Religions of the peoples of the Caucasus. Religions of the peoples of the Caucasus Beliefs of the peoples of the Caucasus

F.M. Takazov
Ph.D., Head. department of folklore SOIGSI

The work was carried out with financial support
RGNF 08-01-371004 a/u

The North Caucasus is a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional region. More than 50 nationalities live here, differing from each other not only in language, but also in culture and mentality. Ethnic diversity is present with the existence of all world religions here. The majority of the ethnic population lives in 7 national republics, which, except for the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, are dominated by Islam.

The first acquaintance of the peoples of the North Caucasus with Islam dates back to the 7th century. In 651, detachments of Arab cavalry under the command of the military leader Suleiman invaded Southern Dagestan and passed through the Caspian Gate to the north. But this invasion was not a success either military or political. In 652, their leader Suleiman died north of Derbent. Although the Arabs were unable to gain a foothold in Dagestan, the invasions continued for 150 years. From the second half of the 7th century, the Arabs began to spread Islam in the occupied territories of Dagestan. At the same time, they resorted not only to force of arms, but also to peaceful means, in particular to tax policy. The Arabs used this method of planting a new religion in almost all occupied territories. Those who converted to Islam were freed from the poll tax and sometimes the land tax. In addition, the Arabs also launched missionary activities. As a result, Islam in Dagestan began to gradually spread further and further into the mountainous regions. The appearance of the first Muslim mosques is also associated with Dagestan. The oldest mosque, Juma, built in Derbent, dates back to the 8th century. At the same time, the process of Islamization of the peoples of Dagestan lasted for centuries. A significant part of the population, especially in the mountains, remained adherents of previous beliefs until the end of the 15th century. For example, as the researcher of the religious beliefs of the peoples of Dagestan I.A. points out. Makatov, residents of the village of Kubachi and nearby villages adopted Islam only at the beginning of the 15th century, and the population of the Gidatlin society only in 1475. But Islam did not advance further to the north of the Caucasus at that time and had no success.

The penetration of Islam into the North Caucasus came not only from the south. In the lower Volga region there was the Golden Horde, in which Islam began to spread from the 13th century. There is some information about the penetration of Islam from the Golden Horde into the North Caucasus along trade routes. But, apparently, this influence was very insignificant and did not leave noticeable traces.

Among the tribes that were part of the Golden Horde and converted to Islam were the ancestors of the current Nogais. Already in the 16th - 17th centuries, the Nogais were considered Muslims. In fact, they were one of the first peoples of the North Caucasus to convert to Islam, although they were indifferent to issues of the Muslim faith for a long time. Thus, one of the travelers who visited the North Caucasus in the 17th century wrote: “They (Nogais - F.T.) are Mohammedans, but do not observe the rules of their religion, do not fast, do not gather for prayer; mullahs and trevijis (Muslim theologians - F.T.) do not live among them, since they cannot get used to their way of life.” Nevertheless, coming into contact with other peoples of the North Caucasus, the Nogais could not help but introduce the latter to Islam. In his historical and ethnographic essay “Abazins”, the famous Caucasian scholar L.I. Lavrov noted that the relationship between the Abazas and the Kuban Nogais undoubtedly contributed to familiarization with the Muslim religion, which gradually began to penetrate more and more into the life of the population of the Northwestern Caucasus. Sunni Islam penetrated to the Abazas from the Nogais and Crimean Tatars. The nobility perceived it first, and then the rest of the people. This could happen, according to L.I. Lavrov, during the 17th - 18th centuries. The appearance of the first Muslims in the North Caucasus, the famous historian and archaeologist V.A. Kuznetsov also dates it to the period of the Golden Horde. According to V.A. Kuznetsov, the Muslim religion has gained significant popularity since the 14th century due to the inclusion of most of the North Caucasus in the ulus of Jochi - the Golden Horde. According to some researchers, the largest Islamic economic and cultural center of the Ciscaucasia in the 14th century was the city of Majar on the Kuma River with a mixed Turkic-Mongolian and Alan population. Archaeological excavations of the North Caucasus archaeological expedition in the Upper Julata discovered the ruins of two Muslim mosques out of three, attested in 1771 by I.A. Gyldenstedt. I. Blaramberg also wrote about the three minarets in the “Tatar Valley” of Tatartupa in 1834. Consequently, it can be argued that already in the 13th - 15th centuries there were Muslim denominations in the North Caucasus, which the other peoples of the Central and Northwestern Caucasus, including the Ossetians, could not help but encounter. The third wave of the spread of Islam is associated with Turkey and the Crimean Khanate. In the 15th century, the Ottoman Empire, which rose from the ruins of Byzantium, became a powerful power. The Turkish Sultan was declared the Caliph of all Sunni Muslims. Already in the 15th century, the Black Sea coast of Georgia and Abkhazia fell into the hands of Turkey. In 1475, the Genoese and Venetian colonies on the shores of the Black Sea were captured. Crimea fell into the hands of Turkey, whose khan became a vassal of the Turkish Sultan.

In the 16th century, they began to seize the Black Sea coast, inhabited by Adyghe tribes. Gradually they managed to strengthen themselves along the entire coastline. The main goal of the Turks was to advance to the Caspian Sea, capture Astrakhan and the Derbent Pass. To solve these problems, they began to attract the Crimean khans, whose raids on Kabarda and other regions of the North Caucasus became more and more frequent. In the occupied areas, the Turks and Crimean khans tried to introduce Islam to consolidate their influence. According to A.A. Avksentyev, Turkish penetration into the coastal regions of the North Caucasus dates back to the end of the 15th century, and into the deep ones - to the beginning of the 16th century. It was at that time, in the middle of the 16th century, that the Islamization of the peoples of the North Caucasus, the Adyghe and Abaza tribes began. And the Crimean khans were active preachers of this policy in the 16th - 17th centuries.

But even among the Adyghe tribes, the process of Islamization took place depending on the political situation. The center of the spread of Islam was Anapa, which until 1829 was located in Turkey. Therefore, the Adyghe societies that lived closer to the coast previously came under the influence of Islam and the Turkish clergy. Thus, according to the testimony of travelers visiting the North-Western Caucasus at that time, by the middle of the 16th century Islam had strengthened only among the Adyghe tribe of the Zhaneevs, and the Circassian and Abaza tribes living to the east of them as far as Kabarda were pagans. The Turkish traveler Evliya, who visited these parts in 1641, wrote that Islam was slowly penetrating the Abaza, Circassians and Kabardians. He noted that the Temirgoy Circassians who inhabited the Laba River basin were only partially Muslim at that time. The Abazins of the Atemi tribe also had not yet become Muslims, and their relatives of the Bebirdkach tribe (Biberdukovites) were unreliable Muslims.

