Tsakhurs

ETHNONYMS: Self-designation: Iiqhy. The ethnonyms Tsakhur (Ts'akhur) and Tsakhi are related to the name of the largest village, Tsakhur.

Orientation

Identification and Location. The Tsakhurs live in the southwestern part of Daghestan (the Rutul District) and in northern Azerbaijan (the Zakatal and Kakh districts). The Daghestanian Tsakhurs occupy a territory that is closed off and difficult of access called Mountain Magai (on the upper reaches of the Samur River). Paths and an automobile road join them to their dosest neighbors, the Rutuls and the Lezgins, and mountain passes over the main Caucasus chain link them to Azerbaijan. The climate is cold: there are snowdrifts and avalanches in the winter, whereas in the summer the rivers sometimes flood. The Azerbaijan Tsakhurs occupy the foothills and plains, areas which have a temperate climate, fertile soil, and good communications.

Demography. The overall population of the Tsakhurs in 1989 was 20,055 (the growth over the preceding ten years had been 48.8 percent). Of this number 5,194 (25.9 percent) lived in the Daghestan ASSR, and 13,318 (66.4 percent) lived in the Azerbaijan SSR. The Tsakhurs belong to the Caspian variant of the Balkano-Caucasian subrace of the Euro-Indian race.

Linguistic Affiliation. Tsakhur belongs to the Lezgin Subgroup of the Daghestanian Group of the Northeast Caucasian (Nakh-Daghestanian) Language Family. In the 1930s A. N. Genko established a Latin-based alphabet, C. A. Dzhafarov wrote several primers, and for two years instruction was carried on in the native language. Literacy did not go any further, however, and the Tsakhur language was not used for writing for the remainder of the Soviet period. Until the beginning of the 1950s the school language was Azerbaijani and, after that, Russian, whereas among the Tsakhurs of Azerbaijan it has continued to be Azerbaijani. Today Russian is widespread among the Daghestan Tsakhurs, as is Azerbaijani among the Tsakhurs of both areas (Daghestan and Azerbaijan). Recently the decision has been made to use Tsakhur once again as a written language.

History and Cultural Relations

The Tsakhurs are an ancient, indigenous population of the eastern Caucasus. Their early ethnic history is related to that of Caucasian Albania and of the peoples speaking languages of the Lezgin group. Scholars believe that the Tsakhurs were an ethnically distinct entity among the Lezgin peoples no earlier than the fifteenth century. The name "Tsakhur" first appears in Armenian and Georgian sources of the twelfth century (in the first as "Tsekhoik"). Later in the Middle Ages (thirteenth century) the village of Tsakhur was the subject of writings by the Arabic cosmograph Zakaria al-Kazreni and subsequently by the Turkish geographer and traveler Evlia Chelebi (seventeenth century). Originally the Tsakhurs lived within the limits of contemporary Daghestan but after that pushed forward into northern Azerbaijan. From the fifteenth century on there was a feudal formation (sultanate) on Tsakhur territory, with its center originally in the town of Tsakhur in Daghestan but later, from the seventeenth century on, in the city of Elisu in Azerbaijan. Among the Azerbaijan Tsakhurs there also existed free village communes in Elisu, Karadulakh, Bagh Suragil, Jannykh, Mukhukh, and Sabunchi. The inhabitants of the last three named settlements, together with their Avar neighbors, formed a union (the Dzharo-Belokanskiye Free Communes). Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Tsakhurs were fighting for their independence against the Turks and Persians, who were engaged in a struggle for supremacy in the Caucasus. From 1707 to 1723 the Azerbaijan Tsakhurs battled against the Iranians. The Persian army, lead by Nadir Shah, invaded Daghestan in 1735, 1741, and 1743, burning villages, killing or enslaving many Daghestanians, and bringing famine and epidemic upon those who remained. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Tsakhurs were looking to Russia for help. With the signing of the Gulistan Treaty of 1813, the Tsakhur territory (in the form of the Elisu sultanate) was incorporated into the Russian Empire. The Tsakhur sultan Daniel-Beg initially gave his loyalty to Russia, for which he was granted authority over the Rutul Mahal, but in 1844 he gave his support to the anti-Russian uprising of the Islamic Caucasian peoples under the leadership of Shamil. Many Tsakhurs joined Shamil's army. In 1852, to counteract this source of support for the rebellion, the Russian government exiled the Daghestanian Tsakhurs to Azerbaijan and destroyed many of their settlements. In 1861, after the Shamil revolt was crushed, the Tsakhurs were allowed to return to their homeland.

