Lezgin people. Lezgins: nationality, description, history and interesting facts

history of Lezgins video, history of Lezgins
- history of the Lezgin people from ancient times to the present day.

• 1 History of the ethnonym
  • 1.1 “Legi” and “lakzy”
  • 1.2 Ethnonym “Lezgins”
• 2 Issues of ethnogenesis of Lezgins
  • 2.1 Versions of Lezgin ethnogenesis in pre-revolutionary Russia
  • 2.2 Linguistic data
  • 2.3 Anthropological data
  • 2.4 Role of Caucasian Albania
• 3 Middle Ages
• 4 Mongol invasion
• 5 Fight against the Safavids
• 6 Lezgin free societies
• 7 State of Hadji-Davud of Myushkyur
• 8 composition of the Russian Empire
  • 8.1 Caucasian War
    • 8.1.1 Kyura Khanate
  • 8.2 Rebellion of 1877
  • 8.3 End of XIX - beginning of XX centuries.
• 9 Revolution. Civil War. Soviet period
• 10 Lezgins in Azerbaijan
• 11 Movement for the creation of a unified Lezgin state entity
• 12 Statements about Lezgins
• 13 See also
• 14 Notes
• 15 Literature

History of the ethnonym

"Legi" and "lakzy"

There is still controversy surrounding the origin of the ethnonym “Lezgins”. However, most researchers derive the ethnonym “Lezgin” from the ancient “legi” and the early medieval “lakzi”. mid-1st millennium BC e. In eastern Transcaucasia, an Albanian tribal union was formed, uniting 26 tribes that spoke various 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 the Albanians live the Geli and Legi - the Scythians,” and Plutarch, speaking about the “Amazons,” notes that “between them and the Albanians live the Geli and Legi.” According to one of the leading experts on the history of Caucasian Albania, K. V. Trever:

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

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 even sometimes called by poets Ligistika, that is, the country of leagues. It is very likely that the leagues that Herodotus speaks of were Lezgian immigrants.” According to the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron, published at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, varnishes (that is, laks) are “classical legs (Λήγες), at the end of the 8th century. were conquered 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 whether all Dagestan highlanders were called so (as later - “Lezgins”). There are more reasons to consider the “Gumiks” as Laks, a people mentioned by the Arab authors of the 9th-10th centuries Baladzori and Masudi. According to their information, the Humiks lived on approximately the same territory occupied by the Laks.

At the same time, L.I. Lavrov noted: “We find the most ancient 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 Legs was part of Albania. The Legs, if they are considered the ancestors of the Lezgins, should live along Samur, that is, south of Derbent, and at present, none of the Lezgin peoples live north of the latitude of this ancient city.” As Kh. Kh. Ramazanov and A. R. Shikhsaidov note, “it is impossible to attribute the Gels or Legs to any one people. Most likely, these ethnonyms should be understood as the Dagestan peoples in general, including representatives of the Lezgin group of languages.”

The 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” - “person” in local languages) plus the Iranian suffix “z”, indicating the origin. In Russian, the word “lezg-in” (with metathesis) was used without distinction in relation to all residents of Dagestan, but in local use and among Arab geographers this term is applied only to the tribes of Southern Dagestan.” Russian Army General Maksud Alikhanov-Avarsky wrote that the term “lac” is where the Georgian leki, classical legi, Arabic lakzy, Persian lazgi, Turkish Lezgi and Russian Lezgin come from.”

Ethnonym "Lezgins"

Today's Lezgins 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 people; 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 meaning. The same term was used to call Dagestan by eastern authors. As is known, the Arab geographer Zakariyya Kazvini in 1275 spoke of the Tsakhur aul of Tsakhur as “the main city of the Lezghin country.” According to the remark of 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 hindered by the fact that modern Tsakhurians belong to a special linguistic group different from the Lezgins... This difficulty seems, however, insignificant in view of the fact that that called by the same Zakariy Kazvini Shinaz (a town from among the cities of Lezgins) is also not Lezgin in the strict sense of the term, but a Rutul village in language. This last circumstance and a number of other data from 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 ones.

In pre-revolutionary Russia and among the Turks, the name “Lezgins” was used to designate numerous mountain tribes that inhabited the Dagestan region and partly the southern slope of the Main Caucasus Range. The Russians used this name in relation to the southern Dagestanis, while the northern ones were called Tavlinians (mainly Avars). Bartold writes about this: “The Russians, apparently, also initially called only the peoples of Southern Dagestan Lezgins, as opposed to the mountain peoples of the northern regions (tauli - from the Turkic tau “mountain”).” Interesting information was provided 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 numerous tribe, known as the Kura. The Kyurs... are divided into two parts: 1) the inhabitants of the former Kyurin khanate of Getegar, from the name of the village Chekhe-Getal, which was previously considered the main one in the Kyure: and the second - Akhsagar, from the village of Akhsa (Akhty), 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 resident”, 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 “Lezgins” was spread by the Arabs and is “la-zagi,” that is, unclean, in contrast to the inhabitants of the coastal plain, who converted to Islam before others. D. B. Butaev derived the ethnonym Lezgin from the Lak word “lakssa” - tall. I. X. Abdullaev and K. Sh. Mikailov write that the term Lezgi, which denoted Dagestanis in the Azerbaijani language,

...first of all, it referred to the closest neighbors, to the tribes of the modern Lezgi people, and in places where the Kurins (Lezgins) and Azerbaijanis lived together, the terms Lezgi and non-Lezgi (that is, Azerbaijanis) were used. In addition, the Azerbaijani language was widespread among the peoples of Southern Dagestan. Under these conditions, the Kyurin tribes began to call themselves in communication with Azerbaijanis the ethnonym Lezgi, which over time became the self-name of a separate South Dagestan people - modern Lezgins.

Hasan Alkadari, a famous Dagestan scientist, Lezgin by origin, noted: “Currently, in addition to groups speaking the 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 the rearrangement of G and Z in the form legzi, since in Arabic dictionaries this name is translated in the latter form.” The famous Ottoman traveler of the 17th century, Evliya Celebi, testified to a similar use when describing Little Kabarda: “South of Mount Elbrus lives a people of the Christian faith, who are called Lezgi or Legzi. They have fifty thousand soldiers subordinate to the Persians.” Russian and Soviet philologist and Caucasus expert 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 Zagatala district.” Around the second half of the 19th century, the Kyurins began to use the ethnonym Lezgi as their ethnic self-name. About the fact that already in the 1860s the term Lezgin 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, “... the Khurkilins (that is, the Dargins) and the Kyurins also do not have an ethnic name.” R. M. Magomedov wrote: “Even on the eve of the revolution, Lezgin did not always call himself a Lezgin, but said that he was a Kurush; others called themselves Kyurins. The Akhtyns called themselves Akhtsakhars.” In relation to the current people, the term “Lezgins” began to be used from the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, 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 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 Kyurinians, in the narrow sense of the word).”

Questions of Lezgin ethnogenesis

Versions of Lezgin ethnogenesis in pre-revolutionary Russia

Above it was said about the history, development/formation of the ethnonym “Lezgins”. Regarding the ethnogenesis of the Lezgin people, it does not remain completely clear. Pre-revolutionary sources and early studies provided different points of view regarding the origin of the peoples of the Lezgin language group, including the Lezgins themselves. The authors of “Tarikha Derbent-name” considered the Lezgins to be descendants of the Hun tribes. According to Bakikhanov, the inhabitants of the Lezgin village of Mikrakh, like the inhabitants of the Lak village of Kumukh, “belong to the remnants of the tribe of Russians (or Slavs) who moved here during the rule of the Khazars,” and “the inhabitants of the part of Tabasaran, the western side of the Kubinsky 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 Kyurins (that is, Lezgins) “... were subjected to cross-breeding 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 Aryan root, but thanks to the influence, starting from the 8th century. according to R. Chr. Arab culture, which gave them their writing and religion, as well as the pressure of neighboring Turkic-Tatar tribes, have lost much of their original nationality and now represent a striking, difficult-to-research mixture with Arabs, Avars, Kumyks, Tarks, Jews and others.”

In 1899, the Normanist Dane V. Thomsen, studying the Asia Minor connections 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 with -er, -e, -r: Vikings - vikinger. Norwegian is close to Danish. Lezgins call themselves Lezgiar. Lezginka “was originally a warrior’s dance”; it is “a prototype of ancient ritual dances in the Caucasus.” According to Sturluson, the ancestors of the Vikings lived in the Azov region 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. Linguistic scientists believe that representatives of this family are connected 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, which over time broke up into many other languages, is acute. E. A. Bokarev suggests that such a proto-language-base existed in an era no closer than the 3rd millennium BC. e., during the Chalcolithic era. Therefore, Kh. Kh. Ramazanov and A. R. Shikhsaidov indicate that in the 3rd millennium BC. e. The Lezgin language group is distinguished from the common Dagestan proto-language, further breaking up into separate languages.

Considering the significant proximity of Agul to the Lezgin and Tabasaran languages, Z. K. Tarlanov suggests that the ancient Eastern Lezgin dialect, which was part of the Lezgin proto-language, relatively late broke up into separate Eastern Lezgin languages ​​- Lezgin 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 strict selection of units of the general fund, the coincidences amount to 35% and the boundaries of the allocation of the same languages ​​are pushed back accordingly to the middle of the 1st millennium BC.” e."

Long-standing hypotheses about the relationship of modern North Caucasian languages ​​with the ancient languages ​​of Western Asia have received serious confirmation. Thus, I. Dyakonov and S. Starostin discovered over 100 common roots between the Hurrian-Urartian and Nakh-Dagestan languages, which showed the undoubted relationship of the Hurrian and Urartian (which already existed separately from each other in the third millennium BC) languages ​​with modern Eastern North Caucasian (Nakh-Dagestan), especially with Lezgin and Vainakh.

Anthropological data

A number of authors (Ikhilov, Shikhsaidov and Ramazanov), separately touching on the issue of the ethnogenesis of the peoples of the Lezgin group, also touch upon their anthropological character. Back in the 19th century, Russian anthropologist Ivan Pantyukhov believed that “the main mass of Lezgins have some common or characteristic features that distinguish them both from their closest neighbors and from all other known peoples.” Conducted anthropological studies have revealed the Caucasian type in the Caucasus, which includes residents 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 Lezgin-speaking groups and among the Kumyks. According to G.F. Debets, the peoples of Dagestan were formed as a result of the mixing 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 a role in the ethnogenetic process of the Lezgins. In connection with this, he concludes: “One might think that the origins of ethnogenesis included in the Caspian-type area go back to both the local autochthonous population of these areas and to settlers from the more southern zone.” M. Sh. Rizakhanova in her report “On the question of the ethnogenesis of 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. Subsequently, the core process of the formation of the Lezgin ethnos and the development of its culture took place through continuous cultural and ethnic communication with other Dagestan tribes, as well as tribes of Transcaucasia, Asia Minor and Asia Minor. This is clearly confirmed by the cultural community and continuity of objects of material and spiritual culture.

