Kumyks are the origin of the people. Kumyk from the Polovtsian clan, or the discovery of oneself. Eastern Caucasus. Kumyks

The Kumyks are one of the oldest and third largest people of Dagestan. Unlike other Caucasian peoples, the Kumyks belong to the Turks, occupy the position of the largest Turkic ethnic group in the North Caucasus. The dominant cultural influence of the Kumyks in the region was reflected in the customs of neighboring peoples, many of whom subsequently adopted the Kumyk language.

Where do they live, number

Historically, the Kumyks occupied the vast territory of the Kumyk plane. The region was distinguished by fertile lands, excellent climate, and was located at the crossroads of trade routes, including the Silk Road. This gave the Kumyks excellent opportunities for development, but made them a target for the territorial encroachment of neighboring states.
According to the 2010 census, over 503,000 Kumyks live in Russia. The main part of the representatives of the nationality, about 431,000 people, occupies the historical territories of settlement in the north of Dagestan that have decreased in the process of oppression. The number of Kumyks in other regions of Russia:

• Tyumen region (including Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and YNAO) - 18,668 people
• North Ossetia - 16,092 people
• Chechnya - 12,221 people
• Stavropol Territory - 5,639 people
• Moscow and Moscow Region - 3,973 people

A significant part of the nationality migrated from the historical territory of residence to Turkey, Syria, Jordan. The reasons were the Caucasian War, the establishment of Soviet power, the officially unrecognized repressions of the forties of the last century.

Story

There are several versions of the emergence of the Kumyk people:

1. The Kumyks appeared in the region together with the Kypchaks in XII-XIII.
2. The people as part of the Khazars penetrated into the region, assimilating the local population.
3. Kumyks are mountaineers who historically lived in the region and underwent Turkization.
4. The Kumyks are the autochthonous population of Dagestan, since the ancient author Pliny mentioned the Kamak people in writings dated to the first century AD.

The interaction of the Turkic and Caucasoid tribes with the indigenous peoples of the North Caucasus by the 17th century led to the completion of the formation of the Kumyk ethnos. Until that time, the following states were formed and disintegrated on the territory of the settlement of the nationality: Dzhidan, the Tyumen Khanate, the Tarkov Shamkhalate, the Utamysh Sultanate and others.

In the XVI century, the struggle for the attractive territories of the Kumyk plane begins from Iran, Ottoman Empire and Russia. The Kumyks, united with the neighboring Nogais, tried to repulse the advancing armies, but the forces were unequal. In 1725, Shamkhalate was defeated and devastated: about 20 villages were burned, including the capital of Tarka.
The Caucasian war forced the local peoples to unite: the Kumyks showed themselves to be brave and courageous warriors, staged anti-Russian uprisings from 1818 to 1878. It is important to note that the ideological representative of the Caucasian peoples Shamil, who united disparate ethnic groups under the flag of Islam, was of Kumyk origin.

After the revolution, the Kumyk intelligentsia tried to create independent state Mountain Republic. The attempt was successful, a local government was formed, but the association did not last long: in 1921, the Kumyks became part of the formed Dagestan USSR. At the end of the Great Patriotic Wars The Kumyks, along with a number of other Caucasian peoples, were deported to Central Asia on suspicion of betrayal. Despite the oppression, the people did not abandon the idea of ​​gaining independence and national self-determination. In 1989, during the period of perestroika, a Kumyk people's movement was formed, advocating the creation of an autonomous Kumyk Republic within the RSFSR. However, radically changed political situation did not let the plans come true.

Appearance

The anthropological composition of the Kumyks is heterogeneous, characteristic external features differ. They are attributed to the Caucasoid race, tentatively of the Caspian and Caucasian subtypes. This is due to the historical settlement of the people on different sides of the Sulak River. According to one version, the ancestors of the Kumyks were the Polovtsy, which was reflected in the predominant Caucasoid features of the appearance of the northern Kumyks: tall, strong physique, bright eyes, hair and skin.

The southern Kumyks are dominated by Asian features of appearance: a narrow slit of the eyes, dark pigmentation of the eyes, skin, and hair. Researchers have not come to a consensus regarding the appearance of pronounced Turkic features in the appearance of the southern Kumyks. The following versions are being considered:

1. The Khazars, who appeared in the region after the collapse of the Khazar Khaganate, took part in shaping the appearance of the Kumyks.
2. The ancestors of the Kumyks were mixed Mongol-Turkic peoples who came from Western and Central Asia.

Cloth

The national men's Kumyk costume did not differ from the Circassian. Underpants and a shirt with a high collar were complemented by a cloak: dark in color for everyday wear, light shades for holidays. They put on a Circassian coat over it, more often black, a hat. In the cold season, they wore a short fur coat made of sheep's wool, a traditional cloak.
A women's casual dress with a straight or tunic cut, trousers were worn down. To go outside the house and when receiving guests, they wore a tight top dress of a hinged type. Women were supposed to walk with their heads covered. The traditional headdress is a chuthu cap, over which a scarf was worn. Kumyk craftswomen were famous in the region as skillful creators of scarves. Silk shawls, openwork crocheted shawls were popular.
The traditional version of the festive dress is kabalai. The dress was sewn from expensive materials: silk, wool, brocade. The cut was reminiscent of a casual swing dress, the top was cut more fitting. It was complemented by a breastplate, richly decorated with embroidery, silver or gilded jewelry. The original was the cut of the sleeves, consisting of two layers. The first fit snugly to the arm, imitating the presence of an underdress. The upper one was split, wide and long, often reaching to the floor.

social device

In the Kumyk society there was a clear hierarchical division. The princes were at the head of separate territorial associations. The next in importance were the bridles, who performed the duties of the prince's guards. These categories were forbidden to work, their tasks included managing the entrusted territory and people, solving social and public issues.
The lower classes are peasants and serfs. Theoretically, they were dependent on the princes, but they had the right to move from one owner to another, to engage in petty entrepreneurial activity. There was no fixed amount of tribute; taxes were regulated in each individual case. For example, once a year, one of the princes accepted tribute with a wagon of firewood and the allocation of one person from the family for sowing, plowing, and harvesting.
Formally, the power was in the hands of the prince, in fact, he did not act as a judge: this role was played by an assembly of bridles. Disputes were resolved according to the norms of adat - the code of moral and ethical rules, or Sharia. In the second case, a religious minister of a particular community acted as a judge.

Family way

An important role in the life of the Kumyks was played by tribal relations. Related families settled crowdedly within one quarter of the village, numbering from 20 to 150 people. At the head of the clan was the eldest, most respected person, usually a man. He solved important family issues, acted as a representative of the family at public meetings.
By the 19th century, the culture of a small family, usually three generations, stands out. The marriageable age of girls came at 15-16 years old, sometimes there were brides of 12-14 years of age. Young men got married at the age of 16-17, it was believed that they should be 3-4 years older than the brides. It was allowed to marry only with equal in status, relatives did not accept grooms and brides from poorer or lower class families. More often, the Kumyks had one wife, wealthy men took from 2 to 4 wives, the maximum allowed to bring 7 women into the house.
The position of a woman in the family was regulated by Sharia, but was not considered humiliating. The elders participated in family councils, fully managed economic issues. The woman played the role of a conciliator: a handkerchief thrown on the ground stopped any fight. To avoid blood feud, the murderer came to the mother of the murdered, knelt down, begged for forgiveness. If she forgave him, she cut off a lock of hair from the head of the culprit, which meant the end of revenge and made it possible to pay off with money.
In Kumyk folklore, many proverbs have been preserved that convey the idea of ​​the significance of a woman as the guardian of the hearth, the soul of the house, a faithful companion and adviser to her husband. For example:

• The wife says, the husband agrees.
• Whoever did not lose his wife did not know grief.
• The basis of male happiness is the wife.
• The father died - the child is half an orphan, the mother died - the child is a complete orphan.

Men took upon themselves the solution of social issues, the protection of the family, hard work at home and in the field, grazing animals. However, there were taboos: for example, it was forbidden for a man to enter the kitchen, this was considered a great shame. Sometimes, fleeing the wrath of a husband or father, the wife and children ran to the kitchen, knowing that the man would not follow them. Husbands were forbidden to be alone with their wives during the day; they spent their free time in a kunatsk or a separate room.
Kumyks preferred to create large families, the number of children was not told to strangers, this was considered a bad omen. The birth of a son was considered the main joy, which was reflected in folk proverbs-wishes:

• “So that your wife gives birth to your son” - this is how men were thanked for their services.
• “So that you give birth to sons and be well-fed” is a traditional wedding wish for the bride.

During childbirth, the future father left home, the midwife helped the woman in labor. From the evil eye, a baby who was born was bathed in salt water, a silver coin was placed on the bottom of the basin. The first 40 days of the child should not be left alone. To protect against evil spirits, a bright ribbon was tied to the cap, the forehead and cheeks were smeared with soot.

The name of the baby was chosen by the family council, usually the child was named after the deceased relative. The rite of naming was practiced: a prayer was whispered into one ear of the baby, and the chosen name and the name of the father were whispered into the other. After that, they arranged a holiday with a feast, to which relatives and friends were invited, who brought gifts. On the occasion of the birth of a daughter, the father of the child should present a ram as a treat, if a son was born - two.

Life

The Kumyk Plain is notable for its unusually fertile lands, which have been yielding a rich harvest throughout the history of development. Healing mineral springs, deposits of gas and oil have been discovered here. Today, 70% of the Dagestan economy is provided by the territories where the ethnic group lives.
Historically, the Kumyks were engaged in agriculture, the only of all the North Caucasian peoples widely used irrigation methods. They grew wheat, millet, rice, corn, were engaged in gardening, horticulture, viticulture, and beekeeping. Due to the abundance of grazing meadows, cattle breeding is widely developed: buffaloes and sheep were bred, horse breeding was practiced.

culture

Kumyks had a serious impact on the culture of the North Caucasian region, they were considered educated and intelligent people with a good sense of humor. One of the first significant cultural figures is the 15th century poet Ummu Kamal. In the 19th century, a collection of national texts was published in the Kumyk language in St. Petersburg.
Literature reached its peak at the beginning of the last century. In addition to the works of a galaxy of talented writers and poets, newspapers and magazines in the Kumyk language are beginning to be published in the region. In 1925, the Kumyk Music and Drama State Theater named after A.P. Salavatov was founded in Buynaksk. The dance culture of the people deserves attention: the Kumyks alone have about 20 types of lezginkas.

Traditions

The fundamental traditions of the Kumyks were respect for the elders, hospitality, kunachestvo, atalychestvo. The latter was practiced in the families of princes and uzdens, who gave their children to be raised in noble families of neighboring peoples.
There was a rite of "milk brothers": some princes personally brought newborn sons to Uzden families where there were babies. Having attached a son to the chest of a comrade's wife, the babies were made milk brothers: in this way they were bound for life by ties equal to those of blood.
Kunakism is widespread, which differs from hospitality by the need to act on the side of the kunak in case of conflict situations help in solving everyday, social issues. An obligatory element of the dwelling is kunatskaya: a separate room for receiving guests. Wealthy families built a separate small house on the territory of the estate for kunak, relatives and guests.
Hospitality was considered a matter of honor: they were obliged to take into the house any person who asked, even if the families were in a state of blood feud. All the time while the guest lives on the territory of the host, the latter is obliged not only to provide him with everything necessary, but also to protect him from external enemies.

wedding traditions

Arranged and love weddings were encouraged if the parents of the lovers agreed. Free communication of boys and girls was not encouraged. The couple was chosen at common holidays, weddings. A special role was played by the girl's trip to the spring: in fact, the only reason to go outside the yard. Young people often gathered at the spring to watch the girls. The most daring started a conversation, asked to drink pure water. Knowing this, before going for water, the girls carefully preened, put on the best outfits.
For the bride, bride price was necessarily paid. One half of it went to the girl's relatives, the other - to purchase part of the dowry, which forever remained the personal property of the wife. The size of the kalym was determined depending on the position of the groom's family:

• for princes - 500-700 rubles.
• for knots - 70-150 rubles.
• for peasants - 10-30 rubles.

In addition to the money, weapons, scarves, fabrics, cattle, horses were attached.
The wedding ceremony began with matchmaking. Respected members of the community acted as matchmakers; the groom's relatives were forbidden to do this. Native girls did not immediately let the matchmakers into the house, sometimes it reached 3-4 visits. When the envoys were invited to the table, gifts were given to the bride's relatives, they in response laid the table: a discussion of the kalym and details of the future wedding began.
The wedding celebrations lasted 3 days. On the first day, relatives and friends came to the bride's house, a small feast was organized. The next day, the bride, wrapped from head to toe in cloth, was followed by a wedding train from the side of the groom. The girl was seated in a cart covered with carpets: friends and relatives asked for a ransom, in a joking manner they prevented the young woman from leaving.

Upon arrival at the groom's house, the bride was showered with sweets, rice, coins, and a silk carpet was laid. At the entrance to the house, the older woman smeared the bride's lips with honey: a symbol of the wish for a sweet, satisfying, rich life. The mother-in-law met the daughter-in-law with her arms crossed over her chest and hidden under her armpits. This said that the daughter-in-law would take care of household chores, giving her mother-in-law the right to a well-deserved rest.
The groom at that time was in the house of a friend, where, in the company of men, he celebrated his marriage. The bride spent the day in the company of women, only in the evening meeting with the groom in a separate room, where they were left alone. The next day, she first appeared in front of her new relatives with an open face: the celebration continued with a general acquaintance and bestowing gifts on the young. The entry of the daughter-in-law into the family ended after two weeks with the rite of entry to the spring. In the company of other women of the family, the young wife walked with a jug for water, the ceremony was accompanied by songs and dances. The first work done around the house meant that from now on the girl was fully included in the economic life of the new family. At the same time, the mother-in-law lifted the taboo of silence: the young wife was allowed to start a conversation with her. On the occasion of important event daughter-in-law gave her husband's mother a valuable gift. The father-in-law could remain silent for years: the lifting of the ban was considered the greatest favor and was celebrated by the whole family.

Food

Kumyk women were famous as excellent cooks. The basis of the diet was meat and dairy food. Flour products baked in a large oven installed in the courtyard of the house were distinguished by a special variety.
A traditional everyday dish is khinkal: large flat pieces of dough boiled in rich meat broth. One of the varieties of the dish is khinkal made from cornmeal, called gyalpama. The national Kumyk soup Shorpa had many variations: beans, rice, vegetables, cereals, and homemade noodles were added to it. They also prepared dishes traditional for other Caucasian peoples: shish kebab, pilaf, dolma.

Video

Johann Blaramberg

Topographic, statistical, ethnographic and military description of the Caucasus

EASTERN CAUCASUS. Kumyks

The origin of the Kumyks and a brief summary of the history of this people

There is no single point of view on the origin of the Kumyks. According to the scholar Klaproth, they are the descendants of the Khazars, so famous in medieval historical chronicles; one of the Kumyk tribes is still called "Shezary". According to other scientists, the Kumyks are Tatars who have long settled in the Caucasus and transformed into a powerful tribe called "Kumyks" and "Kazi-Kumyks" (we will talk about these latter later).

When the famous Tamerlane appeared, the Kumyks submitted to this conqueror, as did the Mam-Kat tribes, as Sheref-ad-din tells, speaking of Tamerlane's last campaign against Khan Tokhtamysh. From this we can conclude that the Kumyks, who acted on the side of Tamerlane, may have been descendants of the Kipchaks or one of the tribes of the Golden Horde. Ptolemy mentions the Kama people, or Kamaks, who lived in those places where the Kumyks are now settled.

Modern Kumyks speak a Turkic dialect, which is different from the dialect of the Nogais; for a long time they profess Sunni Islam and, although in manners, customs, clothes they look like mountaineers, as a result of mixing with them, they consider themselves Tatars by origin.

The first contacts of Russia with the rulers of the Kumyks date back to 1614, the archives mention a certificate of loyalty related to this year, sent by Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich to the Kumyk Khan Girey and his brothers; the following year, another document is dated containing information about the subordination of the Kumyks to Russia. In any case, it can be assumed that even before that time, some Kumyk tribes were already dependent on Russia, in particular in 1594, when a city was founded near Koisu during the reign of Fyodor Ioannovich, as well as in 1604, when fortresses on the Sunzha, in Enderi and in the vicinity of Tarka.

In the same year, the Kumyks rebelled and, uniting with the Circassians and Lezgins of Dagestan, forced the valiant governor Buturlin to retreat beyond the Terek and leave the aforementioned fortresses. Nevertheless, the Kumyks continued to maintain friendly relations with Russia until 1722, when Peter I undertook a campaign in Persia; then the Kumyks rebelled again, they attacked the Russians, but were defeated and punished for their betrayal by plundering the settlement of Enderi, in which there were then up to three thousand houses. Since that time, the Kumyks have been loyal to our government and have been calm and submissive all the time.

The territory of the Kumyks is located between the rivers Terek, Aksay, Koysu and the Caspian Sea, which is its eastern border. To the north, it is separated from the Kizlyar region by swamps in the lower reaches of the Terek; in the west, it is located on both banks of the lower reaches of the Aksai to the fortress of Amir-Adzhi-Yurt, located on the right bank of the Terek; in the south it borders on Dagestan and areas occupied by the Salatavs, Aukhs and Kachkalyks. The southern branch of the Sulak River, called "Kuru-Koysu" (Dry Koysu), separates the Kumyks from the territory of the Tarki Shamkhals.

The greatest extent of the territory of the Kumyks from west to east, from the Amir-Adzhi-Yurt fortress to Cape Agrakhan, is 120 versts; from north to south, from the ancient Terek (meaning the old channel) to Sulak - 60 versts, which is a total area of ​​7200 square versts.

Once Gudermes was the western border of the territory of the Kumyks, it flows into the Sunzha fifteen miles above the place where it flows into the Terek. But when the Chechens descended from their mountains, the Kumyk khans settled some of them on their territory at the foot of the spurs of the Caucasus, between Sunzha and Aksay. Chechens who settled in the certain conditions, began to be called kachkalyks (six villages). Then, with the advent of new tribesmen, their numbers increased, and although the Kumyk khans still consider them their vassals, in fact, the Kachkalyks, taking advantage of the later weakening of the Kumyk khans, regained their independence. Thus, the entire territory between Gudermes and the Amir-Adzhi-Yurt fortress can be considered as an integral part of the territory occupied by the Chechen tribes.

Rivers, territory and soil quality

The territory of the Kumyks is irrigated by such rivers: Aksai (White Water), both banks of the Aksai belong to the Kumyks from the old settlement of Aksai to the confluence of Aksai with the Terek. The streams Yamansu and Yaraksu flow into Aksai. The small river Kasma, or Aktash, crosses the central part of the territory of the Kumyks, it flows down from the Lezgin mountains, from the Salatav ledge, and at the foot of the Khana-Kaitau and Saukh-Bolak mountains many small streams flow into it; when it flows into the Caspian Sea, it is lost in swamps. Left bank of Koi-su (Lamb Water) ( Koiyun - ram, su - water (Turk.) ) from the settlement of Chir-yurt also belongs to the Kumyks. Sulak and Agrakhan - two branches of Koysu - are rich in fish, significant catches are noted here.

The territory of the Kumyks consists mainly of vast plains, turning closer to the Caspian Sea into swamps; the southern part is mountainous, represents the spurs of the Lezgin and Dagestan mountains, known here as the "Tavlinsky mountains". Valleys and plains serve as pastures for numerous herds; villages are located near streams. The soils of this region are considered the most fertile in the entire North Caucasus. The climate here is warmer than in other areas located at the same latitude; grapes ripen well in orchards, in the forests there are many wild fruit trees of all kinds, and. finally, rice is cultivated in the fields. Both banks of the Koisu are covered with forest.

The lowlands at the mouth of this river are overgrown with reeds, but there are also fat pastures, with which this region generally abounds, as well as lands suitable for agriculture.

Kumyks are divided into three tribal groups: Aksai Kumyks, Andreevsky and Kostek Kumyks. In addition to the Kumyks themselves, the Nogais also live there. The Kumyks live sedentary, the Nogais lead a nomadic life, and all their wealth consists of numerous herds of rams. To pay taxes to their masters, the Kumyk khans, the Nogais earn the money necessary for this by selling sheep and wool; in addition, as a tribute, they give annually 2-3 sheep from every hundred. These Nogais are the remnants of the Great and Small Hordes of the Nogais, whom we have already spoken about above and will speak about later.

There are also many trading Armenians and Georgians on the territory of the Kumyks.

The main settlement of the Aksai Kumyks is Aksai, numbering 800 houses, it is located on the right bank of the river with the same name, 20 versts from the Terek and 70 versts from Kizlyar. The territory of the Aksai settlement belongs to five ruling families of the same kind, their names are Alibekovs, Akhmatkhankaplanovs, Eldarovs, Utsmiyevs and Arslanbekovs. The last family is the most ancient and once owned a small state subdivision of the Kachkalyks, who later became independent. Many Chechens and other highlanders come to the Aksai settlement to do business. The dwellings of the khans were once surrounded by stone walls with towers and adapted for stubborn defense. Opposite Aksai on the left bank of the river is the fortress of Tash-Kichu.

The main settlement of the Andreev Kumyks is Enderi, or Andreevka, a large village with 1,500 houses, 30 versts from Aksai and 90 versts from Kizlyar, located on the right bank of the Aktash in the place where it flows down from the mountains. The place is very picturesque, there are several mosques built of stone; the houses of the khans are also built of stone, they are surrounded by stone walls with towers for defense. The location of this village is very convenient: it is located between the Aktash River and its two tributaries - the Acha and Chumli rivers. Endery, one might say, closes the mountain pass. In the vicinity of this village there are also several convenient places that were used to build the Vnepnaya fortress to the north-west of Enderi on the left bank of the Aktash. This fortress is of great importance, as it guards the exit from the mountains and inspires respect for the Circassians.

The most powerful khan families in Enderi are Kazanalipovs, Aydemirovs, Temirovs, Alishevs, Murtazali-Adzhievs. About the emergence of the village of Andreevka (Enderi) they tell as follows. After the collapse of the Cossack army of Yermak, a significant part of the Cossacks, united by Ataman Andreev, took refuge in the Caspian Sea, where they engaged in piracy. Later, this ataman Andreev, with three hundred Cossacks, discovered the remains of an ancient fortified city; he stayed there with his comrades, strengthened the means of protection, and by this stay there he gave the name to the settlement - Andreevka (Enderi). In vain did the Kumyks and Highlanders try to drive them out, the Cossacks stayed there until 1569, until by decree of Tsar Ivan Vasilievich the Terrible they were transferred to the Terek, where their descendants, called the Grebensky Cossacks, still live.

Until now, you can still find the remains of an earthen fortress opposite the village of Enderi on the left bank of the Aktash at its exit from the mountains - this indicates that the advantageous position of this place was noticed by those who once occupied it.

Before the Russian conquest, the village of Enderi was the main market for the sale of prisoners of war, which the highlanders brought there. We will return to this trade in a separate section.

Kosteki, or Kostyukovka, is the main settlement of the district with the same name; this is a large village of 650 houses, located on the left bank of the Koisu River, which abounds here with all kinds of fish; even Kizlyar herring (shamakhi) is found here.

The Kumyk khans of the Alishev family, who own the area, make the most of their income from fishing, which is mostly rented by Armenians and Russian traders. Not far from the village of Kosteki, sulphurous thermal waters were found. Dozens of different sources have been spotted on the territory of the Kumyks.