Settlements

The traditional settlements of the Tsakhurs had a stepped, terraced, and horizontal layout. The oldest of them were situated in inaccessible, well-defended places. Typically their settlements faced south and were close to potable water, arable land, and pastureland. The streets, narrow and winding (sometimes like a tunnel), joined all the parts of a settlement and the main square. Around the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth there were two types of settlement: the larger settlement and the small village. At this time the earlier territorial-kinship principle of settling an area underwent change. The kinship-based settlements consisting of one tukhum (extended kinship group, clan) grew and divided into quarters in which the members of several tukhums often lived together with their relatives. In each settlement there was a communal square (for assemblies, meetings, and holiday festivals), next to which was located the mosque. (In a series of settlements there were mosques for each quarter or neighborhood or block.) The Tsakhur also penetrated into the southern slopes of the main Caucasus chain, into Azerbaijan, where since ancient times they have migrated with their livestock to their winter quarters. In the eighteenth century and, more particularly, the nineteenth century, the flow of immigrants from Mountain Magai increased for economic reasons and has not ceased to this day. Many of these settlements received the same names as they had had in Daghestan. One supposes that some Tsakhur settlements also had existed in Azerbaijan in earlier times. In Soviet times some of the Azerbaijan Tsakhurs have migrated from the mountains to the plains and have founded new settlements.

Tsakhur dwellings evolved from the single-roomed to the many-roomed type. The most characteristic type at the turn of the twentieth century was the one-storied stone house with two or three rooms, a flat earthen roof, varying spatial layout (depending on the contour of the land), an earthen floor, and no yard. Farm buildings were erected separately. Rarer were houses with verandas on the southern side and two stories. Houses were built from stone, clay, wood, rushes. In the interiors the most remarkable things were the fireplaces within the walls and also niches (later, shelves) for keeping cups, plates, clothes, and bed linens; the room also contained jars for grain and flour (decorated with carving), large wooden plates and dishes for milk products, carpets (with and without pile) and on top of them pillows for sitting (many people lacked furniture). Weapons were hung on the walls and the pillars. In the family room of the older houses there were carved supporting pillars with a support beam and a hearth set in the center of the floor space (for heating purposes and baking bread); during winter the whole family warmed itself next to it. The Azerbaijan Tsakhurs, when building houses in the mountains and the foothills, maintained Daghestanian tradition (that is, the basic dwelling made of wood). In the plains houses were of brick (made of clay with admixtures of dung, straw, and/or horsehair) or wattle and daub and consisted of one or multiple stories with an attic and a gabled roof covered with rushes or straw. In Soviet times the Daghestan Tsakhurs, preserving the more basic type of one-storied house, have also been building two-storied houses (in one line, L-shaped or U-shaped) with two to five rooms, among which the guest room, with its wooden floor, stands out. The rooms have large windows and, facing the street, a facade with verandas (either open or glassed in). A cast-iron or stone stove provides heat. A granary with space for agricultural tools is on the first floor. Urban furniture has appeared, but rugs have been retained. The Tsakhurs of Azerbaijan build two-storied, many-roomed houses, most often as part of housing projects, with three-or four-planed roofs (of tile, slate, or iron) and small yards and vegetable patches.

Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities . Among the Daghestanian Tsakhurs the leading occupation was livestock raising (primarily sheep, but also cattle and horses). Thick-wooled sheep, adapted to high mountains, were bred for meat and milk. Winters the sheep were driven from Daghestan into Azerbaijan (the Zakatal sheep region); summers they were herded in the mountains. More than half the population of the mountain villages migrated with their flocks six or seven months out of the year. In the mountains they sowed winter and spring barley, maize, spring lentils, winter rye, and wheat. Their own grains did not suffice for the whole year; they would buy additional grain in Azerbaijan. Among the Tsakhurs of Azerbaijan the basis of the economy was agriculture; the three-field system predominated; they also raised cattle, sheep, and domestic fowl. They sowed barleycorn, maize, wheat, rice, and millet using artificial irrigation. Farm implements included the heavy plow (hitched to two or three pairs of oxen), iron harrows, and horse-drawn mowing machines. Profitable branches of the economy among the Azerbaijan Tsakhurs included gardening, truck farming, and also sericulture and tobacco growing. In Soviet times all branches of the economy have continued to develop, provided with a new technology and increasing scope.