The role of Caucasian Albania

In the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. In eastern Transcaucasia, an Albanian tribal union was formed, uniting 26 tribes that spoke various languages ​​of the Nakh-Dagestan family. Among these tribes were the Legs and Gels, which were mentioned above. According to Robert Heusen, the Albanian tribes were mainly of autochthonous Caucasian origin, although it cannot be certain that this applies to all 26 tribes. It is generally accepted that the peoples of the Lezgin language group were part of Caucasian Albania. The extinct Agvan (Caucasian-Albanian) language, at least, belonged to the Lezgin branch, representing, in 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-Lezgin tribes left the coastal areas and went deep into the mountains of the southern spurs of the Caucasus, creating unique ethnic societies there. Over time (V-X centuries), the language, life and culture of these societies, due to their economic and political isolation, developed their own characteristics. This is how the Lezgin, Rutul, Tsakhur and Agul languages ​​and nationalities developed.”

Middle Ages

Information about the early history of Lezgins is closely connected with the history of their places of residence. It is known that the message of an Arab author about the “land of Lakz” dates back to 722, which by the 10th century covered the territory occupied by speakers of 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 the Arabs managed to make Derbent their military-administrative center of the Arab Caliphate in Dagestan, as well as the largest trading center and port, a center for the spread of Islam in Dagestan and remained so until the 10-12th centuries. period of the late 12th - early 13th centuries. Derbent exists as an independent fief - the Derbent Emirate. They minted their own coin. 1239 The Derbent Emirate became 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 within its borders, to the west it extended no further than the nearest mountain gorges, and to the north it included part of the Tabasaran lands.

The relationship between the Derbent Emirate, Shirvan and Lakz is also interesting. Thus, Professor R. Magomedov writes: “When determining the relations between the Derbent principality, Lakz, Shirvan, internecine strife cannot be considered the determining motive. Facts indicate that the peoples of the Derbent principality and Lakza felt their closeness to the Shirvan population and were sensitive to the events in Shirvan. When the Dailamite nomads 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 in Central Asia, a vast Mongol state emerged. During the years 1220 and 1222, Mongol hordes sweep through the territory of Transcaucasia. In 1221, the Mongols sacked the city of Beylagan and massacred its population. Then, having imposed tribute on 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 Kurdzhi, the Tatars headed to Derbend Shirvan, besieged the city of Shemakha and fought with its inhabitants, but they withstood the siege. However, the Tatars climbed up its wall using ladders, and according to others, they collected many camels, cows, small livestock, etc., as well as the corpses of those killed, both their own and others, and, placing one on top of the other, formed something like a hill , having climbed onto which, they took a dominant position over 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 still can’t escape from the sword, so it’s better for us to stand firm, at least we’ll die with honor”; and they stood firm that night, and since the corpses had decomposed and slept, the Tatars no longer dominated the city and could not fight.

However, they again moved towards 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 many people in it, plundered it and committed (all sorts of) atrocities.

After this, the Mongols head to Derbent and, having passed through it, head north. On their way they met resistance from the mountaineers. Ibn al-Athir described: “Having passed Derbend-Shirvan, the Tatars entered areas in which there are many nationalities; Alans, Lakzes, and several Turkic tribes (ta'ifa), robbed and killed many Lakzes - Muslims and non-believers, and carried out massacres among 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 by lakzas Ibn Al-Athir means not only the inhabitants of Southern Dagestan (as earlier Arab authors did), but all residents of the mountainous regions of Dagestan, regardless of their ethnicity.”

In 1231, the Mongols invaded the Caucasus for the second time, plundered Maragha, and turned Ganja into ruins. They then stormed and destroyed Derbent, turning it into their base from which they launched incursions into the mountainous regions of the Eastern Caucasus. Yes, Prof. A. Shikhsaidov writes: “The path of the Mongol troops from Derbent to Kumukh lay through the Lezgin regions along the route: Derbent-Tabasaran-Kasumkent-Khiv (or Kurakh)-Richa-Chirag-Kumukh.”

Fight against the Safavids

Lezgin free societies

In the XV-XVII centuries. the process of unification of Lezgin lands is taking place. Small villages unite around larger and stronger villages, forming a union of rural communities, the so-called free societies. In Dagestan, the Akhtyparinsky, Altyparinsky and Dokuzparinsky 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

Village of Akhty

The main village of the Akhtyparin Union was the Lezgin village of Akhty. According to the stories of old-timers, in ancient times it was called TӀuri, and in legends the village appears as an active fighter in the fight against Persia and the Khazars in the 6th-8th centuries. From written sources, Akhta has been known since 1494-1495, when its inhabitants entered into an alliance with the inhabitants of another Lezgin village - Khryug. The first written message 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 reaches of the Samur River with adjacent gorges, as well as villages in the Akhtychay River basin. According to K. Krabe (the first third of the 19th century), Akhtypara consisted of 25 villages, Dokuzpara - of eight villages. M. M. Kovalevsky characterized the Akhtyparinsky free society as follows:

The Lezgin village of Akhty bore the obligation of military protection of eleven rural communities that formed one union with it. During the war, these societies were obliged to submit to the leadership of the Akhtyn chiefs, represented by forty aksakals, nominated by the tukhums, one from each. In peacetime, these elders monitored the timely payment of zakat and ensured that in civil and criminal disputes, final decisions were made exclusively by Akhtyn mediators.

Village Kurakh

In the Altyparin Union, the villages of Pirkent and Kaladzhig were ruled by the elders of Mikrag. Miskinde, which was divided into six rural areas, had one aksakal elected from each area. Unlike other villages, only in Mikrakh, Kara-Kur and Kurush were elders elected from each section (mekhle) of the village.

These societies were democratic units based on the principle of governance. Some sources also call them republics. For example, General Paulucci, in a report to Minister of War Rumyantsev in 1812, called all the “free” societies of Southern Dagestan “republican societies of Lezgins.”

In 1812, the unions of 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-Davud of Myushkur

At first, the indignation of the popular 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 unorganized. In 1709, an uprising against the Qizilbash broke out in Dzharo-Belokany, which was suppressed. In 1711, anti-Iranian protests began again in Dzharo-Belokani and Elisu Sultanate. Yesai Hasan-Jalalyan wrote:

The rebel Avars and Tsakhurs were joined by many of the residents of Sheki and Shirvan. The rebels marched through the outskirts of Shamakhi, Ganja, Kazakh, Akstafa, Shamshadil, Dzegam, Shamkhor, and reached Barda itself. A regular army was used to suppress this uprising, but attempts to pacify the rebellious people were in vain. in particular, Esai Hasan-Jalalyan writes:

By order of the Shah, the Shirvan beklarbek Hasan Ali Khan with an army of fifteen thousand came 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 this, the Ganja beklarbek Ugurlu Khan was thrown at the rebels, who also suffered failure. With the remnants of his troops, he was forced to flee and take refuge in the Ganja fortress. Then the Sheki ruler Kichik Khan made a number of attempts to defeat the rebel forces. But his efforts were also unsuccessful. In one of the battles, his troops were defeated and he himself was killed.

The man who managed to unite these scattered, unorganized uprisings of the mountaineers of the north-eastern Caucasus was Hadji-Davud of Mushkur, who turned them into an organized, targeted struggle against the destruction of Iranian influence in the territory in question. According to some evidence, 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 rule and the restoration of an independent Sunni state on the territory of Shirvan. Despite unsuccessful attempts to come to an agreement with Russia, Haji-Davud continued preparations for the assault on the last bastions of Safavid dominance 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 calls. After their meeting with Hadji-Davud in the Kafiri area (a plain north of Derbent), a decision was made on a joint siege of Shamakhi. But due to the threats of Shamkhal Adil-Girey, Utsmiy Ahmed Khan was forced to stay in Kai-tag again, fearing an attack from him, sending only part of his army to help the rebels. Having thus gathered sufficient forces around himself, Hadji-Davud, in alliance with Surkhai 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 Türkiye signed a peace treaty in Istanbul. According to this agreement, the Ottoman Empire recognized the Caspian provinces of Russia as voluntarily ceded to it by Iran. Russia recognized almost the rest of Transcaucasia as Turkey's.

An important place in the Treaty of Istanbul was occupied by the issue of Shirvan, which was supposed to represent a special state-khanate of the Shirvan Lezgins led by Haji-Davud. This issue was reflected in the 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 the territory of Shirvan from Baku to Kura and from Derbent to Kura, and did not want to accept the role of an obedient tool in the hands of the Ottoman Sultan. Haji Dawood openly declared his disagreement with the new borders established by the treaty and created 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: “Difficulties were caused for two years by Daud Beg, that Russia got the lands near the Caspian Sea, from which Shamakhi was fed.” I. Gerber writes about this:

In addition, from Gerber’s messages it can be concluded that Haji-Davud, in addition to Mushkur and Shabran, intended to regain other Shirvan lands captured by Russia, including Derbent and Baku. From an analysis of the sources it is clear 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 were already dependent on the Russian Empire. Thus, by 1810, the zone of residence of the Lezgin-Cubans, the Kuba Khanate, was included in Russia and transformed into the Kuba district. Soon, in February 1811, the entry into the Empire of the Samur free societies of the Lezgin-Samurians, Akhtypara, Dokuzpara, 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 Kur, the territory of residence of the Lezgin-Kyurins, the power of the Kazikumukh khans was overthrown and a protectorate of the Russian Empire was established - the Kurin Khanate.

After the introduction of tsarist administration, the Samur Lezgins were united into the Samur district. The Kyura Khanate included the territories of the Kyura plane, Kurakhsky, Kushansky, Agulsky and Richinsky unions of rural societies. And the Cuban Lezgins became part of the Kubinsky district of the Baku province. According to the new administrative structure, the Lezgin population found itself part of different political entities. The Lezgins of the Kuba Khanate became part of the Baku province, the Lezgins of the Kyura Khanate, Tabasaran Maysum and 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, when Gunib was captured by Russian troops, Hadji-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 on the Gunib plateau. During the battle, the entire detachment led by the naib fell. It is also known about the numerous Akhtyn muhajirs in Shamil’s troops, the head of which was Muhammad-Nabi al-Akhty, the qadi of the Imamat, whose name was written first in the list of qadis of the Imamat by Shamil’s secretary, Muhammad-Tahir.