Although Islam began to penetrate intensively into the Adyghe tribes from the 16th century, among the Adyghe, Kabardians and Circassians it finally took root only at the end of the 18th century under the influence of Turkish expansion, and in some places even by the beginning of the 19th century. The fundamental academic work “Peoples of the Caucasus” directly states on this matter that “Islam began to penetrate the Adyghe people in the 16th century, but individual tribes accepted Islam only at the end of the 18th and even the first half of the 19th century under pressure from the Turks.” But, at the same time, it should be noted that many elements of paganism and Christianity among the Abazas, Adygeis, Kabardians and Circassians were preserved even when they were already considered Muslims. Even in the 19th century, Islam received a superficial perception among these peoples. The “Essays on the History of Adygea” quotes the words of a witness in the 60s of the 19th century, reflecting the then state of the religious beliefs of the population: “We have only mullahs and qadi Muslims, but they are from Turkey or from the Nogais; only two people out of a thousand of us read the Koran.”

The spread of Islam among the Karachais dates back to an even later period. Islam and the Muslim clergy did not have time to take deep roots in Karachay until the second half of the 19th century.

Islam began to penetrate the Balkars in the middle of the 18th century. But it finally strengthened only in the middle of the 19th century.

Thus, by the middle of the 19th century, almost all the peoples of the North Caucasus encountered Islam, although they accepted its teachings superficially. Islam penetrated all these peoples from the outside: some - by Arabs, others - by Turks and Crimean Tatars. Only the Nogais moved here after the collapse of the Golden Horde as Muslims. In addition to the Nogais, Stavropol Turkmens also came to the North Caucasus, already Muslims. Pressed by the Khiva khans, who drove them from fertile lands and deprived them of water, the Turkmens were forced to leave their native places and wander in search of a better life. Through Mangyshlak they reached the Astrakhan steppes, and in 1653 - to the banks of Manych and Kuma. Here they initially wandered in the footsteps of the Kalmyks, and then, pushing the latter beyond the Manych, they began to wander along the Kuma and Kalaus rivers.

In fact, the spread of Islam in the North Caucasus was accelerated by the protracted Caucasian War of the early 19th century. By this time, Islam had become a symbol of opposition to the imposition of its own customs and culture by the tsarist administration. Since the Russian authorities did not recognize any other religion other than Christianity and Islam, the North Caucasian peoples began to en masse declare themselves Muslims, which made it possible to oppose themselves to Christian Russia.

The traditional folk beliefs that preceded Islam by that time were already to some extent syncretized by early Christianity, which had the greatest influence on the peoples of the Western and Central Caucasus. Christianity penetrated into the North Caucasus from Byzantium. Already at the end of the 9th century, the Caucasian Alans adopted Christianity, although, as the Arab author Masudi pointed out, the Alans accepted Christianity during the time of the caliphs of the Abbasid dynasty, but after 932 they returned to paganism again, expelling from their country the bishops and priests sent by the Byzantine emperor. Evidence of this short-lived Christianity in Alanya are the ruins of Christian churches in Karachay-Cherkessia, dated by specialists to the end of the 9th - beginning of the 10th centuries.

Hudud al-Alem also wrote about the adoption of Christianity by the Alans, who mentioned the king of the Alans as a Christian. At the same time, he noted that among the inhabitants of Alanya there are Christians and idolaters. V.F. Minorsky, in the “history of Shirvan and Derbent” of the 10th-11th centuries, also wrote that “the kings of the Alans were Christians for a short time, but then returned to paganism.”

Although nothing definite is known about the existence of Christianity among the ancestors of the Circassians of that time, they could not help but find themselves in the sphere of influence on the one hand - Christian Byzantium, on the other hand - the Alans who converted to Christianity. Only with the fall of Byzantium and Alania, the peoples of the North Caucasus were cut off from the rest of the Christian world, as a result of which pre-Christian folk beliefs supplanted Christianity. But even that short period of existence of Christianity among them had a significant impact on the folk beliefs of all Caucasian peoples without exception. Many Christian rituals were transformed into pagan ones, no longer perceived as alien. Christianity also influenced the pantheon of the peoples of the North Caucasus, replacing the names of many pagan deities with the names of Christian saints. Thus, in the pantheon of many peoples of the North Caucasus the names are found in various versions: St. George (Uastirdzhi, Wasgergi, Geurge, Ashdzherdzhi), St. Elijah (Uacilla, Vacil, Elia, Eliya, Elta, Seli), St. Nicholas the saint (Nikola, Nikol). Although the listed saints entered the pantheon of folk beliefs of the Balkars, Karachais, Kabardins, Circassians, Ossetians, Ingush and some peoples of Dagestan, they retained only their names from Christian images, only replacing the names of pagan characters. Although the term “paganism” does not fully correspond to the nature of the beliefs of the North Caucasian peoples before their Islamization, since acquaintance with monotheistic Christianity transformed the consciousness of the peoples, as a result of which little was preserved from classical paganism.

In addition to Byzantium, Georgia carried out active missionary work on the Christianization of mountain peoples, thus trying to secure its borders from constant raids by mountaineers. A fragment of such missionary activity in Ingushetia is considered to be the pagan temple of Thaba-Erda, which researchers attribute to a Christian temple of the pre-Mongol period. According to E. Krupnov, “the active spread of Christianity from Georgia to Ingushetia dates back to the 12th-13th centuries. during the heyday of the Georgian feudal monarchy." In his geography, Vakhushti Bagrationi, describing Ossetia and the Ossetians, noted: “In the old days, they were all Christians by faith and made up Nikozel’s flock, the main example being the Dvalians, but in the present time the Dvalians are only called Christians, because they observe Lent, venerate and worship icons , churches and priests, and ignorant of everything else. They do not have a priest and remain unbaptized, except for those who receive baptism in Kartalinya and Racha. But in Tagauria, Kurtauli, Valagiri, Paikomi, Digoria and Basian, the leaders and nobles are Mohammedans, and the simple peasants are Christians, but they are ignorant of this and other faiths: the difference between them is only that those who eat pork are considered Christians, and those who eat horse meat - Mohammedans. Nevertheless, they honor the likeness of an idol, which they call Vachila, for they slaughter a goat to Elijah, eat the meat themselves, and stretch the skin onto a high tree and worship this skin on the day of Elijah, so that he would deliver them from the hail and give the harvest of the Earth.

