The number of Dagestani Azerbaijanis abroad. Federal Lezgin National Cultural Autonomy
Azerbaijanis of Dagestan (self-name - Azerbaijanlilar; until the end of the 1930s, in the historical literature and documents, they were called the Transcaucasian, or Azerbaijani Tatars and Turks) - an ethnic group, i.e. part of the Azerbaijani ethnic group, which forms the main population Azerbaijan and Northwest Iran... Neighboring peoples - and call them Turks, Qajars, less often - Persians. Dagestani Azerbaijanis are settled in the coastal and foothill parts of southern Dagestan, mainly in and nearby regions. There are about 92 thousand Azerbaijanis living in the Republic of Dagestan (2000, estimate), which is 4.3% of the region's population, or 1.3% of all Azerbaijanis in the CIS. About half of them live in rural areas - in (55.7% of the district's population), Tabasaran (18%), as well as in Rutulsky (4%), (2.8%) and Kizlyar (2.6%) districts. City Azerbaijanis are concentrated in Derbent and, in which they make up about a third of the population in each. Some of them also live in the urban-type settlements of Mamed-kala (22.4%), Belidzhi (7.3%), etc.
Separated from the main settlement area are Azerbaijani villages of Lower Katrukh, Rutulsky district, Bolypebredikhinsky and Persian Kizlyarsky districts... Among the Azerbaijanis of Dagestan, a special sub-ethnic group of Terekemeians (self-name - terekemeler) stands out, which until the beginning of the 20th century. was considered a separate ethnic group, and now it is consolidating with the Azerbaijanis proper, while maintaining its ethnic identity and self-name. Terekemeians are settled compactly in 10 villages located in the northern part of the Derbent region. Neighbors - actually Azerbaijanis, Kumyks and Dargins call them, respectively, terekemeler, terkemeler, tarkama; among the northern Kumyks, part of the Dargins, Avars and Laks, they are known under the ethnonym Padar.
Dagestani Azerbaijanis border in the north along the river. Artozen (Bashlychay) with the Kumyks, in the west along the foothills with the Kaitags (Dargins) and Tabasaran, in the south along with the Lezgins. In the east, the natural border of their ethnic territory is the Caspian Sea. Azerbaijanis are settled in two natural and climatic zones: in the southern part of the coastal plain (Derbent district) and the foothills of southern Dagestan (Tabasaran district); only one village (Nizhniy Katrukh, Rutulsky district) is located in the high-mountainous zone. Rivers flow through the ethnic territory of Azerbaijanis Ullucay, Darvagchay, Kamyshchay, Rubas, Gulgerychay in their lower reaches.
The climate is generally moderate here. warm, soft characterized by dry and hot summers, rainy autumn and relatively mild winters. The absolute maximum air temperature is + 38 ° and -21 °, respectively. Average rainfall reaches about 400 mm per year. The soils are light chestnut, heavy loamy, clayey and saline (plain), and chestnut, dark chestnut, mountain-steppe, mountain-forest and meadow (foothills). Plain 507 is home to saline and wormwood-fescue-feather-grass vegetation, in the foothill zone - herb-fescue-feather grass and beard grass in combination with thyme and tragacanths. Until recently, on the ethnic territory of the Dagestani Azerbaijanis, there were quite significant forests, including Ullumesh ("Big Forest").
Of minerals, there are gas, oil, salt ; of building materials- limestone, sand, as well as a deposit of phosphorites and saltpeter (Maraga village). Being on the territory through which passed not only the Great Silk Road, but also numerous military campaigns made from Western Asia to Eastern Europe and back, Azerbaijanis felt all the benefits of rich trade and civilized life and at the same time experienced all the horrors and hardships. brutal wars and devastating devastation. Dagestani Azerbaijanis are representatives of the Caspian type of the large Caucasian race with a small admixture of elements of the Caucasian type, i.e. their anthropological composition testifies to the mixing of the Caspian and Caucasian types of the southern European race.
For several decades between Dagestan, largest region the Russian North Caucasus and Azerbaijan, Russia's largest trading partner in the Transcaucasus, have frigid, tense relations. Azerbaijan could long ago become the largest investor in the economy of Dagestan if the relations between the republics improved a little. According to popular belief, this would be useful for Russia, given that the real economy of Dagestan is weak, and the republic remains the largest recipient of funds from federal budget... But alas: instead, on the southern border of Russia, the potential for a conflict remains, into which the entire country may be drawn against its will.
The topic of Azerbaijani-Dagestan relations once again surfaced on July 23 - after the announcement of the resignation of Kurban Kurbanov, the head of the Derbent region of Dagestan, populated mainly by Azerbaijanis. A number of experts, including Konstantin Kazenin, have already voiced the key version of the event: the appointment of a new "manual" head of the district who will manage the richest (1) non-urban municipality republics. (2)
Kurban Kurbanov has long maintained good relations with Azerbaijan, representing the 130,000th Azerbaijani diaspora of Dagestan. But it was precisely this role of the “friend of Baku” that was the main accusation against Kurbanov. Considering that the law enforcement agencies did not officially voice any accusations against him, it was the role of an "outsider" who was in charge of the richest rural area with the most expensive (not counting urban) land, which could have turned out to be a fatal accusation for Kurbanov.
Azerbaijan is a rather difficult partner for Russia. Anti-Russian propaganda remains a part of the republic's modern political culture. But on the whole, our country maintains moderately friendly relations with its neighbors. Not everyone is satisfied with this, including in Dagestan. The prevalence of nationalist sentiments is an invariable companion of the vulgar “market” model of the socio-economic structure and a proven means of manipulating public sentiments. And in Dagestan, nationalism for twenty years was accompanied by anti-Azerbaijani rhetoric, due, of course, to a number of reasons, which we will talk about later.
In turn, the situation in and around Azerbaijan is such that this republic cannot afford to deteriorate relations with Russia. In the political sphere, Azerbaijan lives in a state of "frozen war" and the logic of its cautious actions is determined by the expectation of a resumption of the conflict. In addition, the West's interest in Azerbaijan diminished when moderate reserves of its energy carriers became visible and, on the contrary, rather high claims. In addition, millions of Azerbaijanis work in Russia and official Baku cannot but remember their fate. Therefore, the country is trying to build some balance in relations with Russia and the West.