Kazi-yurt is located on the left bank of the Koisu, where the river begins to fork. This village serves as a transit point on the way from Kizlyar to Tarki.

Chir-yurt is located on the right bank of the Koysu, it is located on the ledge that the river forms, turning to the west; Chir-yurt is a transit point on the way from Enderi to Tarki.

The Amir-Adzhi-Yurt fortress stands on the right bank of the Terek and is the extreme western point of the border of this territory.

Population

Here is the population of these three regions: Aksai settlement - 8 thousand souls; Enderi settlement - 28 thousand souls; settlement Kosteki - 2 thousand 800 souls.

Total: 38 thousand 800 souls, which can put up 4 thousand 500 armed foot soldiers.

Ethnographic details

The Kumyk rulers occupy a place immediately behind the Kabardian ones and, with the exception of these latter, are the most prominent in the Caucasus. Persian shahs and Russian tsars once chose the shamkhals of Tarki among them, and the Aksaev khans still maintain family ties with the Tarki shamkhals and khans of Avaria.

Without exception, the entire territory of this region is the property of the families of the Kumyk khans. These khans have their own peasants who have passed to them by inheritance, but they do not dare to sell them, but annually receive a load of timber from each family and worker for one day during sowing, reaping and haymaking; except for this, the peasants pay no tax. The Uzdens, who have subjects, consider themselves subordinate to the khan in whose territory they live, but nevertheless they do not pay any dues, just like the peasants.

Peasants have the right to leave one owner in order to come under the protection of another. It follows that the richest khan is the one with the largest territory and the largest number of peasants. Uzdens and peasants are obliged to accompany their khan during predatory campaigns and to war.

Kumyk khans can marry the daughters of the Uzdens and even the daughters of their subjects, but in this case their children have no right to inherit. Khan's daughters marry only khans. Kalym is also their custom, following the example of other mountain peoples. The most revered khans have 2-3 wives, while the law allows you to have up to 7 wives.

All Kumyks are Muslims of the teachings of Omar (Sunnis). The clergy enjoys special respect among them, especially from the people; it is represented by two groups - qadis (there are only three of them) and mullahs. Qadis receive annually from every family in their district two measures of millet or wheat and one sheep out of every hundred; mullahs contain qadis. Those who have been to Mecca are treated with special respect, as in the entire Caucasus, these people are called "hajiis", or "pilgrims".

Internecine strife and quarrels are considered megkema - the church court, in which the clergy sit, sometimes there are khans.

The income of the khans is supplemented by the rent for the land, which is given to the use of the Lezgins, who graze their cattle there during the cold season. Taxes from transit trade also go to the treasury of the khan.

We have already mentioned the excellent quality of the soil and its remarkable fertility. The Kumyks grow mainly wheat and millet, preferring millet, which gives them excellent harvests. Everywhere there are fields sown with millet, crossed by numerous irrigation canals, called here “tatauli”. Barley is grown in smaller quantities; rice is also cultivated in the area where the Kostek Kumyks live. Vegetable crops, although they grow successfully here, provide mostly a small income.

The Kumyks are rich in numerous herds of cattle bred for wool; flocks of sheep and goats are sent to the mountains for the whole summer. Kumyks keep huge herds - several hundred horses each, their best breed is called "Chepalovskaya", it is very much appreciated in the Caucasus. Herds of Chepalov horses belong to the Aksaev Khan Kaspulat. A huge number of horses are sold annually to Russians.

Kumyk men are prone to laziness and inactivity; they are only slightly engaged in trade, which is mainly concentrated in the hands of the Armenians. Their women are more industrious and make excellent carpets called "burmet"; linen woven from single-color coarse cotton, and silk fabrics for own use.

In Kizlyar, Kumyks sell timber and firewood, as well as poles for vineyards. They extract salt from Lake Turali, located on the territory of Shamkhals, and exchange it for millet and wheat. The Kumyk khans maintain close relations with the Chechens, in addition, they have long established trade relations with the Kabardians and Lezgi tribes living in the snowy mountains of the North Caucasus.

The Kumyks are on the whole more civilized than their neighbors, and only surreptitiously take part in their robberies.

Like other mountain peoples, the Kumyks also sometimes give their sons to be raised by foreigners - atalyks. From the age of 7-8, the young khan offspring makes long horse rides with his guardian; the saddle is made in such a way that the child cannot fall. The boy, together with his atalyk tutor, spends whole days in the saddle in order to contrive to steal a horse or a cow; if he succeeds and the owner of the cattle does not immediately catch him, he keeps the animal for himself and the next day he can no longer hide his theft; if the owner manages to catch it, the thief must return the animal. Then he only feels ashamed of his awkwardness.

The custom common to the entire Caucasus - to give children into the hands of foreigners - pursues a political goal of great importance, since the atalyk teacher then becomes a member of the family of the legal father, and these family relations extend not only to representatives of the same clan, but also to all representatives of the people, to which atalyk belongs, throughout the Caucasus, so that in the midst of the enmity that reigns between them, they always look for and find means to receive support and help.

Kumyks never go on military campaigns for a long time, like other highlanders, and are not absent from home for more than two or three weeks. They do not follow any order in the campaign, but gather in small groups, each of which follows its own leader. In the camp, they also settle down at their own discretion, without, however, moving too far from their khan. The latter is accompanied by a herd of sheep or several heads of cattle to feed the khan himself and his retinue; the rest are required to have - each their own - food supplies, which, as a rule, are a small bag of millet or wheat tied to the saddle. Although the Kumyks have a reputation for being good riders and brave people, they are still far from being as brave as the Kabardians and Chechens.

Kumyks make their own gunpowder and weapons. Daggers made in the village of Enderi are in great demand throughout the Caucasus; they buy lead from the Russians.

There are some obstacles on the roads of this region: the rivers, descending from the mountains, spread over vast valleys, which are then replaced by swampy areas; most of the rivers have muddy and clay bottoms and can only be crossed by bridges. In addition, the whole area is indented with an incredible number of irrigation canals - tatauli, especially in the vicinity of settlements; finally, the forests found there are very dense and overgrown with thorny bushes, which makes them practically impassable, there are only narrow paths along which one cannot go far into the depths for fear of tearing clothes or injuring themselves. Forests cover a significant part of the lowlands and valleys.

On the sale of captives in the Caucasus

We have already said, when talking about the settlement of Enderi (Andreevka), that this place is famous for the trade in captives, and although this trade stopped there 20 years ago, as well as the export of slaves to Turkey, thanks to the harsh measures of our government, it will be interesting to consider some details concerning this trade, and to give some idea of ​​how it happened.

The trade in prisoners was carried out in the Caucasus according to the law of war: they sold those who were captured in battles, and since the highlanders still live in constant friendship with some and in a state of ongoing war with other neighbors, there was always something to support this trade, which, apparently has been there for a very long time. During the reign of Emperor Justinian I, the Abkhazians deliberately stole boys from their neighbors for sale in Constantinople, where they were sold at a very high price, in connection with which the traffickers literally flooded Constantinople with these victims of oriental voluptuousness, which then led to the prohibition of this trade by Justinian. In more late time there is no longer any information that any mountaineers of the Caucasus themselves brought slaves to Constantinople for sale.

The custom of turning prisoners of war into slaves and selling them as property is not only very ancient, but also, in general, very common in many countries. Only with the advent of Christianity in Europe did this shameful trade disappear, with the exception of Russia, where this practice passed to the descendants of prisoners of war, known as serfs and serfs, who, before the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, were never mixed with peasants or even with bonded serfs; these two categories of the population were regarded in Russia as free. Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible, after the conquest of Kazan, forbade the peasants to change their place of residence and move from one place to another, as a result of which the slavery of the peasants gradually began to be established in Russia. But still, in the Russian Empire there is no primitive law that allows the master to sell his peasants separately from the land to which they are attached. Boltin clearly proved that personal slavery and the sale of peasants were established in Russia out of the habit of observing custom, which was later enshrined in law ( Boltin. Notes on the history of Russia Leclerc. T. 1. S. 328-337, 474-475; T. 2. S. 206-213.).

The small digression that we made about the former position of the Russian peasants explains to some extent what we observed on this occasion in the Caucasus, since, comparing the position of the Russian peasants with the Caucasian, we see that the demarcation line between the peasants and the yasyrs (slaves ) is much less obliterated in the Caucasus than in Russia. Although the masters of the highlanders can also abuse the right that they have over the peasants, they can nevertheless sell them only if they want to punish them for some crime, for example, for theft, murder, and this is done with the consent of their neighbors and the khan to whom they obey; therefore, the bridles of this region very rarely sell their peasants, especially since, according to custom, this action is considered reprehensible.

Quite rare at first were cases when parents sold their children out of poverty or, more rarely, out of cruelty. However, as evidenced historical facts However, some victims of parental abuse were then able to achieve high positions in the countries where they were trafficked - in Egypt or Turkey. Such examples are quite numerous. Sultan Barkok was of Circassian origin, he founded in 1382 the second dynasty of the Mamluks, called the dynasty of the Borgites, or Circassians, which ruled until the 16th century.

Part of the Egyptian rulers and many of the Turkish pashas were of the same origin. Considering what a fortune the sum of 100-200 ducats was for the highlanders, which they received for especially beautiful boys and girls, it is not surprising and understandable that such a temptation could not be resisted. In addition, fathers often sold their children in order to feed the younger ones and so that they would not be kidnapped by neighbors, which could always happen and was to be feared if the children were beautiful and well built. Nevertheless, it must be admitted, for the consolation of mankind, that these two sources of trade - the sale of peasants by their masters and the sale of children by their parents - were not the basis of the slave trade. This trade was carried out by other means, which we will now focus on.

During the strife between the two tribes, the custom allowed mutual raids on the territory of the enemy, which were carried out either in small detachments or alone with the aim of kidnapping people and animals in retaliation for the insults suffered; the highlanders call it "baranta". This civil war supplied many captives; the richest and most famous were bought by their relatives, the rest were sold or left as domestic slaves, in the latter case they were used in the household or they worked as shepherds. These raids are still going on, and since the Highlanders can no longer sell their prisoners to the Turks, they sell them to each other if they do not want to keep them as their own slaves. Our captured soldiers were treated exactly like this: they were either forced to work as shepherds, or used to cultivate the fields, collect brushwood and other work.

Highlanders raided the territory of their Christian neighbors, especially Georgia. Their main task was to capture prisoners; their raids on the right bank of the Kuban and the left bank of the Terek pursued the same goal, and we have already talked about how they captured individuals and transported them to the mountains (see the section on the Chechens).

In Mingrelia and Guria, mountain princes and Uzdens obtained captives for themselves by the ram method and, in order to satisfy their passion for gold, even sold their own slaves. King Solomon I legally forbade the sale of prisoners in Imereti, and since the establishment of the Russian protectorate over Georgia, the Lezgins could no longer capture many prisoners in this country.

Secret kidnapping in Peaceful time among neighbors or even acquaintances, it was considered commendable for a brave mountaineer, if only this theft would by no means become known. Otherwise, retaliatory measures were taken and a blood feud was declared, which ended in the death of one of the two opponents. Quite often there were cases when a friend abducted his son or daughter from a friend in order to sell them in Anapa or Sukhum-Kala, and this theft became known only many years later, when fate returned the kidnapped to his homeland.

Thanks to these three sources, which we have just talked about, a large number of captives were obtained, who, passing from hand to hand, ended up in Anapa, Kodos, Isgauri, Sukhum-Kale, Poti and Batum for sale to Turkish merchants who took them to Constantinople. , and from there to Egypt and the ports of the Levant.

For Egypt, the most well-built men were chosen to replenish the number of Mamluks. The most beautiful girls were sold at a high price to the rich for the pleasures of the harem, and ugly or poorly built captives of both sexes were sold at fairly moderate prices as simple slaves for domestic and hard physical work.

Volney says that the price of men in Egypt changed depending on their nationality and decreased in this order: Circassians, Abkhazians, Mingrelians, Georgians, Russians, Poles, Hungarians, Germans, etc. The highlanders themselves adhered to approximately the same order, and , based on the physical strength, beauty and good physique of a person, the price of a captive decreased in this order: Circassians, Mingrelians, Georgians, Abkhazians.

Among women, preference has always been given to beautiful Circassians. The Mamluks did not marry Coptic girls, they bought their compatriots for themselves, but, according to Volney, due to the Egyptian climate, the Mamluks degenerated in the second generation, so the beys were forced for a long time to understaff this military militia with young people from the Caucasus in order to have a brave cavalry through which they could maintain their power. The French invasion of Egypt and later the betrayal of Mehmet-Ali led to the disappearance of this purchased militia.

Since most of the captives were too far from the shores of the Black Sea and sending them to one of the ports of this basin was associated with great difficulties, two large markets for the sale of slaves were arranged in the Caucasus itself, namely: in Enderi (which we have already mentioned above) and in Dzhari, the main settlement of the Dzhar-Belokan region, inhabited by Lezgins. It was to these two markets that the captives were brought, who were then bought by Turkish merchants and sometimes Armenians. From Enderi, the prisoners were transported chained in two by hand through the lands of the Chechens, Ingush, Circassians, along the Russian posts to Anapa. This path was made under the protection of a convoy with a sufficient number of soldiers and passed along secret paths. The carefully guarded women rode horses, while the men walked; on the road they were well fed to maintain their strength on the way. Once the captives were transported in this way from Enderi to the Crimea through the Kuma and Kuban steppes and Taman, from there they were taken to Constantinople, but this road was closed to them when the Crimean peninsula became part of Russian territory.

The Lezgins transported the captives from Dzhari through Georgia along secret mountain paths and through forests to Akhaltsikhe, and from there to Batum and Poti. In order to increase the number of their captives, they were divided, passing through Georgia, into several groups, one of which escorted the prisoners, and the rest scattered around Georgia in order to capture new captives. As a rule, they tried to return to their homes before the onset of winter, otherwise, if the cold season caught them in Akhaltsikhe, they entered the service of the pasha of this pashalik:!, but with the condition that they would be allowed to raid Georgia, Imeretia , Mingrelia to kidnap people; they were never denied permission to do so. Thus, the friendly relations of the Lezghins from the Jaro-Belokan region and the Akhaltsikhe Pashalik were maintained to the death of Georgia, until its admission to Russia. These ties were completely interrupted only when Russia took possession of this pirate lair (Akhaltsikhe was taken by storm on August 15, 1828, the Jari region was annexed to the Russian Empire on March 1, 1830). At three thousand people, the number of slaves annually sold to the Turks in the ports of the eastern coast of Pontus Euxinus is estimated before the admission of Georgia to Russia. Later, this number was significantly reduced as a result of the fact that the highlanders began to encounter obstacles, passing through the military lines in the Caucasus and along this chain. This shameful trade finally stopped after the conclusion of the Adrianople peace treaty, according to which Russia received the possession of Akhaltsikhe and the entire eastern coast of Pontus Euxinus. Turkish ships approaching these shores from time to time for trade are in most cases detected and driven off or destroyed by our ships before they can receive cargo.

Having given some information about the sale of slaves in the Caucasus, we will say a few words about how this trade was conducted in Endery until 1818 - the time when General Yermolov captured this settlement, built the Vnepnaya fortress nearby and put an end to this trade.

The Russian government, which until that time could not completely prevent the sale of slaves in Enderi, nevertheless adopted several laws that tried to alleviate the lot of Christian slaves.

The inhabitants of Enderi, having bought the captives brought by the Chechens, Lezgins and other highlanders, sold them at the same place to the inhabitants of Kizlyar or took them to this city to sell them there on certain conditions that applied to all captives, whether they were Christians or not (Russians subjects were an exception).

A resident of Kizlyar, buying one of the prisoners, wrote down his name and the name of the prisoner in the city police and indicated the amount of the ransom. From that moment on, 24 silver rubles were deducted from the total amount annually as payment for the work of the prisoner, in addition, the owner was obliged to feed and clothe him; the captive remained in the service of the owner until the full amount of the ransom was paid. After that, the prisoner became free and could choose the way of life that he liked, he enjoyed all the rights of a nonresident settler. Thus, if his price reached 240 silver rubles, he had to work for 10 years to become free.

Most of these captives were Georgians, Mingrelians, Armenians, but there were also highlanders captured during baranta, or children sold by their parents because of poverty. Since the usual price of a prisoner was about 150-200 silver rubles, the prisoner received freedom after 6-8 years. This trade greatly enriched the inhabitants of Endery, and the inhabitants of Kizlyar also benefited greatly from this trade, as they took advantage of the current state of affairs in order to obtain workers for their vineyards for very moderate wages.

Kumyks are the indigenous population of the flat part of Dagestan. They live compactly in seven districts Dagestan ASSR: Khasavyurtovsky, Babayurtovsky Kizilyurtsky, Buynaksky, Karabudakh-Kentsky, Kayakentsky and Kaitagsky, in six villages in the vicinity of Makhachkala and cities: Makhachkala, Khasavyurt, Buynaksk, Izberbash and Derbent. A small group of Kumyks live in the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Finally, several Kumyk villages are part of North Ossetia. The total number of Kumyks according to the 1959 census is 135 thousand people.

The neighbors of the Kumyks in the north are Nogais, in the northwest and west - Chechens and Avars, in the southwest and south - Dargins, Tabasarans and Derbent Azerbaijanis. The territory inhabited by the Kumyks is washed by the Caspian Sea in the east. The most significant in the water system of the Kumyk lands are the rivers Terek, Sulak, Ulluchay, Gamriozen, Shuraozen, Manasozen and the October Revolution Canal. The climate here is moderate.

The Kumyk language belongs to the northwestern (Kypchak) troupe of Turkic languages ​​and is divided into three fairly close dialects: northern (Khasavyurt), middle (Buinak) and southern (Kaitag). The basis of the literary language of the Kumyks is the Khasavyurt dialect. At present, the differences between these dialects are being erased - the literary language is spreading everywhere.

Before the Great October Socialist Revolution, it was customary to divide the Kumyks into three groups, respectively, with a dialectal division. The first group consisted of residents of the so-called Kumyk plane (the space between the Terek and Sulak, the upper reaches of the Aksai river, the Caspian Sea and the spurs of the Aukh and Salatov mountains) - modern Khasavyurt, Babayurt and partially Kizilyurt regions. The main part of this territory was previously part of the former Terek region.

The second group, the most significant, were the Kumyks of the Shamkhalate of Tarkovsky, which in 1867 entered the Temir-Khan-Shurinsky district of the Dagestan region. This is the territory of modern Buynaksky, Karabudakhkentsky and partially Kizilyurtsky districts. Finally, the third group was represented by the Kumyks of the former possession of the Kaitag utsmiya, later transformed into the Kaitago-Tabasaran district. Now the territory of this group of Kumyks is included in the Kayakent and partially Kaitag districts.

The self-name of the Kumyks is kumuk 1 . Its etymological meaning this time is not clear. Some historians associated this term with the geographical conditions of the residence of the Kumyks. Thus, the author of the article “A Few Words about the Kumyks” believes that the name of the Kumyk plane, mostly consisting of sandy soil (kumluk), was also transferred to its inhabitants 2 . Others compared the terms Kumuk and Cuman, that is, the Cumans. Neighbors of the Kumyks in the past called them differently. Dargins - jandar (etymology unknown) and dirkalanti (inhabitants of the plain), Avars - larigial (inhabitants of the plane), Nogais, Kabardians, Ossetians, Chechens, Balkars - just Kumyks.

The formation of the Kumyk people began in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. e. The decisive role in the ethnogenesis of the Kumyks belonged to the ancient tribes - the aborigines of flat Dagestan. Along with them, alien Turkic-speaking tribes, especially the Kypchaks (Polovtsy), whose language was adopted by the local tribes, took part in the formation of the Kumyk people. The decisive role of the indigenous population in the formation of the Kumyk people is confirmed both by the main features of the culture and life of the Kumyks, and by anthropological data. Soviet anthropologists attribute the Kumyks to the European type and talk about the anthropological similarity of the Kumyks with other peoples of Dagestan, opposing them to the Mongoloid peoples.

Mainclasses

The modern agriculture of the Kumyks, which is based on agriculture, corresponds to the conditions of the flat and foothill areas. Due to the fact that agriculture has long been the main occupation of the Kumyks, the people have accumulated a lot of economic experience, developed their own methods of agricultural labor. The Kumyks from time immemorial knew the three-field system and artificial irrigation of fields. Despite this, agriculture among the Kumyks before the revolution retained a relatively backward form. Along with the three-field, for example, a more primitive shifting system was also used. The main tools of labor were wooden plows with an iron plowshare 3 (in addition, a plow in the foothills), wooden harrows, threshing boards with stones (flint), sickles, etc. Weeding was carried out with a special hoe or hands; they threshed grain on an earthen current, previously compacted with a roller. Iron plows, steam threshers, seeders, etc., which began to appear here from the middle of the 19th century, were found only in landlord and kulak farms.

Poor farming technique, lack of water for irrigation predetermined low yields. In addition to all this, the Kumyks, in contrast to other peoples of Dagestan, almost did not apply soil fertilizers. The average yield on irrigated fields in many areas did not exceed 4-5 cm, and on non-irrigated fields - 3 cm.

In the past, the mutual assistance of relatives or neighbors played a significant role in the organization of agricultural work of the Kumyks. This custom was called by the Kumyks bulka (gathering, collective work). There were chop-bulka (chop - weed, i.e. collection for cleaning crops from weeds), orak-bulkya (orak - sickle, i.e. collection for harvest), gabizh-dei-bulkaa (gabizhdei - corn, i.e. harvesting). e. collecting for cleaning or threshing corn), etc. Rich relatives often used this custom for the purpose of exploitation, forcing poor relatives to work on their farm only for a treat. The poor and weak peasants united for the time of plowing in two or three households, and jointly used draft animals and agricultural implements. This form of mutual assistance was called ortak. Often the need for working cattle and tools forced the poor to borrow them from the kulak on extortionate terms.

The victory of the collective-farm system opened up the broadest possibilities for the development of agriculture. Thanks to a number of activities - the development of new lands, the drying of wetlands, the construction of canals, including the Powerful Canal. October Revolution - the area of ​​arable land of the Kumyks 4 increased significantly. The Kumyk regions have become regions of large grain farming in the Dagestan ASSR. Most of the lands of the Kumyk collective farms are irrigated. A system of temporary channels is widely used, which allows water to be supplied to the desired area of ​​the field and at the same time not to be crushed into separate parts by permanent channels.

In the large-scale collective agriculture of the Kumyks, the former narrow specialization, based on the cultivation, as a rule, of only grain crops, has disappeared. Now agriculture is developing diversified; however, the leading industry in almost all Kumyk regions is field crops, especially the cultivation of grain crops. Of the cereals, wheat occupies the first place, the second - corn and barley. Rice is also grown in some areas (Khasavyurtovsky, Kizilyurtovsky).

Kumyks have been engaged in horticulture and viticulture since ancient times. However, in the past, in the conditions of small scattered peasant farms, where soil cultivation was carried out in a primitive way, horticulture and viticulture could not get much development. Mass planting of fruit trees and vines, as well as the introduction of Michurin varieties, unfolded only under conditions of collective farming. Now, in the Buynaksky district alone, 2362 hectares are occupied by gardens. Kolkhoz im. Ordzhonikidze (village Nizhnee Kazanishche) of this district has gardens on an area of ​​about 450 hectares.