In the XIII-XIV centuries. An attempt was made by the Genoese to spread Catholicism in the North Caucasus. Author of the 15th century I. Schiltberger noted that “their priests belong to the Order of Carmelites, who do not know Latin, but pray and sing in Tatar so that their parishioners would be firm in the faith. Moreover, many pagans accept holy Baptism, since they understand that the priests read and sing." However, this attempt at Christianization was not crowned with success. The memory of the Genoese is preserved in the folklore of the Karachais, Balkars and Ossetians. Apparently this period left the names of Christian saints in the Karachay calendar in the names of the days of the week: Eliya (St. Elijah), Nikol (St. Nicholas), Endreyuk (St. Andrew), Abustol (apostle), Geurge (St. George), Baras ( St. Paraskeva).

The folk beliefs of the peoples of the North Caucasus were not united. As much as one people differed from another, so did their beliefs. But there were also many similarities. These are mainly mythological images that reflected similar conditions of the social and economic structure of peoples. Thus, throughout the Caucasus until the end of the 19th century. hunting occupied an important place, which is observed by the existence of a hunting deity among all peoples. Even if the names of this deity did not coincide (Dal, Afsati, Apsat, etc.), the main stories around the deity of hunting were distributed from the Black to the Caspian Sea. The image of Elijah as a thunder deity received the same distribution. Even the rituals associated with someone killed by lightning were similar in their semantics. The differences could only concern the external form of the ritual. For example, the Circassians had a custom of putting those killed by lightning in a coffin, which they then hang on a tall tree, after which neighbors come, bring food and drinks and begin to dance and have fun. They slaughter bulls and rams, and distribute most of the meat to the poor. They do this for three days and repeat the same thing every year until the corpses are completely decayed, considering that a person killed by lightning is a saint. The Kabardians called the Thunder God Shible. He had water, fire, and thunder in his power. It was believed that during a thunderstorm, Shible gallops across the sky on a black stallion and that the rumbles of thunder are nothing more than the echoes of his heavenly horse riding. During the period of Christianization of the Circassians, the functions of Shible passed to Ilie (Elle). In honor of Yelle, the Circassians had a dance called “Shibleudzh”.

The Ossetians performed a circular ritual dance “tsoppai” over someone killed by lightning, after which they placed him on a cart with an ox harness and released them. Where the oxen stopped, the dead were buried there. The very place where lightning struck, regardless of whether someone was killed, or lightning hit a tree, or a building, this place became a place of worship, just like among the Circassians, Karachay-Balkars, and Ingush.

Accepting Christian rituals and Christian saints, Caucasians tried to adapt them to their cults and in accordance with their beliefs. If some Christian elements contradicted popular ideas, they were simply ignored, and in such cases Christianity left its imprint only on the name of the deity.

The combination of Christianity with pagan cults before the Islamization of the Caucasus became the predominant form of religious ideas. Christian missionaries continued to penetrate the North Caucasus until the 18th century. But under the influence of traditional cults and customs, Christianity in the Western and Central Caucasus was significantly transformed. The peoples of the North Caucasus have always tried to adapt Christian rites and saints to their ancient folk cults and traditional beliefs.

Despite the penetration of world religions - Christianity and Islam - into the peoples of the North Caucasus, folk beliefs continued to play a significant role until the 20s. XX century, despite the fact that officially by that time the entire North Caucasus professed only Islam and Christianity.

Today Islam in the North Caucasus is represented by the Sunni school of various interpretations. The peoples of the Russian Caucasus follow the following directions of Islam:

Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi persuasion: Abazins (Muslims from the 17th-18th centuries, 33,000 people - 1989), Adygeis (Adygs, Muslims from the 16th-19th centuries, 130,000 people - 1989), Balkars ( Muslims from the 18th century, 78,000 people - 1989), Kabardians (Muslims from the 17th century, 390,000 people - 1989), Karachais (Muslims from the 18th century, 150,000 people - 1989), Circassians (Muslims since the 18th century, 50,000 people - 1989), and others;

Sunni Muslims of the Shafiite persuasion: these are mainly the peoples of Dagestan - Avars (Muslims from the 15th century, 545,000 people - 1989), Ando-Tsez peoples (Muslims from the 15th-18th centuries, 60,000-1989) , Dargins (including Kubachi and Kaitag people, Muslims from the 14th century, 355,000 people - 1989), Kumyks (Muslims from the 12th century, played a significant role in the history of Islam among the peoples of Dagestan, 277,000 people - 1989 g.), Laks (one of the first Muslims of Dagestan - converted to Islam in the 9th century, 106,000 people - 1989), Lezgins, Aguls, Rutuls, Tabasarans, Tsakhurs (Muslims from the 11th century, about 400,000 in total - 1989), as well as Chechens (Muslims from the 16th-17th centuries, 900,000 people - 1989), Ingush (among them, Islam was finally established only in the mid-19th century, 215,000 people - 1989. ), and other peoples.

In the North Caucasus there are also Shiite Muslims (Azerbaijanis) and Jews (Tats, the so-called Mountain Jews).

With the strengthening of Islam over the past decade, there has been a growing trend in the number of supporters of traditional folk beliefs. In the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, two religious organizations professing traditional Ossetian folk beliefs have already been registered. The same trend is observed in Kabardino-Balkaria and Ingushetia.

Religious syncretism is observed in the ritual practice of mountain peoples. This is most clearly manifested in funeral and wedding ceremonies. Christianity and Islam also had a certain impact on ancient holidays (first furrow, flowers, cherries, harvest, New Year, etc.). Ossetians, Kabardians, Balkars and other peoples celebrate folk holidays that outwardly take on a religious overtones. Religious syncretism began to prevail in the system of traditional culture of the peoples of the North Caucasus.

Thus, the evolution of religious beliefs among the peoples of the North Caucasus went through 4 stages.

The first stage is associated with early pre-Christian pagan beliefs. The second stage was the penetration of early Christianity into the North Caucasus from Byzantium, which resulted in the syncretization of folk beliefs and paganism. The third stage is associated with the Caucasian War at the beginning of the 19th century, which resulted in the Islamization of the bulk of the population of the North Caucasus. Traditional Islam is superimposed on popular beliefs, which have come to be perceived as Muslim. In North Ossetia, the main population of which were declared Christians, while a smaller part were Muslims, in fact traditional folk beliefs did not lose their positions. As a result, there was a mixture of Christianity and folk beliefs, Islam and folk beliefs.

