European Jews were prohibited from moving beyond this line. But Jews who were drafted into the army and served their time in Russian military units stationed in the Caucasus were allowed to settle permanently in this region.

Somewhat later, the right to permanent residence in the Caucasus was also given to certain categories of merchants from the Pale of Settlement. Thus, by the end of the 19th century, relatively large groups of the Ashkenazi population had formed in such cities of the Dagestan region as Temir-Khan-Shura (modern Buinaksk) and Derbent. In addition, a fairly significant group of Ashkenazim lived by this time in Kizlyar, which was not then part of the Dagestan region.

During the Soviet period, immigrants from the western regions were constantly sent to Dagestan Soviet Union- doctors, teachers, engineers, accountants, among whom there were quite a few European Jews.

It is interesting that the first close acquaintance of Mountain Jews and Ashkenazis, which took place in the 19th century, did not lead to their rapprochement, and this is not surprising, since, despite the common religion and common historical roots, they had many differences. Thus, if in the minds of the Mountain Jews the Ashkenazim were Europeans, then, according to the Ashkenazim, the Mountain Jews looked like typical Caucasians - both in their everyday behavior, and in relation to their material culture, and in relation to mentality, and in relation to many unwritten ethical and legal norms (adats). A better understanding of each other was also hindered by the language barrier: the spoken language of the Ashkenazis was Yiddish, which was based on one of the German dialects, and the Mountain Jews spoke Juuri (Zhugyuri), which was based on the Middle Persian dialect. In addition, Mountain Jews had poor command of the Russian language, and European Jews, as a rule, did not know either the Azerbaijani or Kumyk languages, which were then used by all East Caucasian peoples as languages ​​of interethnic communication. It was also impossible to actively communicate in the Hebrew language, since, firstly, very few of the Mountain Jews knew it, and, secondly, the Mountain Jews and Ashkenazim used two different vowel systems for Hebrew words. By the way, this same fact complicated the rapprochement of Mountain Jews and Ashkenazim on the basis of a common religion. Another obstacle of the same kind was a certain difference between the synagogue service of the Ashkenazis - the so-called Ashkenazi nosakh - from the Sephardic nosakh accepted at that time among the Mountain Jews. All this led to the fact that in all cities where fairly large groups of Ashkenazis formed, they sought to open their own synagogues - in Temir-Khan-Shura, and in Derbent, and in Baku, and in Vladikavkaz, etc.

Cultural and physical-anthropological differences between Ashkenazim and Mountain Jews were obvious to representatives of the Russian authorities. It was they who introduced the combinations “European Jews” and “Mountain Jews” into circulation in the 19th century, which later found their way into ethnographic literature. The definition of East Caucasian Jews as mountain Jews is explained by the fact that in the official Russian administrative nomenclature all Caucasian peoples were listed as “mountain peoples”. The self-name of the Mountain Jews is Dzhuur, plural. h. dzhuuru or dzhuuryo (zhugyurgyo).

Researchers attribute the appearance of the ancestors of Mountain Jews in the Eastern Caucasus to the period of the Sassanid dynasty in Iran (226-651). Most likely, the resettlement of Jews to this region was carried out by Khosrov Anushirvan (531-579) in 532 or a little later. This was a time when the Persians were actively strengthening their northern border in the Caucasus. Especially many defensive fortifications were erected in the Caspian zone. To protect them, Khosrow Anushirvan resettled several hundred thousand Persians and several tens of thousands of Jews from the southwestern regions of the Sasanian state to this region.

The modern descendants of the Persians resettled to the Eastern Caucasus by Anushirvan are the Caucasian Tats living in the Republic of Azerbaijan and in the Derbent region of Dagestan. Until recently, they retained the so-called Middle Persian dialect (“Tat language”), inherited from their ancestors, but now they have completely switched to the Azerbaijani language. Almost all Caucasian Tats are Muslims, and only residents of a few villages profess Armenian-Gregorian Christianity.

Mountain Jews also speak one of the Middle Persian dialects (“Jewish-Tat language”), but it differs from the language of the Caucasian Tats in a large number of borrowings from Aramaic and Hebrew languages.
Historical traditions of Mountain Jews indicate that their ancestors were originally settled in Shirvan and Arran (on the territory of the modern Republic of Azerbaijan), and from there they moved to more northern regions. Movses Kalankatuatsi (VII century), author of “The History of the Country of Alvan,” also mentioned Jews. This is the only mention of East Caucasian Jews in such a distant era. All other mentions of this kind date back to the 13th century and even later.

According to the same legends, the most ancient place of Jewish settlement in Dagestan is the Juud-Gatta gorge or Judla-Katta (“Jewish gorge”) in Kaitag, where there were seven Jewish villages. Another ancient Jewish village - Salah - was located in Tabasaran on the Rubas River.

In the 17th-19th centuries, the places of greatest concentration of Jewish villages were the plain-foothill zone of Southern Dagestan and the historical region of Kaitag: in Southern Dagestan - the villages of Mamrach, Khoshmemzil, Juud-Arag, Khandzhelkala, Jarakh, Nyugdi, or Myushkur, Abasovo and, partially, Aglabi , Mugarty, Karchag, Bilgadi, Heli-Penji, Sabnava and Jalgan, and in Kaitag - Majalis, Nyugedi (Yangiyurt), Gimeidi. In addition, small groups of Mountain Jews lived on the Kumyk plane and in Mountainous Dagestan.

