Who are the Dargins? Dargins are a pious and courageous people

Rice. 103. Village of Chirakh. (From the personal archive of Osmanov M.O.)

Long-term residence in an ecological niche characterized by certain specifics naturally gives rise to corresponding specifics in the economy and culture of the population. Differences and originality in the composition and quantity of lands, source natural materials, climate, relief, landscape, richness of flora and fauna determined the zonal specificity of the economy, cultural features, expressed in the composition of different ethnographic groups of Dargins - lowland, foothill-forest, mountain, mountain-valley zones.
In the prevailing psychological stereotypes of ethnographic groups, we note the condescending attitude of the lowlanders towards the highlanders, who did not have enough of their bread and therefore were forced to come to the lowland villages for it. For their part, the mountaineers saw their superiority in the fact that they were free, free, and did not obey the khans and beks.
Dargins belong to the Western variant anthropological type Dagestanis - Caucasian (classical representatives of the Caucasian type). Character traits they are characterized by relatively light pigmentation, high stature, a round head shape, massive facial skeleton, a wide and somewhat flattened face.
The Dargin language belongs to the Nakh-Dagestan branch of the North Caucasian family of languages. Main dialects: Akushinsky, Urakhinsky (Khyurkilinsky), Tsudaharsky, Kaitagsky, Sirkhinsky, Muirinsky, Mureginsky, Kadarsky, Kubachinsky, Sanzhinsky, Muginsky, Amukhsky, Megebsky, Gubdensky and Mekeginsky (Gasanova, 1971. P. 38^0) .
The Dargins did not have a common language of communication (like the Avar Bolmatsya). The literary language began to take shape in Soviet times on the basis of the Akushin dialect. His functions of everyday communication, however, are insignificant; with knowledge of the Russian language, representatives of different dialects use for

Rice. 104. Traditional dwellings in the village of Kharbuk. The end of the 20th century. (From the personal archive of Osmanov M.O.)

communication in Russian, which is widely used among the Dargins (68% of Dargins speak it fluently). However, local dialects are tenacious.
The number of Dargins according to the 1989 census is 365,797 people; in 1979 there were 287,282 people (an increase over 10 years is 27.3%).
Of the total number of Dargins, 280,431 people live in the Republic of Dagestan, i.e. 76.7%. ( National composition... 1990. P. 127). In 1979, the percentage of people living in the republic was higher - 85.9, but after 1991, full and partial emigration (otkhodnichestvo) began to decline sharply and, on the contrary, re-immigration of Dargins (as well as other Dagestanis) began to increase. Let us note, however, that the Dargins hold the record for the number of their fellow tribesmen living outside of Dagestan in Russia - 73 thousand people.
The dynamics of the Dargin population was determined by many factors of a demographic, economic, military, sanitary and hygienic nature. Changes in numbers were caused either by wars and invasions, or by shortages and famine, or by epidemics, which is why the numbers of Dargins that we find in various sources vary so much. True, these discrepancies are largely explained by the inaccuracy and unreliability of data associated with objective difficulties and subjective features of the calculation. Here are some of them: 1598 - 50-60 thousand Dargins (S. Belokurov), 1796 - 116 thousand (Y. Reineggs), 1840 - 90 thousand (N. Okolnichiy), 1862 - 85 thousand (I. Stebnitsky), 1873 - 89,159 (A. Komarov). The last figure is one of the most accurate in establishing the number of Dargins in the 19th century. in 1886, 123,587 Dargins were indicated, and in 1897 - 121,375. Since the end of the 19th century, population calculations have been carried out using more modern methods, and therefore unexpected deviations in one direction or another are no longer observed. With installation

Rice. 105. Village of Mekegi, 1980s. (From the personal archive of Osmanov M.O.)

With the introduction of peaceful life, the development of the economy, and exchange, the number of Dargins began to grow: in 1917 there were 136,387 people (Osmanov M.O., 1974. Summary table).
Increased economic well-being and cultural level, improved medical care, sanitation, hygiene, and epidemiological services affected the growth in the number of Dargins during Soviet times. In 1926, there were 125.7 thousand Dargins, in 1959 - 158.1 (in the republic - 148.2 thousand), in 1970 - 230.9 thousand (207.8 thousand), in 1979 - 287.2 thousand (246.9 thousand), in 1989 - 365.8 thousand (280.4 thousand), in 1995 in Dagestan - 332.4 thousand people. The increase in the number of Dargins from 1926 to 1989 was 191% (from 1939 - 144%), from 1989 to 1995 - 118% (in Dagestan).
Dargins make up 15.6% of the population of Dagestan, and if in the past almost all of them lived in villages, now 31.5% of them make up the urban population. Per 1,000 people in 1989, there were 64 Dargins with higher education, although the percentage of those engaged in manual labor is still quite high - 78.2% (in the republic - 71.1). Of these, 48.3% are employed in agriculture, and 29.5% in industry. The next most numerous category of the employed population is in public education - 8.3%, in health care, physical education, social security - 4%, culture and art - 1.2%, science - 0.44%, management - 2.5%, etc. .d. (Socio-demographic characteristics... 1992. P. 4, 14, 86; Main nationalities of the Republic... 1995. P. 24-26).
Historical sketch. The oldest period in the history of the Dargins should be considered in the context of economic, ethnic and social processes. Archaeological sites on the territory of the Dargins make it possible to trace the continuity of socio-economic and cultural development in the Dargins.

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Rice. 106. New quarter in the village of Murguk, 1980s. (From the personal archive of Osmanov M.O.)

skaya territory, its entry into the area of ​​formation (V-IV millennium BC) of the East Caucasian ethnocultural community, coinciding with the time of existence of the early agricultural culture of the North-Eastern Caucasus.
Archaeological monuments on the lands of the Dargins represent all archaeological eras: Paleolithic (sites of Chumusinitsa, Usishinskaya), Mesolithic (near the villages of Mekegi), Neolithic (near the villages of Akusha, Usisha), Chalcolithic (near the villages of Gapshima, Muti), later and medieval (near the villages of Tsudahar, Gapshima, Khadzhalmakhi, Urari, Levashi, Gubden, Nakhki) and many others. Despite the changes in archaeological cultures, at all stages historical development a certain unity of material culture and its ethnocultural originality are preserved. Many features of culture, for example, agricultural, material (the form of tools, settlements, types of housing, types of utensils, etc.) have been preserved and have become an integral part and signs of culture up to our time. However, attempts to connect ancient cultures with certain later ethnic groups are unrealistic; all archaeological cultures are associated only with individual ethnocultural communities. Only in relation to North-Eastern In the Caucasus, we can talk about a historical-ethnographic region, representing a historical-cultural, linguistic and anthropological unity that has been developing over thousands of years.
Questions of the ethnogenesis of the Dargins, like other peoples of Dagestan, are poorly developed. From the 3rd millennium BC The East Caucasian ethnocultural community is disintegrating into separate subcommunities, which formed the basis of the Dagestan tribes that were subsequently formed (1st millennium BC), including the Dargins. The area where the Dargin tribe was formed was mainly the territory now occupied by the Dargins from Kaitag to the Kumyk Plain, with some expansion of its lower foothill and flat parts.

It is to this time that the formation of the ethnic-forming characteristics of the Dargin ethnic group should be attributed. However, in this process, especially in the first stages, the formation of cultural characteristics and characteristics associated with the specifics of the ecological niches of the tribes prevailed, i.e. There was a demarcation of ethnographic groups rather than ethnic ones. Only in the sphere of language and ethnic names was the process of demarcation more clearly expressed. This is evidenced by data from ancient authors (Strabo and others). The names of the Dagestan peoples among Arab writers are even more numerous. Author of the 9th century al-Balazuri mentions Zirikhgeran (Kubachi), Khayzan (Haydak) and Sindan in connection with the events of the 6th-7th centuries. This information is confirmed by Ibn-Rusta, al-Masudi, Ibn-al-Faqih, an anonymous source of the 11th century. “Tarikh al Bab”, al-Garnati, Yakut, etc. Different spellings - Sindan, Dzhanzan, Shandan and others - are attributed by Dagestan historians to the medieval Dargin possession, located approximately on the territory of the former Akushinsky union of unions of rural societies.
Even by the 20th century. The ethnic development of the Dargins was at the stage of incomplete consolidation, although the ethnonym “Dargins” was quite widespread and by the end of the 19th century included all Dargins, with the exception of the Kaitags and Kubachis.
The Dargins were part of (or sphere of influence) Caucasian Albania, the power of the Huns, and then the Khazar Khaganate. They were one of the most stubborn opponents of the Arabs and local Muslims (“among the infidel tribes in the border region of al-Bab, the worst enemy of the Muslims was the people of Shandan”) (Minorsky, 1963, p. 48). An important place in the political history of the second half of the 1st millennium AD. occupied by Kaytag and Zirikhgeran (Persian, “armourers”), identified by historians with the settlement of Kubachi (chain mailers, in Turkish), sometimes together with neighboring villages.
The political formations of that time were more likely to be proto-feudal. The development of feudal relations can be dated back to the 11th-12th centuries. The process of this development often took the form of uniting groups of settlements around a wealthy village or ruler. In the XII-XIII centuries. A large feudal estate is formed - the Kaitag Utsmiystvo. However, further socio-economic and political development The Dargins, like the inhabitants of all of Dagestan, especially the plains and foothills, were prevented by waves of invasions, of which the most terrible was the invasion of the Mongols. The final chord in this series of invasions was the devastating campaigns of Timur (Tamerlane), and they turned out to be the most destructive for the Dargins. Chroniclers describe Timur's campaign against Ushkuja (Akusha), as well as a terrible invasion of the foothill Dargins, about whom Timur's chroniclers say that he destroyed and exterminated these infidels, and “out of a thousand, not one escaped, they all were robbed and their villages were burned” ( Tiesenhausen, T. II, 1941, p. 175).
In the XV-XVIII centuries. The lands of the Dargins, like the territory of the entire Dagestan, suffered greatly from feudal civil strife, as well as wars and invasions of Turkey and Iran with the aim of seizing Dagestan lands. Thus, a manuscript of 1612, rewritten in Akusha, speaks of the invasion of the ruler Shabran Yusup Khan (Iranian) on Dargo, Sirkh and Atraz: “and as a result Dargo defeated Yusup Khan and the villains from his army, 2000 armed men were killed warriors” (Aliev B.G., 1970. P. 257). The most significant event in these wars was the defeat of the huge army of Nadir Shah in Dagestan (1741), in which all Dagestan peoples participated.
Before joining Russia, the Dargins formed several unions of rural communities (the largest of them was the union of Akusha-Dargo unions), some of them were part of the Shamkhalate, Utsmiystvo, and Kazikumukh Khanate.