The fourth stage is associated with the collapse of the USSR and the fall of Soviet ideology. The fourth stage is characterized by the cleansing of Islam and Christianity from pagan traditions. During the reign of Soviet atheism, there was a struggle against all forms of religion. But Christianity and Islam retained their institutions, the continuity of transmission of traditional folk beliefs was broken, as a result of which they could no longer, like Christianity and Islam, be revived in post-Soviet times.

Notes:

2. Alekseeva E.P. Essays on the economy and culture of the peoples of Circassia in the 16th-17th centuries. Cherkessk, 1957.

3. Blumberg Johann. Caucasian manuscript. Stavropol, 1992.

4. Vakhushti. Description of the Georgian kingdom // History of Ossetia in documents and materials.

5. Krupnov E.I. Medieval Ingushetia - M: 1971.

6. Kuznetsov V.A. Elkhot Gate in the 10th – 15th centuries. Vladikavkaz, 2003.

7. Mythology of the peoples of Dagestan. Digest of articles. – Makhachkala, 1984.

8. Essays on the history of Adygea. Maykop, 1957.

9. Rizhsky M. About the cult of Shible among the Shapsugs // Materials of the Shapsug expedition of 1939, edited by Tokarev S.A. and Schilling E.M.. M., 1940. P. 47.

10. Smirnov V. Crimean Khanate under the supremacy of the Otoman Porte in the 18th century. Odessa, 1889. P. 11.

11. Proceedings of the Karachay-Cherkess Scientific Research Institute of History, Language and Literature. Vol. 4. Historical series. Stavropol, 1964.

12. Khan-Magomedov S.O. Derbent. M., 1958.

13. Tskhinvali. 1962. T. 1. P. 217.

14. Shortanov A. Adyghe cults. Nalchik, 1992. P. 115.

Religions of the peoples of the Caucasus

Introduction

The Caucasus has long been part of the zone of influence of the high civilizations of the East, and some of the Caucasian peoples (ancestors of Armenians, Georgians, Azerbaijanis) had their own states and high culture back in ancient times.

But in some, especially in the highland, regions of the Caucasus, until the establishment of Soviet power, very archaic features of the economic and social structure were preserved, with remnants of patriarchal-tribal and patriarchal-feudal relations. This circumstance was also reflected in religious life: although in the Caucasus since the 4th-6th centuries. Christianity spread (accompanying the development of feudal relations), and from the 7th-8th centuries Islam and formally all Caucasian peoples were considered either Christian or Muslim; under the outer cover of these official religions, many backward peoples of the mountainous regions actually retained very strong remnants of more ancient and original religious beliefs, partly, of course, mixed with Christian or Muslim ideas. This is most noticeable among the Ossetians, Ingush, Circassians, Abkhazians, Svans, Khevsurs, Pshavs, Tushins. It is not difficult to give a generalized description of their beliefs, since they have many similarities. All these peoples have preserved family and tribal cults, funeral rites associated with them, as well as communal agricultural and pastoral cults. The sources for the study of pre-Christian and pre-Muslim beliefs of the peoples of the Caucasus are the testimonies of ancient and early medieval writers and travelers (rather meager), and mainly extremely abundant ethnographic materials of the 18th-20th centuries, describing in the most detailed manner the remnants of ancient beliefs. Soviet ethnographic literature is very rich in this regard, in terms of the quality of records.

1. Family and tribal cults

Family-tribal cults held quite firmly in the Caucasus due to the stagnation of the patriarchal-tribal structure. In most cases, they took the form of reverence for the hearth and home - a material symbol of the family community. It was especially developed among the Ingush, Ossetians, and mountain Georgian groups. The Ingush, for example, considered the hearth and everything connected with it (fire, ash, fire chain) to be a family shrine. If any stranger, even a criminal, entered the house and grabbed the chain of custody, he came under the protection of the family; the owner of the house was obliged to protect him with all measures. This was a kind of religious interpretation of the well-known patriarchal custom of hospitality of the Caucasian peoples. Before each meal, small sacrifices - pieces of food - were thrown into the fire. But there was apparently no personification of the hearth, or fire (unlike the beliefs of the peoples of Siberia). Among the Ossetians, who had similar beliefs, there was also something like a personification of the nadochny chain: the blacksmith god Safa was considered its patron. The Svans attached sacred significance not to the hearth in the living room, but to the hearth in a special defensive tower, which every family previously had and was itself considered a family shrine; this hearth was not used at all for everyday needs, it was used only for special family rituals.

Tribal cults are noted among the same Ingush, Ossetians, and individual Georgian groups. Among the Ingush, each surname (that is, clan) honored its patron, perhaps an ancestor; A stone monument was built in his honor - sieling. Once a year, on the day of the family holiday, a prayer was held near the sieling. Associations of clans also had their own patrons - the Galgai, the Feappi, from which the Ingush people later formed. Similar customs are known among the Abkhazians: among them, each clan had its own “shares of the deity” that patronized this one clan. The clan annually held prayers to its patron in a sacred grove or in another designated place under the leadership of the eldest in the clan. Until recently, the Imeretians (Western Georgia) had a custom of organizing annual family sacrifices: they slaughtered a kid, or a lamb, or a rooster, prayed to God for the well-being of the entire clan, then ate and drank wine, stored in a special ritual vessel.

2. Funeral cult

The funeral cult, which was very developed among the peoples of the Caucasus, merged with the family-tribal cult, and in some places took on overly complicated forms. Along with Christian and Muslim funeral customs, some peoples, especially the North Caucasus, also preserved traces of Mazdaist customs associated with burial: the old burial grounds of the Ingush and Ossetians consisted of stone crypts in which the bodies of the dead were, as it were, isolated from the earth and air. Some peoples had the custom of funeral games and competitions. But the custom of organizing periodic commemorations for the deceased was especially carefully observed. These commemorations required very large expenses - for treating numerous guests, for sacrifice, etc. - and often completely ruined the household. Such a harmful custom was especially noted among the Ossetians (Hist); it is also known among the Abkhazians, Ingush, Khevsur Svans, etc. They believed that the deceased himself was invisibly present at the wake. If a person, for whatever reason, did not arrange a wake for his deceased relatives for a long time, then he was condemned, believing that he was keeping them from hand to mouth. Among the Ossetians, it was impossible to inflict a greater offense on a person than by telling him that his dead were starving, that is, that he was carelessly fulfilling his duty to organize a funeral.