In 1838, a popular uprising broke out in the Cuban province, where Lezgin-Cubans also lived. It was caused by local residents' dissatisfaction with the policies 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, and very soon the rebels laid siege to the capital, Cuba. In addition to the Cuban province, fighting also took place in the Samur Valley. In 1839, after the defeat of the united forces of the highlanders in the Battle of Adzhiakhur, the Russians suppressed the main centers of resistance. To consolidate power in the region, the Akhtyn and Tiflis fortresses were founded.

Storming of the Akhty fortress by the troops of Imam Shamil in 1848

In 1848, Imam Shamil launched 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 the testimony of Shamil's chronicler, Muhammad-Tahir, local residents stormed the fortress especially fiercely, which is why many of them died in battle. However, a certain part of the highlanders, locked 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 Samur villages in connection with the rebellion. According to contemporaries, the village of Khrug suffered especially - the village was devastated, and the inhabitants fled to 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 (Circassians were particularly affected by massive muhajirism). Those who emigrated from Dagestan settled in the Ottoman Empire, where their descendants still form the Caucasian group of the population. According to Izzet Aydemir, there are seven purely Lezgin villages in present-day Turkey. in turn, M. Moor clarifies that Lezgins live in only three villages (the villages of Ortaja and Yayla, Balykesir, and the village of Dagestan, Izmir), while the rest are inhabited by various Dagestan peoples, who are called Lezgins, meaning Dagestanis . Most of the residents of the village of Dagestan (Medzhidiye mouth) in the province of Izmir, in particular, come from the Akhtyn region.

Kyura Khanate

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

Revolt of 1877

By the 1870s In the North Caucasus, class contradictions intensified, and the population's dissatisfaction with the policies of Russian tsarism intensified. The subversive activities of 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 city of Samsir, Vedeno district, Alibek-haji, rebelled against the tsarist government. Soon the uprising spread to Dagestan. On September 12, the Lezgins of the Kyurinsky district of the Dagestan region rebelled and, having crossed Samur on September 15, they invaded the Kubinsky district of the Baku province, where along the way they burned the headquarters of the 34th Shirvan regiment. Armed uprisings began among the residents of the Kubinsky district, and on October 1 the Akhtyn people rebelled. Having raised an uprising, the Kyura rebels declared Lieutenant Magomed-Ali-bek, a resident of the village of Kurakh, the Kyura khan, the rebel Cubans elected second lieutenant Hasan-bek as khan, and the Akhtyns proclaimed police captain Kazi-Akhmed Khan of Samur. The Caucasian command began active operations against the rebels, and at the end of October and beginning of November, tsarist troops suppressed the uprising in Southern 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 highlanders from the northern slopes of the Greater Caucasus to the southern ones. 1860-1870s In Northern Azerbaijan, there was an intensive migration of highlanders to the plain in the Mushkur region. in particular, some of the residents from 47 Lezgin villages formed 35 settlements (7.3 thousand people) in these places. These settlements did not constitute independent settlements, but continued to be considered part of the old mountain settlements of the Lezgins, forming one whole with them in terms of land use.

In addition, at the end of the 19th century, land-poor Lezgin peasants went to work in Baku and other Russian cities. in connection with this they said: “Bakudin rekh regun rekh hyiz khanva” (“The road to Baku has become like the road to a mill”), “Baku - avai sa kalni gana aku” (“Look at Baku, having sold even your only cow”). Sometimes young men went to work in the hope of saving money for a wedding, since they had to pay off debts and support their family, 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 Lezgin culture as the poet and singer Said from Kochkhur, the founder of Lezgin national literature, poet Etim Emin, as well as the poet Tagir Khruksky. In proletarian Baku, the work of the poet Gadzhi Akhtynsky was formed, who became the first proletarian poet not only in Lezgin, but in all Dagestan literature. The military governor of the Dagestan region, in a report to the Tsar’s viceroy in the Caucasus in 1905, testified to the great influence of revolutionary Baku on Southern Dagestan: “Residents listen sensitively and are interested in everything that is happening in Russia and the Caucasus, and especially in Baku. The population of the district (that is, the Samur district - approx.), and especially the village of Akhty, is closely connected with this latter as the point where they always find income... 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, the increase in the number of Lezgins who went to work in Baku and other centers led to the emergence of the Lezgin proletariat.” In 1905, the Bolshevik worker Kazi-Magomed Agasiev created the Lezgin 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 abrechism (gachagi in Azerbaijan). For the 1910s. accounts for the activities of the most famous abreks in the Caucasus. Abrek Buba from the Lezgin village of Ikra terrorized the entire Caspian coast from Baku to Port Petrovsk (now Makhachkala). “Along the entire coast of the Caspian Sea from Baku to Petrovsk, he imposed a tax on every fishery, large garden owners and wealthy merchants of the city of Derbent in proportion to his operations.” Buba Ikrinsky and the abrek Salambek Garavodzhev from the Ingush village of Sagopshi surrendered to the authorities and were hanged by the verdict of the military court.

As a result of the collapse of the Russian Empire and its territorial disintegration, various state formations arose throughout the Caucasus. Formally, the northern Lezgins remained part of the Dagestan region, but it was subordinated to the Union of United Highlanders of the North Caucasus and Dagestan formed on the territory of the North Caucasus. In November 1917, the Mountain Republic was proclaimed on the territory of Dagestan and the mountain districts of the Terek region. However, as a result of escalating interethnic conflicts, the outbreak of civil war 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 disintegrated.

The situation developed a little differently in the area where the southern Lezgins lived. In April 1918, the Baku Council, with the support of armed detachments of the Armenian Dashnaktsutyun party, as a result of the bloody March events, asserted 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 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 take revenge on the killed Armenians with the order to “destroy all Muslims from the (Caspian) sea to Shahdag.” This detachment not only destroyed the city, but also burned 122 Muslim villages of the Cuban 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 citizenship law, which was based on the principle of descent (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 extended to the Lezgin 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. A lot of propaganda work in Southern Dagestan was carried out by one of the leaders of the Baku Committee of the RSDLP, the chairman of the Derbent Military Revolutionary Committee, Lezgin Kazi-Magomed Agasiev. After the troops of General Bicherakhov captured Derbent on August 15, and the mountainous part of Dagestan was occupied by German-Turkish interventionists, Agasiev went underground and began to create detachments of red partisans. In October, he was arrested and shot on the orders of the Turkish kaymakam (governor) of the Kyurinsky district, Takayutdin Bey. He was shot 3 km from the village. Kasumkent agents of the local Ittihadist organization, brothers Shagmer and Shakhmerdan Israfilov from the village of Kasumkent and Kurban from the village of Ksan. The Azerbaijani city of Adjigabul and the region of the same name were later named after Kazi-Magomed (now their old names have been returned).

Another Dagestani and Azerbaijani Lezgin revolutionary Mukhtadir Aidinbekov was also one of the leaders of the struggle for the establishment of 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 district) and killed in a Cuban prison.

At the beginning of 1919, General Denikin’s Volunteer Army 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 White Guards and was appointed ruler of Dagestan by Denikin. On August 4, General Khalilov issued an order to mobilize highlanders into the Volunteer Army between the ages of 19 and 40. However, the mountaineers refused to carry out the order. A new uprising began in a number of districts. 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 Denikinites. On September 8, a resolution was issued by the State Defense Committee of Azerbaijan “on the acceptance for military service of Lezgins from Dagestan who are evading mobilization into the Volunteer Army”:

Lezgin refugees from Dagestan are allowed to enter Azerbaijan without hindrance; for those wishing to enter military service in Azerbaijan, do not create obstacles and ask the Minister of War for appropriate orders.

In March 1920, Soviet power was established in Dagestan, and a month later Azerbaijan was Sovietized. The northern Lezgins became part of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, formed in January 1921, and the southern Lezgins 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 and Cuba. According to the 1926 census, the urban population among Azerbaijani Lezgins was 13.3%, and among Dagestan it reached only 3.4%.

And although the Lezgins supported and sometimes actively fought for Soviet power, however, when collectivization and active struggle against religion began, in 1930 in Southern 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 Gadzhi 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 Caucasus Division of the OGPU with the participation of detachments of 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 residents of the village of Khnov raised an uprising.

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 Hero of the Soviet Union. In addition, a native of Azerbaijan, Lezgin Mahmud Abilov became the only military general from representatives of the Dagestani-speaking peoples and one of two in Azerbaijan who received the rank of major general during the Great Patriotic War. to the rear, and with 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, Akhtyn district, Lezginka Makhiyat Zagirova, donated 15,700 rubles to the needs of the front. Contributing this amount to the defense fund, she wrote: “My husband is a senior lieutenant, has been at the front since the very beginning of the Patriotic War, received several wounds... not wanting to lag behind my husband, I contribute money earned by honest labor on the collective farm. I am a mountain woman 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, great cultural, educational, economic and political work began in the region. In 1928, the newspaper “Tsliyi dunya” (“New World”), later renamed “Communist,” began to be published in the Lezgin language, which marked the beginning of the development of national Lezgin journalism. At the same time, as part of the campaign for the Latinization of alphabets, the transition of Lezgin writing from Arabic to Latin occurred. Lezgins began to use Arabic writing in the middle or second half of the 19th century, when individual poets (Etim Emin and others) began to write down their poems and songs using Arabic characters1979. The transition to the Latinized alphabet was of great importance for the peoples of Dagestan, including the Lezgins. In the first years after the completion of Latinization (1933), 50.7% of Lezgins became literate in 1979.

Composer, Lezgin by 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 number. As of January 1, 1989, the CPSU included 29,124 Lezgins (candidates and party members). The population 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 Kyurins.

Lezgins in Azerbaijan

Lezgins in Azerbaijan traditionally live in Qusar, Kuba, 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 Lezgin population began to decrease. Some villages in the past with a Lezgin population have now been assimilated into the Azerbaijani environment and are considered Azerbaijani.

Materials for registering the national composition of Azerbaijan for 1931 recorded 79,306 Lezgins in the republic.