From the 16th century Russian-Dagestan ties are intensifying. During the 17th century. There is a significant increase in economic and political ties between Dagestanis and Russia. Cases of voluntary entry of possessions and unions of societies into Russian citizenship have become more frequent. In 1633, Utsmiy Kaitagsky declared citizenship, and later, separate unions of Dargin societies.
From the time of Peter’s Persian campaign, a period began as a result of which Caspian Dagestan became part of Russia; the time of its intensive penetration into Dagestan is coming. The process of accepting Russian citizenship continued in the 17th-18th centuries, but the matter was limited only to its recognition, periodically a slight revival of economic ties, and occasional military and financial assistance to the rulers from Russia. And only in 1813, according to the Treaty of Gulistan with Iran, Dagestan, including all Dargins, became part of Russia. However, in the first half of the 19th century. no significant changes were made to management. The feudal lords controlled their domains, the unions of societies retained self-government, but the highest power was concentrated in the hands of the military command.
The territory of the Dargins was not part of the Shamil Imamate; they only occasionally took part in the anti-Russian war. The reason for this was the proximity of the Dargins to the plain and the great dependence (bread, winter pastures) of the mountain Dargins on the plain occupied by the Russians.
A major military clash occurred, for example, between the mountain Dargins and General A.P. Ermolov not far from the villages. Lefties in 1819. In a fierce battle, the highlanders were defeated, but during the battle the general was almost stabbed to death. It was after this battle that A.P. Ermolov said about the Dargins: “the strongest and warlike people in Dagestan,” “a solid support for all other peoples, who armed them against us with their powerful influence” (Ermolov. Part 2. 1868. pp. 47, 90). A figurative description of the Akusha-Dargo alliance was given by J. Reineggs: “Its strength and good glory, as well as the courage glorified everywhere, are very well known throughout the Caucasus and all the bordering princes” (Reineggs. Bd. 1. 1796. S. 100).
Subsequently, the Dargins repeatedly opposed the tsarist troops, but basically their participation was limited to the departure of volunteers to the murids, as well as armed (friendly to the murids) neutrality. Here are some of the episodes of Dargin participation in the anti-colonial war: 400 Tsudahar selected fighters sent to the besieged Akhulgo to help; large-scale participation of the Akushians and Tsudaharians in hostilities on the side of Shamil in 1844; the battle of the Kaitag people against a large detachment of General Suslov in 1852; partisan actions of the Dargins, for example, the detachment of Isa Tsudaharsky and others, against the tsarist troops.
After the fall of the Imamate, the tsarist authorities switched to direct rule in Dagestan, first creating for this purpose a military-popular government (with elements of adat law and traditional institutions).
Most of the Dargin villages were included in the Darginsky and Kaitago-Tabasaransky districts, some of them - in the Temir-Khan-Shurinsky, Gunibsky, Kyurinsky districts.
Despite the positive economic consequences, joining Russia did not save the Dagestanis from social oppression and added national-colonial oppression. Dissatisfaction with this situation was reflected in repeated protests and uprisings. The anti-colonial uprising of the Dagestanis in 1877 was especially large-scale, in which the Dargins accepted the most Active participation. For example, Dargin village. Tsudahar was once
destroyed to the ground by artillery fire, and the surviving residents were resettled to a new location. One of the participants in this uprising, the Tsudahar qadi Nika-kadi, who rejected generous promises and rewards for promising not to oppose the authorities, was executed second after the leader of the uprising, Imam Haji-Magomed.
During the Civil War, the Dargins were among the first to fight the White Guards. A nationwide uprising against A.I. It was the Dargins who were the first to start Denikin, and their defeat of the White Cossacks in the Aya-Kaka gorge in September 1919 is one of the memorable pages in the history of the peoples of Dagestan.
From among the Dargins came a galaxy of revolutionaries who led the mountaineers’ struggle against tsarism: Sheikh Aligadzhi Akushinsky, Magomed and Hamid Dalgaty, Alibek Taho-Godi, Osman Osmanov, Rabadan Nurov, Alibek Bogatyrov, Musa Karabudagov, Kara Karaev, Yusup Mallamagomedov, Halim - Bek Mustafaev, Ibragim Karabudagov, Ali Gamrinsky and others.
Economy, economic and cultural areas. The Dargins, like all the peoples of Dagestan, are part of the Dagestan historical and cultural region (IKO), which is part of the Caucasian historical and cultural province.
The Dagestan ICO is a historically established community of economic, political, cultural life based on the interaction of individual ecological niches, economic and cultural areas and ethnocultural areas. The features of the Dagestan ICO include a high level of mountain agriculture, its relative scale, the development of terrace farming, a large place of naked barley in grain crops, a significant share of crafts and otkhodniki in the economy, slope and terrace-like forms of the settlement structure, building density and exceptional compactness of housing, some original forms of clothing and headdresses (a fur coat, a scarf-blanket, chukhta, woolen shoes), specific boiled flour products (khinkal), the prevalence of oatmeal (flour made from toasted grain), a unique holiday of the first furrow (the first plow) and many others.
Naturally, the Dargins formed part of the Dagestan IKO, entering it both as an ethnocultural region and as a set of economic and cultural areas that developed on their territory.
The development of an agricultural-pastoral economy with strong terrace farming continued among the population of Dagestan, including the Dargins, until the cessation of raids by the nomadic population on the plain (until the 15th century). With its cessation, the growth of productive forces, technology, and exchange, economic specialization was established in natural economic zones (XVI-early XX centuries).
According to economic specialization and natural conditions, the features of zonal culture took shape, which ultimately led to the formation of economic and cultural areas (ECAs).
On the plain and in the lower foothills, the KKA of settled arable farmers - stationary cattle breeders - developed. Its parameters and features are as follows: high degree the symbiosis of both main sectors of the economy; developed large-scale agriculture and irrigation; front plow; fallow farming system; wheat as the predominant crop; rice growing; madder farming; stationary cattle breeding with a predominance of pasture-stall type; the predominance of male labor in agricultural work; the dominance of wheeled transport, the weak development of household crafts and especially otkhodnichestvo; free (estate) layout of the settlement and home.

Parameters of the mid-mountain CCA of arable farmers and transhumance (autumn-winter) pastoralists: the symbiosis of industries is less pronounced; agriculture is a general occupation, but not the main branch of the economy; the dominance of large-scale terrace farming (three types of terraces - slope, fortified, with retaining walls, riverside); processing tool - ralo; steam farming system; developed fertilizer; the predominance of barley and wheat (corn in the valleys); the prevalence of cattle breeding and its transhumance forms, the predominance of female labor, pack (donkey) transport and manual transportation (on themselves, women), the strong development of crafts and otkhodnichestvo; the shape of the settlements is cumulus, sometimes terrace-like; close vertical and compact layout of a stone dwelling with a flat roof.
The high-mountain CCA of transhumance pastoralists and arable farmers is similar to the mid-mountain one, but it also has differences. In the foreground is cattle breeding, small-scale farming, their symbiosis is very weak, transhumance, but spring farming, also prevails in forms of cattle breeding, farming is predominantly slope farming, barley, rye, and legumes dominate in agricultural crops. There is a large share of otkhodnichestvo compared to fishing; the horse predominated in pack transport. Animal products occupy a significant place in food. In the settlements, cramped and multi-storey housing, the predominance of utility rooms and buildings for livestock purposes are more pronounced (Osmanov M.O., 1996, pp. 234-239).
The factors that determined the development of the Dargin economy in Soviet times were the nationalization of land, collectivization Agriculture with the elimination of the kulaks as a class and industrialization.
Serious mistakes were made in the organization of industry. Although it would seem that the goal was to use local resources (for example, the fruit canning and fishing industries were created), the main resource - the surplus of labor - was not rationally used, it was not possible to create labor-intensive precision engineering industries, which, remaining predominantly intermediate, did not produce final products , worked for the military complex. In agriculture, terrace farming was destroyed, many agricultural crops bred over centuries and maximally adapted to local conditions (for example, mountain and mountain-valley corn, the Gergebil variety of especially remarkable taste, cold-resistant and hulless mountain barley) and livestock breeds were consigned to oblivion. Dargin and Avar fat-tailed sheep breeds adapted to winter maintenance in the mountains, the Nogai breed of cattle is especially valuable for teams). The most striking example: the valuable varieties of durum wheat “Sarybugda” and “Akbugda” were practically destroyed, since they produced a slightly smaller yield than modern soft varieties. And when calculating, it turned out that a hectare of these varieties gives income almost three times more than the introduced soft varieties - 1313 and 480 rubles, respectively. (Omarov D., 2000).
Changes are also taking place in the placement of HKA. The area and share of lowland agricultural farming and cattle breeding are increasing: plow farming, mechanized irrigation farming and stationary dairy and beef cattle breeding with the greatest technical equipment. The mountainous KhKA was transformed from agricultural to cattle-breeding, merging with the high-mountain one and forming a single economic (and cultural) type of intensive transhumance cattle breeding with minor agriculture.

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Rice. 107. Traditional baking oven. (From the personal archive of Osmanov M.O.)

Rice. 108. Chaff and hay forest in the foothills. (From the personal archive of Osmanov M.O.)

Naturally, changes in the economy, the rise of enlightenment, education, significant improvements in the transport network and connections between city and countryside contributed to the growth of urbanization. This happened both through the growth of cities and urban populations, and through the penetration of elements of urban culture and life into rural areas. The peculiarity of urbanization in the republic is its general Dagestan character" in cities (there are no mono-ethnic cities) and the influence of this process on the village, which continued to develop in a mono-ethnic way. Therefore, the degree of urbanization and the preservation of the traditional ethnic potential of the city
and the villages vary greatly. In general, the processes of urbanization did not acquire any decisive significance in the formation of the ethnic composition of the republic.

The modern economy of the Dargins is an agricultural complex, which is an integral part of the agrarian-industrial complex of the republic.
The main mode of transport for the Dargins was a horse for riding. However, there were few horses (0.24 per household in the Darginsky district, 0.41 in the Kaytago-Tabasaransky district in 1886) due to the lack of food supply and the high cost of keeping horses, which was unaffordable for most mountaineers (Osmanov M.O., 1996 .
P. 287).
For freight transportation, a cart in an ox harness on two wheels was used - a cart (urkura), pack animals (donkey, horse, mule), and carriage on oneself (women).
On the plain and in the foothills the cart dominated, here it was large; in the forest foothills a smaller cart was used, on small but massive wheels; a significant place here was occupied in transportation (manure, firewood, hay, etc.) by skid transport (drag, sleigh ). In the mountainous part of the region, the cart was smaller than the flat one, and pack transportation (donkey) became widespread here. In the highlands, pack transport (horse, less often donkey) dominated.
Modern transport is predominantly automobile; it is very rare to see riding horses and carts. The disadvantages of this phenomenon have already begun to affect the economy and life of people in the post-perestroika years.
Material culture. In the material culture of the Dargins, as in many other spheres of culture, common Dagestan features prevail.
The type of settlement of the Dargins was characterized by crowding; large settlements, often containing an entire ethnic group, constituted the predominant type of settlement, which can be called a “village”. Its features: multiple households, full sovereignty over the land fund, occupation of an important strategically, trade and economically important place, a large rural community with a quarterly division, a village gathering place, a juma (cathedral) mosque, and a cemetery. The village was often the center of a union of societies or a feudal estate.
The formation of this species dates back to the 11th-14th centuries; before that, small settlements of related groups (possibly Tukhums) predominated.
Other types of settlements are hamlets and settlements. The first is a stronghold for an economic microzone, which gradually acquired settlement functions; this single-yard settlement is characterized by scattered settlement, established as a type of settlement since the last zonal economic

Rice. 112. Traditional lowland cart. (From the personal archive of Osmanov M.O.)

Rice. 113. Traditional method of transporting manure. (From the personal archive of Osmanov M.O.)

Rice. 114. Minaret of the mosque in the village of Urahi, 1980s. (From the personal archive of Osmanov M.O.)

specialization (from the 16th century), and as an economic base - from ancient times. The farm does not have rights to communal lands; there is no community, gathering, mosque or cemetery. Otselok is an overgrown farmstead, with few yards (sometimes it develops into a village, just like a farmstead into an outstation), the time of genesis and development is the 17th-19th centuries, a subcommunity with limited rights, including to land, with a simple mosque, without a gathering and a cemetery.
Settlements of the Dargins, reflecting their socio-economic nature, socio-political state, in the 17th-19th centuries. there were three types: early feudal, rural-communal type of settlements of independent (free) unions of societies; feudal-patriarchal type of settlements of dependent unions; feudal settlements of khanates (bekstvos). In Soviet times, a parity was established

Rice. 115. Traditional houses in the village of Itsari, 1970s. (From the personal archive of Osmanov M.O.)

Rice. 117. Modern house in the village of Mekegi, 1980s. (From the personal archive of Osmanov M.O.)

Rice. 118. Modern house in the village of Kharbuk. The end of the 20th century. (From the personal archive of Osmanov M.O.)

Rice. 119. Modern residential building in the village of Urari. The end of the 20th century. (From the personal archive of Osmanov M.O.)

first type - Soviet collective farm (state farm) village of a new type, with a new type and structure public authority(Osmanov M.O., 1988. P. 10-22).
Layout type (settlement form) - settlements are as close to the terrain as possible, inaccessible and inaccessible (defense factor), economical in the use of land, close to water sources and have a sunny orientation. The layout is vertical cumulus, often terrace-like, compact in shape. In the foothills, especially the lower ones, the layout is more free, with a compact street form. In Soviet times, villages were formed with a new structural division, with a block-street layout, public buildings, recreation areas, plantings, water supply, etc. In the mountainous part of the village, more or less spacious and planned outskirts are combined with centers that have retained their traditional shape.
The dwelling of the Dargins in its most ancient form consisted of one chamber with a fireplace in the middle. Development took place by splitting the chamber and adding new buildings, as well as storeying. Dargin housing has always been a complex of residential and utility premises and buildings, the structure and layout of which was largely determined by the zonal features of the natural-geographical environment, the direction of the economy, and the economic and cultural area. The most common type in recent centuries is a two- (or more) storey, stone closed dwelling with a courtyard and outbuildings (premises) located under the dwelling, with a flat roof. In the process of evolution, the closed courtyard turns into a shed (with services) along the perimeter. The layout was dominated by the loggia type, with a small central corridor (vestibule) adjacent to the loggia, with passages to the rooms on both sides. In the mountain valleys, the veranda type prevailed, often with a shortening of the veranda for housing, more open. In Soviet times this type

K) Peoples of Dagestan

and the layout of the home is largely preserved, but the houses become larger, with many rooms with a variety of previously unknown functions (for example, a children's room). Utility premises (buildings) have been significantly reduced and separated from the dwelling; the dwelling is accompanied by an open courtyard, plantings and vegetable gardens. A flat roof gives way to a rafter roof covered with slate or iron.
Changes in everyday life, sanitary, hygienic and cultural needs and demands, social conditions, etc., eliminated the need for closed, dark, cold, very compact old dwellings. In new construction, old types are modified and take on a modern appearance and layout. This process of replacing old housing with new ones intensified in the post-war era, especially since the 1960s.
Currently, the share of modern-type housing certainly prevails among the Dargins, especially after the construction boom of the 70-80s.
The main traditional building materials are stone and wood; They used arched structures, especially in the highlands; in the foothills - bows. In the highlands there were often buildings with minimal use of wood - interconnecting arcades with stone blocks and slabs in the ceiling.
The traditional interior decoration was poor. In the family room there is an ottoman, rugs, carpets, in the corner there is a chest and beds for everyday use, shelves for dishes, a pole for clothes and bedding, a ledge (or board-shelf) for hums (or bags) with grain. In the front (fireplace) room there are the best carpets, rugs, beds, weapons. In the forest foothills there was more furniture and utensils made of wood: carved wall-length chests with cabinets along the edges, cabinets for dishes and food, beds with figured decorations, stools.
To decorate the home, they used molding and hewing of stone, arched structures, opening crosses, carved gates and cantilever shields, carved and figured central pillars, carved designs on stone and wood (palms, flowers, solar signs), molded clay figures in the lower foothills, etc. .
Outbuildings were divided into those intended for keeping livestock (derkh) and storing hay, straw, etc. (murutsG). Individual outbuildings were less common. In the lower foothills there were wicker pens and storage facilities for chaff and straw (tsuga), oblong and tent-shaped, similar to the Kumyk ones.In the mountainous part there were haylofts on arched structures (or piers).
In Soviet times, outbuildings almost disappeared (there was less livestock, hay, etc.), and standard buildings for livestock farms appeared.

