The Djaro-Belokani communities (also Char, Car, Jar, Djari, Chary, rarely Chartalah) [1] were a group of self-governing communities in the Caucasus from the 17th to the 19th centuries. They had close ties with the Elisu Sultanate to the southeast.
The entity extended for about 60 kilometres along the south slope of the Caucasus Mountains in what is now Azerbaijan. Here a series of valleys extended down from the mountain crest southwest to the lowlands of the Alazani River. The population was centered in the lower valleys and their outwash plains. To the southeast was the Elisu Sultanate and beyond that the Shaki Khanate. To the west was the Georgian Kingdom of Kakheti and north over the mountains was Dagestan. The lowlands to the southwest were inhabited by Georgians in the west and Azeris in the east. Its location near the Christian-Muslim divide and proximity to Dagestani raiders made it a battleground.
The ruling class was a mixture of Avars and Tsakhurs. The common people were Azeris and Ingiloys (ie Georgian Muslims). The four peoples tended to live in separate villages. The Tsakhurs came from north of the mountains (see Elisu Sultanate) and "Avar" may have originally been a vague term for Dagestani. Tsutsiev gives the predominant population as Avar and shows a migration south from the uppermost Avar Koysu River. [2] Early Russian documents tended to call the ruling class "Lezgians".
The political system has been described as an "aristo-democratic republic". It was a league of five communities with theoretically equal power. In terms of real power they ranked: Djari, Belokan, Tali, Mukhakh and Dzhinikh. Some add Katekh as a sixth. Djari had by far the most wealth and power. Decisions were made by one or more Jamaats or assemblies. The Jamaat elected a Qadi who had judicial and executive powers. Early writers emphasized the rightlessness of the common people. Recent writers reverse this. The Tsakhurs and Avars confined themselves to collecting a land tax and villages were led by "Agsakkals" (meaning 'White-beards' ie elders) who administered Sharia law.
Belokan is today a regionally important town as is Zaqatala 25 km southeast. From old maps (Baddeley, page 250) Tali is shown just south of the centre of modern Zaqatala, consistent with the site of the present sub-village of Yuxari Tala home to the 1910 Tala mosque. Mukhakh (now spelled Muxax) is shown south of that while Djari is almost certainly the modern village of Car (pronounced Jar) at the head of the valley that runs 8 km southwest to Zaqatala. Dzhinikh may have been near the modern Lekit. Katekh (modern spelling Katex) is 8 km west of Zaqatala. In 1830 seven of the 64 legal villages were north of the mountain crest near the original home of the Tsakhurs. In the early 18th century a Turkish firman recognized Djaro-Belokani control as far southwest as the Iori River. The western boundary seems to have been near Lagodekhi across the modern Georgian border.
This was near the area of Lekianoba where Dagestanis would cross the mountains to raid Georgia. Baddeley says that the Djaris were much involved and sold slaves at the Pashalik of Akhaltsikhe [3] Gammer thinks the economy was injured when the Russians defeated the Turks and blocked the slave trade [4] For the arrival of the Tsakhurs see Elisu Sultanate.
In 1562 Shah Tahmasp I granted lands west of the Shaki Khanate to a Tsakhur called Adi-Kurkul Beg. The Georgian kings of Kakheti claimed the area and lost a decisive battle in 1695. The Djaris won some battles and in 1715 submitted to Imam Gulu Khan who was Wali of Kakheti. The Djaris fought Nadir Shah's army in 1738 near Dzhinikh and killed his brother Ibraham-Khan.
Following the annexation of Georgia, several members of the royal family found protection with the mountaineers. It took seven campaigns for the Russians to subdue the area. On 9 March 1803, the Russians stormed Belokan and killed many civilians. On 29 March they entered the abandoned village of Djari. In 1804 General Gulyakov was killed on a punitive expedition in the area. There was another rebellion about 1806 and near this time the Djaris failed to take Fort Alexandrovsky on the Alazani. In 1830, after a 6-month rebellion, the inhabitants of Djari and other villages were resettled in the lowlands. Another attempted resettlement led to another rebellion in 1832. The Russian conquest in 1830 produced a strong backlash in Dagestan and contributed to the origin of the Murid War. [5] In May and December of that year Dagestanis fought the Russians in the Alazani valley. General Strekalov was severely defeated at Zaqatali. Hamzad Bek seems to have been involved in this when he was arrested. Hamzad Bek campaigned here in 1832, Daniyal Bek in 1848 and Shamil in 1853. Shamil's 1853 defeat was largely due to Argutinsky's remarkable march across the snow-covered mountains from Akhti.
The community was gradually whittled away. Its legal extinction is given by some as 1806 and others as 1830. In 1830 72,900 acres of their land were taken for settlement by Ukrainian Cossacks. {It is not clear what happened to these people.} In 1832 they were forbidden to use grazing lands between the Alazani and Iori Rivers. There were attempts to Christianize the Ingiloys and to classify them as Georgians. In 1830 the area became the Djaro-Belokani Oblast. In 1840 it became the Belokan Uezd, then Belokan Okrug and then the Djaro-Belokani Military Okrug. In 1839 it was divided into 5 Magils each under a Naib. The Magil north of the mountains was soon transferred to the Derbent Military Okrug and after the Murid War to the Samur Okrug of the Dagestan Oblast.
