Yarlykapov A.A. Beliefs of the peoples of the North Caucasus

Features of the culture of the peoples of the Caucasus. Family and tribal cults, patriarchal custom of hospitality of the Caucasian peoples. Rituals of the funeral cult. A form of religious rites associated with agriculture and cattle breeding. Deities, religious syncretism.

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 the 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 - 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 patrons - the Galgai, the Feappi, from which the Ingush people were 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.”

3. Agrarian communal cults

Extremely characteristic is the form of religious rites and beliefs of the peoples of the Caucasus, which was associated with agriculture and cattle breeding and in most cases was based on a communal organization. The rural agricultural community remained very stable among the majority of Caucasian peoples. Its functions, in addition to regulating land use and solving community rural affairs, also included caring for the harvest, the well-being of livestock, etc., and for these purposes religious prayers and magical rites were used. They were different among different peoples, often complicated by Christian or Muslim admixtures, but basically they were similar, being always connected in one way or another with the economic needs of the community. To ensure a good harvest, drive away drought, stop or prevent the loss of livestock, magical rituals or prayers to patron deities (often both together) were performed. All the peoples of the Caucasus had ideas about special deities - patrons of the harvest, patrons of certain breeds of livestock, etc. The images of these deities among some peoples experienced a strong Christian or Muslim influence, even merged with some saints, while among others they retained more original look.

Here is an example of a description of the ritual of an agricultural communal cult among the Abkhazians: “Residents of the village (atsuta) held a special agricultural prayer called “atsu prayer” (atsyu-nykhea) every spring - in May or early June, on Sunday. Residents contributed to the purchase of sheep or cows and wine (by the way, not a single shepherd refused, if necessary, to give a casted goat or ram for public prayer, although rams were rarely used as sacrificial animals). In addition, each smoke (that is, household - S.T.) was obliged to bring boiled millet (gomi) with them to a designated place, which was considered sacred according to legend; there they slaughtered cattle and cooked meat. Then an old man, respected in that village, was chosen, who was given a stick with a liver and a heart strung on it and a glass of wine, and he, having accepted this and becoming the head of those praying, turned to the east and said a prayer: “God of the heavenly powers, have pity on us and send us thy mercy: grant the fertility of the earth, so that we, our wives and our children may not know hunger, cold, or grief.” At the same time, he cut off a piece of the liver and heart, poured wine over them and threw them away from him, after why everyone sat in a circle, wished each other happiness and began to eat and drink. The skin was received by the worshiper, and the horns were hung on a sacred tree. Women were not allowed not only to touch this food, but even to be present during dinner...”

Purely magical rituals of combating drought are described among the Shapsug Circassians. One of the ways of causing rain during a drought was for all the men of the village to go to the grave of a person killed by lightning (a “stone grave” that was considered a community shrine, like the trees around it); among the participants in the ceremony there must certainly have been a member of the clan to which the deceased belonged. Having arrived at the place, they all joined hands and danced, barefoot and without hats, around the grave to the ritual songs. Then, raising the bread, the relative of the deceased addressed the latter on behalf of the entire community with a request to send rain. Having finished his prayers, he took a stone from the grave, and all participants in the ceremony went to the river. A stone tied with a rope to a tree was lowered into the water, and everyone present, right in their clothes, plunged into the river. The Shapsugs believed that this ritual was supposed to cause rain. After three days the stone had to be removed from the water and returned to its original place; According to legend, if this is not done, the rain will continue to fall and flood the entire earth. Among other methods of magically causing rain, walking with a doll made from a wooden shovel and dressed in a woman’s outfit is especially typical; This doll, called hatse-guashe (princess-shovel), was carried around the village by the girls, doused with water near each house, and finally thrown into the river. The ritual was performed only by women, and if they happened to meet a man, he was caught and also thrown into the river. Three days later, the doll was taken out of the water, undressed and broken.

Similar rituals with dolls were known among the Georgians. The latter also had a magical ritual of “plowing out” the rain: the girls dragged the plow along the bottom of the river back and forth. To stop the rain that was too long, they plowed a strip of land near the village in the same way.

