh-Dagestan), especially with Lezgi and Vainakh.

Anthropological data

A number of authors (Ikhilov, Shikhsaidov and Ramazanov), touching separately on the issue of the ethnogenesis of the peoples of the Lezgi group, also touch upon their anthropological nature. Back in the 19th century, Russian anthropologist Ivan Pantyukhov believed that "the main mass of Lezgins has some common or characteristic features that distinguish them both from their closest neighbors and from all other known peoples." Anthropological studies have revealed in the Caucasus the Caucasian type, which includes the inhabitants of western and central Dagestan (Avars with Ando-Dido peoples, Laks, Dargins), and the Caspian subtype, represented among the peoples of southeastern Dagestan, in particular among Azerbaijanis and in a mixed form (approaching the Caucasian), in the Lezgin-speaking groups and among the Kumyks. According to G. F. Debets, the peoples of Dagestan were formed as a result of a mixture of two types of the Caucasus: Caucasian and Caspian. For his part, V.P. Alekseev, noting that “some Lezgin-speaking groups are moving closer to the Caucasian peoples,” finds that connections with the population of Azerbaijan played in the ethnogenetic process of the Lezgins. In connection with this, he concludes: “It can be thought that the origins of ethnogenesis included in the area of ​​the Caspian type date back both to the local autochthonous population of these regions, and to immigrants from the more southern zone.” M. Sh. Rizakhanova in her report “On the issue of the ethnogenesis of the Lezgins” makes the following conclusion:

The current Lezgins were formed by mixing the Caucasian type of the local population with the Caspian type of the southern peoples. In the future, the pivotal process of the formation of the Lezgin ethnos and the development of its culture went through continuous cultural and ethnic communication with other Dagestan tribes, as well as the tribes of Transcaucasia, Western and Asia Minor. This is clearly confirmed by the cultural commonality and continuity of objects of material and spiritual culture.

Role of Caucasian Albania

In the middle of the first millennium BC. e. in eastern Transcaucasia, an Albanian tribal union was formed, uniting 26 tribes that spoke different languages ​​of the Nakh-Dagestan family. Among these tribes were the Legs and the Gels, which were mentioned above. According to Robert Heusen, the Albanian tribes were mostly of autochthonous Caucasian origin, although one cannot be sure that this applies to all 26 tribes. It is generally accepted that the peoples of the Lezgi language group were part of Caucasian Albania. The extinct Aghvan (Caucasian-Albanian) language, at least, belonged to the Lezgi branch, representing, according to the general opinion of researchers, the old state of the Udi language. The exact time of the disappearance of the Albanians as independent tribes is unknown, but, according to researchers, by the 9th century, the concepts of "Albania" and "Albanian" had already become largely historical. The Caucasian Albanians themselves participated in the process of ethnogenesis of the Lezgins. Ikhilov believes that as a result of the invasion of the invaders, which caused the political and ethnic collapse of Caucasian Albania, “part of the Albanian-Lezghian tribes left the coastal regions and went deep into the mountains of the southern spurs of the Caucasus, creating original ethnic societies there. Over time (V-X centuries) in the language, life and culture of these societies, due to economic and political isolation, their own characteristics developed. This is how the Lezghin, Rutul, Tsakhur and Agul languages ​​​​and nationalities developed.

Middle Ages

Information about the early history of the Lezgins is closely related to the history of their places of residence. It is known that by the year 722 the message of the Arab author about the “country of Lakz” refers, which by the 10th century covered the territory occupied by speakers of the Lezgin languages, including the Lezgins themselves.

In 654, the Arabs captured Derbent, although until 735 Derbent was the scene of fierce battles between the Arabs and the Khazars. And only in 735 did the Arabs manage to make Derbent their military and administrative center of the Arab Caliphate in Dagestan, as well as the largest trading center and port, the center of the spread of Islam in Dagestan, and remained so until the 10th-12th centuries. period of the late 12th - early 13th centuries. Derbent exists as an independent feudal possession - the Derbent Emirate. Minted its own coin. 1239 The Derbent emirate is part of the Golden Horde, ending its existence as an independent possession, and in 1437 it became a province of the state of the Shirvanshahs.

Regarding the territory of the emirate, Garnati notes that the Derbent principality then stretched to the south for several tens of kilometers and included the city of Shabran in its borders, to the west it extended no further than the nearest mountain gorges, and in the north it included part of the Tabasaran lands.

Relations between the Derbent emirate, Shirvan and Lakz are also interesting. Thus, Professor R. Magomedov writes: “When determining relations between the principality of Derbent, Lakz, Shirvan, internecine strife cannot be considered a defining motive. The facts testify that the peoples of the Derbent Principality, Lakza felt their closeness to the Shirvan population and sensitively listened to the events in Shirvan. When nomadic Dailamites entered Shirvan, Shirvanshah Yazid turned to Derbent with a request for help, and the population of Derbent helped him, and the Dailamites were expelled from Shirvan.

Mongol invasion

At the beginning of the 13th century, as a result of the conquests of Genghis Khan and his successors, a vast Mongolian state was formed in Central Asia. During 1220 and 1222, Mongol hordes rush through the territory of Transcaucasia. In 1221, the Mongols sacked the city of Beylagan and slaughtered its population. Then, imposing tribute to Ganja, they moved towards Georgia. The Arab historian Ibn al-Athir described the devastation of Shamakhi by the Mongols:

Upon returning from the country of the Kurds, the Tatars went to Derbend of Shirvan, besieged the city of Shemakha and fought with its inhabitants, but they withstood the siege. However, the Tatars climbed its wall by stairs, and according to others, they gathered a lot of camels, cows, small livestock, etc., as well as the corpses of those killed, both their own and others, and, putting one on top of the other, formed something like a hill , having risen to which, they occupied a position dominating the city and entered into battle with its inhabitants. for three days, the inhabitants withstood the strongest battle, and when one day they were almost taken, they said to themselves: “You won’t get away from the sword anyway, so it’s better for us to stand firm, at least we will die with honor”; and they stood firm that night, and since the corpses decomposed and slept, the Tatars no longer dominated the city and could not fight.

However, they again moved to the city wall and resumed the battle. This exhausted the inhabitants, and since they were terribly tired and weak, the Tatars took the city, killed a lot of people in it, plundered it and committed (all sorts of) atrocities.

After that, the Mongols head to Derbent and, having passed through it, head north. On their way, they met the resistance of the mountaineers. Ibn al-Asir described: “Having passed Derbend-Shirvan, the Tatars entered the regions in which there are many nationalities; Alans, Laks, and several Turkic tribes (ta’ifa), robbed and killed many Laks - Muslims and unbelievers, and massacred the inhabitants of those countries who met them with hostility and reached the Alans, consisting of many nationalities. Piotrovsky writes: “It should be noted that under the laks, Ibn Al-Athir means not only the inhabitants of Southern Dagestan (as earlier Arab authors did), but all the inhabitants of the mountainous regions of Dagestan, regardless of their ethnicity.”

In 1231, the Mongols invaded the Caucasus for the second time, plundered Maraga, and turned Ganja into ruins. Then they stormed and destroyed Derbent, turning it into their camp, from where they made incursions into the mountainous regions of the Eastern Caucasus. Yes, prof. A. Shikhsaidov writes: “The path of the Mongolian troops from Derbent to Kumukh lay through the Lezghin regions along the route: Derbent-Tabasaran-Kasumkent-Khiv (or Kurakh)-Richa-Chirag-Kumukh.”

Fight against the Safavids

Lezgi free societies

In the XV-XVII centuries. there is a process of unification of Lezgi lands. Around larger and stronger villages, small villages unite, forming a union of rural communities, the so-called free societies. In Dagestan, the Akhtyparinsk, Altyparinsk and Dokuzparinsk free societies, as well as the Kurakh Union, were thus formed. Historians believe that the origins of the Lezgins lie in the formation of these federations.

Akhty village

The main village of the Akhtyparin Union was the Lezgi village of Akhty. According to the stories of old-timers, in ancient times it was called Tauri, and in the legends the village acts as an active fighter in the struggle against Persia and the Khazars in the 6th-8th centuries. From the written sources of Akhta, it is known from 1494-1495, when its inhabitants entered into an alliance with the inhabitants of another Lezgi village - Khryug. The first written report about Akhtypar dates back to the beginning of the 18th century, however, this union of rural communities undoubtedly existed earlier; This free society at different times included from 11 to 19 villages along the middle course of the Samur River with adjacent gorges, as well as villages in the Akhtychay River basin. According to K. Krabe (first third of the 19th century), Akhtypara consisted of 25 villages, Dokuzpara - of eight villages. M. M. Kovalevsky described the Akhtyparin free society as follows:

The Lezghian village of Akhty was under the obligation of military protection of eleven rural communities, constituting one alliance with it. During the war, these societies were obliged to submit to the leadership of the Akhtyn chiefs, in the person of forty aksakals, nominated by the tukhums, one from each. in peacetime, these aksakals monitored the timely payment of "zakat" and ensured that in civil and criminal disputes, the final decisions were made exclusively by Akhtyn mediators.

The village of Kurakh

In the Altyparinsk union, the villages of Pirkent and Kaladzhig were ruled by foremen of Mikrag. Miskindzhe, divided into six rural districts, one aksakal was elected from each of the districts. unlike other villages, only in Mikrah, Kara-Kyur and Kurush foremen were elected from each section (mehle) of the village.

These societies, according to the principle of management, were democratic units. some sources also call them republics. For example, General Paulucci, in a report to the Minister of War Rumyantsev in 1812, called all the "free" societies of Southern Dagestan "republican societies of the Lezgins."

In 1812, the unions of the rural communities of the Samur Valley (Akhty-para, Dokuz-para, Alty-para, etc.) were placed under the control of the commandant of Cuba.

State of Hadji Dawood Mushkursky

At first, the indignation of the masses against the dominance of Iran was expressed passively. For example, the Jesuit John Baptist Laman, who visited Shirvan at the beginning of the 18th century, wrote that:

The discontent of the people gradually grew and resulted in armed clashes, which were of an unorganized nature. In 1709, an uprising broke out in Jaro-Belokany against the Qizilbash, which was suppressed. In 1711, anti-Iranian demonstrations began again in Jaro-Belokany and the Elisu Sultanate. Yesai Hasan-Jalalyan wrote:

Many of the inhabitants of Sheki and Shirvan joined the rebel Avars and Tsakhurians. The rebels marched through the outskirts of Shemakha, Ganja, Kazakh, Akstafa, Shamshadil, Dzegama, Shamkhor, reached Barda itself. The regular army was used to suppress this uprising, but attempts to pacify the rebellious people were in vain. In particular, Yesai Hasan-Jalalyan writes:

By order of the Shah, the Shirvan beklarbek Gasan-Ali-khan with a fifteen thousandth army set out against the rebels, but the highlanders, “attacking suddenly early in the morning, killed most of his army, the khan himself was killed, and the rest fled back.” After that, the Ganja beklarbek Ugurlu Khan was thrown at the rebels, who also suffered a setback. With the remnants of his troops, he was forced to flee and take refuge in the Ganja fortress. Then a number of attempts to break up the detachments of the rebels were made by the Sheki ruler Kichik Khan. But his efforts were also unsuccessful. one of the battles, his troops were defeated, and he himself was killed.

The person who managed to unite these disparate, unorganized uprisings of the highlanders of the northeastern Caucasus was Haji-Davud Mushkursky, who turned them into an organized, purposeful struggle against the destruction of Iran's influence on the territory in question. According to some testimonies, he came from a wealthy peasant family, according to others, he bore the title of bek. In his struggle, Haji Dawood pursued only one goal: liberation from foreign domination and the re-establishment of an independent Sunni state on the territory of Shirvan. Despite unsuccessful attempts to negotiate with Russia, Haji Dawood continued to prepare for the assault on the last bastions of Safavid domination in the Eastern Caucasus - the cities of Shamakhi, Derbent and Baku - and he turned to the Dagestan rulers. Utsmi Ahmed Khan and Surkhay responded to his appeals. After their meeting with Hadji-Davud in the area of ​​Kafiri (a plain north of Derbent), a decision was made to jointly siege Shamakhi. But because of the threats of Shamkhal Adil Giray, Utsmi Ahmed Khan was forced to stay in Kai-tag again, fearing an attack from his side, sending only part of his army to help the rebels. Having thus gathered sufficient forces around him, Haji-Davud, in alliance with Surkhay Kazikumukhsky, Ali-Sultan Tsakhursky, Ibrahim Kutkashensky and a detachment sent by the Kaitag utsmi, began a campaign against Shemakha - the main stronghold of Safavid rule in the Eastern Caucasus.

