Biography of Avars

The Avars people Avars are one of the most numerous and most ancient peoples of the Caucasus - these are Avars. They live in Dagestan, as well as in Chechnya, Kalmykia, in Eastern Georgia and in Azerbaijan - only about a million people. The Avars are proud of their history: after all, their ancestors lived in the territory of the Caucasus during the Neolithic period, and the language of modern Avars, which has existed since time immemorial, has not disappeared, unlike many languages ​​of the Dagestano-Nalen group.

The history of the Avars, the history of the appearance of the Avars is complex and has not yet been fully clarified. One of the ancient Georgian chronicles tells the biblical version of the birth of this people: she calls the first as an ancestor of all the highlanders of Dagestan the great -great -grandson of the Noble. One of the sons of Lecca, Khozonya, founded the city in the mountain gorge and called it his name, Hozanyani.

It is believed that this is a distorted word Hanzam - the ancient capital of Avar khans. If you do not delve into the complex vicissitudes of the history of numerous nomadic peoples living in Eurasia thousands of years ago and constantly forming new ethnic groups, then the history of the Avars can be briefly told like this. Thousands of years BC, the ancestors of the Avars were nomads, but in about the third millennium BC.

The life of the Avar tribes in ancient sources mention the tribes of the “Savars”, which, most likely, were the ancestors of modern Avars in the mountains, in relative isolation from other tribes and peoples, which allowed not only the language and distinctive external features of the people, but also many traditions and customs. In the first millennium of our era, the Kingdom of Sarir is mentioned in the Arab chronic chronicles, in its place avar khanate was formed a little later.

It was a union of independent tribes and societies that were united under the leadership of the khan only in the event of military necessity. By the time the Khanate joined Russia in the year, the Avars had their own writing, similar to Arabic, and professed Islam of Sunni. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Avars took part in the war, in it, under the leadership of Shamil, the highlanders tried to defend their freedom.

However, the Avars became actively consolidated after the formation of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in the year. The religion of the Avars today is the Avars in the vast majority-Muslims-Sunnis. Interestingly, the already mentioned medieval state Sarir in the Caucasus as an official religion was chosen by Orthodox Christianity. There is an opinion that before the adoption of Islam, a small part of the ancestors of the Avars professed Judaism, but there is no sufficient evidence of this.

Be that as it may, Islam began to penetrate the territory of modern Dagestan already in the 7th century.

Modern Avars of the number of Avar people is growing rapidly. The All -Russian census of the population of the year showed that over the past few decades of the 20th century, the number of Avars in Russia increased 2.5 times. In Avar families, it is customary to have several children, so the birth rate is constantly growing. More and more often, the Avars leave the villages to the cities, but, interestingly, this people are practically not assimilated with other peoples: there are very rarely found Avar marriages with Russians or representatives of other Caucasian nationalities.

Modern Avars, like their distant ancestors, successfully engage in agriculture, winemaking, bred goats and sheep. They honor their national and cultural traditions, many know the Avar language - in general, they do everything to ensure that the Avars as people exist for many more centuries.