Horticulture and viticulture among the Kumyks in pre-revolutionary times had almost no commercial value. Fruits, as a rule, were preserved, dried and soaked for the winter, mainly for their own consumption. Partially they were exchanged in neighboring villages for grain and other products. At present, when the collective farms have every opportunity to sell their products, the export of fruits and grapes, as well as winemaking, have gained wide scope. Collective farms take fresh fruit, grapes and vegetables for sale in their own vehicles. An important role in the economy of the Kumyks is gradually acquiring horticultural crops. Kumyks have long grown watermelons, melons, pumpkins, cucumbers, various varieties of beans, onions, garlic, peppers, fragrant herbs, etc. However, in pre-revolutionary conditions, the cultivation of these crops was not properly developed. Currently, the sown area under them has increased significantly. In 1958, the collective farms of the Khasavyurt district alone sowed 1,362 hectares of vegetable and melon crops. Along with a long time ago famous cultures new ones are also grown - tomatoes, cabbage, eggplants, potatoes, etc. The fruit and canning industry is developing on the basis of horticulture, viticulture and vegetable growing. The Khasavyurt and Buynak fruit and canning factories are among the largest in the republic.

In all branches of the agricultural economy of the Kumyk collective farms, machine technology is widely used. Its role is especially great in field farming, where all the main processes are completely mechanized. Old agricultural implements (heavy plow, threshing boards, wooden harrows) have given way to powerful tractors, combines, threshers, seeders, etc.

Kumyks are also engaged in animal husbandry, raising large and small cattle. Considerable attention is paid to the breeding of buffaloes, which are valued as strong working cattle, and buffaloes - for good milk yields and high quality milk. Animal husbandry among the Kumyks in the past was poorly developed. The life of a shepherd and herdsman was full of hardships. Now residential buildings and livestock buildings, veterinary and medical stations, etc. have grown on pastures. Winter kutans and summer pastures in the mountains are visited by propaganda teams and amateur art groups; trade organizations supply livestock breeders with food, cultural and industrial goods.

Poultry farming, beekeeping and sericulture are also of no small importance. These branches of the economy existed among the Kumyks for a long time, but now they have received great development.

Kumyk collective farms have a variety of vehicles. The main ones were motor vehicles, which serve both for the transportation of people and for the transfer of goods. Vans and carts are also used to transport goods over short distances. Bidarkas, carts and riding horses are used to service field brigades. The use of motor vehicles was made possible thanks to the large road construction carried out over the years Soviet power. New well-maintained roads have been created on the territory of the Kumyks, connecting all the villages with the regional centers and cities of the republic, as well as the Kumyk plain with the mountainous regions of Dagestan. Of great importance for the economic relations of the Kumyks is the railway line, which runs from north to south through the coastal part of the Kumyk territory, and the line Makhachkala - Buynaksk.

From year to year, the number of power plants in the Kumyk collective farms is increasing. Many settlements are fully electrified. In addition to the energy of their power plants, (many Kumyk villages receive cheap electricity from nearby cities - Makhachkala, Izberbash, Kaspiysk, Khasavyurt, Buynaksk, which makes it possible to electrify some labor-intensive processes in the economy.

If before the main production unit was the family, in which the sex and age division of labor was strictly observed, and the main burden of work fell on women, now the collective farm has become the production unit, and its members form a single friendly team. When distributing work between women and men in collective-farm brigades, they proceed from the expediency of using male labor in more labor-intensive work. The collective-farm division of labor, therefore, has nothing in common with the past. The socialist principle of payment ensures the continuous growth of labor productivity. Socialist competition is assuming an ever broader scope. Party and Komsomol organizations, being the initiators of the most important undertakings, widely popularize the experience of advanced collective farmers and collective farms. The names of the Heroes of Socialist Labor, who achieved high production rates and became famous for their selfless labor, are widely known among the collective farmers.

The growing social economy contributes to a change in the nature of the personal economy of the Kumyks. At the present time, collective farmers cultivate garden and gourd crops on their household plots and keep meat and dairy cattle. Income from personal farming began to play an auxiliary role in the family budget, only supplementing the main income received from public farming.

In some villages (Kumtorkale, Kayakent, Lower and Upper Kazanshtsy, Andreyaul, etc.), women, in their free time from collective farm work, “are engaged in dressing carpets. They weave both pile and lint-free carpets, saddlebags, etc. From carpet products Kumyks are especially famous for lint-free one-sided carpets, known as sumak.The ornament of carpets, mostly geometric, is distinguished by original design and coloring.Northern Kumyks also make felt rugs decorated with geometric and floral ornaments.

In the past, almost every Kumyk village had its own skilled craftsmen, many of whom became famous throughout the Caucasus for their products. The name of the master Bazalai from the villages. Upper Kazanishche, who lived in the first half of the 19th century, became a household name. This name began to be called the blades made by him, which were distinguished by great strength. Upper and Lower Kazanischa and Andreyaul were centers of blacksmithing. In these villages, as well as in Erpel, Kafir-Kumuk, Sultan-Yangi-Yurt and others, goldsmithing was also widespread, in which engraving, niello, filigree, and silver casting were used. In the XVIII-XIX centuries. in the villages of Erpeli and Andreyaul, pottery flourished, which fell into decline at a later time due to the wide distribution of factory products.

The environment of economic occupations of the Kumyks is one of the main places now occupied by work in industry. The first industrial enterprises on the territory of the Kumyk regions arose in the pre-revolutionary period (oil and fishing industries, enterprises for the processing of local agricultural raw materials). However, they were of a semi-handicraft character, and the number of Kumyk workers employed in them was very small 5 . The percentage of the Kumyk population of the cities of Port-Petrovsk (now Makhachkala), Temir-Khan-Shura (now Buynaksk), and the settlement of Khasavyurt (now the city) was extremely insignificant.

IN Soviet time the situation has changed radically. The transformation of Dagestan into a developed industrial-agrarian republic also affected economic life Kumyk people. Along with the creation of powerful industrial centers in the rapidly growing cities of the republic, a number of industrial enterprises have been built in rural areas, including those in Kumyk. Kumyks now make up a significant part of the Dagestan working class. A third of the Kumyk population of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic lives in cities and workers' settlements. This fact vividly reflects the grandiose changes that have taken place in the life of the Kumyk people during the first ode to Soviet power.

Living from generation to generation at the crossroads of all roads, the Kumyks were able to preserve their hearth, love for the motherland and their culture.

Kumyks

Tarki-Tau is a natural monument, a unique mountain, standing apart from a huge mountain monolith. There are legends and myths about her. On its plateau and slopes there are many sacred places, ziyarats - Valikyz pir, Kyyrkyz-bulak, Lok'a, Kutlukyz-bulak, Sangyz and others, highly revered by the locals. Only mounds around Tarki-Tau and at its foot there are 542, many of which are known to the inhabitants by name. According to beliefs, in the old days there was a ban on pointing a finger at Tarki-Tau.

The favorable location of the Kumyk plane between the sea and the mountains, on the one hand, contributed to the development of agriculture and animal husbandry, trade and crafts, on the other hand, subjected the inhabitants of the plain to terrible trials by fire and sword of numerous hordes of conquerors of antiquity. But our ancestors survived these battles, moreover, they enriched their culture and knowledge with the achievements of newcomers and preserved their land for future generations.

The Kumyks speak the Kumyk language, which has its own dialects: Buynak, Kaitag, foothill, Khasavyurt and Terek. In tsarist times, the Kumyk language was studied in gymnasiums and schools in Vladikavkaz, Stavropol, Mozdok, Kizlyar, Temir-Khan-Shura. And today, many of the older generation of Avars, Dargins, Lezgins, Laks, Tabasarans, Chechens speak the Kumyk language.

The Kumyks have their neighbors: Nogais in the north, Avars and Dargins in the west, Tabasarans and Lezgins in the south.

Before Russia came to the Caucasus, in the 18th-19th centuries, the Kumyk settlements were called the Tarkov Shamkhalate, the Mekhtulin Khanate, the Zasulak Kumykia - the Endireev, Kostek and Aksaev possessions, in present-day Chechnya - the Bragun Principality; the southern Kumyks were part of the Kaitag Utsmiystvo.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Kumykia was annexed to Russia. After the formation of the Dagestan region in 1860 with the center in the city of Temir-Khan-Shura, local feudal lords: shamkhals, khans and biys were left without power. Instead of the former possessions, districts were created: from the Kaytag utsmiystvo and Tabasaran, the Kaytago-Tabasaran district was formed, from the Tarkovsky shamkhalate, the Mekhtulin khanate and the Prisulak naibdom, the Temir-Khan-Shurinsky district of the Dagestan region; on the territory of the Endireevsky, Aksaevsky and Kostek possessions, the Kumyk (later - Khasa-Vyurt) district of the Terek region was formed. Kumyks were the main population of the Temir-Khan-Shurinsky and Khasavyurt districts.

Now more than half of the Kumyks are settled in 8 rural administrative districts of the Republic of Dagestan - Kumtorkalinsky, Karabudakhkentsky, Buynaksky, Kayakentsky, Babayurtovsky, Khasavyurtovsky, Kizilyurtovsky, Kaitagsky. Kumyks are the oldest residents of the cities of Makhachkala, Buynaksk, Khasavyurt, Kizilyurt, Izberbash and Kaspiysk in Dagestan. Some of the Kumyks live in urban-type settlements: Tarki, Tyube, Leninkent, Kyahulai, Alburikent, Shamkhal, Mana-skent. Relatively large groups, numbering more than 22 thousand people, Kumyks live in the Gudermes and Grozny regions of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and the Mozdok region of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania. A small part of them settled in the Stavropol Territory, Tyumen Region Russian Federation, as well as in neighboring countries - Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.

Extremely rich and varied natural world Kumyk plane, foothills and coast. The main rivers crossing the lands of the Kumyks are Terek, Sulak, Shura, Ulluchay, Gamri, Manas, Aksai, Aktash. Terek and Sulak bring water to the Caspian Sea, other rivers dry up in summer or are completely taken apart for irrigation.

Forest species composition is quite diverse: oak, hornbeam, beech, poplar, alder, elm, ash, walnut, cherry plum, dogwood. Of the shrubs, medlar, wild rose, hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel (hazelnut), blackberry, and grapes predominate.

The fauna of Kumykia is also diverse. Wild boars, saigas, wolves, jackals, badgers, foxes, hares, hedgehogs, weasels live here.

The bird world is represented by field sparrows, pigeons, eagles, magpies, swallows, tits, ducks, geese.

In river reservoirs and the Caspian Sea there are different kinds fish: sturgeon, beluga, sterlet, carp, carp, pike, kutum, bream, salmon, rudd, mullet, asp, pike perch, perch, catfish. Here, catching herring and sprat has long been of great commercial importance.

Great attention of the state and the public is demanded by unique natural monuments associated with the formation of the cultural heritage of the people. These include the sandy Sary-Kum mountain, the Tarki-Tau mountain, the Talgin, Kayakent mineral and mud springs, the Agrakhan Bay.

Kumyk settlements

Before cities appeared on the Kumyk plain, the main settlements of the Kumyks, as well as other peoples of Dagestan, were villages. They carried in their name a binding to the location. So, among the northern Kumyks, their names ended in yurt(Khasavyurt, Babayurt, Botayurt, Adilyangiyurt, Sultanyangiyurt, Karlanyurt, etc.), the southern Kumyks have "kent" and "gent" (Bashlykent, Kayakent, Yangikent, Usemikent, Alkhodzhakent, etc.). The Kumyks also have a word aul(Endireyaul, Kandauraul, Chontaul, Nutsalaul, Halimbekaul, Muslimaul, Agachaul, etc.).

Botayurt became the most famous village of Kumyks in agricultural terms after the construction of the Sulak-Yuzbash Canal in 1874-1875 - Koysuv tatavul- (Koisuv ditch.) This canal, 60 miles long, passed in the middle of the village of Botayurt.

Its presence gave the Bota-Yurt residents the opportunity to keep moisture-loving animals in the courtyard: draft buffaloes and dairy buffaloes. Draft buffaloes delighted cabbies with their mighty strength. They carried heavy loads from Botayurt to the city of Khasavyurt, from there to the city of Kizlyar and back.

A similar occupation of cabbies arbachs called to carry kire(cargo), and peasant cabbies were called kirechi. They harnessed buffaloes, oxen and horses, depending on what kind of cargo they carry where. Gamish arba- a cart drawn by buffaloes, ogyuz arba- a wagon drawn by oxen at arba- horse carriage. Kirechi were hired by wealthy entrepreneurs and received money for their work, unlike plowmen - sabanchy who worked in the field. Sabanchy- plowman, arbachy-cab, suvchu- waterer, bavchu-gardener, Tuvarches-shepherd, koichu-shepherd were the main professions of the Bota-Yurt people.

The most interesting Kumyk settlements - farms also had their own names depending on the place of foundation - flock among the Khasavyurt Kumyks (Germenchikotar, Chagarotar, Adilyotar, Kachuvotar, etc.) and mahi all other Kumyks. The inhabitants who settled here were residents of nearby large auls, who bred cattle and sowed grain on the "Otar" lands.

Gradually, large settled farms grew out of temporary small farms of 5-10 households, losing dependence on those auls from where the farmers had once moved. This is how large villages were formed from small farms, retaining their origin in the name.

Since the 50s of the XX century, during the Soviet era, these settlements have grown so much that many of them did not differ from other large villages either in the number of inhabitants, or in the type of buildings, or in their cultural appearance, although they continue to bear the old names to this day. flock.

And the large, large villages of the Kumyks, in turn, also consisted of the so-called quarters. So, in Endirey there were 8 quarters that exist to this day: Borag'anaul, Ariberiaul, Tyumenchogar, Aydemirchog'ar, Temirchog'ar, Adilgereichog'ar, Salaaul, Mukhaul.

In one of the oldest villages in Dagestan, the original capital of the Khazar Khaganate, in the past the second most important military-strategic and trading point of Dagestan (after Derbent) and once the capital of the largest feudal principality in Dagestan - the Shamkhalct of Tarkovsky - the village of Tarki, there were 8 auls: Chogaraul, Dorgeraul, Utgchulakaaul, Bazaraul, Gyuntiymesaul, Tebebashaul, Bakaaul, Issisuvaul.

Each quarter had its own head, the princely family, who ruled and looked after the order on their territory.

The development of capitalism rapidly changed appearance Kumyk villages. New neighborhoods, streets, new shopping arcades began to appear. Visiting the cities of Russia, rich Kumyks: merchants and landowners - adopted the experience of building residential buildings and commercial premises and already built their houses and trading establishments in an urban way.

On the main street stood the Juma mosque with a high minaret, where all the important questions of the villagers were usually resolved. This street is always called ulluoram(among the northern Kumyks) or ulluelchi(among the southern Kumyks). It was always a little wider than the other secondary streets, and lined with the best houses.

These transformations were especially clearly manifested in the example of the ancient Kumyk village of Aksai (Yakhsai).

The village of Yakhsay consisted of quarters: Alekeyaul, Zagyaul, Kamaraul, Oruskhanaul, Pokluaul, Sabanaiaul, Tobenaul, Tyumenaul, Chagaraul. At the beginning of the 20th century, a new quarter appeared in the village, named after the founders - the German colonists, Nemis-kyutyur (that is, a German farm).

Pre-revolutionary Yakhsay became known as one of the craft centers of the North Caucasus. At the beginning of the 20th century, in the villages Yakhsay had about 50 commercial, industrial and handicraft enterprises: leather manufactories, workshops, factories for firing bricks and tiles. Merchants of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd guilds lived in the village, through whose efforts foreign goods also got here.

By the end of the XIX century. Yakhsay becomes a fairly large settlement for that period, having the main stone-paved street Tash-oram (stone street). Tash-Oram ran past the bridge over the Yakhsaysuv River to the square with the Juma Mosque, opened in 1856, and the madrasah. On both sides of the street there were a school, a pharmacy, a chain of stores, a hotel, as well as one-two-story stone, tiled houses.

In 1879, an elementary Russian school was opened in Yakhsay. The villagers at their own expense repaired 18 rooms of the state-owned building, transferred to the society for the opening of the school.

As a result of many years of communication as neighbors with the Russian people - the Terek Cossacks and peasant peasants in the houses of the Yakhsay people next to kyoruk oven a Russian stove appeared in the courtyard in the house, a bed - instead of tahtamek, table, chairs, samovar, kerosene lamp - instead of sham chirak.

In the same years, several Muslim schools operated in the village, where Arabic and Turkish languages, arithmetic, history, geography, logic and other subjects were studied. Yakhsay has also been known since the 19th century as one of the religious centers of Dagestan. The best experts in the Arabic-speaking sciences were involved in teaching in the rural madrasah.

The most famous of the teachers of the madrasah is sala-uzden Yusup-kadi (Haji-Yusup) Klychev, better known as Yusup Yakhsaysky. He was a prominent theologian, Arabic scholar and author of works on philosophy and logic, knew medicine well, and was considered one of the prominent religious opponents of Imam Shamil. Yusup Yakhsaysky in the fight against muridism was supported by Said Arakansky, Mama-Gishi-Bek Endireysky, Mirza-tagi-mullah of Derbent, Ayub-kadi Dzhengutai, Nurmagomed-kadi Khunzakhsky, Barka-kadi Kakamakhinsky, Zukhum-kadi Akushinsky, Aslan-kadi Tsudakharsky and others .

In 1887, for the first time in the history of this Kumyk village, a state census was conducted here. According to it, there were 1182 households in Yakhsay, where 6610 people lived. Of these, there were 6200 peasants, 135 biys and chanks, 216 artisans, 39 clergy. In those years, 758 lived in Yakhsay zhuvut(Jews), 131 tinkers (Laks), 23 michygysh(Chechens). Shops - stalls ( putkalar) there were 50, mills - 11, mosques - 10.

Such a rapid production growth of Yakhsay marked the beginning of cultural and educational growth. To this day it is called the village of generals, poets and ministers. So, the ranks of generals in pre-revolutionary times were awarded to 5 Yakhsai. In Soviet times, 18 natives of the village received the military rank of colonel. In 1918, Yusup Hajiyev was appointed Minister of Finance of the Provisional Government of Dagestan. In Soviet times, this village gave three more ministers: Akhmed Ozdeadzhiev - agriculture, Khalit Magidov - education and Kandaur Akavov - agricultural machinery.

The poets and writers of Yakhsay are represented by the names of Magomed-effendi Osmanov, Manai Alibekov, Abdulla Magomedov, Alim-Pasha Salavatov, Bagavdin Astemirov, Abdul-Vagab Suleimanov, Sharip Alberiev, Sirazdin Tokbolatov, Murad Aji and others, in the field of art - Hamid Rustamov, Baysoltan Osaev, Biymurza Mantaev, Nariman Akavov and others. Many scientists, well-known doctors, athletes, etc. also came out of Yakhsay.

The ancient Kumyk village of Erpeli is located in a picturesque, amazingly beautiful area. Excellent natural and climatic conditions, soft mountains with dense herbage, stretching from south to west, make it possible to keep here tens of thousands of cattle and small cattle, herds of horses. There are numerous springs, and at the foot - age-old forests. The mountains of Ismailtau, Apke, Tavyol, Yassy-but, Madigin, Salatau, Belbuvgan, Zhangere and others are the pride of the Erpelins. Brown bears, wild boars, gazelles, hares, badgers, foxes, wolves, squirrels and many other wild animals and birds lived in the forests. In the forests, the Erpelins prepared firewood for the winter, building materials.

Now the forests are under strict protection. Gas is now used for heating. Three rivers flow from the foot of the mountains: Chernaya - Karaozen, Belaya - Akyozen and Severnaya - Artozen, cutting the village into three parts.

There are also inexplicable miracles... On the left slope of the mountain called Buzluyurek (Ice Heart), nature dug a tunnel, the end of which no one has yet seen. There is always water in this tunnel. In summer it turns into strong ice, and in winter it melts, but does not flow anywhere!

But Erpeli is famous not so much for nature as for its hospitable and friendly people. For a long time, in the lower reaches of the Erpelin mountains, Avars lived in 3 or 5-7 houses, feeding at the expense of household plots and livestock. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Erpelins invited them all to the village, gave them the best irrigated lands for farming on the western edge of the village, helped them settle in a new place, and accepted them into the collective farm. Now their houses alternate with the houses of the Erpelins, and they themselves intermarried with the locals as a result of marriage unions. Erpeli is one of the largest international villages in the Caucasus. Armenians, Iranians (Persians), Karachays, Tatars, Russians and representatives of almost all nationalities of Dagestan live here.

Therefore, it is not surprising that dynasties of famous statesmen of imperial Russia, the mighty USSR and today's Russia were born on such a land and in such conditions. This can be seen in the example of the Apashev-Beksultanov family.

Daniyal Apashev (born in 1870 in the village of Erpeli, Temir-Khan-Shurinsky District) was a major public and political figure in Dagestan in 1914–1920. Commandant of the city of Temir-Khan-Shura, Chairman of the Parliament of the Mountain Republic (1919–1920). Shot by the Cheka.

Suyunchgirey Apashev is the eldest son of Daniyal Apashev, a volunteer of the legendary Wild Division (Dagestan Cavalry Regiment). He died in Austria in 1915. Buried at home, in the village. Erpeli.

Magomed Apashev is the youngest son of Daniyal Apashev. At the age of 14 he was forced to run away from home. When the Cheka officers came for Magomed, he was already far from Temir-Khan-Shura. From Baku, his father's kunaks transported him to Central Asia, to Tashkent. In 1926–1931 studied at the Central Asian Institute of Mechanization (Tashkent), where he graduated with honors and became a specialist in internal combustion engines. From 1933 he worked at the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant - the famous ChTZ. In 1939 - postgraduate studies at the Moscow Automotive Institute. The recognition of the scientific achievements of the Doctor of Technical Sciences Magomed Daniyalovich Apashev was his appointment in 1950 as the head of the department for engines for launching rockets at the Institute of Engines of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He formed a scientific school of 19 doctors and more than 30 candidates of sciences, published more than 200 scientific papers, 2 textbooks for high school, according to one of them, students of a number of universities, including foreign ones, are successfully studying today.

M. D. Apashev received more than 15 patents for inventions in the field of rocket science and spacecraft. Almost all of his scientific work is still strictly classified.

Abdulzagir Beksultanov is an energetic, tireless worker who transferred all his savings during the Great Patriotic War - 25,000 rubles - to the State Bank to help the Red Army, for which he received a letter of thanks from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin. The letter was published in the newspaper "Dagestanskaya Pravda", No. 43 (6569) dated March 1, 1944, is located in the National Library. R. Gamzatova.

Kamil Apashev is the uncle of the Beksultanov brothers. During the Great Patriotic War he was a battalion commander. He died a heroic death in the battles for Sevastopol.

Beksultanov Aburagim Abdulzagirovich - the elder brother, who for many years successfully headed the largest, multinational Khasavyurt district.

Beksultanov Abdulbasir Abdulzagirovich - Honored Builder of the Republic, at the head of the PMK for short term rebuilt the village of Pervomaiskoye, which was destroyed as a result of an attack by militants in 1996.

Beksultanov Beksultan Abdulzagirovich is a courageous, cheerful person, director of the College of Finance and Economics (Makhachkala).

