Fond Duxovnoe Nasledie”, 2015.—253 Pp

Book Reviews / Iran and the Caucasus 22 (2018) 116-118 116

Timirlan Aytberov, K istorii avarcev Tersko-Sulakskogo meždureč’ja, Ma- khachkala: “Fond Duxovnoe Nasledie”, 2015.—253 pp.

The current book is a popular scholarly contribution dealing with the history of the Avars in the Terek-Sulak Interfluve. The topic is extremely sen- sitive in Dagestan, as the Terek-Sulak interfluve is one of the few places that have the potential of conflict in the eastern part of the Caucasus: at least three ethnic groups—the Kumyks, Avars, and Chechens—seek to have this area recognised as their historical ethnic territory. Aytberov’s book, being an Avar perspective, is supported by a few hitherto unknown written sources to a wider audience. The book consists of an Introduction, three chapters, an Appendix, and an Epilogue. In the Introduction, the author describes three North Cauca- sian research schools engaged with the study of the Terek-Sulak interfluve, namely the “Makhachkala”, the “Grozny”, and the “Tarki” school. According to Ajtberov’s classification, the latter two are represented by the Nakhs and Kumyks respectively, whereas the first one, which the author himself markedly belongs to, by Avars. The objective of this book, as the author indicates, is to present historical documents on the history of the Avars in the Terek-Sulak Inter- fluve, which is done in Chapter I. The 38 documents, which are translated from Arabic into Russian, along with comprehensive footnotes, cover a long period of almost four centuries—from the 16th to the beginning of the 20th century. Among them there is a letter written by Emir Ismail Ka- ranajskij to the inhabitants of Bavtugaj (from the first quarter of the 16th century), a trade certificate from 1617 indicating that Emir Temir Èndire- evskij had sold the mountainous grazing lands in Salatavija to the inhabitants of Chirkey, a letter from the first half of the 18th century from the inhabitants of Chirjurt to Umma Khan, a letter from the first half of the 18th century from Emir Murtazaal of Èndirej to the inhabitants of Chirkej, a document from 1735 about giving the Chadir-kurgan, a mountain pas- ture land, to two influential residents of Chirkej by Èndirej princes, as well as other valuable documents kept in private collections by residents of Makhachkala, previously unknown to historians.

In Chapter II, the author recites a part of the History of Nahbak (Salata- vija1) in the Avar language, which was originally written by Abdulkadir Baraev in 1966. Aytberov undertook the difficult task of putting together the entire text and added more than 130 footnotes to them. Chapter III is dedicated to the Russian translation of the abovemen- tioned history. The book’s Appendix contains source materials, which were published earlier and directly concern the history of the Avar people living in the Terek-Sulak Interfluve. Aytberov endorses the idea that in the pre-Mongolian period (before the 13th century) the area between Terek and Sulak was inhabited by the Avars, or, more precisely, by a people speaking the Avar language. Then, he indicates the possibility of the appearance of Aki Chechens in the Terek-Sulak interfluve from Ingushetia and the nearby Urus-Martan at the turn of the 18th century. In the author’s opinion, their social status was lower than that of the Avars who inhabited the foreland part of the doab. Aytberov supports the view that the Sulak Kumyks descent from two distinct groups: first, from the remnants of the last warriors of the Golden Horde who spoke Turkic dialects and came along with the Mongols to the east of the Caucasus in the period between the 13th-15th century; second, from the groups of European racial type speaking Dagestani languages who came by the end of the 16th century from the doab, the lands that are situated in the south of the Sulak River. Aytberov’s considerations regarding the term “Avar” are worth men- tioning, too: he rejects the thesis that the European (Pannonian) Avars spoke Turkic languages. Instead, he argues that they spoke Mongolian, or a language from the Manchu-Tungus group of the Altaic language family. Meanwhile, Aytberov supports the theory that the Caucasian Avars are related to the European Avars who at the turn of the 6th century lived in the Hunzah Plateau and as troopers were obliged to protect the borders of the Iranian Empire against the Huns. From there, they spread also to the foreland of Dagestan. However, this process was stopped in the second half of the 6th century by the Turks invading the region. Later on, the

1 The centre of Salatavija is currently known as the Kazbekovskij District of Dagestan. Today, about 25,000 Chirkej people live in Dagestan. They actively participated in Imam Shamil’s armed forces.