Medieval Dagestan was the largest center of Arab-Muslim culture in the North Caucasus. The historical process of spreading (7th-17th centuries) and further strengthening of the positions of Islam in the region was accompanied by the process of ever-increasing penetration of book culture in the eastern (Arabic, Persian and Turkic) languages.
The Arabic language and Arabic literature have become an integral part of the culture of the Dagestan peoples. Acquiring the status of the language of science, literature, education, office work, act materials, private and official correspondence, the Arabic language played the role of lingua franca in a multilingual and multi-ethnic region. This fact testifies to the high level of development of the spiritual culture of the "receiving" side, which allowed it not only to brilliantly assimilate Arab-Muslim literature, but also to create on its basis the actual Dagestan Arabic-language, Persian-language and Turkic-language literature. The richest literature created by Dagestan scientists, poets, theologians, is a unique fund of the book culture of Dagestan.
Arabic literature "for the Caucasus was not exotic or an imported adornment of external learning, it really lived."
With the development and expansion of the influence of the Arabic language, the creation of local, original literature in Arabic is associated, the first examples of which date back to the 10th century. In Dagestan there were historical and cultural processes identical to those in Central Asia, Iran, India, Spain, i.e., in the countries of the Arab Caliphate. The general patterns of the development of spiritual culture and national specificity are clearly expressed in the literatures of peoples united by the Arab-Muslim culture. AT scientific papers prominent scientists-orientalists emphasizes the idea of the national originality of the Arabic-language Dagestan literature, which reflected all the genre diversity of oriental medieval literature. There is no need to talk about a quantitative cut, given the anti-religious policy, the destruction of mosques, mosque schools, madrasas, private and mosque book collections. Manuscripts were purposefully destroyed, and those that were buried or hidden in caves and gorges for the purpose of preservation by their owners were irretrievably lost. Only a small fraction of the once rich book collections survived.
In parallel with the creation of Arabic-language works by Dagestan scientists, the process of adapting the Arabic alphabet to the phonetic features of the Dagestan languages was going on. It is difficult to overestimate the role of Adjam writing in the development of national languages and literature. We see this, in particular, in the example of the written culture of Central Asia, the Caucasus, Bashkiria, the Tatars of the Volga region, the Crimea and the Baltic states.
The famous Arabist M.-S. Saidov laid the foundations for studying the history of the Ajam script of the peoples of Dagestan. Thanks to his tireless work, numerous written monuments in national languages were identified, deciphered and introduced into scientific circulation. The work he started is continued with great success by A.A. Isaev. He collected, systematized and published valuable material on the handwritten and printed heritage in Ajam, compiled a catalog of printed books in the languages of the peoples of Dagestan.
Epigraphic inscriptions of the 13th century are among the earliest surviving written monuments on ajam. An example is the inscription on the wall of the mosque of the villages. Bark discovered by T.M. Aitberov and A.I. Ivanov. The inscription is bilingual (in Arabic and Avar) and contains an appeal to the inhabitants of the village not to violate the conditions of the waqf. Early entries in adjam are individual words, expressions and whole sentences in the Dagestan languages, written in the margins or between the lines of Arabic writings in the form of notes, comments on Arabic words and expressions or their translations. Discovered by M.-S. Saidov's testament in Arabic of the Avar Nutsal Andunik to his nephew and heir Bulach-Nutsal contains 16 Avar words. The will was written by Alimirza from the villages. Andi in 1485. The Avar words are rendered in the letters of the Arabic alphabet without the use of additional signs for them.
Glosses and interpretations in the Dargin language are noted in the margins of al-Ghazali's works, copied in Dagestan in 1493, 1497 and 1507 by Idris, the son of Ahmad from the village. Akusha. So, in the margins and between the lines of al-Ghazali's work "Minhaj al-‘Abidin", the above scribe left more than a thousand Dargin words and expressions and several words of the Lak language. These records are also of interest because they allow us to trace attempts to adapt the Arabic alphabet to the specific sounds of the Dargin language.
In the Lak language, a translation of the poem "al-Burda" by an Arabic author of the 13th century has been preserved. al-Busiri. The manuscript was found by M.-S. Saidov in the village. Gapshima Akushinsky district. The translation into the Lak language is given not in the form of a coherent text, but in the form of translations of individual words of the Arabic text. The manuscript is not dated, but the study of the paleographic data of the manuscript and the linguistic features of the texts allow us to attribute the notes to the 15th–16th centuries.
In the Kumyk language, records were found in the Arabic writings "Kitab al-kuttab" by Ali bin Muhammad al-Yazdavi and "al-Kafiyya fi-n-nahv" by Ibn al-Khajib, transcribed by Dagestan scribes in the con. 15th century Known is the letter of the Kumyk feudal lord Suntanmut, addressed to the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1654, written in the Adjam letter.
In the following centuries, the Arabic language in Dagestan gradually loses its monopoly position as the language of science and literature, giving way to the national languages and Ajam script. Works in the Dagestan languages of the 16th-18th centuries have survived to this day. - historical chronicles, fiction, medical reference books, dictionaries, theological writings, epistolary sources.
Great success in the study of Dagestan literature on adjam, in addition to the above, was achieved by Dagestan scientists S.M. Khaibullaev, A.G. Huseynaev, I.Kh. Abdullaev, S.Kh. Akhmedov, G.M.-R. Orazaev, A.M. Murtazaliev, A.T. Akamov and others. Employees of the Center for Oriental Studies published the "Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Languages of the Peoples of Dagestan, Stored in the Manuscript Fund of the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Dagestan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences", in which it is given scientific description Avar, Dargin, Kumyk and Lak compositions in adjam.
So, the origin and development of Adjam writing in Dagestan is a complex and lengthy historical process. The ways of adapting the alphabet of the Arabic language to the phonetic features of the native languages of different Dagestan peoples have a similar character. The difficulty lay in the impossibility of transferring the phonetic diversity of the Dagestan languages with 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet, in which there are 40 or more sounds. Two or three phonemes were depicted in a letter with one grapheme, which created difficulties in reading, which turned, and now turns into solving puzzles. Reading Ajam script requires attentiveness and a lot of practical experience. Many scholars of medieval Dagestan made attempts to unify the Ajam script.