Perhaps this is partly why Azerbaijan prefers to “ignore” the difficulties in relations with Dagestan. For example, for decades, Azerbaijan preferred not to see a clearly unfair attitude towards its labor migrants and towards vehicles passing through the territory of Dagestan. I did not notice the extortions that accompanied the conduct of business. For example, in the 1990s, control over the "Golden Bridge", a border crossing, was considered the most profitable "business" in Dagestan.
Here is one real story showing the difference in the mentality of two neighboring peoples. A year ago, on a train traveling from Makhachkala to Moscow, I met a family from Azerbaijan, who was traveling in transit somewhere to the Russian "north". The head of the family is an ordinary worker, but he makes good money somewhere in the oil and gas fields. Russian regions... In Azerbaijan, I was visiting relatives. I arrived there in a luxurious jeep, just bought. But on the way back he got into an accident in the Makhachkala area. As it happens with us, the first to appear at the scene of the accident were not the traffic police, but local businessmen, who made money just from the participants in such accidents on the international highway. My new acquaintance was an ideal candidate for pressure - there are no relatives in Dagestan, there is no big money, there is a family with small children nearby, and in the "north" there is the possibility of losing your job if you do not show up from vacation. As a result, something about 300 thousand rubles remained from his jeep, earned by several years of work in difficult conditions, the bulk of which, apparently, went to the family's travel on trains.
Azerbaijan “didn’t notice” much, but didn’t forget grievances either: although it expressed its readiness to invest in Dagestan, there were no tangible investments.
In Dagestan, the controversial attitude towards the neighboring republic has a long history. This is a kind of "bouquet" in which a large number of various factors are interwoven. At the household level in Dagestan, Azerbaijanis were called "Persians", emphasizing a completely different mentality of the neighboring people. Soviet history also contributed something to this difficult relationship. Then there was an invisible competition between the republics. Dagestan was jealous of the great advantages that neighboring Azerbaijan possessed as a union republic in comparison with "autonomous" Dagestan.
In recent years, growing Shito-Sunni tensions around the world have been mingling with problems in relationships.
Another irritant is that two Lezgi villages (Lezgins are one of the Dagestan peoples) after the collapse of the USSR remained on the territory of Azerbaijan. This gives the activists of the Lezghin national movement a reason to talk about a divided people, demanding from the federal center to actively intervene and solve the problem. How such a “decision” can end, we see on the example of the current situation in Ukraine. Russia cannot yet solve the problem of a much more divided people - the Russian, when tens of millions of Russians live outside the borders of today's Russia.
But for all the contradictions, Dagestan needs not just good-neighborly relations with Azerbaijan, but also, according to some authors, its investments. Especially today, when the Russian economy began under the pressure of sanctions, it may begin to “sink” somewhat. Until now, in Russia, including Dagestan, the average standard of living has been somewhat higher than in Azerbaijan. At the same time, Dagestan desperately needs investments in the real economy. A relatively high standard of living in the republic is maintained only due to higher consumption standards, which can go sideways with the slightest fluctuations in the exchange rate of the national currency. So, in the spring, the growth of the dollar against the background of the first sanctions dropped the standard of living in Russia by almost 20%. And the sanctions are only growing, and the end of the war in Ukraine is not yet in sight.
So far, Azerbaijan has considerable state funds that can be used to implement investment projects... This money would be quite useful for Dagestan to reform the economy, including the creation of a working real sector.
If Russia doesn't need a war on its southern borders, it's time to pay attention to Dagestan-Azerbaijani relations
The main problem on the northern side of the border, which stands in the way of deepening interaction between Azerbaijan and Dagestan, is the all-pervading power of local semi-criminal clans. It so happened that not the state benefit, but the selfish interests of one person or group of persons became the determining factor in international affairs. And someone else's self-interest is a bad advisor. Among the clans there are no "friends" and "aliens", "good" and "bad", and all of them can be dangerous if it will benefit them. The Russian state so far has little real influence, and sometimes the "national interests of Russia" in the actions of specific officials often remain nothing more than words.
Employee of the DSC RAS embellished the historical past of an individual nation
At the end of last month, Dagestanskaya Pravda published another publication dedicated to the peoples of Dagestan: "Azerbaijanis in the Dagestan historical process." Despite the fact that its author Magomed-Rasul Ibragimov is a leading researcher at the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Dagestan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the article contains a lot of dubious material and outright absurdities.
Understated or overstated?
It is noteworthy that the author of the article wants to overestimate the number of Azerbaijanis at the expense of labor migrants from Azerbaijan. In his opinion, “the real number of Azerbaijanis in Dagestan is several tens of thousands more” than the official census data. But from what sources he took such a tangible figure and why all the natives of the AR Ibrahimov calls Azerbaijanis, he does not disclose.
In fact, the population of Dagestan is overestimated, since many natives of this republic (including those of Azerbaijani nationality) themselves leave en masse in order to earn money. big cities and the “resource regions” of Russia, in which the level of income is attractive to them. And labor migrants in Dagestan itself are represented primarily by citizens of Central Asian states (mainly from Uzbekistan), as well as Vietnam, but their number is also small.
On the other hand, among the citizens of the AR who have moved to Dagestan for various reasons, the majority are still Lezgins, who have basically already changed their former citizenship to Russian.
But there are important nuances that academic science so far takes into account poorly, namely, manipulations with census data. As we already , juggling with the figures of the last census led to an underestimation of the number of Lezgins and Tabasaran and an overestimation of the number of Azerbaijanis in Dagestan. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. The true scale of the fraud can be seen by reading the article by Amil Sarkarov "Calculated and miscalculated - 2" in the newspaper "Present time" No. 25 dated June 29, 2012. According to it, the number of Azerbaijanis in the Derbent region is overstated by more than half and should be 36 -37% instead of 58% (that is, more than 20 thousand less). To a lesser extent, this also affected the city of Derbent.
Thus, the real number of Azerbaijanis (more precisely, those who are referred to them) should be several tens of thousands less, not more. But the statistical part of Ibragimov's publication, against the background of his other arguments, does not seem so significant.
Albanians and Sassanids again!