Rice. 121. Two-story house in the village of Tsudahar, 1950s. (Photo archive of the IEA RAS, expedition 1950)

Modern rural architecture of the Dargins, despite the emergence of many new forms of housing, is based mainly on the traditional foundations of rural construction, interspersing in them features associated with changes in the standard of living, social and family life, sanitary and hygienic, educational, cultural levels. Correspondence to the vital and cultural needs of our days has been achieved to a greater extent in the lower villages.
The traditional clothing of the Dargins belongs to the general Dagestan type, but has certain features. Men's clothing consists of a tunic-like shirt and straight, tapering pants (with “wide steps”). Outerwear is a swinging beshmet, expanding downwards due to wedges, a Circassian coat, long sheepskin coats-capes of two types - with and without a cape, with false sleeves; the third type of sheepskin coat is a fitted one with sleeves, a working one, more typical for the lower foothills (where there is more winter work), a shoulder cloak (with or without fleece), a bashlyk, a fur hat (papakha), one-piece, often made from skins with long pile. In lower villages, felt hats were worn during summer work to protect from the sun.
The shoes were leather (charyki, soft boots, including those with separate tops, boots with hard soles and heels, ankle boots reminiscent of Georgian ones), knitted (in the form of a stocking boot), felt, sheepskin (boots), clog-type shoes . It was mandatory for a man to carry a weapon, especially a dagger, which was a natural everyday attribute of any man’s suit.
Women's clothing was very diverse and colorful. The shirts were tunic-shaped and with a cut-off waist, as well as arkhaluk (swing dress), trousers similar to men's and wide. Wearable in sleeves

Rice. 122. A woman with a child from the village of Urhuchimakhi, Akushinsky district. (Photo archive of the IEA RAS, expedition 1950)

Women also had melted fur coats, but more often in the foothills. They also wore fur coats with false sleeves, but women did not have fur coats with a cape. The most common headdress was a blanket (chiba) made of calico, linen, less often silk, white or black, in some ethnic groups (Kaitag, Kubachi) with embroidery and a fringed border. Another headdress is the chukta - chutkha, chuk! (darg.), a type of cap with a through pouch for hair, secured (to the back of the head) with a forehead band and reaching to the waist. Less common was the chuk1, which was a lined cloth covering the hair. The forehead and crown parts of the headdress were decorated with silver (plaques, heavy chains of complex weaving, monists, etc.). Women's clothing generally had a lot silver jewelry- frontal-parietal, ear, chest, waist, wrist, using precious and semi-precious stones (jasper, ruby, coral, turquoise, emerald, etc.).
Despite the predominant ethnic markings of clothing, there were certain zonal differences associated both with the peculiarities of local geography and with the specifics of occupations and economic activities. For example, in the lower foothills and on the plain there were slip-on fur coats, adapted for winter household work, of which there was plenty here, while in the highlands (especially the highlands) there were cape-on heavy fur coats, completely unsuitable in a working environment. In other words, zonal marks are characteristic of elements that are related to everyday and economic practices (dirt, cold, heat, seasonal economic activities), while ethnic marks are characteristic of elements that are less related to environmental conditions. Thus, the main elements of clothing had a kind of double marking - ethnic and environmental-economic. Modern clothes Dargins have almost no ethnic specificity, but also traditional

Rice. 123. A woman in a traditional head veil from the village of Tsugni, Akushinsky district. (Photo archive of the IEA RAS, expedition 1950)

cultural features, it is close to urban; Traditional clothing is partially worn in certain places (for example, Gubden), among older people and during some ritual ceremonies.
Traditional food reflects ancient agricultural traditions, on the one hand, and the large place of cattle breeding in recent centuries (since the 16th century), on the other. Accordingly, there were two bases of nutrition - plant and animal, with the first predominant. The main products for cooking were grains, dairy and meat products, herbs, vegetables, fruits, and berries. In the mountainous part (especially in the highlands), dairy and meat foods had a large share; in the foothills and plains, flour foods predominated.
Of the flour products, the most common dish is khinkal, but in the foothills and plains it was more often prepared as an addition to the main local flour product - bread. The most widespread was khinkal in the form of flattened cylinders, cut (or torn by hand) from a dough piece in the form of a sausage, another type was squares of rolled thin dough. In the mountain valleys, corn dumplings were more commonly prepared. If possible, khinkal was boiled in meat broth, eaten with garlic seasoning and appetizers - meat (boiled), sausage, fried fat tail, lard, fatty dried meat, dairy products, etc. Pies and dumplings with a wide variety of fillings - minced meat were very popular , cottage cheese, greens, green onions, cheese, eggs, pumpkin, potatoes, poultry, apricots, dried apricots, carrots, Jerusalem artichoke, etc. Additional “seasoning” filling - onions, garlic, pepper, cottage cheese (for greens), crushed walnuts, barberry, vinegar, fried fat tail, interior fat, fatty dried meat, butter, sour cream, sour milk, caraway seeds, special ground herb (mirkhil mura - bee hay).
The bread prevailed was wheat and barley, unleavened and yeast; in the foothills, large bread in the form of a loaf was prepared in the ashes; there was also millet and corn
bread (.muchari), as well as malt bread (k!ia), puff bread with butter, etc. Bakery devices were hearth and slab; in the highlands there was a tondir (tarum), a wall-hearth device, which is a sign of an ancient agricultural culture.
Soups (nerg) - meat, milk (and with noodles), bean, rice, dried apricots, dried dogwood, cereal, potato, pumpkin and others and porridges became widespread. The oldest of the porridges is grain porridge, from many types of cereal grains and legumes (panspermia), it had a ritual and ceremonial character. They cooked porridge from cereals, grains of all kinds, including spelt, wheat and corn flour, as well as dried apricots; pancakes were popular in the foothills, the “burshina” pancakes were especially good. Seasonings included sour cream, butter, urbesh (ground flax seed oil “curly”), honey, grape syrup, plums, and dogwood. A special place was occupied by oatmeal (flour from roasted grain, often its mixtures), which was more common in the mountainous part, where there was a shortage of grain and little bread was baked.
The Dargins consumed little whole milk (only children); they used it to prepare butter, cottage cheese, feta cheese, and (sheep) cheese.
Let us also note such a dish as h1yali sirisan (twisted bread). Plates of interior fat (or an inverted stomach) were filled with minced liver with interior fat, onions, fragrant herbs and salt, rolled into a tube, and wrapped with intestines. They also cooked the popular “sauce” - boiled meat with potatoes, onions and spices; they made urbesh - a mixture of ground flaxseed (or apricot kernels), honey, melted butter, etc.
The most common drink was buza (gyarush), in Kaitag there was boiled grape wine - musti, honey drink (makatta), raisin mash (pyupyila min), a soft drink made from malt and oatmeal (maksuman) and others, there was imported vodka, tea .
In Soviet times, the food of the Dargins was affected by the growth of their welfare, consumption of vegetables, preservatives, factory finished products and semi-finished products, borrowed Russian-European products and dishes - pasta, grocery and confectionery products, salads, vinaigrette, borscht, cutlets, meatballs, etc.
Social organization. The basis of the social organization of the Dargins was the rural territorial community (jamaat), based on communal and a set of privately owned types of property (mulks). Community property consisted of uncultivated land, and arable land, plantings, and a significant part of hayfields were private. There was also waqf (mosque) property, and some Dargins also had feudal property. Communities formed unions of communities (rural societies), divided into independent (free) ones, and into those that were in varying degrees of dependence on feudal estates. Unions sometimes merged into a union of unions (super-union). Most of the Dargins were members of the Akushinsky super-union, which included unions of the communities of Akusha, Tsudahar, Mekegi, Usisha, Muga, Urakha, and at times Sirkha. A significant part of the Dargins were in a kind of dependent relationship with the Kaitag Utsmi community and were called Utsumi-Dargva.
The Tarkov Shamkhalate included Gubden and Kadar, the Kazikumukh Khanate included Lately Burkun-Dargva, village. Memugi (Megeb) was part of the Andalal (Avar) Union of Societies.
In the hierarchy of community - union of communities, the main functions of management belonged to the community, excluding issues related to the interests of the union. The functions of the union were mainly military-political and legal. To solve the most important problems, especially war and peace, the super-union had a supreme body - a meeting
(meeting) of representatives of unions (tsakhYabyakhya), gathered not far from Akusha, on a plateau called the “gathering plain” (tsyakhYabyakhla dirqa). In the intervals between gatherings, the management of the super-union was carried out by a high council, consisting of qadis of unions and influential elders (12-15 people), chaired by the Akushin qadi.
The economic and political life of the community was regulated by customary law (adat), as well as Sharia law. Adat regulations were mandatory for everyone and did not provide for exceptions depending on social class. The adats were compiled into separate codes for unions of societies, some of the codes were codified. The code of Rustem Khan, a Kaitag utsmiya (XVII century), named M.M., became especially famous in Dagestan. Kovalevsky “one of the most interesting monuments of Caucasian law” (Kovalevsky, 1890. P. 9).
The administration of the community was headed by the village qadi, who had the fullness of the highest spiritual and temporal supervisory authority. The rural society was governed by elders (halati), supervision of their actions was carried out in addition to the qadi (or together with him) by community elders. Below the elders were the executors (baruman), who were led by the herald (mangush), the most important issues were resolved by a village meeting, in which the entire adult male population (except for slaves and serfs) took part.
Litigations, civil disputes, criminal cases were resolved according to adat, by judges from among the elders, cases related to religion, family relationships, inheritance, wills, civil claims - qadi, according to Sharia.
Appeals on unresolved issues were sent to the qadi of the union or super-union. The Akushin qadi was often approached on controversial issues from villages that were part of other unions and even feudal estates, and his decision was accepted as final.
Disputes and conflicts that affected the interests of unions or their neighbors, including feudal estates, were resolved by the Akushin qadi and his council; in extreme cases, he announced the convening of a meeting of the super-union. As the head of the religious authorities, the Akushinsky qadi also sanctified the accession of the Tarkov shamkhals to rule (“crowned”, i.e. put on a hat).
Throughout the territory of the Dargins, the free peasantry (Uzdeni) was by far the predominant class. In addition to them, there were a small number of slaves (lags), mainly domestic ones (there were no large farms for their mass use in agricultural work). There were also former (or by origin) slaves, equal members of society in adat-legal terms, but in everyday life (family, social, for example, in the form of a reminder of origin upon marriage) who experienced a lot of social inconvenience. However, they could, through personal qualities or wealth, even rise to the position of elders.
In the feudal domains, the social palette and inequality were richer: princes and khans, beks, clergy, uzdeni, serfs, slaves. The last two categories were also small in number.
Despite the presence of classes and estates, social differences and inequality, Dargin society of the 18th-19th centuries. cannot be considered class-developed, but the historical-ethnographic aspect social development was characterized by the incompleteness of national and cultural consolidation (Magomedov R.M. T. I. 1999. pp. 340-367, 390-398).
In cultural development, behavioral stereotypes, accepted priorities, concepts of honor, good and evil, etc. The Dargins have more of the common Dagestan language.