Mourning for the deceased was observed very strictly and was also associated with superstitious beliefs. Particularly severe restrictions and regulations of a purely religious nature fell on the widow. Among the Ossetians, for example, she had to make the bed for her deceased husband every day for a year, wait for him at the bedside until late at night, and prepare water for him to wash in the morning. “Getting out of bed early in the morning, every time she takes a basin and a jug of water, as well as a towel, soap, etc., she carries them to the place where her husband usually washed himself during his life, and stands there for several minutes in this position, like as if giving me a wash. At the end of the ceremony, she returns to the bedroom and puts the utensils back in their place.”

Crimes, but also for actions that in our understanding are nothing more than petty hooliganism. However, it is also worth noting that in all cases, blood feud is provoked by very unseemly behavior. 1. Blood feud among the peoples of the Caucasus The most striking norm of customary law in the North Caucasus in past centuries was the widespread blood feud. The reason for blood feud...

Miracles and mythological miracles remain unclear. Komi ideas about the supreme deity En are probably inspired by Christianity. 6. Attempts to reform religion Since the 18th century. The tsarist government pursued a policy of forced Christianization of the peoples of the Volga region, a policy that was an integral part of the system of landowner-police oppression. This system caused dull resistance...

Support among the Adyghe peoples. (87). The above indicates that Islamic radicalism in the North Caucasus in all the noted forms (the most dangerous, but not the only one! - “North Caucasian Wahhabism”) is quasi-religious in nature and acts as one of the forms of realizing the nationalist and separatist claims of specific political groups, usually far from ...

Etc.. Despite the fact that the Abazins are a completely independent nation, their culture and religion are directly related to the culture of the Adygs. Consequently, to consider the history and development of the Abazin religion, it is necessary to consider the religion of the entire Adyghe community. God Tha Undoubtedly, the main place in all pagan religions of the Adyghe people was occupied by the great god. They called him Tha. By...

(meaning the totality of peoples inhabiting the North Caucasus and part of Transcaucasia: Georgians, Adygs (Kabardians, Adygeans, Circassians), Abkhazians, Abazas, Chechens and Ingush (self-name - Vainakhs), peoples of Dagestan (Avars, Laks, Dargins, Lezgins, Tabasarans, Tsakhurs, Rutulians, etc.) etc.)

According to the religious beliefs of the Caucasian peoples, the earth's firmament has a round shape, is surrounded by the sea or mountains, and at the edge of the world there is a tree of life that vertically connects heaven, earth and the underworld. According to the ideas of the Chechens and Ingush, the underground world consists vertically of seven other worlds, connected to each other by holes or hidden caves located at the edge of each of the worlds (later, the Ingush and Chechens arose the concept of a single underground world).

UNIVERSE

According to the native belief of Georgians, the world consists of separate worlds located on intersecting coordinates; the upper world (zeskneli), the earthly world (skneli) and the underground world (kveskneli) are placed vertically; horizontally in front of the center of the universe (sknel) is the front world (tsinaskneli), and behind is the back (literally “last”) world (ukanskneli). The upper world is inhabited by deities, birds and fantastic creatures, the middle world is inhabited by people, animals and plants, the lower world is the world of deceased chthonic creatures - devas, dragons, as well as deep waters. The three vertical worlds correspond to white, red and black colors.

The front world is bright and fertile, corresponds to the concept of “here”, and the back world contrasted with it is dark and mysterious, full of all sorts of dangers and surprises, corresponds to the concept of “there”.

Due to the ominous nature of the underworld, many rituals prohibited looking back.

This entire system of vertically and horizontally located worlds is surrounded by a dark external world (Georgian gareskneli), behind which there is nothing existing and which is understood as frozen darkness and unchanging eternity.

Vertically located worlds are delimited by a thickness of air and the earth's firmament, and horizontal ones by seven (nine) ridges or seas. The transition from one world to another is available only to deities or demigod heroes, and a person can make such a transition only with the permission of a deity through a “change of appearance,” i.e., death (Georgian gardatsvaleba, lit. “change of appearance,” means “death”) ""), when the soul temporarily leaves the body, “travels” along with the deities, moving from one world to another, and after returning again inhabits its body (Georgian Gakhua Megrelauri, Ingush. Botky Shirtka).

All worlds are connected by the world tree standing at the edge of the earth (its variants are a pillar on which the firmament rests; a tower; a chain lowered from the sky;
a deer with huge branchy antlers, along which you can reach the upper world), with an animal tied to it (according to the Abkhazians, when an animal wakes up and strives for freedom, earthquakes occur).

The Rodnoverie beliefs of the Chechens and Ingush associate the appearance of life on earth with a huge white bird that once descended to the earth, which was a flat, waterless expanse, without plants and living creatures. After the bird departed, water and seed emerged from its excrement, and seas, lakes, and rivers were formed from the spilled water; From seeds carried by the wind, various plants emerged. According to other Vainakh myths, mountains, animals, and people were created by the demiurge Dyala.

GODS OF THE CHECHENS AND INGUSHS

DYALA
In Chechen-Ingush mythology, the supreme deity, demiurge.

ELTA
(“grain grain”), in Ingush mythology, the god of cereals, patron of wild animals; one of the sons of the god Sela.

ERD
Erdy is a god in Ingush mythology. Has the appearance of a man, lives in the rocky mountains, in a cave from which a glow emanates. A holiday is dedicated to him at the beginning of mowing - the so-called. windy Monday, numerous temples and sanctuaries (Tkhaba-Erdy, Gal-Erdy, Tamyzh-Erdy, Maga-Erdy, etc.).

Tamyzh-Erda
according to the ideas of the Ingush, he is a small man sitting on a horse the size of a kid. When he is angry, his height increases fifteen times, and his horse becomes taller than a tower. There is a myth according to which Tamyzh-Erdy, in the guise of a goat, appeared to a shepherd when he was tending a flock of sheep at the foot of the Red Mountains; the goat spoke to the shepherd and through him ordered the inhabitants of his village to worship Tamyzh-Erda, while defining the details of the ritual. He then named himself and turned into the ether. Moldza-Erdy was worshiped as the god of war; Meler-Erdy - as the patron of fertility and drinks made from bread.

EL
el, in the mythology of the Ingush and Chechens, the underworld of the dead.

ESHAP
in the Nart-Orstkhoy epic of the Ingush and Chechens, an anthropomorphic, sexless monster guards the entrance to the tree (does not allow the living into it and does not let the dead out of it). Has nine eyes, nine arms and legs, fangs protrude from its mouth; he has a huge body, overgrown with long hair, covered with lice.