4. Deities

Most of the deities, whose names are preserved in the beliefs of the peoples of the Caucasus, are associated either with agriculture or with cattle breeding - directly or indirectly. There are also patron deities of hunting. Among the Ossetians, for example, the gods were most revered (their images were layered with Christian features and even Christian names): Uacilla (that is, Saint Elijah) - the patron saint of agriculture and cattle breeding, sending rain and thunderstorms; Falvar is the patron of sheep; Tutyr is a wolf shepherd who allows the wolves to slaughter the sheep; Avsati is the deity of wild animals, the patron of hunters. Among the Circassians, the main deities were considered: Shible - the deity of lightning (death from lightning was considered honorable, a person killed by lightning was not supposed to be mourned, his grave was considered sacred); Sozeresh is the patron of agriculture, the god of fertility; Emish is the patron saint of sheep; Ahin is the patron of cattle; Meriem is the patroness of beekeeping (the name, apparently, from the Christian Virgin Mary); Mezith - patron of hunters, forest deity; Tlepsh is the patron saint of blacksmiths; Tkhashkhuo is the supreme god of the sky (a rather dull figure, there was almost no cult of him). Among the Abkhazians, the most important places in religion were occupied by: the goddess Daja - the patroness of agriculture; Aitar - creator of domestic animals, god of reproduction; Airg and Azhveipshaa are hunting deities, patrons of forests and game; Afa is the god of lightning, similar to the Circassian Shibla.

Of course, the images of these deities were usually complex; they were often assigned different and very vaguely delimited functions. These best-known deities were universal, although their veneration often took the form of the same communal cult. But in addition to these national deities, there were purely local patron deities, each community having its own; It is sometimes difficult to distinguish them from their generic patrons, because the rural community of some peoples of the Caucasus itself has not yet completely freed itself from the generic shell.

5. Sanctuaries

The cult of local, community patrons was usually tied to local sanctuaries, where rituals were performed. Among the Ossetians these were dzuars. A dzuar is usually an old building, sometimes a former Christian church, and sometimes just a group of sacred trees. At each sanctuary there was an elected or hereditary community priest - a dzuarlag, who supervised the performance of rituals. The Ingush had communal shrines - Elgyts, as a rule, special buildings; There were also sacred groves. Nothing is known about whether the Circassians and Abkhazians had such religious buildings, but each community previously had its own sacred grove; by the beginning of the 20th century. Only a few sacred trees have survived. The Khevsurs especially revered sacred places: these are the so-called khati - sanctuaries built among huge ancient trees (these trees were forbidden to be cut down). Each hati had its own land plot, its own property, and livestock. All income from this land and livestock went to religious needs - the organization of rituals and holidays. Elected priests - Khutsi, or Dasturi and Dekanosi - managed the property and supervised the rituals. They enjoyed enormous influence and were listened to in matters not related to religion.

6. Blacksmith Cult

The Caucasian highlanders also preserved traces of professional and craft cults, especially the cult associated with blacksmithing (as is known among the peoples of Siberia, Africa, etc.). The Circassians revered the god of blacksmiths, Tlepsh. Supernatural properties were attributed to the blacksmith, forge, and iron, and above all the ability to magically heal the sick and wounded. The forge was the place where such healing rituals were performed. Connected with this is the special barbaric custom of “treating” the wounded among the Circassians - the so-called chapsh; they tried to entertain the wounded person (especially if a bone was broken) day and night, not allowing him to fall asleep; fellow villagers gathered to see him, organized games and dances; Each person entering loudly struck the iron. The wounded man had to strengthen himself and not reveal his suffering. According to an eyewitness, sometimes, “exhausted by illness, noise, dust, the patient falls asleep. But it was not there. The girl sitting next to the patient takes a copper basin or iron ploughshare in her hands and begins to hit the copper basin (or ploughshare) over the patient’s head with all her might with a hammer. The patient wakes up groaning...”

The Abkhazians had a similar cult of the blacksmith god Shashva. They also preserved traces of the veneration of the goddess Erysh, the patroness of weaving and other women’s work. Little is known about other cults associated with women's domestic activities in the Caucasus.

The magical significance of iron as a talisman was noted among all the peoples of the Caucasus. For example, there is a well-known custom of holding newlyweds under crossed checkers.

7. Vestiges of shamanism

Along with the described family-tribal and communal agricultural-pastoral cults, remnants of more archaic forms of religion, including shamanism, can also be found in the beliefs of the peoples of the Caucasus. The Khevsurs, in addition to the usual community priests - dasturi and others - also had soothsayers - kadagi. These are either nervously abnormal people who are prone to seizures, or people who can skillfully imitate them. There were men and women Kadagas; “During the temple holiday, mainly in the morning on New Year’s Day, some Khevsur trembles, loses his memory, becomes delirious, screams, and thereby lets the people know that the saint himself has chosen him to serve. The people recognize him as a kadagi.” This picture differs very little from the “calling” of a shaman by spirit among the peoples of Siberia. Kadagi gave various advice, especially in the event of any misfortunes, and explained why exactly the hati (saint) was angry. He also determined who could be a dasturi or a dekanosi.

