Among the many descendants of the biblical forefather Abraham and his sons Isaac and Jacob, a sub-ethnic group of Jews, who have long settled in the Caucasus region and referred to as Mountain Jews, is a special category. Having retained their historical name, at present they mainly left their former habitat, settling in Israel, America, Western Europe and Russia.
Replenishment among the peoples of the Caucasus
Researchers attribute the earliest appearance of Jewish tribes among the peoples of the Caucasus to two periods important in the history of the sons of Israel - Assyrian captivity (VIII century BC. E.) and Babylonian, which occurred two centuries later. Fleeing from inevitable enslavement, the descendants of the tribes of Simeon - one of the twelve sons of the biblical forefather Jacob - and his brother Manasseh first moved to the territory of present-day Dagestan and Azerbaijan, and from there dispersed throughout the Caucasus.
Already in a later historical period (approximately in the 5th century A.D.) mountain Jews intensively arrived in the Caucasus from Persia. The reason why they left the formerly inhabited territories was also the uninterrupted aggression wars.
The immigrants brought a peculiar mountain-Jewish language to their new homeland, which belonged to one of the language groups of the southwestern Jewish-Iranian branch. However, one should not confuse the Mountain Jews with the Georgian. With a common religion between them, there are significant differences in language and culture.
Jews of the Khazar Khaganate
It was the mountain Jews who rooted Judaism in the Khazar Khaganate, a powerful medieval state that controlled the territories from the Ciscaucasia to the Dnieper, including the Lower and Middle Volga, part of the Crimea, and also the steppe regions of Eastern Europe. Under the influence of the rabbis-migrants, the ruling political elite of Khazaria for the most part adopted the law of the prophet Moses.
As a result, the state was significantly strengthened by combining the potential of local warlike tribes and trade and economic ties, which were very rich in the Jews who joined it. In his dependence then turned out to be a number of East Slavic peoples.
The role of the Khazar Jews in the fight against the Arab conquerors
Mountain Jews provided the Khazars invaluable assistance in the fight against Arab expansion in the VIII century. Thanks to them, it was possible to significantly reduce the territories captured by the commanders Abu Muslim and Mervan, who ousted the Khazars to the Volga with fire and sword, as well as forcibly Islamized the population of the captured areas.
The Arabs owe their military successes only to the internal civil strife that arose among the rulers of the Kaganate. As it often happened in history, they were ruined by an excessive thirst for power and personal ambitions. Manuscripts of the time tell, for example, about the armed struggle that broke out between supporters of the High Rabbi Yitzhak Kundishkan and the prominent Khazar commander Samsam. In addition to open clashes, which caused considerable damage to both sides, the usual tricks in such cases — bribery, slander, and court intrigues — were used.
The end of the Khazar Khaganate came in 965, when the Russian prince Svyatoslav Igorevich, who managed to win over Georgians, Pechenegs, as well as Khorezm and Byzantium, defeated Khazaria. Mountain Jews in Dagestan fell under his blow, as the prince's squad captured the city of Semender.
Mongol invasion period
But the Jewish language sounded for several centuries in the expanses of Dagestan and Chechnya, until in 1223 the Mongols, led by Khan Batu, and in 1396 - Tamerlane, destroyed the entire Jewish diaspora in them. Those who managed to survive these terrible invasions were forced to accept Islam and forever abandon the language of their ancestors.
The history of mountain Jews living in the territory of northern Azerbaijan is also full of drama. In 1741, they were attacked by Arab troops led by Nadir Shah. It did not become fatal for the people as a whole, but, like any invasion of the conquerors, it brought untold suffering.
Scroll, which became a shield to the Jewish community
These events are reflected in folklore. To this day, there is a legend about how the Lord Himself stood up for His chosen people. They say that once Nadir Shah broke into one of the synagogues while reading the holy Torah and demanded that the Jews present renounce their faith and convert to Islam.
Hearing a categorical refusal, he swung his sword down on a rabbi. He instinctively raised a Torah scroll above his head - and the battle steel was bogged down in him, failing to cut down the shabby parchment. Great fear grasped the patriarch who raised his hand to the shrine. He shamefully fled and ordered henceforth to stop the persecution of the Jews.
Years of the conquest of the Caucasus
All Jews of the Caucasus, including mountain Jews, suffered innumerable sacrifices during the struggle with Shamil (1834-1859), which carried out the forcible Islamization of vast territories. By the example of events unfolding in the Andean Valley, where the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants chose death over the rejection of Judaism, one can get a general idea of the drama that was playing then.
It is known that members of the numerous communities of Mountain Jews scattered throughout the Caucasus were engaged in healing, trade and various crafts. Knowing perfectly the language and customs of the peoples around them, as well as imitating them in their clothes and kitchen, they nevertheless did not assimilate with them, but, firmly adhering to Judaism, preserved national unity.