Beksultanov Kamil Beksultanovich - Director of the Department for Financing State Programs and accounting Ministry of Regional Development of Russia. Lives and works in Moscow.

Ancient Kumyk villages, located near caravan routes, were often invaded and destroyed by numerous conquerors - Tamerlane, Genghis Khan, Nadir Shah, tsarist army times of imperial Russia and even their warlike neighbors.

Among them, a special place is occupied by the village of Aksai, destroyed by order of Yermolov in 1818, the village of Endirey, destroyed in 1722 by the army of Peter the Great, in 1877 the South Kumyk village of Bashly was burned. The people composed a song in which there are such lines:

Auls of fat-bridles were razed to the ground,

Black beards turned white.

The men were nice

Now they are trampled on by the unworthy.

The Mahdi case is ruined

His own naibs.

Glorious was the city of Bashly,

Now there are only cliffs around it.

After six years of hard hardships spent in forest huts and dugouts, the Bashlins were amnestied, but they were forbidden to restore one common village. At first, the tsarist authorities were going to settle them in six places, then, at the request of the population, a decision was made to found three villages. At the same time, each tukhum (kind), by decree of the district administration, was divided into three parts, each of which was allocated a certain place in one of the auls, but it was strictly forbidden for the whole family to settle compactly.

Struggling with the memory of the uprising and going even to ban the restoration of Bashly, the tsarist administration did not take into account one thing - the ancient city, destroyed to the ground, perished, but did not submit.

In total, representatives of 2852 families participated in the uprising in the Kaitago-Tabasaran district. For the purpose of their additional punishment, they began to collect a penalty fee of three rubles from the yard annually. Considering that a cow in those years cost from 6 to 8 rubles, then it was a lot of money.

The Caucasian war, and then the land decrees of the tsarist administration, were also the reason for the division of the once entire territory of the Kumyk plain. Thus, several Kumyk villages were assigned to the Terek region. Now these villages are located on the territory of present-day Chechnya - Braguny, Darbankhi - New Braguny, the city of Gudermes, Gudermes district, with. Bammatyurt (Grape) Grozny rural area; in Ossetia settlements Kizlyar (Bekish-yurt / Bekovichi / Kuchuk-yurt), Borasuvotar, Malgobekotar.

In the Mozdok district, the village of Kuchukurt, the director of the secondary secondary school For many years Rasul Aliyev has been selflessly engaged in the preservation and promotion of the cultural and historical heritage of the Kumyk people, contributes to the placement of gifted children - school graduates in universities in Moscow and Dagestan, finds patrons for the sports teams of the village, so that the connection between generations is not interrupted even for a minute ...

Kumyks also live in the city of Malgobek in Ingushetia. Here, near the village of Plievo, is located Borga Kas- The mausoleum of the Bragun khans, a sacred place - ziyarat with an inscription on the walls, sayings from the Koran in Arabic, dated 808 AH, i.e. 1405-1406, and the name of the buried (last) - Bek-Sultan b. Slim-over.

Great trials with fire and sword fell to the lot of the Braguns - Terek Kumyks, as they are called now. The huge hordes of the Mongol-Tatar commander, the Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh and the Central Asian conqueror Tamerlane - Aksak Temir left their terrible mark on the memory of our people. And the most terrible misfortune of that time, which overtook our ancestors and almost the entire North Caucasus, was the plague (bubonic plague - black death). But the people did not disappear. The survivors of our ancestors, one by one and in groups, gathered and again restored their villages. Braguns defended their land - a tribe of Borgans, descendants of the Barsils. In the most difficult conditions of hostilities and terrible diseases, the Braguns survived and live in these villages now, on their native Tersko-Sulak plain.

The power of the Braguns was inherited. The Khudainad dynasty ruled them until the end of the 19th century, until the establishment of Soviet power in the North Caucasus. The last prince of the Braguns was Umalat Taymazov, a descendant of Khudainad. He built a mosque in the village. Braguns at that time. Now the mosque has been restored and is functioning. The imam here is a student of Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov Magomed - Sharip-Khadzhi Mur-tazaliev.

During the Great Patriotic War, the braguns all stood up to defend their homeland: militia men at the front, women and old people in the rear at work on the construction of fortifications in front of the fascists advancing on the Caucasus. 180 people from the Braguns went to the front, 86 of them did not return. Four: Aliev, Huseykhanov, Mamaev and Mezhidov were awarded the highest soldier's awards - the Order of Glory. In 1946, for participation in work on the labor front, they were awarded medals "For the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945." 97 people - old people, women, teenagers, 9 braguns were awarded the medal "For the Defense of the Caucasus".

The harsh mountains of the Caucasus,

Embraced by eternal war

Rattles and roars majestically

Your voice is so disobedient.

They throw themselves on the trunk,

Ready to join the fight.

The sea is wearily splashing,

Rushing to the steep shore.

People live in the Caucasus

Fortified by the friendship of centuries.

Interlinear translation from the Kumyk language by M.Atabaev ("Boragunts")

One can support the words of Akhmat Khubiev, a history teacher from the villages. The braguns of the Gudermessky district of Chechnya: “I think the main thing is that the braguns currently live in peace, are confident in their security, feel the strength and justice of the authorities, and this is a great achievement, this is the result of the activities of the presidential team headed by Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov. Every inhabitant of the ancient Bragun tribe thinks so.”

During Caucasian War large, well-protected villages also got it. So it happened with the village of Tarki, which was heavily devastated by the raids of the first Imam of Dagestan, Kazi-Magomed, and later by the Murids, Imam Shamil. In order to protect the people from extermination and slavery, Shamkhal Abu Muslim Khan of Tarkov at the height of hostilities in Dagestan prophetically urged the Kumyks to remain faithful and devotion to Russia. Imam Shamil, towards the end of his life, repented that he had been at war with such a strong power as Russia for 25 years.

The wars that swept across the Kumyk Plain and throughout Dagestan caused serious damage to the economy and economy of the region, depleted material and human resources, and halted the development of the Land of Mountains.

Only in alliance with a strong and powerful European state with a developed economy and advanced culture did the peoples of Dagestan see their future and in the middle of the 19th century finally became part of Russia.

How did the Kumyks live and what did they do

Favorable natural and climatic conditions of the Kumyk plane contributed to the development of agriculture and animal husbandry. Farming was the main occupation. They grew wheat, barley, millet, corn.

In the spring, all the inhabitants of the villages unanimously went out into the field to start arable work. The day of the first furrow was celebrated with special solemnity. Made the first furrow bereketly- a peasant who was experienced, lucky, getting a good harvest.

The labor custom of the Kumyks is to invite relatives or neighbors to work hard. This custom is called bulka. The poor - the peasants united for the time of plowing two or three farms, together they used bulls and agricultural implements. This kind of help was called ortak.

Kumyks planted pumpkins, watermelons, melons, beans, cucumbers in spring.

After sowing seeds, be sure to water the entire field. Autumn watering was considered the most valuable. No wonder the Kumyks put together a proverb: "Gyuz suv - yuz suv"(Autumn watering - a hundredfold watering). To irrigate the fields, the peasants used sources located nearby: rivers, springs, they led channels and ditches from them to the fields.

soil tarlava farmers irrigated the sowing field along the ditches dug kumuk bel iron, bayonet shovel with a foot pedal. The ditch was called tatavul. There were el tatavul- a common channel for all, bash tatavul- head ditch airyk tatavul- drainage ditch.

Through the plowed field tarlav from the very beginning to its end, a deep cut was made with an iron plow - qaramuk. It served to drain water between the ridges of arable land.

Surface and deep irrigation was used, depending on the time of year and the crop that was sown in this area of ​​the field. In the first case, the waterer passed the water through the furrows quickly, preventing it from soaking into the soil, in the second case, in the right place karamukya(slit) he did buvgan(dam) so that the water stops and seeps deep into the soil. At the same time, the sprinkler suvchu with his inseparable shovel kumuk bel with a pedal leveled the bulges and lowlands that arose in this section of the field, which could lead to the formation of puddles or under-irrigation.

The peasant determined the time of watering the growing corn by its stems: if they turned black, then they needed moisture, and if they turned yellow, then they were waterlogged and did not need water.

Haymaking was carried out in the last days of May. Only men mowed. Harvest everywhere with sickles, and rare herbs were harvested with a scythe. Hay was dried right there in the field.

After the end of the harvest, the bread was taken to the threshing floor. indir. At the same time, a current was prepared for threshing. The threshing was carried out very carefully with the help of threshing boards - balbular seated with flint stones. Bulls or buffaloes walked for almost a whole day with threshing boards on sheaves spread throughout the current so that the grain was separated from the straw. Right there on the current, according to Muslim custom, the peasants allocated a tenth of the harvest - sunset- for the mosque in favor of the needy.

Land and irrigation water were the main, most valuable asset of the peasants - sabanchy. The lands adjacent to the water had great fertility and allowed their inhabitants to successfully engage in arable farming. The temperate climate of the region was quite conducive to this.

Peasants - grain growers grew several varieties of wheat: ak budai- white wheat saree budai - sex (yellow) wheat, arysh budai- rye. Also sown: arpa- barley, sulu- oats, tari- millet, gabizhai- corn, grew orchards and vineyards, were engaged in melon growing, grew madder, a plant that gives dyes, - boyav tamur.

Gardeners cultivated different varieties of apples, pears, plums, apricots, peaches, and quince. Local pears were known: tavukbut gharmut- Chicken's leg, gulgan- flower, guzluk gharmut- autumn. The apples were called suite alma - dairy, kiiz alma - felt, kyzyl alma - red, turshlu alma- sweet and sour. There were two varieties of apricots: kaysyn kyurege- sweet-bone apricots and mutter kurege- bitter-bone, dried apricots. Yazlyk kokan, guzlyuk kokan, alcha kokan- varieties of local plums.

Peasants planted local varieties of corn: kyrk gunlyuk- forty days saree gabijay- yellow corn ak gabizhay- white corn.

Fat, juicy pastures of the Kumyk plane favored the breeding of cows, bulls, buffalos, horses and even camels. Buffalo milk was especially valued for its high fat content and high nutritional value. Especially delicious was sour cream made from buffalo milk.

We also had buffaloes at home Hamoush. They are one and a half times larger than cows, they have large semicircular horns and very kind, attentive eyes. We named the little buffaloes gödek. Adults instructed us to take care of our animals: clean up after them, feed and water them, scrub them with a special brush, they loved this very much.

My mother and grandmother raised chickens, ducks and turkeys. Everything was different in our family - bread, meat, milk, sour cream, cottage cheese, eggs, vegetables and fruits.

traditional housing

Kumyk dwelling - wow There were three types: one-story - erden uy, one and a half storey - curchi uy and two-storey eki kat uy. Two-story dwellings predominated in the foothill zone. The main building material was straw, reeds, clay, pebbles.

In places with forests and mountains, the Kumyks built buildings using stone and wood: mosques, merchant houses, administrative buildings are still preserved in Endirey. In the past, in the dwellings of the poor, the rooms did not have windows. They were replaced by a small hole in the roof or above the door.

In rich houses, windows were made, and they, as a rule, went out into the courtyard. Only the blank walls of the houses went out into the street.

The houses were oriented to the south. This helped protect the inhabitants from the direct rays of the sun in the summer, and from cold winds in the winter, protecting the inhabitants from drafts.

Under Soviet rule, Kumyk housing has changed significantly. Instead of a flat adobe roof, there is now a gable tiled roof. The interior of the house has also changed. Instead of a wall-mounted hearth, which gave almost no heat, stoves of a special design with an oven and a cast-iron stove were installed.

They heated the stoves with brushwood and firewood collected in the forest. It was not an easy, difficult task to go to the forest every day to collect firewood, in any weather. First, chop, then load on a cart, then, bringing home, break it again, chop it into small logs, put it in stock.

Under Soviet rule, gasification began to develop in Russia, and through the efforts of the Hero of Socialist Labor Ilmutdin Nasrutdinov and his son Nasrutdin Ilmutdinovich, the inhabitants of Dagestan were among the first in the country to use gas, a wonderful blue fuel.

What did the Kumyks eat and drink?

The main food products of the Kumyks were agricultural products: flour - wheat, barley, corn, cereals - wheat, corn, millet, as well as beans, rice and livestock products - meat, fat, butter, milk, sour cream, cottage cheese, cheese. They also consumed poultry meat, hunted game, caught fish - balyk: bekra(sturgeon), yayin(catfish), irgai(salmon), chorpan(pike), carp(carp). Fish was eaten boiled, fried, dried. Old people say that dried fish was even used to make khinkal.

Cornmeal was then the main food product in the peasant family. Wheat flour was consumed only by rich Kumyks.

From corn flour, women prepared a round and flat cake, called michari, and haltama- dumplings and bulamuk- hominy. Corn dough was baked in a low-power bakery - kyoruk firewood fired.

Kyoryuk- this is actually a Kumyk invention, it differs from the Central Asian or Transcaucasian tandoor, deepened into the ground. Kyoryuk is built in a specially allocated by the owner room in the yard, more often under a canopy at the gate. This is done so that neighboring women who do not have the opportunity to build a kyoruk and provide it with firewood can also use it. From the swirling smoke, the neighbors learned that the kyoruk was heated, and hurried there with their dough - some from corn, and some from wheat flour.

From corn flour, women skillfully prepared michari- churek. It had a rounded shape with a diameter of 20–25 centimeters, a thickness of about two centimeters, and a weight of more than a kilogram. Yarty michari, sav sogan, which means: “Half a micari and a whole head of an onion is the norm for a man,” people joked with such a saying, emphasizing the “virtues” of a corn churek that causes heartburn and does not long maintain a feeling of satiety.

From wheat flour they baked their daily bread, called etmekom. There were different varieties of etmek. They were named like this: kysyr etmek- product made from unleavened dough, hamur etmek- a product made from fermented dough, miles etmek- puff stuffed with melted butter, kalach- a ball, dopeyna- bun without filling, chapilek- a product baked in the form of a flat mug from unleavened or sour dough. Chapilek can also be made from cornmeal. Mavarik, katlanchyk, lokum, minav, solak, yymyshaklar are also bread products made from wheat flour.

Kumyk women know how to cook different soups - shor-palar. They are basically the following: burchak shorpa- bean soup with dried meat, ilashgy- noodles with chicken meat, dugu shorpa- rice - milk soup, kabak shorpa- black pumpkin pulp soup with milk, cheese - gyinkal cheese- soup with dumplings, uvmach shorpa, shorpa tea- flour soups without meat, balyk shorpa- fish soup like Russian fish soup, kyozukulak shorpa- sorrel soup like green borscht, kurze- a kind of dumplings stuffed with minced meat aged in vinegar - hantse, tavuk shorpa- chicken soup with boiled onions.

Chudu is a favorite dish of the Kumyks, made from unleavened wheat flour dough in the form of a thin, flat, plate-sized mug with various fillings. There are: at a miracle- a miracle with meat, karyn miracle- a miracle with tripe, bishlak miracle- a miracle with cottage cheese, kabak miracle- miracle with pumpkin, whose miracle- with sour milk sogan miracle- a miracle with a bow, from a wild bow - haliyar to a miracle, kychytgan to a miracle- a miracle with nettles, working on a miracle- a miracle with a quinoa, stuffed with horse sorrel - atkulak miracle and many more varieties.

Of the sweet foods, the Kumyks preferred halva - gyaliva. It is prepared in different varieties: dugi-gyaliva- halvah from rice flour, ungaliva- from wheat flour qoz-gyaliva- from nuts, uvmach-gyaliva- from grains of dough seasoned with honey - ball, tushap.

The biggest delicacy for rural children was watermelon jam or syrup - tushap. It was made from the pulp of watermelons. The day when stewap was cooked was a holiday for rural children. They ate plenty of watermelons, having come to that yard where women on a hot fire otagya- a hearth dug in the ground, in a large vessel sylapchy, similar to a shallow round trough, boiled watermelon juice until it became syrup, and then watermelon honey - tushap.

To get what you need for one family tushapa I had to cut hundreds of watermelons. Cut watermelons became a tasty morsel for the children who gathered in the yard of the one who cooked the stew that day.

Artistic crafts and crafts

Possessing the centuries-old knowledge of their ancestors and good raw material base, the Kumyks mastered all the intricacies of processing raw materials and manufacturing finished products. So, wool was used to make cloth, patterned felt rugs, carpets, cotton was used to make fabrics for clothes, silk was used to make scarves, belts, threads; sheepskin - for clothes, hats.

The seamstresses from Yakhsay were well-known throughout the Caucasus for knitting silk scarves. chille tastar and carpets made of camel wool. A wealthy part of them was famous for embroideries made of gold and silver threads.

Animal skins were of great importance for the manufacture of clothing. From the skins of sheep and sheep - sheepskins, the Kumyks made men's hats, fur coats, from the skin of cattle and goats - shoes.

Carpet weaving

Among domestic crafts, carpet weaving occupied a large place. The Kumyks wove both pile carpets - khali, and pile-free - smooth double-sided carpets, known as doom, patterned felt carpets - arbabash. In addition, woolen bags were made - dorbalar, kaplar, carry-on bags - khurzhun, blankets - chul, saddle mats, as well as felted felts - kiiz, sweatshirts - terlik, prayer rugs - namazlyk, simple cloaks - yamchular, as well as mats - chipta and etc.

The centers of carpet production were Tarki, Kumtorkala, Endirey, Lower Kazanishe, Upper Kazanishche, Kayakent. Felt production was especially developed among the northern Kumyks.

Of the carpet products of the Kumyks, lint-free one-sided carpets, known as sumac. The ornament of the carpets is mainly geometric, it is distinguished by the originality of the pattern and coloring. Northern Kumyks also make felt rugs decorated with geometric and floral ornaments.

Along with smooth carpets, striped, so-called kayakent carpets. They were produced and are now produced mainly in the villages. Kayakent. As well as thoughts, they are bilateral, dense and covered with an ornament. According to experts, Kayakent rugs were previously recognized as true masterpieces of carpet art.

The most typical for Kumyk carpet weaving can be considered a kind of felt carpet - arbabash with incised pattern. Arbabashi were 1.5–2 meters wide and 2 to 5 meters long. They were usually made from two felts of the same size, previously dyed in different colors. For khurzhun, kap And dorba the same woolen yarn was used as for carpets.

woodworking

Walnut and apricot trees growing on the Kumyk Plain and in the foothills were used to make household items: troughs designed to knead the dough - kershen, chara, trays - tep-si, buckets - chelek, barrels - cherme, spoons - kashyk, steps - ayak; furnishings: small chairs and stools with four legs, bunks - takhtemek occupying almost a third of the room.

Wicker barns for storing grain and flour were of great use in the economy - bezhen, large baskets without a bottom, which were placed on a cart for transporting corn cobs and chaff - chaly, small baskets with a wicker bottom - even.

Metal processing. Arms production

Even in ancient times, the Kumyks knew how to mine iron ore and get iron from it. For the needs of agriculture, blacksmiths made sickles - orac, braids - chalgy, axes - bantha, plowshares - saban temir, horseshoes - cash, knives - bichak, shovels with a narrow end - white, later - hoops on the wheels of carts.

The steel-forging workshop of a Kumyk was equipped almost in the same way as a similar workshop of a Kubachin or Amuzgin. Arms production among the Kumyks had its own centers, while there were steel workshops in almost every village. Upper Kazanishche, Tarki, Endirey were the centers of arms production within Kumykia. "Andreev's village is now a peaceful aul, famous for the manufacture of Asian weapons," P. Khitsunov wrote about Endirey in the newspaper "Kavkaz" (1846, No. 16).

Men's and women's clothing

The light underwear men's clothing of the Kumyks was a long shirt - goilek and pants - ishtan. They were sewn from simple cotton fabrics. Over the shirt - beshmet - captal. Beshmet was sewn from dark matter - cotton, woolen or silk. Beshmet gradually replaced caucasian shirt with front closure and stand-up collar. A Circassian was worn on a beshmet or shirt - chopken, which was sewn from semi-woven fabrics. In winter, a sheepskin coat was worn over a beshmet or Circassian tone. Going on a journey in bad weather, the Kumyks, like many other peoples of the Caucasus, put on a thick cloth cap over their hats - hood, pointed hood with long lobed stripes on both sides for tying at the neck. The headdress of the Kumyks was a sheepskin hat - a papakha.

Shoes: light morocco boots, chariks, shoes with thick soles. Boys, starting from five to seven years old, wore the same clothes, with the exception of a burka and a hood. In the cold season, the boys put on toshluk- a type of padded jacket or sleeveless jacket made of silk or wool.

Kumyk women's clothing was more diverse. Underwear: ich gölek And Byurushme Gölek- long shirts belt clothes - harem pants or wide trousers. Top dress of several types: swing dress, arsar, slip dress, half, fancy dress type arsara, kabalai.

Kumyks wore a bandage on their heads chutku. On top of it - a silk, woolen, tulle or chintz scarf - yavluk.

The woman's shoes were woolen socks. zhorab home knitting and morocco dudes - machiiler. Over the dude, women in winter and in bad weather, going out into the street, put on leather galoshes kalushlar or shoes - shoemaker. Girls from five to seven years old wore the same clothes as young women. Unlike women who loved strict colors, they sewed clothes in brighter colors and bought colorful scarves. Chutku girls could not wear until 10-11 years old.

Cosmetics: white - both and blush - engilik. They especially loved to line their eyes, eyebrows and eyelashes with antimony - surme, which was also treated for eye diseases. Many women, especially older ones, dyed their hair with henna. This was done both for beauty and to strengthen the hair roots. It was believed that henna also helps with headaches.

Family

Since ancient times, the Kumyks have built family life on the basis of the Koran and Sharia. Religion obliges a person to be cultured in relation to his relatives and neighbors, to people of a different nationality. A person who prays should not speak bad words, behave badly at home and in public, drink alcohol, try drugs and smoke. Must be clean, study well, play sports, respect and help elders, not offend younger and domestic animals, not break trees.

The family has always been highly valued and appreciated by the Kumyks, and marriage was a necessity.

The family is the basis of any tukhum (clan) and a guarantee of a secure old age. Among the Kumyks, as well as among other nations professing Islam, marriage was considered a sacred duty of a Muslim: "A person who is married has more merit before God than the most devout Muslim who remains a bachelor."

The free communication of youth among the Kumyks was somewhat constrained by the norms of adats. But, despite this, young men and women always found an opportunity to meet - at the time of harvesting or haymaking, during the dressing of skins, at the spring, where the girls went for water. At the spring, a kind of review of brides by young people often took place. The girls put on the most elegant dresses when they went for water. In the morning and in the evening it was a kind of parade of dressed-up girls. Young people could exchange a few words with them here, exchange glances. More courageous young men could ask the girl for a drink.

Communication of young people at the spring, as well as at various entertainment events, holidays contributed to a certain freedom in choosing the bride and groom. The marriageable age for girls was 16–17, sometimes 14–15 or even 12–13. For boys, the normal age for marriage was 16–18 years. The husband was supposed to be older than his wife by 3-5 years.

Of great importance was and is the social and national identity of the bride and groom. When concluding a marriage, they necessarily paid attention to the origin and pedigree of the future family partner. The same importance was attached to health: whether there are chronic diseases in the family. The wife had to be of a pure, good lineage - not to be illegitimate or ill-behaved; to perform the rites of the Muslim faith; retained her virginity; if a widow and an undivorced wife, to be able to have children.