Unfortunately, in his article Ibragimov allowed completely unscientific opuses, moreover, the article was published in the state media, which is the newspaper Dagestanskaya Pravda.
This is especially true of the following lines: “Dagestani Azerbaijanis have a long tradition of writing. Their ancestors, apparently, used cuneiform, in the first centuries of our era - Albanian and Sassanid graphics. " In fact, he completely unfoundedly elevated the present Turkic-speaking Azerbaijani population of Dagestan to the Albanians and Persians. This is the same as building the Hutts, Lydians, Trojans, Greeks and other communities that lived on the territory of modern Turkey and their legacy to today's Turks.
The fact that, to one degree or another, the Albanian and Iranian population participated in the formation of the present Dagestani Azerbaijanis (which he also mentions) does not mean that they can claim their cultural and linguistic heritage. Moreover, the successors of these cultural and linguistic traditions have survived: the Lezgin peoples and the Tats. But the obviously artificial and long-worn attempts to sit on several chairs at once, that is, to declare Azerbaijanis simultaneously the heirs of Iranian, Caucasian, and Turkic (and completely different and unrelated to each other) political entities have long looked awkward.
But Ibragimov does not stop there. In his article, he lists archaeological and cultural-historical sites dating back to stone tools from the Acheulean era! I immediately recall the story of the Azykhanthropus (attributed by scientists to the preneanderthals, i.e. the ancestors of the Neanderthals who are not the direct ancestors of modern people, but, it is true, interbred with them), who was turned into the ancestor of Azerbaijanis in the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the phrase got into textbooks"Ancient Azerbaijanis began to use fire many millions of years ago."
Where is the trunk and where is the tail?
It is paradoxical that Ibragimov still mentions assimilation processes, highlighting them in a separate section. In it, he describes the transition of the Tats inhabiting the villages surrounding Derbent into the Turkic (Azerbaijani) language. Among other things, mentions the village of Ersi, linking it with Arab colonists, while ignoring research ... A well-known Caucasian scholar, exploring Ersi and other surrounding villages in the early 30s of the last century, discovered Tabasaran toponymy, which speaks of their origin.
Be that as it may, Ibragimov noted that the larger-scale processes of Turkization, which engulfed the inhabitants of the Tato-speaking and Arabic-speaking, partly Tabasaran villages, located near Derbent, took place in the late 19th - early 20th centuries.
At the same time, for some reason, he attributes the completion of the formation of the Azerbaijani nationality to the 11-12 centuries in connection with a new wave of invasions of the Turkic-speaking peoples (namely, the Oguzes) into Dagestan, clearly confusing the beginning and the end. But if we accept this version, then the “nationality” was formed without having time to appear in the new territory, and the newcomer nomads, all the more, cannot be related to the heritage of the local peoples, with which they later began to partially mix and assimilate them.
As we know, the Turkic component in the flat part of Yuzhdag after the invasion of the Seljuk Turks gradually increased, especially during the Tatar-Mongol invasion and subsequent wars between the Golden Horde and the Hulaguids, as well as during the invasion of Timur's army. But one can speak of a sharp increase in the Turkic component in Yuzhdag only since the 16th century, when the Safavids began to massively resettle the Turkic-speaking groups from Azerbaijan (historical, that is, the current "Iranian").
Another incident. Talking about the later events associated with the Terekemen people, he does not write about their appearance in the present territory only at the end of the 16th century, despite the fact that this is a well-known fact. This is not surprising, since this further destroys the already contradictory picture of the ethnogenesis of the Azerbaijani population of Dagestan (and the Azerbaijanis in general). We wrote in the article that this issue still reflects the instability of self-awareness of those who are classified as Dagestani Azerbaijanis. .
Medieval Azerbaijani
Ibrahimov betrayed another frank absurdity, writing that "the Azerbaijani language for a long time, starting from the Middle Ages until the second half of the 20th century, was and remains (now on a much smaller scale) the language of interethnic communication of the peoples of Southern Dagestan."
It is very strange that, having said about the time of the appearance of the Oghuz Turks in the Caucasus, Ibragimov at the same time elevates it to the beginning of the Middle Ages, having missed at least 6 centuries!
This is the leading specialist of the DSC RAS! But where did he get the idea that the Azerbaijani (more precisely Oghuz) language began to play such a role already in the 11-12th century ?! But what about Arabic and Persian? Not to mention the Lezghin language, which in the Soviet and post-Soviet times was diligently avoided to be regarded as a "lingua franca" (see for more details: Lezginsky as and Lezginsky as ).
In the dry residue
Of course, the Azerbaijani language was, in part, the language of interethnic communication in South Dagestan. But, firstly, he became one rather late and functioned as a whole in a narrow time frame. Secondly, he was not the only one to play such a role, especially as a written language. Thirdly, it did not cover the entire territory of southern Dagestan, in many regions of which the Lezghin language predominated, especially in the relations of the Aguls and southern Tabasaran with the Lezghins. And now it no longer plays such a role, so if we talk about "much smaller scales", then it would be more correct to immediately call them local (for example, in the magals of Derbent and some villages).
Today's Azerbaijanis, of course, are part of the modern Dagestani "ethnolandscape". But the artificial aging of the time of the emergence of the speakers of the Oghuz languages, the formation of the Azerbaijani people as a separate community, as well as attempts to rewrite the pre-Turkic, or rather the pre-Oguz heritage of South Dagestan, are clearly destructive and create preconditions for the emergence of interethnic tension.
It is very unpleasant that Dagestanskaya Pravda has become one of the platforms for such myth-making. Even more perplexing is the fact that such scientifically dubious materials come from the pen of an employee of an academic institute, while academic science should be a model of historical truth. Moreover, it seems that the staff of the DSC RAS should fight against ethno-historical myths, as it was rather than constructing them.
Iera Ramazanova
FLNKA Correspondent Corps
Ibragimov Magomed-Rasul, Russia, Dagestan
The Azerbaijanis of Dagestan (self-name - Azerbaijanlilar) up to the end of the 1930s in the historical literature and documents were called Transcaucasian, or Azerbaijani Tatars and Turks) - an ethnic group, i.e. part of the Azerbaijani ethnos, which forms the main population of Azerbaijan and Northwestern Iran. Neighboring peoples - Lezghins, Tabasaran, Kumyks and Dargins call them Turks, Qajars, less often - Persians.