The only direct eyewitness to the siege and capture of Shamakhi in 1721, the Russian envoy F. Beneveni, wrote:

On June 12, 1724, Russia and Turkey signed a peace treaty in Istanbul. According to this agreement, the Ottoman Empire recognized the Caspian provinces for Russia, as voluntarily ceded to it by Iran. Russia recognized almost all the rest of Transcaucasia for Turkey.

An important place in the Istanbul Treaty was occupied by the issue of Shirvan, which was supposed to be a special state-khanate of the Shirvan Lezgins, headed by Haji Dawood. This issue was reflected in the very first article of the Istanbul Treaty. On this occasion, Butkov wrote:

According to the agreement, the political status of the state of Haji Daoud was determined as follows:

However, Haji-Davud Mushkursky did not recognize the terms of the agreement and opposed it. He intended to create a strong independent state throughout Shirvan from Baku to Kura and from Derbent to Kura, and did not want to accept the role of an obedient instrument in the hands of the Ottoman Sultan. Haji Dawood openly declared his disagreement with the new borders established by the treaty and put up all sorts of obstacles in their delimitation. Therefore, the revision of the borders between Russia and Turkey dragged on for three and a half years. Regarding these events, P. G. Butkov points out: “Daud-beg caused difficulties for two years, that Russia got the lands near the Caspian Sea, from which Shemakha was fed.” I. Gerber writes about the same:

In addition, from Gerber's reports, it can be concluded that, in addition to Mushkur and Shabran, Hadji-Davud intended to regain other Shirvan lands occupied by Russia, including Derbent and Baku. It can be seen from the analysis of sources that Haji Dawood did not at all intend to be dependent on Turkey and Russia and wanted to create an independent state.

As part of the Russian Empire

Caucasian war

By the beginning of the Caucasian War, a significant part of the Lezgin lands was already dependent on the Russian Empire. So, by 1810, the zone of residence of the Lezgins-Cubans, the Cuban Khanate, was included in Russia and transformed into the Cuban district. Soon, in February 1811, the entry into the Empire of the Samur free societies of the Lezghins-Samurs, Akhtypar, Dokuzpar, Altypara was formalized. Free societies fully retained internal self-government and were obliged to pay taxes to the tsarist administration. Russian troops were not stationed in the Samur Valley. In 1812, Russian troops were stationed in Kura, the territory of residence of the Lezghins-Kurins, the power of the Kazikumukh khans was overthrown and a protectorate of the Russian Empire, the Kurin Khanate, was established.

After the introduction of the royal administration, the Samur Lezghins were united into the Samur district. The Kyura Khanate included the territories of the Kyura plane, the Kurakh, Kushan, Agul and Richinsky unions of rural societies. And the Cuban Lezgins became part of the Cuban district of the Baku province. According to the new administrative structure, the Lezghin population turned out to be part of various political entities. The Lezgins of the Quba Khanate became part of the Baku province, the Lezgins of the Kyura Khanate, the Tabasaran Maisumstvo and the Samur district became part of the Dagestan region. By order of Prince Baryatinsky, the governor of Tsar Nicholas I in the Caucasus, the southern border of the Dagestan region was determined along the river. Samur.

In 1859, during the capture of Gunib by Russian troops, Haji-Nasrullah Efendi with a hundred Murids made an unsuccessful attempt to break through the ring of Russian troops in order to unite with Shamil's forces, locked up on the Gunib plateau. during the battle, the entire detachment, led by the naib, fell. It is also known about the numerous Akhtyn Muhajirism in Shamil's troops, the head of which was Muhammad-Nabi al-Akhty - the qadi of the Imamat, whose name was written by Shamil's secretary Muhammad-Tahir, the first in the list of qadis of the Imamat.

In 1838, a popular uprising broke out in the Cuban province, where Lezghins-Cubans also lived. It was caused by the dissatisfaction of local residents with the policy of the tsarist administration and the reluctance of local residents to join the ranks of the tsarist troops. The appeal of Imam Shamil, who called on the population of the Cuban province to revolt, also had an effect. The uprising took on a spontaneous character, very soon the rebels laid siege to the capital - Cuba. In addition to the Cuban province, hostilities also took place in the Samur Valley. In 1839, after the defeat of the united forces of the highlanders in the battle of Ajiakhur, the Russians crushed the main centers of resistance. To consolidate power in the region, the Akhtyn and Tiflis fortresses were founded.

Assault on the fortress of Akhta by the troops of Imam Shamil in 1848

In 1848, Imam Shamil undertook a campaign against the Samur district. As the Imam's troops advanced, the Rutul and Lezgin villages, one after another, went over to the side of the Murids, finding themselves in a state of open rebellion. Soon the murids occupied the center of the district - Akhty. The assault on the Akhtyn fortress began. According to Shamil's chronicler, Muhammad-Tahir, the locals stormed the fortress with particular ferocity, which caused many of them to die in battle. However, a certain part of the highlanders, having locked themselves in the fortress, supported the Russian side. Due to tactical miscalculations, Imam Shamil was forced to retreat from Akhty and soon left the Samur district altogether. Punitive measures were taken against the Samur villages in connection with the rebellion. According to contemporaries, the village of Khryug was especially affected - the village was devastated, and the inhabitants moved into the mountains.

During the conquest of the Caucasus by Tsarist Russia, hundreds of thousands of Muslims, including entire tribes, fled to the Ottoman Empire from Russian rule (the Circassians were especially mass Muhajirism). Emigrants from Dagestan settled in the Ottoman Empire, where their descendants to this day constitute the Caucasian population group. According to Izzet Aydemir, there are seven purely Lezgi villages in present-day Turkey. in turn, M. Moor clarifies that only in three villages live Lezgins (the villages of Ortazha and Yayla ila Balykesir, as well as the village of Dagestan and Izmir), while the rest are inhabited by various Dagestan peoples, who are called Lezgins, meaning Dagestanis by them . Most of the inhabitants of the village of Dagestan (mouth. Medjidie) of the province of Izmir, in particular, come from the Akhtyn region.

Kyurin Khanate

During the Caucasian War in January 1812, under the protectorate of Russia, the Kyurinsky Khanate was formed with its center in the village of Kurakh. Aslan-bek, the nephew of the Kazikumukh Khan Surkhay II, was appointed Khan. The newly formed khanate, located between the rivers Rubas and Samur, included in its composition the Kyurinsky plane, the territory of the Kurakh, Kushan, Agul and Richinsky union of rural societies.

1877 uprising

By the 1870s class contradictions intensified in the North Caucasus, and the dissatisfaction of the population with the policy of Russian tsarism also intensified. The subversive activities of the Ottoman emissaries also played a significant role in provoking the uprising. On April 12 (24), 1877, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire and its troops launched offensives on all fronts, including the Caucasus. Simultaneously with the outbreak of hostilities, a resident of the town of Samsir in the Vedeno district, Alibek-hadzhi, raised an uprising against the tsarist authorities. Soon the uprising spread to Dagestan. On September 12, the Lezgins of the Kurinsky district of the Dagestan region rebelled and, having crossed the Samur on September 15, they invaded the Kubinsky district of the Baku province, where they burned down the headquarters of the 34th Shirvan regiment along the way. Armed uprisings also began among the inhabitants of the Cuban district, and on October 1, the Akhtyns rebelled. Having raised an uprising, the Kyurin rebels declared a resident of the village of Kurakh, lieutenant Magomed-Ali-bek, a Kyurinsky khan, the rebel Cubans elected second lieutenant Gasan-bek as a khan, and the Akhtyns proclaimed police captain Kazi-Ahmed Khan of Samur. The Caucasian command began active operations against the rebels, and in late October and early November, the tsarist troops crushed the uprising in South Dagestan.

Late XIX - early XX centuries.

An important place in the history of the Lezgins is occupied by otkhodnichestvo, which was widespread among them, as well as the movement of landless mountaineers from the northern slopes of the Greater Caucasus to the south. 1860-1870s in Northern Azerbaijan, there was an intensive migration of highlanders to the plain in the Mushkur region. in particular, part of the inhabitants of 47 Lezgin villages formed 35 settlements in these places (7.3 thousand people). These settlements did not constitute independent settlements, but continued to be considered part of the old Lezgin mountain settlements, constituting one with them in terms of land use.

In addition, at the end of the 19th century, land-poor Lezghin peasants went to work in Baku and other Russian cities. In connection with this, they said: “Bakudin rekh regun rekh khyiz khanva” (“The road to Baku has become like a road to a mill”), “Baku - avai sa kalni gana aku” (“Look at Baku, selling even your only cow”). Sometimes young men went to work in the hope of saving money for a wedding, because they had to pay off their debts and support their families, which was reflected in the Lezgin quatrains - maniyar.

Among those who went to work and worked in the cities of Azerbaijan were such prominent figures of Lezgi culture as the poet and singer Said from Kochkhur, the founder of Lezgi national literature, the poet Etim Emin, and the poet Tagir Khryuksky. In proletarian Baku, the work of the poet Gadzhi Akhtynsky was formed, who became the first proletarian poet not only in Lezgi, but in all Dagestan literature. The military governor of the Dagestan region, in a report to the viceroy of the tsar in the Caucasus in 1905, testified to the great influence of revolutionary Baku on South Dagestan: “The inhabitants listen sensitively and are interested in everything that happens in Russia and the Caucasus, and especially in Baku. With this latter, the population of the district (that is, the Samur district - approx.), And in particular the village of Akhty, is closely connected as with the point where it always finds earnings ... There is no doubt that life in Baku and all the events there have a corrupting effect on the Lezgins staying there ". As L. I. Lavrov wrote: “At the end of the 19th century, an increase in the number of Lezgins who went to work in Baku and other centers led to the emergence of the Lezgi proletariat.” In 1905, the Bolshevik worker Kazi-Magomed Agasiev created the Lezgi Bolshevik group "Faruk" under the Baku Committee of the RSDLP.

During the years of the First Russian Revolution in the North Caucasus, there was an increase in the partisan-robber movement, known as abrechestvo (gachags in Azerbaijan). For the 1910s accounts for the activities of the most famous abreks in the Caucasus. Abrek Buba from the Lezgi village of Ikra terrorized the entire Caspian coast from Baku to Port Petrovsk (now Makhachkala). “All along the coast of the Caspian Sea from Baku to Petrovsk, he imposed a contribution on every fishery, large gardeners and wealthy merchants of the city of Derbent in proportion to his operations.” Buba Ikrinsky and abrek Salambek Garavodzhev from the Ingush village of Sagopshi surrendered to the authorities and were hanged by the verdict of the court-martial.

As a result of the collapse of the Russian Empire and its territorial disintegration, various state formations arose in the entire Caucasus. Formally, the northern Lezgins remained part of the Dagestan region, but it was subordinate to the Union of United Highlanders of the North Caucasus and Dagestan formed in the North Caucasus. In November 1917, the Mountainous Republic was proclaimed on the territory of Dagestan and the mountain districts of the Terek region. However, as a result of the aggravated interethnic conflicts, the civil war began in the North Caucasus in January-February 1918 and the subsequent proclamation of the Terek Soviet Republic, the Terek-Dagestan and Mountain governments actually lost power and collapsed.

The situation in the area of ​​residence of the southern Lezgins developed a little differently. In April 1918, the Baku Council, with the support of the armed detachments of the Armenian Dashnaktsutyun party, as a result of the bloody March events, established its power in Baku, and a little later, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was proclaimed in Ganja. Thus, dual power was formed in Eastern Transcaucasia. At the same time, the Bolshevik David Gelovani entered Cuba with an armed detachment, who called on the population to recognize Soviet power. A few days later, armed Lezgins from the surrounding villages approached the city, demanding that the Bolsheviks leave the city or surrender. Gelovani refused, after which fighting broke out between them. Despite the arrival of reinforcements, Gelovani was forced to leave Cuba along with the Armenian population of the city. After the victory, the Lezgins returned to their villages. However, two weeks later, a detachment of Dashnaks under the command of Colonel Amazasp was sent to Cuba, announcing that he had arrived to avenge the murdered Armenians with the order to "destroy all Muslims from the sea (Caspian) to Shahdag." This detachment not only defeated the city, but also burned 122 Muslim villages in the Quba district. Bolshevik power in the Baku province did not last long. As a result of the Turkish-Azerbaijani offensive, Soviet power was overthrown, and the ADR government established control over most of the country's territory. Later, the ADP government adopted a law on citizenship, which was based on the principle of origin (all subjects of the former Russian Empire who themselves or their parents were born on the territory of Azerbaijan are considered its citizens), which also applied to the Lezgi population.