Rice. 124. The elder of the village of Tsugni makes the first furrow in the field. (Photo archive of the IEA RAS, expedition 1950)

“The moral and ethical code is based on the general Dagestan concepts of yakh!a, namus, “manhood”, “smartness” (chastity), the establishment of adat and religion, and on heroic traditions.
The concept of “manliness” included, first of all, nobility, piety, hard work, honesty, generosity, respect for elders, as well as a sense of honor and self-worth, courage, courage, courage, generosity, mercy towards the weak and disadvantaged. The concept of “yakh1” is more specific, close in meaning to patience, endurance, firmness, and also includes thoroughness, honesty, sense of duty, responsibility. The main requirement of “smartness” is chastity, other qualities are piety, hard work, modesty, loyalty, good manners, etc. Namus includes moral problems general plan- ability to give, generosity, commitment, compassion, friendliness and many others.
In general, personal virtues are subordinated to social concerns and interests. Patriotism was realized through the prism of ethnic tolerance and good neighborliness, courageous restraint and stoicism were valued above dashing courage, and all this contributed to peace and good relations, despite ethnic diversity and economic distress.
Sociability in an interethnic environment in Soviet times increased, which was facilitated by the absence of former rival feudal lords, and existing official attitudes and ideological doctrines encouraged good neighborly and friendly relations between peoples.
Family and family rituals. The Dargin family went through stages of development common to Dagestan. In the XIX-XX centuries. the dominant form of family was ma
barking. This is evidenced by the average size families according to family lists of 1886: Darginsky district - 4.2 people, Kaytago-Tabasaransky - 4.9. However, back at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. one could find remnants of a large-family organization in the form of undivided families, which resembled large ones, but were, especially in the form of ownership, phenomena of a small-family organization. In Dagestan as a whole, they made up 13.4% of families, but their share was significantly higher in the plains and Southern Dagestan (Kumyks, Lezgins, Tabasarans, Tsakhurs, Rutuls, Aguls, etc.), and among the Dargins the percentage of such families was much smaller . 100 years later, today, the most common type of family among the Dargins is simple small families (77.7%), most of them are two-generation (64.3%) and single-generation families (11.2%). Families consisting of 4-5 and 6-7 people predominate. In 20.3% of all surveyed families there were two children, in 18.7% - four, in 17.9% - three, in 11% - five, in 7.7% - six, in 5% - seven, in 4 .3% - eight or more children (Kurbanov, 1990, p. 16).
Families were part of a tukhum - a group of related patrilineal families descending from one ancestor and having a clearly defined kinship, ideological, social and everyday, but not economic unity. Tukhum can be divided into similar structures of a lower order (zhins, aglu) - patronymics, which, growing, can form a new tukhum.
Tukhum is not exogamous, but not necessarily endogamous; it also represents a social unit, and, accordingly, subordinate to community governance, carries social and civil functions in addition to family-related ones.
The kinship system of the Dargins is of the Arab type. There are terms: father, mother, daughter, son, brother, sister, grandson, grandfather, grandmother, paternal uncle, maternal uncle, and for them there is a degree of relationship - first cousin, second cousin, etc. In Tukhum, kinship was designated along the paternal line up to the 12th generation: dudesh - father, urshi - son, uzi - brother, uzikar - cousin and further - karigan, garigan, gunikar (turigan), gunigar (chutkha pyakha - hitting sensitively) , shinikar (dirkh'a khus - dragging a stick), shinigar (kh1erk1 i'an - crossing the river), joke bikhan (carrying a saber), khulig1ena (visiting the house).
Marriage among the Dargins was concluded in accordance with the provisions of Sharia. And in Soviet times (before perestroika), although Sharia marriage was prohibited, the overwhelming majority of Dargins, along with civil ones, entered into Sharia marriage without publicity.
Marriages predominated endogamously, intratukhum, often interpatronymic, but intertukhum marriages were also not uncommon. Marriages with representatives of large-numbered tukhums were especially preferred; the girl’s virtues and beauty often became decisive (at the end of the 19th century, in one village, two beautiful daughters in one family from a seedy tukhum were married to different families of strong and wealthy tukhums. The third , ugly, was married to a poor relative).
The age for marriage ranged from 13-20 years for girls, 15-25 years for boys, the ideal parameters were considered to be 17 and 25 years old, respectively.
Localization was patrilocal, divorce was carried out in Sharia, on the initiative of the husband. The wife had the right to file a claim for divorce in two cases: the husband’s physical incapacity and his failure to provide his wife (family) with the necessary means of subsistence.
Stages of marriage - matchmaking, conspiracy, engagement, stay in “another house” (before and after the wedding). The wedding ceremony was performed by a mullah (qadi) with the participation of the groom and the bride's father, often attorneys on both sides. In all cases, the formal expression expressed to the father in the presence of a witness agreed
these girls were obligatory. There is a marriage pledge on the part of the groom - kebin, which is considered as security for the wife in the event of widowhood or divorce on the initiative of the husband. After the wedding, there were several stages of the newlywed’s introduction to the new family and household, the main ones: the introduction of the newlywed into the common family room, the first taking of the bride to the village spring for water, the lifting of prohibitions associated with avoidance.
Although the main plots and structure of marriage and wedding rituals were predominantly of a general Dagestan (especially among the mountaineers) character, they could be traced in the rituals of the Dargins and specific features. Let's point out some of them. Among the highland Dargins, the night before the bride's dowry was taken became a night of obligatory vigil for girls and boys (those who fell asleep were smeared with soot); the girls baked ritual curd pies and huge pies with various fillings, as well as very large breads for the wedding procession.
To the foothills, with an invitation for the bride's dowry, they sent a boy with a pillow, which the groom had to buy. In the highlands, the procession with the dowry was led by a man with a tree hung with eggs, sweets, fruits, nuts and immersed in a bowl of flour.
During the ritual of smearing the bride’s face with honey, in some places the bride tried to bite her mother-in-law’s finger; in other villages they watched her touch the lintel with her hand after immersing herself in honey: if her palm was open, it meant that she loved the groom, if it was clenched into a fist - No.
Among the Tsudaharians, the bride could take part in the betrothal if she did not have men who could represent her, but before that she had to overcome three water barriers.
The original group dance was performed at a wedding among the Surga people - tug'la ayar (line dance), during which men could go outside the house and dance along the roofs of the village (often breaking their legs in the process). And the Tsudaharians had a group, but already circular dance (shirla delkh), performed around the fire. They, as a hint of the need to prepare for the wedding, threw a pestle and mortar (masculine-feminine principle) to the next oldest brother of the groom. Among the Tsudaharians, when inviting newlyweds to the bride’s parents, they threw a thick, gnarled stump in front of the groom, which he had to split, as if testing the groom’s strength, dexterity, hard work, perseverance (Bulatova, 1988. P. 151; Seferbekov, 1999. P. 14, 21).
In the upbringing of children, an important place was occupied by teaching them from an early age to future occupations in accordance with the sexual division of labor: preparing the future plowman (cattle breeder) and warrior and housewife-mother. Much attention was paid to instilling hard work and moral qualities, obedience and respect for elders, understanding and observance of not only one’s own, family, but also local, rural, and domestic goals and interests.
There was no ritual initiation, but there were different age tests (milking a cow, bridling a horse, testing for pain, endurance, courage, etc.). Coming of age was celebrated - (at the age of 15-17) the young man was solemnly girded with a dagger (from that time on he is a full-fledged man and responsible for himself, family, tukhum, community and fatherland, before that he was not subject to conscription into the militia, weapons cannot be raised against him, he was not subject to blood feud).
Death is perceived by Dargins, like all Muslims, as a predestination of fate outlined by Allah. They believe in the afterlife, Judgment Day, Sirat Bridge, hell and heaven. Funerals are conducted entirely according to Muslim
May ritual under the guidance of local clergy and older relatives who know the ritual well. There are funeral prayers, generous commemorations (much depends on the expressed will of the deceased), feeding of those present at the taziyat - relatives and men who came for condolences gather for commemoration in a certain place (often in the yard or near the house of the deceased). From here they go after evening prayers and to the cemetery for funeral prayers. Women stay inside the house; they do not go to the cemetery.
In Soviet times, the Dargin family underwent significant changes, and the main one was the democratization of marriage and family rituals, intra-family relations, although the traditional approach to the definition of the head remains (a man is a father, grandfather, brother, etc.). Changes affected the choice of a bride or groom (in most cases they find each other themselves), the relationship between husband and wife, parents and children, traditions of avoidance, and the composition of those getting married (more ethnically and socially mixed marriages). There are also changes in the wedding ritual: we can talk about a city wedding, which is acquiring a general Dagestan character, and a rural wedding, in which traditional rituals have largely been preserved, but in a more playful, colorful theatrical form.
There are currently serious omissions and shortcomings in the upbringing of children and especially adolescents; Clearly less attention is paid to morality and involvement in work. Unfortunately, the activities of the newly gaining strength and recognition (including at the state level) of the religion and its adherents, as well as the clergy, are not very successful in instilling in young people high morality, a sense of respect, public duty, hard work, etc.
The traditional life of the Dargins is usually characterized as feudal-patriarchal, or patriarchal-tribal. However, there was little feudal in it, as well as tribal (there were remnants). In family life, these are, first of all, relationships in the family, the command positions of the husband (father) and men (and even boys), older than younger, economic, household, family legal and psychological dependence of the wife on her husband.
At the same time, the high workload of a mountain woman with non-domestic household chores made her more independent, capable and legal in comparison with a woman of the plain, whose economic functions were small. The economic and everyday structure of the family was determined very strictly, and the gender and age division of labor played a significant role in it. At the same time, it was not allowed for the age division to come into conflict with the sexual division of labor. The scale of many men's work in the mountainous part was small (in particular, agricultural work due to the scarcity of land), and therefore men had more free time, which was partially absorbed by handicrafts and labor.
A feature of the age-based division of labor was the early introduction of children to work with the rational use of the experience and knowledge of older people in this. Children were brought up in the firm belief that laziness, shirking from work, parasitism (along with cowardice) are the most undesirable and negative qualities of a person.
Much of the traditional way of life associated with patriarchal foundations and way of life, including the humiliated position of women, has been eliminated in modern life, but it seems that “they threw out the baby with the bathwater”: there is less respect for work and for elders. Many moral criteria and work skills are lost, which worsens the health (physical, cultural and spiritual) of the nation, the integrity and vitality of the gene pool.

Rice. 125. Sprinkling earth on the first plowman in the village of Tsugni. (Photo archive of the IEA RAS, expedition 1950)

Public life. The social structure of the Dargins was regulated by customary law, traditions, customs, and the establishment of a moral and ethical code. Many of the moral and ethical norms of the Dargins were concentrated in the custom of hospitality, which consisted in the obligation to receive a stranger, regardless of his ethnic or religious affiliation, whether he was from a friendly or enemy country, etc. The wanderer had the right to stay, overnight, board, immunity and protection of life, property, honor, dignity. These rights were ensured by the tukhum and the community that received the guest. This custom influenced the entire moral and ethical code of the Dargins and especially the norms and culture of interethnic and interregional communication. He strengthened many good traditions of the Dargins (and all Dagestanis) - collectivism, namus, “masculinity”, yakh1, etc.
A derivative of hospitality is kunachestvo, a system of permanent economic, family, household and social relations carried out on an inter-rural, inter-ethnic, inter-regional background through mutual visits. Kunak is not just a guest, he is also a personal friend; a person participates in all the most important affairs of a kunak, and on his own land he protects his property, dignity, honor and life as his own. The kunak was hereditary, the father's kunak was considered closer to his own, acquired by himself. If the hereditary (father's) kunak was poor and a wanderer, his kunak did not want to be a burden to him, he first went to him, greeted him and “hung the whip” in his house, i.e. conducted a ritual conversation, asked if his help was needed, left with him his horse (donkey, mule, cart), property, weapons (except for a belted dagger) and went to “his” wealthier kunak, where he stayed until his departure, who also was carried out from the house of his father's kunak.

Following the traditions of blood feud was also one of the mandatory elements of honor. The community has achieved considerable results in limiting the scale and reducing the number of victims of blood feud; for example, the order of the right of revenge was established - not just any relative (and not just anyone) takes revenge, but the closest to the closest. Expulsion of the murderer was practiced to extinguish the fire of revenge.
Traditional norms of morality and ethics are reflected in the food culture of the Dargins. Abstinence in food was considered one of the virtues of a man, gluttony was one of the shameful vices; one had to behave sedately at the table, talk little, not laugh, not make noise, not ask for anything, not discuss the quality of food, etc.
The most prestigious holiday of the Dargins was the holiday of the first furrow, intended to ensure a good harvest through a system of rituals of protective, initial, imitative, propitiatory, fertile and other types of magic. This holiday was the most widespread, rich in games, shows, entertainment, competitions, treats, and has deep roots leading to the early agricultural culture, the period of the birth of arable farming. Was also different spring holiday New Year with the personification of winter and summer and their dialogue-dispute; There were rituals of causing and stopping rain, calling the sun, completing the harvest, “making” water (cleaning springs and ditches), beginning spring work in the vineyards, driving livestock to pastures, and giving thanks to the arable land.
Of the Muslim holidays, the most solemn and festive celebration was the day of sacrifice (Kurban Bayram) and breaking the fast (Uraza Bayram) after the month of fasting Ramadan.
In Soviet times, the main thing was the day October revolution, Victory Day, May Day, New Year celebration. Most rituals and holidays, both religious and folk, were either prohibited or forgotten.
Today in society there is a revival of ancient traditions, a desire to understand one’s own past, and a revival of certain rituals, including religious ones. The Dargins widely celebrate traditional ritual holidays, especially the first furrow and the Islamic religious holidays of Eid al-Adha and Kurban Bayram, as well as New Year, May Day, Victory Day.
Spiritual culture. The culture and art of the Dargins are characterized by remarkable achievements in the field of folk art, in particular decorative and applied arts, song and musical performance, poetry, music, folk rituals, dances, etc. Folk architecture was significantly developed among the Dargins; folk craftsmen demonstrated high skill both in the construction of towers, fortified houses, mosques, bridges, natural structures, aqueducts, and their decorative design. The art of stone-cutting has reached a high level, especially in the production of gravestone steles, the production of weapons and jewelry, ceramics, gold embroidery and weaving, leather and fur crafts, etc. Artistic crafts have received great development: the production of carpets, rugs, knitted items, weapons, jewelry, glazed ceramics, furniture and utensils made of wood, etc.
In the spiritual culture of the Dargins and its development, the main content component was the popular strata. Such areas of culture as folklore, beliefs, games, music, folk knowledge, etc. were developed. Heroic legends, traditions, fairy tales, poetic tales, lyrics, heroics, funny works - all this is widely represented in the folk art of the Dargins and their co-workers.