During the Civil War, most of the Jews moved from villages to cities - Derbent and others. After the Great Patriotic War, a significant outflow of Mountain Jews from Dagestan began to the cities of the North Caucasus, as well as to Moscow. And in the 70s of the twentieth century, the process of emigration of Mountain Jews to Israel, the countries of Western Europe and North America began.

Around the same period, the old thesis that Mountain Jews had nothing in common with other subethnic groups of the Jewish people was revived in Dagestan. It was also argued that the ancestors of the Mountain Jews belonged to the Iranian Tat tribe and that even in Iran - before moving to the Caucasus - they accepted Judaism, that is, Mountain Jews by their origin are Tats, differing from them only in their religion. All these far-fetched statements became the reason for imposing the ethnonym “Tat” on the Mountain Jews. At the same time, the fact was ignored that there was never any Iranian tribe “Tat” in Iran: “Tat” is a common Turkic name for the Persians in Western Iran (the term “Tat” is also known in Central Asia, but there it has a slightly different meaning) . In the Caucasus, Tats are also called Persians, and the Caucasian Tats are precisely Persians, and they do not use the term “Tat” as a self-name and call their language not Tat, but Farsi or Paren.

One might think that in the past, Mountain Jews were really part of the Caucasian Tats and converted to Judaism in the medieval era. However, data from physical and anthropological measurements indicate that the type of Mountain Jews has nothing in common with the Tat type.
All these more than obvious facts were not taken into account by those propagandists from among the Mountain Jews themselves who joined the anti-Zionist campaign carried out in the Soviet press. One of the elements of this campaign was the imposition of the ethnonym “Tat” on the Mountain Jews. It was then and precisely under the influence of propaganda that about half of the Dagestan Jews changed the entry in their documents - “Mountain Jew” to “Tat”. Thus, an incidental situation arose: the ethnonym “Tat,” which even the Tats (Persians) themselves do not apply to themselves, suddenly began to be applied to Mountain Jews.

Another consequence of the campaign to “tatize” Mountain Jews, carried out primarily in Dagestan, was that complete confusion was introduced into the consciousness of Mountain Jews (and not only Mountain Jews) regarding their ethnic origin and ethnicity. And even ethnographers familiar with the history of this issue do not always clearly understand the essence of the problem.

Recently, there has been some turning point in this regard: scientific conferences are being held, the titles of which include the combination “Mountain Jews”, for example, “The First International Symposium “Mountain Jews: History and Modernity” (Moscow, Academy of Civil Service under the President Russian Federation, March 29, 2001). Another scientific forum was held from April 26 to April 29, 2001 in Baku - “Scientific and Practical Conference “Mountain Jews of the Caucasus.” By the way, in the Republic of Azerbaijan, the ethnonym “Tat” was never imposed on Mountain Jews; this happened mainly in Dagestan, and even in our time Dagestan is the only corner of the world where they are still trying to pass off mountain Jews as Tats. class="eliadunit">

Semenov I.G.

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During their long and difficult history, Jews have repeatedly been subjected to various persecutions in many countries of the world. Fleeing from their pursuers, representatives of the once united people scattered throughout the centuries to different parts of Europe, Asia and North Africa. One group of Jews, as a result of long wanderings, arrived in the territory of Dagestan and Azerbaijan. These people created a unique culture that absorbed the traditions and customs of different peoples.

Call themselves Juuru

The ethnonym “Mountain Jews,” which has become widespread in Russia, cannot be considered completely legitimate. This is what their neighbors called these people to emphasize their difference from other representatives of the ancient people. Mountain Jews call themselves dzhuuru (singular – dzhuur). Dialectal forms of pronunciation allow such variants of the ethnonym as “zhugyur” and “gyivr”.

They cannot be called a separate people; they are an ethnic group formed in the territories of Dagestan and Azerbaijan. The ancestors of the Mountain Jews fled to the Caucasus in the 5th century from Persia, where representatives of the tribe of Simon (one of the 12 tribes of Israel) lived from the 8th century BC.

Over the past few decades, most of the Mountain Jews left their native lands. According to experts, the total number of representatives of this ethnic group is about 250 thousand people. They mostly live now in Israel (140-160 thousand) and the USA (approximately 40 thousand). There are about 30 thousand Mountain Jews in Russia: large communities are located in Moscow, Derbent, Makhachkala, Pyatigorsk, Nalchik, Grozny, Khasavyurt and Buinaksk. About 7 thousand people live in Azerbaijan today. The rest are in various European countries and Canada.

Do they speak a dialect of the Tat language?

From the point of view of most linguists, Mountain Jews speak a dialect of the Tat language. But the representatives of the Simonov tribe themselves deny this fact, calling their language Juuri.

First, let's figure it out: who are the Tats? These are people from Persia who fled from there, fleeing wars, civil strife and uprisings. They settled in the south of Dagestan and Azerbaijan, like the Jews. Tat belongs to the southwestern group of Iranian languages.

Due to their long proximity, the languages ​​of the two above-mentioned ethnic groups inevitably acquired common features, which gave specialists a reason to consider them as dialects of the same language. However, Mountain Jews consider this approach to be fundamentally wrong. In their opinion, Tat influenced Juuri in the same way as German influenced Yiddish.