Bust of Mukhtadir Aidinbekov in the park of the same name in the village. Oh you

The Lezgin Bolsheviks, in turn, carried out active revolutionary work among the population of Dagestan and Azerbaijan, organizing them to fight for Soviet power. Kazi-Magomed Agasiev, one of the leaders of the Baku Committee of the RSDLP, the chairman of the Derbent Military Revolutionary Committee, Lezgins, carried out a lot of propaganda work in South Dagestan. After the detachments of General Bicherakhov captured Derbent on August 15, and the German-Turkish invaders occupied the mountainous part of Dagestan, Agasiev went underground and began to create detachments of red partisans. In October, he was arrested and shot by order of the Turkish kaymakam (governor) of the Kyurinsky district Takayutdin-bey. He was shot 3 km from the village. Kasumkent agents of the local organization of ittihadists brothers Shagmer and Shahmerdan Israfilov from the village of Kasumkent and Kurban from the village of Ksan. The Azerbaijani city of Ajigabul and the district of the same name were later named after Kazi-Magomed (they have now returned their old names).

Another Dagestani and Azerbaijani Lezgin revolutionary, Mukhtadir Aidinbekov, was also one of the leaders in the struggle to establish Soviet power in Derbent, and then organized red partisan detachments in the Lezgin regions of Azerbaijan, preparing an uprising against foreign interventionists and Musavatists. In August 1919, Aidinbekov was arrested by Musavatists in Tagar-Oba (English) Russian. (Cuban County) and killed in a Cuban prison.

At the beginning of 1919, the Volunteer Army of General Denikin gradually occupied the territory of the North Caucasus, displacing the XI Red Army from there, and by May 23, the White Guards controlled the coastal strip of Dagestan from Khasavyurt to Derbent. Major General Mikail Khalilov announced his defection to the side of the White Guards and was appointed by Denikin as the ruler of Dagestan. On August 4, General Khalilov issued an order to mobilize highlanders into the Volunteer Army at the age of 19 to 40. However, the mountaineers refused to comply with the order. a number of districts began a new uprising. On August 24, the peasants of the Kyura district rebelled, the organizers and leaders of which were the Bolsheviks and Baku workers Tarikuli Yuzbekov (Tabasaran), Kazibek Akimov, Abdusamed Mursalov, Gabib Gatagsky, the Kazanbekov brothers, G. Safaraliev and others. The rebels managed to capture Kasumkent and liberate the entire Kyura district from Denikin. On September 8, the State Defense Committee of Azerbaijan issued a resolution “on the acceptance for military service of Lezgins from Dagestan who evade mobilization into the Volunteer Army”:

Refugees-Lezgins from Dagestan to pass to Azerbaijan without hindrance; Those wishing to enter the military service in Azerbaijan should not create obstacles and ask the Minister of War for proper orders.

In March 1920, Soviet power was established in Dagestan, and Azerbaijan was Sovietized a month later. The northern Lezgins became part of the Dagestan ASSR formed in January 1921, the southern ones became part of the independent Azerbaijan SSR, which became part of the USSR in December 1922. The 1926 census recorded 134,529 Lezgins from the USSR. Economically, the Lezgins gravitated towards various urban centers: the northern ones - to Derbent and Akhty, the southern ones - to Baku, Cuba. According to the 1926 census, the urban population among the Azerbaijani Lezgins was 13.3%, and among the Dagestani it reached only 3.4%.

And although the Lezgins supported and sometimes actively fought for Soviet power, however, when collectivization and an active struggle against religion began, in 1930 in South Dagestan, including in the territory where the Lezgins lived, uprisings broke out against Soviet power. On April 27, an uprising began in Kurakh under the leadership of Sheikh Haji Efendi Ramazanov (Shtulsky), supported by representatives of the clergy of the Kasumkent, Kurakh and Tabasaran regions. It was held under the slogans "Down with collective farms, state farms, artels!", "Down with Soviet power!", "Long live Sharia!". The uprising was suppressed by units of the 5th regiment of the North Caucasian division of the OGPU with the participation of detachments of the red partisans of Dagestan. The leader of the anti-Soviet rebellion, 75-year-old Sheikh Ramazanov (Shtulsky), was sentenced by the troika to capital punishment (execution) with confiscation of property. On May 19, the uprising was raised by the inhabitants of the village of Khnov.

During the Great Patriotic War, the Lezgins, along with other peoples of the Soviet Union, defended their common homeland in the ranks of the Red Army. Some of the Lezgins (A. M. Aliev, E. B. Salikhov) received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In addition, a native of Azerbaijan, Lezghin Mahmud Abilov became the only combat general from the representatives of the Dagestan-speaking peoples and one of two in Azerbaijan who received the rank of major general during the Great Patriotic War. the rear, and money, the Soviet people provided assistance to the state and the front. The wife of a front-line soldier, a collective farmer from the village of Khkem, Akhtynsky district, Lezginka Makhiyat Zagirova transferred 15,700 rubles for the needs of the front. Contributing this amount to the defense fund, she wrote: “My husband, a senior lieutenant, has been at the front from the very beginning of the Patriotic War, received several injuries ... not wanting to lag behind my husband, I contribute money earned by honest labor on the collective farm. I am a mountain girl from a distant mountain village. But no territories separate us from our native Soviet Army.”

With the establishment of Soviet power in the Eastern Caucasus, a large cultural, educational, economic and political work began in the region. In 1928, the newspaper “Tsliyi dunya” (“New World”) began to be published in the Lezgi language, later renamed the “Communist”, which marked the beginning of the development of the national journalism of the Lezgins. At the same time, as part of the campaign to romanize alphabets, there was a transition of Lezgin writing from Arabic script to the Latin alphabet. The Lezgins began to use the Arabic script in the middle or in the second half of the 19th century, when individual poets (Yetim Emin and others) began to write down their poems and songs using Arabic characters in 1979. The transition to the Latinized alphabet was of great importance for the peoples of Dagestan, including the Lezgins. the first years after the completion of romanization (1933), 50.7% of literate among the Lezgins became 1979.

Composer, Lezghin ethnicity Gottfried Hasanov in 1937 created the first Dagestan opera - "Khochbar", and in 1945 the first Dagestan ballet - "Karachach" ("Black-haired"). Another Lezgin, Khasbulat Askar-Sarydzha, became the founder of the sculptural art of Dagestan.

As of January 1, 1979, 8,085 Lezgins were members of the Communist Party of the Azerbaijan SSR (English) Russian, accounting for 2.6% of the total. As of January 1, 1989, the composition of the CPSU included 29,124 Lezgins (candidates and party members). A census conducted in the same year recorded 466,006 Lezgins in the Soviet Union.

Until the 20s of the 20th century, the entire mountain population of Dagestan was called Lezgins, and they themselves were called Kyurintsy.

Lezgins in Azerbaijan

Lezgins in Azerbaijan traditionally live in Kusar, Quba, Khachmas, Kabala, Ismayilli, Oguz, Sheki and Kakh regions.

During the collapse of Caucasian Albania, and then the arrival of the Turkic and Mongolian population, the number of the Lezgi population began to decrease. Some villages in the past with a Lezgi population are now assimilated into the Azerbaijani environment and are considered Azerbaijani.

The records of the national composition of Azerbaijan for 1931 recorded 79,306 Lezgins in the republic.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees notes that Lezgins make up 75% of the population of Kusar and Khachmaz regions, and that in Greater Baku Lezgins make up 15%. According to official statistics, Lezgins make up 2% of the population of Azerbaijan, being the second largest people in the country after the Azerbaijanis. The Lezgin population is predominant in the Kusar region, where they live in 56 villages out of 63. The city of Kusar itself is about 90 to 95% Lezgins, according to the local organization Helsinki Committee (according to the 1979 census, Lezgins made up 80% of the city's population) .

In order to coordinate work on the development of the Lezgin language and culture in Azerbaijan, the Lezgin national center "Samur" was created, and in 1996 the Lezgin song and dance ensemble "Suvar" was formed in Baku, which received the title of "People's Collective of Azerbaijan". In August 1992, the Lezgi Democratic Party of Azerbaijan (Azerbaijan National Equality Party) was established in Azerbaijan, which existed until 1995, until its registration was cancelled.

The newspapers Samur, Kusar, Yeni Samukh and Alpan, as well as the literary magazine Chirag, are published in the Lezgi language in Azerbaijan. In 1998, the State Lezgi Drama Theater was opened in Kusar.

In 2000, an anthology of Lezghin literature “akata shegerdiz” was published in Baku, and in 2004 a collection of poems by Gulbes Aslankhanova “vun rikIevaz” (Baku, 2004) and others.

Since the 1998-1999 academic year, the training of specialists in the Avar and Lezgin languages ​​and literature began, and in 2003, by order of the Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan, curricula were approved for grades 1-4 of a secondary school in several languages ​​of the peoples of Azerbaijan, including Lezgi . In the Kusar region, the Lezgin language as a subject is studied in all 11 classes.

During the Soviet period, the nationalist leadership of Azerbaijan, headed by the former first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Bagirov, persecuted the Lezgins and subjected them to national discrimination.

Movement for the creation of a unified Lezgi state entity

Statements about Lezgins

• Imam Shamil, September 13, 1848, about the Lezgins:

“You are a brave people, how many times you shed the blood of Russians and took off their clothes, and until now you have been without an assistant in such a war. Know that I and the whole of Dagestan are your helpers. It is necessary to pull this snake (Russians) out of your heart and remove our enemy from among you.”

• In the "lists of populated places of the Russian Empire. In the Caucasus region, ”published by the Caucasian Statistical Committee in 1870, regarding the Lezgins of the Baku province, it was noted:

Like all neighboring highlanders, with whom they have much in common in manners, customs, and probably in language, which, however, is still subject to research, the Kyurintsy are large, stately, and beautiful. Their hair is dark. The complexion is fresh, white; in women who are sometimes of remarkable beauty - gentle. They are smart, brave, honest.

About the inhabitants of Southern Dagestan (that is, the Lezgin-speaking peoples), Gerber retold the story of an attempt to introduce them into the citizenship of the Russian Empire with a strict requirement to “refrain from any theft” and the delegates’ answer to this:

We were born to steal, our arable lands and plows and all our wealth, which our grandfathers and great-grandfathers left us and taught us, consist in this; these were fed, and we also eat and are fed, and what we have is all stolen, and we have no other business; if we lag behind, then it will be for us by the Russian authorities to die of hunger, and we will not swear an oath to this and will be forced to defend ourselves against those who want to forbid us, and it is better for us to die good people than to die of hunger. Then they got on their horses and left.

• Evgeny Markov:

“When you look at the same time at the Lezgin and at our brother Vakhlak-Russian, the Russian gives the impression of a clumsy herbivore next to a stately and bold predator. The Lezgin has the variegated outfit of some panther or leopard, the grace and flexibility of her movements, her terrible strength, embodied in elegant steel forms.

• General Golovin, 1839:

“Starting from 1837, the Samur and Cuban Lezgins, with their inherent restless and firm character, violated the agreement on subordination to us. Several times they raised riots, and they also called for riots and other peoples, all the Dagestan peoples ”

• Bronevsky S. M.

The Lezgins are more attached to independence than the Shirvans or Dagestanis, who are already accustomed to unity of command.

• Glinoetsky, Nikolai Pavlovich

“Lezgin is serious, positive, constantly busy with the best possible - of course, in his own way - device of his life; in all his affairs, Lezgin seems to be aware that he must work not only for himself, but also for his offspring. Take a look at the houses of the Lezgins, their gardens: everywhere you can see that they make sure that all this is strong and durable. This striking feature of their character somehow does not go well with their well-known militancy and with stories about their constant raids on Transcaucasia. From all the stories, the conclusion is usually drawn that the Lezgins are a wild, predatory people, living on robbery and robbery. But such a conclusion seems to us somewhat exaggerated. Lezgins are warlike, it is true, which is quite understandable, due to the harsh nature of the nature of their homeland; but it cannot be said of them that they were war-loving.”

see also

• Lezgistan
• History of the Laks

Notes

1. 1 2 K. V. Trever. Essays on the history and culture of Caucasian Albania IV century. BC-VII c. AD - Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1959. - P. 47.
2. 1 2 3 Ichilov, 1967, p. 44-48.
3. Lucky // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg, 1890-1907.
4. Institute of Ethnography named after N. N. Miklukho-Maclay. Peoples of the Caucasus. - Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1960. - T. 1. - S. 487.
5. L.I. Lavrov. Lezgins // Peoples of Dagestan: collection of articles / ed. M.O. Kosven, H.-M.O. Khashaev. - Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1955. - S. 103.
6. Ramazanov, Shikhsaidov, 1964, p. twenty.
7. ABU HAMID AL GHARNATI. A SELECTION OF MEMORY ABOUT THE WONDERS OF COUNTRIES. Eastern Literature. Archived from the original on July 3, 2012. Original text (Russian)

   This emir read under my guidance the Satisfactory Book of al-Mahamili on fiqh; and he - may Allah have mercy on him! - He spoke different languages, such as Lakzan and Tabalan, and Filan, and Zakalan, and Haidak, and Gumik, and Sarir, and Alan, and As, and Zarihkaran, and Turkic, and Arabic, and Persian. I had people from these nationalities in my classes, and he explained to each nationality in its language.