ZHER-BABA
in the mythology of the Ingush and Chechens, the character is in the guise of an old woman. In the Nart-Orstkhoi epic J.-B. - a prophetic old woman who fed the Nart-Orstkhoi people to their fill with bread baked from a very small amount of flour (saved from the times when dunen berkat - grace existed in the world), and told them the reason for the disappearance of dunen berkat. In fairy tales J.-b. lives far from human habitation - in the forest, in the mountains; she is kind, helps the hero (shows the path to achieving the goal, contributes to his victory over his enemies).

GODS OF GEORGIA

At the head of the Georgian pantheon is the supreme god - Gmerti, who, although he shares some functions with other deities, is essentially the only founder and guardian of the world order, the ruler of everything that exists. He resides in seventh heaven, and without his will nothing happens either under the sun or in the world of the dead. The remaining deities - Khvtisshvili (children of Gmerti) act as local deities - patrons and intermediaries between people and the supreme deity. The head of the latter is considered to be Quiria, the ruler of the land, who has his own tent, that is, a courtyard. According to some myths, he is considered an intermediary between God and the rest of the Khvtisshvili, who only on special occasions gather at the gates of the supreme deity.

GODS OF ABKHAZIA

At the head of the Abkhaz pantheon is Antsva, who absorbed the features of ancient thunderstorm and hunting deities, the mother goddess, etc.

GODS OF ARMENIANS

BUG
ZHAMANAK (“time”), according to Armenian beliefs, the personification of time is a gray-haired old man, sitting on the top of a high mountain (in the sky). As a time manager, he holds two balls in his hands - white and black. He lowers one ball down one side of the mountain, unwinding it, and winds up the second ball, lifting it along the other side of the mountain. When the white ball (symbolizing the day, the daytime sky), unwinding, reaches the bottom, the sun brightens and rises. When he winds up a white ball, and unwinds the black one (a symbol of the night, the night sky), and lowers it down, it gets dark and the sun sets.

GODS OF OSSETIAN

KARCHIKALOY
in the Ossetian pantheon he is the patron saint of birds. According to legend, K. and the patron of animals, Afsati, exchanged gifts. K. gave Afsati a mountain turkey, and he gave him a hare. Since then, when hunting a mountain turkey, people began to ask for luck to be sent to Afsati, and when hunting a hare, to K.

KAFTYSAR-HUANDONG-ALDAR
lord of fish; treats the Narts sometimes with hostility, sometimes benevolently, and is called a “foreigner.”

GODS OF THE KABARDINS

JIG-GUASHA
in Adyghe mythology, a goddess, patroness of trees. Distinguished by deep wisdom. Below J.-g. - a tree, its upper part is a beautiful woman made of gold and silver. She lives on the sea coast, where she is surrounded by thauhuds. J.-G. gave birth to a sunny son from Tlepsh (who met her during his travels around the world in search of knowledge for the Narts). The boy inherited his mother's wisdom: his first words contained advice to the Narts to navigate their hikes along the Milky Way.

GODS OF ADYGEA, DAGESTAN, etc.

In Adyghe mythology, the head of the pantheon, demiurge and first creator is Tha
- “sun”, ZEKUATHA in the Adyghe pantheon, god is the patron saint of travelers and horsemen. According to the ideas of the Black Sea Circassians (Shapsugs), Z. is always going somewhere. In its functions it is close to the god of war.

In Dagestan there is no common name for mythological characters with the same functions; almost every nation has its own gods. At the head of the pantheon are Zal (among the Laks), Beched (among the Avars), Gynish (among the Tsakhurs), Yinish (among the Rutulians), etc.

The mythological ideas of the Caucasian-Iberian peoples are characterized by the personification of the sun and moon, and other celestial bodies. In Georgian myths, the moon is a man, the sun is a woman; they act sometimes as brother and sister, sometimes as husband and wife, or as son and mother. The mountaineers of Dagestan gave the moon and the sun the appearance of a girl and a boy, and in some myths they were considered brother and sister, in others - lovers. The Abkhaz pantheon originally included the sunrise and sunset deity Khait, associated with the world of the living, the world of the dead, and the sea. According to ancient beliefs, all the rivers flow from the mountains into the sea kingdom of Haita through a huge hole. The female counterpart of Khaita is Kodosh, whose cult was widespread in the coastal zone of Abkhazia and among some neighboring Adyghe tribes (for example, among the Shapsugs), expressed in the veneration of groves and individual trees dedicated to her. Later, Amra (personification of the sun) and Amza (personification of the moon) entered the Abkhaz pantheon.

Patron gods

In the Caucasus, stories about deities are common - patrons and owners of natural objects - rivers, lakes, seas, mountain peaks, etc., as well as about the so-called. hunting deities, without whose consent the hunter cannot obtain prey.
There are also legends about the owners of wild animals, herding and milking deer and aurochs. They give the hunter game, killing which without their permission is prohibited, and the disobedient is always punished. Hunting deities include the Georgian Ochopintre, Dali, the Abkhazian Azhveipsh, with whom Aerg is sometimes identified, the Adyghe Mezitha, who supplanted the previously revered goddess of hunting Mezguashi, the Dagestan Abdal (Avdal), the Ingush Elta (who is also the god of cereals), etc.

Many Dagestan peoples exhibit totemic ideas. The totems are the ancestors of people - the bear, cow, dog, horse, and eagle.
The role of the snake is significant; Among the Avars and Laks, the snake is a good spirit, the patron of the house; among the Gidatlins, it is the personification of water, rain and lightning. Totemic ideas can also be traced in Checheno-Ingush mythology.

The patrons of people among the Chechens and Ingush are the bird that bestows grace (fara khazilg) and the snake.

In the Abkhaz pantheon of gods, Afa is the lord of thunder and lightning, sending fiery arrows from the sky. The Adygs believe in the great thunder god Shible, who, along with the god of the soul Psath, followed immediately after Tha (Tkhashkho) in the pantheon of gods. In Dagestan, the deities of thunder and lightning Ass (among the Laks), Arsh (among the Tsakhurs), and the deities of rain (Zyuvil among the Laks, Gudil among the Tabasarans, Gudi among the Rutulians, Godey among the Tsakhurs, Peshapai among the Lezgins) are revered.