Dagestani Azerbaijanis are settled in the coastal and foothill parts of southern Dagestan, mainly in the city of Derbent and adjacent areas. There are 131 thousand Azerbaijanis living in the Republic of Dagestan (2010, census), which is 4.5% of the region's population, or 2.1% of all Azerbaijanis in the Russian Federation. About half of them live in rural areas - in Derbent (55.7% of the district's population), Tabasaran (18%), as well as in Rutulsky (4%), Magaramkent (2.8%) and Kizlyar (2.6%) districts ... Azerbaijanis-townspeople are concentrated in Derbent and Dagestan Fire, in which they make up about a third of the population in each. Some of them also live in Makhachkala, Kizlyar, Khasavyurt, Buinaksk, urban-type settlements Mamedkala (22.4%), Belidzhi (7.3%), etc.
Separated from the main settlement area are the Azerbaijani villages of Nizhniy Katrukh of the Rutul region, Bolyshebredikhinsky and Persian Kizlyarsky regions. Among the Azerbaijanis of Dagestan, a special sub-ethnic group of Terekemeians (self-name - terekemeler) stands out, which until the beginning of the 20th century. was considered a separate ethnic group, and now it is consolidating with the Azerbaijanis proper, while maintaining its ethnic identity and self-name. Terekemeians are settled compactly in 10 villages located in the northern part of the Derbent region. Neighbors - actually Azerbaijanis, Kumyks and Dargins call them, respectively, terekemeler, terkemeler, tarkama; among the northern Kumyks, part of the Dargins, Avars and Laks, they are known under the ethnonym Padar.
Dagestani Azerbaijanis border in the north along the river. Artozen (Bashlychay) with the Kumyks, in the west along the foothills with the Kaitags (Dargins) and Tabasaran, in the south along the river. Samur with Lezghins. In the east, the natural border of their ethnic territory is the Caspian Sea. Azerbaijanis are settled in two natural and climatic zones: in the southern part of the coastal plain (Derbent district) and the foothills of southern Dagestan (Tabasaran district); only one village (Nizhniy Katrukh, Rutulsky district) is located in the high-mountainous zone. The Ulluchay, Darvagchay, Kamyshchay, Rubas, and Gulgerichay rivers flow through the ethnic territory of Azerbaijanis in their lower reaches.
The climate here is generally moderately warm, mild, characterized by dry and hot summers, rainy autumn and relatively mild winters. The absolute maximum air temperature is + 38 ° and -21 °, respectively. Average rainfall reaches about 400 mm per year. The soils are light chestnut, heavy loamy, clayey and saline (plain), and chestnut, dark chestnut, mountain-steppe, mountain-forest and meadow (foothills). On the plain, saline and wormwood-fescue-feather-grass vegetation grows, in the foothill zone - forbs-fescue-feather-grass and beard grass in combination with thyme and tragacanths. Until recently, on the ethnic territory of the Dagestani Azerbaijanis, there were quite significant forests, including Ullumesh ("Big Forest").
Mineral resources include gas, oil, salt; from building materials - limestone, sand, as well as a deposit of phosphorites and saltpeter (Maraga village).
Being on the territory through which passed not only the Great Silk Road, but also numerous military campaigns made from Western Asia to Eastern Europe and back, Azerbaijanis felt all the benefits of rich trade and civilized life and at the same time experienced all the horrors and hardships. brutal wars and devastating devastation.
Dagestani Azerbaijanis are representatives of the Caspian type of the large Caucasian race with a small admixture of elements of the Caucasian type, i.e. their anthropological composition testifies to the mixing of the Caspian and Caucasian types of the southern European race.
The Azerbaijanis of Dagestan speak the Derbent and Terekemey dialects of the Azerbaijani language of the southwestern (Oguz) subgroup of the Turkic group of the Altai language family. At the same time, the Derbent dialect (residents of the city of Derbent) and dialect (rural Azerbaijanis of the southern part of the Derbent and Tabasaran regions) and especially the Terekemey dialect (close to the Cuban and Shemakhi dialects of the Azerbaijani language) were largely influenced by the Kumyk, Tat and Iranian languages. The majority of Azerbaijanis (72.2%) are fluent in Russian.
Dagestani Azerbaijanis have a long tradition of writing; their ancestors, apparently, used cuneiform, in the first centuries of our era - Albanian and Sassanid graphics, and then, after the Arab conquests, - Arabic graphics (ajam) until 1929, when the latter was replaced by the Latin alphabet. Since 1938, the Azerbaijani written language was transferred to the reformed Russian graphic basis.
Almost in all regions of the settlement of the Azerbaijanis of Dagestan there are general education schools in which the native language is taught. The Azerbaijani language in Dagestan has the status of the language of instruction: it is taught in all subjects in the primary grades of six schools in Tabasaran and three schools in Derbent districts. In the primary grades of these national schools, in parallel with the mother tongue, Russian is studied (with a large number of hours) as an academic subject. Starting from the fifth grade, all training is in Russian, and the Azerbaijani language is studied as an academic subject. The Azerbaijani language as an academic subject is taught in 71 schools, including 35 schools in Derbent region, 18 schools in Derbent and 9 schools in Dagestan Ogni. According to the data of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Dagestan, 18,624 students were enrolled in teaching in the Azerbaijani language and studying it in Dagestan in the 2000/2001 academic year. A system of training and professional development of teachers of the native language and literature was created. 139 students study at the Derbent Higher Pedagogical College, 40 people have already graduated from it. Training and advanced training of personnel is carried out in the universities of Azerbaijan, where 120 students study. Fiction, scientific and socio-political literature, the newspaper "Derbent" are published in the Azerbaijani literary language. Since 1978, a separate edition of broadcasting in the Azerbaijani language has been functioning on the republican radio (30 minutes a day), and since 1986, the broadcasts of Azerbaijani television have been broadcast (in the amount of 6340 hours a year).