Rice. 126. Dancing in the square of the village of Tsugni after the ceremony of the first furrow. (Photo archive of the IEA RAS, expedition 1950)

constitutes the most important part of their spiritual wealth. On this basis, the largest Dargin poets Omarla Batyray, Sukur Kurban, Mungi Ahmed grew up, their traditions were continued in Soviet times by Aziz Iminagaev, Rabadan Nurov, Akhmedkhan Abubakar, Rashid Rashidov, Amir Gazi, Magomed-Rasul, Suleiman Rabadanov, Gazimbeg Bagandov, etc. Another rich component of culture is folk beliefs. Their peculiarity is their inclusion in the Islamic religion.
Magical beliefs among the Dargins were greatly developed (a significant part of family and agricultural rituals are based on them), then demonological (fetishism, witchcraft, demon spirits), animistic, and cosmogonic.
IN national sports sports, undoubtedly, the first place belonged to throwing a heavy stone; there were also competitions in lifting a stone from the ground, competitions in running, jumping, horse racing and horse riding, fist fighting (one on one), wrestling (with and without sashes), throwing stones target, shooting stones from a sling and a special bow, etc.
The music of the Dargins was also folkloric in nature; there was a constant natural selection of folk song texts and melodies. The main musical instruments: plucked - chang, chugur, bowed - violin, wind instruments - pipe, flute, zurna, percussion - drum, tambourine.
The main dance is Lezginka of several types, differing in rhythm and positions of partners. There were separate mass ritual dances performed during the performance of rituals (for example, the wedding “line dance” of the Sirkhin people).
The Dargins are Sunni Muslims of the Shafiite persuasion; Islam established itself among them by the 14th century, and reached its highest rise in the 18th-19th centuries. Dargin Islam
is syncretic in nature, with pre-monotheistic pagan beliefs and ideas occupying a large place in it.
Education before the revolution was organized on the basis of Arabic writing. Primary education - literacy, rules of worship, memorization of individual texts from the Koran - was acquired by all children (in the mekteb). Boys received secondary education at a madrasah: catechism, Arabic grammar, logic, and Islamic law were studied here. Further education was individual and took place under the guidance of famous alims.
The Dargins did not have secular schools. By the beginning of the 20th century. in the Darginsky district (over 80 thousand people) there were only two rural schools, in which 76 children studied (GARD. F. 2. Op. 3. D. 16). In Soviet times, on the basis of a new written language on a Russian graphic basis, illiteracy of the population was practically eliminated; education in schools is conducted primarily in Russian, which helps to familiarize Dargin children with the achievements of Russian and world culture, and their native (obviously not enough) language. Newspapers and magazines are published in the literary Dargin language, and fiction is published. However, although 97.5% of Dargins consider the language of their ethnic group to be their native language (within Dagestan - 98.9%), the literary language does not function in high schools (it is only taught as a subject) and is not used in local office work, it is rarely used in everyday life, which makes it problematic the formation in the foreseeable future of a single Dargin language (when representatives of different dialects get together - Kaitag, Urakhin, Syurgin and Tsudahar - usually speak Russian among themselves). For comparison: an Andian, a Gidatlin, an Andalal, an Archin, when gathered together, communicate with each other in the Avar language (Bolmats!e).
Modern education is carried out in the public education system through a dense network of primary, junior high and secondary schools.
In traditional professional orientation, the biggest change affected plowmen-farmers: in the mountainous part their numbers fell catastrophically, but there were more otkhodniks, people engaged in trade and commerce. In otkhodnichestvo, it seemed that a strong orientation towards construction and livestock farming in Russia had been established, but the events of recent years are leading to a reduction in these types of otkhodnichestvo. Naturally, the number of handicraftsmen also fell, many types of crafts disappeared altogether (cloth, pottery, weapons production, wooden furniture and utensils, etc.), although some received further development (construction, stone-cutting, partly jewelry, etc.).
Interethnic contacts of the Dargins in the past were caused primarily by trade and economic prerequisites, then by military-political ones (entering alliances, feudal possessions, the need for joint actions against conquerors).
Since the Dargins needed imported bread, contacts were made more often with the Kumyks. This situation was also made easier by the ethnopolitical situation, the absence of interethnic hostility and clashes, good neighborliness, and the traditions of hospitality and kunakism.
Changes in interethnic relations in Soviet times were due to the growth of cities and industry, urbanization processes that contributed to the growth of multinational groups, and the multiethnicity of settlements.
The strengthening of interethnic contacts caused by these circumstances led to an increase in the role of the Russian language as a language of communication. This way
So, Russian-Dargin bilingualism replaces all combinations and especially multilingualism. Another consequence is interethnic marriages, the vast majority of which are marriages with representatives of other Dagestan peoples. Such marriages were more common among the working class and among the intelligentsia, but in rural areas there were few of them, mainly among teachers and health care workers. So, in 1973-1983. here, out of 12,015 marriages, interethnic ones accounted for only 2.5% (Kurbanov, 1990, p. 20).
Interethnic marriages are largely one-sided in nature (especially with non-Dagestanis), men marry more often, while women marry much less often, which is explained by the greater preservation of their national and religious prejudices, as well as the conservative views of older men on such a “misalliance.”
The pre-revolutionary science of the Dargins, being an inextricable part of the general Dagestan science, developed in line with Arab classical science and theology. Dagestan scientists have made a significant contribution to Arabic-language science, and this is recognized in Muslim world. A great achievement of Dagestan scientists was the adaptation of the Arabic alphabet to the phonetic features of the Dagestan languages ​​and the creation of their own writing (adjam) on an Arabic graphic basis. The most famous Dargin scientists who made a great contribution to Dagestan science are Damadan al-Mukhi (died in 1724), an encyclopedist scientist, the founder of natural sciences in Dagestan, an outstanding mathematician, astronomer, physician, Daud Efendi Usishinsky (died in 1757 g.), a prominent philologist, distinguished by free-thinking and rationalism, G.-M. Amirov (Murad Bey), who became the greatest historian of Turkey.
Scientific traditions were continued by B. Dalgat, corresponding member. USSR Academy of Sciences Kh.I. Amirkhanov, P.M. Magomedov, M. Saidov, A.G. Gadzhiev, U. Dalgat, G.G. Osmanov, G.Sh. Kaymarazov, A.-G.K. Aliev, M.A. Abdullaev, D.M. Dalgat, Z.G. Abdullaev, M.-N. Osmanov, A.O. Magometov, A.I. Aliev, M.Zh. Agalarkhanov, brothers M. and M.-Z.-Vagabov, I. and Yu. Shamov, G.-Mir. and G.-Moore. Gadzhimirzaevs, S.M. Gasanov, B.M. Bagandov, Ab. Vagidov, Ab. Magomedov, Kh.M. Khasbulatov, O.A. Omarov, B.G. Aliev, A.Z. Magomedov, K.M. Magomedov, Sh. Gasanov, M. Shikhshibekov, M.-S. Umakhanov, B.B. Bulatov and many others.
, Medicine in the past was folk, also based on oriental medicine. True healing was often combined in her with witchcraft. Folk healers (khakims) achieved remarkable success in healing wounds, bruises, fractures, dislocations, performed craniotomy, and were also competent in herbal medicine and the treatment of some internal diseases.
The most famous were the hakims Murtazali-Haji from Butri (he studied medicine for 5 years in Cairo, collaborated with the famous Russian surgeon N.I. Pirogov, from whom he received a set of surgical instruments as a gift), Taymaz from Urakhi, Davud-Haji from Akush, Alisultan -Gadzhi from Urkarakh, Magomed-Gadzhi from Khadzhalmakhi, etc.
Alternative medical care was established only in 1894, but it was clearly insufficient. Back in 1927, the entire Tsudakharsky district (31 villages, 17 thousand people) had one paramedic station with one paramedic (Dargintsy... 1930. P. 221). The dramatic improvement in healthcare began with post-war years. IN last decades in every locality, depending on its size, there is a paramedic station, a local doctor, local, district, interdistrict, city, republican hospitals, a number of specialized hospitals, clinics, dispensaries, diagnostic centers, etc.

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Young woman
from the village of Balkhar in a bride's costume. (Photo archive of the IEA RAS, expedition 1978)

Butter churn and other ceramic products. (Photo by I. Steen and A. Firsov. 1981)

Aquarius jug “kunne”. Brass, chasing, riveting. The village of Kubachi. XIX century (From the book “Decorative Art of Dagestan.”
M., 1971. P. 97)
Metal buckle of a women's holiday suit. Silver, gilding, niello, filigree, granulation, turquoise, color. glass.
The village of Kubachi.
Beginning of the 20th century
(From the book “Decorative Art of Dagestan.”
P. 124. Collection of the State Museum of Oriental Arts)

Metal fruit dish.

Silver, niello, gilding, engraving, perforation. The village of Kubachi. 1956
(From the book “Decorative Art of Dagestan”. P. 141)
Bracelet. Silver, cloisonne enamel. The village of Kubachi. 1960
(From the book “Decorative Art of Dagestan.” P. 153. Collection of the Dagestan Museum fine arts)

Wool pile carpet. Lezgins. XIX century
(From the book “Decorative Art of Dagestan”. P. 257)

Kubachi woman in national costume. (Photo from a drawing by M. Tilke, 1910
Ser. “Peoples of the Caucasus in national costumes.” M., 1936)
Avarka in national costume (Photo from a drawing by M. Tilke, 1910)

A Kubachi resident in festive clothes. (Photo from a drawing by M. Tilke, 1910)
Tsakhurets in a festive costume. (Photo from a drawing by M. Tilke, 1910)

The prospects for the ethnic development of the Dargins look rather contradictory. On the one hand, the process of washing away traditional material culture continues, on the other, there is a certain revival of national spiritual culture, including those related to religion. This may lead in the future to reminiscences in the sphere of material culture. Ethnic development is also hampered by the unresolved problem of a single Dargin language, since the existing “created” literary language does not fully fulfill this role in the presence of an easier language of communication for the Dargins - Russian. However, in general, the ethnic future of the Dargins can be considered favorable; There is a certain revival of the ethnic appearance of the people, and national degeneration does not threaten it.

Dargins are one of the largest ethnic groups in Dagestan. The rich history of this people dates back several hundred centuries and goes back to ancient times. The Dargin nationality includes the most skilled and commercial residents of Dagestan, who revere simple life and have great respect for their traditions and customs.

Thanks to the closed communal life of the Dargans or Darganti, as they call themselves, they managed to preserve the identity and rituals of their ancestors. Despite the rapid pace of modern life, the traditions and customs of the Dargins have remained virtually unchanged. The religion of Islam and family rituals, agriculture and home crafts, folk art and folklore are the pillars of the nation. They make up the daily life of this hardworking people.

Brief historical background

Dargin religion

The Dargan people are Sunni Muslims. Before the adoption of Islam in the 14th century, the Dargins were pagans. They worshiped mythological characters of the pantheon of gods, personifying the phenomena and forces of nature. Despite the active educational activities of the Muslim clergy over many centuries, a significant place in Everyday life Darganti occupied pre-Islamic beliefs, clothed in Islamic form.

The entire life of this people, from birth to death, is accompanied by religious rituals. According to the beliefs of the Dargins, religion and morality are inseparable things.

The main Muslim holidays occupy a special place in the life of the Darganti: Kurban Bayram and Eid al-Adha. According to custom, every family always tries to celebrate Mawlid an Nabi - the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. Dhikr also forms an important part of the Islamic rituals of the Dargins.

Crafts and trades

Agriculture, cattle breeding and folk crafts- the main occupations of the Dargins. In the foothills of Dagestan, arable farming is more developed. Since the 16th century, the Darganti have successfully grown wheat, barley, corn, legumes, and millet. In high mountain areas, most activities involve raising small and large livestock.

The Dargins have achieved great art in the processing of wool, metal, wood, leather, stone. The professions of jeweler, tanner and gunsmith occupy a special place in their lives. The most famous are weapons, jewelry from Kubachi, agricultural implements, weapons from Kharbuk, blades from Amuzga, pottery (including glazed) from Sulevkent, cloth from Khadzhalmakhi, carved stone from Sutbuk and Kholaay, wooden tools, utensils from Kaytag, Tsudahar skins, morocco and Gubden women's shoes. Traditionally, otkhodnichestvo is developed - men leaving to earn money. Darginkas learn the art of weaving from a young age. Thanks to hard work, the people became famous for the high quality of edged weapons, jewelry, pottery, cloth, and leather goods.