Let me give textbook examples: Taigib, the son of Omar from the villages. Kharahi (XVI century) - a scientist, the author of numerous commentaries on works on the grammar of the Arabic language, logic, fiqh. Shaban, son of Ismail from the villages. Oboda (XVII century) - an Arabist, whose school was known far beyond the borders of Avaria. Muhammad, son of Musa from the villages. Kudutl (middle of the 17th - early 18th centuries) - a famous scientist, author of works in Arabic and Avar. Letters, scientific works and literary works written by them in adjam have been preserved. According to the works of these scientists and many, many others, one can trace the patterns of using Arabic letters with special additional signs, ways of improvement and evolutionary changes in the Ajam script.
Dibir-kadi from Khunzakh (1742–1817) made a significant contribution to the improvement of Adjam writing. As Saidov M.-S. notes, “the Avars used the Dibir-kadi alphabet without much change and reform until the revolution.”
Dibir-kadi is the author of lexicographic works, works of religious content, poetic works in Arabic, Persian, Turkic and Avar languages, a translator from Arabic and Persian of fiction and scientific texts, a copyist of many Arabic scientific treatises. The full name of Dibir-qadi is Muhammadshafi, the son of Maksud-qadi at-Talti al-Khunzakhi al-Avari ad-Dagistani. Dibir-qadi was born in the village of Khunzakh, in the family of the scientist Maksud-qadi, and grew up in a family of hereditary qadis and scientists. He received his primary education from his father, then studied with Khasan from Kudali and Mahad from Chokh, prominent Dagestan scientists who had their own schools and students. Studying with well-known scientists throughout Dagestan gave Dibir-kadi fundamental knowledge in many areas of medieval science. He perfected his education in Iran, Syria and Turkey. Dibir-kadi was fluent in Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Georgian. Knowledge of Oriental languages allowed him to comprehend deep knowledge in the field of Muslim jurisprudence, logic, theological sciences, astronomy, grammar of the above-mentioned languages, artistic prose and poetry in these languages.
Dibir-kadi is also known as professional translator. The combination of a poetic gift and the translator's professionalism was best reflected in his literary translations into the Avar language. He translated the collection of moralizing stories of the animal cycle "Kalila and Dimna" from Arabic into Avar. His translations of Persian lyric poems (the author is not specified) into Arabic and Avar have been preserved.
The verses written by Dibir-kadi in adjam are valuable because they are autographed and are of great importance as one of the surviving examples of the translation of the verses of the classics of Persian literature into the Avar language.
Dibir-kadi owns verses of religious content in the Avar language, which can be conditionally called "mava'iz" - sermons.
The work of Dibir-kadi in the field of compiling bilingual and trilingual dictionaries marked the beginning of the development of lexicography in Dagestan as a science. Peru Dibir-kadi owns dictionaries of Persian, Arabic, Turkic and Avar languages. Among them are several small lexicographic works written in 1196/1781–82 in Panahabad. They are collected in one combined manuscript and do not have author's titles. These are: Arabic-Persian dictionary with interlinear translation into Turkic; dictionary of Arabic words and expressions with their translation into Persian; dictionary of Arabic, Persian, Turkic and Avar languages; dictionary of the Turkic language with interlinear translation into Persian, Arabic and Avar. Avar words are given under Turkic and Persian and Arabic words as their equivalents. The interpreted words are united by thematic feature and cover a wide range of vocabulary related to human labor activity, flora, fauna, geographical and cosmographic representations. A separate chapter includes adjectives and verbs. Dibir-kadi cites 179 verbs of the Avar language in infinitive form as correspondences between the verbs of Persian, Arabic and Turkic languages that convey the most diverse range of actions and states of a person. Dibir-kadi worked on these dictionaries in Panahabad, in the house of the Karabakh ruler Ibrahim Khan from July 12 to August 10, 1782.
"Majma‘ al-'asam" - ("Collection of words") - Persian-Arabic-Turkic dictionary. The “Majma‘ al-’asam” reflects quite significant lexical material of the Avar language. We counted 137 Avar verbs in the infinitive form, with the meaning of movement, action and state.
“Majmu‘ al-lugat” - (“Collection of languages”) is a Persian-Turkic dictionary, in which Arabic equivalents of Persian words are given in places.
The dictionary "Majmu‘ al-lugat" is divided into sections and chapters, the lexical material is distributed according to grammatical features: verbs, adjectives and nouns. And in this dictionary, as in the previous one, a fairly large number of words in the Avar language are given. These are the designations of natural phenomena, agricultural and horticultural products, birds, animals, humans (names of body parts), tools.
The inclusion of grammatical explanations and a wide range of vocabulary of the Avar language served the tasks of creating study guide to teach the local population oriental languages.
The largest, fundamental lexicographic work of Dibir-kadi is the trilingual explanatory dictionary "Jami' al-lugatayn li ta'lim al-'ahawain" - "Kamus Farsi-'Arabi-Turks" ("Collection of two languages for teaching two brothers") - "Persian-Arabic-Turkic Dictionary". This explanatory dictionary was compiled in educational purposes, at the direction of Umma Khan of Avar, because there was a need to prepare translators for the Khan's office with knowledge of Persian and Turkic languages. The dictionary was conceived as a Persian-Turkic one, but since the vocabulary of the Arabic language found in it the same reflection as the vocabulary of the above languages, it actually turned out to be a trilingual dictionary.