8. A. L. Mongait. ABU HAMID AL-GARNATI->HISTORICAL COMMENT. Eastern Literature. Archived from the original on February 3, 2012.
9. Gadzhiev, V. G., 1979, p. 418.
10. 1 2 3 4 Abdullaev, Mikailov, 1971.
11. Amri Rzaevich Shikhsaidov. Epigraphic monuments of Dagestan X-XVII centuries as a historical source. - Nauka, 1984. - S. 358. Original text (Russian)

    Ibn al-Athir (1160-1234) understood by the "Lakz country" either Southern Dagestan or the region between Derbent and the Alans. Rashid ad-Din (1247-1318) first used the term "Lezgistan" in the general Dagestan sense.

12. Lezgistan // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg, 1890-1907.
13. Ichilov, 1967, p. 62.
14. 1 2 Epigraphic monuments of the North Caucasus in Arabic, Persian and Turkish. Inscriptions X - XVII centuries. Texts, translations, comments, introductory article and appendices by L. I. Lavrov. - M.: Nauka, 1966. - T. 2, part 1. - S. 178.
15. Institute of History, Language and Literature. G. Tsadasy. Scientific notes. - Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1969. - T. 19. - S. 101-102.
16. Lezgins, lie down. Brockhaus-Efron. Archived from the original on February 3, 2012.
17. Tavlintsy. Brockhaus-Efron. Archived from the original on February 3, 2012.
18. Vasily Vladimirovich Bartold. Works. - Publishing House of Eastern Literature, 1977. - T. 3. - S. 411.
19. 1 2 3 Gadzhiev, V. G., 1979, p. 185-187.
20. Gadzhiev, V. G., 1979, p. 148.
21. Evgeny Mikhailovich Schilling. Kubachintsy and their culture: historical and ethnographic studies. - Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1949. - P. 15. Original text (Russian)

    "We note here that a local native, Dagestan historian of the 2nd half of the 19th century Gasan Alkadari, a Lezghin by origin, was opposed to the assumption of a European origin for the Kubachins."

22. Maya Pavlovna Abramova, Vladimir Ivanovich Markovin. North Caucasus: Historical and archaeological essays and notes: Collection of articles. - RAN. Institute of Archeology, 2001. - S. 14.
23. Evliya Celebi. Travel book. The lands of the North Caucasus, the Volga region and the Don region. (Russian), Oriental Literature.
24. Gadzhiev, Rizakhanova, 2002, p. 376.
25. Ageeva, R. A. What kind of tribe are we? Peoples of Russia: names and fates. Dictionary reference. - Academia, 2000. - S. 197-199. - ISBN 5-87444-033-X.
26. Lezgin literature / Literary encyclopedia. - 1929-1939
27. Small Soviet encyclopedia. - Soviet Encyclopedia, 1931. - T. 4. - S. 544.
28. 1 2 A.M. Ganiev. Essays on the oral and poetic creativity of the Lezgins. - Science, 2004. - S. 4. - ISBN 502032714X, 9785020327146.
29. 1 2 Ramazanov, Shikhsaidov, 1964, p. fourteen.
30. Gadzhiev, Rizakhanova, 2002, p. 378.
31. Evgraf Savelyev, History of the Cossacks from ancient times to the end of the 18th century. Novocherkassk, 1913-1918
32. The roots of the legends of Odin and Thor. Taurians, Caucasian peoples, ridges
33. Ichilov, 1967, p. 32.
34. Ramazanov, Shikhsaidov, 1964, p. 16.
35. Z.K. Tarlanov Lexical and toponymic data on the ethnogenesis of the Eastern Lezgin peoples // Soviet ethnography. - 1989. - No. 4. - S. 116-117.
36. I. M. Dyakonov, S. A. Starostin. Hurrito-Urartian and East Caucasian languages. // Ancient East: ethnocultural ties. M., 1988.
37. 1 2 3 4 Ichilov, 1967, p. 34-36.
38. Ramazanov, Shikhsaidov, 1964, p. 17.
39. Alekseev V.P. Favorites. - Science, 2009. - V. 5: The origin of the peoples of the Caucasus. - S. 228-229. - ISBN 978-5-02-035547-7.
40. M. Sh. Rizakhanov. On the issue of the ethnogenesis of the Lezgins // Lavrov (Central Asian-Caucasian) readings, 1998–1999: Krat. content report. - 2001. - S. 29.
41. R. H. Hewsen. Ethno-history and the Armenian influence upon the Caucasian Albanians. Classical Armenian Culture (Armenian Texts and Studies, 4). - Scholars Press, 1982. - P. 33. - ISBN 0-89130-565-3, 0-89130-566-1 (pbk.).
42. Ichilov, 1967, p. 42.
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45. Ichilov, 1967, p. 66.
46. Ramazanov, Shikhsaidov, 1964, p. 26.
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52. James Stuart Olson. An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires. - Greenwood Publishing Group, 1994. - P. 438. - ISBN 0313274975, 9780313274978. Original text (English)

    The Lezgin refer to themselves as the Lezghi (Lezgi), but they are also known as Kurin, Akhta, and Akhtin. Russians refer to them as the Lezginy. Historians believe that their origins lie in the merger of the Akhty, Alty, and Dokuz Para federations.

53. 1 2 Ramazanov, Shikhsaidov, 1964, p. 95.
54. S.S. Agashirinova. The material culture of the Lezgins in the 19th-early 20th century. - Nauka, 1978. - P. 116.
55. Gadzhiev, V. G., 1979, p. 188.
56. Ichilov, 1967, p. 94-95.
57. Ramazanov, Shikhsaidov, 1964, p. 160.
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60. Letters and reports of the Jesuits about Russia. SPb., 1904. S. 106
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68. Gerber I. G. Description of countries and peoples along the western coast of the Caspian Sea // History, geography and ethnography of Dagestan in the 18th-19th centuries. Archival materials. M.: Ed. east literature, 1958.
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71. Yusuf-bek Khan Kyurinsky
72. From tribal consciousness - to the general Dagestan unity. Lezgins.
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77. Ichilov, 1967, p. 86-87.
78. 1 2 Ramazanov, Shikhsaidov, 1964, p. 244-245.
79. N. G. Volkova. Migrations and ethno-cultural adaptation of the highlanders in the conditions of the plains of the Caucasus (XIX - XX centuries) // Races and peoples. - Nauka, 1988. - T. 18. - S. 127.
80. A. M. Ganieva. Essays on the oral and poetic creativity of the Lezgins. - Science, 2004. - S. 227. - ISBN 502032714X, 9785020327146.
81. A.M. Ganiev. Lezginskie maniyars about otkhodnichestvo // Teaching notes. - 1968. - T. 18. - S. 13.
82. 1 2 Ramazanov, Shikhsaidov, 1964, p. 265-266.
83. Ichilov, 1967, p. 308.
84. Ramazanov, Shikhsaidov, 1964, p. 249.
85. L.I. Lavrov. Lezgins // Peoples of Dagestan: collection of articles / ed. M.O. Kosven, H.-M.O. Khashaev. - Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1955. - S. 104.
86. 1 2 3 Great Soviet Encyclopedia. - State Scientific Publishing House, 1949. - Vol. 1. - P. 289. Original text (Russian)

    AGASIEV, Kazi Magomed (1882-1918) - one of the active underground workers, advanced Bolshevik workers who worked in the Transcaucasus under the leadership of I.V. Stalin. Born in Dagestan in the village of Akhty. Working in the Baku oilfields, A: participated in the underground activities of the Baku Committee of the RSDLP, organized in 1901 by L. Ketskhoveli (see) at the direction of IV Stalin. 1905 A. created the Lezgi Bolshevik group "Faruk" under the Baku Committee of the RSDLP. Actively participated in the work of the Union of Oil Workers. He was the organizer of several Social-Democrats. circles in the South. Dagestan. A. was repeatedly arrested and expelled from Baku by the tsarist government. 1918 A. was the commissioner of the Derbent region and South. Dagestan. During the capture of Derbent by the counter-revolutionary bands of Bicherakhov and the occupation of the mountainous part of Dagestan by German-Turkish interventionists, A. ox did underground work and organized detachments of red partisans. October 1918 was arrested and, by order of the Turkish Bey - the head of the Kyurinsky district, was shot. memory of A. Adjikabul region Azerb. The SSR was renamed Kazi-Magomedsky (the regional center is the city of Kazi-Magomod).

87. Bobrovnikov, Babich, 2007, p. 291.
88. Bobrovnikov, Babich, 2007, p. 292.
89. J. Baberowski. The enemy is everywhere. Stalinism in the Caucasus. - M.: Russian Political Encyclopedia (ROSSPEN), Foundation "Presidential Center B.N. Yeltsin", 2010. - S. 137-138. - ISBN 978-5-8243-1435-9.
90. Institute of History, Language and Literature. G. Tsadasy. History of Dagestan. - Nauka, 1968. - V. 3. - S. 75. Original text (Russian)

    The executioner Takayutdin-bey, who became a kaymakam in the Kyurinsky district, dealt with revolutionary figures without trial or investigation. On his instructions, the Bolsheviks K. Agasiev, S. Suleymanov, G. Mursalov, L. Rakhmanov and others were brutally murdered.

91. B. O. Kashkaev. Civil war in Dagestan 1918-1920 - Nauka, 1976. - S. 131. Original text (Russian)

    The list of atrocities of the Bicherakhovites could be continued. Activists of the revolutionary movement died. One of the leaders of Dagestan, K.-M. Agasiev, was extradited by the Bicherakhites to the mountain counter-revolutionaries and shot three kilometers from the village of Kasumkent by agents of the local organization of ittihadists, the brothers Shagmer and Shakhmerdan Israfilov from the village of Kasumkent and Kurbanov from the village of Ksan.

92. 1 2 Great Soviet Encyclopedia. - State Scientific Publishing House, 1949. - Vol. 1. - S. 553. Original text (Russian)

    AIDINBEKOV, Mukhtadir (Little Mamed) (1878-1919) - one of the foremost revolutionary workers, Bolsheviks who worked in Azerbaijan under the leadership of P.V. Stalin. Born in Dagestan, in the village. Oh you; in 1903-06 he organized a number of Bolshevik groups and organizations of workers in the oil fields of Baku. An active participant in the Union of Oil Workers, created on the initiative of I. V. Stalin by the Baku Bolsheviks in October 1906. 1908 was arrested by the tsarist authorities and exiled to Arkhangelsk Province for 3 years. After the February bourgeois-democracy revolution A. took an active part in the work of the Social-Democrats. organization "Hummet", which carried out Bolshevik propaganda work among the working masses of Azerbaijan. He was one of the Bolshevik leaders in the struggle of the working people for the establishment of Soviet power in Derbent. During the reign of the counter-revolutionary Musavatist government in Azerbaijan (1918-20), A. worked underground among the peasants, organizing red partisan detachments in the Lezgin regions of Azerbaijan and preparing an uprising against the power of the interventionists and Musavatists. In the summer of 1919, A. was arrested by Musavatists in the Cuban region and, after severe torture, was killed in a Cuban prison.

93. Fighters for Soviet power in Dagestan. - Dagestan book publishing house, 1987. - T. 1. - S. 24.
94. Daniyalov G. D., 1988, p. 32.
95. N. K. Sarkisov. Help of Baku workers to the working people of Soviet Dagestan in the development of industry and the formation of the working class // The leading force of modernity. From the history of the Soviet working class of Dagestan and the North Caucasus .. - Dagestan book. publishing house, 1964. - S. 11. Original text (Russian)

    The "Faruk" included representatives of almost all nationalities of Dagestan. The leaders of the group were Lezgins Kazi-Magomed Agasiev and Ali Mirza Osmanov, Tarikuli Yuzbekov from Tabasar and others.

96. Daniyalov G. D., 1988, p. 33-34.
97. Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918-1920). Army. (Documents and materials). - Baku, 1998, p. 136
98. All-Union population census of 1926. National composition of the population in the republics of the USSR. "Demoscope". Archived from the original on August 23, 2011.
99. N. G. Volkova. Ethnic processes in Transcaucasia in the XIX-XX centuries. // Caucasian ethnographic collection. - M.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1969. - T. 4. - S. 16.
100. Temeev M-S. M. Forced grain procurement and anti-collective farm actions of peasants in Dagestan (1929 - 1930) .. rusnauka.com. Archived from the original on August 19, 2012.
101. Aliyev Alexander Mamedovich. Heroes of the country. Archived from the original on February 3, 2012.
102. Salikhov Esed Babastanovich. Heroes of the country. Archived from the original on February 3, 2012.
103. 1 2 3 Aydin Balaev. Lezgins of Azerbaijan (Russian), International Azerbaijan Journal IRS-Heritage (2010).
104. Ichilov, 1967, p. 245.
105. Kommunist (newspaper of the Dagestan ASSR). TSB. Archived from the original on August 19, 2012.
106. Great Soviet Encyclopedia. - 1950. - T. 10. - S. 257. Original text (Russian)

     GASANOV, Gottfried Alievich (b. 1900) - Dagestan musical figure. Lezgin by nationality.