However, the Soviet government did not delve into such linguistic subtleties. The leadership of the RSFSR generally denied any relationship between the inhabitants of Israel and Mountain Jews. The process of their tatization took place everywhere. In official statistics of the USSR, both ethnic groups were counted as some kind of Caucasian Persians (Tats).

Currently, many Mountain Jews have lost their native language, switching to Hebrew, English, Russian or Azerbaijani - depending on the country of residence. By the way, from ancient times the representatives of the tribe of Simonov had their own writing, which Soviet era translated first into Latin, and then into Cyrillic. Several books and textbooks were published in the so-called Jewish-Tat language in the 20th century.

Anthropologists are still arguing about the ethnogenesis of Mountain Jews. Some experts consider them to be the descendants of the forefather Abraham, others consider them to be a Caucasian tribe that adopted Judaism during the era of the Khazar Kaganate. For example, the famous Russian scientist Konstantin Kurdov, in his work “Mountain Jews of Dagestan,” which was published in the Russian Anthropological Journal in 1905, wrote that Mountain Jews are closest to the Lezgins.

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Other researchers note that representatives of the Simonov tribe, who have long settled in the Caucasus, are similar in their customs, traditions and national clothing to the Abkhazians, Ossetians, Avars and Chechens. The material culture and social organization of all these peoples are almost identical.

For many centuries, Mountain Jews lived in large patriarchal families; they practiced polygamy, and the bride was required to pay a bride price. The customs of hospitality and mutual assistance inherent in neighboring peoples were always supported by local Jews. They still cook Caucasian cuisine, dance Lezginka, and perform fiery music typical of the inhabitants of Dagestan and Azerbaijan.

But, on the other hand, all these traditions do not necessarily indicate ethnic kinship; they could have been borrowed in the process of long-term coexistence of peoples. After all, Mountain Jews have preserved their national characteristics, the roots of which go back to the religion of their ancestors. They celebrate all the main Jewish holidays, observe wedding and funeral rites, numerous gastronomic prohibitions, and follow the instructions of the rabbis.

British geneticist Dror Rosengarten analyzed the Y chromosome of Mountain Jews in 2002 and found that the paternal haplotypes of representatives of this ethnic group and other Jewish communities are largely the same. Thus, the Semitic origin of Juuru is now scientifically confirmed.

Fought against Islamization

One of the reasons that allowed Mountain Jews not to get lost among other inhabitants of the Caucasus is their religion. Firm adherence to the canons of Judaism contributed to the preservation of national identity. It is noteworthy that at the beginning of the 9th century, the class elite of the Khazar Kaganate, a powerful and influential empire located in the south modern Russia, – accepted the faith of the Jews. This happened under the influence of representatives of the Simonov tribe, who lived in the territory of the modern Caucasus. Having converted to Judaism, the Khazar rulers received Jewish support in the fight against the Arab invaders, whose expansion was stopped. However, the Kaganate still fell in the 11th century under the onslaught of the Polovtsians.

Having survived the Mongol-Tatar invasion, the Jews fought against Islamization for many centuries, not wanting to give up their religion, for which they were repeatedly persecuted. Thus, the troops of the Iranian ruler Nadir Shah Afshar (1688-1747), who repeatedly attacked Azerbaijan and Dagestan, did not spare the non-believers.

Another commander who, among other things, sought to Islamize the entire Caucasus was Imam Shamil (1797-1871), who opposed the Russian Empire, which asserted its influence in these lands in the 19th century. Fearing extermination by radical Muslims, Mountain Jews supported the Russian army in the fight against Shamil's troops.

Gardeners, winemakers, traders

The Jewish population of Dagestan and Azerbaijan, like their neighbors, is engaged in gardening, winemaking, carpet weaving and fabric making, leatherworking, fishing and other crafts traditional for the Caucasus. Among the Mountain Jews there are many successful businessmen, sculptors and writers. For example, one of the authors of the monument to the Unknown Soldier, installed in Moscow near the Kremlin wall, is Yuno Ruvimovich Rabaev (1927-1993). In Soviet times, the life of fellow countrymen was reflected in their works by the following writers: Khizgil Davidovich Avshalumov (1913-2001) and Misha Yusupovich Bakhshiev (1910-1972). And now books of poetry by Eldar Pinkhasovich Gurshumov, who heads the Union of Caucasian Writers of Israel, are being actively published.

Representatives of the Jewish ethnic group on the territory of Azerbaijan and Dagestan should not be confused with the so-called Georgian Jews. This subethnic group arose and developed in parallel and has its own distinctive culture.

Orynganym Tanatarova
russian7.ru

"Once again about Jews in hats. Mountain Jews: history and modernity"

WHO ARE WE AND WHERE ARE WE FROM?
- Mom, who are we? - my son once asked me, and another question immediately followed: “Are we Lezgins?”
- No, my boy, not Lezgins - we are Mountain Jews.
- Why mountaineers? Are there still forest or sea Jews?

To stop the flow of endless “whys,” I had to tell my son a parable that I heard from my father as a child. I remember how in the sixth grade, after arguing with me, one girl called me “juud.” And the first thing I asked my parents when I returned from school was:

What are we, “Juuds”?