The UN High Commission for Refugees notes that Lezgins make up 75% of the population of the Qusar and Khachmaz regions, and that in Greater Baku 15% are Lezgins. 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. In the city of Kusary itself, Lezgins make up approximately 90 to 95%, 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 “Folk Collective of Azerbaijan”. In August 1992, the Lezgi Democratic Party of Azerbaijan (National Equality Party of Azerbaijan) 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 Lezgin language in Azerbaijan. In 1998, the State Lezgin Drama Theater was opened in Kusary.

In 2000, an anthology of Lezgin literature “Akata Shegyrediz” was published in Baku, and in 2004 a collection of poems by Gulbes Aslankhanova “Wun RikIevaz” (Baku, 2004), etc.

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

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

Movement for the creation of a unified Lezgin state entity

Statements about Lezgins

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

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

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

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

About the inhabitants of Southern Dagestan (that is, Lezgin-speaking peoples), Gerber recounted the story of the attempt to introduce them into the citizenship of the Russian Empire with the strict requirement of “abstaining from all theft” and the response of the delegates he heard to this:

We were born into theft, this is our arable land and plows and all our wealth, which our grandfathers and great-grandfathers left us and taught us; This is how we had enough to eat, and we also eat and have enough to eat, and what we have is all stolen, and we have no other livelihood; If we fall behind from this, then we will die of hunger under the Russian government, 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 as good people than to perish from hunger. Then they mounted their horses and rode away.

• Evgeny Markov:

“When you look at the Lezgin and our brother Vakhlak the Russian at the same time, the Russian gives the impression of a clumsy herbivore next to a stately and brave predator. A Lezgin has the variegated outfit of some panther or leopard, the grace and flexibility of her movements, her terrible strength, embodied in graceful 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 on other peoples, all the Dagestan peoples, to riot.”

• 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 - arrangement 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 Lezgin houses, at their gardens: everywhere you can see that they take care that all this is strong and durable. This striking feature of their character somehow does not go well with their well-known belligerence and with the stories about their constant raids in Transcaucasia. From all the stories, the conclusion is usually drawn that the Lezgins are a wild, predatory people, living by robbery and robbery. But such a conclusion seems to us somewhat exaggerated. The Lezgins are warlike, it is true, which is quite understandable, due to the harsh nature of the nature of their homeland; but they cannot be said to be 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 in the 4th century. BC-VII century AD - Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1959. - P. 47.
2. 1 2 3 Ikhilov, 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. Miklouho-Maclay. Peoples of the Caucasus. - Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1960. - T. 1. - P. 487.
5. L.I. Lavrov. Lezgins // Peoples of Dagestan: collection of articles / ed. M.O. Kosven, H.-M.O. Khashaev. - Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1955. - P. 103.
6. Ramazanov, Shikhsaidov, 1964, p. 20.
7. ABU HAMID AL-GARNATI. A SELECTION OF MEMORIES OF THE WONDERS OF THE COUNTRY. Eastern literature. Archived from the original on July 3, 2012. Original text (Russian)

   This emir read under my guidance the “Satisfying Book” of al-Mahamili on fiqh; and he - may Allah have mercy on him! - spoke different languages, such as Lakzan and Tabalan, and Filan, and Zakalan, and Haidak, and Gumik, and Sarir, and Alan, and As, and Zarikhkaran, and Turkic, and Arabic, and Persian. People from these nationalities were present in my classes, and he explained each nationality in its language.

8. A. L. Mongait. ABU HAMID AL-GARNATI->HISTORICAL COMMENTARY. 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 of the X-XVII centuries, as a historical source. - Science, 1984. - P. 358. Original text (Russian)

    Ibn al-Athir (1160-1234) understood by “the country of Lakz” 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 meaning.

12. Lezgistan // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg, 1890-1907.
13. Ikhilov, 1967, p. 62.
14. 1 2 Epigraphic monuments of the North Caucasus in Arabic, Persian and Turkish. Inscriptions X - XVII centuries. Texts, translations, commentary, introductory article and appendices by L. I. Lavrov. - M.: Nauka, 1966. - T. 2, part 1. - P. 178.
15. Institute of History, Language and Literature named after. G. Tsadasy. Scientific notes. - Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1969. - T. 19. - P. 101-102.
16. Lezgins, Lezgins. 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. Essays. - Publishing House of Eastern Literature, 1977. - T. 3. - P. 411.
19. 1 2 3 Gadzhiev, V. G., 1979, p. 185-187.
20. Gadzhiev, V. G., 1979, p. 148.
21. Evgeniy Mikhailovich Shilling. Kubachi people and their culture: historical and ethnographic studies. - Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1949. - P. 15. Original text (Russian)

    “We note here that a local native, Dagestan historian of the 2nd half of the 19th century, Hasan Alkadari, Lezgin by origin, was against the assumption of the European origin of the Kubachi people.”

22. Maya Pavlovna Abramova, Vladimir Ivanovich Markovin. Northern Caucasus: Historical and archaeological essays and notes: Collection of articles. - RAS. Institute of Archeology, 2001. - P. 14.
23. Evliya Celebi. Travel book. Lands of the North Caucasus, Volga region and Don region. (Russian), Eastern Literature.
24. Gadzhiev, Rizakhanova, 2002, p. 376.
25. Ageeva, R. A. What kind of tribe are we? Peoples of Russia: names and destinies. Dictionary-reference book. - Academia, 2000. - pp. 197-199. - ISBN 5-87444-033-Х.
26. Lezgin literature/Literary encyclopedia. - 1929-1939
27. Small Soviet Encyclopedia. - Soviet Encyclopedia, 1931. - T. 4. - P. 544.
28. 1 2 A.M. Ganieva. Essays on the oral and poetic creativity of Lezgins. - Science, 2004. - P. 4. - ISBN 502032714X, 9785020327146.
29. 1 2 Ramazanov, Shikhsaidov, 1964, p. 14.
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, Zigs
33. Ikhilov, 1967, p. 32.
34. Ramazanov, Shikhsaidov, 1964, p. 16.
35. Z.K. Tarlanov Lexico-toponymic data on the ethnogenesis of the Eastern Lezgin peoples // Soviet ethnography. - 1989. - No. 4. - P. 116-117.
36. I. M. Dyakonov, S. A. Starostin. Hurrito-Urartian and East Caucasian languages. // Ancient East: ethnocultural connections. M., 1988.
37. 1 2 3 4 Ikhilov, 1967, p. 34-36.
38. Ramazanov, Shikhsaidov, 1964, p. 17.
39. Alekseev V. P. Favorites. - Science, 2009. - T. 5: Origin of the peoples of the Caucasus. - pp. 228-229. - ISBN 978-5-02-035547-7.
40. M. Sh. Rizakhanova. On the question of the ethnogenesis of Lezgins // Lavrov (Central Asian-Caucasian) readings, 1998–1999: Brief. content report. - 2001. - P. 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. Ikhilov, 1967, p. 42.
43. G. A. Klimov. Agvan language // Languages ​​of the world: Caucasian languages. - M., 1999. Archived from the original source on October 26, 2012.
44. James Stuart Olson. An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires. - Greenwood Publishing Group, 1994. - pp. 27-28. - ISBN 0313274975, 9780313274978. Original text (English)
45. Ikhilov, 1967, p. 66.
46. Ramazanov, Shikhsaidov, 1964, p. 26.
47. History of the peoples of the North Caucasus from ancient times to the end of the 18th century. / Responsible ed. B.B. Piotrovsky. - M.: Nauka, 1988. - P. 154.
48. 1 2 3 Ramazanov, Shikhsaidov, 1964.
49. Magomedov R. M. History of Dagestan. Makhachkala, 1968.
50. 1 2 Ibn al-Athir. Complete history (Russian), Eastern Literature.
51. Boris Borisovich Piotrovsky. History of the peoples of the North Caucasus from ancient times to the end of the 18th century. - Science, 1988. - P. 191.
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 refers 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. Material culture of Lezgins XIX-early XX centuries. - Science, 1978. - P. 116.
55. Gadzhiev, V. G., 1979, p. 188.
56. Ikhilov, 1967, p. 94-95.
57. Ramazanov, Shikhsaidov, 1964, p. 160.
58. TsGIA Cargo. SSR, f. 8, d. 237, l. 74
59. History of the peoples of the North Caucasus (end of the 18th century - 1917) / rep. ed. A.L. Narochnitsky. - M.: Nauka, 1988. - P. 114.
60. Letters and reports of the Jesuits about Russia. St. Petersburg, 1904. P. 106
61. 1 2 3 Yesai Hasan-Jalalyan. A brief history of the Albanian country (1702-1722). Baku: Elm, 1989.
62. Leviatov I. N. Essays on the history of Azerbaijan in the 18th century. Baku, 1948.
63. Sotavov N. A. North Caucasus in Russian-Iranian and Russian-Turkish relations in the 18th century. M.: Nauka, 1991.
64. Aliyev F. M. Anti-Iranian protests and the struggle against Turkish occupation in Azerbaijan in the first half of the 18th century. Baku: Elm, 1975.
65. 1 2 3 A. A. Butaev “People’s liberation movement in the Eastern Caucasus under the leadership of Hadji-Davud of Myushkyur / the first third of the 18th century.” Makhachkala-2006
66. Popov A.I. Relations between Russia and Khiva and Bukhara under Peter the Great // Notes of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. St. Petersburg, 1853. Book. IX
67. 1 2 3 Butkov P. G. Materials for the new history of the Caucasus from 1722 to 1803. SPb.: Type. Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1869. Part 1.
68. Gerber I.G. Description of countries and peoples along the western shore of the Caspian Sea // History, geography and ethnography of Dagestan in the 18th-19th centuries. Archival materials. M.: Publishing house. eastern literature, 1958.
69. Kuba Khanate in TSB
70. The process of annexation of Southern Dagestan to Russia and the strengthening of colonial and feudal oppression in the 1st quarter of the 19th century.
71. Yusuf-bek Khan Kyurinsky
72. From tribal consciousness to pan-Dagestan unity. Lezgins.
73. Chronicle..., 1941, p. 248-249; Abdurakhman from Gazikumukh, 1997, p. 168, 223
74. Crown of bright heads - Newspaper "Chernovik"
75. A. Magomeddadayev, M. Musaeva. On the history of the resettlement of Dagestanis to Turkey // Iran and the Caucasus. - International Publications of Iranian Studies, 1997. - Vol. 1. - P. 58. - ISBN 964-90368-3-0.
76. A. Magomeddadayev, M. Musaeva. On the history of the resettlement of Dagestanis to Turkey // Iran and the Caucasus. - International Publications of Iranian Studies, 1997. - Vol. 1. - P. 61. - ISBN 964-90368-3-0.
77. Ikhilov, 1967, p. 86-87.
78. 1 2 Ramazanov, Shikhsaidov, 1964, p. 244-245.
79. N. G. Volkova. Migrations and ethnocultural adaptation of highlanders in the lowland Caucasus (XIX - XX centuries) // Races and Peoples. - Science, 1988. - T. 18. - P. 127.
80. A. M. Ganieva. Essays on the oral and poetic creativity of Lezgins. - Science, 2004. - P. 227. - ISBN 502032714X, 9785020327146.
81. A.M. Ganieva. Lezgin Maniyars about otkhodnichestvo // Teaching notes. - 1968. - T. 18. - P. 13.
82. 1 2 Ramazanov, Shikhsaidov, 1964, p. 265-266.
83. Ikhilov, 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 USSR Academy of Sciences, 1955. - P. 104.
86. 1 2 3 Great Soviet Encyclopedia. - State Scientific Publishing House, 1949. - T. 1. - P. 289. Original text (Russian)