107. Great Soviet Encyclopedia. - 2nd ed. - 1950. - Vol. 3. - S. 247. Original text (Russian)

     ASCAR-SARYJA, Khas-Bulat (born 1900) - founder of the sculptural art of Dagestan, Honored Art Worker of the Dagestan ASSR. By nationality - Lezgins.

108. The Communist Party of Azerbaijan is a fighting detachment of the CPSU. figures, diagrams and diagrams.. - Baku: Azerneshr, 1979. - P. 61.
109. V. A. Tishkov. NATIONALITY - A COMMUNIST? (Ethnopolitical analysis of the CPSU). Archived from the original on August 19, 2012.
110. All-Union population census of 1989. The national composition of the population in the republics of the USSR. "Demoscope". Archived from the original on August 23, 2011.
111. Samizdat materials. - Ohio State University, Center for Slavic and East European Studies, 2010. - P. 114.
112. T. A. Titova. Lezgin family at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. - Kazan State University. - Kaz.: New knowledge, 1999. - S. 4. - 53 p.
113. Aliaga Mammadli. Modern ethno-cultural processes in Azerbaijan: main trends and prospects. - B.: Khazar, 2008. - S. 180. - 245 p.
114. V. A. Nikonov, G. G. Stratanovich. Ethnography of names. - M.: Nauka, 1971. - S. 15.
115. V. V. Bartold. Works on historical geography / O. G. Bolshakov, A. M. Belenitsky. Eastern Literature RAS. M., 2002. S. 410. - 711 p. All these nationalities are now united under the name Lezgins ...
116. Ichilov, 1967, p. 36.
117. 1 2 S. S. Agashirinova. The material culture of the Lezgins of the 19th-early 20th centuries .. - Science, 1978. - S. 3-4.
118. 1 2 Hema Kotecha. Islamic and Ethnic Identities in Azerbaijan: Emerging trends and tensions (English) (PDF). OSCE Office in Baku (July 2006). Retrieved February 20, 2011. Archived from the original on March 21, 2012.
119. The ethnic composition of the population of the Kusar region. 1979
120. Ethnic and national groups. Azeri.ru. Archived from the original on September 7, 2012.
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     Since the 1998/1999 academic year, the training of specialists in the Avar and Lezgin languages ​​and literature began. ... In 2003, by order of the Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan, curricula were approved for grades 1-4 of a secondary school in Talysh, Tat, Kurdish, Lezgi, Tsakhur, Avar, Khinalug and Udi languages. ... Only in the Kusar region, the Lezgin language as a subject is studied in all 11 classes.

126. Samizdat materials. - Ohio State University, Center for Slavic and East European Studies, 2010.
127. HAJI-ALI AN EYEWITNESS TALK ABOUT SHAMIL
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Literature

• M. M. Ichilov. The peoples of the Lezgin group: an ethnographic study of the past and present of the Lezgins, Tabasarans, Rutuls, Tsakhurs, Aguls. - Makhachkala: Dagestan branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1967. - 369 p.
• H. H. Ramazanov, A. R. Shikhsaidov. Essays on the history of Southern Dagestan. - Makhachkala: Dagestan branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1964.
• I. Kh. Abdullaev, K. Sh. Mikailov. On the history of the Dagestani ethnonyms Lezg and Lak // Ethnography of Names. - Science, 1971. - S. 13-26.
• Gadzhiev, V. G. I. Gerber's work "Description of the countries and peoples between Astrakhan and the Kura River" as a historical source on the history of the peoples of the Caucasus. - Science, 1979.
• G. D. Daniyalov. Building socialism in Dagestan, 1918-1937. - Science, 1988.
• Gadzhiev G. A., Rizakhanov M. Sh. Lezgins // Peoples of Dagestan / Ed. ed. S. A. Arutyunov, A. I. Osmanov, G. A. Sergeeva. - M.: "Nauka", 2002. - ISBN 5-02-008808-0.
• North Caucasus as part of the Russian Empire / ed. ed. IN. Bobrovnikov, I.L. Babich. - M.: New Literary Review, 2007. - ISBN 5-86793-529-0.
• M. I. Isaev. Language construction in the USSR (processes of creation of writing systems of the peoples of the USSR). - M.: Nauka, 1979.

history of lezgins, history of lezgins, history of lezgins, history of lezgins video

History of the Lezgins Information About

How did the Lezgins live and what did they do?

Where the Samur and Gyulgerychay rivers flow, the climate is dry and warm. Hot summer. Fruit trees give good harvests of apples, peaches, figs, plums, pears, cherries. Jackals, wild boars and wolves live. There are land turtles. Pheasants, wild roe deer (gazelles), deer, badgers, martens, foxes and hares are found in the bushes. Also lizards and snakes. At the mouth of the Samur River, where it flows into the Caspian Sea, dense liana, broad-leaved forests grow.

It can get cold in the mountains in summer, sometimes it snows even in June! Bears, leopards, wild goats, Dagestan turs and huge mountain eagles are found here. Do you remember, Arslan, we saw them when we climbed Mount Shalbuzdag? They circled above us all the way.

Hunting among the Lezgins was not a significant help in the economy. Our ancestors tried to preserve the animal world and rarely hunted.

They were mainly engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding, and gathering. They grew barley, wheat, corn, beans, and later - pumpkin, onion, millet. Where there was not enough water, they did artificial irrigation - they carried water from rivers and springs. Bulls and buffaloes were used to plow the land.

After threshing, each family, according to Sharia, allocated zakat (donation) for the poor, widows and orphans.

Shepherds were appointed to graze cattle. In many Lezgin villages there was such a custom. After the evening milking, one of the owners took turns inviting the shepherd to his place. He already knew whose turn it was, and having driven the herd to the village, he went to this house. Here dinner was waiting for him, and when the shepherd left, for breakfast in his bag ( chanta) put chureki, butter, cheese, halva.

Almost every family had a horse. The horse was not only a means of transportation. It was a friend, wealth and pride of the family. Lezgins loved horses: they were with a person both in joy and in sorrow, they responded with devotion to love and fidelity to care.

From the end of XIX - beginning of XX centuries. some villagers were engaged in carting - they transported people and goods to nearby and distant villages and cities.

Mountain - dag.

River - vatsI.

Forest - there.

Wood - tar.

Grass - eyelid

Flower - tsuk.

Animal - gaiwan.

Cow - cal.

Sheep - heb.

Horse - Balkan.

Wolf - janavur.

Hare - qur.

A lion - aslan.

Tiger - bearing.

Fox - sikI.

Bear - sowing

Tour - suvan yats.

Bird - nukI.

Eagle - lek.

Falcon - card.

Nightingale - bilbil.

Martin - chubaruk.

Crow - peh.

chick - sharag.

Chicken - verch.

Butterfly - chepeluk.

Bug - pepe.

Grasshopper - cIicI.

Ant - color

Spider - Khushrakan.

Fish - balug.

Frog - kib.

Worm - ball.

What's the point of asking a question if you know the answer? show off? stupid?

Most likely Lezgins. The name is not "Chechen". and so almost all Caucasian peoples have this dance in one form or another

The name is in honor of the Lezgins, a people from the South of Dagestan, most likely a dance, originally Dagestan, and spread during the 1st Caucasian War.

Answer: Lezgins According to researchers, Lezginka is home to Lezgistan, where classic Lezginka samples were created, later transferred to all neighboring regions.

What is "lezginka"?

This is a kind of competition between young people - fast, temperamental, requiring great strength and dexterity from a young man, and smoothness, grace from a girl. The famous Lezgin dance is nothing more than an echo of ancient pagan beliefs and rituals, one of the main elements of which was the image of an eagle. This image is accurately reproduced by the dancer, especially at the moment when he, rising on his toes and proudly spreading his arms-wings, smoothly describes circles, as if about to take off.

Lek (lek) - "Lezgin, eagle" means eagle people. Neighboring peoples perceived the word lek as the name of a certain people, and the leks themselves put the concept of “eagle-man” into the word lek.

Hence the name of the dance - lezginka - as a human dance, in contrast to the dances of birds, animals ... So, it’s not the Lezginka dance that is called by the name of the people, but the people began to be called in accordance with the dance.

Lezginka is a dance of friendship, love and happiness.

The early ethnic history of the Lezgins is closely connected with one of the most ancient states on the territory of Azerbaijan and South Dagestan - Caucasian Albania. The ancient author Strabo (65 BC -24 AD) wrote that the population of Albania spoke 26 languages. One of them belonged to the Legs / Leks - the ancestors of the real Lezgins, who lived in the Eastern Caucasus, whose language was the state language of Caucasian Albania. As part of the ancient state formation "Caucasian Albania", the ancestors of the current Lezgins, Rutuls, Tsakhurs, Aguls, Tabasarans, Archins, Budugs, Krytsy, Khinalugs under the common ethnonym "Leki" were its main military and political force.

In the early Middle Ages, the Lezgins were, according to the description of contemporaries, the "Shirvan Stronghold". And in the Arabic sources of the 9th-10th centuries there is information about the kingdom of the Laks in South Dagestan. What is "lezginka"? This is a kind of competition between young people - fast, temperamental, requiring great strength and dexterity from a young man, and smoothness, grace from a girl. The famous Lezgin dance is nothing more than an echo of ancient pagan beliefs and rituals, one of the main elements of which was the image of an eagle.

This image is accurately reproduced by the dancer, especially at the moment when he, rising on his toes and proudly spreading his arms-wings, smoothly describes circles, as if about to take off. Lezginka music, with a clear rhythm and energetic movements, has attracted the attention of many famous composers.

So, Glinka in "Ruslan and Lyudmila", Rubinstein in "The Demon" placed a stormy, full of elemental strength and passion "lezginka". The composition has remained popular to this day - very often modern performers turn to it. .... The famous Lezgin dance - Lezginka (also known in Iran as Lezgi and in Georgia as Lekuri - Lek "Lezgin, Dagestan"), which is almost unchanged among all Caucasian peoples without exception, is nothing more than an echo of the ancient pagan beliefs and rituals, one of the main elements of which was the image of an eagle.

This image is accurately reproduced by the dancer, especially at the moment when he, rising on his toes and proudly spreading his arms-wings, smoothly describes circles, as if about to take off.

The name of a similar Georgian dance kartuli, in all likelihood, also comes from the word card and originally meant ‘falcon, eagle dance’ (see photo). It is natural that the Lezginka is named so in accordance with the ancient totem of the Lezgin-speaking peoples and is the original national and ancient ritual dance of the Lezgins (hence the name Lezgi / Lezginka).

Chechens don't have dances at all

Actually, the Leks are the Laks, and the Lezgins are not clear which side they became the Leks?

the word lezgin itself comes from the Persian lezji as khalaji, baloch

everyone wants to steal such a great Lezgin story. and the Chechens have nothing to do with it

Caucasians are hot, passionate and emotional people. The Caucasus is the birthplace of beautiful expressive dances. Such a national dance of the Caucasus as Lezginka deserves special attention. This dance, like no other, conveys a lot of feelings and carries the inexhaustible living energy of the people of the Caucasus.

Lezginka dance is a set of unique movements that carry expression and convey the depth of feelings of the passionate nature of the dancing person.

Many today are interested in the question: how exactly to preserve the style of ancient dance? Learn the moves? Closely follow the choreography? No, this is not enough it is important to find clothes that will become the main component of the dance.

Clothing for lezginka is an urgent issue for lovers of this dance.

What does lezginka clothing look like? What are its characteristic features?

Let's consider all the aspects mentioned earlier in detail. The Lezginka costume must preserve all the national customs of the Caucasian people. But since the Lezgins were the founders of the Lezginka, the suit for the Lezginka should, accordingly, retain the traditional features of the national clothes of the Lezgins.

The men's costume for lezginka consists of a Circassian, that is, a single-breasted caftan with an open chest.. Circassian sleeves can be either long or short. For a colder season, instead of a Circassian, they wear a beshmet, that is, the same Circassian, but with a standing collar and on a wadded or woolen basis. Pants are worn on the legs (in Lezgin - vakhchagar). These pants have a wide step, which gradually narrows towards the bottom.