Clothing. The traditional male clothing combined general Daghestanian and Caucasian traits: a tunic-formed shirt; pants that narrowed toward the bottom; over this a quilted coat unfastened, perforated, and tailored to hug the body; a belt with metallic pendants; a sheepskin coat; and a felt coat. Footwear was low-cut and of leather, high-cut and of knitted wool with turned-up toes, shoes without counters (worn with woolen socks), or soft, leather boots. Headgear consisted of a high conical sheepskin cap for everyday use and, for holidays, a lower hat or a cowl. The woman's clothing included a tunic-shaped shirt, pants, and a wide skirt over the shirt tails; over this was worn a long dress like a man's quilted coat (beshmet ). Other items included an apron, a sheepskin coat, knitted socks and footwear, shoes without counters, Caucasian-style slippers, a headdress surmounted by a kerchief, and (in some villages) a small hat like a nightcap covered with silver ornaments, stones, and embroidery. Women's ornaments included a pendant on the breast (with silver chains, coins, and bosses sewed on), adornments for the head (rows of silver chains), leather belts, rings, earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. The children's clothing reproduced that of adults in its cut and its constituents. The contemporary clothing is of the European type but preserves certain traditional elements (the fur cap, kerchief, skirt, and felt coat).

Food. The basis of the Daghestanian Tsakhur diet was meat, milk products, and grains; in Azerbaijan the diet included fruits and vegetables. In the mountainous regions the bread was unleavened (of rye or barley); in the lowlands it was more often wheat, less often maize or barley. In winter they prepared flour from roasted barleycorn. In Tsakhur cuisine there were many dishes from fresh beans and lentils (bean soups); herbs were also used as stuffing for pies (to which were added cheese, curds, and eggs). Meat, both fresh and jerked, was boiled and roasted and used for soups with fresh beans, onions, shashlik and rissole (fishballs made with breadcrumbs) rolled in cabbage leaves and fried. There was pilaf with mutton and also chicken broth. Every day in the mountainous region they used to prepare dumplings of wheat—less often maize—with meat or homemade sausage and a garlic sauce. Dairy products included cheese, milk, curds, and sour cream. A soup with rice and herbs was made with milk (eaten both hot and cold). Alcoholic drinks and tea appeared in the beginning of the twentieth century. Fruit juices, sherbet, honey water, and dry wine were known to the Azerbaijan Tsakhurs. At present many traditional dishes are still prepared, and techniques for preserving fruits and vegetables and for making jams and pickles have improved.

Industrial Arts. Traditionally, both kinds of Tsakhurs worked wool and wove textiles from wool combined with silken threads on horizontal looms: felt coats, jackets for shepherds, bedding, socks, and so on. Other traditional crafts included rug manufacture, the knitting of woolen socks and footwear, woodworking, leatherworking, and metalworking (blacksmiths, tinsmiths, and armorers, some of them working in other areas of the Caucasus). In Soviet times knitting and rug making have been maintained.

Trade. The Daghestanian Tsakhurs bartered with Azerbaijanian Tsakhurs and Azerbaijani Turks, particularly during the season of winter migrations. The Tsakhurs purveyed the products of animal husbandry and wool working and bought grain, fruits, and domestically produced arts and crafts. Relations with other districts of Daghestan were limited. In the villages, both in the mountains and on the plains, there were stores and shops with a selection of textiles, footwear, and dishes and plates. A large range of wares was offered by Armenian merchants who came from Daghestan and Azerbaijan. Trade was interrupted during the winter because of the difficulty of traversing the mountain roads.

Division of Labor. The women played the chief role in domestic production. Many additional obligations were laid on the womenfolk when the man of the house went off to earn money in other places. The woman was responsible for weeding, the collection of the harvest, the processing of wood, and local crafts; she also tended the cattle, made hay, stored up firewood, was in charge of the preparation of food, and raised the children. The man saw to the pasturing and upkeep of the sheep and heavy agricultural jobs (plowing, the repair of farm implements). Work habits were instilled in the children from the earliest years. According to the norms of customary law, the boy had to assist his father in all economic activities, especially in the pasturing of livestock, just as the girl had to help her mother.

Land Tenure. Both Tsakhur communities recognized several forms of ownership: the feudal, the communal (pastureland, forests), ecclesiastical (land owned or inherited by mosques), and private (landed pertaining to peasant housholds). With the establishment of Soviet power the nationalization of the land took place and collective and state farms were organized.

Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. The most widespread term for kinship groupings is "tukhum," which denotes a set of groups clearly related along patrilineal lines (up to five or even seven generations). If it grew, the tukhum could divide, and groups of a different (first, second) order appeared. In every settlement there were several tukhums (in the city of Tsakhur, fourteen; in Suvagil, twelve), each with its own name, usually derived from the name of its founder. Some tukhums derive their origin from other ethnic groups (Arabs, Andis, Kubachins, etc.). In the distant past each tukhum had its definite place of settlement, plow land, pastureland, hay fields, forest, mill, and cemeteries and decided on the admission of persons from other settlements or the expulsion of unworthy persons. The members of the same tukhum supported each other morally and materially. In their social relations the tukhums were not uniform. The tukhums of one settlement would constitute a commune at the assemblies at which important communal matters were decided. The tukhum and the commune in general served to maintain many positively valued traditional institutions such as the custom of mutual aid and hospitality. In the nineteenth century the tukhum had already ceased to be the primary economic and political entity; territorial relations predominated in Daghestan in this period. Yet survivals of ideological systems derived from the tukhum have been preserved until this day (e.g., marriages with persons of less honored tukhums are sometimes considered undesirable). Sworn brotherhood, a form of ceremonial kinship, was also common.

The Tsakhurs reckon kinship in both the patrilineal and the matrilineal lines. The patrilineal kindred and the matrilineal complement one another.

Kinship Terminology. There are distinct terms for the father's brother and the mother's brother, the father's sister and the mother's (i.e., bifurcate-collateral kin terms). There are specific terms for kinship in the direct line through six generations: great grandfather ("old father"), grandfather, father, son, grandson, great grandson ("continuation of the grandson"). Relatives in collateral lines are also distinguished (e.g., brother, male cousin, male second cousin). The remaining relatives are called "the kindred," a term with the second meaning of affinal kinship, that is, the relatives of the wife or the husband. Such relatives are also called by a special term for affines.

Marriage and Family

Marriage. Around the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century marriage was by agreement. Preference was given to intratukhum marriages, taking account of the social and material conditions of both sides. Levirate and sororate were preserved. Polygamy was rare, particularly among Daghestanian Tsakhurs. The marital age of young men was 23 to 24, of young women, 18 or 19. Marriages at an earlier age were allowed among the Daghestanian Tsakhurs. Infant betrothal was rarely practiced. The parents had the decisive word in the selection of a marriage partner. Matchmakers were selected from among relatives (aunt, uncle, grandfather) or honored elders. The time interval between courtship and the wedding was one to three years. The wedding lasted from two to five days, and all relatives and fellow villagers participated in it. The climactic moment was the transfer of the bride to the groom's house) (postmarital residence was patrilocal). Contemporary marriage is concluded through the choice of the young people themselves, but the custom of courtship is preserved and weddings follow the traditional scenario.

Domestic Unit. Between the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century the predominant form was the nuclear family of two generations or five to six members. There were some families in which the aging parents lived with a married son. In several settlements (Muslakh, etc.) undivided families of several generations and several married couples were observed until the 1930s, even the 1950s. Relations within the family were characterized by respect toward elders, mutual assistance, love of work, and the observance of moral norms.

Inheritance. Property to be inherited was divided according to Quranic law, taking into account blood ties and age: to begin, part was apportioned to the parents of the deceased, then to the widow, then to the children and the remaining relatives. Men (sons, male relatives) got twice as much as women. In the feudal situation, in accordance with customary law, a woman was barred from the inheritance of immovable property.

Socialization. Women (mother, grandmother) raised children from the earliest age on. Men (father, grandfather, older brothers) gave more attention to the boys, especially after they reached age 7, giving them various jobs involving adult work. Within the family children were instilled with economic skills. They were taught to observe the customs and traditions of the people. The socialization of children also took place via diverse forms of communal and religious life (participation in holidays, funeral ceremonies, prayers, etc.).