Dibir-kadi dictionary contains more than 80 pages of Avar vocabulary. It is conveyed in separate words, expressions and independent sentences. The word in the Avar language is given in the text of the dictionary entry as an equivalent of the main interpreted word. For example: “[fondok] - in “ad-Diwan” it is indicated the use of this word in three languages. This is a well-known fruit, in the Avar language it is called "Khas tIulakyo" ("Pars tIulakyo"). Most often, Avar words included in dictionary entries are borrowings, for example: “[soronj] - the word is voiced by two damms and a sukun over “an-nun”, means “a kind of red color”. The word is common to three languages, it is also used in the Avar language. Another example: “[azad] is written with madda, this is the past tense form of the verb [azadan] - to release, release, is also used in the meaning of “freedom”, in Turkic - [tarkhan], it is also used in Persian , is often found in the work "Tarikh-e Genghis Khan". This word is also used in the Avar language - [tarkhan], it is common to these languages, and Allah is the most knowledgeable.
In a descriptive way, the spelling of Avar words is given in several places, for example: “[nushadar] ... in our Avar language this word is written without /long vowel/ “u” and with the vowel “i” for the letter “an-nun””.
It is known that he compiled phrasebooks - Avar-Azerbaijani, Avar-Lak and Avar-Georgian. To date, we do not have them.
The lexicographic works of Dibir-kadi are of value for studying the history of Persian, Arabic and Turkic lexicography, as well as for studying the history of the development of the Avar language on the Ajam script.
Dibir-kadi, with his work, made an invaluable contribution to the history of the development of the Avar language and literary written traditions. He is credited with the systematization and improvement of the Adjam script. The Adjam alphabet has been preserved with the changes made by Dibir-kadi.
And in the future, the Ajam alphabet continued to be supplemented and modified. So, by order of Imam Shamil, a special commission was created to develop a unified system for transmitting individual letters in writing. The commission included Lachenilav, scholar-faqih, mufti and teacher of Imam Shamil, scholar-Arabist Ali from Kulzeb, and others.
In con. XIX - early. 20th century Dagestan scientists created the so-called "new ajam". The innovation was that the vowels were replaced by letter designations within the word, which made it easier to read. The Ajam letter, despite its imperfection, was widely distributed among the people. Historical works, medical treatises, various educational literature, fiction and poetry were created on adjam.
Starting from the 70s of the nineteenth century. Printing houses begin to operate in Dagestan. In the printing house "Kaspiy" A.M. Mikhailov in Port-Petrovsk (now the city of Makhachkala), books were published not only in Russian, but also in Arabic and national languages. Thanks to the enthusiasm of the Dagestan educators and scientists M. Mavraev, A. Akaev, I. Abakarov and I. Nakhibashev, Arabographic works of Dagestan authors began to be published in large numbers. They learned typography from the famous educator I. Gasprinsky, the first books in the languages of the peoples of Dagestan were published in Bakhchisarai and Simferopol. With the opening of printing houses, a new stage in the development of book culture in Dagestan begins.
The rich handwritten and printed products of the peoples of Dagestan in the Adjam script is a clear confirmation of high level centuries-old experience of scientific and artistic thought of the peoples of Dagestan.
Alibekova P.M.
IYALI DSC RAS (Makhachkala)
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Modern writing has gone through a rather long period of formation. Some of these stages took place directly on the territory of Dagestan, while others were implemented in the corresponding civilizational centers, and came to us, already, in finished form. The first, important, stage through which our ancestors went through is the creation pictographic letter. Compared with later versions, this type of writing had limited use. One of the masterpieces of ancient pictography is the "Phaistos disc", discovered on the island of Crete. It is attributed to 1700 BC, to the heyday of Minoan culture, which was related Hurrian-Urartian civilization. Crete is also the birthplace of the first syllabary, which has no direct descendants today. This is Linear A(still not deciphered), from which, in turn, came the pre-Phoenician-Greek alphabets - Mycenaean (Linear B) and Cypriot. Some idea of the pictography in our area can be given by recent finds near the village of Velikent, in the north of the Derbent region.
The two obvious heirs of pictograms (denoting a whole word or concept, always corresponding to what they stand for) are ideograms and hieroglyphs. An ideogram is a written sign or drawing that corresponds not to the sound of speech, but to a whole word or morpheme (the root of a word). A classic example of ideographic (with elements of phonetic) writing in antiquity is ancient Egyptian. Nowadays, ideographics has received a rebirth in the form of countless signs of a friendly interface of computer programs and various signs in public places. Another type of signs - hieroglyphs can mean both individual sounds and syllables, and morphemes (word roots), whole words and concepts (ideograms). Nowadays, hieroglyphs are associated primarily with Chinese writing.
The next important stage is the appearance of a syllabary (when only consonants are written) and, of its most famous type - cuneiform, in the 4th millennium BC in the interfluve of the Tigris and Euphrates. In the north of this region, originally, the Hurrito-Urart tribes (related to modern inhabitants northeastern Caucasus), who also made extensive use of this type of writing. At a certain stage, the influence of this letter reached our northern outskirts of the Hurrito-Urartian civilization. The absence of monuments of this era in our country, as well as many subsequent ones, can be explained by the use of writing among a very limited circle of people, and also due to the properties of material media (their fragility). There is another, no less important, subjective reason: most of the religious and political reforms were accompanied by the mass destruction of the traces of the previous period.
The most successful, late, subspecies of the syllabary, which received its continuation in numerous "descendants", was Phoenician. Later, most of the world's alphabets came from him, one part of which remained in the syllabic version (without writing vowels), and the other (Greek line) took a step towards voicing and became the ancestor of all European alphabets. This is clearly seen in the table below:
Of the closest descendants of the Phoenician script, the most interesting is Aramaic script (its late version). The Aramaic alphabet was as important to the East as its Greek counterpart was to the West. Aramaic, being from the end of the 8th century BC. e. means of international correspondence and communication in the Middle East, became one of the official languages, first, in late Assyria, and then in Median state. From 625 to 480 BC. the territory of Dagestan (formally mountainous regions) was part of this state. Subsequently, under the Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids, the status of the official language for Aramaic was also secured.