502: Bad Gateway

A cloak can be worn on top - that is, a black cloak (less often - white). All this is pulled together by a type-setting belt. Dudes are put on the legs, which are sewn from red morocco. Now, for dancing, lezginkas like to wear morocco or leather dudes (since ancient times only the upper class wore them), less often they wear felt dudes.

Leggings are also worn on the legs, which, like dudes, are sewn from leather or morocco. The legs are decorated with galloons with garters under the knee.

Previously, a dagger, a saber and a saber were mandatory items for a men's suit for a lezginka. Now they are dressed for dancing less and less, as they hinder movement.

A women's suit for a lezginka is a set of pants, both narrow and wide, as well as an undershirt. On top of all this, an upper one-piece dress is put on, a scarf or a national women's headdress is put on the woman's head, knitted stockings and dudes are put on her legs.

Lezgins are one of the major peoples of the Dagestan ASSR. They live compactly in the southeastern part of the republic and in the adjacent regions of the northern part of the Azerbaijan Bakhtjan SSR. In the Dagestan ASSR, they inhabit the districts of Kurakhsky, Kasumkentoky, Magaramkentsky, Dokuzparinsky and Akhtynsky, as well as partially Rutulsky and Khiva, and in the Azerbaijan SSR - Kubinsky and Kusarsky regions. Lezgins call themselves Lezgi. Before the Great October Socialist Revolution, the entire mountain population of Dagestan was often incorrectly referred to as Lezgins.

The number of Lezgins according to the 1959 census is 223 thousand people, of which 98 thousand people live in Azerbaijan.

The Lezgin language belongs to the Lezgin group of the Dagestan branch of the Caucasian languages. This group also includes Tabasaran, Agul, Rutul, Tsakhur, Khinalug, Kryz, Budug and Udi languages. With the exception of Lezghin proper and Tabasaran, all these languages ​​are unwritten. The Aguls are very close to the Lezgins themselves, most of them speaking the Lezgin language.

The Lezgi language is also freely spoken by the southern Tabasarans and part of the Rutuls. The Lezgins and Aguls living in the Dagestan ASSR use the Lezgin script, the Lezgin population of Azerbaijan - the Azerbaijani script. In addition to their native language, the vast majority of Dagestan Lezgins know Russian and Azerbaijani. The Lezgi language is divided into three dialects - Kurin, Akhtyn (both in Dagestan) and Cuban (in Azerbaijan).

Each of the dialects, in turn, consists of several close dialects. The literary language is based on the Kyurinsky dialect.

The territory occupied by the Lezgins is divided into foothill and mountainous. The foothill part consists of plains and low elevations, covered with intermittent shrubs and woody thickets. The climate in the foothills is dry, with hot summers and moderate winters. The mountain part consists of high ridges and river valleys.

On some peaks there is eternal snow. The slopes of the mountains are sometimes covered with shrubs and sparse grass cover, but often they are devoid of any vegetation, as streams of rainwater carry away the soil cover from the slopes. The mountains in the valley of the river look especially deserted. Samura. However, now measures are being taken to plant gardens in these places and create forest plantations. The climate in the mountains is cooler than in the foothills, but even here in the summer there are often droughts.

The rivers flowing through the Lezgi territory (the largest are Samur and Gyulgerychay) have a fast flow and sharply change their level depending on the amount of precipitation.

Lezgins are the original population of South Dagestan. We find the oldest news about the Lezgins from ancient authors who mention the Legi people living in the Eastern Caucasus. Arab authors of the 9th-10th centuries

they knew in South Dagestan the "kingdom of the Laks". The finds of Kufic inscriptions in the villages of Akhty, Zrykh, Kochkhur, Gelkhen, Ashaga-Stal, Kurakh allowed us to believe that these, as, obviously, many other Lezgi villages, arose before the 14th century.

Politically, the Lezgi population until the 19th century. did not form a unified whole. It was predominantly part of a number of independent "free societies", which were small associations of rural communities. The Lezgins of Azerbaijan were part of the Quba Khanate, and the Lezgins living near Derbent were subordinate to the Derbent khans.

In the XVIII century. Lezgi territory was temporarily captured by the neighboring Kazikumukh khans. In 1812, in the valley of the river. Kurakhchaya and the lower reaches of the river. Samur, the Kyurinsky Khanate was formed (with its center in the village of Kurakh), which became part of Russia. At the same time, the Upper Samur “free societies” of the Lezgins (Akhty-Para, Alty-Para, Dokuz-Para) voluntarily accepted Russian citizenship.

Before the revolution, the territory of the Lezgins consisted of the Samur and Kyurinsky districts of the Dagestan region and the Kubinsky district of the Baku province.

economy

The main occupations of the Lezgins are animal husbandry and agriculture.

Gardening plays an important role. There are differences in the nature of the economy between different regions. Thus, residents of the Kurakh, Khiva, Akhtyn and Dokuzparinsky districts are mainly engaged in animal husbandry, and the residents of Kasumkent and Magaramkent are engaged in agriculture. In the Akhtyn, Kasumkent, and Magaramkent districts, horticulture plays an important role in the economy.

In all Lezgi regions, mainly small skog are bred, and everywhere sheep breeding prevails over goat breeding.

But the number of heads of one or another type of livestock in different places is different. Buffaloes play a significant role in the collective farm and individual economy. Collective farms are working to improve the breed of livestock.

The pastoral economy of the Lezgins has the same features as those of other peoples of Dagestan.

Just like other peoples, the Lezghins organize the maintenance of livestock and its annual hauls from summer to winter pastures and back, the same way kopts are arranged on summer pastures and kutans on winter pastures, livestock care, wool collection, milking, the same methods of preparing dairy products. We only note that Lezghin women prepare oil obtained in their personal households not by churning with a special pestle, but by rocking a tall barrel-shaped vessel filled with sour cream.

The Great October Socialist Revolution, and then the collectivization of agriculture, brought great changes to the Lezgi livestock.

Winter and summer pastures are now assigned to collective farms - livestock breeders do not have to, as before, every year look for pastures free from tenants. More and more advanced methods of keeping livestock, advanced equipment (separators, electric milking, electric shearing, etc.)

Agriculture is the main branch of the economy of the Lezgins in the foothill regions. If a; according to 1958 data, in the mountainous Akhtyn region, the area of ​​​​pastures and hayfields is almost five times larger than the area under crops, then in the foothill areas of Kasumkent and Magaramkent regions, the area under arable land is approximately 1.5 times larger than under pastures and hayfields. Most of the cultivated area is occupied by grain crops.

Seyug corn, wheat (mainly winter), rye, barley, millet, chin, rice. A large role in the economy of Lezgins is played by garden and melon crops - potatoes, peas, cabbage, cucumbers, carrots, and in the foothill areas, tomatoes, watermelons, melons, pumpkins, etc.

e. Cabbage grown in the Akhtyn region is noteworthy, the weight of its heads reaches two pounds. Sunflower, kenaf, fiber flax, hemp, and tobacco are grown from oilseeds and industrial crops.

Every year crops of fodder crops expand. A significant part of the fields has artificial irrigation.

Before the Great October Socialist Revolution, the Lezgins did not sow industrial and fodder crops and almost did not engage in gardening, with the exception of potato cultivation. The local population learned to grow potatoes in the 19th century. at the Russians. In agricultural production, the Lezgins used a light plow designed for a pair of draft bulls, a sickle, a threshing board and a winnowing sieve.

Grain was ground in hand and water mills.

During the years of Soviet power, not only did the range of Lezgin agricultural products expand significantly, but agricultural technology also changed.

The nationalization of the land eliminated the previously existing obstacles to the construction of irrigation ditches and led to an increase in the area of ​​irrigated land. The old plow, threshing boards and wooden shovels are replaced by a factory plow, threshers and winnowing machines.

Modern technology is especially widely used in the foothill areas - Kasumkent and Magaramkent. By the spring of 1959, the collective farms in these two regions had more than 50 tractors (in terms of 15 horsepower), two dozen combines, about a hundred trucks, etc.

e. In a number of Lezgi villages, electric energy is used for threshing and grinding. In many places mills with mechanical motors have been built.

Gardening occupies a prominent place in the Lezgin economy.

Before collectivization, its role was relatively small. It has now become significant. Particularly rich orchards are found in the villages of Gilyar in the Magaramkent district, Kasumkent, Ashaga-Stal, Kurkent and Orta-Stal in the Kasumkent district and in the villages. Akhty, Akhtynsky district. On the territory of the Kasumkent district there is the largest horticultural state farm in Dagestan.

Gereykhanov, which accounts for half of the total area of ​​the gardens of the district. In addition to orchards, which occupy 782 hectares (1959), this state farm has a significant field and livestock farming.

The development of agriculture was facilitated by large-scale irrigation works. In Soviet times, the Lezghin settlement area was covered with a dense network of irrigation canals. Thanks to the use of artificial irrigation, many thousands of hectares of previously uncultivated or abandoned land in Kasumkent, Magaramkent, Akhtyn and other districts have been turned into collective farm fields, orchards and orchards.

Great progress has also been made in the field of electrification. Many power plants have been built, including Akhtshskaya, which is one of the largest in Dagestan.

In the past, the manufacturing industry in the territory of the Lezgins was represented only by crafts and home handicrafts.

The most significant craft centers were the villages of Akhty, Ikra, Kasumkent. In Akhty, for example, there were about a hundred craftsmen - tanners, shoemakers, fur coat workers, garment workers, blacksmiths, etc. It was a large trade and craft center of Southern Dagestan. The village of Ikra was famous for its gunsmiths and jewelers. Carpet weaving was developed. Lezgin carpets were in great demand in Russia and other countries. Carpet makers worked alone, in dark and dirty rooms, on homemade machines, receiving meager remuneration for their hard work.

During the years of Soviet power, the Lezgins had their own industry: timber industry enterprises, fruit canning factories!, fish breeding stations, mineral water factories, butter and cheese factories, food processing plants, printing houses, as well as a number of cooperative production artels, among which carpet artels are of great importance, uniting more than 1 .5 thousand

craftswomen. Other traditional handicrafts remain: leather processing, production of copper and other metal products.

History of the Lezgi people

In each district there are industrial plants that unite handicraftsmen engaged in the manufacture and repair of household metal objects (temporary stoves, basins, jugs, etc.), clothes, shoes, etc.

Before the revolution, many thousands of Lezgins left for seasonal work, mainly in Azerbaijan. Most of the otkhodniks were peasants from mountain villages, who suffered especially from landlessness. From a number of villages in the Samara and mountainous parts of the Kyurinsky districts (Akhty, Kana, Khryuk, Mikrakh, Caviar, Khuchkhur, Kurakh, Gelkhen, etc.), almost all adult men left to work.

Most of the otkhodniks left in the autumn, along with cattle driven to winter pastures, which were previously located mainly in northern Azerbaijan. Thus, otkhodnichestvo among the Lezgins was often combined with transhumance.

Otkhodniks were hired to dig irrigation ditches, plant trees, burn coal, [work as masons, laborers, etc.].

e. Another part of otkhodniks went to the oil fields of Baku, where many settled down for permanent work. By 1917

among the Lezgins, there was already a significant stratum of the industrial proletariat, which took an active part in the struggle of the Bolshevik party for the establishment of Soviet power in Dagestan and Azerbaijan. In Soviet times, especially after collectivization, the seasonal departure of lezsha was greatly reduced, but the number of lezgin workers increased significantly,

Of great importance for the development of the economy and culture of the Lezgins was the elimination of centuries-old impassability.

Now the Lezghin villages are connected with each other and with other areas by good automobile and wheeled roads. Motor roads even passed to such high-altitude villages as Kurush, Khuchkhur, Richa, Dried apricots and others, which previously communicated with the outside world only along difficult paths.

FLNKA in Dagestan and the problems of Lezghin regions

Author channel Federal Lezgi National Cultural Autonomy (FLNKA)5 year. back

Miletus in the Lezgi language. Albanist Yarali Yaraliev

The guest of the program, Professor, Doctor of Technical Sciences Yarali Alievich Yaraliev.

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Ruslan Kurbanov tore apart Vladimir Zhirinovsky at the Duel

Ruslan Kurbanov tore apart Vladimir Zhirinovsky at the Duel

Samur knot Samur forest ecology

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Lezgins. History, culture, traditions (M. N. Gadzhiyeva, 2011)

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Salam, teacher!

A story about Russian teachers in Dagestan, about how for many years of Soviet power everything was done in order to educate children in the republic.

But more than forty languages ​​are spoken in Dagestan, and the vast majority of these languages ​​did not have a written language, it was created by philologists from leading scientific institutions of the USSR. Throughout the post-war years, graduates of provincial Russian pedagogical institutes went to Dagestan, to mountain villages, and worked there all their lives as teachers of the Russian language and mathematics, chemistry and physics.