On the territory of the settlement of the Azerbaijanis of Dagestan there are archaeological and architectural monuments: stone tools of the Acheulean era, the remains of dwellings and settlements of the Eneolithic, Bronze and Early Iron epochs, monuments of the Kuro-Araks and Kayakent-Khorochoev cultures, the oldest town-planning complex in the Caucasus - Derbent with its unique walls , citadel (Naryn-kala), mosques (Juma-mosque), baths and cemeteries, as well as Dagbara and others.
The ancient indigenous population of Caucasian Albania (Caspian, Kassites, Albanians, Maskuts, etc.), who intermixed with those who invaded here in the 1st millennium BC, took part in the formation of the Dagestani Azerbaijanis. Iranian and Turkic-speaking tribes (Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Huns, Bulgarians, Khazars, Pechenegs), as well as Iranian and Arab colonists. Followed in the XI-XIII centuries. A new wave of invasions by the Turkic-speaking peoples (especially the Seljuk Oguzes and partly the Kypchaks) led to the completion of the formation of the Azerbaijani people, which was expressed in the replacement of the indigenous languages of the population with the Turkic spoken language. The ancestors of Azerbaijanis also experienced migration and civilizational cataclysms in the 13th – 14th centuries. The ethnic basis of the Dagestani Azerbaijanis was strengthened by the repeated invasions and resettlements of immigrants from Azerbaijan, mainly from Cuba and Shirvan in the 15th – 18th centuries.
In the first half of the 15th century. Dagestan is invaded by the tribes of Oguz-Turkmen origin, the Karakoyunlu ("black sheep"), with whom the researchers associate the ethnonym Terekeme and the formation of the Terekemeians into a separate ethnic group in Shirvan. At the end of the 16th century, after the systematic resettlement of a part of these nomadic tribes from Cuba and Shirvan, organized by the Kaitag Utsmiy, the ancestors of the present Terekemeians found their second home in Dagestan. Toponymic materials and research by S.Sh. Hajiyeva testify that not only Turkic-speaking (Terekeme, Padar, Karadagly, Kayy, etc.), but also Iranian-speaking (Tatlyar) tribes, as well as representatives of neighboring peoples with whom the Terekemeians had close ethnocultural ties, participated in the formation of the Dagestan Terekemeians.
A further increase in the number of the Azerbaijani population of Dagestan was facilitated by the resettlement policy of the Iranian rulers, pursued from the beginning of the 16th century. in order to consolidate his power in the province: after the seizure of Derbent in 1510, Shah Ismail resettled here 500 families from Tabriz (from the Rumlu and Karamanli tribes), and then part of the Bayat tribe, Shah Tahmasp I in 1540 - another 400 families of the Gurchian tribe ( kurchi), Shah Abbas I in 1579, having evicted the Sunnis from Derbent, placed a strong garrison of Kizilbash here, and also resettled 400 families of the semi-nomadic Bayat and Ustajlu tribes. This policy was continued by the Iranian rulers of the 17th – 18th centuries. Sefi I, Abbas II, Nadir Shah, who carried out the military colonization of the flat part of southern Dagestan. According to A. Olearius (1638), there were 500 warriors from the Turkic tribes Ayrumlu and Koidursha in Derbent, there were garrisons in other areas; In 1741 Nadir Shah settled several hundred families of the Azerbaijani tribe Mikri in Derbent.
Assimilation processes, which covered some of the Terekemeians, played a significant role in the history of the formation of the Azerbaijanis of Dagestan. So, in the first half of the 18th century. about 300 families fled from the feudal oppression of the Kaitag utsmiy Amirgamza into the possession of the Kumyk (Endireev and Kostekov) princes. These Terekemeians settled in the villages of Temiraul, Chontaul, partly in Kostek, Aksai, and by the end of the 19th century. joined the Kumyk ethnos. Most of the inhabitants of the now Kumyk villages of Kayakent, Usemikent, Tumeller, Yangikent are also considered Terekemeians by origin, with more than 70% of the inhabitants of the villages. Yangikent in the middle of the 19th century. were mountain Jews, although they spoke Azerbaijani, and some of the inhabitants of the villages. Kayakent is a tatami, but they already spoke Kumyk.
However, the processes of Turkization, which covered the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, are more ambitious. residents of Tato-speaking and Arabic-speaking, partly Tabasaran villages located near Derbent. So back in 1873, General A.V. Komarov noted that “in recent years, the Tati language in these villages (Dzhalgan, Mitagi, Kemakh, Zidyan, Bilgadi, Gimeydy and Rukel. - M.-R.I.) began to be replaced by the Türko-Azerbaijani; now only old men and women speak to them ”. The displacement of the Tat language by the Azerbaijani language intensified at the beginning of the 20th century. with the growth of interethnic communication, and later - teaching at school the Azerbaijani language as a mother tongue. Nowadays, the Tati language has survived only among residents of the older and middle generations of the villages of Upper Dzhalgan and Upper Mitagi. Similar processes of Turkization are recorded among the inhabitants of the villages of Arablyar, Darvag, Ersi, Kemakh and Gimeidi, the origin of which is associated with the Arab colonists of the 8th century. Inhabitants of these villages (except for the village of Arablyar, whose name literally means “Arabs”) indicated in the 1897 census that they were Arabs, although the Darvags spoke Azerbaijani, and the Kemakhians and Gimeidians spoke Tat. Here it should be said about the descendants of 24 thousand Arabs, settled by the governor of the Caliph Maslama in 732 in the city of Derbent, whose Turkization was completed by the beginning of the 16th century. (if not earlier). The number of Azerbaijanis also increased due to the transition of the Persians to the Azeri language and the subsequent change in their ethnic identity (or, perhaps, only self-designation); most actively these processes took place from the beginning of the XX century. with the Persians who lived in Derbent, Temir-Khan-Shura, Port-Petrovsk, Kizlyar, as well as in the villages. Persian Kizlyar district (district).
The ancestors of the Dagestani Azerbaijanis were part of the ancient Caucasian Albania, and in the medieval period, the states of Maskut, Gunia (Country of Khons), Derbent (from the 9th century - the Derbent Emirate, from the 18th century - the Khanate) existed on the territory of their settlement. Tabasaran qadi, Shirvan, etc.