    AGASIEV, Kazi Magomed (1882-1918) - one of the active underground workers, advanced Bolshevik workers who worked in Transcaucasia under the leadership of I.V. Stalin. Born in Dagestan in the village of Akhty. Working in the Baku oil fields, A: participated in the underground activities of the Baku Committee of the RSDLP, organized in 1901 by L. Ketskhoveli (see) on the instructions of I.V. Stalin. 1905 A. created the Lezgin Bolshevik group “Faruk” under the Baku Committee of the RSDLP. He actively participated in the work of the Union of Oil Industry Workers. He was the organizer of several Social-Democrats. circles in South. Dagestan. A. was repeatedly arrested and expelled from Baku by the tsarist government. 1918 A. was commissioner of the Derbent region and South. Dagestan. During the capture of Derbent by the counter-revolutionary gangs of Bicherakhov and the occupation of the mountainous part of Dagestan by the German-Turkish interventionists, A. worked underground and organized detachments of red partisans. October 1918 was arrested and, on the orders of the Turkish Bey - the head of the Kyurinsky district, was shot. memory of A. Adjikabul district of Azerbaijan. 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. - pp. 137-138. - ISBN 978-5-8243-1435-9.
90. Institute of History, Language and Literature named after. G. Tsadasy. History of Dagestan. - Science, 1968. - T. 3. - P. 75. Original text (Russian)

    The executioner Takayutdin Bey, who became the 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 killed.

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

    The list of atrocities committed by the Bicherakhites could be continued. Activists of the revolutionary movement died. One of the leaders of Dagestan, K.-M. Agasiev, was handed over by the Bicherakhites to the mountain counter-revolutionaries and shot three kilometers from the village of Kasumkent by agents of the local Ittihadist organization, 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. - T. 1. - P. 553. Original text (Russian)

    AIDINBEKOV, Mukhtadir (Little Mamed) (1878-1919) - one of the leading 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 Industry 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 and revolution, A. took an active part in the work of the Social-Democrats. the Gummet organization, which carried out Bolshevik propaganda work among the working masses of Azerbaijan. He was one of the Bolshevik leaders in the workers’ struggle to establish 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 cruel torture, was killed in a Cuban prison.

93. Fighters for Soviet power in Dagestan. - Dagestan book publishing house, 1987. - T. 1. - P. 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 // Leading force of our time. From the history of the Soviet working class of Dagestan and the North Caucasus.. - Dagestan book. publishing house, 1964. - P. 11. Original text (Russian)

    “Faruk” included representatives of almost all nationalities of Dagestan. The leaders of the group were Lezgins Kazi-Magomed Agasiev and Ali Mirza Osmanov, Tabasaran Tarikuli Yuzbekov 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 19th-20th centuries. // Caucasian ethnographic collection. - M.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1969. - T. 4. - P. 16.
100. Temeev M.S. M. Forced grain procurements and anti-collective farm protests of peasants in Dagestan (1929 – 1930).. rusnauka.com. Archived from the original on August 19, 2012.
101. Aliev 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. Ikhilov, 1967, p. 245.
105. "Communist" (newspaper of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic). TSB. Archived from the original on August 19, 2012.
106. Great Soviet Encyclopedia. - 1950. - T. 10. - P. 257. Original text (Russian)

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

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

     ASKAR-SARYJA, Khas-Bulat (born 1900) - founder of the sculptural art of Dagestan, Honored Artist of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. By nationality - Lezgin.

108. The Communist Party of Azerbaijan is a fighting detachment of the CPSU. figures, diagrams and charts.. - Baku: Azerneshr, 1979. - P. 61.
109. V. A. Tishkov. NATIONALITY - COMMUNIST? (Ethnopolitical analysis of the CPSU). Archived from the original on August 19, 2012.
110. All-Union population census of 1989. 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 19th-20th centuries. - Kazan State University. - Kaz.: New knowledge, 1999. - P. 4. - 53 p.
113. Aliaga Mammadli. Modern ethnocultural processes in Azerbaijan: main trends and prospects. - B.: Khazar, 2008. - P. 180. - 245 p.
114. V. A. Nikonov, G. G. Stratanovich. Ethnography of names. - M.: Nauka, 1971. - P. 15.
115. V. V. Bartold. Works on historical geography / O. G. Bolshakov, A. M. Belenitsky. Eastern literature RAS. M., 2002. P. 410. - 711 p. All these nationalities are now united under the name Lezgins...
116. Ikhilov, 1967, p. 36.
117. 1 2 S. S. Agashirinova. Material culture of Lezgins XIX-early XX centuries. - Science, 1978. - P. 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. 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.
121. The Lezgin song and dance ensemble “Suvar” was awarded the title “Folk Collective of Azerbaijan”. International Information Agency TREND (July 7, 2011). Archived from the original on September 7, 2012.
122. Mikhail Alekseev, K. I. Kazenin, Mamed Suleymanov. Dagestan peoples of Azerbaijan: politics, history, cultures. - M.: Europe, 2006. - P. 20-21. - ISBN 5-9739-0070-3.
123. International monthly newsletter. Center for Law and Media (April 1996).
124. Rasim Musabekov. The formation of an independent Azerbaijani state and ethnic minorities. sakharov-center.ru. Archived from the original on February 3, 2012.
125. Konstantin Kazenin, Mamed Suleymanov, Mikhail Alekseev. Dagestan peoples of Azerbaijan. Politics, history, culture. - M.: Europe. - P. 58. - 113 p.

     Since the 1998/1999 academic year, training of specialists in Avar and Lezgin languages ​​and literature began. ...In 2003, by order of the Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan, curricula for grades 1-4 of secondary schools were approved in the Talysh, Tat, Kurdish, Lezgin, Tsakhur, Avar, Khinalug and Udi languages. ...Only in the Kusar region the Lezgin language is studied as a subject in all 11 grades.

126. Samizdat materials. - Ohio State University, Center for Slavic and East European Studies, 2010.
127. HAJI-ALI AN EYEWITNESS'S TALE ABOUT SHAMIL
128. Lists of populated areas of the Russian Empire. In the Caucasus region. Baku province. - Tiflis, 1870. - T. LXV. - P. 91.
129. Yu. Yu. Karpov. A look at the mountaineers. View from the mountains
130. I. Sikorsky, V. Moshkov, A. Bogdanov, S. Eshevsky, E. Mechnikoff. Russian racial theory before 1917: a collection of original works by Russian classics. - FERI-V, 2002. - 679 p.
131. Essay on the state of military affairs in the Caucasus from the beginning of 1838 to the end of 1842
132. Bronevsky S. M. The latest geographical and historical news about the Caucasus Pp. 450- 451
133. M. D. Adukhov. From civilization to civilization. - Dagestan state Pedagogical University, 2004. - P. 17. - 165 p.

Literature

• M. M. Ikhilov. The peoples of the Lezgin group: an ethnographic study of the past and present of Lezgins, Tabasarans, Rutuls, Tsakhurs, Aguls. - Makhachkala: Dagestan branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1967. - 369 p.
• Kh. Kh. 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 Dagestan ethnonyms Lezg and Lak // Ethnography of names. - Science, 1971. - pp. 13-26.
• Gadzhiev, V. G. The essay by I. Gerber “Description of the countries and peoples located between Astrakhan and the Kura River” as a historical source on the history of the peoples of the Caucasus. - Science, 1979.
• G. D. Daniyalov. Construction of socialism in Dagestan, 1918-1937. - Science, 1988.
• Gadzhiev G. A., Rizakhanova M. Sh. Lezgins // Peoples of Dagestan / Rep. ed. S. A. Arutyunov, A. I. Osmanov, G. A. Sergeeva. - M.: “Science”, 2002. - ISBN 5-02-008808-0.
• Northern Caucasus as part of the Russian Empire / resp. 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 creating written languages ​​of the peoples of the USSR). - M.: Nauka, 1979.

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History of Lezgins Information About

LEZGINS (self-name - Lezgiar), people in Dagestan (204 thousand people) and Azerbaijan. There are 257 thousand people in the Russian Federation. The Lezgin language of the Lezgin group of the Dagestan branch of the Iberian-Caucasian languages. Believers are Sunni Muslims and some are Shiites.

Etymology of the name

The question of the origin of the ethnonym “Lezgins” still requires a deeper and more comprehensive analysis. However, most researchers derive the ethnonym “Lezgin” from the ancient “legi” and the early medieval “lakzi”, from which, as some researchers suggest, the modern ethnonym was subsequently derived "lezgi". Endless wars with the Romans, Byzantines, Persians, Khazars and other conquerors determined the fame of the Lezgin-speaking tribes inhabiting Caucasian Albania. Until now, Georgians and Armenians call Dagestanis, and especially Lezgins, “leks,” while Persians and Arabs call them “leks.” In addition, the dance "Lezginka"

Georgians call it "Lekuri", and the Lezghin country “Leketia”.

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 people; it was “completely alien to the Dagestan highlanders.”

In Tsarist Russia and among the Turks, the name “Lezgins” was used as a term to designate numerous mountain tribes that inhabited the Dagestan region and partly the southern slope of the Main Caucasus Range. Uruss this name was used in relation to the southern Dagestanis, while the northern ones were called Tavlinians (mainly Avars). After 1920, the ethnonym “Lezgins” turned into the name of one of the mountain peoples of Dagestan, known as the Kyurintsy.