Way of life and family traditions

Dargins are a patriarchal people. Traditionally, the leading position in the family is occupied by men and elders. The wife is completely subordinate to her husband, children - to adult family members. Respect and veneration for elders is the foundation of Dargin ethics. Parents and other ancestors occupy the most honorable places at the table, they always speak first, young people usually stand in their presence and must always give way.

Traditionally, children are named after deceased relatives and prophets. Every Dargin honors family ties and tries not to lose face or disgrace his family and elders. From a young age, children are raised in the traditions of Islam, taking into account national customs. A boy, the future head of a family, must be able to stand up for himself and his loved ones, respect elders, study well, be good example. The girl is the future keeper of the hearth and family values.

Also among the customs of the Dargins Hospitality has a special place. Guest - very important person in the house. For him, all the best: a place at the table, food, bed. The Dargans consider hospitality to be the greatest virtue. Receiving guests and being hospitable is considered an honorable duty that any Dargin will gladly perform.

In everyday life, personal interests and dignity are always subordinated to public ones. Masculinity, piety, hard work, honesty and respect for elders, a sense of duty and responsibility - these are the qualities the Dargins try to cultivate in themselves and their children.

Dargins are the indigenous inhabitants of Dagestan. The first mention of the Dargins (self-name - Dargan) dates back to the 15th century. Already in the 16th century, three types of Dargins emerged, differing in place of residence and occupation: lower foothills, mid-mountain and high-mountain.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Dagestan was included in the Russian Empire, which led to the start of the so-called liberation war. The Dargins took part in it on Shamil’s side, but not actively (due to their strong dependence on the Russians). However, during the anti-colonial uprising of 1877, they were already more militant.

In 1921, the Dargins, together with other peoples, became part of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. After this, part of the Dargins moved to the plain. In 1991, the Republic of Dagestan was formed.

Life of the Dargins

The main occupation of the Dargins was and remains cattle breeding (mainly cattle and sheep). The only difference between the past and the present is that now new highly productive crops and breeds are being introduced into these industries.

Traditionally, the Dargins lived in a rural community, which had the local name of jamaat. Communities united into unions of rural societies. Some of them, in turn, were part of the Akushim Confederation.

Nowadays, small families are common among Dolgan residents, although even in the last century there were large, undivided ones. In Dagestan, tukhums are also common - groups of families descending from the same ancestor. The mountain villages of the Dargins are mostly crowded and terrace-like.

The main type of mountain housing in the mountains and foothills is multi-story houses with a flat roof. In Soviet times, fairly modern villages with multi-storey buildings were built.

The men's traditional clothing of the Dargins is similar to the clothing of other peoples of the North Caucasus: shirt, trousers, beshmet, burka, fur coat, leather and felt shoes, chukta (headdress).

The main traditional food of the Dargins is flour, meat, and dairy. As a supplement, the diet also included vegetables, fruits, herbs, and berries. One of the national dishes of Dargin (North Caucasian) cuisine is miracle. This is a pie made from unleavened dough with various fillings - meat, cottage cheese, vegetables. Miracles can be either closed or semi-closed, like large cheesecakes. Like all the peoples of the Caucasus, the Dargins are restrained in food, but hospitable.

The main types of Dargin folklore: traditions, legends, fairy tales, proverbs and sayings, heroic songs. Some ancient rituals have been preserved.

Processing of wool, metal, wood, stone, and leather is developed. Different types of creativity developed in a certain area. Thus, weapons from Kubachi, Kharbuk and Amuzga, pottery from Sulevkent, wooden tools and household utensils from Kaitag, and so on were highly valued.

Dargins are one of the most large nationalities Republic of Dagestan and belong to the Caucasian type of the Caucasian race. Self-name of the people dargan. The first mentions of the Dargins date back to the 15th century. In the 16th century, the Dargins were divided into 3 types, which differed in place of residence and occupation:

1. alpine
2. mid-mountain
3. lower foothills

In 1921, the Dargins and other peoples of the North Caucasus became part of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Some of the people then moved to the plain. Dargins embody virtue, courage, hard work, piety and honesty. They instill these qualities in their children from an early age.

Where live

The bulk of the Dargins live on the territory of the Russian Federation and make up 16.5% of the total population of Dagestan. The largest community of this nationality is located in the Stavropol Territory. There are large diasporas in Kalmykia, Moscow, Rostov and Astrakhan regions.

A small percentage of Dargins live in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. They appeared in these areas in the 1930s. Representatives of this people also live in Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan.

Name

The ethnonym “Dargins” is derived from the word “darg”, which translates as “group, people”. The ethnonyms “Dargan” and “Dargins” are of later origin, according to philologist R. Argeeva. In the pre-revolutionary period, this nation was known as the Khyurkili and Akush people.

Language

The Dargins speak the Dargin language, which belongs to the Nakh-Dagestan branch of the North Caucasian family of languages. Dargin consists of many dialects, some of them are:

• Urakhinsky
• Akushinsky
• Kaitag
• tsudaharsky
• Kubachi
• Megebian
• Sirginsky
• Chiragsky

The Dargin literary language is used on the basis of the Akushin dialect. The Russian language is also widespread among the people. During the 20th century, the written language of the language changed twice. First, the Arabic alphabet, traditional for the Dargins, was replaced by the Latin alphabet in 1928, then in 1938 by the Russian script. In the 1960s, the letter Pl pI was added to the Dargin alphabet. Today there are 46 letters in the alphabet.

In schools, education is conducted in the Dargin language according to the all-Russian program. All textbooks, except books on literature, Russian, and foreign languages, have been translated into Dargin. There are Russian-language Dargin kindergartens.

Religion

The Dargins are Sunni Muslims; they adopted this religion in the 14th century. Before this, the Dargins were pagans, worshiped mythical characters of the pantheon of gods who personified the forces and phenomena of nature. Many of them have been preserved in the life of the people to this day:

• Kune, a mythical character who represents the good, invisible to humans spirit. He is the patron of the family hearth and clan, bringing prosperity to the house. People imagine him as a tall woman with a large bust and long red hair. The spirit appears in homes on Fridays and lives in the central pillar of the home. To appease him, housewives grease the hot stove with oil or a piece of fatty meat on this day of the week. If Kune leaves and does not return, it is unlucky.
• Moyu, these are the spirits who are in charge of the birth of children and are the patroness of women in labor. Common among the Dargin-Akush people. People imagine them as old women dressed in black and white clothes. They can send sickness and death to children;
• Berhi, the deity personifying the Sun, in the form of a beautiful youth who emits a dazzling and bright light. Berhi lives in the sea, enters it and leaves it. He is swallowed by the sea monster Kurtma. God Zal saves and returns to earth;
• Badz, a deity who personifies the Moon. Presented in the form of a beautiful girl. There is a legend about spots on the moon: Bazd and Berhi loved each other, but Budz began to brag that she was more beautiful than Berhi and people looked at her more than at him. Then the Sun threw lumps of dirt onto the Moon, which cannot be washed off, causing spots to form on it. The Moon was offended and ran away from the Sun, who later admitted his guilt and is now always trying to catch up with Badz;
• Abdal, or Avdal, patron of deer, aurochs, wild goats and god of the hunt. He takes care of wild animals, milks and grazes them, and limits their shooting. For good luck, people offered him a sacrifice in the form of the liver or heart of a killed animal. The bones were not thrown away or burned so that Abdal could use them to revive the beast.

The entire life of representatives of this people from birth to death is accompanied by religious rituals. Dargins believe that morality and religion are two inseparable things.

The Muslim holidays of Eid al-Adha and Kurban Bayram occupy a special place in the life of the Dargins. Each family, according to custom, celebrates Mawlid an-Nabi - the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. An important part of the ritual is Dhikr.

Food

In the cuisine of the Dargins living on the plain, plant foods predominated. In the highlands, they mainly preferred food from milk and meat. The most common flour products are khinkal and about 50 varieties of miracle pies with various fillings. The flour used was rye, millet, corn, barley and wheat. Sausages are made from beef and lamb meat, the meat is dried and smoked. Several types of cheese are made from milk. Soups are very popular among people; they are prepared with beans, vegetables, and ground wheat. Kebab, pilaf, sauces and kurze (similar to dumplings and dumplings) are very popular. For sweets, Dargins often make apple caramels - whole apples boiled in caramel. Supplements to the diet include greens, vegetables, fruits, and berries.

Common Caucasian dishes are common in Dargin cuisine. Representatives of this ethnic group have long learned to preserve fruits and vegetables. Food is served to the table on a common large platter from which everyone eats. Previously, the Dargins had hand mills at home, in which they themselves ground grain flour. The houses had a special fire room where food was prepared. There were entire neighborhood bakeries where pies and churek bread were baked. The favorite drink of the Dargins is buza kvass.

Life

For a long time, the Dargins have been engaged in cattle breeding, farming, processing wood, stone, leather and wool, and embroidering with gold threads and silk. In the village of Sulevkent they engage in pottery making. The Dargins process metals; pottery, copper hammering, bronze casting and blacksmithing are common among them. They produce jewelry and weapons. Everyone in Kubachi, from young to old, owns jewelry. This is passed down from generation to generation. They make ceremonial dishes, candlesticks, stunning jewelry for women, and work with bone, copper, enamel and silver. The masters decorated ceremonial weapons, dagger handles and scabbards with silver and gilding, and patterned bone plates. This art is still widespread today. Kubachi jewelers are known all over the world.

The Kubachi craftsmen who made helmets, chain mail, pistols and shotguns are also famous. Leather men's belts are always richly decorated with hanging plaques, links made of silver and metal.

The role of women in the household was significant. Her responsibilities included caring for cattle, harvesting crops, cooking, storing food, making household items and clothing. The man plowed, sowed, and was engaged in sheep breeding.

Girls began to be taught how to sew national costumes, make hats, weave breast ornaments, and various necklaces that consisted of coins and beads. Dargin women skillfully weave carpets, felt and knit.

Modern Dargins are engaged in viticulture and gardening. In many places, canning factories have been built where berries, vegetables and fruits are processed. Large fruit canning factories and industrial plants are located in the villages of Majalis, Serkzhala, Khoja-Makhi and Tsudahar. Plants for processing livestock products and enterprises for the production of cheese and butter were built.

Housing

Traditionally, the Dargins lived in rural communities called jamaat. The communities were united into unions of rural societies, some of them were part of the Akushim Confederation. Today, people have small families, which in the past were large and undivided. Tukhums are also widespread in the territory of Dagestan - groups of families that descended from one ancestor. After the October Revolution, schools, hospitals, clubs, village councils and reading huts opened in the villages.

Villages in the mountains are terrace-like and crowded. The main types of housing in the foothills and mountains are multi-story houses with a flat roof. During Soviet times, more modern villages of multi-storey buildings were built.

Dargins build modern houses from stone, sandstone, limestone and shale. In some villages they use adobe. The houses stand on a foundation or rocky base. Stone laying is carried out mainly using clay mortar. Older buildings have dry masonry. The floors in the dwellings are slate, adobe or wood. The ceiling is made from boards, slate slabs, brushwood or poles. In villages located in the foothills, gable tile or iron roofs began to be used more often. The facades of dwellings usually have an open gallery or veranda.

If the house consists of several floors, the lower one is reserved for a barn, stables, hayloft, space for storing firewood and storage rooms. There are living rooms on the upper floors. In villages located in higher mountainous areas, dwellings are often of irregular configuration and are adjusted in construction to the slope on which they stand. Because of this, rooms have irregular shapes, sometimes with five corners or rounded corners. All houses of the Dargins are well-equipped, kept clean and sufficiently equipped with amenities.

Appearance

The national clothing of Dargin men consisted of a tunic-like “kheva” shirt and “sharbar” trousers of a simple cut. These things were used not only as underwear, but also as part of outerwear. It was sewn from thick cotton or wool fabric of a dark color: blue, black or gray. Men in Nizhny Kaitag wore a white shirt and white trousers.

Over the shirt they put on a lined beshmet (captal), sewn from a dark dense material. To sew an elegant beshmet, they bought silk or wool fabric in black, dark green or blue. Shili dripped into the waist, according to the figure. There was a straight cut in the front, from top to bottom. The length of the clothing was slightly below or above the knees, at the request of the man. Below the waist, mainly at the back and sides, several wedges were sewn in, narrow and widening towards the bottom; they formed coattails. There were up to 10 such wedges.

The beshmet had a standing low collar, and there were internal pockets on the sides, below the waist. There were sewn pockets on the chest. The beshmet was fastened at the front with small buttons and loops, from the collar to the waist. The loops were made from homemade thin braid. The collar, sleeves, cutouts on the side pockets and the top of the breast pockets were trimmed with the same braid. The winter beshmet was sewn on cotton wool. In a captal, a man walked in the field, he could go outside in it and walk around at home. When it was cool, a Circassian coat was worn over it.