The social status of the bride's parents was necessarily taken into account: they are poor, middle peasants or rich. Usually this question was approached like this: I have two bulls, and they have two bulls, which means it fits. They tried to ask for a daughter from someone who has two bulls, not four. The one who has four bulls will look for an equal groom. So the conversation began with people equal in all respects.

If one of the poor, for some reason, married the daughter of a representative of the upper class, then he had to obey his wife in everything. She and her family often reproached him for his poor origin. All this led to frequent family quarrels. A woman from a poor class who married a rich man endured reproaches, abuse, humiliation, insults and bullying from her husband and his relatives.

But the decisive word in choosing a bride or groom belonged to the parents. The girl should have a good character and hard work, with deep respect for her husband's parents. When choosing a bride, they necessarily paid attention to her labor skills, which were observed during the participation of the girl in various jobs.

The parents of the future groom and his relatives were eyeing the girls long before the matchmaking. During collective work women, especially those who had the intention of wooing, watched the girls, their hard work. They told such a case. One very poor woman wanted to find a good bride for her only son, who would know the price of hard-earned bread. Disguised as a beggar, she entered every house where there was a marriageable daughter, and asked to give her the leftovers after kneading the dough. Several girls brought her whole troughs of such leftovers. And one girl apologized and said that she does not have such leftovers, but she can give her flour. The woman thanked her and sent matchmakers to this house.

Having a daughter-in-law and continuing to take care of the household was considered unworthy of a mother-in-law. It was considered unacceptable if the daughter-in-law got up in the morning later than the mother-in-law. She could not sit idle while her mother-in-law took care of the household. The main concern of the mother-in-law was the observance of customs and traditions in the family, looking after children.

Sometimes marriage was carried out by escaping a boy and a girl or kidnapping a bride.

The groom's parents themselves could not woo the bride. To do this, they chose one of their respected acquaintances. According to custom, the matchmaker visited the bride's house several times. Sometimes small children were taken in marriage.

Payment was required kalyma(bride price). Kalym was divided into two approximately equal parts. Half went to "reimburse" the bride's family, the other was intended for her to provide herself with the necessary household. The girl, in addition, was supposed to have a dowry, consisting of household utensils and livestock. After all property agreements, the day of the official betrothal of the bride was appointed - geleshmek.

In its form, the betrothal was in the nature of a solemn act of notifying relatives, relatives, fellow villagers about the intention of two families to become related, therefore, not only relatives, but also many fellow villagers were invited. After him, none of the parties could refuse marriage without good reasons. At the betrothal celebration, the bride's parents were given an expensive gift.

Sometimes the betrothal took place in a narrower circle. The betrothal procedure depended on the position of the family (economic, class). There could be some other reasons, for example, the recent death of a relative, a serious illness of a loved one, etc.

For betrothal, they usually brought a ring, a scarf. In the morning, the bride's friends or cousins ​​went for water, wearing a scarf, a ring brought by the matchmakers. This announced the betrothal and made the gifts public.

The northern Kumyks had a widespread custom dagger baylav(put on a dagger). According to this custom, some young relative of a young man at someone's wedding tied a dagger to the same young relative of a girl. This meant that the girl was married from that day on. This was usually practiced between close friends. It happened that the bridegroom did not suit the girl's parents and the dagger was returned. But more often, if the dagger was accepted by the girl's brother or cousin, in order not to hurt his pride, they agreed to marry the daughter.

Unlike the northern ones, the southern Kumyks did not have this custom, but there was another one, which was called kIana baylove(tie a scarf). If the custom dagger baylav practiced among close friends, the custom kIana baylove among close relatives. In the latter case, at the wedding of one of their close relatives, by mutual agreement of the parties, the girl was invited to dance and during the dance a white silk scarf was thrown over her head and presented with money. This was done in those cases when it was not possible for some reason to perform the ceremony of matchmaking and betrothal.

After the betrothal, the bride stayed at home for up to twenty days, until she received permission from the groom to go out.

Before the wedding, the bride and groom did not meet each other in front of the villagers, they could only see each other secretly.

Wedding - toy lasted three days. Assistants at the wedding were those whose soul hurts for the hosts of the wedding house - zhany avruygan adamlar bolma gerek. They were fully entrusted with all economic functions. Neither the father, nor the mother, nor the sisters and brothers of the groom participated in the organization of the feast. They only accepted congratulations. To receive a “position” at a wedding was considered a great honor for any of the villagers. Many of those who were not honored with such an honor were offended, considering themselves bypassed.

After the wedding, all the organizers of the celebration received good gifts.

On the first day in the morning, mostly close relatives and neighbors, as well as musicians, came to the wedding. The women present went out to meet the musicians on the street. At the same time, they sang ritual songs on this occasion - gyalalailar(for all Kumyks).

The treat was prepared separately for men and women. All guests brought gifts. The bride was given the necessities of the household, the groom - food and money. Dances and songs were obligatory. By the end of the first day of the wedding, guests from neighboring villages arrived. They were placed overnight with neighbors who volunteered their services. Neighbors who "did not get" guests were offended by this and asked at least one of them to be sent to them. All conditions for rest and pleasant pastime were created for the guests.

Before the bride was taken to the groom's house, the marriage took place - gebin kyiv.

On the second day of the wedding, the bride was solemnly taken to the groom's house. The bride was dressed in new clothes sent by the groom, wrapped in a veil. They went for the bride either at noon (among the northern Kumyks), or at dusk (among the southern Kumyks) on the second day of the wedding. They transported her on an arba. The bride was accompanied by a large retinue of her friends - kudagyz-lar and a few men kudalar, whose duties included making sure that the girl was provided good reception and protect it if necessary.

The bride in a special cart with a high top woven from hazel, covered with a patterned carpet, was transported to her husband's house. The girl was seen off by her friends and men - her neighbors, guests of honor. Among them, the most important was the manager and guardian of the bride, an elderly woman, most often the wife of a paternal uncle or the wife of an older brother. Northern Kumyks called such a woman abai katyn or where katyn, southern - eltgen katun, alyp baragan katun, eltegen katun(accompanying woman).

During the move of the bride kudagyzlar performed ritual songs praising the girl, her family, the groom, his family. The groom's friends at this time opened fire, which was practiced by many peoples of the Caucasus and was usually understood as a magical protective action. Over time, this custom has lost both symbolic and magical meaning and was seen as a demonstration of courage, dexterity, a manifestation of joy.

Those who accompanied the bride demanded a reward for permission to bring her into the house. Usually it was a dagger, which was received by a teenager who was leading oxen harnessed to a wedding cart.

When the bride with her retinue entered the courtyard, she was showered with flour, rice, nuts, sweets so that she could live in this house in abundance and have many children.

Her relative or neighbor with many children dipped her finger into a bowl of honey and let the bride lick it. Then, dipping the bride's hand in honey, she put an imprint on the wall. All this, according to beliefs, was supposed to contribute to a happy life.

At the entrance to the room, a silk cloth or rug was necessarily laid. This ritual was called en ya(spread matter). The canvas, the rug were then given where katyn. Honey, silk, rug, linen, according to the ideas of the Kumyks, were supposed to symbolize abundance, prosperity, peace in this house. In turn, the bride brought sherbet with her, which was first tasted by the most prosperous relative of the groom, then the rest.

Among the Kumyks of the Karabudakhkent region, from the moment when the wedding train with the bride entered the yard of the groom's house, the mother-in-law did not get up until the bride entered the room. In addition, she crossed her arms, holding them under her armpits. This symbolized the intention of the mother-in-law with the arrival of the daughter-in-law to the house to rest. If at this moment the mother-in-law is on her feet, then she, they say, may later be on errands with her daughter-in-law.

In the groom's house, the bride was placed in the corner behind a screen - chibyldyryk. The bridesmaids sat next to her.

The men accompanying the bride were in the room until the arrival of the groom. They gave the groom's relatives difficult tasks, for example, to bring watermelon in winter or ice in summer. The demands were the most unexpected, and this whole ritual brought extraordinary revival and fun to the wedding celebration.

To enter the bride's room, the groom had to give her a gift and solve a riddle. The bride also guessed riddles. The newlyweds did not participate in the celebration. The bride sat in the corner of the room, behind a curtain, and the groom went to his relatives and appeared in the house only after all the guests had left.

On the morning of the second day, a ceremony was performed bet achyv(face opening). The bride's face was usually revealed by a girl. She was given the best gift, more often the same silk scarf that covered the face of the newlywed. On the same morning, the young woman gave gifts to all the groom's relatives - Berne(among the southern Kumyks), sandyk sep(in the north). Gifts were distributed first to mothers-in-law, then to sister-in-laws, aunts, then to the rest. Besides, where katyn She treated everyone who came with sweets.

On the second day of the wedding, equestrian competitions were arranged. They were notified in advance so that participants from other villages could come. As a prize, the host of the wedding exhibited a cow or a calf. Often the prizes were a silver dagger, a foal, silver money.

Played a big part in the wedding khan(among the northern Kumyks) or check(among the southern), which was usually a cheerful, witty person, able to maintain order, well aware of local customs, the customs of the inhabitants of the village and even the tastes of individuals. Wedding shahs and khans chose their assistants - Jallats(executioners) and with their participation played performances demonstrating their "unlimited power", which in the most unexpected way could touch any wedding guest.

In the villages of Majalis, Yangikent and Tumeller, it was said that the shah instructed to take away weapons from all men who came to the wedding. Jallat guarded this weapon in a special room, and after the wedding he returned it to the owners.

In the village of Tumeller, the old people recalled that at weddings the shahs gave orders, for example, to bring the father and mother of the groom to him, bring a mattress, blanket, pillow, lay them in the middle of the circle in the yard and lie down embracing in bed. Or they forced one of their close relatives to bring their wife on their back, in a wicker basket, etc. No one was offended by jokes, on the contrary, the more original check came up with a "punishment", the more the guests had fun.

The most fun wedding participants were dombaylar(among the northern Kumyks), karchilar(among the southern ones) - jesters who put on various masks and amused the wedding participants. Jesters at the wedding could come without an invitation. Close relatives of the groom often dressed as jesters, and they changed their appearance so skillfully that no one recognized them (they dressed in a men's suit, in a fur coat turned inside out). It is interesting to note that the jesters were allowed to say anything to any participant in the wedding. At the same time, no one should have been offended by them. They ridiculed the greed, envy, lies and other vices of those present, albeit in a joking manner. The jesters were allowed liberties, for example, to hug anyone, lie down at someone's feet, lean on their elbows. The jesters could approach the khans and talk to them as equals. It was forbidden to offend the jester. If it happened that someone accidentally offended the jester with something, everyone condemned this person. The jester received gifts and other signs of respect at the wedding.

On the evening of the fourth day after the wedding, the husband's relatives came to the young woman. She was asked various joke questions, to which she did not pay attention, but only treated the guests to wine and sweets. After two or three weeks, the ritual of the first exit of the newlywed for water was performed. She was accompanied by relatives, led by the eldest relative of her husband. The procession moved to the source to the music and songs, they gave sweets to those they met.

A month after the wedding, the daughter-in-law was led into a large room in her husband's house. On this occasion, a magnificent ceremony was held. The young woman was accompanied by a mentor and friends. They carried gifts on their heads for their husband's relatives: felt carpets, pieces of fabric, small embroidered items. The husband's relatives greeted the daughter-in-law and wished her well-being. Then she returned to her room, where she treated her friends.

The daughter-in-law was not immediately allowed to participate in the economic life of the family. The first time after the wedding, she could not speak to anyone except her husband. When the mother-in-law lifted the conversational ban, the daughter-in-law had to give her a gift. Especially for a long time, sometimes for several years, the ban on the conversation between the daughter-in-law and the father-in-law lasted. The rite of lifting the ban was accompanied by a celebration with the participation of relatives and the exchange of gifts between the father-in-law and the daughter-in-law.

In the Kumyk family, the custom was strictly observed, according to which, from the first days of marriage, the daughter-in-law had to come up with beautiful names for her new relatives - affectionate for the young and respectful for the old.

After marriage, the wife passed not only to power, but also to the dependency of her husband. The bride's parents did not interfere in the relationship of the young, moreover, they oriented their daughters to obedience to their husbands even in cases where family relationships were difficult. A woman could not, at her discretion, leave her husband's house and go to her parents or relatives.

Divorces among the Kumyks were extremely rare. The initiative usually came from a man. During a divorce, he returned that part of the kalym, which was intended for the maintenance of his wife. The woman could take her personal belongings with her.

All power was concentrated at the head of the family, usually he was the eldest man - grandfather, father, brother. He determined the internal routine of family life, could intervene in the personal affairs and relationships of adult family members, and had a decisive say in choosing a groom or bride. Responsibilities are usually fairly divided among family members.

family tree

Try to fill it out with the help of adults. Start with the names of grandparents, etc.

Birth of a child

For the Kumyks, the birth of a child has always been a significant and joyful event. And the appearance of a son, the successor of the family on the paternal side, was celebrated especially solemnly. Having many children before and now is considered as a sign of family well-being. Childlessness in the family was considered a great misfortune. To help a woman become a mother, they resorted to the help of healers - healers who treated them with prayers and spells. They also took women to the hot sulfur springs of Talga and Kayakent.

pregnant woman mother-in-law I tried to free from work, unrest, better feed. A woman gave birth at home with the help of a female assistant anachy katyn, who later became the second, godmother of the born.

The good news about the birth of a child was first reported to the husband's mother, and then to everyone else. All relatives, friends and acquaintances came to congratulate the family on the birth of a child. Everyone was invited to the table and treated. After about a week, the child was solemnly placed in the cradle and given a name. As a rule, he was named after older relatives or given the Muslim names of saints. It was obligatory to give children affectionate names, which they called until adulthood.

On the fortieth day, the child's head was shaved, and a little later, the nails were trimmed. At the age of 3-5 years, the boys were circumcised (Sunnet). In Kumyk families, grandparents took care of the child.

The most desirable in the family was the birth of a boy - the successor of the family. If several boys were born, the youngest was obliged to stay with his parents in the parental home, while the elders could separate and live independently with their families.

This is how children were raised

ace, boys, father and older brothers gradually accustomed to male types of work: to graze cattle, take care of it - serve food, take it to a watering place, protect vegetable gardens and melons, carry crops from the field on a cart, chop wood, perform other simple work.

From childhood, we were taught to ride, care for horses, and take care of yard dogs. Sometimes they were sent, especially in the evening hours, with various assignments to other families, to the other end of the village. They wanted us not to be afraid of the dark, to learn to endure difficulties, to temper ourselves, to develop endurance. "Lessons" began with the simplest assignments and ended with our independent work.

More complex and varied were the "lessons" of the mother to the girls. From a very young age, the daughter provided all possible assistance to her mother in household chores, gradually getting involved in complex labor processes. She learned from her elders how to wash clothes on her own, clean the rooms, knead the dough, bake bread, cook, sew, embroider. When the mother put the baby to bed, the older girl rocked the cradle. She took him outside for a walk. In the presence of an older girl, the mother never went to fetch water herself. This was the direct responsibility of the daughter.

Like other peoples of Dagestan, a mother was judged by her daughter, a daughter by her mother. If the girl grew up neat, hardworking, the mother acquired a good reputation. Often the neighbors compared the daughter to the mother and said: “The daughter is exactly like the mother” or “She will be like the mother.” Miscalculations in the behavior of the girl were explained by the fact that the mother is a bad housewife and educator.

ethnoscience

The experience of traditional medicine was passed down from generation to generation. Most medicines are based on plants. With stomach disease Ashkazan treated with infusion of wild rosemary and plantain yara yaprak and nettle infusion kychytkan, hawthorn root tulana used for hypertension, rosehip root it breaker- in diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Linden flowers are brewed for coughs. good remedy badger fat is considered from a severe cough and sore throat parsuk may. In the treatment of skin diseases kavargan(eczema) use burdock leaves hamharti, which are scrolled through a meat grinder, applied to a sore spot and bandaged with a rag. Sometimes burdock was applied to a sore spot, after softening the hard places of the leaves. There were unusual ways treatment, which consisted in the fact that when a person cuts himself, you need to bite his finger hard, and then just apply a bandage.

One of the most common methods of treatment was therapeutic massage. It was indispensable for headaches, hypertension, and abdominal diseases. Animal fats and foodstuffs were often found among medicines.

External and internal, contagious and non-contagious diseases were known. Colds were treated with warming agents (hot food and rubbing), bronchitis and tuberculosis were fought mainly with enhanced nutrition, fresh foods.

Warming procedures in the skin of a freshly slaughtered animal were widespread. The patient was wrapped in such a skin and covered with felt for the required period.

The healing properties of sulfuric mineral springs and therapeutic mud (Talgi, Kayakent, etc.) were successfully used.

Kumyk healers relieved headaches by bloodletting, leeches syulyuk. Wounds were disinfected with fresh ash or a burnt piece of felt. In the treatment of scabies, a mixture of oil, sulfur and charcoal was used.

Healers - chiropractors enjoyed special respect among the people. poke mouth. Bone-setters were able to set fractures of limbs, collarbones, hips, and articular dislocations. Two boards with tissue tape were used to fix the fractures. taktalemak. In case of bruising of the chest and fractures of the ribs, a bandage was used using a test with an admixture of egg white - kiris uruv.

Local surgeons also circumcised boys - sunnet children had their teeth removed.

Hygiene skills were instilled in the family from an early age. It was obligatory to bathe once a week. For this, each family had a large silpachi and small ashlav basins.

Many methods of traditional medicine were based on practical experience developed by the people over many centuries and brought great benefits to people.

With the accession of Dagestan to Russia, from the second half of the 19th century, healthcare of a modern type for those years began to work. At first, these were hospitals, then medical posts appeared, where Russian doctors and paramedics worked.

The first Kumyk doctors were the Klychev brothers from Aksay - Abdulazim and Yusup, who graduated from medical institutes.

Hospitality and Kunachestvo

“You can meet the enemy every day. If we talk about beauty, then there is an even better one. And the guests who come to you from their fathers, you must accept urgently and with dignity,

- the mother says to her son Aigazi (“Song about Aigazi”).

This is the true attitude in the Caucasus towards kunak and friends who came from distant places to the house of a highlander or a resident of the Kumyk plane. Since ancient times, there was a custom when someone in need of an overnight stay could approach any house and ask: “Do the owners want to receive guests?” - and immediately followed by a hospitable positive response. Denial of such a service to a guest was seen as an inhuman, immoral act and condemned by society.

"With kunak and bereket(wealth) comes,” the Kumyks said in the old days. The guests of the southern Kumyks were most often from the Dargin, Tabasaran, Lak, Rutul, Agul communities. These kunaks went through the territory of the southern Kumyks to Derbent, for winter coats, various crafts, and stopped here along the way. Of course, the highlanders came on business to the Kumyk villages and on business. Such close ties existed among the northern Kumyks with their neighbors - Avars, Chechens, Laks, Russians, Ossetians.

To strengthen friendship, kunaks gave the same names to their children. If the visitor had several kunak, then one was considered the main one. The guest first went to him, and then he could go to another kunak, having previously left one of his things: a burka, a hood, a whip, a saddle and even a horse.

With the advent of Russian settlements on the Terek, Kunatsky ties began between the Kumyks and the Terek Cossacks. These ties did not stop during the Caucasian War either. Through kunachestvo, wealthy Kumyks began to send their sons to Terek Cossack families and other Russian families to study the Russian language in village schools. On the other hand, the Cossacks, living next to the highlanders, “not only got used to their way of life, but also adopted their customs and clothes, they know the mountains, the location and have connections with the highlanders,” an unknown author noted.

Kumyk holidays

Traditional holidays of the peoples of Dagestan are an important part of their spiritual culture. The first annual holiday and the rite associated with it among the Kumyks was dedicated to the farewell to winter and the meeting of spring - Navruz-Bayram or Yangy yylny bayramy, which is usually celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox on March 21.

Before the holiday, they cleaned the houses, whitewashed the walls, arranged a big laundry, dressed in everything clean, took out of the house, from the yards everything that had become unusable and burned it.

They made fires in the courtyards of houses, on the streets, outside the village. All participants of the holiday, especially young men and teenagers, jumped over the fires. This custom was called "burning winter" - kyysh guyyuryuv.

Another no less important and most joyful holiday for us, children, was the holiday of Uraza-Bayram, which marks the end of the fast - abstinence from food and drink, which lasted during the holy month of Ramadan.

The tradition of celebrating the day of breaking the fast dates back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad, from 624. This is a holiday for all Muslims. Three days before the holiday, our grandmothers and mothers began to cook all sorts of goodies, buy gifts for their closest relatives. And the fathers chose well-fed animals to be sacrificed.

On the day of the holiday, Muslims visit the graves of the dead and distribute sadaqah, perform a festive ritual prayer, put on the best clothes, prepare traditional dishes, and after the prayer they lay festive tables, invite neighbors, relatives and friends to visit, make return visits with gifts, rejoice and have fun.

And we, the children, getting up early in the morning, uniting in noisy gangs and throwing canvas bags behind our backs, went to congratulate our neighbors down the street. They briskly knocked on the door, and when it was opened to us, we vied with each other to congratulate the owners of the house with the words:

– Tutkan orazany Allah kabul etsin! – Seneca and etsin- they answered us and filled our bags with all sorts of sweets: sweets and pastries ... And now my grandchildren are knocking on the doors of their neighbors with the words familiar from my childhood: "... Allah kabul etsin" ...

The holiday of Eid al-Adha, is celebrated after the end of the Hajj and 70 days after the holiday of Uraza-Bayram in memory of the sacrifice of the prophet Ibrahim.

According to the Koran, the angel Jabrail appeared to the prophet Ibrahim in a dream and conveyed to him the command of Allah - to sacrifice his son.

Ibrahim went to the valley of Mina to the place where Mecca now stands, and began preparations. His son, who knew about this, did not resist, as he was obedient to his father and Allah. However, this turned out to be a test from Allah, and when the sacrifice was almost made, Allah made it so that the knife could not cut, and then the angel Jabrail gave the prophet Ibrahim as a substitute for a ram.

Eid al-Adha begins to celebrate in the morning. Having performed ablution and put on new clothes, the Muslim goes to the mosque for the morning prayer. After the completion of the prayer, the believers return to their homes, where they sing praises to Allah in unison. Then they go to the mosque, where the mullah delivers a sermon. At the end of the sermon, the participants visit the cemetery, pray for the departed. Returning home, they begin the ritual of sacrifice.

For those who worship the Quran

This important holiday is coming!

His name is Eid al-Adha,

Accept it bravely in your soul!

Sacrifice a lamb

Sermon prayers will be

Don't forget about the poor

Allah will not forget you!

Be merciful like Allah

Praise his greatness!

Be clean in body and soul

Takbir diligently repeating.

The rules of the holiday prescribe to treat everyone, especially the poor. In the days following the holiday, it is necessary to visit relatives and friends.

Myths, fairy tales, legends and traditions

Myths, fairy tales, legends, legends, proverbs were the main source of information among the majority of the illiterate population of the Kumyk plane. Oral folk tales were passed down from generation to generation, forming the spiritual support of the people.

Wise old man

One day a noble biy was riding with three viziers, inspecting his possessions and saw an old man reaping wheat.

- Hey, old man! - Biy shouted. - I see that the top of your mountain is covered with white snow.