They came to villages where there was no electricity, where they had to pore over books by the light of grease and kerosene lamps and collect dung to heat their dwellings, where it was unthinkable to go out without a scarf.

They managed to win authority and respect from people of a completely different culture. Visiting teachers not only taught literacy, but also changed local customs. They arranged dance evenings, were advisers to both local women and youth. It was they who taught the generation that became the basis of the intelligentsia of the republic. And by the eighties of the last century, graduates of their own, Dagestan universities, went to mountain villages. But very many Russian teachers remained to live in Dagestan, they did not leave for their homeland.

They have families, children and grandchildren are growing up. Now they are remembered. At their own expense, their students wrote and published the book "My First Teacher" about Russian teachers in Dagestan. Script writer: Vadim Goncharov (Godza) Director: Maxim Ogechin

Antiquity of the indigenous peoples of the Caucasus.

The Caucasus is one of the most interesting regions of the globe. Having unique natural conditions, exceptional strategic importance in the system of relations between Europe and the East, having become a home for hundreds of nationalities, it is truly a unique corner of the world. The huge scientific potential of the study of the Caucasus has long attracted the attention of historians, archaeologists, ethnographers, travelers and many other specialists. The study of this mountainous country, intensively continuing for about 500 years, made it possible to accumulate a huge amount of factual material. Many museums in the world are proud to have Caucasian collections. Enough specialized literature has been written about the life and way of life of individual peoples, the study of archaeological sites. However, the history of this mountainous country is multifaceted and complex, reminding us that a thousandth part of what the fertile land of the Caucasus carefully preserves and carries through the centuries has been studied.

In terms of linguistic structure, the Caucasian languages ​​differ sharply from all other languages ​​located in this part of the world, and, despite the lack of direct kinship, there are certain similarities between them that make us talk about the Caucasian language union. Their characteristic features are the relative simplicity of the vowel system (there are only two in Ubykh, which is a world record) and an extraordinary variety of consonants; widespread use of the ergative construction of the sentence.

In the III-II millennia BC. the so-called Caucasian-speaking tribes lived in the territories not only of the Caucasus, modern Dagestan and Transcaucasia, but also in Mesopotamia, Asia Minor and Asia Minor, the Aegean, the Balkan and even the Apennine peninsulas. The kinship of the most ancient population of all these territories can be traced in the unity of their anthropological data (Mediterranean and Caspian subraces), culture (“Kuro-Araks”) and common linguistic ties. If we also take into account the fact that they moved only within the territory of their relatives and almost did not migrate outside this territory, then their ethnic closeness can be considered proven, based on the common territory, anthropology, culture and language.

The most ancient peoples of Asia Minor and Asia Minor and their languages, like the peoples and languages ​​of modern Dagestan, are characterized by their diversity. The largest of these peoples are the Pelasgi (III-II millennium BC, Balkans), the Hattians (III millennium BC, Asia Minor), the Hurrians (III-II millennium BC, Mesopotamia), Urartians (I millennium BC, modern Armenia) and Caucasian Albanians (I millennium BC - I millennium AD, modern Azerbaijan and South Dagestan). Careful linguistic studies by I. Dyakonov, S. Starostin and others have shown over 100 common roots of the Hurrian-Urartian and Northeast Caucasian languages. Due to the significant proximity of these languages, I. Dyakonov proposes to abandon the designation "North-East Caucasian" for this family and introduce a special name "Alarodian".

Thus, in the IV-III millennium BC. in the territories of the Caucasus, Transcaucasia, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor and Asia Minor lived peoples or nationalities with ethnographically close family ties in anthropology, culture, territory of settlement and language.

Pelasgians and related tribes.

Historical science has long known that the pre-Greek population of the Balkans and the Aegean were called Pelasgians, Lelegs and Carians. According to historians, the Pelasgians settled on the uninhabited Balkan Peninsula, and according to archaeological data, humans first appeared on Crete in the Neolithic around the 7th millennium BC. Information about the ancestor of the Pelasgians, Pelasg, is part of the oldest myths: Pelasg showed people how to build huts and dress in pig skins. He also taught the inhabitants of Arcadia to eat acorns, and later to plow the land and grow bread, which takes us to the world of legends of the deepest antiquity.

From the VIII-VII millennium BC in the southwest of Asia Minor, an agricultural culture begins to develop, which is conventionally called Chatal-Khuyuk (according to the modern name of the place in Turkey). This culture was distributed in a wide strip along the south of Asia Minor and probably reached the Aegean Sea at that time in the area of ​​the island of Rhodes. It was distinguished by a surprisingly high level of development of agriculture, crafts, and culture for that time.

As established with sufficient reliability, from the 5th millennium BC. On the territory of Asia Minor lived tribes who spoke the so-called Hatto-Khurit languages. Somewhat later, they occupied a significant territory, including, in addition to Asia Minor, the Armenian Highlands and Upper Mesopotamia, Transcaucasia, the entire North Caucasus, and the western coast of the Caspian Sea. The indicated name characterizes the fact that all the languages ​​of this family can be divided into two groups, which formed two streams of their distribution. One group, the Hattian, included tribes moving through the north of Asia Minor along the Black Sea coast. Another group, the Hurrian group, moved across the south of Asia Minor and penetrated the Kuro-Araks valley through the Armenian Highlands, occupied the territory of modern Azerbaijan, and then entered the North Caucasus in the region of modern Dagestan and Chechnya.

Based on the fact that all other tribes known on the territory of Asia Minor are newcomers, it can be assumed that the Hatto-Hurrian group of languages ​​originated here and its spread was initiated by a group of tribes of the Chatal-Khuyuk culture.

Putting forward his version of the origin of the words "Etruscans" and "Pelasgians" Acad. N.Ya. Marr notes that the Caucasus is characterized by a root in ethnic terms with rebirth 1-s - 1-z, for example, tribal names and ethnocultural terms - lazg (Lezgin), lesk-ur (saber; letters, "Lezgin weapons" ), leg + z + i - leg + z-i, lek-ur (Lezginka, Lezgin dance), etc. When these tribes moved to the Balkan Peninsula, their names underwent changes: “lazg” (“las-k”) in the Abkhaz-Adyghe the form "re-lasg" ("pelazg") or in the Svan form "le-leg".

Asia Minor tribes and Caucasian Albanians.

Archaeologists claim that the population of Caucasian Albania in the 4th c. BC. - III century AD in anthropological terms, shows great similarity with the inhabitants of Transcaucasia of the previous eras (XIII-IX centuries BC) and Western Asia of the III-II millennium BC. It is believed that the Albanians are not a separate tribe, but the common name of the entire population of Albania, and the Albanian language is the state language of Albania. The Alupan Book gives the following names of Albanian tribes: kirk, garg, mik, udi, leg, khel, lezg, tsakh, gav, them, kas, kuyr, gili, bil, ran, mush, shek, chek, alak, sharv , arts, barz, flies, lek, kel, sul, chur, cheb, tseg, hech, sec.

The tribe “Kas” (‘man, husband, man; personality’ in Lezgi) is one of the large tribes of Caucasian Albania. The area of ​​residence of the Kas in Albania was called "Caspiana" and was located on the southwestern coast of the Caspian Sea, and the sea got its name from these Kas. We believe that the Caucasian-Albanian "Kas" ("Kaspi"), the Asia Minor "Kasks" and the Mesopotamian "Kassites" are of the same etymological and ethnic basis.

The relationship of the helmets with the Hutts was indicated by E. Forrer, P.N. Ushakov, G.A. Melikishvili and G.G. Giorgadze. The language of the Kasks is judged only by a certain number of names of localities, settlements and names of persons.

The Kassites are one of the hill tribe groups of the Zagros. The indigenous habitat of the Kassite tribes were the mountainous areas of Western Iran. According to available data, the Kassites were neither Indo-Europeans nor Semites. They appeared on the borders of Mesopotamia around the 18th century. BC. Around 1742 BC Kassite leader Gandash invaded Babylonia and appropriated the magnificent title of "king of the four countries of the world, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of Babylon." From 1595 BC the reign of the Kassite dynasty begins and the so-called Middle Babylonian period, which ends around 1155 BC.

The Kas tribe (Kaspi, Kaski, Kash, Kush, Kushites, Kassites), which is one of the Lezgin-speaking peoples, according to B. the Terrible, once occupied a vast territory in ancient times - Central Anatolia, south of the Black Sea, western and southern the lands of the Caspian Sea, possibly Afghanistan and Northern India. Obviously, there is no doubt about the kinship of this people not only with the Hattians and through them with the Pelasgians, but also with the Artsavis in Asia Minor (the “Arts” tribe of Caucasian Albania), the Kutia (the “Uti” tribe of Caucasian Albania), the Legs, the Lezgs, the Mushki and etc.

From the 3rd millennium BC in northeastern Mesopotamia lived the Gutian tribes, whose language differs from the Sumerian, Semitic or Indo-European languages; they may have been related to the Hurrians. At the end of the XXIII century. BC. The Kuti invaded Mesopotamia and established their rule there for a whole century. Under the blows of the Gutians, the Akkadian kingdom fell into decay. It is assumed that the language of the Kutians belongs to the Northeast Caucasian language group. This group also included the Albanians who inhabited Northern Azerbaijan in the 1st millennium BC. Scholars identify the Gutians with one of the Caucasian-Albanian tribes, the Utians, or modern Udins, who now live in two villages on the border between Azerbaijan and Georgia.

In the Alupan Book, as one of the tribes of Caucasian Albania (Alupan), the Mushk tribe is noted, which was located at the mouth of the Kyulan-vats1 river (lit. Middle river; modern Samur). The north-eastern part of the territory of modern Azerbaijan up to the Samur River is still called "Mushkur" - the birthplace of the 18th century Lezghin folk hero Gadzhi Davud Mushkursky.

Asia Minor flies, according to G.A. Melikishvili - Georgian tribes, and according to I.M. Dyakonov, "flies" were called Phrygia and Phrygians. We think that G.A. Melikishvili is mistaken, otherwise it is completely incomprehensible where the Mushki tribe came from in Caucasian Albania, and their territory along the lower reaches of the Samur River, where Lezgins have lived for centuries. If we also take into account the fact that the inhabitants of the modern village of Frig, Khiva region (Southern Dagestan) are also Lezgins, and especially the fact that the ancient Phrygians and Mushki are almost the same people, then the coincidence of the “Phrygians” with the “Frigians” is not accidental.

Of all the above proofs of the kinship of ethnic groups, language undoubtedly occupies a leading place. Language is a kind of passport of the people, and without language there can be no talk of history. We will try to substantiate the linguistic relationship of the "Alarodian" peoples on the example of deciphering ancient written monuments using the key of the Lezgi subgroup of the East Caucasian languages.

Lezgi language in the environment of "Alarodian" languages.

The Lezgins, more precisely the Lezgin-speaking peoples, are the speakers of the languages ​​of the Lezgin subgroup of the East Caucasian group or the Nakh-Dagestan branch of the Iberian-Caucasian family of languages. The ethnonym "Lezgi" finds its first historical publicity in connection with the ethnic composition of Caucasian Albania (if we do not take into account the similarity of "Lezgi" with "Pelazgi"). According to historians, ethnographers and linguists (N. Marr, P. Uslar, M. Ikhilov and many others), the ethnic name "Lezgi" is identified with other similar names of the tribes "Lazg", "Lakz", "Leg", "Lek", " gel”, etc., which constitute the main tribal association of Caucasian Albania. The tribes of Caucasian Albania, given in the Alupan Book, differ from each other only in names, and we find explanations for these names in the Lezgi subgroup of the East Caucasian languages; "kirk" ("Kirkar" - Lezgi village), "mik" ("Mikrag" - Lezgi village), "gili" ("Gili-yar" - Lezgi village), "mush" ("Mushkur" - Lezgi toponymic name) rank); “udi”, “lay down”, “lezg”, “tsakh”, “kas”, “shek”, “sul”, “chur”, “sek”, “tapas” - Lezgin-speaking tribes; “kel”, “heb”, “ts1eg”, “hech”, “khel”, “woof”, “them”, “shek”, “flies”, “lek” are Lezgin words. These same tribes, after the destruction of Caucasian Albania and repeated invasions of nomadic tribes and neighboring states - Greeks, Persians, Mongol-Tatars, Turks, retain their more common name - "Lezgins" and settle in Northern Azerbaijan and Southern Dagestan. The more common name of these and other tribes of Caucasian Albania - "Albanians", comes from the name of the state and, as experts rightly point out, is only a "generalizing" character. It seems to us that the words “Lezgi” and “Lezgiar” not only show the number (singular and plural, respectively), but also personify the concepts of “Lezg tribe” and “Lezghian tribes”.