Derbent Khanate, whose borders in the north was the r. Darvag, in the south - r. Samur, in the west - a spur of the Tabasaran ridge, in the east - the Caspian, occupied the southern part of the Caspian lowland. Since 1806 the Khanate is a part of Russia. After the accession to Russia, socio-economic relations in the Derbent Khanate began to change: residents of Derbent and its districts were exempted from customs duties, trade flows from Russia increased, etc.
Changes also took place in the political and administrative structure: the Derbent Khanate was abolished, and its management was transferred to the Tarkov shamkhal Mekhti. Since 1813, the Main Administration of the Derbent and Cuban Provinces (i.e. the present territories of the Republic of Dagestan and the Republic of Azerbaijan) was established in Derbent. The Dagestani Azerbaijanis became part of the Derbent district, and with the formation of the Dagestan region in 1860 - into the Derbent city administration, the Ulus magal, the Nizhne-Kaitag and North-Tabasaran naibstva (later - areas) of the Kaitago-Tabasaran district of the region; after the formation of the DASSR and the administrative-territorial reform in the region in 1929, they are part of the Derbent and Tabasaran regions of the Dagestan ASSR, since 1991 - the Republic of Dagestan.
Azerbaijanis, like other peoples of Dagestan, are distinguished by rather high rates. natural growth... So, their number increased from 19 thousand in 1866 to 131 thousand people in 2010, i.e. almost 7 times, while the entire population of the region over the same period increased 5 times. This is the result of the traditionally high birth rate, which was facilitated by early marriages, approval of having many children, condemnation of divorce, childlessness and the use of contraception. In the past, mortality was relatively high, especially for children, due to the spread of infectious diseases and epidemics. Average number the families of the Azerbaijanis were about five people. Currently, they have one of the highest rates of natural increase - 17.4 ‰, which is due to the persistence of a relatively high birth rate (23.5 ‰) and low mortality (5.8) of the population. They have a favorable sex and age structure of the population: 51% are women, 49% are men; the share of children and adolescents - 38.8%, the population of working age - 51.8% and the population over working age - 9.4%. Azerbaijanis are also distinguished by a relatively high proportion of married persons (72.2%).
The leading occupation of the Azerbaijanis was agriculture, which was of a diversified nature, with a special place occupied by the production of grain crops (mainly wheat). Two-, three- and multi-field systems were practiced with the allocation of a considerable part of the allotment for autumn or spring fallow. Artificial irrigation, including rice paddies (deg'a), was widely developed. There was a strict system for distributing water to villages through irrigation devices (arch bashi, bend). Land fund divided into arable land, hayfields, pastures and forests. Folk breeding methods made it possible to develop the best varieties of wheat and rice in Dagestan - “sary-bugda” (“istambul-bugda”, or “arnautka”), “ag-bugda”, “nargyz-aba”, “dugi”, etc. Wheat "terekeme bugda" (terekemey wheat) was famous for its high yield. Among the main occupations of Azerbaijanis are the cultivation of saffron and handicrafts of various kinds.
Azerbaijanis successfully cultivated vegetable and melon crops: watermelons, melons, garlic, onions, peppers, beans, etc .; they cultivated plums, peaches, apricots, almonds, cherry plums, pears, apples, quince, figs, pomegranates, here, walnuts, chestnuts, etc. Viticulture and winemaking developed greatly. From industrial crops, the Azerbaijanis cultivated cotton and especially madder, from which they obtained dyes for silk, wool, cotton yarn and other products; madder breeding, as well as silkworm breeding, were ancient occupations that played a significant role in local and even international trade. In the 40s and 70s. XIX century. the production of madder has received tremendous development in connection with the needs of the Russian textile industry, but with the invention of the synthetic dye alizarin, it fell into decay.
Another important branch of economic activity of Azerbaijanis was cattle breeding, mainly meat and dairy. In the peasant economy, the breeding of cattle, especially buffaloes, used for draft power, was of great importance. Horse breeding played a secondary role; horses were used for riding, as well as for threshing grain. The Dagestani Azerbaijanis had their cattle on pastures almost all year round, and in the cold winter time they were kept in stalls, there were relatively few sheep and goats.
Poultry farming was of significant importance in the economy. Beekeeping was widely developed. The hunt for wild ducks, geese, and also animals has become somewhat widespread. Of great importance in the economic life of a part of the Azerbaijanis (Terekemeys) was the extraction and sale of salt and oil, mainly to the highlanders.
Among the Dagestani Azerbaijanis, due to their specialization in grain production, the craft, in particular carpet weaving, was developed only among the inhabitants of the villages located in the immediate vicinity of the Tabasaran and Tat villages. Domestic crafts were developed to one degree or another among almost all Azerbaijanis: processing wood, iron and making agricultural implements, processing wool, leather and especially silk, knitting socks (jorab), saddlebags (gash heibe), etc. For some time, part of the Azerbaijanis were engaged in carriage of works. The main vehicle served a large two-wheeled cart with a pair of buffaloes; in winter sledges and drags were also used, and a horse was used for riding.
The resettlement of Azerbaijanis in the areas of the contact zone - the Primorskaya Plain and the adjacent foothills - objectively determined the significant role of trade, which received a new impetus after the construction of a railway here at the end of the 19th century. The Derbent people were especially successful in trade - mostly well-educated and engaged in commerce since ancient times.
The Azerbaijanis of Derbent and its districts from the early Middle Ages were involved in feudal relations. Some of the Azerbaijanis were in a dependent position on the feudal lords (emir, utsmiya, beks) of Derbent, Kaitag and Tabasaran (rayat villages), while the other part was more free and occupied an intermediate position between the rayats and uzdens. Almost all the land was owned by the feudal lords, with the exception of small mulks and waqfs, which belonged to separate families and mosques, respectively. The villages were ruled by beks. The privileged stratum consisted of representatives of the rural administration and the top of the clergy, as well as the merchants. Public administration and courts were based on customary law (adat) and Sharia law. The rural community and the tukhums included in it regulated the entire production and socio-political life of the village, managing the redistribution of common agricultural arable, hayfields, pasture and forest areas and the irrigation system.