It is known that in Scythia, which included part of the Caucasus (completely in some periods), one of the varieties of runic writing existed for internal use. But for diplomatic relations with the Middle Eastern countries, they used Aramaic (English of those times). Competent specialists for this, the easiest way, was to find in the provinces, before that, were part of Media (including in "Dagestan"). Numerous finds confirm the penetration of the Aramaic alphabet into the Scythian environment, since the time of the Median state.
An attempt, at the end of the 4th century BC, to Hellenize the territory of the Persian state Alexander the Great, was not successful. Already, after 100 years, the Parthians create their power on the ruins of Seleucia, giving the related Pahlavi (Middle Persian) language, using the Aramaic alphabet, official status.
It is important to note that Aramaic was also the native language of the Prophet Isa (Jesus) and four of his disciples (apostles) preached in the Caucasus, incl. in Chol (Derbent). The main language in which they communicated with the local population was Aramaic, although the number of those who knew it was no more than those who know English in our time in the countryside.
In the first centuries of the new era, the baton was continued by Christian (Syrian) proselytes from Antioch. Therefore, in the history of Christianity in Dagestan, the period before the appearance of the Aghvan (Albanian) Church is usually called "Syrophilic". Again, the script used by the Syrian missionaries came directly from Aramaic. And the Syriac language itself, originally, was a Western dialect of Aramaic. Here we see how Christian missionary work, for the second time, gave impetus to a process that began, 5 centuries earlier, in the time of Media.
Accession by Trajan, in 117, Agvania to the Roman Empire, caused persecution of local adherents of the new faith. At that time, one of the official religions of Rome was Mithraism (not to be confused with the Indo-Iranian Mithra, one of the deities of the Vedas), especially popular among the legionnaires. According to legend, the main deity of this belief, Mithra, brought good luck in battle. On the other hand, the main center for the spread of Vedism (Hinduism) was India, from where it was not uncommon for merchants-followers of this religion to come to Chol (Derbent, the largest trading city and port of that period). With the arrival of the Romans (for a short period) in Aghvania and Derbent, an amazing meeting of pseudo-co-religionists from different parts of human civilization took place. It is difficult to say what kind of contacts they had, but the fact is that in the Dargin vocabulary there is a certain layer of words that have Sanskrit origin. Sanskrit, in South Asia, since ancient times, is the language of science, religion and intercultural communication, therefore, it is not surprising to find traces of its influence in the Caucasus, as well. The script for Sanskrit is Devanagari, derived from Brahmi and Aramaic.
What can be the conclusion? Being a part of one of the satrapies of the Median state (for several generations), and then, the immediate neighborhood with the Achaemenid Empire, where in both cases the Aramaic language was the official language and a means of interethnic communication, allow us to affirm the presence of literacy in our area. If you remember that much later, with the adoption of Islam, writing in local languages \u200b\u200busing the Arabic alphabet (ajam) immediately appeared, such options for earlier periods of history do not contradict known facts. The existence of the Aramaic-Syriac period of writing in Dagestan could be confirmed by a thorough revision of the storerooms of museums, where numerous samples of epigraphy are stored. Many experts are confused by the similarity of the style Aramaic, Syriac and Arabic characters. This is the case when established scientific dogma does not allow for the correct interpretation of the available material.
Thus, written literacy existed in the period under review. And for a long period (from the 6th century BC to the first centuries of the new era), Aramaic (later Syriac) writing held the palm. One can also mention the cuneiform alphabet that existed in parallel, copied from Urartian for the Persian language. But this option had a limited circulation, so it could not stand the competition with other systems.
The next, and very important stage, is the creation of the Aghvan (Albanian) script. Mesrop Mashtots in 420-422 years. Immediately, three new writing systems ( Armenian, Georgian(Khutsuri) and Agvanskaya) owe their appearance to the ideological and political situation that prevailed at that time in the Middle East and the Caucasus.
Eternal rivals in this region, Byzantium (Eastern Roman Empire) and Persian power had approximately equal positions at that time. Thus, they could influence the states of the Caucasus, mainly by ideological methods. In this matter, the initiative was undoubtedly on the side of Byzantium. The only thing that made things more complicated was that there was internal competition between the main Archdiocese of Constantinople and the Archdiocese of Antioch (Syria). As mentioned above, it was the Syrian missionaries who were the first to systematically bring the new faith to the Caucasus. The first Christian churches (1st-4th centuries) were also built by them. In addition, in Persia, the majority of Christians gravitated towards Antioch, and the state apparatus favored the Syrians as the heirs of the Aramaic language, which had a long-standing use here.
All this did not suit the Greek Constantinople, which decided to drastically weaken the positions of the competing Church in the Caucasus. In particular, for this purpose (along with the order received from the three "new" national Churches), the creation of three new alphabets was initiated. Their flowing appearance one after another also indicates the existence of a single external center that controlled this process.
From the biography of Mesrop Mashtots it is clearly seen that the main goal of the written reform was the creation of new alphabets, as different as possible from the former Aramaic-Syriac. Some experts, openly, declare about, precisely, the reform of writing, and not about creating from scratch. According to an expert assessment, the Aghvan alphabet can be considered: “a heavily modified Greekized variation of one of the non-Semitic offshoots of the Aramaic graphic base.” In other words, the Aramaic alphabet that the Agvans (Dagestanis) used for their languages was radically modified using the Greek and (according to additional sources) the Ethiopian and Coptic alphabets.
As a result, the local Churches received an excellent tool for strengthening their ideological sovereignty. And Constantinople won strategically, indirectly, by weakening the influence of Persia in the Caucasus.
Later, the Church of Antioch received another strong blow, having gone through its schism, also inspired from Constantinople. The opposition party, which gave rise to a new direction of Christianity - Nestorianism, for the most part went to Persia, giving rise to many churches of the East. Beyond the chronology, it would be appropriate to mention that in the future, Nestorianism will be the main Christian direction in the states of Khazaria (Hunnia in the early period) and the Mongol Empire (Golden Horde). In different periods of time, Dagestan (primarily Kaitag) was part of these states. That is, later, there was also a northern source for the spread of Aramaic-Syriac writing.