Then dad told me briefly about the history of the Jewish people, how our fellow tribesmen appeared in the Caucasus, and why we are called Mountain Jews.

“You see, daughter, the fortress above our city of Derbent,” the father began his story. - In ancient times, during its construction, they used the labor of captive slaves brought from Iran at the direction of Shah Kavad from the Sassanid dynasty in the fifth century AD. Among them were our ancestors, descendants of those Jews who were expelled from Eretz Israel after the destruction of the First Temple.

Most of them remained to live in the vicinity of the Naryn-Kala fortress. In the eighteenth century, the city of Derbent was captured by the Persian Nadir Shah. He was a very cruel man, but he was especially merciless with those who professed Judaism. For the slightest offense, Jews were subjected to barbaric torture: their eyes were gouged out, their ears were cut off, their hands were cut off... And look, you can see the dome of the Juma Mosque under the fortress? According to legend, it is in the courtyard of the mosque, between two huge platinum trees, that there is an ancient stone “Guz Dash”, which means “eye stone” in Persian. It is there that the eyes of those unfortunate slaves are buried. Unable to withstand the hellish labor and cruel punishments, the slaves escaped. But only a few managed to escape from the fortress. Only those lucky ones who were able to escape climbed high into the mountainous regions of the Caucasus. There their life gradually improved, but Mountain Jews always kept themselves apart in their community. By observing the customs of their ancestors, they conveyed to their descendants the belief in the Jewish God. Only under Soviet rule did Jews gradually begin to descend from the mountains to the plains. That’s why we’ve been called that way ever since – Mountain Jews.

MOUNTAIN JEWS OR TATS?
When I graduated from school, it was in the late eighties, my dad gave me a passport, in which “tatka” was noted in the “nationality” column. I was very confused by this entry in the passport, because there was another entry in the birth certificate - “Mountain Jew.” But my father explained that this way, it would be easier to go to college, and generally make a good career. Having entered a Moscow university, I was forced to explain to my classmates what kind of nationality this was.

An incident with nationality happened to my older brother. After serving in the army, my brother went to build the Baikal-Amur Mainline. When registering his registration in the fifth column, several letters were added to the word “Tat”, and it turned out “Tatar”. Everything would be fine, but upon repatriation to Israel it became big problem: He could not prove his Jewish origin in any way.

In recent years, many scientists and historians have turned to studying the history of Mountain Jews. Many books have been published in different languages ​​(Russian, English, Azerbaijani, Hebrew), various conferences and research trips to the Caucasus are held. But the historical past of the Mountain Jews is still insufficiently studied and causes controversy about when they appeared in the Caucasus. Alas, no written documents have been preserved about the history of the resettlement. Available different versions about the appearance of Jews in the Caucasus:

* The Jews of the Caucasus have deep historical roots - they are descendants of exiles from Jerusalem after the destruction of the First Temple;

* Mountain Jews trace their origins to the Israelites, they are descendants of ten tribes taken from Palestine and settled in Media by the Assyrian and Babylonian kings;

* The Jews who found themselves under the rule of the Achaeminids, being merchants, officials and administrators, could easily move throughout the territory of the Persian state;

* In Babylonia and adjacent territories that were part of the New Persian kingdom, Jews mainly lived in large cities. They successfully engaged in crafts and trade, maintained caravanserais, and among them were doctors, scientists, and teachers. Jews actively participated in trade on the Great silk road, which also passed through the Caucasus. The first representatives of the Jews, later called Mountain Jews, began to move from Iran to the Caucasus along the Caspian routes through Fiery Albania (now Azerbaijan).

This is what the famous Dagestan historian Igor Semenov writes in his article “Ascended to the Caucasus”:

“Mountain Jews, as a special part of the Jewish world, were formed in the Eastern Caucasus as a result of several waves of migration, mainly from Iran. By the way, the fact that the last two waves occurred in relatively recent times was reflected in many elements of the culture of Mountain Jews, in particular in their name. If for any ethnic group the namebook contains up to 200 male names and about 50 female ones, then among the Mountain Jews I identified more than 800 male and about 200 female names (as of the beginning of the 20th century). This may indicate that there were not three waves of Jewish migration to the Eastern Caucasus, but more. Speaking about the migration of Jews to the Eastern Caucasus, one should not lose sight of the issue of their resettlement within the region. Thus, regarding the territory of modern Azerbaijan, there is information that before the formation of the Jewish Sloboda of the city of Cuba, Jewish quarters existed in such settlements as Chirakhkala, Kusary, Rustov. And the village of Kulkat had an exclusively Jewish population. In the 18th-19th centuries, the Jewish Settlement was the largest Mountain Jewish center and, as such, played a significant role in the consolidation of various Mountain Jewish groups. Later, the same role was played by those settlements, which were centers of attraction for rural Jews - the cities of Derbent, Baku, Grozny, Nalchik, Makhachkala, Pyatigorsk, etc.”

But why were Mountain Jews called tatami in Soviet times?

Firstly, this is due to their Tat-Jewish language. Secondly, because of some representatives holding leading party positions, who tried their best to prove that Mountain Jews were not Jews at all, but Tats. But not only Jewish Tats lived in the Eastern Caucasus, but also Muslim Tats. True, the latter indicated “Azerbaijani” in their passport data in the “nationality” column.