An important part of outerwear was a sheepskin coat; it was worn in winter over a beshmet and a Circassian coat. One fur coat took from 6 to 9 sheepskins of a young lamb. In inclement weather they wore a burka. A mandatory attribute of a Dargin man is a long and wide dagger.

They wore hats and felt hats. The wealthy sewed their own hats from Central Asian astrakhan fur. The Dargins had quite a variety of shoes. Many Dargins, especially residents of the villages of the Tsudakhar region, were excellent craftsmen in leather and shoe making. At home they wore woolen socks, which every woman knew how to knit. For strength, morocco, canvas or cloth were sewn onto them. Soft morocco boots were worn over the socks. They wore galoshes, boots and shoes.

Women's clothing consisted of an undershirt, wide or narrow pants, and a tunic-like or one-piece dress. They mostly wore scarves on their heads, a black or white “kaz” coverlet, which was wrapped around the head and hung low on the neck, shoulders and chest. In many areas, such bedspreads were decorated with borders and embroidery. Knitted stockings and boots were put on their feet. Required element women's suit- a white sash or one that matches the pants. The length of the sash was from 2 to 5 meters, it was wrapped around the waist and hips. It could be replaced with a metal or leather belt.

An apron was required. They believed that it protected a woman from the evil eye. They sewed amulets onto it: jewelry, coins and metal pendants, and embroidered it in the form of a trident or a hand with fingers spread out and pointing down. Shoes were worn from felt or leather.

Today, Dargins wear mostly urban-type clothes and shoes. To this day there is a rule according to which clothes bright colors can only be worn by young girls. Married women wear calm tones and fabrics of the same color. Older women wear clothes in brown, blue and black.

Culture

Dargin literature until the 20th century was based only on oral literature. At the beginning of the 20th century, the first collections of poetry were published. After the October Revolution, Dargin literature began to develop. At first, it was possible to collect and translate into written form the monuments of oral creativity; starting in May 1925, the first newspaper “Dargan” began to be published, which was published in the Dargin language. In 1961, the first Dargin drama theater was opened.

Folklore

In the folklore of the nationality, the main directions are:

• fairy tales
• heroic songs
• legends
• legends
• sayings
• proverbs

Agach-kumuz is the main musical instrument of the Dargin people. The musicians tuned the strings of the instrument in different ways and as a result received different harmonies and melodies. People also have other instruments for music:

• Chungur
• kemancha
• harmonic
• mandolin
• tambourine
• zurna

Traditions

Previously, men and women in the family ate food separately. Today, all family members sit down at the table together. In most of Dargin society today there is a custom of women’s meetings, which are prohibited for men. In the village of Kubachi there were even special premises that were called the women's house or the girls' house. The entire female population gathered there. People also have holidays only for women. But despite this, the situation of Dargin women used to be very difficult. They did not have the right to take part in the public affairs of the village, go to public village holidays, talk with men and communicate with their husbands in front of strangers. The man was the head of the house, and without his consent the wife could not sell, acquire or give anything. Everything that belonged to her in her husband's house was only her dowry.

The woman had no right to accept before my husband food, go to bed until he comes home. It was not customary for a man to raise children; only his wife did this. Senior family members also took part. In public, the father did not have the right to show feelings for his child, to caress him and calm him down if he cried. But when the children grew up and the question arose about any important decision related to them, only the father took part. The mother had no say. The role of women in the household was very significant.

Marriages among the Dargins were concluded within the tokhum - a certain social group or category. Questions about marriage were decided only by fathers, without children. The preferences and interests of children were not taken into account. The social position and dowry of the bride were important. Because a large dowry was required, girls were often unable to get married. Young men had similar problems, from whom expensive gifts were required for the bride and her relatives. Wealthy men often had several wives, which made life even more difficult for women. The second and third wives did not have the right to independence, since the first wife was the mistress.

A woman entered her husband’s house with her head covered, and the man’s family performed a ritual that protected the young from misfortune. They sacrificed a ram; it was believed that its blood drove away evil spirits.

Dargins are very hospitable; for them, a guest is the most important person in the house. Everything is served to him the best: food, a place at the table and a bed. Hospitality is a great virtue for this people. Receiving guests and being hospitable is considered a great duty, which any Dargin will fulfill with pleasure.

Dargins respect their elders very much; for them this is the basis of ethics. Parents and other elders in the family always take pride of place at the table and are the first to speak. Young people should stand in their presence and always give up their place if necessary.

Children are usually given the names of prophets or deceased relatives. All Dargins honor family ties, it is important for them not to disgrace the family, not to disgrace themselves. Boys are taught from childhood to stand up for themselves and their loved ones. They must study well, respect their elders, and be an example for others. Girls are raised as future guardians of the hearth and family values.

The Dargins are the second largest people of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. According to the 1959 census, there are 158 thousand Dargins. The division of Dargins into Dargins proper, Kaitags and Kubachis, which existed before the Great October Socialist Revolution, and their linguistic differences, have gradually become obsolete since the establishment of Soviet power. The decisive role here belongs to the socialist reconstruction of the national economy, the creation of a new, socialist culture, the emergence of a common Dargin literary language. The Dargin language belongs to the Dagestan branch of the Caucasian languages.

According to modern linguistic classification, dialects of the Dargin language are distinguished: Dargin proper, Kaitag and Kubachi. The Dargin language itself has a number of dialects, of which the most significant are Akushin, Urakhin (Khyurkilin) ​​and Tsudahar. The Akushin dialect formed the basis of the modern Dargin literary language, which is also used by the Kaitag and Kubachi people as the language of school, writing and literature.

The modern self-name of the Dargins themselves is Dargan, the Kaitag people are Khaidak, the Kubachi people are Urbugan, and the name of their only village is Kubachi (in the Kubachi language - Arbukanti). Arab medieval authors used the Persian term “zirekh-geran” (literally “chain mailers”) to name the Kubachi people, who have long been known for their metal products. The most common name to this day for the village and its inhabitants is the one known from the 17th century. the term "Kubachi" or "Kubachi". This term, borrowed from the Turkish language, is equivalent in meaning to the above Persian.

In the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the Dargins are settled as follows: Sergokalinsky (the center of the village of Sergokala) and Dakhadaevsky (the center of the village of Urkarakh) areas are inhabited by the Dargins themselves; in the central part of the Dakhadaovsky district - in the village. Kubachi - inhabited by Kubachi people, the southern part of the same area - villages. Itsari - inhabited by Kaitag people. The main population of the Levashinsky and Akushinsky districts are Dargins, but besides them, Avars and Laks also live in these areas. The Kaitag district (the center of the village of Majalis) is inhabited mainly by the Kaitag people, as well as the Dargins and Kumyks themselves. Finally, individual Dargin villages are found in adjacent areas: in the north - in Buinaksky (the villages of Kadar, Karamakh and Chankurbi), in the west - in Gunibsky (the village of Megeb), in the south - in Agulsky (the villages of Amukh and Chirakh).

The territory of settlement of the Dargins as a whole can be called middle Dagestan. This area, located between the coastal strip in the east and the basin.r. Kazikumukh Koisu in the west, like the neighboring lands of the Avars and Laks, does not include any large isolated river basins and gorges; it lies mainly in the basins of small rivers flowing into the Caspian Sea, and has a very rugged landscape. The mountainous areas are mainly located in the Dakhadaevsky and Akushinsky districts. The highest points of the ridges in the territory inhabited by the Dargins reach a height of 2.5 km above sea level. The highest located villages are located at an altitude of about 2 km above sea level (for example, the villages of Chirakh, Urgani, Butri). The climate of the region is temperate, dry in the mountainous areas, softer and more humid in the foothills. The soils, due to the dissected relief, rockiness and steepness of the slopes, are mostly underdeveloped; on flatter areas there is black soil. The forests are mostly deciduous. In places with a milder climate, i.e. in the foothills, fruit trees grow.

The neighbors of the Dargins are: in the west - Avars and Laks, in the east and north - Kumyks, in the south - Leztins.

Like most other peoples of Dagestan, the Dargins constitute the aboriginal population of the country. The earliest literary monuments that mention the Dargins date back to the 9th century. n. e. These are works by Arab authors and a Derbent compilation known as “Derbent-name”. These sources contain the terms “haidak”, corresponding to the modern “kaytag”, “zerekran” (“zirekhge-ran”), corresponding to the modern “kubachi”.

By the beginning of the 19th century. Dargin territory consisted of the Kaitagskoto utsmiystvo and a number of “free societies” that occupied mountainous areas. These “free societies” were more or less dependent on the Kaitag utsmiya. Below the Utsmia stood the Utsmi beks, who came from the Utsmia clan. The bulk of the population were personally free community members (uzdeni), followed by serfs (rayats), and finally, there was a small number of powerless kuls - slaves or captive serfs. Feudal oppression was sanctified by the religion of the Dargins - Sunni Islam, which began to spread since the Arab invasion of Dagestan.

The “free societies” considered the utsmiya to be their military leader in case of war and in defense against enemy attacks. According to evidence dating back to the 18th century, the Kaitag utsmii, in order to strengthen their position among the strong “free societies” of the mountainous regions, sent their sons there to be raised, and all the women took turns putting the child to their breasts. Having been adopted by many families in this way, the son of an utsmiya found himself connected with the “free societies” as if by blood ties. Nevertheless, these societies fought for centuries with the Utsmiy and members of his house, defending their self-government, their freedom and relative independence, demanding non-interference by the Utsmiy in the internal affairs of the jamaats. The Kubachi “free society,” for example, did not even allow the utsmiya into its borders, and he could only get to Kubachi if he had a reliable kunak among the Kubachi residents.

Fighting the feudal lords, i.e., the Utsmi and the Beks, the “free societies” of the Kubachi, Kaitag and Dargin people often united with each other in alliances (Akusha-Dargva, Utsumi-Dargva, Kaba-Dargva, Burkun-Dargva, etc.)* In beginning of the 19th century the most powerful of them was Akusha-dargva - a union of five societies that bore the names of the corresponding main villages - Akusha, Mekegi, Mugi, Usisha, Tsudahar. Akusha Dargva also included a small number of Avar and Lak villages. The general administration of the union was in the hands of the qadi, who lived in Akusha and enjoyed great influence throughout Dagestan.

After the final annexation of Dagestan to Russia, the Kaitag utsmiystvo was abolished (1820) and Russian administration was introduced in Kaitag. In 1860, the Darginsky district was formed on the territory of the Dargins. Part of the Dargin villages became part of the Kaitago-Tabasaran and Kyurinsky districts.

Classes

The main sectors of the Dargin economy in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. There were cattle breeding in the mountainous areas and agriculture (including gardening) in the foothills. In a number of villages of the Gank mountain society, along with cattle breeding, crafts were of great importance. In the villages of Kubachi, Amuzgi, Sulevkent, Kharbuk, almost the entire male population broke away from agriculture and was engaged in handicraft production. The peasants of the remaining Dargin villages, which had a pastoral or agricultural profile, also engaged in crafts in their free time from agricultural work.

Thus, within the Dargin territory there was a geographical division of labor. However, the leading branch of the economy of most Dargin villages was still cattle breeding. Most villages did not have enough grain; it was purchased from neighbors, primarily from Kumyks. In many areas there was also a shortage of pastures, and therefore the rental of pastures in other places received significant development.

Agriculture is the primordial (since the Bronze Age) branch of the Dargin economy. For centuries, the people accumulated agricultural experience, painstakingly selecting forms and methods of farming that were more appropriate for local conditions, and improving the tools of labor. For example, on the steep slopes of the mountains, the Dargins have long used a terraced farming system. Less fertile areas were fertilized with manure and bird droppings, more fertile ones with ash from dung or the top layer of soil from humus-rich forest lands. The upper layers of calcareous hillocks, dried-up swamps, and silt deposited along river beds were also used as fertilizer.

However, the general economic and cultural backwardness of the people before the revolution, deep property and social inequality were an insurmountable obstacle to the improvement of agricultural technology, the level of development of which was generally low. One-popolye reigned. Harrowing was used only in foothill areas. Highlanders in best case scenario They used tree branches tied together as a harrow, and more often they did not harrow at all. Large clods the earth was broken with a shovel. In general, the set of agricultural implements was not complicated. In the foothill regions, the main arable tool was a plow with an iron share. In the mountains they used a plow tap hole (duraz), similar in design to the Avar one. They harvested bread with semicircular sickles with a jagged blade or oblong ones in the shape of pink salmon, as well as with special scythes that did not (have a bow for the right hand, like the Russians, but instead had a strongly curved scythe. Hammers using threshing boards (with sharp flint stones on the lower surface ), which were dragged by oxen over the grain scattered on the threshing floor. The same agricultural tools were used by other peoples of Dagestan.

The number of types of cultivated cereals was very limited - wheat, corn, barley. It is characteristic that wheat was cultivated mainly on the farms of the rich, while the poor preferred to sow barley, which gives a larger harvest. Such crops as grapevines are one of the oldest in Dagestan , was cultivated in the 19th century only in some areas of lower Kaitag.