Having lost the opportunity to manage the processes in the Caucasus region through its traditional ally - the Church of Antioch, Persia ceases to be loyal to local Christians. From this moment, the planting of the national Persian religion - Zoroastrianism begins. This religion, already, came to "Dagestan" in the pre-Christian Median era, but was not widespread. Here, at once, it should be mentioned that this teaching left the most noticeable trace in the "Kingdom of Zirikhgeran" (modern Kubachi and its environs). This is due to very close economic ties with Persia, which have grown into ideological ones. Zirikhgerans (mailers), as their name implies, were major suppliers of weapons and armor for the Persian army. The language of the Avesta, the holy scripture of Zoroastrianism, was Pahlavi (book Middle Persian). Source for Avestan script served, all the same, a modified Aramaic.
The forced imposition of a new faith caused a wave of uprisings in the Caucasus, from 450 to 485, supported by Byzantium. In the Dagestan city of Chol (which has already become the Persian Derbent), as in other large Christian centers of Agvania (Albania), a split occurred among the believers. On the newly converted Zoroastrians, Old Believers-Syrophiles and, on the "Greekophiles" objectionable to the regime, who adopted the new Agvan script. During this turbulent period of time, many "dissidents" found refuge in the former northern semi-autonomous outskirts of Aghvania, which at that time was in the Alanian Union - in the Lower (Kaitag) and Upper (Shandan) Dargo, Gumik (Lakia) and Serir (Avaria). This wave of refugees, consisting mainly of passionate adherents of Christianity, strengthened the position of this religion in the region.
In the future, Persia was forced to reduce the onslaught, and return autonomy to the country and the Church. Under the reign of the Aghvan Christian king Vachagan, famous for the construction of "a thousand temples", the process of introducing a new script in northern Dagestan, begun before by fugitives from the south, was more or less completed. After the death of Vachagan in 510, Persia finally eliminated the independence of Aghvania, forced to strengthen its presence in the region ( especially in Derbent) due to the threat of invasion by nomads from the north. This caused another flow to the mountains of the carriers of the Aghvanian script, where its position was already the strongest. Thus ended the thousand-year era of the Aramaic-Syriac alphabet in Dagestan, which gave way to the new Agvan.
The next return of Dagestan to the "circle of Aramaic writing" occurs with the formation of Derbent as the northern outpost of the Arab Caliphate. The Arabic alphabet is another descendant of the related Aramaic. From the middle of the 7th century, an intensified spread of Islam began, which caused the tornado of the 100-year Arab-Khazar war and was accompanied by the complete destruction of cities between modern Derbent and Makhachkala. Their inhabitants, the survivors, took refuge in the nearby mountains. In addition to Derbent, several missionary centers - fortresses in the mountains, founded by Mervan Ibn-Muhammad, appeared. The largest: Kala-Kureish - at the junction of the Upper Kaitag, Zirikhgeran and Muer, as well as Kumukh, which became Gazi-Kumukh, in the center of Gumik (Lakia). These three centers, as well as others, continued their missionary activity in the following centuries, even after the departure of the Arabs from Derbent (Bab al-Abwab), in 797.
The main religion in Kaitag and Filan (the name of the Upper Dargo after the Sasanian era), as before, was Christianity. Being part of the Khazaria, which held back the onslaught of the Caliphate and strengthened by that moment, these two territories more or less successfully fended off pressure from Muslim religious centers. Since the end of the 10th century, with the collapse of Khazaria, the seaside Kaitag has been in the field of attraction Derbent Emirate and Shirvan, where Islam almost completely dominates. This contributed to the Islamization of a considerable number of Kaitag people. Medieval sources tell how the Kaitag prince visits the mosque, church and synagogue on different days of the week. In accordance with this, the Arabic script, which was gaining strength, and the Aghvan script, which was losing its positions in Kaitag, were in use. Some diversity in the local religious flavor is introduced by the entry, at the beginning of the 13th century, of Derbent into Georgian Kingdom. During the reign of Queen Tamara, a Georgian temple was built in this city (on the site of the destroyed Aghvan one), which became here, before the appearance of the Mongols, the center of the spread of the Chalcedonian branch of Christianity. Destroyed to the ground by Tamerlane, he, again, is reborn, but, already as an Armenian temple, in 1860.
The Zirikhgeran (Kubachi) Union finally joins the Muslim party by the end of the 13th century. Ironically, the Zoroastrian script, which had an equal position here with the Aghvan-Christian script, turned out to be genetically closer to the Arabic script.
In the former state of Serir, the path to Islam turned out to be no less intricate: by the end of the 12th century, most of the Avaria passed into the bosom of the Georgian (Chalcedonite) Church. Its influence extends to the Dargins-Tsudakhari, inclusive. Throughout the territory subject to the Chalcedonites, the Aghvan alphabet was supplanted Georgian alphabet, but not his peer, but an older version (mkhedreuli), derived from the Aramaic prototype. However, already, in the middle of the 14th century in the capital of Avaria Khunzakh, the Muslim party was winning. From now on, Khunzakh, the largest center for the spread of Islam in the mountains, along with Gazi-Kumukh.
Around the same time, Kaitag, who is in close alliance with the Golden Horde, concludes a Union (alliance) with the Vatican and becomes a Catholic outpost in the Caucasus. The Horde, which had favorable trade relations with Western Europe (primarily with the Republics of Genoa and the Republic of Venice), provided preferences, including to Catholic missionaries. The Christian Kaitag people themselves, being unable to hold their positions in the face of the Muslim party, decide to go under the wing of a strong Christian metropolis. Due to the circumstances, it turned out to be the Vatican. The Latin language and script, as the vehicles of Western Christianity, also naturally came into use. The Latin alphabet is a descendant of the Etruscan, which in turn is derived from the western branch of Greek mixed with runic.