Fertility Gods

Ritual processions with phallic dolls largely replicate the festivals in honor of fertility deities. In Dagestan, the Lezgins revered the deity of agriculture and cattle breeding, Gupar. Among other Caucasian peoples, these ideas are more differentiated. The Abkhazians, along with the main deity of cattle breeding, Aitar, revered the patron deity of livestock, especially buffaloes, Mkamgaria (Akamgaria, Skamgaria). The Adygs revered the patron saint of oxen - Khakustash, and cows - Pshishak; In addition to them, the deities were revered - the patrons of large and small livestock - Akhyn and Amish.

Also preserved are ideas about good and evil spirits, forest people, which were later combined under the influence of Christianity and Islam with ideas about the devil, Shaitan, and Iblis. In Chechen-Ingush mythology, tarams are good guardian spirits; There are numerous evil spirits - diamonds, hun sagi, uburs, vochabi, gamsilg. Among evil spirits, personifications of various diseases play a significant role. Among the Dagestan peoples, shaitans are anthropomorphic creatures, overgrown with hair, with twisted legs and arms, and smaller than a person. They live in secluded places, lead the same lifestyle as people: they celebrate weddings, give birth to children (in case of difficult births, they invite a midwife); love to ride horses. Sometimes they take the form of a familiar person (Avar myth “The Shepherd and the Father”).

- many peoples who spoke different languages. However, such systematization did not develop immediately. Despite the same way of life, each of the local peoples has its own unique origin.

Open full size

Scientists identify a group autochthonous peoples, (translated from Greek - local, indigenous, aborigine), which have lived in this area since their inception. In the northern and central Caucasus these are represented by three peoples

• Kabardians, 386 thousand people, live in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, in the Stavropol and Krasnodar territories, North Ossetia. The language belongs to the Abkhaz-Adyghe group of the Iberian-Caucasian language. Believers are Sunni Muslims;
• Adyghe people, 123,000, of which 96 thousand live in the Republic of Adygea, Sunni Muslims
• Circassians, 51,000 people, more than 40 thousand live in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic.

The descendants of the Adygs live in a number of states: Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia.

The Abkhaz-Adyghe language group includes the people Abazins(self-name abase), 33,000 people, 27 thousand live in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic and the Republic of Adygea (eastern part), Sunnis. The descendants of the Abazas, like the Adygs, live in Turkey and the countries of the Middle East, and linguistically their descendants are the Abkhazians (self-name absolute).

Another large group of indigenous peoples that occupies the North Caucasus are representatives Nakh group of languages:

• Chechens(self-name - Nokhchiy), 800,000 people, live in the Republic of Ingushetia, Chechnya, Dagestan (Akkin Chechens, 58,000 people), Sunni Muslims. Diasporas of Chechen descendants live in the Middle East;
• Ingush(self-name - galgai), 215,000 people, most of them live in the Republic of Ingushetia, the Chechen Republic and North Ossetia, Sunni Muslims;
• kistina(self-name - cysts), in the mountainous regions of the Republic of Chechnya, they speak Nakh dialects.

Chechens and Ingush have a common name Vainakhs.

Looks the most difficult Dagestan branch of Iberian-Caucasian languages, it is divided into four groups:

1. Avaro-Ando-Tsez group, which includes 14 languages. The most significant thing is the language spoken Avars(self-name - maarulal), 544,000 people, central and mountainous regions of Dagestan, there are Avars settlements in the Stavropol Territory and northern Azerbaijan, Sunni Muslims.
   The other 13 peoples belonging to this group are much smaller numerically and have significant differences from the Avar language (for example, Andes– 25 thousand, Tindinians or Tindals– 10 thousand people).
2. Dargin language group. The main people - Dagrinians(self-name - dargan), 354 thousand people, with more than 280 thousand living in the mountainous regions of Dagestan. Large diasporas of Dargins live in the Stavropol Territory and Kalmykia. Muslims are Sunnis.
3. Lak language group. Main people - laks (lacks, kazikumukh), 106 thousand people, in mountainous Dagestan - 92,000, Muslims - Sunnis.
4. Lezgin language group– south of Dagestan with the city of Derbent, people Lezgins(self-name - Lezgiar), 257,000, over 200,000 live in Dagestan itself. A large diaspora exists in Azerbaijan. In religious terms: Dagestan Lezgins are Sunni Muslims, and Azerbaijani Lezgins are Shiite Muslims.
   • Tabasarans (Tabasaran), 94,000 people, 80,000 of them live in Dagestan, the rest in Azerbaijan, Sunni Muslims;
   • Rutulians (my abdyr), 20,000 people, of which 15,000 live in Dagestan, Sunni Muslims;
   • tsakhurs (yykhby), 20,000, most live in Azerbaijan, Sunni Muslims;
   • aguly (agul), 18,000 people, 14,000 in Dagestan, Sunni Muslims.
     The Lezgin group includes 5 more languages, which are spoken by a small number of peoples.

Peoples who later settled in the North Caucasus region

Unlike autochthonous peoples, the ancestors Ossetian came to the North Caucasus later and for a long time they were known under the name Alan from the 1st century AD. According to their language, Ossetians belong to Iranian language group and their closest relatives are Iranians (Persians) and Tajiks. Ossetians live on the territory of North Ossetia, numbering 340,000 people. In the Ossetian language itself, there are three major dialects, according to which self-names are derived:

• Iranians (iron)– Orthodox;
• Digorians (Digoron)– Sunni Muslims;
• Kudarians (kudaron)– South Ossetia, Orthodox.

A special group consists of peoples whose formation and appearance in the North Caucasus is associated with the late Middle Ages (15-17 centuries). Linguistically, they are classified as Turks:

1. Karachais (Karachayls), 150,000 people, of which 129 thousand live in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic. There are Karachai diasporas in the Stavropol Territory, Central Asia, Turkey, and Syria. The language belongs to the Kipchak group of Turkic languages ​​(Cumans). Sunni Muslims;
2. Balkars (Taulu), mountaineers, 80,000 people, of which 70,000 live in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic. Large diasporas in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Muslims are Sunni;
3. Kumyks (Kumuk), 278,000 people, mainly live in Northern Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia. Muslims are Sunni;
4. Nogais (Nogailar), 75,000, are divided into three groups according to territory and dialect:
   • Kuban Nogais (aka Nagais), living in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic;
   • Achikulak Nogais living in the Neftekumsky district of the Stavropol Territory;
   • Kara Nagais (Nogai steppe), Sunni Muslims.
5. Turkmen (trukhmen), 13.5 thousand people, live in the Turkmen region of the Stavropol Territory, but the language belongs to Oghuz group of Turkic languages, Sunni Muslims.