Sociopolitical Organization

In the nineteenth century many questions of social life and local legal procedure were determined by the norms of customary and Quranic law. The decisions on familial property matters and certain civil ones were governed by Quranic law (the religious officials responsible for these matters were selected for two years). Criminal and other civil cases along with intertukhum and intra-and intercommunal conflicts were decided in terms of customary law (administered by an elder). The final word in important communal matters was held by the communal assembly, which consisted of the adult male population. The governance of the commune was carried out by a council of elders, with a leader elected for one year (who had assistants). The chief elder decided all conflicts between the inhabitants of a settlement with the help of elected judges who had the right—in addition to that of recovering damages ensuing from a case—of sentencing a guilty party to arrest, fines, or designated public service. Litigants had the right of appealing to a district court.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religion. The Tsakhurs practiced Sunni Islam, which had spread under the influence of the Arabs in the eleventh and twelfth centuries; in the thirteenth century the city of Tsakhur was one of the main centers for the Islamicization of the mountainous part of southern Daghestan. The mosques (which were distinguished by their architecture) were the centers of religious life. They were erected on the central square of the settlement. Muslim priests (mullahs, effendis) served in the mosques and carried out various rituals related to weddings and funerals. Parochial schools also operated near the mosques. Muslim beliefs were interwoven with pre-Muslim ones. Pagan beliefs—reverence for sacred graves (holy places) and festivals—were incorporated into local Islamic practice. Traces of cosmogonic and totemic ideas were preserved: belief in the special power of stones, trees, fire, water, and spirits. A series of popular festivals and rituals, accompanied by magical elements, were related to pre-Muslim, pagan customs, including performing the rites of spring (lighting bonfires and jumping through them), the collecting of flowers, evoking the rain, and certain wedding ceremonies.

Arts. Scholars recognize a distinct architectural tradition in southern Daghestan. As further elaborated by the Tsakhurs in the ninth century, the most original components were the canonical one-story house (which became standard) and also the principles of the artistic arrangement of the interior of the dwelling (its composition, the original form of wooden details, and the particular way of painting carved wood). Ornamental art is reflected in rug manufacture and knitting (socks, footwear). Tsakhur folklore is of many genres: tradition, legends, tales, epic songs and traditional epic poems, proverbs, sayings, anecdotes, riddles, and ritual songs (especially wedding songs). The folklore, music, and dances of the Tsakhurs were closely related to those of the Lezgins and especially to those of the Azerbaijanis; there was extensive mutual influence among them. The most widespread musical instruments were the clarinet (zuma ), drum, and tambourine.

Medicine. The Tsakhurs used to seek the aid of local healers and bonesetters and also healed themselves with home remedies (massage, tight binding, bloodletting, heating the body, and the application of certain products prepared from medicinal herbs).

In case of sickness they also turned to diviners and sorcerers, used magic, and went on pilgrimages to holy places. Mothers giving birth were assisted by midwives. Today Tsakhurs make use of modern medicine along with popular healing arts.

Modern Intellectual Life. A notable achievement of Tsakhur culture has been the development in Soviet times of a national intelligentsia. Among their scholars is one of the first linguists of Azerbaijan and Daghestan, S. A. Dzhafaror; the language specialist Professor G. Kh. Ibragimov of the Daghestan State Pedagogical Institute; and the physicist and corresponding member of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences Professor A. L. Mukhtarov (Azerbaijan State University). The Tsakhurs are proud of their poets (S. Dzhafarov and D. Dabersov, both publishing in Lezgin) and of artists such as Ismail Daghstanly and Nazirova Mira Bashir-kizy. The contemporary culture of the Tsakhurs is evolving, even while retaining many traditional features, under the powerful influence of the culture of the Azerbaijanis and, to a lesser extent, of Daghestan. The influence of the general process of internationalization and integration is also a factor.

Death and Afterlife. The Islamic clergy played a prominent role in the funeral ritual. News of a death was speedily conveyed by messengers to all the relatives, acquaintances, and even the inhabitants of distant settlements. Fellow villagers hastened to visit the family of the deceased, proffer help, and express their condolences; women lamented over the dead man. Interment took place on the same day before sunset. The deceased was the object of requiem services lasting for three or four days of mourning; the nearest of kin gathered, prayers were read, and food was eaten. Wealthier people organized memorial services after three days and after a year.

Bibliography

Akiner, Shirin (1986). Islamic Peoples of the Soviet Union: An Historical and Statistical Handbook. 2nd ed., 168-171. London: KPI.

Nikol'skaia, Z. A. (1960). "Tsakhury" (The Tsakhurs). In Narody Kavkaxa (The peoples of the Caucasus), edited by M.O. Kosven et al. Vol. 1, 546-553. Moscow: Akademiia Nauk.

GALINA SERGEEVA (Translated by Paul Friedrich)