So, by the end of the 14th century, the only place where the Aghvan alphabet functions freely is Filan (Upper Dargin lands). However, still not found with rare exceptions, evidence of the use of the Aghvan and Latin alphabets by the local population. In this regard, it is difficult to overestimate the scale of repressions brought down on Filan and Kaytag by the conqueror Tamerlane.
Already, after the era of Tamerlane, the only Dagestan people remaining Christian are the Udins. Here, it is necessary, briefly, to describe the history of this people, with the name, which, first of all, is associated with the history of Agvania.
With the advent of the Arabs in the Caucasus, the Aghvan Church, in 704, was given into autonomous subordination to its kindred Armenian-Gregorian Church. This sharp downgrading of status is connected, firstly, with the attempt of the Aghvanian Catholicos Neres Bakur to convert to Chalcedonism, that is, under the protectorate of Byzantium, the main rival of the Caliphate in the Middle East. And secondly, in order to prepare a full-fledged annexation of Aghvania, which is impossible as long as there are mobilization opportunities for the national church. Just like Persia before that, the Caliphate attached great importance to reliable control over Aghvania, and especially the Derbent sector, for strategic reasons. The result of the activities carried out earlier had an immediate effect - in 732, through the efforts of Habib Ibn Maslama, Derbent became the main Arab citadel in the Eastern Caucasus.
Later, in the 19th century, already, under the Russian authorities, the remnants of the independence of the Aghvan Church were liquidated with its complete resubordination to the Armenian-Gregorian. All these historical circumstances left a certain imprint in the minds of the Udins. Therefore, if for Udin Christians (Gregorians), Armenians are the closest, in cultural terms, people in the South Caucasus, then in the North they are Dargins. The two Aghvan peoples, who, from the 4th to the 14th centuries, were part of one, the Aghvan (from the 8th century Aghvan-Gregorian) Church, to varying degrees, still remember their long-standing ties. As for the alphabet, as already mentioned, the Upper Dargins managed to preserve its Aghvan version until the end of the 14th century, in contrast to the Udis, who switched to the Armenian version, back in the Early Middle Ages.
"In 1970, in the vicinity of the village of Verkhnee Labko, Levashinsky District, soft limestone tiles, on which scientists discovered the Albanian alphabet.
In 1978, in the vicinity of the village of Nizhnee Labko, students high school under the guidance of local history teacher H. Arslanbekov found another tablet of soft limestone. In 1990, the teacher himself brought them to the editorial office of our journal. Then I published an article by H. Arslanbekov. An interesting conclusion to which the local historian comes:
“A special role in the history of Caucasian Albania was played by the Principality of Chog, or, as the Dagestanis called it, Chulli, Chula, Churul. From here, according to legend, the ancient Albanian kings originated. To this day, legends about the principality have been preserved in the Dargin folklore, such idiomatic expressions as “A horse of the Chullin breed”, “My Chullin sultan”, “Your eyes are a match for the Chullin lamp” are used. It is no coincidence that it was in Derbent that the first Albanian inscription was discovered behind the fortress wall of Naryn-Kala in the garden of Andrey Zakryan, a resident. No less clear Albanian letters were found in the northern wall of Derbent near the South Gate. Another inscription was found in the wall of the reservoir near the Khan's palace. The deciphering of the Albanian inscriptions has not been completed, and it is too early to put an end to archaeological excavations and historical and linguistic research. One thing seems indisputable to me - the Dagestani great-peoples who inhabited Caucasian Albania already had their own written language in those distant times, which means that there were also written monuments.
If we agree with the author, then the question arises: why did they disappear without a trace? Personally, I am inclined to believe that Man has tried more here than Time. I traveled far and wide throughout Dagestan, and did not meet a single pre-Islamic cemetery, except for the Khazar burial mounds. Once I compiled a list of non-Arabic proper names used in Dagestan: I did not count even five dozen. The same thing happened to the monuments of pre-Islamic culture, which later happened to the Arab-Muslim cultural heritage, a huge part of which was burned in the fires of Proletkult. First, the entire pre-Islamic, and then most of the Arab-Muslim culture itself was destroyed by those who, instead of preserving their ethnic face, stared at him with other people's masks out of excessive zeal, out of blind imitation of every newly-appeared missionaries. After the revolution of 1917, the Dagestanis themselves burned Arabic manuscripts like unnecessary trash, dug out ancient steles with Arabic script and built Bolshevik clubs from them. It is not difficult to assume that we behaved in the same way after the arrival of the Arabs, and therefore neither cemeteries nor writings have been preserved ... "
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Avar writing on, Avar writing of the ancient
Avar writing has a long history and has changed at least 4 different forms over the centuries.
Apparently, no later than the 15th century, Arabic writing penetrated Avaria, but only in the 2nd half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. it has become widespread. Starting from about the 17th century, for Avar sounds that are absent in Arabic, tashdids are introduced, added to some letters. However, they were not used very consistently and were often omitted. late XVIII century, the Arabic script for the Avar language (“ajam”) was normalized by Dibir-Kadi from Khunzakh (1742-1817) and continued to be used with minor changes until 1928.
The first version of the Avar script based on Cyrillic was created by P.K. Uslar in 1861 in Tiflis. Subsequently, it was somewhat modified and was used until 1913, having received some distribution among the Avars.
In 1920, the Arabic script was significantly modified for the needs of the Dagestan languages and became known as the "new ajam".
In 1928, the Dagestan regional party committee decided to transfer all Dagestan languages from October 1, 1930 to the New Dagestan Alphabet (NDA) based on the Latin alphabet, unified within Dagestan for the languages of Avar, Dargin, Lak, Lezgin, Tabasaran, Kumyk and Nogai. NDA, which initially did not have capital letters, was reformed in 1932.