The same Igor Semenov writes:

“A variety of points of view have been expressed regarding the origin of the Mountain Jews. One of them boils down to the fact that Mountain Jews are the descendants of those Tats who, having been Judaized in Iran, were resettled by the Sassanids to the Caucasus. This version, which arose among mountain Jews at the beginning of the 20th century, received the name of the Tat myth in the scientific literature... It is also necessary to point out that in reality the Tat tribe never existed in the Sasanian state. The term “tat” appeared in Iran much later, during the period of the Turkic (Seljuk) conquests, and in the narrow sense the Turks meant the Persians of Central Asia and Northwestern Iran, and in the broad sense, the entire settled population conquered by the Turks. In the Eastern Caucasus, this term was used by the Turks in its first, main meaning - in relation to the Persians, whose ancestors were resettled in this region under the Sassanids. It is also necessary to take into account that the Caucasian Persians themselves never called themselves “tatami”. And they called their language not “Tat”, but “Parsi”. However, in the 19th century, the concepts of “Tats” and “Tat language” entered first the official Russian nomenclature, and then into linguistics and ethnographic literature.

Of course, the basis for the emergence and development of the Tat myth was the linguistic relationship between the Tat and Mountain-Jewish languages, however, even here the fact of very significant differences between the Tat and Mountain-Jewish languages ​​was ignored. In addition, it was not taken into account that all the languages ​​of the Jewish diaspora - Yiddish, Ladino, Jewish-Georgian, Jewish-Tajik and many others - are based on non-Jewish languages, which reflects the history of the formation of one or another Jewish group, but at the same time this circumstance does not give reason to consider Ladino speakers as Spaniards, Yiddish speakers as Germans, Georgian-Jewish speakers as Georgians, etc.”

Note that in all languages ​​close to Jewish dialects there are no borrowings from Hebrew. So the presence of elements of the Hebrew language is a sure sign that this adverb is directly related to the Jewish people.

* * *
Currently, the Mountain Jewish community is scattered throughout the world. Despite their small numbers (although there is no exact number of their census), there are approximately 180-200 thousand people in the world on average. One of the largest communities in Israel - up to 100-120 thousand people; the rest of the Mountain Jews live in Russia, the USA, Canada, Germany, Austria, Australia, Spain, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and other regions of the world.

It is easy to come to the conclusion that the vast majority of Mountain Jews are not foreigners who converted to Judaism, but descendants of ancient settlers from the Promised Land. To our knowledge, genetic studies confirm this fact. In appearance, unlike the Tats, Mountain Jews for the most part are typical Semites. There is another argument: it is enough to look into the eyes of our fellow tribesmen from the Caucasus to catch in them all the melancholy of world Jewry.

In the photo: Mountain Jews, 30s, Dagestan.

Mountain Jews are the name given to a subethnic group of Jews (descendants of Iranian Jews) who came from the North and East Caucasus. Until the mid-19th century, place of residence: the south of Dagestan and the north of Azerbaijan, after which they settled in other regions and in Israel.

General information about Mountain Jews

Persia became the homeland of the Mountain Jews, who lived there around the 5th century. The language of the Mountain Jewish people is from the group of Jewish-Iranian languages. Representatives of this people also speak Hebrew, Russian, Azerbaijani, English and other languages. Differences from Georgian Jews lie in the areas of culture and linguistics.

The prayer book of the people is the siddur “Rabbi Ichiel Sevi”. Its basis is the Sephardic canon, according to the custom of the Mountain Jews.

Officially, there are about 110 thousand Mountain Jews. The main group - 50 thousand, lives in Israel. 37 thousand in Azerbaijan, 27 thousand in Russia, including 10 thousand in Moscow. About 10 thousand live in Dagestan, as well as in Germany, America and other countries.

The people are divided into seven local groups: Nalchik, Kuban, Kaitag, Derbent, Cuban, Shirvan, Vartashen, Grozny.

History of Mountain Jews

Jews began to move to Eastern Transcaucasia from Iran and Mesopotamia in the middle of the 6th century. We settled among groups that spoke Tat. There is an assumption that this is connected with the uprising of Mar Zutra II in Iran, which was suppressed at the same time as the Mazdakite movement. Participants began to settle in the Derbent area. Jewish settlements in the Caucasus became the source of the emergence of Judaism in the Khazar Kaganate. Later they were joined by Iranian, Iraqi and Byzantine immigrants.

The villages of Mountain Jews were located between Kaitag and Shamakhi. The first discovered monuments of this people date back to the 16th century. In 1742, Jews fled from Nadir Shah, in 1797-1799 from Kazikumukh Khan. Pogroms, civil strife and conversion to Islam were spared by the Jews thanks to the inclusion of the Caucasus into Russia. In the middle of the 19th century, Jews began to settle wider than their ethnic territory.

Mountain Jews first began communicating with Ashkenazi Jews in the 1820s. At the end of the 19th century, Jews moved to Palestine. Mountain Jews, numbering 25.9 thousand people, were officially counted for the first time in the 1926 census.