8. Religious syncretism

All these beliefs of the peoples of the Caucasus, as well as the witchcraft, witchcraft, erotic and phallic cults that existed among them, reflecting different aspects of the communal tribal system and its remnants, were mixed to varying degrees, as mentioned above, with religions brought to the Caucasus from the outside - - Christianity and Islam, which are characteristic of a 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 the patriarchal conditions of their lives. 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, some Ossetians and Abkhazians, and a small part of the Georgians (Adjarians, Ingiloys). Among the peoples of the mountainous part of the Caucasus, these religions, as already mentioned, dominated in many cases only formally. But among those peoples where stronger and more developed forms of class relations had developed - the Armenians, Georgians, Azerbaijanis - their original beliefs were preserved only in weak remnants (just as it was, for example, among the peoples of Western Europe), they were like would be reworked by Christianity or Islam and merged with these religions.

Now the population of the Caucasus, for the most part, has already freed itself from the dominance of religious ideas. Most of the old rituals and religious customs have been abandoned and forgotten.

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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 the 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 - 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 patrons - the Galgai, the Feappi, from which the Ingush people were 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.”

3. Agrarian communal cults

Extremely characteristic is the form of religious rites and beliefs of the peoples of the Caucasus, which was associated with agriculture and cattle breeding and in most cases was based on a communal organization. The rural agricultural community remained very stable among the majority of Caucasian peoples. Its functions, in addition to regulating land use and solving community rural affairs, also included caring for the harvest, the well-being of livestock, etc., and for these purposes religious prayers and magical rites were used. They were different among different peoples, often complicated by Christian or Muslim admixtures, but basically they were similar, being always connected in one way or another with the economic needs of the community. To ensure a good harvest, drive away drought, stop or prevent the loss of livestock, magical rituals or prayers to patron deities (often both together) were performed. All the peoples of the Caucasus had ideas about special deities - patrons of the harvest, patrons of certain breeds of livestock, etc. The images of these deities among some peoples experienced a strong Christian or Muslim influence, even merged with some saints, while among others they retained more original look.

Here is an example of a description of the ritual of an agricultural communal cult among the Abkhazians: “Residents of the village (atsuta) held a special agricultural prayer called “atsu prayer” (atsyu-nykhea) every spring - in May or early June, on Sunday. Residents contributed to the purchase of sheep or cows and wine (by the way, not a single shepherd refused, if necessary, to give a casted goat or ram for public prayer, although rams were rarely used as sacrificial animals). In addition, each smoke (that is, household - S.T.) was obliged to bring boiled millet (gomi) with them to a designated place, which was considered sacred according to legend; there they slaughtered cattle and cooked meat. Then an old man, respected in that village, was chosen, who was given a stick with a liver and a heart strung on it and a glass of wine, and he, having accepted this and becoming the head of those praying, turned to the east and said a prayer: “God of the heavenly powers, have pity on us and send us thy mercy: grant the fertility of the earth, so that we, our wives and our children may not know hunger, cold, or grief.” At the same time, he cut off a piece of the liver and heart, poured wine over them and threw them away from him, after why everyone sat in a circle, wished each other happiness and began to eat and drink. The skin was received by the worshiper, and the horns were hung on a sacred tree. Women were not allowed not only to touch this food, but even to be present during dinner...”

Purely magical rituals of combating drought are described among the Shapsug Circassians. One of the ways of causing rain during a drought was for all the men of the village to go to the grave of a person killed by lightning (a “stone grave” that was considered a community shrine, like the trees around it); among the participants in the ceremony there must certainly have been a member of the clan to which the deceased belonged. Having arrived at the place, they all joined hands and danced, barefoot and without hats, around the grave to the ritual songs. Then, raising the bread, the relative of the deceased addressed the latter on behalf of the entire community with a request to send rain. Having finished his prayers, he took a stone from the grave, and all participants in the ceremony went to the river. A stone tied with a rope to a tree was lowered into the water, and everyone present, right in their clothes, plunged into the river. The Shapsugs believed that this ritual was supposed to cause rain. After three days the stone had to be removed from the water and returned to its original place; According to legend, if this is not done, the rain will continue to fall and flood the entire earth. Among other methods of magically causing rain, walking with a doll made from a wooden shovel and dressed in a woman’s outfit is especially typical; This doll, called hatse-guashe (princess-shovel), was carried around the village by the girls, doused with water near each house, and finally thrown into the river. The ritual was performed only by women, and if they happened to meet a man, he was caught and also thrown into the river. Three days later, the doll was taken out of the water, undressed and broken.