Analyzing the historical connections of peoples and linguistic correspondences, the researcher of antiquity A. N. Pogrebnoy-Alexandrov puts forward a theory of the connection of the term “Lezgin” with Russian-Slavic dialects and its close relationship and possible origin from the word “Lezga” ( braggart, bully, brawler; swearing, shouting, quarreling, etc.) and/or from its stem in the word “clang” (talking about the sound of an animal’s teeth clanking ( for example a dog or a wolf), or - about a kind of “ringing” or clanging from the contact of edged weapons made of metal during a fight). Representatives of the Caucasian peoples were often Cossacks - as mercenary soldiers of the tsarist army, who were famous for ( and are still famous today) with his aggressiveness and temperament. The meaning of the name “Lezgiar”, consisting of two Slavic-Russian words - ardent or hot-tempered Lezga.

The Arabic name for Lezgins - “lekzam”, can also be compared with the meaning in words of “ancient origin”, where “el ek” - long ago, and “zam” - times. And... here the theory about the Russian-Slavic meaning in the name “lezga” is again confirmed - baltun or braggart, since, at the time of stories and/or other conversations with Russian-Slavic colleagues, while still in the Cossacks, they were not really believed, and no written sources of this ancient people have survived. “Elek zaman”, in the Turkic dialect, means “a long time ago, in the thrice-ninth kingdom, the thirtieth state.”

Lezgin language

Lezgins speak the Lezgin language, which is one of the Caucasian languages. Together with the closely related Agul, Rutul, Tsakhur, Budukh, Kryz, Archin and Udi languages, it forms the Lezgin group of Nakh-Dagestan languages. Distributed in the south of the Republic of Dagestan and in the northern regions of Azerbaijan.

Story

The origin of the Lezgins goes back centuries and is associated with the ancient inhabitants of the Caucasus, the creators of the developed Kura-Araks culture (late 4th millennium BC).

The immediate ancestors of the Lezgins and Lezgin-speaking peoples are the Albanian tribes, which created Caucasian Albania, a state on the territory of the Eastern Caucasus, several centuries BC.

The oldest Stone Age monuments discovered on the territory of Dagestan date back to the Acheulean era (ancient tribes of Legs, Gels, Udis, etc.). At the end of the 1st millennium BC. e. the territory of Dagestan was part of Caucasian Albania, then the Sassanid state. Since the 5th century, a number of state formations have been formed on the territory of Dagestan: Derbent, Lakz, Tabasaran, Serir, Zirikhgeran (Kubachi), Kaytag, Gumik, etc.; in the 6th century - the state of the Huns.

Farm

The formation of an agricultural and pastoral production economy among the Lezgins, as throughout Dagestan, occurred in the Neolithic (late 7th-6th centuries BC). The Bronze Age saw a sharp rise in agricultural and livestock farming, the growth of terrace farming, the introduction of basic cereals, horticulture, viticulture, and the completion of animal domestication.

The cessation of nomadic pressure contributed to the establishment in the 16th-19th centuries. natural economic specialization in natural-geographical zones, with the superimposition of natural-economic zones and the main economic-cultural areas on them: 1) the plain-low-foothill area of ​​settled arable farmers and stationary cattle breeders; 2) mid-mountain area of ​​settled arable (terrace fields) farmers and transhumant herders (in the form of transhumance); 3) high-mountain habitat of sedentary mobile pastoralists and arable (slope fields) farmers.

All three areas form a single whole with the general Dagestan areas, which form a single set of economic and cultural areas of the Dagestan historical and cultural region.

Traditional occupations are arable farming (cereals, legumes, vegetable gardens, melons), viticulture, horticulture, and also cattle breeding; on the plains, mainly pasture-stall farming; in the mountains, transhumance and livestock farming (mainly sheep). Traditional trades and crafts - production of carpets, jurabs, cloth, felt, wood processing, metal processing (weapons and jewelry), leather, pottery. Before the October Revolution, many Lezgins went to work seasonally with farmers and in the oil fields of Azerbaijan.

The gender division of labor also determined the age division. Realization largely depended on economic activities. In agriculture, male labor predominated, in cattle breeding, female labor. Men's work: plowing, sowing, watering, harvesting trees and caring for them, working with livestock and harness, with transport, grazing livestock, making tools, weapons and wooden utensils, going abroad to earn money, for purchases, trade and etc. Women's: weeding, caring for livestock and poultry, picking fruits, storing food for future use, spinning, knitting, making clothes, providing the family with water, cooking, cleaning, harvesting, washing, etc. General: harvesting bread , hay, hay delivery, threshing, firewood procurement, etc.

Currently, fundamental changes have occurred in the economy and culture. Mechanized agriculture was created, new industrial crops (tobacco) spread, large-scale irrigation works were carried out, horticulture, viticulture, sericulture (especially among the Azerbaijani Lezgins), livestock farming, poultry farming and beekeeping were further developed. Many Lezgins work in industry, and a national intelligentsia has grown.

Marriage and family

Marriage is conducted primarily according to Sharia law. Stages of marriage - matchmaking, conspiracy, betrothal, stay in “another house”. Localization is patrilocal. The sequence of introducing the newlywed to the new family and household: entering the family (common) room, first going to the spring to get water, returning home, removing avoidance prohibitions.

In raising children, the greatest attention was paid to training them for future occupations: warrior and housewife-mother.

In the traditional material culture of Lezgins there is a lot of common Dagestan.

Settlements

Settlements are represented by three main types: 1) village - “khur”, large territorially related settlements (one quarter - one tukhum); 2) farmstead - “kazmalyary”, economic bases - single-yard buildings with residential functions; 3) settlement - overgrown farmsteads with clear settlement functions (small households). Settlements in the mountains are maximally adapted to the terrain, very economical in terms of space, inaccessible, oriented to the sun (south-west), have a territorial layout, cumulus, often terrace-like, compact-street, crowded type of settlement.

In the flat part, the villages are scattered or have wide streets with large courtyards surrounded by hedges. Street-planned settlements predominate.

Housing

The traditional dwelling is made of stone (also adobe on the plain), above ground, rectangular in plan, with a flat earthen roof and a courtyard; in the mountains it is two- and multi-story; on the plain it is one- or two-story. The interior decoration is characterized by niches in the walls, replacing cabinets and carpets. In modern times, well-maintained planned communities with modern houses have sprung up. Many old villages are acquiring a modern look, their structure and layout are changing, and the proportion of new buildings, including public ones, is increasing. The importance of balconies and galleries in houses has increased (for example, balconies with brackets, especially in the Qusar region of the Azerbaijan Republic). The earthen and stone floors were replaced by wood, the flat roof was replaced by a rafter roof, multifunctionality was developing in the layout of the home (kunatsky, dining room, bedroom, children's room, office, kitchen, etc.). In decoration, the importance of modern furniture, household items and household items is increasing.

Cloth

The folk costume is similar to the clothing of other peoples of Dagestan: for men - a shirt, trousers, beshmet, Circassian coat, hat, in cold weather - a bashlyk and a sheepskin coat; for women - a shirt-dress, colored trousers, beshmet, chukhta, headscarves. Jewelry included men's and women's silver belts, head and chest decorations, bracelets, rings, etc. On their feet, men and women wore shoes - rawhide piston-type shoes and woolen socks with colored patterns. The traditional costume is now out of use. In the mountainous part, some elements of the national costume have been preserved: a hat, a sheepskin coat, a burka, rawhide shoes, scarves (woolen, silk, especially Kirovobad), woolen patterned socks. Complexes of ritual clothing (funerals, weddings) have been preserved to a greater extent. Traditional decorations are rare.

The Lezgins are one of the oldest autochthonous peoples of the Eastern Caucasus, who played a large role in the political structure of this region, in its economic, spiritual and cultural development. The ancestors of modern Lezgins were peoples who lived in the east of the Caucasus, in the state of Caucasian Albania, close to each other, both in language and culture. During its history, the Albanian state was repeatedly subjected to various aggressive invasions of the Romans, Scythians, Parthians, Persians, Khazars, etc. Until the 7th century. AD Caucasian Albania managed to maintain its integrity, despite all the attempts of the invaders. By the 7th century. refers to the conquest of Caucasian Albania by the Arabs and the spread of Islam among its peoples.

After the Arab conquest, Albania was divided into several administrative units, including the kingdom of Lakz, whose population consisted of Lezgins and related peoples displaced from the lowland regions. XIII-XIV centuries are marked by campaigns of the Kipchaks, Seljuks, troops of Timur (Tamerlane), and the Mongols in the Eastern Caucasus. After the Tatar-Mongol invasion in the period XIV-XVIII centuries. The Caucasus became an arena of struggle, first between the Hulaguid power and the Golden Horde (fragments of the Mongol empire), then between the Ottoman Empire and Iran, and later on Russia.

As a result of the rise of the national liberation struggle of the Lezgin-speaking peoples, led by the great commander Haji-Davud of Mushkyur, Iranian expansion was stopped and the Safavid invaders were defeated, and a virtually independent state was recreated. In the middle of the 18th century. In the territory of settlement of Lezgin-speaking peoples, independent khanates and free societies began to form. By the end of the 18th century. Almost all feudal rulers realized the need for rapprochement with Russia and tried to strengthen relations with it. At the beginning of the 19th century, many khanates and other feudal possessions of the Caucasus, including the Lezgins, accepted Russian citizenship.

In the 60s of the XIX century. There have been some administrative changes. The Samur district and the Kyura Khanate became part of the Dagestan region, and the Kuba province became part of the Baku province. The khanates were liquidated, the Lezgins, by the will of the tsarist officials, were divided between two provinces, and then states. This division continues to this day.

Two tragic moments for Russian statehood (1917 and 1991) had a terrible impact on the fate of the Lezgin people.

In the era of socialism, with the birth of new states, the Lezgins were first divided by administrative boundaries within the single political space of the USSR. With the collapse of the USSR, the Lezgins, not of their own free will, found themselves part of different states. A rigid state border was established between the southern and northern Lezgins. After the collapse of the USSR, the Lezgin people came under strong pressure on the one hand from the newly emerged sovereign states, and on the other hand from influential clans within Dagestan. Unfortunately, the Lezgin people were not ready for the changed political system and were unable to unite as a single ethnic group.

The leadership of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Dagestan and the Azerbaijan Republic should not be indifferent to the fate of the Lezgins, because the relationship between our republics and peoples as a whole largely depends on their well-being. The leadership of the Republic of Dagestan and the Russian Federation needs to be more consistent and principled in implementing their decisions and decisions on the problems of the divided Lezgin people and the entire Southern Dagestan.