In the 20-30s, literature, art and the press began to develop. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the place of residence of the people was Dagestan. They settled in the villages of Ashaga-arag, Mamrash, Hadjal-kala, Khoshmenzil, Aglobi and others. Attempts were made to resettle part of the people in the Kizlyar region, for which resettlement settlements were established: named after Larin and named after Kalinin. In 1938, Tat became one of the official languages ​​in Dagestan. In the 30s, the organization of Mountain Jewish collective farms began in the Crimea and in the Stavropol Territory (Kursk region).

The Holocaust at the end of 1942 caused the death of most of the population. Residents of the Caucasus were able to escape persecution by the Nazis. After the war, the official use of the Jewish-Tat language ceased. Only in 1956 was the yearbook “Vatan Sovetimu” published again and the policy of “tatization” was carried out. Mountain Jews, living mainly in Dagestan, began to be included in official statistics as Tats. This was the largest community of this people in the RSFSR.

In the 90s of the last century they settled in Israel, Moscow and Pyatigorsk. Small communities remain in Dagestan, Nalchik and Mozdok. The village of Krasnaya Sloboda (Azerbaijan) has become a place for recreating the traditional way of life of this people. Villages began to be created in the USA, Germany, and Austria. The Moscow community includes several thousand people.

Traditional culture of Mountain Jews

In the second half of the 19th century, Mountain Jews were mainly engaged in gardening, growing tobacco, viticulture and winemaking, fishing, leather craft, trading, mainly in fabrics and carpets, and also working for hire. One activity is to grow madder to produce red dye. The social organization of Mountain Jews is very close to the organization of the Caucasian peoples.

Until the early 30s, about 70 people lived in the settlements: three to five large patriarchal families, each living in a separate courtyard and in its own house. Families that descended from a common ancestor were included in the tukhums. Polygamy, bride price, betrothal in childhood, customs of help and blood feud were practiced.

In big cities they settled in separate neighborhoods or in suburbs. There were two levels of the rabbinical hierarchy. Dayan Temir-Khan-Shura is recognized as the chief rabbi of the mountain Jews of the North Caucasus, Dayan of Derbent - the rabbi of southern Dagestan and Azerbaijan in the middle of the 19th century. Mountain Jews are faithful to Jewish rituals, which are associated with the life cycle.

Mountain Jews Tatas

By language and other characteristics, Mountain Jews belong to the community of Persian-speaking Jews, separate groups of which are settled in Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia (Bukharian Jews). The Jews of Eastern Transcaucasia received the name “Mountain” in the 19th century, when in official Russian documents all Caucasian peoples were called “Mountain”. Mountain Jews call themselves “Yudi” (“Jew”) or Juur (cf. Persian juhud - “Jew”). In 1888, I. Sh. Anisimov, in his work “Caucasian Mountain Jews,” pointing to the similarity of the language of the Mountain Jews and the language of the Caucasian Persians (Tats), concluded that Mountain Jews are representatives of the “Iranian Tat tribe,” which is still in Iran converted to Judaism and subsequently moved to Transcaucasia.

Anisimov's conclusions were picked up in Soviet times: in the 30s. The idea of ​​the “Tat” origin of Mountain Jews began to be widely introduced. Through the efforts of several Mountain Jews close to the authorities, a false thesis began to spread that Mountain Jews are “Judaized” Tats who have nothing in common with Jews. Due to unspoken oppression, Mountain Jews themselves began to register on the tatami.

This led to the fact that the words “Tat” and “Mountain Jew” became synonymous. The erroneous name of Mountain Jews “tatami” entered the research literature as their second or even first name. As a result, the entire layer of culture that, under Soviet rule, was created by Mountain Jews (literature, theater, etc.) in the Mountain Jewish dialect, was called “Tat” - “Tat literature”, “Tat theater”, “Tat song” and etc., although the Tats themselves had nothing to do with them.

Moreover, a comparison of the dialect of Mountain Jews and the Tat language and the physical and anthropological data of their speakers also completely excludes their ethnic unity. The grammatical structure of the dialect of the Mountain Jews is more archaic compared to the Tat language itself, which greatly complicates complete mutual understanding between them. In general, the archaic nature of the base is characteristic of all “Jewish” languages: for the Sephardi language (Ladino) it is Old Spanish, for the Ashkenazi language (Yiddish) it is Old German, etc. Moreover, they are all full of words of Hebrew origin. Having switched to Persian speech, the Jews, however, retained in their dialect a layer of borrowings from the Aramaic and Hebrew (Hebrew) languages, including those not related to Jewish ritual (giosi - angry, zoft - resin, nokumi - envy, guf - body , ketone - linen, gezire - punishment, govle - deliverance, boshorei - good news, nefes - breath, etc.). Some phrases in the language of Mountain Jews have a structure characteristic of the Hebrew language.

In 1913, anthropologist K. M. Kurdov measured a large group of residents of the Tat village of Lahij and revealed a fundamental difference between their physical and anthropological type (the average value of the cephalic index is 79.21) from the type of Mountain Jews. Other researchers also took measurements of the Tats and Mountain Jews. The average values ​​of the head index of the Tats of Azerbaijan range from 77.13 to 79.21, and those of the Mountain Jews of Dagestan and Azerbaijan - from 86.1 to 87.433. If the Tats are characterized by meso- and dolichocephaly, then the Mountain Jews are characterized by extreme brachycephaly, therefore, there can be no talk of any relationship between these peoples.