- What a mountain! the old man replied. “Already even the plain, my biy, is covered with a white haze…

- How are you doing with food? - I'm on it, thanks. I eat bread with meat. "What are you doing, old man?" - I gave a loan, and now I receive this debt. - And if I sent you three fat drakes, what would you do with them?

- I plucked to the last feather.

Finally, the senior vizier could not bear it and asked:

- What, venerable biy, did you talk with the old man? I confess I did not understand anything.

- Understood nothing? Well, what about you? the biy turned to the junior viziers.

- They didn't understand a word! they said in response. Biy got angry:

- What kind of advisers are you to me, my clever viziers, when you cannot understand a simple conversation! Either you guess what it was about, or I don't need you anymore. I'll chase everyone!

The viziers moved aside and began to confer. And so they figured, and so on ... They can’t think of anything! We decided: "Let's go back to the old man, ask him himself."

We returned to the old man's field, and the senior vizier shouted:

- Old man, old man! Biy drove us away because we did not understand what you were talking about. Won't you tell us?

- Why not say? I'll tell you! Only for this you give me your horses and clothes.

The viziers looked at each other, hesitated. I really did not want to give them frisky horses and expensive clothes. Yes, what can you do! Drive the biy away - it will be very bad!

They got off their horses, took off everything and said:

- Well, come on, old man, lay out your secret.

And the old man said:

- When the biy shouted: "The top of your mountain White snow covered!" - it meant: "You are completely gray, old man!" And I answered this: “The white haze is already covering the plain.” It meant: "My eyes began to see badly." Biy asked me: “How are you doing with food?” And I answered him: "I chew bread with meat." It meant: "I chew with my gums." (I don’t have any teeth left!) “What are you doing?” the biy then asked. And I answered: "I gave in debt, and now I receive debts." This meant: “In the spring I threw grains of wheat into the ground, as if I gave it a loan, and now the land repays my debts with a harvest.” The biy asked me the last question about fat drakes: what would I do with them if they came across to me? And I answered: “I would pluck to the last feather.” Here you got me! concluded the old man. “You stand in front of me like plucked drakes, without a single feather.

Arslanali Hadji
("Scrap-Haji")

Arslanali-hadji was born in the village of Nizhnee Kazanishche, and his ancestors were from Tarka. According to the old-timers of Nizhny Kazanishche, he possessed great physical strength, which the Almighty endowed him with.

He received the nickname "Scrap-Hadji", according to some sources, because he could break metal scrap, and according to other sources, because he paved the road to the village of Betaul through the rocky rock with his own hand with a crowbar and a pickaxe.

He was a very pious and educated man, an alim. He did not demonstrate his strength unnecessarily, being endowed by nature with modesty. His son Absalam also had considerable power.

There are many stories about Arslanali-haji. Here are some of them.

Two residents of Nizhny Kazanishche, having quarreled among themselves, began to sort things out. Arslanali tried to reconcile them. They, in turn, insulted him. Angered, Arslanali threw both of them onto the roof.

Once Arslanali was returning from Chirkey, where his acquaintance lived. In a field near Chirkey, he decided to lie down and rest. Some time later, he was awakened by 6–7 armed Chirkeys, dissatisfied with the fact that his horse, while he was sleeping, allegedly caused them great damage by eating hay prepared for the winter. Arslanali apologized and asked them how much they estimated the damage - Arslanali wanted to pay them compensation. But he heard in response bullying and insults.

Enraged, Arslanali pounced on them and, laying the impudent ones crosswise, he himself sat on top of them and weighed each a shaloban. At that moment, a villager passing by, hearing the cries of people calling for help, asked Arslanali to let them go and forgive them. Which he did, because he had a kind heart and a quick-witted character.

Spiritual culture. Religion

Islam and Arab-Muslim culture came to Dagestan in the era of the Arab Caliphate. In the Middle Ages, several centers of Muslim theology, Arabic-speaking culture and science arose in Dagestan - Derbent, Akhty, Tsakhur, Kumukh, Akusha, Sogratl, Khunzakh, Enderi, Yarag, Bashly.

The special attitude of the Kumyk people to Muslim places of worship - mosques, madrasah buildings, sanctuaries, feasts, khalvatam. Each community considered it its duty to take care of these buildings, to preserve them, to provide constant care for them.

Among the holy places are especially revered Utamysh halvats which are located near the villages. Utamysh of the Kaya-Kent region. According to the ideas of the Utamysh people, the holy sheikhs are buried here - Arab preachers who once came here as missionaries and remained permanently. There are 24 graves in total, and they are revered by the locals.

A common cult structure, khalvat, was built over the graves.

Kumyks are Sunni Muslims who profess Islam. Islam is a world religion, subject to the laws of Allah. Allah Almighty is the supreme power of all Muslims. He has 99 names that are written in the Koran - the holy book of Muslims. The following hadith of the prophet Mahammed is known: “Allah has ninety-nine names, a hundred minus one. Whoever enumerates them will enter Paradise." Allah conveyed his will to people through the prophets. The last of them was Mahammed.

The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was born in Mecca (modern Saudi Arabia) around 570 CE. e. This outstanding person is an example for each of us: a prophet, a ruler, a philosopher, an orator, a warrior, a spouse, a friend, a father, an uncle, a nephew, a grandfather - whoever Mahammad was, may Allah bless him and welcome him, he fulfilled his destiny perfect! He was a man full of love, patience, courage, wisdom, generosity, nobility… A man who inspired millions of people around the world.

One hadith tells how one day, passing through the market, the prophet Mahammed stopped in front of a grocery merchant. From above, all the products looked good, but when he got to those below, the prophet found that the products were wet. He asked: "O owner of food, what is this?" The merchant replied: "She got wet in the rain, O Messenger of Allah." Then the prophet said: “Why didn’t you put it on top so that the rest could see that it was wet? For the one who deceives is not one of us.” (Sahih Muslim)

Muslim society is built on purity of feelings, love, sincerity towards every Muslim and fulfillment of promises. Members of Muslim society should be distinguished by piety, truthfulness and fidelity. Deception and fraud are qualities that are alien to Islamic society and run counter to the personality of a noble Muslim. Among Muslims there should be no place for swindlers, traitors and deceivers.

Notable religious and historical figures

Aktashi Awabi Muhammad- scientist-historian, chronicler, author of "Derbend-name".

Aksaevsky Yusuf-Kadi (Yakhsayly)- A well-known Arab scholar, thinker of the religious direction in Dagestan in the XIV century.

Dagestan Ali-Kuli-Khan Valikh - prince, an outstanding poet and encyclopedist of the Muslim East, descended from the Shamkhals of Tarkovsky. He spoke Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Turkic languages.

Kurumov Kasim- genus. in 1805 in the Kumyk village of Bekishurt (Small Kabarda), from Uzdens. Active participant in the Caucasian War (1829–1859), major general (1867), prominent public figure. Had a Muslim and military education. In addition to his native Kumyk language, he knew Arabic, Russian, Chechen, Avar, was an interpreter for the governor General Baryatinsky.

Mehdi II- Tarkovsky shamkhal (1794–1830), lieutenant general of the Russian army.

Mustafayev Abdul-Basir-haji(1865-1932) - a well-known Arab scholar, religious and socio-political figure of the early 20th century. In 1919 he was appointed Sheikh-ul Islam of Dagestan, chairman of the Sharia court.

Soltan Mut- Kumyk Murza, the ruler of the Endirey possession, a famous politician and commander, under whom Kumykia reached the peak of its power, for decades (the end of the 16th - the beginning of the 17th centuries) successfully repulsing numerous attacks of its neighbors. Soltan-Mut was not only a talented commander, but also a far-sighted politician and organizer. Having united people around the idea of ​​achieving prosperity through creative work, he encouraged internal trade, as well as trade of his inhabitants with neighboring lands, the development of agriculture, cattle breeding and crafts. Under Soltan-Mut, Endirey turned into a flourishing large city. Under him, other villages also arose: Aksai, Karlanyurt, Bamayurt, Botashyurt, the village of Aznavur, Salayurt, Tonayurt, Saltaneyevo mesto, the fortress of Cherivkala, the already existing Bavtugai (Guen-Kala), Karagach, Kostek, and others grew. Endirey was named for the size and beauty of Yarta Istanbul (Half-Istanbul).

Tashav - Hadji- a native of the villages. Endirey, an active, influential associate of Shamil, Naib. He had great authority both in the Kumyk lands and in Chechnya, where he moved in the 30s of the XIX century. He was called "Upright", was a staunch supporter of observance by all Muslims of Sharia, always opposed the use of

naibs and other officials of the imamate of their position of power for personal purposes and for material enrichment.

Shikhaliev (Sheikh-Ali) Devlet-Mirza- genus. in 1811 in the village. Endirey, lieutenant colonel, participant in the Caucasian War, ethnographer, chief bailiff of the Mohammedan peoples of the Stavropol province, author of the famous book “The Kumyk's Tale of the Kumyks” (1848).

Political, military and economic figures

Apashev Daniyal- head of the first capital of Dagestan - Temir-Khan-Shura, chairman of the parliament of the Mountain Republic and the Dagestan Milli-committee in the years civil war, a well-known organizer and public and political figure of the North Caucasus. Founder of the Dagestan National Militia.

Aliyev Nariman- Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, full member of the Academy of Technological Sciences of the Russian Federation and National Academy Sciences of Dagestan. Hero of Socialist Labor. Since 1976 he has been the general director of NPO Dagagrovinprom.

Bammatov Gaidar(Gaidar Bammat) - b. in 1889 in the village. Kafir-Kumukh Temir-Khan-Shurinsky district. Prominent politician of the first half of the 20th century, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Union of Highlanders of the North Caucasus and Dagestan.

Kaplanov Rashid Khan- Kumyk prince, graduated Faculty of Law Sorbonne in Paris. In 1910–1913 taught at Istanbul University. Minister of Internal Affairs of the Mountain Republic (1918–1919), Minister of Public Education and Religious Affairs (1919) and Trade, Industry and Food of the Republic of Azerbaijan (1919–1920).

Korkmasov Jalalutdin- a revolutionary, a well-known socio-political and statesman. He graduated from the Sorbonne University (France) in 1910 and published the Istanbul News newspaper (1908). The first Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the DASSR, the author of the first Constitution of the DASSR. Repressed, later rehabilitated.

Mirzabekov Abdurazak- since 1984 - Deputy Chairman, since August 1987 - Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Dagestan ASSR. Reformer. Maecenas. On October 11, 2012, a monument to him was unveiled in Makhachkala.

Nasrutdinov Nasrutdin– in 1957 he graduated from the Grozny Oil Institute named after. M. D. Millionshchikova. Director General of the association "Daggazprom", deputy of the People's Assembly of the Republic of Dagestan (1995-1999, 1999-2000). Leading a team of like-minded people, he created a powerful branch of the national economy in Dagestan - Dagestangazprom. Since 1992 - General Director of Dagestangazprom, since 2009 - Advisor CEO 000 Gazpromtransgaz Makhachkala.

Tarkovsky Jamalutdin- genus. in 1849 in the village. Lower Kazanische of Temir-Khan-Shurinsky district. Prince, landowner. Socio-political figure of Dagestan in the late XIX - early XX centuries. Since 1885, he was the naib (head) of the Temir-Khan-Shurinsky district (section).

Tsokolaev-Kachalaev Eldar- Colonel General of Aviation. Since 1983 Air Force Commander - Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Far East. Under his operational control were three front-line air armies, naval missile-carrying carrier-based aviation of the Pacific Fleet, air defense aviation and one Air Army. long-range aviation stationed from the Urals to the Commander Islands and from Franz Josef Land to China and Korea.

Shikhsaidov Shikhsaid- political and statesman of Dagestan, agricultural scientist. He served as secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU (1962–1975), first secretary of the regional committee of the Komsomol (1956–1960), director of the Research Institute of Agriculture (1975–1982). Founder of industrial poultry farming in Dagestan.

Shikhsaid Khizri- political and statesman of Dagestan. Deputy of the State Duma (2007–2013), Chairman of the Government of the Republic of Dagestan (1997–2004) and First Deputy Chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Dagestan. Currently Chairman of the People's Assembly of the RD.

Creative intelligentsia

Abukov Kamal- People's writer of Dagestan, critic, playwright. He graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Daggos University, the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU. At present he is a professor at Daggospeduniversity, Doctor of Philology, a member of the Union of Writers of the USSR, a member of the board of the Union of Writers of the Republic of Dagestan.

Adzhiev Anvar- genus. in 1914 in the village. Kostek. People's poet of Dagestan. Translator, member of the Union of Writers of the USSR since 1944.

Akaev Abusufyan- genus. in 1872 in the village. Lower Kazanishche. A learned theologian, Sufi, poet, publisher and one of the founders of the first Islamic printing house in Temir-Khan-Shura.

Astemirov Bagautdin- poet, first chairman of the board of the Writers' Union of Dagestan, People's Commissar of Education of the Dagestan ASSR (1933-1937).

Atabaev Magomed- People's poet of Dagestan, writer, playwright, translator. Graduated from the Literary Institute. Gorky. Worked as a literary worker of the republican newspaper "Leninsky Put", editor fiction Dagestan book publishing house, editor of the Kumyk edition of the almanac "Friendship". Now he is the editor of the Kumyk issue of the Literary Dagestan magazine. Author of more than 60 books and about 250 songs.

Atkay (Adjamatov Atkay)- People's poet of Dagestan, playwright, translator. He studied at the Higher Literary Courses at the Literary Institute. M. Gorky (Moscow). Member of the Union of Writers of the USSR since 1934. People's Poet of Dagestan, laureate of the Republican Prize. S. Stalsky. In Makhachkala, on the house on M. Gadzhiev Street, 3, where Atkay lived, a memorial plaque was installed.

Bagautdinov Magomed-Zapir- a famous singer, performer of Kumyk songs. In 1976 he graduated from the Makhachkala School of Music in vocal class, soloist of the choir of the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company "Dagestan", since 1996 - soloist of the Dagestan State Opera and Ballet Theater. Participant of international folklore festivals in France, Bulgaria, Hungary. Honored Artist of the DASSR (1976), People's Artist of the Republic of Dagestan.

Batalbekova Isbat- an outstanding singer, People's Artist of the RSFSR (1974). Laureate of the Stalin Prize, awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, laureate of the State Prize of the USSR.

Batyrmurzaev Zaynalabid- poet, publicist, revolutionary, active participant in the civil war.

Batyrmurzaev Nukhay- a famous Kumyk poet, prose writer, translator. Together with his son Zainalabid, he actively participated in the revolutionary movement, published the magazine "Tang Cholpan".

Beibulatov Temir-Bulat- genus. in 1879 in the village. Betaul (now a quarter of Nizhny Kazanishche), poet, translator, folklorist, playwright, director, composer and actor.

Irchi Kazak- genus. OK. 1830 in the village. Muslimaul of Tarkov shamkhalate. Classic of Dagestan literature, poet, founder of Kumyk literature.

Ibragimov-Kizlyarsky Abdulhuseyn- Author of the novel "Amanhor" - the first historical novel in the Kumyk language. The composition "Tarihi Kyyz-larkala" was written in the Kumyk language in 1915–1916. in two versions.

Magomedov Abdulla- People's poet of Dagestan, representative of oral Kumyk poetry, one of the founders of Kumyk Soviet poetry, participant of the All-Dagestan Congress of Writers, member of the Union of Writers of the USSR since 1934. In 1936 he was elected a member of the board of the Union of Writers of Dagestan. He was awarded the title of People's Poet by the same Decree with Suleiman Stalsky, Gamzat Tsadasa on the eve of the First All-Dagestan Congress of Writers (June 1934).

Muradova Bariyat- an outstanding actress, performer of Kumyk folk songs. She was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner of Labor, the Friendship of Peoples, the Badge of Honor. Laureate of the State Prize. K.Stanislavsky. People's Artist of the Republic of Dagestan (1935), People's Artist of the RSFSR (1940), People's Artist of the USSR (1960). Member of the Supreme Soviet of the Dagestan ASSR of the 1st convocation, of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 5th convocation (1958–1962). Member of the Soviet Peace Committee.

Salavatov Alim Pasha- poet, playwright, theatrical figure, founder of the Kumyk dramaturgy. Member of the Union of Writers of the USSR since 1936. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he volunteered for the army and in 1942 died a heroic death in a battle on the Crimean Front. A street in Makhachkala, Izberbashskoye, is named after him. pedagogical school, Kumyk Music and Drama Theatre.

Sultanov Kamil- genus. in 1911 in the village. Turshunai of the Terek region (now Babayurtovsky district), from the family of the Kumyk princes Kaplanov. Well-known literary critic, poet, writer, translator. Member of the Writers' Union of the USSR since 1942. He was the director of the Dagknigizdat.

Heroes of the Motherland

Abdulaev Abdurakhman- genus. in the villages of Mutsalaul, Khasavyurt region in 1919, a participant in the Soviet-Finnish and Great Patriotic Wars. Knight of the Order of Glory III degree, Hero Soviet Union.

Abduragimov Magomedshamil- genus. in 1980 in the village. Kakamakhi, Karabudakhkent region. Senior lieutenant of militia. Muay Thai World Cup winner, international master of sports. Hero of Russia (posthumously, 2006). In October 2005, while checking one of the addresses along Pervomaiskaya Street in Makhachkala, they opened fire on the operatives. Abduragimov entered the house and neutralized the terrorist who was planting an explosive device. During the battle, Sergei Podvalny also died, who later also became a Hero of Russia (posthumously), two more policemen were injured.

Akaev Yusup(1922-1949) - naval pilot - attack aircraft, during the Great Patriotic War, commander of the 2nd aviation squadron of the 47th assault aviation regiment of the 11th assault aviation division of the Air Force of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet. Hero of the Soviet Union (1944), major. He was awarded 3 Orders of the Red Banner, Orders of the Patriotic War, I degree, Alexander Nevsky.

Askerov Asker- genus. in 1980 in the village. Halimbekaul, Buynaksky district. In the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs since 1997. In 2001 he graduated from the Omsk Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, in September 2004 he headed the criminal investigation department of the internal affairs department of the Buynaksky district of the Republic of Dagestan. On the night of May 29, 2005, the department received information about the mining of a tunnel on the Buynaksk-Untsukul highway. Surveillance showed that three unidentified men were setting up land mines. Having decided to detain the criminal providing cover, A.M. Askerov blocked possible escape routes and neutralized him. Then he rushed to the main group. Having discovered the persecution, the criminals opened fire on the policeman and wounded him, but Askerov overtook one of the bandits. A fight ensued. Offering resistance, the terrorist took out a control panel for a landmine. Knowing well that an explosion would follow, the policeman, bleeding, pulled out the remote control and threw it into the gorge, but the bandit still managed to shoot at the officer. The comrades who came to the rescue evacuated him from the battlefield, and Asker died on the way to the hospital. As a result of the inspection on the mountainside along the sides of the road 137 meters long, the sappers found 27 powerful artillery shells near the tunnel! At the cost of his life, a police officer prevented a major terrorist act that threatened Dagestan with tragic consequences. For courage and heroism shown in the performance of official duty, by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of September 23, 2005, senior police lieutenant Askerov Asker Magomedaminovich was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously). A bust of the Hero was installed on the territory of the Omsk Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, and a scholarship named after him was established.

Datuev Abdurazak- genus. in 1909 in the village. Karlanyurt of the Khasavyurt district of the Terek region (now the Khasavyurt district). Senior sergeant, participant of the Great Patriotic War, full cavalier of the Order of Glory.

Dzhumagulov Elmurza(in the award list Mikhail Borisovich) (1921–2013) participant in the Great Patriotic War, tanker, Hero of the Soviet Union, colonel.

Ismailov Abdulkhakim(1916–2010) - Hero of the Russian Federation, participant in the Soviet-Finnish and Great Patriotic Wars, captured in the famous photograph of Yevgeny Khaldei "The Banner over the Reichstag" as a participant in the hoisting of the red banner over the defeated Reichstag, a sergeant, scout.

Sultanov Isa(1917–1945) - in Soviet army since 1939. In August 1941 he graduated from the Kharkov Tank School. January 25, 1945 platoon commander of the 126th Tank Regiment of the 17th Guards Mechanized Brigade, senior lieutenant. He died in 1945 in the battle for the crossing of the Oder River (Germany). Buried in Mt. Keben. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded posthumously.

Scientists

Adzhiev Murad- Writer, publicist, author of a series of popular books in the genre of folk history. A geographer by training, he has a PhD in economics.

Akavov Zabit- Doctor of Philology, Professor, since 1979 - Head. Department of Literature, Daggsped University. Honored Worker of the Higher School of the Russian Federation. Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.

Aliev Kamil- genus. in 1947 in the village. Bammatyurt, Khasavyurt district. Prominent public figure. Editor-in-chief of the republican newspaper "Yoldash" ("Comrade"), chairman of the Kumyk Scientific and Cultural Society (KNPO), founder and head of the Internet site "Kumyk World". Historian and publicist. PhD in Philosophy. Author of more than 170 scientific and journalistic articles.

Askerkhanov Rashid- doctor, surgeon-cardiologist, doctor of medical sciences. Honorary member of the surgical societies of Azerbaijan, Bulgaria. Author of over 400 scientific works and 12 individual books. He performed the first heart operation for malformations in Dagestan in 1958. Member of the Great Patriotic War.

Buchaev Hamid- President of the Dagestan state institution National Economy under the Government of the Republic of Dagestan, Doctor of Economics, Professor, author of more than 400 scientific papers, 62 monographs. Full member of the National Academy of Sciences of Dagestan, International and Russian Engineering, New York Academy of Sciences of the USA, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Technical Sciences.

Hajiyeva Sakinat- an outstanding ethnographer, doctor historical sciences, Professor, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Dagestan, author of the scientific two-volume book "Kumyks".

Dzhambulatov Magomed- Professor, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Honored Worker of Science of the RSFSR. For more than forty years Dzhambulatov Magomed Mamaevich headed the Dagestan State Agricultural Institute. Over the years, the university has grown into a large multidisciplinary educational, research and production complex.

Korkmasov Anatoly- genus. in 1952 in the city of Kyzyl-Orda of the Kazakh SSR. Well-known historian, publicist, researcher, jurist, colonel of justice, grandson of Dzhalalutdin Korkmasov. In 1970 after graduation high school in Makhachkala, he entered the navigation department of the Higher Naval School in Sevastopol, served on special-purpose ships of the 8th Indian squadron with a long stay in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, the Persian and Ottoman Gulfs. Awarded with the badge "Excellent worker of the Navy" of the USSR.

Tamai Abdullah- Historian and Orientalist. In 1930 he graduated from the Leningrad Oriental Institute, specializing in historian-orientalist, candidate of historical sciences. He was fluent, in addition to his native Kumyk and Russian, Turkish, Arabic, Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Tatar, Turkmen, German (with a dictionary).

sports glory

Abushev Magomed-Gasan- Olympionist, Soviet freestyle wrestler. In 1980, in the capital of our Motherland, Moscow, a student of the honored coach of the RSFSR I. Kadyrov, he won the Olympic gold medal.

Absaidov Saypulla- Freestyle wrestler, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. Champion of the Olympic Games 1980 in the 1st welterweight. At the end of 2009, he headed the freestyle wrestling team of the Republic of Azerbaijan. On August 31, 2012, the President of Azerbaijan and the National Olympic Committee, Ilham Aliyev, awarded Absaidov with the Order of Shohrat (Glory).