Similar rituals with dolls were known among the Georgians. The latter also had a magical ritual of “plowing out” the rain: the girls dragged the plow along the bottom of the river back and forth. To stop the rain that was too long, they plowed a strip of land near the village in the same way.

4. Deities

Most of the deities, whose names are preserved in the beliefs of the peoples of the Caucasus, are associated either with agriculture or with cattle breeding - directly or indirectly. There are also patron deities of hunting. Among the Ossetians, for example, the gods were most revered (their images were layered with Christian features and even Christian names): Uacilla (that is, Saint Elijah) - the patron saint of agriculture and cattle breeding, sending rain and thunderstorms; Falvar is the patron of sheep; Tutyr is a wolf shepherd who allows the wolves to slaughter the sheep; Avsati is the deity of wild animals, the patron of hunters. Among the Circassians, the main deities were considered: Shible - the deity of lightning (death from lightning was considered honorable, a person killed by lightning was not supposed to be mourned, his grave was considered sacred); Sozeresh is the patron of agriculture, the god of fertility; Emish is the patron saint of sheep; Ahin is the patron of cattle; Meriem is the patroness of beekeeping (the name, apparently, from the Christian Virgin Mary); Mezith - patron of hunters, forest deity; Tlepsh is the patron saint of blacksmiths; Tkhashkhuo is the supreme god of the sky (a rather dull figure, there was almost no cult of him). Among the Abkhazians, the most important places in religion were occupied by: the goddess Daja - the patroness of agriculture; Aitar - creator of domestic animals, god of reproduction; Airg and Azhveipshaa are hunting deities, patrons of forests and game; Afa is the god of lightning, similar to the Circassian Shibla.

Of course, the images of these deities were usually complex; they were often assigned different and very vaguely delimited functions. These most famous deities were popular throughout the people, although their veneration often took the form of the same communal cult. But in addition to these national deities, there were purely local patron deities, each community having its own; It is sometimes difficult to distinguish them from their generic patrons, because the rural community of some peoples of the Caucasus itself has not yet completely freed itself from the generic shell.

5. Sanctuaries

The cult of local, community patrons was usually tied to local sanctuaries, where rituals were performed. Among the Ossetians these were dzuars. A dzuar is usually an old building, sometimes a former Christian church, and sometimes just a group of sacred trees. At each sanctuary there was an elected or hereditary community priest - a dzuarlag, who supervised the performance of rituals. The Ingush had communal shrines - Elgyts, as a rule, special buildings; There were also sacred groves. Nothing is known about whether the Circassians and Abkhazians had such religious buildings, but each community previously had its own sacred grove; by the beginning of the 20th century. Only a few sacred trees have survived. The Khevsurs especially revered sacred places: these are the so-called khati - sanctuaries built among huge ancient trees (these trees were forbidden to be cut down). Each hati had its own land plot, its own property, and livestock. All income from this land and livestock went to religious needs - the organization of rituals and holidays. Elected priests - Khutsi, or Dasturi and Dekanosi - managed the property and supervised the rituals. They enjoyed enormous influence and were listened to in matters not related to religion.

6. Blacksmith Cult

The Caucasian highlanders also preserved traces of professional and craft cults, especially the cult associated with blacksmithing (as is known among the peoples of Siberia, Africa, etc.). The Circassians revered the god of blacksmiths, Tlepsh. Supernatural properties were attributed to the blacksmith, forge, and iron, and above all the ability to magically heal the sick and wounded. The forge was the place where such healing rituals were performed. Connected with this is the special barbaric custom of “treating” the wounded among the Circassians - the so-called chapsh; they tried to entertain the wounded person (especially if a bone was broken) day and night, not allowing him to fall asleep; fellow villagers gathered to see him, organized games and dances; Each person entering loudly struck the iron. The wounded man had to strengthen himself and not reveal his suffering. According to an eyewitness, sometimes, “exhausted by illness, noise, dust, the patient falls asleep. But it was not there. The girl sitting next to the patient takes a copper basin or iron ploughshare in her hands and begins to hit the copper basin (or ploughshare) over the patient’s head with all her might with a hammer. The patient wakes up groaning...”