In addition, data on dermatoglyphics (relief inside palms) of Tats and Mountain Jews also completely exclude their ethnic closeness. It is obvious that speakers of the Mountain Jewish dialect and the Tat language are representatives of different ethnic groups, each with their own religion, ethnic identity, self-name, way of life, material and spiritual culture.

Tats and Armenians. In sources and publications of the 18th—20th centuries. the inhabitants of a number of Tat-speaking Armenian villages in Transcaucasia were mentioned under the terms “Tat-Armenians”, “Armenian-Tat”, “Tat-Christian” or “Tat-Gregorian”. The authors of these works, not taking into account the fact that the residents of these Tato-speaking villages themselves identify themselves as Armenians, put forward the hypothesis that part of the Persians of Eastern Transcaucasia in the past adopted Armenian Christianity.

Tats and the Tati people in Northwestern Iran. The name “tati”, starting from the Middle Ages, in addition to Transcaucasia, was also in use in the territory of North-Western Iran, where it was applied to almost all local Iranian languages, with the exception of Persian and Kurdish. Currently, in Iranian studies, the term “Tati”, in addition to the name of the Tati language, which is closely related to Persian, is also used to designate a special group of northwestern Iranian dialects (Chali, Danesfani, Khiaraji, Khoznini, Esfarvarini, Takestani, Sagzabadi, Ebrahimabadi, Eshtehardi, Khoini, Kajali, Shahroudi, Kharzani), common in Iranian Azerbaijan, as well as to the southeast and southwest of it, in the provinces of Zanjan, Ramand and in the vicinity of the city of Qazvin. These dialects show a certain closeness to the Talysh language and are considered together with it as one of the descendants of the Azeri language.

The application of the same name “Tati” to two different Iranian languages ​​gave rise to the misconception that the Tats of Transcaucasia also live compactly in Iran, which is why in some sources, when indicating the number of Tats, the people of the same name in Iran were also indicated.

Famous representatives of Mountain Jews

Among the famous representatives of Mountain Jews are representatives of culture and art, singers, actors, directors, screenwriters, poets, writers, playwrights, historians, doctors, journalists, academics, businessmen, etc.

Abramov, Efim - director, screenwriter.

Abramov Gennady Mikhailovich (1952) - actor, singer, theater of the Moscow Jewish Theater "Shalom", laureate of international festivals.

Avshalumov, Khizgil Davidovich (1913-2001) - Soviet prose writer, poet, playwright. He wrote in Mountain Jewish and Russian languages. Laureate of the S. Stalsky Prize.

Adam, Ehud (Udi) (b. 1958) - Major General of the Israel Defense Forces, son of Y. Adam.

Amiramov, Efrem Grigorievich (b. 1956) - poet, composer, singer.

Anisimov, Ilya Sherebetovich (1862-1928) - ethnographer.

Babakishieva, Ayan - Azerbaijani singer.

Gavrilov, Mikhail Borisovich (1926) - Honored Worker of Culture of Dagestan, writer, poet, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Vatan" (Dagestan), first editor-in-chief of the "Caucasian Newspaper" (Israel).

Davydova, Gulboor Shaulovna—(1892-1983). Winegrower of the collective farm named after. Kaganovich. Awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor in 1966 for growing high grape yields. Two of Davydova’s sons, David and Ruvin, died in the Great Patriotic War. The Agrofarm is named after Gulboor Davydova.

Izgiyaev, Sergei Davidovich (1922-1972) - Mountain-Jewish Soviet poet, playwright and translator.

Izrailov, Tanho Selimovich (1917-1981) - People's Artist of the USSR, choreographer.

Ilizarov, Asaf Sasunovich (1922-1994) - linguist.

Ilizarov, Gavriil Abramovich (1921-1992) - famous trauma surgeon.

Illazarov, Isai Lazarevich (1963) - General Director of the Dance Ensemble of the Peoples of the Caucasus "VATAN". Israel is the grandson of Hero of the Soviet Union Isai Illazarov, named at birth after his grandfather. In Moscow in 2011, the Autonomous Non-Profit Organization “Center of National Cultures” named after Hero of the Soviet Union Isai Illazarov was registered, whose task is to preserve and maintain a favorable interethnic climate in Moscow and Russia.

Isaacov, Benzion Moiseevich (Pencil) - the largest manufacturer and philanthropist in the USSR.

Ismailov, Telman Mardanovich - Russian and Turkish businessman, former co-owner of the Cherkizovsky market.

Mardakhaev, Binyamin Talkhumovich - entrepreneur, Honorary Builder of Russia (2009).

Mirzoev, Gasan Borisovich - Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Doctor of Law, Deputy Chairman of the State Building Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, President of the Guild of Russian Lawyers.

Matatov, Yehiil Ruvinovich (1888-1943) - public and statesman, linguist.

Mushailov, Mushail Khanukhovich (1941-2007) - artist-painter, member of the Union of Artists of the USSR and Israel.
- Nisan, Bella Alexandrovna - ophthalmologist.

Nisanov, Khayyam - Azerbaijani singer.

Nuvakhov, Boris Shamilevich - head of the research center, rector of the Academy of Management of Medicine and Law, academician of the Russian Academy of Medical and Technical Sciences, honorary citizen of the city of Derbent, adviser to the President of the Russian Federation.