Avar alphabet Uslar Avar alphabet (1928-1938)
In 1938, a decision was made to switch to an alphabet on a Russian graphic basis. According to the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the DASSR, newspapers and books were to switch to the new alphabet from July 1, and schools from September 1, 1938.
| A a | B b | in in | G g | Гъ гъ | gee gee | ГӀ гӀ | D d |
| Her | Her | F | W h | And and | th | K to | K k |
| ky ky | ka ka | L l | l l | Mm | N n | Oh oh | P p |
| R p | C with | T t | TӀ tӀ | u u | f f | x x | xh xh |
| huh huh | Ha ha | C c | Tse tse | h h | cha cha | W w | u u |
| b b | uh uh | yu yu | I am |
Below in table are given:
- Modern Avar alphabet on Cyrillic basis.
- IPA- Transcription with the help of signs IFA
- Others - other transcriptions used in works on Caucasian studies
- Latin alphabet used for the Avar language in the USSR in 1928-38
Alphabet mapping table
| Modern Cyrillic |
IPA | Other | Latin 1928-38 |
Arab alphabet |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | a | a | آ | |
| b | b | b | ب | |
| in | w | v | و | |
| G | g | g | گ | |
| gI | ʕ | ‛/ω | ⱨ | ع |
| gj | ʁ | R/ǧ | ƣ | غ |
| gh | h | h | ﻫ | |
| d | d | d | د | |
| e | e, je- | e, je- | اه | |
| well | ʒ | ž | ƶ | ژ |
| h | z | z | ز | |
| and | i | i | اى | |
| th | j | y | j | ى |
| to | k | k | ک | |
| kI | k' | ḳ | ⱪ | گ |
| to | q' | q̇ | q | ق |
| ky | tɬ' | L'/ƛ̣ | ꝗ | ڨ |
| l | l | l | ل | |
| l | tɬ | L/ƛ | ł | ڸّ |
| l | ɬ | ł / ʎ | ļ | ڸ |
| m | m | m | م | |
| n | n | n | ن | |
| about | o | o | او | |
| P | p | p | ف | |
| R | r | r | ر | |
| with | s | s | س | |
| t | t | t | ت | |
| tI | t' | ṭ | ƫ | ط |
| at | u | u | او | |
| f | f | f | ف | |
| X | χ | x | x | خ |
| xI | ћ | H | ћ | ح |
| хъ | q | ӿ | څ | |
| xx | x | x̂ | ҳ | ݤ |
| c | ʦ | c | s | ڝ |
| CI | ʦ’ | c'/c̣ | ⱬ | ڗ |
| h | ʧ | č | c | چ |
| chI | ʧ’ | č’/č̣ | ç | ج |
| w | ʃ | š | ş | ش |
| sch | ʃː | š: | şş | شّ |
| b | ʔ | ’ | ’ | |
| uh | e | e- | اه | |
| Yu | ju | ju | ||
| I | ja | ja |
The vowels e, yu, i are used only at the beginning of words. E at the beginning of a word denotes neutated, and e- combination. Instead of yo usually used in combination yo. Letter s used only in undeveloped borrowings from the Russian language.
Long consonants are indicated, as a rule, only in the presence of minimal pairs with the corresponding short ones: max "birch" and maxh "iron", but fur "time, time".
Labialization of consonants is conveyed using a letter in: kver "hand".
The lateral voiceless spirant ɬ and the non-abruptive affricate tł are conveyed by the same letter І, due to the fact that they differ only in the northern dialect of the Avar language, and do not differ in the rest.
It has been repeatedly proposed to simplify four-letter combinations for geminated abortive affricates. tsІtsI and chIchI. In December 1952, at the scientific session of the Institute of IYAL of the Dagestan FAN of the USSR, devoted to the issues of spelling, the Avar section proposed to write instead of tsІtsI and chІchI ts and whose, but the issue has not yet been resolved. In 1993, this issue, among others, was again discussed at a conference on the problems of normalization written languages in IYALI DSC RAS, where, in particular, as alternative options for these letters, cII and hII, q and ch and some others, up to the introduction of the Latin alphabet.
Notes
- Saidov 1949: 105-106.
- Ataev 1996: 77.
Literature
- Alekseev M. E., Ataev B. M. Avar language. Moscow: Academia, 1997.
- Ataev B. M. Avars: history, language, writing. Makhachkala, 1996.
- Saidov M.D. Voiceless lateral li and voiceless posterior хъ in the Avar literary language // Languages of the North Caucasus and Dagestan. Collection of linguistic studies. Issue II. M.; L., 1949.
| Avars | |
|---|---|
| culture | Literature Music Cuisine Architecture Names Mythology Folk rituals Writing Folklore Folk songs Folk tales |
| diasporas | Azerbaijan Turkey Georgia |
| Sub-ethnic groups | Andians · Archins · Akhvakhs · Bagulals · Bezhtins · Botlikhs · Ginukhs · Godoberis · Gunzibs · Didoys · Karatas · Tindins · Khvarshins · Chamalals |
| Language and dialects | Salatav · Khunzakh · Oriental · Guidsky · Antsukh · Zakatal · Karah · Keser · Andalal · Kakhib · Kusur · Batlukh |
| Story | Caucasian Albania Sarir Mongol invasion Avar Khanate Andalal Gidatl Tlenserukh Caucasian War North Caucasian Imamat Revolt of 1877 |
Avar writing in, Avar writing in script, Avar writing in ancient, Avar writing in
Avar writing Information About
During its existence, it functioned on different graphic bases and was repeatedly reformed. Currently, Avar writing functions in Cyrillic. The following stages are distinguished in the history of Avar writing:
Arabic script
The oldest monuments of Avar writing are 3 Georgian-Avar bilinguals on stone crosses and slabs, discovered in the Khunzakh region of Dagestan. These inscriptions are made in Georgian script. One of them was deciphered by academician A.S. Chikobava in 1940, the other, from the village of Khunzakh, was described by T. E. Gudava, the third, from the village of Gotsatl, was deciphered by K. Sh. Mikailov. These inscriptions date back to the 12th-14th centuries.
After the spread of Islam in Dagestan, Arabic writing also penetrates with it. The oldest monument of Avar writing on an Arabic graphic basis is an inscription in the village of Koroda, Gunib region, which dates back to the 13th-14th centuries. The oldest known Avar handwritten text dates back to the end of the 15th century - in the testament of Andunik, the son of Ibrahim, written in Arabic, there are 16 Avar words written in unmodified Arabic script. According to B. M. Ataev, the early Avar records were not intended to fix the Avar language itself.