The Abkhazians had a similar cult of the blacksmith god Shashva. They also preserved traces of the veneration of the goddess Erysh, the patroness of weaving and other women’s work. Little is known about other cults associated with women's domestic activities in the Caucasus.

The magical significance of iron as a talisman was noted among all the peoples of the Caucasus. For example, there is a well-known custom of holding newlyweds under crossed checkers.

7. Vestiges of shamanism

Along with the described family-tribal and communal agricultural-pastoral cults, remnants of more archaic forms of religion, including shamanism, can also be found in the beliefs of the peoples of the Caucasus. The Khevsurs, in addition to the usual community priests - dasturi and others - also had soothsayers - kadagi. These are either nervously abnormal people who are prone to seizures, or people who can skillfully imitate them. There were men and women Kadagas; “During the temple holiday, mainly in the morning on New Year’s Day, some Khevsur trembles, loses his memory, becomes delirious, screams, and thereby lets the people know that the saint himself has chosen him to serve. The people recognize him as a kadagi.” This picture differs very little from the “calling” of a shaman by spirit among the peoples of Siberia. Kadagi gave various advice, especially in the event of any misfortunes, and explained why exactly the hati (saint) was angry. He also determined who could be a dasturi or a dekanosi.

8. Religious syncretism

All these beliefs of the peoples of the Caucasus, as well as the witchcraft, witchcraft, erotic and phallic cults that existed among them, reflecting different aspects of the communal tribal system and its remnants, were mixed to varying degrees, as mentioned above, with religions brought to the Caucasus from the outside - - Christianity and Islam, which are characteristic of a 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 the patriarchal conditions of their lives. 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, some Ossetians and Abkhazians, and a small part of the Georgians (Adjarians, Ingiloys). Among the peoples of the mountainous part of the Caucasus, these religions, as already mentioned, dominated in many cases only formally. But among those peoples where stronger and more developed forms of class relations had developed - the Armenians, Georgians, Azerbaijanis - their original beliefs were preserved only in weak remnants (just as it was, for example, among the peoples of Western Europe), they were like would be reworked by Christianity or Islam and merged with these religions.

Now the population of the Caucasus, for the most part, has already freed itself from the dominance of religious ideas. Most of the old rituals and religious customs have been abandoned and forgotten.

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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.”

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There was no unity in North Caucasian folk beliefs. The difference between one people of the North Caucasus and another, accordingly, also affected the rituals. However, there were many similar aspects in different religious cultures. In particular, this similarity concerned mythological images that reflected the peculiarities of the life of the mountaineers.

Thus, among all the peoples of the North Caucasus, special respect was given to the deities of hunting, the thunder deity (Ilya, Eliya). The ritual actions accompanying the funeral procedure for someone killed by lightning also had much in common among different mountain peoples. The Circassians placed the deceased in a coffin and hung the domino from a high tree. Then came the turn of fun and dancing for the neighbors of the deceased. They slaughtered bulls and rams. The sacrificial meat was mainly distributed to the poor. They walked like this for three days. Then the festival was repeated every year until the corpse decayed - the Circassians considered such dead people to be saints.

Among the Kabardians, the thunder deity was called Shible. Shible ruled not only over thunderstorms, but also over water and fire. Kabardian Elijah the Prophet in action is a horseman riding in the sky. Christianized Circassians called a similar deity Ilia (Elle). Their veneration of Yelle was expressed in a special dance - shibleuj.

The Ossetians danced tsoppai in front of someone struck by lightning. Then the deceased was placed in a cart, and the oxen themselves had to indicate the burial place - where the animals stopped, they dug the grave there. Ossetians, like the Circassians, Karachay-Balkars and Ingush, worshiped lightning strike sites - trees, buildings.

The mountaineers transformed Christian rituals and used the saints of this religion in their cults and beliefs. When elements of Christian culture did not correspond to popular ideas about deities, such aspects were simply not used by Caucasians.

By the 20s of the 20th century, pagan culture still played an important role in the life of the North Caucasian peoples, although by that time the entire population of the North Caucasus was officially divided into those professing Islam and Christianity.

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.