Lezgins were and remain one of the largest ethnic groups in the Caucasus. The number of Lezgins, according to incomplete data, is more than one million people. According to the 2010 census, the number of Lezgins in Russia is 476,228Human. The total number of Lezgin-speaking peoples in Russia is more than 700 thousand people. In Azerbaijan, Lezgins are the second largest people; according to the 1999 census, 178 thousand were recorded. According to experts, from 500 to 800 thousand Lezgins live in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Lezgins also live in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and other former republics of the USSR.

Currently, the Lezgins, together with related peoples, are united into the Lezgin (linguistic) group. In addition to the Lezgins, it also includes Tabasarans, Rutuls, Aguls, Tsakhurs, Udins, Kryzys, Budukhtsy, Archins, and Khinalugs.

Lezgins and related peoples live compactly in ten administrative regions of Dagestan: Agulsky, Akhtynsky, Derbentsky, Dokuzparinsky, Kurakhsky, Magaramkentsky, Rutulsky, Suleiman-Stalsky, Tabasaransky, Khivsky, as well as the cities of Makhachkala, Kaspiysk, Derbent and Dagestan Lights.

The total area of ​​settlement of Lezgin-speaking peoples is 34% of the entire territory of Dagestan.

In the Republic of Azerbaijan, Lezgins live mainly in Kusar, Kuba, Khachmas, Shemakha, Ismaili, Kabala, Vartashen, Kakh, Zagatala and Belokan regions, the cities of Baku and Sumgait.

Lezgins (Lezgiar) belong to the indigenous peoples of the Caucasus. The people belong to the Caucasian race and are the second largest people in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Lezgins have a colorful history and traditions. For many centuries they were called “leki” or “legs”. Often the people suffered from attacks by the conquerors of Rome and Persia.

Where live

The people live in the Russian Federation in the south of Dagestan and in the north of Azerbaijan. In Dagestan, Lezgins inhabit the Derbent, Akhtyn, Kurakh, Dokuzparinsky, Suleiman-Stalsky, Magaramkent and Khiva regions.

In Azerbaijan, these people live in Kursar, Khachmas, Kuba, Gabala, Oguz, Ismayilli, Sheki, Kakh regions and all major cities, especially in Baku. Experts from the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences believe that there are more Lezgins on the territory of Azerbaijan, but some of them are recorded as Azerbaijanis.

Number

There are between 680,000 and 850,000 Lezgins in the world. Of these, 476,228 people live in Russia, according to the 2010 census, and 387,746 people live in Dagestan. According to the results of the 2009 population census in Azerbaijan, 180,300 Lezgins live here. Other estimates put it at 350,000.

Name

The origin of the ethnonym “Lezgins” has not yet been fully studied and requires additional research. Authors of ancient times called Lezgins “leki”, Arab authors called them “lakz”, Georgian authors called them “lekebi”.

In written sources, the term “Lezgi” has been known since the 12th century. But this word was not used to call a separate Dagestan people. This term was unfamiliar to the Dagestan highlanders. The Turks and residents of Tsarist Russia called Lezgins the numerous mountain tribes that inhabited the Dagestan region and part of the southern slope of the Main Caucasus Range. The Russians called the southern Dagestanis that way, and the northern ones, mostly Avars, were called Tavlinians. The term began to be used for Lezgins in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The ethnonym “Lezgins” became the name of one of the mountain peoples of Dagestan after 1920.

Language

The Lezgin language is part of the Nakh-Dagestan group of the North Caucasian language family and belongs to the Lezgin subgroup. Russian and Azerbaijani are common among Lezgins. Lezgins living in Azerbaijan use the Azerbaijani script.

The Lezgin language is divided into adverbs:

1. Samur, includes the Akhtyn dialect and the Dokuzparin transitional dialect;
2. Kyurinsky, includes Yarkinsky, Güney, Kurakh dialects;
3. Cuban.

There are also independent dialects in the Lezgin language:

• Giliyarskiy
• Kurush
• Gelkhensky
• Fian

The tsarist government in 1905 decided to facilitate the Russification of the people and tried to create Lezgin writing on the basis developed by Baron P. Uslar. But this attempt was unsuccessful. In 1928, the Latin alphabet was developed for the Lezgin language, and in 1938 a new alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet was created.

Religion

Lezgins mainly profess Sunni Islam of the Shafi'i madhhab. The exception is the residents of the village of Miskindzha in the Dokuzparinsky district of Dagestan. They are Shiites and profess the Jafarite madhhab.

Life

The Lezgin family is large; it consists not only of husband, wife and children. It includes parents, minor sisters and brothers of both spouses, and widowed daughters-in-law. Some families consist of 17 people, but this is rare today.

Since ancient times, the main occupation of the people has been arable farming. Corn, wheat, millet, barley, legumes and rice were grown. The Lezgins, living on the plains, were mainly engaged in pasture-stall cattle breeding. In the mountains, cattle breeding was transhumance. They mainly raised sheep, goats, and cattle. Most of the winter pastures were located on the territory of Northern Azerbaijan. Traditional trades include spinning, production of cloth, felt, carpets, weaving, blacksmithing, leatherworking, jewelry and weapons.

Housing

The main type of settlement among Lezgins is called “khur”. Villages founded in the mountains are located mainly on slopes, close to sources of drinking water. The houses are closely located to each other. The village is divided into quarters, which one by one can sometimes form large territorially related settlements “tukhum”. Each village has a mosque and a village square "kim". On it, local residents, namely men, gather at a village gathering to discuss and resolve the most important issues of rural public life.

The oldest quarter is located in the upper part of the village and consists of old stone houses. These are real fortresses with a closed courtyard, loopholes and a small number of external fetters. There is usually no greenery here. The middle part of the mountain village is located on a less steep slope. The new neighborhoods are located on level ground and consist of larger courtyards, which are fenced off from the street by a clay or stone fence. Among the greenery in the courtyard there is a one-story house, which is built of stone or mud brick. The modern lower quarters contain schools, clubs and hospitals. In the mountain village of Akhty, residents have houses in the upper and lower quarters, with a garden. They live upstairs in the winter and move downstairs in the summer.

Lezgin houses are U- and L-shaped, or built in the shape of a closed square. To get into the two-story building from the street, you need to go into a small courtyard through an arched gate. In one of the corners of the courtyard there is an oven in which chureki flatbreads are baked. A staircase made of stone or wood from the courtyard leads to a gallery onto which the doors of all rooms of the dwelling open.

The walls and floors of a Lezgin house are always covered with rugs and carpets. One of the rooms has a fireplace in which food is prepared. Instead of windows, until the mid-19th century, houses had holes in the flat roof. Today the roof is still flat, but the windows have already been broken into the walls. They were also made in old houses. Since the middle of the 19th century, balconies began to be made in homes that overlook the street. In some mountain villages, related families living opposite create closed passages connecting the second floors.

Appearance

Lezgin clothing is similar to the costumes of other peoples of Dagestan. The man's clothing consists of a waist-length shirt with a lining made of calico, trousers made of dark material, wool socks, a beshmet, a Circassian coat and a hat. The costume is completed with a silver belt, gazyrs and a dagger. In winter, men wore fur coats.

Today, many men wear urban clothing. Elements of the national costume often include hats, woolen socks and sheepskin coats with fictitious long sleeves.

Women wore a long shirt in the form of a tunic with a stand-up collar and long sleeves. Wide trousers that tapered downward were worn with the shirt. The lower part of the trouser legs was visible from under the shirt; women decorated them with embroidered patterns and bright colored stripes of fabric. At the end of the 19th century, the bun dress appeared in the wardrobe of Lezgin women. Elderly women wore such dresses, sewn from dark-colored fabrics, while young women wore buns made from bright fabrics of green, red and yellow. The dresses were loose cut, each woman sewed them with her own hands. Women still wear national clothes today, especially in rural areas. Although many are gradually acquiring urban clothing and shoes, the custom is still strictly observed, prohibiting showing oneself in public with one's head uncovered.

Women's headdress - chutkha, is a cap that fits the head with a hair bag sewn to it. They wore Lezginkas and various scarves made of brocade, silk and wool. Elderly and married people wore scarves to cover part of their face and mouth. This was a mandatory rule.

Women wore a lot of jewelry, rings, earrings, bracelets. The outfits were decorated with silver coins. It was believed that the ringing of these coins repels bad things and attracts good things. The Lezgins considered silver a special metal that collects bad energy and self-cleanses itself from it.

The beauty of a woman of this people was determined by her slender figure, black eyebrows and eyes, and hair. Long thick hair braided in two braids was considered ideal. It was not customary to braid just one braid; it was believed that if a girl wore such a hairstyle, she would be alone forever. This hairstyle was especially prohibited for women who had brothers and fathers. Often, when Lezgin women quarreled with each other, they uttered the phrase: “So that you are left with one braid.”

Children under 3 years old were wearing amulets, amulets, coins and beads. Lezgins believed that they had magical powers and protected against the evil eye and disease. A hirigan bib was worn on children's jackets. On the back of jackets and sleeveless vests, the murtsan tsuk flower was sometimes embroidered, which consisted of 12 petals of different colors according to the number of months in the year. It was believed that the flower protected the child from misfortunes throughout the year.

Food

The main traditional food of Lezgins consists of legumes, grains, dairy and meat products. Bread is baked from sour or unleavened dough in the form of flat cakes. A special oven is used for baking. In Dagestan, Lezgin thin bread is very popular. The “afarar” pies of this people, filled with cottage cheese, herbs and meat, are also very popular. Lezgins prepare soups with meat and potatoes “bozbash”, khinkal, shish kebab and cabbage rolls. The meat is used fresh and dried, popular meat dishes: fried meat “kabab”, gatay kabab, cutlets. Various dishes of Azerbaijani cuisine are also included in the people's diet. The drinks are made into tach, a drink similar to jelly made from sprouted wheat grains. The ritual food of Lezgins is a dish of dried lamb legs with corn and wheat grains, flour porridge “Khashil” and halva made from wheat flour “Isida”. They drink fresh and sour milk, make cheese and butter, and cook porridge.

Traditions

In every Lezgin family there is unquestioning obedience to elders. Old people are shown great respect. They are not allowed to do difficult work. Women's inequality used to exist. But modern women are already economically independent, since they work and have access to education and social activities. There are ancient traditions that do not allow a modern Lezgin woman to achieve equality with a man. In many families, women are still not allowed to eat with men in front of strangers, and men are ashamed to openly help a woman with work. But raising a hand against a woman or somehow insulting her dignity is considered a great disgrace not only for the man who did it, but also for his entire family.

