| Flag of the Avars |
| Total population |
|---|
| approx. 1 million |
| Regions with significant populations |
Russia: 814,500 (2002[1]),
Azerbaijan: 50,900 (1999[2]) |
| Languages |
| Religion |
| Related ethnic groups |
Avars or Caucasian Avars are a modern people of Caucasus, mainly of Dagestan, in which they are the predominant group. The Caucasian Avar language belongs to the Northeast Caucasian language family (also known as Nakh–Dagestanian). The Avars were one among the first related Turkic peoples to make their presence in Europe.[4]
The Avars inhabit most of the mountain part of Dagestan, and partly also its plains (Buynakskiy, Khasav'yurtovskiy and other regions). They also live in Chechnya, Kalmykia and other regions of the Russian state, as well as of Azerbaijan (mainly, the Balakan and Zakatala rayons - 50,900 (1999[2]) and Georgia (Kvareli Avars - 2,500).
In 2002, the Avars, who have assimilated some ethnic groups speaking related languages, numbered about 1.04 million, of which 814,500 live in Russia,[1] of which more than 750,000 in Dagestan. 32% of them live in cities (2002 number).
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Avarian Philologists think the Avar name comes from Caucasian Avarian "Bo" = "the armed nation", and "Or" = "the river" words.[5] Bo-or, is the ancient A-Bar name of the White Huns. İts means that the army is using ferrum and horses. First Huns were the Sino-Caucasian.
Another theory is classic Aryanist philologists' "Ober" = "the upper" opinion. Caucasian Avarian "War" - "Bar" words means "at the top, superior", and the "Awarag" means "Leader, Prophet". Some scholars[6] think today's Khorasan's old name was "ABAR-Shar" = "The Land of Awars" or "The high lands, the upper lands". Hephthalites were living in that area, and they migrated to Dagestan in the end of 6th century after fighting with Turks and İranians. Hephthalites' royal clan's name was "War".
According to the Khazar Correspondence, Avar was the third son of Togarmah. http://www.evidencefortorah.comxa.com
The Avar language belongs to the Avar-Andi-Tsez subgroup of the Alarodian Northeast Caucasian (or Nakh–Dagestanian) language family. The writing is based on the Cyrillic script, which replaced the Arabic script used before 1927 and the Latin script used between 1927 and 1938. More than 60% of the Avars living in Dagestan speak Russian as their second language.
The earliest mention of the Avars in European history at their current location is from Priscus, who declared that in 463 AD a mixed Saragur, Urog and Unogur embassy asked Byzantium for an alliance, having been dislodged by Sabirs in 461 due to the Avars' drive towards the west.[7] According to the head of the Soviet archaeological-ethnographic expedition of 1945 - 1948, these Caucasian Avars migrated to their present location from Khwarezm, which was originally populated by the Alarodian Hurrians from Subartu (which was to the south of Transcaucasian Iberia).[8] The Y-Chromosomal J Haplogroups typical for Avar men are still common today in the area of ancient Subartu. According to Omeljan Pritsak and some other scholars, this Avar invasion of the Caucasus resulted in the establishment of the Avar ruling dynasty in Sarir, a Christian state in the Dagestani Highlands, where the Caucasian Avars now live. It is not clear whether or in what way these Avars are related to the early European Avars of the Dark Ages, but it is known that with the mediation of Sarosios in 567, the Göktürks requested Byzantium to distinguish the Avars of Pannonia as "Pseudo-Avars" as opposed to the true Avars of the east who had come under the Göktürk hegemony.[9] The modern Arab Encyclopaedia states that the Magyars originated in this area. The Gokturks might have had a different reason for granting the ethnicon to their subjects in the North-East Caucasus while objecting to their Central European relatives' associating themselves with that illustrious name.
During the Khazar wars against the Caliphate in the 7th century, the Avars sided with Khazaria. Surakat is mentioned as their Khagan around 729/30 AD, followed by Andunik-Nutsal at the time of Abu Muslima, then Dugry-Nutsal. Sarir suffered a partial eclipse after the Arabs gained the upper hand, but managed to reassert its influence in the region in the 9th century. It confronted the weakened Khazars and conducted a friendly policy towards the neighbouring Christian states of Georgia and Alania.
In the early 12th century, Sarir disintegrated, only to be succeeded by the Avar Khanate, a predominantly Muslim polity. The only extant monument of Sarir architecture is a 10th-century church at the village of Datuna. The Mongol invasions seem not to have affected the Avar territory and the alliance with the Golden Horde enabled the Avar khans to increase their prosperity.
In the 15th century the Horde declined, and the Shamkhalate of Kazi-Kumukh rose. The Avars could not compete with it until the 18th century, when they increased their prestige by routing the army of Nadir Shah at Andalal. In the wake of this triumph, Umma Khan of the Avars (reigned 1774–1801) managed to exact tribute from most states of the Caucasus, including Shirvan and Georgia.
Two years after Umma Khan's death in 1801, the khanate voluntarily submitted to Russian authority. The Russian administration disappointed and embittered the freedom-loving highlanders. The Russians' institution of heavy taxation, coupled with the expropriation of estates and the construction of fortresses, electrified the Avar population into rising under the aegis of the Muslim Imamate of Dagestan, led by Ghazi Mohammed (1828–32), Gamzat-bek (1832–34) and Shamil (1834–59).
This Caucasian War raged until 1864, when the Avarian Khanate was abolished and the Avarian District was instituted instead. One portion of the Avars refused to collaborate with Russians and migrated to Turkey, where their descendants live to this day. Although the population was decimated through war and emigration, the Avars retained their position as the dominant ethnic group in Dagestan during the Soviet period. After World War II, many Avars left the barren highlands for the fertile plains closer to the shores of the Caspian Sea.
The most prominent figures in Avar history were Umma Khan, Hadji Murat, and Imam Shamil. The most celebrated poet writing in the Avar language was Rasul Gamzatov (1923–2003). In Azerbaijan, there was an ethnic Avar Member of the Parliament (MP), Ali Antsukhskiy (elected in 1995), who was killed in 1996.
Famous Avar artists include Khalil-bek Musayasul, whose drawings were shown at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art,[10] and Kamil Aliev (a distant cousin of Musayasul) who is noted for his ornamental carpet work.[11]
A famous sportsman of Avar origin is a former WBO heavyweight champion Sultan Ibragimov.
The World War II submarine commander and hero of the Soviet Union Magomet Gadzhiyev was an Avar.
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