Ahmedov Bakhtiyar- freestyle wrestler, winner of the 2008 Olympic Games, Ivan Yarygin Grand Prix, weight category - 120 kg. Honored Master of Sports.

Gaidarbekov Zagir- two-time world champion in wushu-sanda (1993-1995), two-time European champion, two-time champion of the USSR, two-time winner of the Cup of Russia and the European Cup in wushu-sanda.

Porsukov Ali- Master of sports of international class in boxing, world champion in wushu-sanda and kickboxing. In August 1999 he became the world champion in kickboxing.

Khasaev (Buglensky) Al-Klych- Freestyle wrestler, multiple world champion. A phenomenon in the history of world sports. Also in youth Al-Klych showed outstanding physical abilities that delighted his peers and fellow villagers. With stunning success, he performed in the cities of the North Caucasus, Transcaucasia, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine. The greatest glory to the wrestler was brought by his magnificent victories in the sports arenas of Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan, China, France. He is the only person to defeat the champion of champions Ivan Poddubny. He was shot on July 11, 1920. When Al-Klych was led to execution, he tore off the square rail and bent it into a spiral, leaving to posterity material evidence of his unique strength.

Yakhyaev Magomed- two-time champion of Russia in weightlifting (1949, 1950), multiple champion of Dagestan in triathlon (50s).

Conclusion

Well, here is my book, the mini-encyclopedia has come to an end ... Now, knowing how and what the Kumyks lived and live for centuries in our multinational Dagestan, it will be much easier for you to search for your meaning of life in this very difficult time.

No matter how hard it is for you on the way to your dream, always remember at what cost our ancestors managed to defend their Motherland, always rely on the traditions and adats of the people. Take care of the honor of your family, tukhum, motherland. Be one with the multinational people of Dagestan and Russia. Unity is our strength.

Good luck my young friends. Yakhshi ate!!!

References

Gadzhieva S.Sh. Kumyks. Book 1. Makhachkala, 2000

Gahraman Gumbatov

More than 10,000 kilometers separate today's Buddhist Tuvan from Tuva from a Karaite, an adherent of the Jewish faith, who lives in Trakai in Lithuania. An even greater distance separates a Muslim Turk living in Istanbul from a Christian Yakut from the banks of the Lena River in Siberia. At the same time, a Tuvan and a Karaite, a Turk and a Yakut, and with them a Kazakh, a Kirghiz, a Uighur, an Altaian, a Khakass, a Shor, a Tofalar, a Karachay, a Balkar, a Kumyk, a Turkmen, an Uzbek, an Azerbaijanian, a Gagauz, a Tatar, a Bashkir, a Chuvash, a Crimean Tatar, Karakalpak, Nogai are united by the fact that they are all Turks and they all have a common language - Turkic.
Turkic peoples (now their number, according to tentative estimates, exceeds 200 million people) live on vast territory from the Lena to the Danube, from Taimyr to the Persian Gulf, mainly in the same territories that their ancestors inhabited from ancient times. The modern Turkic peoples, despite the various historical vicissitudes that separated them many millennia ago, were able to preserve in their memory the common language and common culture inherited from their common ancestors.
As you know, language is not only a means of communication. Language is the memory of the people. In words mother tongue we preserve the history of the multi-thousand-year pre-literate historical path of our ancestors. And the spirit of the people lives in the language.
Language is, as it were, an external manifestation of the spirit of the people; the language of the people is its spirit, and the spirit of the people is its language - it is difficult to imagine anything more identical. Since each language inherits its material from periods of prehistory inaccessible to us, spiritual activity aimed at expressing thought already deals with ready-made material: it does not create, but transforms.
The desire to know the origin of your people, its history, language, original culture is a natural need for everyone thinking person. It is not surprising that in recent years numerous works related to the origin of modern Turkic peoples have been published. Very often on the Internet in various forums people ask questions related to the ethnogenesis of the Turkic peoples.
The study of the role and significance of the Turkic ethnogenesis has been in the field of attention of Orientalists, perhaps, since the middle of the 18th century. However, it should be emphasized that until the recent past, the solution of these problems did not answer the direct question - how was the process of formation of the Turkic peoples.
Unfortunately, until now, scientists do not have a single opinion on any of the issues of Turkic ethnogenesis. So, for example, some scientists believe that the ancestral home of the ancient Turks was in Altai. Others place it in areas adjoining the Black and Caspian Seas from the north, others in Western Asia, and fourth in territories to the west and east of the Urals. Some scholars write that the ancestors of modern Turks were originally Mongoloid, others argue that the ancient Turks were Caucasoids. Some believe that the first Turkic tribes appeared in Eastern Europe only in the middle of the first millennium AD, others write about the distant relationship of the ancient Turks with the Sumerians, Etruscans and American Indians.
In Soviet times, historical science largely, if not completely, depended on the ideological and other attitudes of the authorities, and therefore, in those days, it would be very naive to count on the publication of any objective work containing a theory of Turkic ethnogenesis that was different from the theory officially recognized by the authorities.
It should be noted that since the establishment of Soviet power, Turkology has been constantly under the close control of the authorities. It is no secret that with the beginning of the seizure of Turkic lands (Volga region, Urals, Western Siberia, Astrakhan, Caucasus, Crimea, Transcaucasia, Central Asia, etc.), the Russian Empire, in order to force the Turkic peoples to forget their past, obliged Russian scientists (and not only Russians) purposefully falsify the ethnic and political history of the Turkic peoples. As a result of this, the so-called "Altai hypothesis" of the origin of the Turks was created. Especially stubbornly and aggressively, this "hypothesis-concept" was introduced into academic science during the years of Soviet power. Any deviation from this "concept" was severely punished. Many scientists who disagreed with it were repressed.
The main theses of this official "concept" approved by the authorities were:
- the ancestral home of the Turks was originally located in Altai and adjacent territories;
- the entry of the Turkic language into the Proto-Altaic linguistic community (this, in addition to the Turkic language, included the languages ​​of the Mongols and Manchus, as well as the languages ​​of the Koreans and Japanese);
- all the current Turkic peoples, except for the language, have nothing in common with each other, since they are Turkic aborigines;
- the original Mongoloid nature of the ancient Turks;
- Eurasian steppes, starting from the 6th millennium BC. occupied by the "Indo-Europeans", and from the II millennium BC. - Indo-Iranians: Aryans, Scythians, Sarmatians;
- only Ossetians are descendants of the most ancient tribes and peoples of the Eurasian steppes (Scythians, Sarmatians and Alans).
In recent years, dozens of new books on the ethnogenesis of the Turks have been published annually in Russia, in which certain theses of the “Altai” concept are repeated without proof. It should be noted that most researchers dealing with the ethnogenesis of the Turkic peoples, unfortunately, forget that any theory, hypothesis, concept must be reasoned and evidence-based. More than 90% of modern studies on the Turkic peoples are, in fact, mostly rehashings of old publications commissioned by the authorities back in the Soviet era. So, for example, the main Russian “Turkologist-Altaist” S.G. Klyashtorny, who has been writing about the past of the Turkic peoples for about 40 years, continues to prove the legitimacy of the traditional Soviet concept of the ethnogenesis of the Turks today. In the book Steppe Empires of Eurasia, published in 2005, he again repeats, like a spell, the main theses of the official concept:
- “Eurasian steppes between the Volga and the Yenisei as early as the 6th millennium BC. occupied by the Indo-European tribes of the Caucasoid racial type, the same "Indo-Europeans", whose numerous tribes spoke Indo-Iranian languages ​​related to each other language family, the Balto-Slavic language family, the Germanic language family and many other related languages";
- “Numerous autochthonous tribes (Indo-European in Central Asia, Finno-Ugric in the Volga region, the Urals and Western Siberia, Iranian and Adyghe in the North Caucasus, Samoyedic and Ket-speaking in Southern Siberia) were partially assimilated by the Turks during the existence of the ethno-political associations they created, first of all, the Hunnic states of the first centuries AD. e., the ancient Turkic Khaganates of the second half of the 1st millennium AD, the Kipchak tribal unions and the Golden Horde already in our millennium. It was these numerous conquests and migrations that led in the historically foreseeable period to the formation of Turkic ethnic communities in the places of their modern settlement.
Doctor of Historical Sciences N. Egorov, also, apparently, trying to wishful thinking, writes: “Turkologists have long determined that the Proto-Turkic language developed in Central Asia, more precisely, in the regions of Transbaikalia and Eastern Mongolia. The primary disintegration of the Turkic linguistic community occurred somewhere in the middle of the first millennium BC ... The ancient tribes, settled at one time in the vast expanses of the Eurasian steppes from the Northern Black Sea region to Central Mongolia, until the turn of the new era, spoke various dialects of the Eastern Iranian branch of Iranian languages".
In the Soviet Union, where the colonial policy of the Russian Empire towards national minorities continued, it was difficult to expect the appearance of reliable works on the Turkic languages. It should be noted that in recent years, in Russia, some scientists began to publish frankly false articles about the Turkic peoples. For example, the representative of Russian science V. Makhnach writes: “Undoubtedly, there are peoples who speak Turkic languages. Is there a unity of the Turkic peoples? It is enough to look at the various Turkic-speaking peoples to see that this is not so. This is not true racially because most Turks are moderate Mongoloids with very little Mongoloid features (say Turkmen). But there are Turks - pure Caucasoids (for example, Chuvash) and there are Turks - pure Mongoloids (Yakuts and, moreover, Tuvans). Their external appearance testifies that the evolution of languages ​​went one way, and the evolution of these peoples - completely different. However, the comparison can be made not only at the racial level, but also at the religious level. The majority of those who speak Turkic languages ​​are Muslims (although there are various Muslims: both Sunnis and Shiites), while the Chuvash are Orthodox Christians, therefore, they will always be together not with other Turks, but with other Orthodox. The Tuvans, on the other hand, are northern yellow-hatted Buddhists (Lamaists), and they will have unity with the Buddhist peoples, and not with the Muslim Turks. That is, the notion of Turkic unity, which some figures in our state and especially in Turkey are striving for now, is not based on a real ethnic community, or on a religious and cultural basis, and therefore, is Nazism - the theory of artificial tribal unity. Muslim unity is organic, and there is nothing negative in it. Islamic fundamentalism, in a certain sense, is also natural and organic. But Pan-Turkism is Nazism.”
Another Russian researcher K. Penzev writes that “even the Turkic-speaking of some ethnic groups does not give us the right to believe that they really were Turks. So, for example, Azerbaijanis who speak the language of the Oguz group are not at all Turks by origin. Azerbaijanis, Kazakhs, Uighurs, Turkmens, Kumyks, Karachays, Balkars, Gagauzians, Tuvans and others are Turkic-speaking, but this does not mean at all that they are all Turkic.”
It should be noted that such a policy of ethnic discrimination against former colonial peoples is inherent in many European scientists.
Here is what the Canadian scholar Klaus Klostermeier writes about this: “The regimes that were in power in the twentieth century instructed to rewrite history in the key of their own ideological views. Like court chroniclers of the past, some modern academic historians did not disdain tendentious interpretations historical events reshaping the past to order. When the peoples of Asia and Africa gained independence after the Second World War, local intellectuals began to realize that the histories of their countries were written by representatives of the very colonial authorities with whom they were fighting. In most cases, they found that "official" historians had dismissed all traditional accounts of the past as nothing more than myths and fairy tales. Often there were no native historians with academic training in post-colonial countries (or, worse than that, there were only local historians who accepted the point of view of their colonial masters), so dissatisfaction with existing interpretations of history often found expression in works whose authors lacked the academic regalia necessary to impress professional historians. At present, the situation is gradually changing. The history of their countries is being rewritten by a new generation of scientists who grew up in post-colonial times and do not share the old academic prejudices, while properly mastering the tools of their craft - a deep knowledge of the languages ​​used, an understanding of the culture of their countries, and respect for local traditions. (8)
Modern Russian authors who are trying to rewrite the history of the Russian people and their close and distant neighbors in a new way should from time to time re-read the classic works of the great Russian historians V.O. Klyuchevsky and S.M. Solovyov. I believe that they should always remember the words written by V.O. Klyuchevsky about the origin of the Russian state and the Russian people: “From the beginning of the 17th century to the middle of the 19th century. The Russian people spread across the entire plain from the Baltic and White to the Black Seas, to the Caucasus Range, the Caspian and the Urals, and even penetrated to the south and east far beyond the Caucasus, the Caspian and the Urals. The vast East European plain, on which the Russian state was formed, at the beginning of our history is not throughout its entire space inhabited by the people who hitherto make its history. Our history opens with the phenomenon that the eastern branch of the Slavs, which later grew into the Russian people, enters the Russian plain from one of its corners, from the southwest, from the slopes of the Carpathians. For many centuries, this Slavic population was far from enough to occupy the entire plain with some uniformity. Moreover, according to the conditions of its historical life and geographical situation, it spread across the plain not gradually by way of generation, not settling, but moving, carried by bird flights from region to region, leaving their homes and landing on new ones.
Russian political scientist Alexei Miller argues that “Many territories that today are perceived as eternally Russian are territories that were subjected to ethnic cleansing under the Russian Empire, from where the local Muslim population was expelled, first settled by Cossacks, then some peasants arrived there ... Interesting that Siberia until the beginning of the twentieth century was not considered a Russian national territory. You can read Chekhov's letters from his trip to Sakhalin. These are amazing texts, it’s just a cry from the heart: “Lord, how could it be otherwise, how non-Russian this land is and the people here are non-Russian.”
One can marvel at the courage of many Soviet scientists who, during the period of Soviet repressions, were not afraid to write the truth about the history and language of the Turkic peoples: S.E. Malov, A.M. Shcherbak and others. : “Western Turkic languages ​​show that they have gone through too long and too long a life, they have experienced many different influences, etc. This could not happen in a very short time. All the migrations of the Turks from Central Asia, as we know (for example, the Huns, Mongol-Tatars, Kirghiz), did not produce in the west that linguistic influence and revolution in favor of the Eastern Turkic linguistic elements, which could be expected if there were no already established and settled for a long time Western Turkic languages.
There are also many objective and independent scientists in modern Russia. One of them is a young Russian researcher Dm. Verkhoturov. Dm. Verkhoturov writes that “Iranists unanimously assert that in ancient times (until about the middle of the 1st millennium AD) Central Asia, Kazakhstan and Siberia were inhabited by Iranian peoples. It is often claimed that these territories were the "homeland of the Iranian peoples." This version dominates almost undividedly in the works of the Iranianists. But, among its oddities include the following:
- Absence of relic peoples with the Iranian language in the designated area. Especially if it is recognized as the homeland of the Iranian peoples, it is extremely unlikely that not a single Iranian people, even in the form of a fragment, has been able to stay in their original homeland.
- If you believe the Iranian theory, then it follows from it that around the middle of the 1st millennium AD. the Turks "left" from Altai, quickly captured and Turkified the huge "Iranian world", and they did it so well that no traces and fragments of the old world remained.
Meanwhile, it is quite clear that the formation of such a vast Turkic world took millennia. There is a very definite archaeological complex of the steppe peoples, first of all, burials under kurgans in wooden log cabins, burials with horses and cremations with horses, which in the archaeological materials of Altai are quite clearly connected by continuity with the culture of undeniably Turkic peoples. The beginning of this continuity goes back at least to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. There are a number of circumstances that allow us to say that the opinion about the Iranian nature of the population of the designated territory is greatly exaggerated.”
The famous Italian scientist M. Alinei believes that “the Turkic peoples were the first to successfully tame horses and passed this innovation on to neighboring peoples. This is confirmed by the presence of Turkic borrowings in the terminology of the horse in the Finno-Ugric languages, the antiquity of which has been proven by specialists, and this implies the antiquity of the Turkic presence in Eastern Europe.
Until now, unfortunately, there is no special study devoted to the pre-written history of the ancient Turks. I tried to determine the historical ancestral home of the ancient Turks on the basis of a comparative analysis of modern and ancient Turkic languages, by comparing the results obtained with the data of archeology, anthropology, ethnography and historical materials.

© Copyright: Gahraman Gumbatov, 2018
Publication Certificate No. 218070200168

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Kumyks of the indigenous population on the plains of Dagestan. Live broadcast is concentrated in seven districts of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic:. Khasavyurt, Babayurtovsky Kizilyurt, Buynaksk, Karabudah-Kent Kayakentsky and Kaytagskom in six villages in 'near Makhachkala and the cities of Makhachkala, Khasavyurt, Buynaksk, Izberbash and Derbent A small group of Kumyksa lives in the ASF in the Chechen Ingush. Finally, some Kumyk villages are part of North Ossetia.

The total number of Kumykov after the census in 1959 is 135 thousand people.

Kumyks neighbor in the north - Nogais, in the northwest and west - Chechens and Avars, in the southwest and south - Dargin, Tabasarans of Derbent and Azerbaijanis. The territory inhabited by the Kumyks faces the Caspian Sea in the east. The most important rivers in the Kumyk water system are the Terek, Sulak, Uluchay, Gamriozen, Shuraozen, Manasozen and the October Revolution Canal.

The climate here is moderate.

Kumyk belongs to the northwest (Kipchak) Turkish languages and is divided into three relatively close dialects: northern (Khasavyurt), middle (Buinaksk) and southern (Kaitag).

The Khasavyurt dialect is based on the Kumyk literary language. The differences between these dialects are currently unclear - literary language is everywhere.

Before the Great October socialist revolution Kumyk was divided into three groups, namely the dialectical division.

The first group consisted of the so-called inhabitants of the Kumyk plains (the space between the Terek and Sulak, Aksai Verkhnyaya Seda St., the Caspian Sea and Ostrog Aushov Salatovsk and mountains.) - modern Khasavyurt, Babayurt and partially Kizilevrovsky districts. The main part of this territory was once part of the former Terek region.

The second group, which was the most important, was Shamkhalizm Kumyk Tarkovsky, who in 1867 entered the region of Temir-Khan-Shura in the region of Dagestan.

This territory is modern Buynaksky, Karabudastansky and partially Kizilevrovsky districts. Finally, the third group was represented by the Kumits of the former property of Kaitag Utsmiya, and then they were transformed into the Kaitago-Tabasaran region.

Now the territory of this group is Kumyks-del-Kayakent and partly the Kaytagsky district.

The eponymous name of Kumyks-kyumuk 1. The etymological meaning of his time was not violated. Some historians have associated this term with the geographical conditions of the Kumi residence.

Others compared the terms Kumuk and Cuman, i.e. Polovtsy. The Kumyks' neighbors called them differently in the past. Dargin - Jandar (etymology unknown) and dirkalants (ordinary residents), Avars - larigals (residents), Nogais, Kabardians of Ossetia, Chechens, Balkars - only Kumyks.

The formation of the Kumyk people began in the second half of the 1st millennium.

e. The decisive role in the ethnogenesis of Kumikov belonged to an ancient tribe - the regions of flat Dagestan. Together with them, in the formation of the nationality of the Kumyks, tribal tribes especially appeared, especially the Kipchak (half), whose language was perceived by the local tribes. The decisive role of the autochthonous population in the emergence of the Kumi peoples is confirmed by the main characteristics of the culture and lifestyle of the Kumi and anthropological data.

Soviet anthropologists refer to the Kumyks of a European type and talk about the anthropological similarity of the Kumyks with other peoples in Dagestan and oppose them to the Mongolian peoples.

primaryprofessions

Modern agricultural agriculture of the Kumyks meets the conditions of flat and smooth construction.

Due to the fact that agriculture has long been the main occupation of the Gumi, people have accumulated a lot of economic experience and developed their own methods of agricultural labor. Kumyk was the first known triple system and artificial irrigation of fields.

Nevertheless, agriculture among the Kumyksi before the revolution retained relatively backward forms. For example, a more primitive system was used on the stand. The main working tools are wooden plows with lemeha3 iron (at the base of the additional cork), wooden dams, moonstones with stones (squid), sickles, etc. Weed weed made motif or special hands..; Mix the grain with the soil that previously reached the cylinder.

Iron plows, steam sprayers, seedlings, etc., which began to appear from the middle of the nineteenth century, were found only on farms and turrets.

Low agricultural machinery, lack of water for irrigation predetermined low yields. Despite all this, Kumyksi, unlike other peoples of Dagestan, barely used soil fertilizers. The average yield on irrigated fields in many areas did not exceed 4-5 per capita, on non-irrigated crops - only -3.

An important role in the organization of agricultural work in Kumyk in the past was played by mutual assistance from neighbors or neighbours.

These customs were called Kumyksi from Bulke (gathering, teamwork). There is a chop bull (sliced, i.e. weed harvest), orak bulka (oracle srp,

E meet the harvest), gabizh dei bulka (gabizhdey -…. corn, namely the payment for harvesting and processing corn), etc. Wealthy relatives often use this practice for work, promising poor families only the treatment of family work. Poor and weak farmers unite into two or three households, sharing livestock and agricultural machinery.

Such mutual assistance was called a partner. Often there is a need for the treatment of cattle and tools that the poor people plundered in the fists of murmuring.

The victory of the collective farm system opened up great opportunities for the growth of agriculture.

Thanks to numerous activities - the development of new lands, the planting of wetlands, the construction of channels, including the name Power Channel. October Revolution - Kumyk cultivated land has grown greatly. 4. The Kumyk regions have become large grains of the economy of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Most of the Kumyk collective farms are irrigated.

A widespread use system is provided that allows you to supply water to the desired field of the field and not split it into separate parts with permanent channels.

On the basis of cultivation, in a large kumik collective farm, as a rule, the specialization was highly specialized, which is usually only grain.

Now agriculture is developing in several ways; However, the leading industry in almost all regions of the Kumyk cultivation of agricultural crops, in particular, the cultivation of cereals. Of the cereals, the first is wheat, the other is corn and barley. In some areas (Khasavyurtovsky, Kizilevrovsky) rice was also grown.

Kumyks are engaged in horticulture and viticulture.

However, in the past, in small scattered farms, where soil cultivation is carried out in a primitive way, horticulture and viticulture cannot develop significantly.

Mass planting of fruit trees and vines and the introduction of Michurin varieties, which took place only on the collective farm. Now in the Buinak district itself there are 2,322 hectares under gardens. Kolkhoz im. Ordzhonikidze (the village of Nizhnyaya Kazan) in this area has gardens on the surface of about 450 hectares.

In the pre-revolutionary period, horticulture and viticulture in the Kumyks had practically no commercial significance.

As a rule, fruits are stored, dried and covered in winter for their own consumption. They were partly replaced in neighboring villages with grain and other products.

To the extent that the collective farms have every opportunity to sell their products, the export of fruits and grapes, as well as the production of wine, has reached a wide range.

On their own vehicles, collective farms are exported to sell fresh fruits, grapes and vegetables. An important role in the economy of the Kumyks is gradually acquiring horticultural crops. Kumyks cultivated watermelons, melons, pumpkins, cucumbers, various types of beans, onions, garlic, peppers, herbs and so on for a long time. D. However, in pre-revolutionary conditions, the cultivation of this plant is not sufficiently developed.

At present, the sown area under it has grown significantly. In 1958, collective farms in the Khasavyurt district planted 1,362 hectares of vegetable and melon crops. In addition to long known for crops and new ones. Tomatoes, cabbage, eggplant, potatoes, etc. Based on horticulture, viticulture and vegetables, canned fruits.