Separately, we should highlight those that appeared in the North Caucasus in the mid-17th century. Kalmyks (Khalmg), 146,000 people, the language belongs to the Mongolian language group (Mongols and Buryats are related in language). Religiously, they are Buddhists. Those Kalmyks who were in the Cossack class of the Don Army professed Orthodoxy were called Buzaavs. Most of them are nomadic Kalmyks. Turguts.

©site
created from personal student recordings of lectures and seminars

Before Soviet power, especially in the high mountainous regions of the Caucasus, very archaic features of the economic and social structure were preserved, with remnants of patriarchal-tribal and patriarchal-feudal relations.

This circumstance was also reflected in religious life: although in the Caucasus since the 15th-19th centuries. V. Christianity spread (accompanying the development of feudal relations), and from the Vll-Vllll century. V. - Islam and formally all Caucasian peoples were considered either Christians or Muslims. Under the outer cover of these official religions, many peoples of the mountainous regions actually preserved remnants of more ancient and original religions and beliefs. Often, of course, mixed with Christian or Muslim ideas. This is most noticeable among the Ossetians, Ingush, Savans, Circassians, and Abkhazians.

It is not difficult to give a general description of their beliefs, since they have many common features. All these peoples have preserved agricultural and pastoral cultures. This is evidenced by a large number of sources from the pre-Christian and pre-Muslim periods, ancient and early medieval writers and travelers, and mainly the extremely abundant ethnographic materials of the 15th - 20th centuries, describing in the most detailed manner the survivals of ancient beliefs. Soviet ethnographic literature is very rich in this regard, in terms of the quality of the material.

Family-tribal cultures held quite firmly in the Caucasus as a result of the stagnation of the patriarchal-tribal structure. For the most part, they took the form of reverence for the hearth - a material symbol of the family community. It was developed especially strongly among the Ingush, Ossetians and mountain Georgian groups. The Ingush considered the family hearth and everything connected with it (fire, ash, tension chain) sacred. Many peoples of the Caucasus, Siberia and other regions threw pieces of food into the fire. Shrouds did not just worship fire and ash. They considered the pagan god Safa to be the patron of fire, and his hearth was worshiped not in the home, but in a special defensive tower, which every family previously had and was considered a family shrine. Among the Ingush, each surname (clan) honored its patron, perhaps an ancestor. A stone monument called sieling was built in his honor. Once a year, a prayer was performed near the sieling, that is, on the day of the ancestral holiday.

The united clans also had their own patrons - the Galgai and Fealli, from which the Ingush people later formed. Similar customs are known among the Abkhazians. Each clan had its own deity and a general clan deity. Always once a year, a prayer was held for him in the sacred grove under the leadership of the elder family.

Until recently, the Imeretians (western Georgia) had the custom of annual sacrifices (they slaughtered a kid, lamb or rooster), poured out prayers to God for the well-being of the clan, ate and drank wine from a ritual vessel.

Ritual rites are of the same type, but in some places with complicated forms; as a rule, they were buried in crypts, and the dead were isolated from air and earth. The more important a person was in the family, the more expenses were spent on the funeral and memorial service. This was developed among many peoples of the Caucasus. Purely magical rituals of combating drought are described among the Shansug Circassians. The ritual consisted of the entire male population going to the grave of the one who was killed by lightning (a stone grave, which was considered holy, like the trees around it). They all joined hands and danced barefoot and without hats around the grave to ritual songs. Then they raised the bread and asked the deceased to send rain. Next, the stone was tied to a tree and lowered into the water, after which everyone plunged into the water themselves.

Most of the deities whose names are preserved in the beliefs of the peoples of the Caucasus are associated with either agriculture or cattle breeding. Ossetians have the most revered gods with Christian names. Uecilla (Saint Elijah) is the patron saint of agriculture and cattle breeding. Falvar is the patron saint of sheep. Tushogr is a wolf shepherd who allows the wolves to slaughter the sheep. Among the Circassians, the main deities were considered: Isible - the deity of lightning, Sozeresh - the patron of agriculture, the god of fertility, Achin - the patron of cattle, Elish - the patron of sheep. Meriem is the patroness of beekeeping (from the Christian Virgin Mary). Plainche is the patron saint of blacksmiths. Tkhashkhuo is the supreme deity, the god of the sky (there was no cult of him, a weak figure in the religion of the highlanders). Among the Abkhazians, the deity Doja, the patroness of agriculture, occupied a very important place in religion. Aita is the creator of domestic animals, the god of reproduction. Aigir and Azhgveinshaa are hunting deities, patrons of forests and game. Afog is the god of lightning, similar to the Circassian Shabla. Cults, as a rule, took place at local sanctuaries - Dzedars, this is usually an old building or a Christian church, sometimes just a thicket of sacred trees. At each sanctuary there was a priest-dzuarlag, who presided over the performance of rituals. The Caucasian highlanders have preserved traces of craft cults, especially the cult associated with blacksmithing (as is known among the peoples of Siberia and Africa, for example). The Circassians revered the god of blacksmiths, Tlenis. The blacksmith, forge, and iron were credited with supernatural powers and, above all, the ability to magically heal the sick and wounded (especially when bones were broken); the patient was not allowed to sleep with the noise of the iron. The barbaric method of treatment was called “chanting”.

Along with the description of family-tribal and communal agricultural and pastoral cults and beliefs of the peoples of the Caucasus, one can also find remnants of more archaic forms of religion, including shamanism. The Khevsurs, in addition to the usual communal priests - dasturias, also had soothsayers - Kadygs. These are either neurologically abnormal or seizure-prone people. Or people who know how to imitate them. Kadygs were both men and women.

All these beliefs of the peoples of the Caucasus, as well as the witchcraft, witchcraft, erotic and phallic cults that existed among them, reflecting various aspects of the communal tribal system and its remnants, were mixed to varying degrees with religions brought to the Caucasus from outside - Christianity and Islam, which are characteristic of developed class society. Christianity once dominated most of the peoples of the Caucasus. Later, some of them leaned toward Islam, which was more in line with their patriarchal way of life. Christianity remained predominant among the Armenians, Georgians, part of the Ossetians and Abkhazians. Islam took root among the Azerbaijanis, the peoples of Dagestan, the Chechens and Ingush, the Kabardians and Circassians, and a small part of the Georgians (Adjarians, Ingiloys). Among the peoples of the mountainous part of the Caucasus, these religions in many cases existed only formally.