Since the 16th century, Avar writing itself began to spread. Separate manuscripts of the 16th-19th centuries written in Avar have survived to our time. In the 17th century, records of the Avar language in Arabic letters were already quite widespread: glossaries of that period compiled by Shaaban, the son of Ismail from Obod, are known, as well as samples works of art Musalava Mohammed from Kudutl.
At the end of the 18th century, Dibir-Kadi from Khunzakh reformed the Arabic alphabet, adapting it to the phonetic features of the Avar language. This alphabet was called "ajam". However, he had a number of shortcomings, which later repeatedly tried to abolish. So, in the 19th century, at the suggestion of Imam Shamil, a special commission introduced a sign to indicate the lateral l. In 1884, the first Avar printed book was published in Istanbul, where Arabic script was used, and then book publishing began in Dagestan; books in Avar were printed mainly in Temir-Khan-Shura. The alphabet of the Avar language based on Arabic had the following form
| ا | ب | پ | ت | ث | ج | چ | چّ | خ | خّ |
| ح | د | ر | ز | زّ | س | سّ | ش | شّ | ص |
| صّ | ط | ظ | ع | غ | ف | ۊ | ۊّ | ک | کّ |
| ڸ | ل | لّ | م | ن | و | ﻫ | ى |
In the 1920s, the Arabic alphabet for the Avar language was reformed - letters were introduced for a number of specific Avar consonants, as well as signs for vowels that were absent in the traditional Arabic alphabet. The reformed alphabet was called "new ajam" and was used until 1928. By the end of the 1920s, the Avar alphabet looked like this (the order of the letters was not observed): ڗ ژ ز څ ؼ خ و ﻁ ت ش ڝ س ر ڨ ق پ او ن م لّ ڸ ل ک ى اى ﻉ ﺡ ﻫ غ گ اه د ڃ ﺝ ب ا
Many young Kubachins, for reasons beyond their control, do not know their native language.
At the present time, when there is a revival of the spiritual culture, history, language of small ethnic groups, the sense of language, the craving for their native language, are also becoming more acute among the Kubachins. This is natural, because it is known that the people are alive as long as they have their native language. The loss of a language is the loss of the ethnic integrity of a people. And the Kubachins love their aul, their "mother" language. And, probably, every Kubachin who knows little or does not speak his native language at all would like to learn conversational skills. This phrasebook can help him with this.
According to the language, the Kubachi ethnic group belongs to the Dargins. It is known that among the Dagestan languages, Dargin is one of the multi-dialect languages. Dialects are represented here, close to each other and quite distant. This provision quite accurately reflects the specifics that have developed in the Dargin language (As you know, the Dargin language (which is based on the Akushinsky dialect) is a smooth, light language that has less preserved signs of originality, archaism. There are no signs of mixing different dialects of the Dargins. Not so. for example , among the Laks, literary language which incorporates features of all dialects. According to linguists, the study of dialects will provide essential data on originality.)
Some dialects are almost incomprehensible to speakers of other dialects. Such is the Kubachi. “Kubachins speak some special and incomprehensible language for their neighbors,” some scholars believed, and therefore attributed them to French, Genoese, Greek origin.
In fact, due to deep phonetic and morphological changes, it differs significantly from other Dargin dialects, whose representatives - Akushins, Urakhins, Kaitags and others - do not understand Kubachi speech. Apparently, this was the reason for the creation of a kind of myth about the special language of the Kubachins.
The difficulties of the Kubachi language are caused by phonetic features that are absent from others and create certain difficulties for understanding. Let's take a look at the most significant:
Dargin alphabet:
Aa, Bb, Vv. Gg, Gg g, Gg g, G1 g1, Dd, Her, e, Zhzh, Zz. II, d, Kk, Kj kj, Kk kj, K / k /, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, PP, Ss, Tt, T / t /, Uy, Ff, Xx, Xb xb, Xh xh, XI x /, Ts, Ts / c /, Hh, H / h /, Shsh, Shch, b, s, b, Ee, Yuyu, Yaya.
The letters ё, o, s, ь are used only in imitations from other languages.
The alphabet does not include doubled letters kk, tt, xx, etc., as well as the letter p / (kyap / a - “cap”).
1. In the Kubachi dialect, doubled or “strong” consonants (geminates) are presented, which are absent, for example, in the Urakhinsky or Akushinsky dialects:
2. In the Kubachi dialect, the sound p drops out, often causing the length of the preceding vowel:
3. Sound x/ or complex px/ falls out:
4. Indicators of the feminine gender (class) for Kubachins is d, for other Dargins it is p:
5. The Dargin ending of the verb (infinitive) - es in Kubachi corresponds to - ij:
Check the pronunciation of these consonants in the most used words:
| gh | - | gyakka "give", bagya - "price", ga'a - "tell" (close to German h) |
| gj | - | gha - "twenty", gham - "pepper", G'apur - male name |
| G/ | - | g / yab - “three”, G / yale (male name) |
| ky | - | kyarik "bull", kyai - "grass", kyanne - "late" |
| to | - | kyil - "line", kap - "bag", qaakka - "stone" |
| to/ | - | k / a - “paper”, bik / - “head”, k / alam - “pencil” |
| xx | - | khunul - "woman", uuhu - "sea", khur - "wind" |
| хъ | - | khal - “house”, khai - “top”, khyab - “neck” |
| x/ | - | x / yam / ya - "donkey", Kh / yalimat - a female name. |
| G/ | - | kyap / a - “hat”, p / ap / rus - “cigarette” |
| t/ | - | t/amsa - "carpet", t/abacus/ - "tray" |
| h/ | - | h / ala - "fork", h / ich / ala - "snake" |
| c/ | - | c / a - "fire", c / alipan - "lightning". |