Prigozhin, Iosif Igorevich (b. 1969) - Russian producer.

Rafailov, Rafoy - People's Artist of Chechnya.

Semendueva, Zoya Yunoevna (b. 1929) - Jewish Soviet poetess.

Solomonov, Albert Romanovich - Israeli football coach.

Hadad, Sarit (Sara Khudadatova) - Israeli singer.

Tsvaigenbaum, Israil Iosifovich (b. 1961) - Soviet, Russian and American artist.

Yusufov, Igor Khanukovich - Minister of Energy of Russia (2001-2004).

Yarkoni, Yaffa (1925-2012) (maiden name Abramova) - Israeli singer.

A new Jewish centralized organization - the Federation of Communities of Mountain Jews of Russia (FOGER) - appeared this year in the Russian Federation; in February it received registration documents. The rabbi of the Mountain Jewish communities in Moscow, Anar Samailov, spoke to RIA Novosti about the history and culture of Mountain Jews, the goals and objectives of the new organization. Interviewed by Radik Amirov.

— The question immediately arises: why create a new organization, since there are already various Jewish centers in Russia?

— The new Jewish organization in the Russian Federation does not mean that Mountain Jews cease to be Jews or sow disunity. This is wrong. We have good relations with the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FEOR), the Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Associations in Russia (KEROOR) and others.

But I note that we, Mountain Jews, have a slightly different way of life, traditions, and culture. We decided that the spiritual wealth of our people, which over many centuries of existence has preserved all the best that we have, should not be forgotten - it should be multiplied many times over. And this aspect does not conflict with the ideas of other Jewish organizations that pursue the same goals of preserving religion and community.

We, Mountain Jews, at first glance, are a little different from the usual Jews, but nevertheless we remain and will remain them - Jews. Yes, we conduct certain rituals a little differently, for example, weddings and circumcisions. We do not have the Jewish court familiar to Jews. And the culture of upbringing is a little different. But by and large we are Jews. For us, the Torah is one, the law is one, the constitution is one.

— Many conventionally divide the Jewish community into Ashkenazim and Sephardim. Do you consider yourself to be the latter?

- Yes. Ashkenazim are European Jews, and we are Eastern Jews. Our ancestors mainly lived in Persia and the Caucasus. If you look at the modern map of the world, we note that Sephardim lived in Iran, Iraq, Turkey, in the territory of present-day Azerbaijan - these are Baku, Shamakhi, Cuba, Krasnaya, and before the revolution of 1917 - Jewish Sloboda. And also Tajikistan, Uzbekistan.

A large community also existed in Russia: Nalchik, Grozny, Khasavyurt, Buinaksk and, of course, the legendary Derbent. In these cities, Mountain Jews lived in a friendly community, in peace and friendship with their neighbors - Christians and Muslims. Remember that Jewish pogroms occurred only in Europe; the pogroms did not affect Eastern Jews. Obviously, this did not happen for one simple reason - the eastern peoples are very tolerant.

It is also quite obvious that we have absorbed a lot from someone else’s culture, but at the same time we have not dissolved into another community. We have preserved the language (juri), religion, culture, rituals, traditions, carrying them through the centuries. I think this is very, very important for any people - not to assimilate, but to remain themselves.

— Is it true that Mountain Jews are very religious?

— We were the first in Moscow to create a community of Mountain Jews in 1993. The famous Gilalov family provided great assistance in the construction of the Beit Talkhum synagogue for Mountain Jews in the Russian capital in 1998. At that time, they were just beginning to talk about the construction of religious buildings, but the Mountain Jews already had their own temple. A yeshiva (religious educational center - ed.) was built in Khripani, near Moscow. With the support of this family, religious buildings for Mountain Jews also appeared in Israel - Tirat-Carmel and Jerusalem. The Gilalovs initiated the creation of the World Congress of Mountain Jews in 2003, which at one time was talked about by the whole world, and not only the Jewish one.

Today Akif Gilalov is the organizer and chairman of the Council of the centralized Orthodox Jewish organization “Federation of Communities of Mountain Jews of Russia”. He did a lot for us. This is not so much money as it is attention and concern for the people and their future.

Today, Mountain Jews are implementing projects in the field of charity, education, children's camps, holding holidays, and just community meetings, because for us lively conversation is a prerequisite for life.

— In what other foreign countries are there religious organizations of Mountain Jews?

— The geography is vast. Canada, USA, countries of Latin America, Europe, Georgia, Turkey and, of course, Israel. In these countries, there are more than one and a half dozen communities of Mountain Jews with a total number of 120 thousand people. We have close contacts with foreign organizations and joint projects that meet our common interests.

— Will there be a large community center for Mountain Jews in Moscow?

- Yes, this is extremely necessary for us. Therefore, we will appeal to the federal and regional authorities with a request to allocate space for the construction of a Community Center for Mountain Jews, and about 10-15 thousand of them live in Moscow. According to our plans, this will be not only a religious, but also a cultural center, where, in addition to spiritual education, it will be possible to become familiar with one’s roots, traditions and rituals. There are both philanthropists and those willing to help in the construction of the community center.

Our plans for the coming period are the creation of a community center for all branches of Sephardic Jews in Moscow.