Before finding out where the tats live, it is advisable to find out who they are. From the very beginning it is necessary to stipulate that the word "tats" was not originally an ethnonym. That is, this is not the name of the people, nation, tribe. Rather, it is a social concept.
Social term
The Tatami Turks were called settled tribes, denoting by this term the way of life of people and their position in society. And not just settled tribes, but subjugated by them. Therefore, the name was derogatory. Later, the Türks under the term "tat" meant a person in service. Therefore, it is necessary to say that the Tata nationality exists with a reservation. For times in different territories, this term had different meanings. So, in the early Middle Ages, the entire population of Central Asia and the Middle East, speaking the Iranian language, was called tatami. In Iran, this term was applied to settled Iranian-speaking tribes.
Now it's more nationality
Time passed, and the tribes turned into a nation. Nowadays, the phrase "Tata nationality" is found everywhere. Sometimes with the caveat that there is no clear definition of what nationality is. That this concept itself is either simplified or deliberately distorted. One way or another, this nationality is either a linguistic group, Persians of the Transcaucasia or an Iranian ethnic group, it is clear from the names that where there are tats, it is warm. These are mostly southern backgammon. Depending on the region of residence, the Tats have many self-names - Parsi and Lohijihon, Dougles and Tatis. Each nation has its own interesting story. The older the age of the people, the richer the story. The first mention of the tatas dates, according to some historians, to the time of the Khazar Khaganate, that is, to the 7th-10th centuries. Tats are unusually diverse. In their composition they have both Christians (mainly monophists), Jews, and Muslims (Sunnis and Shiites).
There is no consensus
A separate group here includes the Tat - Mountain Jews. Although other historians argue with argument that it is categorically impossible to combine these concepts characterizing completely different nationalities. Mountain Jews, or gyivras, are Jewish subethnos (this name defines a group of people living compactly and differing from their ethnos in small but characteristic features due to the history of education). The Tats are a people mainly of the Iranian tribe or Persians. And Mountain Jews are a people rooted in Judea. On the territory of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, mountain Jews, fearing persecution on ethnic grounds, were recorded in tatami. Perhaps this was due to living in the same territories and a common language - both the Tats and the Mountain Jews spoke the Tat language until the advent of the Republic of Azerbaijan. There is always an unspoken oppression of Jews in Soviet Russia. Now, a century later, for the inhabitants of Dagestan, the Taty, Mountain Jews are identical concepts, synonymous words.
Jews when to make aliyah
However, when, after perestroika, many Jews reached out to their historical homeland, the Tat began to prove that they were mountain Jews. Thus, the confusing has become even more confusing, and there is no consensus on any issue. At the end of the 19th century, the view was expressed that the Tats came from Iranians resettled to the Caspian Sea even under Shapur II (309-381), the Shahinshah of Persia. And the Jews who moved here from Iran in the 5th century AD, adopted the Tat language, but remained faithful to their religion. According to other sources, the Persians appeared in Transcaucasia in 558-330 BC, when the dynasty of Achaemenides, the warlike kings of Ancient Persia, who successfully waged aggressive wars, annexed these territories in the form of satrapies, or military administrative districts. One way or another, but the Tats are a nation rooted in Ancient Persia.
Not the biggest people in the world
Now the number of this people is 350 thousand people all over the world, there are territories where tats live, and, despite the lack of unity of opinion, you can make yourself more or less clear about who they are, why and where exactly they settled. In all parts of the world you can find representatives of this nationality, but there are certain places where tats live compactly. The largest number of representatives of this nationality is currently in Azerbaijan. The next largest tat resident is Russia, here they are concentrated in the north of Dagestan. In addition, they live in Georgia, Turkey, and some researchers believe that Tajiks have common roots with tatami. They also live in this country.
The largest number of tats live in Azerbaijan
Let us return to Azerbaijan, where tats live in greater numbers than in other countries. As noted above, due to the policies pursued by the kings of the Sassanid dynasty (in particular, Shapur II), the Tats came to the territory of modern Azerbaijan from Iran and settled in Shirvan, a historical region of Transcaucasia, which is located on the western coast of the Caspian Sea and extends from the delta Hens in its southern part to Derbent in the north. The vast majority of immigrants professed Judaism. But the Tat in these territories willingly assimilated with the local population. In XIII, the Islamization of this nation was carried out. In the 30s of the last century, after the introduction of the concept of an Azerbaijani, many tats began to consider themselves them.
The love of language, carried through the centuries
Despite assimilation, adoption of another language, Islamization, fear of persecution on ethnic grounds, the Tats in Azerbaijan live and now, in a narrow circle, communicate in "Tat". Moreover, Azerbaijan has adopted a national policy to preserve this language. Primer and textbooks published. Absheron, Khizyn, Divichinsky and Gubinsky - these are the areas where tats live, from whose environment many famous people came out. For example, the world-famous composer Kara Karayev said that he considered Absheron, and not Azerbaijan, to be his homeland. I must say that in this country a small, but rather closed community of Tat Jews was preserved, whose distant ancestors, according to their convictions, were one of the lost tribes of the Israeli people, taken away by King Nebuchadnezzar even before our era. Data on the number of tats is very different. It can be concluded that the true number has not been established, and the real number of Tat in this country - both Muslims and Jews - is much higher than the declared one.
Dagestan - the focus of tats in Russia
Tats in Russia live on the territory of Dagestan, which is a multinational republic. In small quantities found in other republics of Transcaucasia. In total, there are 19.4 thousand people in Russia. And in Russia, disputes do not cease around this nation. Some argue that all speakers of the Tat language, belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, which is the dialect of the New Persian, should be considered one ethnos, while others do not agree with this. There is a version that in the VI century after the suppression of the Mazdakite movement in Iran, 15 thousand colonists were expelled to build Derbent fortifications and walls. Seven villages today are inhabited by tatami - Dzhalgan, Mitagi and Kemakh, Zidyan and Bilgadi, Gimeydi and located south of Rukel.
The status of an original people
In our time, the tats of Dagestan have received state status as an original people who speak the same language. True, this language, belonging to the Indo-European family, has dialects here - southern and northern, which is one of the literary languages of the republic. Taty - a nation (an established community of people) is hardworking, sedentary, engaged mainly in agriculture. Of the total arable land in Dagestan, most were cultivated by them. Representatives of the nationality cultivated inaccessible mountain slopes, turning them into fertile lands. In addition, where tats live, they have always been valued as winegrowers, skilled leather processors and great masters in the manufacture of copper utensils. For a long time, their way of life was patriarchal or semi-patriarchal. The main role was played by the oldest, to whom all implicitly obeyed. They had peculiar clothes and rich cuisine preserved to this day. Interesting Tatian folklore, including legends, parables and tales, has been preserved thanks to folk tales. In the large multinational family of Dagestan peoples, this ethnos takes its rightful place, and the debate about who is the true Tat will continue for a very long time.
And where tats still live
Adygea and Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, North Ossetia and Chechnya - these are the republics where tats live in Russia. True, in very small groups, no more than 2-3 thousand. These are not diasporas, which imply a cohesive, stable ethnic group, part of a people outside their country, living according to the mores and customs of their homeland. They are simply representatives of a different nationality, which is not uncommon in the Caucasus. Another southern country where tats live is Georgia. Azerbaijan, Dagestan and Iran are the birthplace of the Shiite Tats, and Georgia and Armenia are the former republics of the union, where mainly Christian Tats live. But for the most part, they consider themselves Armenians and Georgians and are perplexed why many of them speak the Azerbaijani language.