Canarian products Khasavyurt and Buynak are among the largest in the republic.

The machines are widely used in all branches of the Kumyk agricultural holding. Its role in Polish agriculture is especially high when all the main processes are fully mechanized. Old agricultural implements (heavy cork, rubber plates, wooden harrows) were avoided by heavy tractors, combines, sprayers, planters,

Kumyks are also engaged in animal husbandry, growing large and small cattle. Much attention is paid to the breeding buffalo, which is valued as a strong working cattle and buffalo - for good dairy crops and high quality milk. In the past, animal husbandry in the Kumyks was poorly developed. The shepherd and the shepherd were full of suffering.

Which pasture has increased housing and facilities for animals, veterinary and medical centers etc. Winter kuta and summer pasture in the mountains visiting art Ensemble and amateur performances. trade organizations supply livestock farmers with food, cultural and industrial products.

Poultry, beekeeping and seroculture are also very important.

These sectors of the economy have existed among the Kumyks for a long time, and at present a lot has developed.

On the collective farms of Kumyk there are different vehicles. The main ones are cars that serve both the transportation of people and the transfer of goods. Wagons and arbads are also used to transport goods over nearby distances. Field barges used bidar, carts and riding horses. The use of motor vehicles became possible due to the large construction of roads carried out during the years of Soviet power.

On the territory of Kumyka, new comfortable roads were created connecting all villages with regional centers and cities of the republic, as well as the Kumykovskaya lowland with the mountainous regions of Dagestan. Economic relations Kumyks is a very important railway route that runs from north to south through the coastal part of the Kumyk region and the Makhachkala-Buinakskaya line.

From year to year, the number of power plants in the Kumyk collective farms is growing.

Many settlements are fully electrified. In addition to their energy installations (many Kumyk villages receive cheap electricity from nearby cities - Makhachkala, Izberbash, Caspian Khasavyurt, Buynaksk, which allows charging some labor-intensive processes in the economy.

If before noon the main production unit was strictly gender and age division of labor, the burden of labor was on women, now the production unit has become a farm and its members in one very friendly staff.

The distribution of labor between women and men in collective agricultural teams arises from the appropriateness of using male labor in more labor-intensive work. Thus, the division of labor on the farm has nothing to do with the old. The principle of socialist payments ensures that the productivity of labor is constantly growing.

Kumyk: “History of the Kumikov Spring” (G.S. Fedorov-Guseinov, Makhachkala, 1996): free download

Socialist competition is becoming more and more widespread. The parties and communist organizations, which are the initiators of the most important companies, actively popularize the experience of advanced collective farmers and collective farms. It is known that among the collective farmers the names of the Heroes of Socialist Labor are known, who have achieved high production rates and are known for their disinterested labor force.

The growing public economy contributes to a change in the nature of the personal economy of the Kumyks.

In collective parcels, collective farms mainly grow vegetables and gourds, feed meat and dairy cattle. Personal economic income began to play a supporting role in the family budget, which supplements only the main income from the state economy.

In some villages (Kumtorkale, Kayakent, Nizhny and Zgorni Kazanchtsy, Andreaula, etc.), women spend their free time in the college with clothes.

They are woven like pile and drip carpets, saddlebags, etc. from carpet products, especially the famous Kumyks, the docked one-sided carpet, the famous Shumak. Decorative carpets, especially geometric ones, are very original drawings and paintings.

Northern Kumyks also produce carved carpets adorned with geometric and floral decorations.

In the past, almost every Kumyk village had its own masterpieces, many of which were known for their products in the Caucasus. The name of the master Bazalai from the village. Upper Kazan, which lived in the first half of the 19th century. The centuries have become a home.

This name came to refer to the blades he made, which were very strong. Upper and lower Kazan and Andreaul were forging centers. In these villages, as well as in Erpel is Kafir-Kumuk Sultan Yangi Yurt and other zlatokuznechestvo circulates and in which engraving, black, filigree and silver casting. In the XVIII-XIX centuries. century. in the villages of Erpel and Andreyale flourishing pottery, degraded at a later time due to the predominance of factory products.

On Wednesday economic activity Kumyk is one of the main places now operating in the industry.

The first industrial enterprises in the Kumyk region were formed in the pre-revolutionary period (oil and fishing industries, processing companies for local agricultural raw materials). However, the total number of employees and the number of employees of Kumy employees was very small.

There was a very small proportion of the Kumyk population of the port of Petrovsk (now Makhachkala), Temir-Khan-Shura (now Buynaksk), the village of Khasavyurt (now the city).

In Soviet times, the situation changed radically. The transformation of Dagestan into a developed industrial-agrarian republic also affected the economic life of the Kumyk people. Along with the creation of powerful industrial centers in the rapidly growing cities of the republic, several industrial enterprises were built in rural areas, including Kumyk.

Kumyk is now an important part of the working class of Dagestan. A third of the Kumyk population of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic lives in cities and in workers' settlements. This fact clearly reflects the grandiose movements / events in the life of the Kumyk people for 1 Soviet power.

Kumyks`Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov`

Kumyks, units Kumyk, Kumyk, m. One of the Turkic peoples in the Caucasus.

Kumyks`Explanatory Dictionary of Ozhegov`

Ov, unit -yk, -a, m. A people belonging to the indigenous population of Dagestan. II well. Kumychka, -i. II adj. Kumyk, -th, -th.

Kumyks` Explanatory Dictionary of Efremova`

1) The people of the Kypchak ethno-linguistic group living in Dagestan. 2) Representatives of this people.

Kumyks`Small Academic Dictionary`

Kumyks`Historical Dictionary`

(self-name - kumuk), people in the Russian Federation (277.2 thousand people), in Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia. The Kumyk language of the Kynchak group of Turkic languages.

Believers are Sunni Muslims.

Kumyks`Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron`

-ov, pl. (unit. Kumyk, -A, m.; kumychka, -And, pl. to at m ych to and, -check, -chkam, and.).

One of the peoples of the Dagestan ASSR, as well as persons related to this people.

Small academic dictionary.

M .: Institute of the Russian Language of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Evgenyeva A. P. 1957-1984 Kumyks

the people of the Turkic tribe, belonging to its Pontic branch, live in the Dagestan region, north of Derbent, along the coast of the Caspian Sea, and in the Khasav-Yurt district. and the Kizlyar department of the Terek region, between the river.

Terek and Sulak. Some believe that K. from ancient times occupied the coast of the Caspian Sea and were known to Ptolemy under the name kami, kamaki, Klaproth sees in them the descendants of the Khazars, and Vamberi (“Das Türkenvolk”, Lpts.

1885) admits that they settled in the places they now occupy even during the prosperity of the Khazar kingdom, that is, in the VIII century. With regard to language and way of life, all K.

presently represent one ethnographic whole, but this can hardly be said about their origin. Local legends, in connection with the many surviving ethnographic terms ...

Kumyks`Russian Spelling Dictionary`

kum\'yki, -ov, kum\'yk, -a

Russian spelling dictionary.

/ The Russian Academy of Sciences. In-t rus. lang. them. V. V. Vinogradova. - M .: "Azbukovnik". V. V. Lopatin (executive editor), B. Z. Bukchina, N. A. Eskova and others.

Kumyks`Modern Dictionary`

Kumykin people in Dagestan (232 thousand people). In total, there are 282 thousand people in the Russian Federation (1992). Kumyk language. Believing Kumyks are Sunni Muslims.

Kumyks`Dictionary foreign words`

Turkic people. tribes in Dagestan and other places. Caucasus.

(Source: "Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language".

Chudinov A.N., 1910)

Kumyks`Great Soviet Encyclopedia`

people inhabiting mainly flat and partially foothill regions in the Dagestan ASSR. The number in the USSR is 189 thousand people, including 169 thousand people in the Dagestan ASSR (1970, census). The Kumyk language belongs to the Kypchak group of Turkic languages. The believers of K. are Muslims. Ancient tribes participated in the ethnogenesis of K. - the natives of Northeastern Dagestan and the newcomer Turkic-speaking tribes, especially the Kipchaks, whose language was adopted by the natives.

According to anthropological characteristics and the main features of culture and life, the K. are close to other mountain peoples of Dagestan. The most significant feudal formation of K.

in the 17-18 centuries. was Shamkhalism of Tarkov. Socialist restructuring of the economy in the Soviet…

Kumyks`Big Encyclopedic Dictionary`

Kumyks are a people in Dagestan (232 thousand people). In total, there are 282 thousand people in the Russian Federation (1992). Kumyk language. Believing Kumyks are Sunni Muslims.

Kumyks`Fasmer’s Etymological Dictionary`

Kumykikumyks (pl.) - Turk. nationality in the east.

parts of the Terek region and Dagestan (Korsh, Ethnogr. Obozr. 84, 115), Kumyk near Avvakum (149, 151), also Kumyks, Khozhd. Kotov (circa 1625), p. 79 et seq., Karach. kumuk "Kumyk", Balkar. kumuklu (KSz 10, 121; 15, 240). Associated with the name of the Turkkumans; see Moshkov, Ethnogr. Overview 44, 16. Cf. kumanin. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language. - M.: ProgressM. R. Vasmer1964-1973

Kumyks`Explanatory Dictionary of Kuznetsov`

Kumyks`Soviet Historical Encyclopedia`

(kumuk - unit.

h., kumuklar - pl. h.) - a nationality inhabiting the plains and partly the foothills of the Dag. ASSR. A small part of K.

Kumyk world

lives in Checheno-Ingush. and North Ossetian. ASSR. Total number K. 135 vol. (1959). The Kumyk language belongs to the North-West. (Kipchak) group of Turks. languages ​​and breaks up into three fairly close dialects. Believers in K. are Sunni Muslims. In the ethnogenesis of K., ancient tribes took part - the aborigines of the North-East.

Dagestan and alien Turkic-speaking tribes, especially the Kipchaks, whose language was adopted by the natives. According to anthropological signs and according to the main In terms of culture and way of life, K. are close to other mountain peoples of Dagestan. The most means. feud. The formation of K. was the Shamkhalate of Tarkov. K. are employed in the collective farm with. x-ve, as well as in the industry (petroleum, chemical, mechanical engineering) as workers and engineers and technicians.

personnel. The national literature, art, theatre, music, folklore; grew national intelligentsia.

Lit .: Gadzhieva S. Sh., Kumyks. …

Kumyks-ov; pl. One of the peoples of Dagestan; representatives of this people.

◁ Kumyk, -a; m. Kumychka, -i; pl. genus. - check date -chkam; and. Kumyksky, -th, -th. K. language. K-th literature.

Great Dictionary of Russian language. - 1st ed.: St. Petersburg: NorintS. A. Kuznetsov. 1998

Kumuk (self-name) . The number in Dagestan is 365.8 thousand, in Chechnya-Ingushetia-9.9 thousand, in sowing Ossetia- 9.5 thousand total number more than 500 thousand people(taking into account diasporas in foreign countries).

Kumy plain and foothills of Dagestan. They speak the Kumy language (one of literary languages Dagestan).has dialects: Buynak, Kaitag, foothill, Terek, Khasavyurt .

The main aspects of studying the history of the Kumyks.

Literary language based on the Khasavyurt and Buynak dialects. Until 1928 they used the general Dagestan writing system on an Arabic graphic basis (adjam), in 1928-1938 writing in Latin, from 1938 on a Russian graphic basis. Believers - Muslims - Sunnis.

Tribes played a certain role in the formation of the Kumyks Cimmerians(before the beginning of the 7th century BC), Scythians (VIII-III centuries BC), later - Turkic-speaking tribes, etc. The first mention of the ethnonym “ Kumyks ”, found in ancient authors Pliny the Elder, Claudius Ptolemy.

The final formation of the Kumyks as an ethnic group took place in the XII-XIII centuries. By the XVIII-XIX centuries. on the territory of the Kumyks settlement, there were several political formations: the Tarkov Shamkhalate, the Mekhtulin Khanate, the Kostek and Aksaev possessions. The southern Kumyks were part of the Kaitag Utsmiystvo. A special place was occupied by the Tarkovsky shamkhal, who was called the wali (owner) of Dagestan, who had unlimited power.

Since XVII, close trade and diplomatic relations of the Kumyks with Russia have been established.

After education Dagestan region(1860, center - the city of Temir-Khan-Shura) the political power of the shamkhal and khans was actually liquidated: instead, districts were created: from the Kaitan utsmiystvo and the Taba-Shurinsky district of the Dagestan region.

Kumyks made up the main population of more than (60%) Temir-Khan-Shurinsky and Khasavyurt districts , and in Kaitago-Tabasaran district about 15% of the population. In the 2nd half of the XIX century. Kumyks were a relatively highly consolidated people with developed ethnic characteristics: the spread of a single endoethnonym, the regularity of trade, economic and cultural relationships, etc.

the process of ethnocultural consolidation eliminated the presence of ethnographic groups of Kumyks.

At the end of the XIX century. come out first printed books in Kumyk. Around the 17th century to the beginning of the 20th century The Kumyk language has become the language of interethnic communication in the North-Eastern Caucasus.

The Kumyk language was the official language of correspondence with the Russian tsars, representatives of the Russian administration; he studied in high schools and colleges Vladikavkaz, Stavropol, Mozdok, Kizlyar, Temir-Khan-Shura and etc.

From Avar, Dargin, Lak and Russian villages, 8-10 year old boys were sent to the families of Kumyk-Kunaks for 2-3 years, where they studied the Kumyk language. Since 1921, the Kumyks have been part of the Dagestan ASSR (since 1991 - Rep.

Dagestan). In the 1950s and 1980s, large-scale organized resettlements and spontaneous migration of highlanders to the plains led to overpopulation Kumyk plain m Primorskaya lowland which exacerbated many of the socio-economic and national problems of Dagestan.

Kumyks have become an ethnic minority, which faced the problem of preserving their ethnic identity. In the spring of 1989, the Kumyk, the people's movement "Tenglik", was formed, its main goals are the declaration of national sovereignty with other socio-political organizations and movements of Dagestan and the Caucasus.

There are other socio-political organizations of the Kumyks.

In the 1860s, the dependence of some estates on others was destroyed, and representatives of the unprivileged estates were endowed with land under communal law. Kumyks were divided into a class of landowners - owners and people. Kumyks are all Sunni Muslims. The customs and manners of the Kumyks are generally similar to the customs and manners of other Caucasian highlanders, but they do not look at customs as an inviolable shrine and easily allow deviations from them.

Approximately on blood affairs it is arranged quite simply and easily.

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Kumiki are people in Russia who live mainly in the north and east of Dagestan, between the Terek and Uluchay rivers.

Number 422.4 thousand people (2002, inventory). They speak in Kumyk; According to the 1989 census, 99% of Kumyks were considered their mother tongue.

Russian is spoken by 90.8% of Kumyks. The Muslims are immersed in the Shahi Mahabab.

They are divided into groups of middle, northern and southern groups.

K. Middle (Buinaksk) Kumyks joined the Tarkovsky Shemkhalat, as in 1867 - in the Temir-Khan-Shurinsky district (Pushkinsky Budaksky 1923) in Dagestan. Northern (Khasaviurty, Zasulak) Kumyks live on the Kumyk plain between Terek and Sulak.

At the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th century, part of the Kumyks of the patrimony, separated from the Tarkovsky Shamkhalate and Endireevskoe khanate, formed at the end of the 17th century, split into Endireevskoe, Aksaevskoe Kostekovskoe and being kept by Ulla-Bis.

Since 1860, we entered Kumyk, in 1871 - into the Terek region of the Khasavyurt district. The southern (Kaitag) Kumyks, included in the Kaitag Ulsmiystvo, since 1860 - in the Kaitag-Tabasaran region (1928 Kaitag canton, 1929 - remote).

47% of Kumyks live in cities (Makhachkala, Buynaksk, Khasavyurt, etc.). According to the census in 1926, there were 94.5 thousand people.

Traditional culture is characteristic of the peoples of the Caucasus (see the article Asia).

History of Kumyks

They are engaged in the production of agricultural products (wheat, barley, millet, rice, cotton, corn, corn), day, gardening, viticulture.

Bread was exported to other regions of the Caucasus, and from the 18th century moraines were supplied to factories in St. Petersburg. In the XVIII century, corn was sown (its seeds were brought by pilgrims to Dagestan, who committed themselves, so the name Kumyk was called Hadji).

We used landfill irrigation, land irrigation. Cattle, sheep and goats, horses (mainly Turkish steppe and Karachay mountain breeds) are bred, sericulture, fishing, beekeeping, salt production, trade (including Persia, Armenia, Azerbaijan), glazed ceramics, copper utensils, weapons and firearms, cotton and silk fabrics, goods, saws and smooth (dum, ruby) carpets, jewelry, saddlery and other crafts.

The main craft centers are Tarki, Kazanistan, Endirai and Aksai; in Zasulak Kumykidzhi they felt and felt.

Traditional women's clothing- T-shirts, trousers (shalbar) or wide trousers skirt (same) Dress - Swing (buzma, headband, arsar) with kleshonoy wing and folding arms or closed with a slit (Polshi) or inserted into the chest (KABALAN, osetinler), with metal.

dog (kamal), sachet bag (chutkuu). Until the 19th century, surviving associated associations (Taipei, Kavum, jeans), the division into classes Shamkhalov (the name Shamkhalo is passed from father to eldest son, and older age of all kinds), Krymshamkhalov (Shamkhal heir), Bolsheviks, Karachay- beks (Karachi beks) chunks, nobles (Uzden fats or Ulla-Uzden, dogerek-Uzden simple Uzden) dependent farmers (Chagari molecules) freedmen (Azat), domestic slaves (up to 1,868 years).

It was atalivo, kunachestvo, neighboring help (roll, ortak). The system of expressions of Turkish belonging with elements of the Caucasus: the bifurcation-linear principle is combined with descriptive constructions for patriarchal relatives.

The generating type "Omaha" and the current accounting of generations, characteristic of foreign objects, are lost. Families are divided by gender.

Islam spread in Kumykia from the 8th to the 12th century. There are traces of the cult of the highest god Tengir, belief in demonic beings, cosmogonic and etiological legends, fairy tales (emaklar) and others.

© The Great Russian Encyclopedia (GRE)

• Gasanov G.

  A. Kumyk dyes in saryns. M., 1955

• Kumyk songs // Dagestan folk songs. M., 1959
• Agagishiev Z.

  Some information about the musical music of the Kumyks // History of Dagestan. Makhachkala, 1976

• Umakhanova A.M. Choreographic art of Kumyk. Makhachkala, 1991
• Adzhiev A.

  M. Oral folk art of koumiss. Makhachkala, 2005

• Gadzhiyeva S. Sh. Kumyks: historical past, culture, way of life. Makhachkala, 2005

Chesnokov Alexey Nikolaevich

editor

Tarki-Tau is a natural monument, a unique mountain, standing apart from a huge mountain monolith. There are legends and myths about her. On its plateau and slopes there are many sacred places, ziyarats - Valikyz pir, Kyyrkyz-bulak, Lok'a, Kutlukyz-bulak, Sangyz and others, highly revered by the locals. Only mounds around Tarki-Tau and at its foot there are 542, many of which are known to the inhabitants by name.

According to beliefs, in the old days there was a ban on pointing a finger at Tarki-Tau.

The favorable location of the Kumyk plane between the sea and the mountains, on the one hand, contributed to the development of agriculture and animal husbandry, trade and crafts, on the other hand, subjected the inhabitants of the plain to terrible trials by fire and sword of numerous hordes of conquerors of antiquity.

But our ancestors survived these battles, moreover, they enriched their culture and knowledge with the achievements of newcomers and preserved their land for future generations.

The Kumyks speak the Kumyk language, which has its own dialects: Buynak, Kaitag, foothill, Khasavyurt and Terek.

In tsarist times, the Kumyk language was studied in gymnasiums and schools in Vladikavkaz, Stavropol, Mozdok, Kizlyar, Temir-Khan-Shura. And today, many of the older generation of Avars, Dargins, Lezgins, Laks, Tabasarans, Chechens speak the Kumyk language.

The Kumyks have their neighbors: Nogais in the north, Avars and Dargins in the west, Tabasarans and Lezgins in the south.

Before Russia came to the Caucasus, in the 18th-19th centuries, the Kumyk settlements were called the Tarkov Shamkhalate, the Mekhtulin Khanate, the Zasulak Kumykia - the Endireev, Kostek and Aksaev possessions, in present-day Chechnya - the Bragun Principality; the southern Kumyks were part of the Kaitag Utsmiystvo.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Kumykia was annexed to Russia.

After the formation of the Dagestan region in 1860 with the center in the city of Temir-Khan-Shura, local feudal lords: shamkhals, khans and biys were left without power.

How the Kumyks of Dagestan live

Instead of the former possessions, districts were created: from the Kaytag utsmiystvo and Tabasaran, the Kaytago-Tabasaran district was formed, from the Tarkovsky shamkhalate, the Mekhtulin khanate and the Prisulak naibdom, the Temir-Khan-Shurinsky district of the Dagestan region; on the territory of the Endireevsky, Aksaevsky and Kostek possessions, the Kumyk (later - Khasa-Vyurt) district of the Terek region was formed.

Kumyks were the main population of the Temir-Khan-Shurinsky and Khasavyurt districts.

Now more than half of the Kumyks are settled in 8 rural administrative districts of the Republic of Dagestan - Kumtorkalinsky, Karabudakhkentsky, Buynaksky, Kayakentsky, Babayurtovsky, Khasavyurtovsky, Kizilyurtovsky, Kaitagsky.

Kumyks are the oldest residents of the cities of Makhachkala, Buynaksk, Khasavyurt, Kizilyurt, Izberbash and Kaspiysk in Dagestan. Some of the Kumyks live in urban-type settlements: Tarki, Tyube, Leninkent, Kyahulai, Alburikent, Shamkhal, Mana-skent.

Relatively large groups, numbering more than 22 thousand people, Kumyks live in the Gudermes and Grozny regions of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and the Mozdok region of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania. A small part of them are settled in the Stavropol Territory, the Tyumen Region of the Russian Federation, as well as in neighboring countries - Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.

The natural world of the Kumyk plane, foothills and coast is extremely rich and diverse.

The main rivers crossing the lands of the Kumyks are Terek, Sulak, Shura, Ulluchay, Gamri, Manas, Aksai, Aktash. Terek and Sulak bring water to the Caspian Sea, other rivers dry up in summer or are completely taken apart for irrigation.

Forest species composition is quite diverse: oak, hornbeam, beech, poplar, alder, elm, ash, walnut, cherry plum, dogwood. Of the shrubs, medlar, wild rose, hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel (hazelnut), blackberry, and grapes predominate.

The fauna of Kumykia is also diverse.

Wild boars, saigas, wolves, jackals, badgers, foxes, hares, hedgehogs, weasels live here.

The bird world is represented by field sparrows, pigeons, eagles, magpies, swallows, tits, ducks, geese.

In river reservoirs and the Caspian Sea there are various types of fish: sturgeon, beluga, sterlet, carp, carp, pike, kutum, bream, salmon, rudd, mullet, asp, pike perch, perch, catfish.

Here, catching herring and sprat has long been of great commercial importance.

Great attention of the state and the public is demanded by unique natural monuments associated with the formation of the cultural heritage of the people. These include the sandy Sary-Kum mountain, the Tarki-Tau mountain, the Talgin, Kayakent mineral and mud springs, the Agrakhan Bay.

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