The leading type of family among Azerbaijanis was a monogamous small two-generation family, although almost everywhere up to the middle of the 20th century. unseparated families remained. The head of the family - the eldest of the men - enjoyed great prestige. There was a strict gender and age division of labor. Serious importance was attached to the physical, labor and moral education of children and adolescents, who were taught to respect their elders and each other, to be polite and responsive.
Welcoming and benevolent attitude towards people - feature Azerbaijanis. This is evidenced by such institutions of traditional social life as hospitality and kunachestvo. In public life, the customs of mutual assistance, blood feud, etc. were also preserved. Sharia, which regulated family and marriage relations, had a great influence on family life. Marriages were concluded from the age of 15-18; when choosing a bride and groom, their parents preferred cousins, second cousins, or other members of the tukhum. After matchmaking, betrothal and payment of kalym (cattle and money), the groom's side also paid “shiut bullets”, “burials of a bullet”, “ate bullets” (milk, customs and travel money, respectively). The wedding was played for one or two days, usually began on Thursday and was celebrated solemnly by the whole village; The Derbent wedding consisted of the bride's wedding, which was attended only by women on both sides, and the groom's wedding, held a week or a month later, where only men participate; men serve food and serve as well.
On the eve of the wedding, the ritual "hina gezhe" ("henna night") took place: close relatives and friends gathered in the bride's house, bathed her, prepared for the wedding, using henna to dye her hair, as well as nails of hands and feet. They spent this evening and night in fun, dancing, joking.
The next day, during the wedding in the bride's house, only women were present at the celebration. The bride sat with an open face, surrounded by friends and close relatives. Everyone was merry, dancing, forming a circle; the dancers were given money (sabbath), which were then passed on to the musicians. The dances were accompanied by refreshments, warm communication with relatives, villagers and acquaintances.
The groom's wedding took place in his house very solemnly. At the end of the wedding at night, the bride was taken to the groom's house. In the morning, relatives came from her with pilaf cooked in milk with sweet seasoning, as well as chicken or turkey stuffed with nuts and dried fruits. During the week, no one should see the young, except for her husband and his sister. A week later, the solemn ceremony “uz achan” (“to open the face”) was performed: tables were laid and the daughter-in-law was ceremoniously taken out to the guests - women and her husband's family members, who gave her expensive gifts, the father-in-law, for example, gave gold. The daughter-in-law is obliged to do all household chores, except for cooking, which the mother-in-law prepares.
The customs of avoidance and family prohibitions were observed for two to three months. The birth of a child, especially a boy, having many children was welcomed and considered an indicator of a happy life. The rite of naming a name was celebrated as follows. 40 days after the birth of the child, a woman who can read the Koran read out certain suras (kuran tapshiran) and shouted his name three times in the child's ear in the presence of relatives and girlfriends. Such a meeting is called "yigva". These women brought almond cookies (baklava, sheker-bura), meat pies (kutabs) and other sweets as a gift. The women who came to visit were first treated by the daughter-in-law to porridge made from fried flour (goimak), and then pilaf and other dishes were served.
A specific custom of Derbent Azerbaijanis is the custom according to which, in the event of fulfillment of wishes (so as not to get sick, etc.), clothes were sewn to a child on the day of Ashura (day of mourning for Imam Hussein, who died in the battle of Karbala on October 10, 680), as a sign of Shiite mourning black color.
Their funeral rites hardly differed from those of other peoples professing Islam. Among the Derbent Azerbaijanis, women came to the deceased's house for condolences from morning until noon, and men from noon until evening. The latter go to the cemetery for 40 days after noon prayer. Those who came to condolence were fed before midday prayer on a tablecloth (sufra) on the floor; the sufra is covered separately for men and women. For seven days, a woman came, playing the role of a mullah, who read suras from the Koran and merziya (marsiya) (excerpts from the story of the death of Imam Hussein and his entourage) separately for women.
IN public life religious and calendar holidays were prominent events: Novruz Bayram, Eid al-Adha, Eid al-Adha, rituals of invoking rain, sun, etc. At the same time, Muslim rituals were closely intertwined with pre-monotheistic ideas and rituals: they believed in deities of fertility, water, sun, sky (Tengri , Good, Su-Anasy, etc.). The Shiite community also celebrated the "Shahsei-Wahsey", or Ashura: processions-performances were organized in the streets, staging the struggle and death of Imam Hussein, while some participants beat themselves with fists, stabbed themselves with chains and daggers.
In recent decades, Azerbaijanis, like other peoples of the former USSR, have experienced a significant increase in religious consciousness. A lot of young people have become believers, and Azerbaijanis are also "rejuvenating" their religion. The overwhelming majority of Azerbaijanis living in Derbent are Shiites, and Azerbaijanis living in rural areas (Derbent and Tabasaran districts) are Sunnis. There are three Shiite mosques in Derbent: Juma. The Upper Mosque and Kirkhlyar, and there is one Sunni Mosque (in the city center). There is also one Orthodox church and one synagogue.
A typical type of settlement is a settlement (kend), which at the beginning of the 20th century on average up to 400 inhabitants. Large villages were Maraga, Darvag, Berikey, Velikent.
The largest settlement - the city of Derbent - is ancient, medieval. Currently, it is the trade and economic center of the North-Eastern Caucasus, which has a huge impact on the fate of Azerbaijanis and the entire population of South Dagestan.
The Azerbaijani settlements located on the slopes of the mountains have a cumulus, and in the river valleys - a scattered layout. A prerequisite was the proximity of a water source, springs; the defense factor was taken into account only in the foothills. The settlements have a southern or southeastern orientation and are divided into quarters (mahla, mahal), which, as a rule, were named after the name of the ancestor who founded it, according to the occupation or ethnicity of the inhabitants.
Dwellings (ev) were represented by three types: one-, one-and-a-half- and two-story; the latter are the most common, in which living rooms were located on the second floor, and household rooms on the first.
A traditional house was built of stone or adobe (among the Terekemeians) on clay, had a flat adobe roof, as a rule, an elongated rectangular layout with rooms located in a row. Modern dwellings with two- or four-pitched roofs, covered with slate or roofing iron, are built on cement from sawn limestone or large cobblestones, have two or three floors of L- and U-shaped layouts, a large number of rooms with planks, less often with parquet (in the city ) by sex.