It is well known that the Caucasian languages ​​are older than the Indo-European ones. In this regard, the Lezgi language is no exception. Even E. Bokarev, E. Krupnov, M. Ichilov and others claimed 4-5 thousand years of antiquity of the Lezgi languages. Although they did not have a single sentence of the ancient Lezgin (Proto-Lezgin) language in their hands, there were serious prerequisites for its antiquity.

If a language contains words that have an undivided basis in the form of a word-sound, relating both to an action and to an object, and preceding the emergence of a language as a system, then such a language can already be attributed to the most ancient on this basis. In this regard, it is characteristic that the language of the most ancient person should be rich in monosyllabic words, which can be cited many examples from the Nakh-Dagestan languages, including from the Lezgi languages. The Lezghin “ava” (is), “ama” (remained), “ana” (there), “ya” (is), “yad” (water), “kva” (is), etc. are associated with the sound “a”. This sound as a free unit (“a” - “is, is, is”) functions in the Tabasaran, Agul and Rutul languages; in the Archa language "a" - "do". The sound “and” is associated with the words “i (n)” - this, “ina” - here, “ikIa” - so, “gyikIa” - like, etc. Besides:

a) in the Lezgi language, some words in pronunciation maximally reproduce the actions corresponding to them. For example, “begye” ‘ram, sheep, lamb’, “tfu” ‘spit’, ‘uggy’ ‘cough’, ‘hapi’ ‘burp’, etc.;

b) many words of the Lezgi language consist of one, two and three letters, and by changing only one letter, you can get a large number of other words. For example, by changing the first letter: “kav” 'ceiling, roof', 'tsav' 'sky', 'sav' 'oatmeal', 'dav' 'permafrost' 'woof' 'wild bull', etc., changing the last letters: "kab" 'dishes', "qad" 'twenty', 'kai' 'cold', 'kaz' 'greens', etc.;

c) in the Lezgin language, an abundance of consonants, with only five vowels, which is one of the main conditions for obtaining a variety of words;

d) consonants (C) and vowels (G) alternate in Lezgi words: “a” 'that' (G), 'sa' 'one' (SG), 'katsu' 'green' (SGSG), 'sankIar' 'scoundrel' (SGSSGS); the presence of several consecutive consonants in one syllable is a late phenomenon (“mukIratI” - “mkIratI” “scissors”; “sadhva” - “stha” “brother”, etc.).

Linguists, comparing the words of different language families, identify their more ancient forms that make up the most ancient proto-language, the so-called Nostratic language. They suggest that the common Nostratic language existed before the Neolithic, i.e. around the end of the 10th millennium BC. Consequently, at the turn of the Mesolithic (XI-X thousand BC) and the Neolithic (IX thousand BC), in one of the regions of Western Asia, one of the descendants of the common Nostratic language already existed. Comparison of related languages ​​and even language families allowed linguists to identify more ancient roots from which etymological dictionaries were compiled, which contain reconstructed Pranostratic words (and there are now about a thousand known). Among these words there are neither the names of domestic animals, nor the names of cultivated plants, nor in general concepts that arose in connection with agriculture or cattle breeding. There are no names of clay vessels either. There are only those terms that are associated with hunting and fishing.

The knowledge of the ancient hunter in the anatomy of animals was limited to those organs and tissues of the animal that were of economic or culinary importance. Of these words, it is of interest to us - "kIapIA" (skull) close to "kIaapI - kIarab" ('bone' in Lezgin), "maxA" (bone marrow and liver), close to "mak" ('mind' in Caucasian-Albanian language) and "lek" ('liver' in the Lezgi language), "kIola" (fish), close to "k1azri" ('fish' in Pelazgian). In addition to hunting and fishing, ancient man was engaged in collecting edible plants. Among these plants, an ancient man collected "marA" (berries, blackberries; "mara" 'blackberry' in Lezghin, "moren" in Greek), ' in Lezgi).

The most correct way to obtain reliable information about any ancient ethnic group is to correctly decipher its writing, i.e. get information from the original. The antiquity of the Lezgi language is undeniably proved by its kinship with the most ancient languages, the written monuments of which are deciphered using this language for the first time in world practice. Such ancient languages ​​include the Caucasian-Albanian, Urartian, Hurrian, Hattian, Pelasgian, and Etruscan languages.

Nothing was known about Albanian written monuments before 1937. In September 1937, the Georgian scientist I. Abuladze discovered in the Matenadaran archive (Yerevan, Armenia) the alphabet of the Caucasian Albanians, consisting of 52 letters. Later, several fragmentary samples of the Caucasian-Albanian writing were revealed: Mingachevir inscriptions, Balushensky, Derbent, Gunibsky and other inscriptions, which, even in the presence of the Albanian alphabet, could not be deciphered. Only the use of the Lezgi language as a key language gave satisfactory results in deciphering not only the indicated short inscriptions, but also, as mentioned above, a whole book of 50 pages (“Alupan Book”). Studies of the origin of the letters of the Matenadaran alphabet showed that this alphabet was created on the principle of acrophony long before our era, and the names of about 56% of the signs-letters have a Lezgi basis.

A preview of the materials available in the literature on the decipherment of the Urartian monuments showed a more convincing interpretation of the content of these inscriptions using the Lezgi language. For example, one can interpret the following sentence from the Urartian inscriptions: "... Menuashe Ishpuinihinishe ini drank aguni ...". The sentence is translated into Russian as ‘…Menua, son of Ishpuin, this channel ran…’. There is no doubt that the words "Menuashe Ishpuinihinishe" ('Menua, son of Ishpuin') are in the ergative case, as evidenced by the suffix "-she" of the ergative case in the Tsakhur language ("-hi-" from the word "x(w)a" 'son' in Lezgi). The word “ini” is the Lezghin “in” ‘this’, or ‘ini(n)’ ‘this, local’. The word "drank" is translated as "channel". It is this meaning that this word retained in the Gelkhen mixed dialect of the Kurakh dialect of the Lezgi language. In Gelchen, “drank” is a zigzag arrangement of stones used in the construction of a canal to prevent soil landslides. The last word of the sentence - "aguni", as it is used by modern decipherers, has almost lost its Caucasian pronunciation: it should be read as "egguni (y)" "dripped, spent" in the Lezgi language, which is fully consistent with the translation of the sentence.

Take the Urartian word "mankali". In the dictionaries of the Urartian language, it is translated as a designation for the type of oil (?). This word occurs in the list of household goods, and this word is preceded by a sign indicating either "Sharra" 'king', or XX '20', and after this word comes a sign showing either the syllable "ni" or "shamnu" 'fat, oil'. Several transcriptions are obtained from this: “Sharru mankali shamnu”, “XX mancalini”, etc. The phrase "... mankali shamnu" allowed specialists to translate them as "mankali oil" (a variety, grade of oil). However, this expression is well read in the Lezgi language: “XX man kali (n) chchem”, where “man” is the ancient Lezgi measure of weight (small man - 0.5 kg, large man - 3 kg), "kali (n)" 'cows, cow' in the Lezgi language, 'chchem', 'ch1em' (= 'sham') 'oil'. Translation: "20 mana cow butter" or in modern terms: "60 kg cow butter".

From the Hattian words cited in the literature, the following Hatto-Lezgin parallels can be cited: “takkekhal” (Hitt., hero) - “kyegal” (Lezg., brave, brave), “dawn” (Khatt., man) - “dawn "(Kav.-Alb., writer, poet), "kasht" (Hitt., hunger) - "kash" (Lezg., hunger), "yatar" (Hatt., water) - "yidar" (Hitt., water - plural) - "yad" (Lezg., water), "kir" (Hitt., heart) - "rikI" (Lezg., heart), "yar" (Hatt., burn) - "yar "(Lezg., dawn, scarlet, beloved), "akun" (khatt., to see) - "akun" (Lezg., to see), "akhkun" and "hkun" (khatt., the meaning of these words in the literature is not known ) - “ahkun” or “khkun” (Lezg., see again, meet), “hku-vya” (khatt., grab) - “khkun” (lezg., grab), “pIvel” (khatt., house) - "kIviel" (Lezg., house), "ka" (Hatt., give) - "cha" (Lezg., give; "ke" 'give' in Gelkhen in the language of children), "hyanvya-shit" ( hatt., throne or goddess of the throne) - “gna-na” (Kav.-Alb., throne), “Ashtan” (khatt., god of the Sun) - “Al-pan” (Lezg., god of fire), “Ur (a / i) "(khatt., well) -" ur "(lezg., lake; on literary lezg. language "vir"), etc.

Surprising results are obtained by deciphering the Pelasgian written monuments using the key of the Lezgi language. The distribution time of the Minoan (Pelasgian) writing covers almost the entire 2nd millennium BC. The hieroglyphic (picture-syllabic) script immediately preceding Linear A existed in Crete from about 2000 to 1700 BC. From this largely pictographic script developed Linear A, which was also used almost exclusively in Crete from about 1800 to 1400. Two other types of writing developed from Linear A: Linear B and Cyprominoan. The first of these was used at Knossos in the 15th century. and in some centers of mainland Greece from the 13th to the 12th centuries. BC. The second existed in Cyprus from 1500 to 1150 and was revived starting from the 7th century. BC, in the form of a Cypriot syllabary, which later greatly helped to decipher the Knossos and Pylos texts. There is also the famous "Phaistos Disc" - Cretan hieroglyphic - the only stamped letter in ancient Europe! All these forms of Pelasgian writing - the "Phaistos Disc", about 50 samples of hieroglyphic writing, about 40 samples of linear "A", 50 samples of linear "B" and all existing samples (there are three in total) of Cyprominoan writing are completely deciphered and interpreted using the same Lezgi language. The results obtained are summarized in “Yaraliev Ya.A., Osmanov N.O. Deciphering the Cretan script. Pelasgian-Lezgian language. History of the Lezgins. Volume 2. M., 2009.

Many Pelasgian words, along with writing, were borrowed by the Achaeans (ancient Greeks), and therefore hundreds of Greek-Lezgin parallels can be found in the ancient Greek language.

Etruscan epigraphic monuments consist of both relatively large texts and over 10,000 short epitaphs, inscriptions on tablets and other materials. The longest of the large texts is the manuscript on the shrouds of the Zagreb mummy, containing about 1500 words. The second largest Etruscan monument is an inscription on a terracotta tile found on the site of ancient Capua (more than 160 different words survived). The inscription on a lenticular lead plate found in Magliano and containing about 70 words belongs to the same group of cult texts. It is also assumed that the inscription on the column from Perusia, numbering 130 words, is the only legal document - an agreement between representatives of two Etruscan families on the sale or transfer of some possessions. Among the most important Etruscan epigraphic monuments, of course, are the three dedicatory inscriptions on gold foils, two of which are in Etruscan and one is in Phoenician.

For almost 500 years, both serious scientists and countless amateurs have been struggling to unravel the mystery of the Etruscan language. For the interpretation of the Etruscan writing, almost all the languages ​​of the globe and all known methods of decipherment have been tried, and no satisfactory results have been obtained. With the help of the Lezgin language, all known large Etruscan texts and 320 short inscriptions were deciphered (see “Yaraliev Y.A. Osmanov N.O. History of the Lezgins. Etruscans. I millennium BC. Volume 3. M., 2012” and "Yaraliev Ya.A., Osmanov N.O. Deciphering the Etruscan script. The Etruscan-Lezgi language. The history of the Lezgins. Volume 4 (Books 1 and 2), M., 2012").

Many Etruscan words passed into the Latin language, and therefore it is not surprising that hundreds of Latin-Lezgi parallels can be found in the Latin language.

The same can be said about the written monuments of the Caucasian Albanians. All the epigraphic materials of Caucasian Albania known in the literature and photocopies of one Albanian book (“Alupan Book”) found in the personal archive of the famous Lezghin poet Zabit Rizvanov were successfully deciphered using the Lezgi language and summarized in “Yaraliev Ya.A. Alupan (Caucasian-Albanian) writing and the Lezgi language. Makhachka-la, 1995". This book is written in the "Mesropian" Albanian alphabet (37 letters), which is not known in world Albanian studies.

In the early 90s of the last century, palimpsests were discovered in the Sinai Monastery (Egypt), where a new text in ancient Georgian was produced on the erased Albanian text. Director of the Manuscript Fund of the Academy of Sciences of Georgia ZN Aleksidze managed to completely restore the erased Albanian text on the Sinai palimpsests. In 2009, this Albanian text (about 250 pages) was published in Belgium in English. The authors, without proper deciphering, claim that the text is interpreted using the Udi language, and is a translation of the Gospel into Albanian. Our attempt to decipher the Albanian text on the Sinai palimpsests with the help of the Lezgi languages ​​yielded amazing results: the text is not a translation of the Gospel. An amazing ancient Lezgi language is revealed. Research in this direction is ongoing.

Ya. A. Yaraliev
Professor