Shahdagh peoples (or Shahdagh people) is the common name of several nationalities in north-eastern Azerbaijan, united by common origin, history and territory of settlement. They belong to the Balkan-Caucasian race of the large Caucasoid race. The Shahdagh languages - Kryz, Budukh and Khinalug - belong to the Nakh-Dagestani language family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Shahdagians are residents and natives of high-mountain villages located in the Shahdag Mountain region. They are considered to be descendants of the population of ancient Caucasian Albania. By now, the number of natives of the Shahdag zone and their descendants compactly living outside it is much higher than the number of inhabitants of the highland villages. Resettlement of the Shahdagh people to the plains of Azerbaijan, which began before the October Revolution, as noted by researchers, leads to the gradual loss of their ethnic uniqueness, national traditions and languages, which are threatened with extinction. This is fuelled by the lack of writing and even primary education in their native languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most modern sources state that the Shakhdag group includes three small peoples - Khinalugtsy, Budukhtsy and Kryz. At the same time, in the late 19th - first half of the 20th centuries, the Kryz (inhabitants and natives of the village of Kryz), Alyktsy, Dzhektsy (Jacks), Haputlins (Khaputlins, Khaputs) and Yergudzhtsy - ethnic groups named after the names of their ancestral villages and nowadays considered to be sub-ethnoses of the Kryz - were considered as independent peoples with their own independent languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Shahdag peoples' settlements are among the most inaccessible in the Caucasus, located in the high-mountainous strip, in the alpine zone. These places are famous for their beautiful mountain pastures and hayfields, and cattle breeding has always been and still is their main occupation. They mainly breed Lezghin sheep, cows and horses; pastoralism is used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Farming is of subsidiary importance (wheat and barley), terraces are built on mountain slopes. Gardening and horticulture are insignificantly developed. Among domestic trades knitting of woollen socks, making carpets and palases are known, in the past coarse-woolen cloth was woven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The traditional villages are dense, terraced, densely built, with one main street and narrow passages between houses. The division into neighbourhoods on the basis of blood kinship is preserved. Dwellings are built of raw brick and stone, with flat earthen roofs, two-storeyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Men's clothing of the Budukh, Khinalig and Kryz is almost identical to that of their neighbours, the Azerbaijanis. Women's clothing retained some specificity (cloth trousers, calico shirt, short arkhalyg (Caucasian caftan) of black cotton cloth, apron, chutka - a headdress covering the hair, shawl); festive clothing included a silk skirt, velvet arkhalyg and a lot of jewellery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dairy products, cereal and flour dishes predominate in the food of Shahdag peoples; meat dishes are mainly festive (kebab, bozartma, etc.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a long time endogamous marriages prevailed among them, concluded within their village and usually within their kinship group. The wedding rituals are particularly beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The religion is Sunni Muslim. Islam was brought to this region by Arab conquerors in the 8th century. To this day, however, the Shahdagh people still retain remnants of their former pagan beliefs and rituals.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true},"class_list":["post-3346","nation","type-nation","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missioneurasiafield.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nation\/3346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missioneurasiafield.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nation"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missioneurasiafield.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/nation"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missioneurasiafield.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}