The tradition of blood revenge among the Lezgins disappeared after the October Revolution, and villagers are increasingly helping not only their relatives, but also their neighbors.

Previously, women gave birth only at home and used magical remedies to facilitate childbirth. The man was not supposed to be in the house at these moments, and the one who informed him about the birth of a child first received a gift. If a girl was born, it was a less joyful event than the birth of a boy. On the first night after giving birth, the woman in labor was not supposed to sleep, but was obliged to protect the child from demons. In the courtyard, spirits were driven away by horses and gun shots.

The name of the newborn was given by one of the older relatives. On this day there was a holiday in the family, treats were prepared. To this day, the child is named after a deceased relative who lived a decent life. But if a child was capricious and sick for a long time, his name was sometimes changed. If a woman could not have children, she was sent to visit the sacred places of the Caucasus. Lezgins believe very strongly in the healing power of such places and take visiting them seriously.

The hair that was cut for the first time by a child was not thrown away and was protected. The first haircut was carried out by the man who was the eldest in the family. The hair was placed under the child's pillow so that he would have a healthy and sound sleep. To prevent the child from being a thief, his nails were not cut for a long time, and when this procedure was first carried out, the cut nails were burned.

It was considered a bad omen if the child's first tooth was discovered by the mother. If this happened, she tore the collar on her underwear so that the child’s teeth would grow well. The baby's shirt collar was also slightly torn. The first person who noticed the baby's tooth was given a needle - a symbol of sharpness.

Previously, Lezgins married distant relatives. Today this custom is gradually disappearing. In ancient times, the parents of the bride and groom agreed on the marriage of their children when they were still small. Sometimes the bride was stolen if she did not want to get married or the chosen one’s parents were against it. Before the wedding, matchmaking took place. A close relative of the groom came to the bride's house and proposed. If he gave his consent, the groom's relative sent the bride a ring, a scarf and a dish of pilaf. A few days later, the groom’s father and several men came to the bride’s house and brought a scarf and money, the parents agreed on the size of the bride price. From now on, the bride and groom were not supposed to meet.

The wedding began simultaneously in the houses of the bride and groom. When entering the groom's house, the bride must crush the spoon of butter that was placed on the threshold with her foot. Afterwards, the bride was led into a room and placed on a dowry chest. During the celebration, the bride sat silently. At midnight the groom came to her, and the women who surrounded the bride left. In the morning, the groom must go for a swim in the river and spend the whole day at a friend or relative’s house. If the bride was not innocent, the groom could throw her out of the house and immediately divorce her. Often, after this, girls committed suicide. In the Samur district, during a divorce, the man's family had to pay the woman's family an amount of money for the maintenance of his ex-wife.

Today the Lezgin wedding is different. There is no more bride price and the mule no longer takes part, brides are not kidnapped, and parents do not agree on the future wedding of their still young children. The wedding ceremony has remained virtually unchanged, only in many villages the bride is carried not on a horse, but by car, and the dowry is transported in a truck.

Raising children occupies an important place in the life of the people. They began to be trained and raised in the womb. Lezgins are hospitable and give their guests the best. The owners will give up the most comfortable and largest bed in the house to the guest, and they themselves will go to sleep on the floor.

At the end of March, the Lezgins celebrate a holiday - the vernal equinox, which marks the beginning of a new agricultural year. In the evening, on the eve of the holiday, bonfires are lit at each house. Everyone tries to make their fire brighter than others. Then people jump over the fire. It is believed that this is how people get rid of sins and improve their health. On this day, Lezgins put on new outfits and prepare a festive table.

Another significant holiday of this people is the Cherry Festival. In villages where there was a rich harvest of these berries, Lezgin families walked for several days in the cherry orchards, and organized dances and songs there.

During the Flower Festival, girls and boys went to the mountains to buy flowers. The celebration was led by the “Shah” - a young man. In advance, young people prepared for the holiday, sewed outfits and stocked up on food for the journey. On the appointed day, accompanied by a drummer, the girls and boys walked back to the village, danced and held competitions in strength exercises. The girls gave prizes to the winners - socks and tobacco pouches. This celebration continued for up to 3 days.

When there was no rain for a long time, the legzins performed a special ceremony. They chose a person from among the poor and dressed him in a suit made from large green leaves. An iron basin was placed on a person's head. Such a disguised man walked around the courtyards in the company of friends, the housewives doused him with water, gave him money, eggs, bread, honey and cheese. When a person went around all the houses, the group went to a “sacred feast” and after it, in chorus, they uttered words that caused rain. The treats were divided among those present, most of them were given to the mummer.

Culture

Azerbaijan had a great influence on Lezgin culture. Lezgins have more than 500 melodies and songs, heroic songs and fairy tales. The heroic epic “Sharvili” is an epic monument of Lezgin folklore. It is preserved in poetic and prose fragments.

The main place in folklore is occupied by dance lyrical songs. The instrumental music of Lezgins is full of melismatics. Folk art also includes dances, the most famous of which is the Lezginka. This pair or solo male dance is common in the Caucasus. The Zarb Makyam dance is also performed by men. The folk smooth and slow dances Useinel, Perizant Khanum, Bakhtavar and Akhty-Chay are known in dance folklore.

Musical instruments of the Lezgin people:

• kemancha
• balaban
• Chonguri
• Daldam
• tutek
• zurna
• lahut

In 1906, the first Lezgin theater was founded in the village of Akhty; in 1935, the State Lezgin Music and Drama Theater named after S. Stalsky was created. In 1998, the Lezgin State Theater opened in Azerbaijan.

Lezgins are an indigenous people of the Caucasus, living in the territory of Dagestan and Northern Azerbaijan. They proclaim themselves Lezgiars. The quantitative composition of the nationality is approximate - from 600 to 800 thousand people. They speak their native Lezgin language.

Lezgin people

Number

The bulk of the population lives in the Russian Federation (476 thousand):

• Dagestan (388 thousand);
• Tyumen (16 thousand);
• Moscow (9.5 thousand);
• Stavropol (8 thousand);
• Saratov (5.2 thousand);
• Astrakhan (4.2 thousand);
• Krasnodar (4.1 thousand);
• Rostov-on-Don (4 thousand);
• St. Petersburg and Krasnoyarsk (2.8 thousand each);
• Volgograd (2.1 thousand);
• Komi Republic (1.4 thousand);
• Sverdlovsk, Chechnya and Samara (1.2 thousand each);
• Tver (1 thousand).

And also in Azerbaijan - from 180 thousand to 350 thousand people. The largest number is in the Kusar district, about 80 thousand people. In other countries, Lezgins are found:

• Turkmenistan (18 thousand);
• Kazakhstan (5.4 thousand);
• Ukraine (4 thousand);
• Uzbekistan (3.8 thousand);
• Türkiye (3.2 thousand);
• Kyrgyzstan (2.6 thousand);
• Georgia (2.5 thousand);
• Belarus (400 people);
• Latvia (195 people);
• Estonia (100 people).

Language group

Lezgins speak the Lezgin language, which is part of the Nakh-Dagestan group, the Lezgin subgroup and the North Caucasian language family. Some Lezgins speak Azerbaijani or Russian. There are 2 types of adverbs with their own dialects and dialects:

• Kyurinsky (Yarkinsky, Guneysky, Kurakhsky);
• Samur (Akhtynsky, Dokuzparinsky).

There are also independent dialects:

• Giliyarskiy;
• Kurush;
• Gelkhensky;
• Fian.

The first attempts to create their own writing were unsuccessful. Therefore, they began to use the Latin alphabet, and then the Cyrillic alphabet. Literary speech based on the Güney dialect of the Kyurin dialect.

Origin

In ancient times the tribe was called legi and they entered into a large Albanian family. But in reality, the Lezgins have a very rich history and many different versions of their origin. Many researchers of ancient times called the Lezgins completely different nationalities. But anthropologists admit that the Lezgins were formed as a result of the merger of the Caucasian type of the local population with the Caspian type of the southern peoples. Therefore, Lezgins come directly from Caucasian Albanians. They also have similarities with the following communities:

• Archinians;
• crises
• budukhi;
• Aguls;
• tabasarans;
• Tsakhur;
• Rutulians;
• Khinagul people;
• Udin.

Description of the people

Lezgins belong to the Caucasian race. They can be either white or dark. Lezgi always keep their word and are also very cheerful. There is also pride.

Religion

The nation is characterized by Sunni Islam. Most of the entire population supports the Shafi'i madhhab, the rest - the Hanafia. The Jafarite madhhab is adopted in Dagestan (Miskindzha settlement).

Kitchen

Lezgins eat quite a variety of food, both their own traditional dishes and those from the general Caucasian cuisine. National dishes include:

• tach (cereal jelly);
• isita (grain halva);
• Birgand (lamb meat on the fire);
• tsken (meat pie with potatoes);
• dushpare (dumplings);
• ash (pilaf);
• rasuka (lamb stomach with meat);
• kambar (cocktail made from sour milk and herbs);
• afarar (something like flatbread and pita bread with herbs).

Housing

They mainly built stone houses with terraces with several floors. The first floor is obligatory for livestock, that is, a barn. The remaining floors are residential. The house is always spacious, with a landing. Carpets are a must-have decor for a living space. Housing was built both in the mountains and on the plains. Settlements have always been divided into quarters.

Cloth

Men traditionally wear trousers and a shirt, a Circassian coat and a hat, as well as a beshmet. With the arrival of cold weather, they put on a hood and a fur coat. Women wear dresses, a silver belt, jewelry and a headscarf. They can also wear beshmet, shirts, trousers and chukhta. Special socks with ornaments were sewn on the feet. Unfortunately, these traditions have not survived to this day.

Life, culture and traditions

The Lezgins were hardworking, so they mastered various crafts: they knew how to weave carpets, sew clothes, make jewelry, made weapons, etc. During the season, men could go to work part-time in Azerbaijan for oil production.

They love to have fun, so they pay a lot of attention to songs and dances. A fairly well-known dance is Lezginka.

The Lezgins have sacrifices, but they never sacrifice goats.

If someone is sick, people sprinkle salt on the sick person’s head. A special prayer is read. This ritual helps to get rid of damage or the evil eye.

Women friends who did not give birth to children could agree among themselves that if the children were of different sexes, they would get married in the future and become related.

Bride kidnapping is still common today.

When a young wife enters the kitchen for the first time, a handful of flour is poured onto her, it’s like initiation into a new housewife.

A woman always takes care of children and housework. And if anyone laughs at a woman or offends her, he will disgrace the entire community.