The Dargins knew almost no gardening. IN mid-19th V. Residents of the villages of Majalis, Akusha, and also in Deshlagar began to engage in vegetable gardening, under the influence of the Russian population. Back in the 19th century. The Dargins purchased onions and garlic from the Kumyks in exchange for livestock products. Other vegetables and potatoes were rare. Due to primitive technology, yields were usually very low. The agricultural economy of the Dargins was primarily of a consumer nature; Only gardening, which was most developed in some Chinese societies, had commercial value.

The best arable lands in the river valleys, which still had favorable conditions for irrigation, belonged to the landowners (beks, qadis) and kulaks. The arable lands of the poor were usually located either on the mountain slopes adjacent to the village or far in the mountains. A significant part of the peasants had from 0.8 to 1.1 hectares of land, and many did not have it at all. Due to the lack of draft animals, agricultural implements and labor, peasants during the agricultural year resorted to the custom of kinship and neighborly mutual assistance - bulkha (bilkha). The kulaks, with the help of bulkh, exploited their poor relatives and neighbors.

The same picture was observed in pastoral areas: rich pastoralists owned herds of thousands of sheep, while on the farms of the poor the number of sheep did not exceed ten, or even five. For the bulk of the peasantry, the issue of pastures was very acute. Some villages were poor, others had surpluses. Most of the pastures belonged to landowners. Community pastures were exploited primarily by the kulak elite. Most peasants had to rent pasture land for a high fee or go into bondage to the rich.

The Dargins have been engaged in cattle breeding, as well as agriculture, since ancient times. The widespread development of cattle breeding is already recorded in the monuments of the Kayakent-Khorochoev culture (2nd millennium BC). Approximately 70-75% of the livestock were sheep of the local mountain breed, 10-15% were cattle, the rest were horses, mules, and donkeys. Like other peoples of Dagestan, a transhumance-pasture system of livestock farming was used. From spring to autumn, the cattle were high in the mountains - on summer pastures, and in September - October - they moved down to winter pastures. Even cattle were kept on pasture for most of the year, moving to stall housing only for two or three winter months. During this period, the usual food was straw, weeds, and corn husks, since there was not enough hay on the farm of the Dargin peasant or there was none at all. Extensive forms of livestock farming, which did not include the procurement of feed, warm premises for livestock during the winter cold, veterinary care, etc., (led to the mass death of herds and the ruin of a large number of peasants.

Rich sheep farmers, hiring shepherds and shepherds, whose labor they cruelly exploited, and organizing seasonal cattle drives, also profited from poor and middle-aged owners who added their livestock to their herds. The united herd formed a kosh. There could be several such koshes in villages. In fact, the kosh was at the full and undivided disposal of the rich man. According to custom, the rich man supplied the kosh with a large forged copper cauldron for cooking food and the required number of shepherds and dogs. Those who added their sheep to a large herd paid the owner of the kosh for every 50 heads, five sheep, and the shepherds 20 kopecks. from a sheep. Back in the 70s of the XIX century. herds and herds were accompanied by armed guards. This guard was carried out by the male population of the village - first in order of priority, then only by the poor for a very small reward.

Gradually, cattle breeding began to acquire commercial forms. Dargin entrepreneurs and resellers bought wool, skins, meat and sold them in cities, receiving fabrics and agricultural products in exchange.

There were no industrial enterprises in the territory inhabited by the Dargins, with the exception of handicraft fruit processing factories in the villages of Tsudahar and Kuppa. However, as already noted, crafts and household crafts received significant development: metalworking, pottery, weaving, etc. There was a process of class differentiation among artisans, which sharply intensified in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Elements of capitalist relations developed especially in villages. Kubachi. The rich craftsmen used hired labor, bought up the products of their fellow villagers, and engaged in trade and usury.

The economic situation of the bulk of the Dargins was very difficult in pre-revolutionary times. A middle-income family had enough bread for three to four months; The family had no more than 50-60 kg of meat for food per year. Peasants with little power and no land or livestock at all were forced to work as laborers or engage in otkhodniki. For example, in the village. Muresh (modern Sergokalinsky district) in one of the quarters, numbering about 60 farms, 17 farms worked for the kulaks. The percentage of otkhodniks was also very high. From only one

Darginsky district at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. Every year about 12 thousand people left in search of work. In a number of villages, up to 20-30% of the residents went to work. Darshn otkhodniks could be found in the villages and cities of Dagestan (usually on the plane), in the oil fields of Baku, in the fisheries of the Caspian Sea and in many other places.

New life came to Dargin villages after the October Revolution. During the years of Soviet power, and especially after collectivization, the area of ​​cultivated land increased significantly due to the drainage of swamps, the transformation of part of the pastures into new arable land and, in some cases, previously barren lands into fertile lands, thanks to the use of high-quality fertilizers, the development of artificial irrigation and others events. The range of grains, industrial and other crops has expanded. Large areas are now occupied by wheat and corn. Spelled, barley, rye, oats, and millet are also sown. Sunflowers, peas, alfalfa, etc. are widespread. Gardening is developing everywhere. Dargin residents now grow tomatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions, garlic, etc. On Dargin lands, melons are also cultivated: watermelons, melons, pumpkins.

Gardening and viticulture have become of great importance in the modern economy of the Dargins, especially in such areas as Kaitagsky, Dakhadaevsky and Levashinsky. Cultivation of fruit plants and grapevine began to practice in areas where previously this was considered completely impossible. Particularly noteworthy successful breeding grapes in a number of Dargin foothill and mountainous areas that had not known viticulture before, in particular in the Akushinsky region. In connection with the development of horticulture, canning factories for processing fruits, berries and vegetables have been created in many places. There are large fruit canning factories and industrial plants in the villages of Serkjala, Tsudahar, Khojal-Makhi, Majalis and others.

The intensity of farming is constantly increasing thanks to planned farming, the use of achievements of agronomic science and high technology. In the foothills and flat areas, Dargin collective farms use tractors, combines and other agricultural machines. At the same time, on mountain collective farms, where the peculiarities of natural conditions do not yet allow the use of new technology everywhere, some old agricultural tools are also used.

Collective farms in the mountains also use folk farming experience, using proven practice of terraced development of slopes for crops and gardens. On steep slopes, small terraced platforms are made, sometimes reinforced with stone walls and equipped with a network of artificial irrigation grooves. On these terraced areas, the Dargin plow - duraz, which is well adapted to mountain conditions, as well as a light plow - gutan - are used.

The leading livestock industries are sheep breeding (the so-called Dargin breed of black sheep is known throughout Dagestan) and cattle breeding. Dargin collective farms are assigned forever sufficient areas of summer and winter pastures, the first - in the mountains of Akushinsky, Dakhadaevsky, Rutulsky and Kulinsky districts, the second - on the plane, in the Karabudakhkent, Kayakentsky, Khasavyurtsky, Babayurtsky, Kizilyurtsky, Kizlyarsky, Tarumovsky and Karanogaysk. Veterinary care and breeding of the best breeds of livestock are seriously emphasized. Livestock buildings have been built on collective farms. The procurement of feed was organized, which made it possible to organize stable housing for cattle lambing and horses in winter period. Mechanization of labor-intensive livestock farming processes (mechanical shearing of sheep, etc.) is being increasingly used. Winter pastures (kutans), used before the revolution only for the needs of livestock raising, ceased to be only pastures. Cereals and garden plants, fruit trees and grapevines are grown on the cutans.

To process livestock products, butter and cheese factories and other enterprises were built.

The living conditions of shepherds have changed radically. Comfortable housing for livestock breeders was built on the alpine meadows and flat cutans, public catering, literature delivery, and radio communications were organized. Cultural and educational work is systematically carried out.

Home-based industries, which are carried out by women to meet the needs of the family, are widespread: knitting, making felt products, spinning and weaving. Some of these products are sold at collective farm markets or sold to neighbors. In some collective farms, women's craft cooperatives have been organized - burok, cloth, knitting (making sweaters, woolen knitted scarves, socks, gloves), etc.

Of great interest are the elegant embroideries made by women from the villages of Barshamai and Chabakhni, Kaitag region. These embroideries, which have a rich and original ornament, are used to decorate large pillows, valances and curtains for wall niches. Gold embroidery work decorating women's headdresses, tobacco pouches, etc. etc., are performed in small quantities in the villages of Akusha and other mountainous areas. Traditional floral embroidery on women's headdresses, jug bedding and other local items are widespread mainly in the villages of the Sergokalinsky region. Embroidery with a stem stitch and the production of thread lace are phenomena new, they are most widespread in the village of Tsudahar. In a number of villages of the Dakhadaevsky district, as well as in the Akushinsky and Sergokalinsky districts, woolen socks are knitted, mainly with geometric patterns. In some villages (in particular, in the Akushinsky district) knitted woolen scarves and various knitted products A variety of felt products - patterned and simple boots, white felt shoes in the form of boots with closed socks, burkas - are produced in all the main Dargin regions. Palas are woven in many villages of Levantinsky, Akushinsky, Dakhadaevsky and other regions. In the past, the production of high-quality cloth was widespread in almost all regions of the Dargin territory, and the production of paper and silk fabrics was mainly in the Sergokalinsky and Kaitag regions.

The production of morocco and leather goods (shoes, fur coats, hats) is carried out in their free time from work on the collective farm by men who prepare the products for sale and their own consumption. The tanning of morocco by village tanners became most famous. Tsudahar.

A significant place in the overall complex of Dargin industries belongs to wood and stone processing. Among the collective farmers of the villages of Akusha and Khojal-Makhi there are master builders, wood and stone carvers. In a number of villages of Levashinsky, Akushinsky, Dakhadaevsky and Sergokal and some other districts, wooden, artistically executed parts of dwellings are made: support pillars, cornices, platbands, etc. In the same areas, wooden carved chests, chests, sofas, cabinets, baby bassinets, etc.

Residents of the village of Khojal-Makhi do wood painting. In many Dargin villages, stone carved tombstones and various decorative architectural details are made: supporting columns, brackets, individual ornamented blocks with Soviet emblems, etc.

In various Dargin villages there are specialists in metal processing: blacksmiths, tinkers, copper minters, tinsmiths, mechanics, etc. There is a well-known artel of village metalworkers. Kharbuki in the Dakhadaevsky district, producing first-class quality blacksmith products, distributed throughout Dagestan.

Village residents. The Kubachi, known from written monuments dating back to the 9th century, specialized in the artistic processing of metal. Among the products of Kubachi craftsmen, who have long been famous for their art far beyond the Caucasus, chain mail, armor, helmets, elbow pads, rifles and pistols once occupied a large place. This production at the beginning of the 19th century, with the widespread use of Russian firearms, lost its importance in the second half of the 19th century. almost ceased to exist. Instead, the production of edged weapons, for which Kubachi was also famous back in the Middle Ages, expanded. At the same time, goldsmithing became widespread - the production of jewelry from valuable metals, frames for bladed weapons, saddle jewelry, expensive stirrups, gazyrs, etc. Since the end of the 19th century. Kubachi residents also began to make cigarette cases, match holders, silver utensils, and dishes.

On the basis of ancient industries in the village. In Kubachi, after the October Revolution, the “Artist” artel was organized, which is very famous far beyond the borders of Dagestan. At present it has good production facilities and a variety of special equipment. The artel carries out complex orders, on which both old and young masters work; pays great attention to the training of new personnel. Kubachi masters have a perfect and versatile technique. Among them there are specialists in various fields: engravers, niello craftsmen, masters of incisions (inlays) with valuable metals on bone, horn and iron, filigree makers, specialists in the technique of through and applied filigree, enamellers, masters of silver casting and silver forging, assemblers. Often the same master has several specialties and in his works combines engraving with notching, filigree with enamel, etc.

In addition to goldsmithing, there are two more metalworking industries in Kubachi: the production of copper forged utensils and the casting of copper boilers. Kubachi cast copper cauldrons are of good quality, elegant in shape, and were extremely convenient for open hearths, which were common in the past among the peoples of Dagestan.

After the Great October Socialist Revolution, the Kubachi people achieved even more in their art. high level than before, having mastered new artistic techniques and motives. In 1922, Kubachi craftsmen, commissioned by Baku workers, made a silver model of an oil derrick as a gift to V.I. Lenin in the form of a decorative composition, decorated with the finest ornaments. The products of Kubachi craftsmen were exhibited at many exhibitions and competitions and were repeatedly awarded. The best Kubachi masters G. Kishov, R. Alikhanov, G.-B. Magomedov, M. Mugiev and others were awarded government awards for their work. In recent years, the Kubachi artel has mastered the production of new types of jewelry: sugar bowls, coffee pots, milk jugs, teapots, vases, bracelets, etc.

The main occupations of the Dargins include the work of a significant part of them in factories, railway transport, oil and fishing fields, as well as in regional industrial plants. The formation of cadres of workers from the Dargins, of course, took on a wide scale only after the revolution. Among the workers there are many Dargins leaders in production There is a significant percentage of Dargins among the engineering and technical personnel of industrial enterprises of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.