With this link connecting them, or, as it is now customary to say, “a spiritual bond, ” Shamil waged an irreconcilable struggle. However, at times he was forced to make concessions, since his army, constantly in the heat of battles with Russian army units, needed the help of skilled Jewish healers. In addition, it was the Jews who supplied the warriors with food and all the necessary goods.
As is known from the chronicles of that time, the Russian troops who seized the Caucasus in order to establish state power there did not oppress the Jews, but did not render them any help. If they turned to the command with such requests, they met, as a rule, an indifferent refusal.
In the service of the Russian Tsar
However, in 1851, Prince A.I. Boryatinsky, appointed commander-in-chief, decided to use the Mountain Jews in the fight against Shamil and created from them a widely ramified intelligence network, supplying him with detailed information about the locations of the enemy units and their movements. In this role, they completely replaced the false and corrupt Dagestan scouts.
According to Russian staff officers, the main features of the Mountain Jews were fearlessness, composure, cunning, caution and the ability to take the enemy by surprise. Given these properties, since 1853 it was customary to have at least sixty highland Jews in the horse regiments that fought in the Caucasus, and on foot their number reached ninety people.
Paying tribute to the heroism of the Mountain Jews and their contribution to the subjugation of the Caucasus, at the end of the war they were all exempted from paying taxes for a period of twenty years and received the right to freely move around Russia.
The hardships of civil war
The years of the civil war were extremely difficult for them. Hardworking and entrepreneurial, the mountain Jews for the most part had plenty, which in the atmosphere of general chaos and lawlessness made them the coveted prey of armed robbers. So, back in 1917, the communities living in Khasavyurt and Grozny underwent total sacking, and a year later the same fate befell the Jews of Nalchik.
Many Mountain Jews died in battles with bandits, where they fought alongside representatives of other Caucasian peoples. The events of 1918 are sadly memorable, for example, when, together with the Dagestanis, they had to repulse the attack of the detachments of the chieftain Serebryakov, one of the closest associates of General Kornilov. During the long and fierce battles, many of them were killed, and those who managed to survive, together with their families left the Caucasus forever, moving to Russia.
Years of World War II
During the Great Patriotic War, the names of Mountain Jews were repeatedly mentioned among the heroes awarded the highest state awards. The reason for this was their selfless courage and heroism, shown in the fight against the enemy. Those of them who found themselves in the occupied territories, for the most part, became victims of the Nazis. The history of the Holocaust included a tragedy that took place in 1942 in the village of Bogdanovka, Smolensk region, where the Germans organized the mass execution of Jews, most of whom came from the Caucasus.
General data on the number of people, their culture and language
Currently, the total number of Mountain Jews is about one hundred and fifty thousand people. Of these, according to recent data, one hundred thousand live in Israel, twenty thousand in Russia, the same in the United States, and the rest were distributed among countries in Western Europe. A small number of them are also in Azerbaijan.
The original language of the Mountain Jews has practically gone out of use and has given way to the dialects of those peoples among which they live today. The general national culture is largely preserved. It is a rather complex conglomerate of Jewish and Caucasian traditions.
Influence on the Jewish culture of other peoples of the Caucasus
As mentioned above, wherever they have to settle, they quickly began to resemble the locals, adopting their customs, manner of dressing and even the kitchen, but they always sacredly kept their religion. It was Judaism that allowed all Jews, including the Jews, to remain a united nation for centuries.
And to do this was very difficult. Even at present, there are about sixty-two ethnic groups in the Caucasus, including its northern and southern parts. As for the past centuries, according to researchers, their number was much larger. It is generally accepted that among other nationalities the Abkhaz, Avars, Ossetians, Dagestanis and Chechens had the greatest influence on the culture (but not religion) of Mountain Jews.
Surnames of Mountain Jews
Today, together with all their brothers in faith, Mountain Jews also make a great contribution to world culture and economy. The surnames of many of them are well known not only in the countries where they live, but also abroad. For example, the well-known banker Abramov Rafael Yakovlevich and his son - a prominent businessman Yan Rafaelievich, Israeli writer and literary figure Eldar Gurshumov, sculptor, author of the monument to the Unknown Soldier and the Kremlin Wall, Yuno Ruvimovich Rabaev and many others.
As for the very origin of the names of mountain Jews, many of them appeared quite late - in the second half or at the very end of the XIX century, when the Caucasus was finally annexed to the Russian Empire. Prior to this, they were not used among the Mountain Jews; each of them perfectly managed only with his own name.
When they became citizens of Russia, then everyone received a document in which the official was obliged to indicate the name. As a rule, the Russian ending “ov” or the female “ova” was added to the name of the father. For example: Ashurov is the son of Ashur, or Shaulov is the daughter of Shaul. However, there were exceptions. By the way, the majority of Russian surnames are also formed: Ivanov - the son of Ivan, Petrov - the daughter of Peter, and so on.