The interior of the dwelling has become richer and more diverse: along with traditional carpets and rugs, wooden, copper and ceramic dishes, chests, almost ousted by the middle of the 20th century, glass, earthenware and metal dishes, tables, chairs, beds, factory furniture, became widespread. refrigerators, television and video equipment and other items of modern everyday life.
The traditional clothes of Dagestani Azerbaijanis reflect ethnocultural ties with their fellow tribesmen from Cuba, Shirvan, Baku and with their neighbors: Kumyks, Kaitags, Tabasaran and Lezghins.
Men's underwear consisted of a tunic-cut shirt (kenneg) and trousers; a beshmet, a Circassian coat, a burka (in bad weather) and a fur coat (in winter) were worn over the shirt. The headdress was a sheepskin papakha and a woolen hood, shoes were charyki, morocco boots, shoes, galoshes, which were worn with woolen or cotton windings. Belts and weapons made, as a rule, in Kubachi were the decoration of the men's costume: a dagger, less often a pistol, a saber.
Women's clothing also consisted of underwear (a wide long shirt and trousers) and an upper (a long swing dress with fold-over sleeves - don, decorated with galloon, lace braid, pendants). Common headdresses for women were a bandage - chutku, over which they wore everyday or festive headscarves (fte, shal, gyulmvndi); Monophonic and ornamented woolen socks, chuvyaki made of black or red morocco, on which they put on leather galoshes or shoes, embroidered with Derbent gold embroidery, served as footwear. A specific feature of the clothes of Azerbaijani women was a female veil, which covered the figure.
Women's jewelry was very diverse: silver earrings of various shapes, rings, bracelets, neck and pectoral necklaces made of openwork plates (bugaz arts), corals, small coins, amber, carnelian, less often pearls, gold, as well as silver belts for an outlet suit. Azerbaijani women, especially urban women, used various cosmetics: blush (engilik), whitewash (kirshan or ova), henna, basma, etc.
The food of Azerbaijanis, especially of Derbent, has long been rich and varied. Their food culture has had a significant impact on the culinary arts of the Dagestanis. One of the first places is occupied by bakery products, soups, khinkals and pilaf of various types.
Popular bozbash and piti (thick soups), dolma (a kind of cabbage rolls wrapped in grape leaves), badamzhan dolma (stuffed eggplants), and in recent decades - dolma from bell peppers and tomatoes.
Azerbaijanis also cook the following dishes: dushpere and kurze (a kind of dumplings with fillings), miracle (a kind of pies), govurma, bastyrma (meat dishes), barbecue, kebab, porridge. Several types of halva, baklava, murappa (jams), dushabs (syrup), drinks (sherbet, etc.) are prepared. A large place in the diet is occupied by vegetable and melon crops and fruits.
Dagestani Azerbaijanis have a rich cultural heritage, vivid customs and traditions, a variety of folklore genres, literature and music, many elements of which were borrowed by the peoples of Southern Dagestan.
The most popular works of Azerbaijanis are the historical and heroic epics "Dede-Korkud" and "Ker-Ogly", lyrical dastans "Asli and Kerem", "Shahsenem and Ashig-Garib", "Shah-Ismail" and others.
Fairy tales (about animals, magic and everyday life), legends (cosmogonic, etc.), riddles, proverbs, sayings and other genres of oral creativity were widespread.
Ritual poetry is represented by calendar songs, wedding songs, lullabies, and lamentation songs. A popular genre of folk poetry was social and love bayats.
Competitions of ashug singers who performed their own works on saz (stringed instrument) enjoyed great love.
Azerbaijani songs and dances to the accompaniment of drums and zurnas are integral elements of many celebrations, especially rural weddings. They are very popular with other peoples of Dagestan, especially Southern Dagestan.
Islam of the Shiite (townspeople of Derbent) and Sunni (most of the rural Azerbaijanis) religions played an important role in spiritual life. The basics of religion, reading the Koran, the basics of mathematics and natural history were studied from childhood in mosque schools - mektebs and madrasahs.
Literature has become widespread not only in Azerbaijani, but also in Persian and Arabic. Derbent played a special role in this - a large center of culture and education in the Caucasus, which has Arab-Persian writing traditions. Since the 1830s, the first Russian educational schools in Dagestan have been created here; by the beginning of the XX century. in Derbent there were 10 primary schools and one real school with Russian as the language of instruction.
Educational traditions were continued in the 1920s and 1930s. and the subsequent period (Dagestan pedagogical and agricultural technical schools, and now there are about 20 branches of universities in Russia and Azerbaijan in the city).
Among the famous scientists and educators were professor of St. Petersburg University M. Kazembek from Derbent, A. Talybov from Temir-Khan-Shura, poet M. Gumri, composer A. Zeynalli, philosopher M. Alekperli and many others. Dagestani Azerbaijanis are three major generals of the Armed Forces of Russia - T.A. Seyidov, M.D. Nasirov, N. Sadykov.
Dagestani Azerbaijanis are well acquainted with the works of Azerbaijani classics: Khakani, Nizami, Fizuli, Hajibeyov, Rustamov, Ahmedzade and others, as well as local authors of the 18th – 20th centuries: Fetali, Dermirdir Derbendi, Kegmishin Fikri, Kyzillale, F. Kilass, Mihrali, , Pirali, Khalida, M. Yusifli, N. Agasieva and others.
During the Soviet period of history, significant changes took place that covered all spheres of life and activities of Dagestani Azerbaijanis: economy, material and spiritual culture, family and social structure. The farms of Azerbaijanis specialize mainly in the development of viticulture and vegetable growing, trade, partly in the production of livestock products and carpet weaving. In 1935, the Azerbaijan Theater was created, but by the mid-1950s. he ceased to exist; it has to be revived. In the 1950-1970s. Several new settlements of Azerbaijanis appeared on the plain, resettled from the foothill villages of Kemakh, Gimeydy, Zidyan and others, which are now completely or partially abandoned, their lands were transferred to other farms. Former residents are trying to restore their former villages. In the formulation of these and other issues (representation in republican governing bodies, problems of public education and culture, etc.) before official bodies Republic of Dagestan, the Republican Azerbaijani society "Azeri" played a significant role in establishing contacts with the public and the leadership of the Republic of Azerbaijan.