Dagestan, officially the Republic of Dagestan, is a republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus, along the Caspian Sea. It is located north of the Greater Caucasus, and is a part of the North Caucasian Federal District. The republic is the southernmost tip of Russia, sharing land borders with the countries of Azerbaijan and Georgia to the south and southwest, the Russian republics of Chechnya and Kalmykia to the west and north, and with Stavropol Krai to the northwest. Makhachkala is the republic's capital and largest city; other major cities are Derbent, Kizlyar, Izberbash, Kaspiysk, and Buynaksk.
Kakheti is a region (mkhare) formed in the 1990s in eastern Georgia from the historical province of Kakheti and the small, mountainous province of Tusheti. Telavi is its administrative center. The region comprises eight administrative districts: Telavi, Gurjaani, Qvareli, Sagarejo, Dedoplistsqaro, Signagi, Lagodekhi and Akhmeta.
Zagatala District is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the north of the country and belongs to the Shaki-Zagatala Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Balakan, Qakh, as well as the Kakheti region of Georgia and the Russian Republic of Dagestan. Its capital and largest city is Zagatala. As of 2020, the district had a population of 129,800.
Hamzat Bek was the imam of Dagestan between 1832 and 1834. He was the second leader of the movement begun by his predecessor Ghazi Muhammad for the implementation of sharia in Dagestan. He fought against local communities and rulers that followed customary law (adat) and against the Russian army. Unlike his predecessor Ghazi Muhammad and his successor Shamil, Hamzat Bek was the son of an Avar nobleman and was not a member of the Naqshbandiyya-Khalidiyya Sufi order. He became one of Ghazi Muhammad's commanders and was immediately proclaimed the imam's successor after his death in battle in October 1832. By early 1834, he had subjugated most of the Avar plateau and captured Khunzakh, the capital of the Avar Khanate, killing its ruling family. After this, Hamzat Bek may have claimed the title of Avar khan, trying to combine the authority of the traditional Avar nobility with the Islamic authority of his movement. In October 1834, he was assassinated by Hajji Uthman, a relative of the Avar ruling family and the brother of Hajji Murad.
Hadji Murad was an important North Caucasian Avar leader during the resistance of the peoples of Dagestan and Chechnya in 1811–1864 against the incorporation of the region into the Russian Empire.
Saingilo is a cultural region in the Caucasus. The term was invented in the nineteenth century to designate districts of Balakan, Zaqatala and Qakh — altogether an area of 4,780 km2 — currently part of Azerbaijan, with an Ingiloy Georgian minority.
Zaqatala is a city in northwestern Azerbaijan and the administrative center of the Zagatala District. It has a municipal population of 31,300 inhabitants and is located on the Tala River. The municipality consists of the city of Zaqatala and the nearby village of Qazangül.
The Tsakhur or Saxur people are a Lezgin sub-ethnic group of northern Azerbaijan and southern Dagestan (Russia). The group numbers around 30,000 people and are called yiqy, but are generally known by the name Tsakhur, which derives from the name of a Dagestani village, where they make up the majority.
Ghāzī Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿil al-Gimrāwī al-Dāghistānī, called Kazi-Mulla (Кази-Мулла) or Kazi-Magoma (Кази-Магома) in Russian sources, was a Dagestani religious and political leader who served as the first imam of Dagestan and Chechnya from 1828 to 1832. He led armed resistance against Russian expansion into the Caucasus until his death in battle in 1832. The imamate founded by Ghazi Muhammad continued fighting against the Russians and their local allies under his successors Hamzat Bek and Shamil until its final defeat in 1859.
The Russian conquest of the Caucasus mainly occurred between 1800 and 1864. The Russian Empire sought to control the region between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. South of the mountains was the territory that is modern Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Iran and Turkey. North of the mountains was the North Caucasus region of modern Russia. The difficult conquest of the intervening mountains is known as the Caucasian War. Multiple wars were fought against the local rulers of the regions, as well as the dominant powers, the Ottoman Empire and Qajar Iran, for control. By 1864 the last regions were brought under Russian control.
Qakh is the capital of the Qakh District in the north of Azerbaijan, near the Russian border.
Gazikumukh Khanate was a Lak state that was established in present-day Dagestan after the disintegration of Gazikumukh Shamkhalate in 1642. Its peoples included various Lezgin tribes and Avars.
Ingiloys are an ethnographic subgroup of Georgians who speak the Ingiloy dialect of Georgian. Ingiloys are indigenous to Saingilo, a cultural and historical region located in the northwest of present-day Azerbaijan.
Fatali Khan or Fath Ali Khan of Quba was a khan of the Quba Khanate (1758–1789) who also managed to dominate the Derbent, Baku, Talysh and Shirvan Khanates, as well as the Salyan Sultanate during much of his reign.
The Zakatal okrug was a special administrative district (okrug) of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, part of the Tiflis Governorate from 1893 to 1905. The administrative centre of the district was Zakataly, and it corresponded to most of the contemporary districts of Balakan, Zaqatala and Qax of Azerbaijan. The Zakatal okrug was established from the territories of the erstwhile Free Jamaats of Jar-Balakan, bordering the Tiflis Governorate to the west, the Elizavetpol Governorate to the south and the Dagestan Oblast to the north. The district was the smallest independent administrative unit of the Russian Empire, similarly to the Sukhumi okrug.
The Russian conquest of Chechnya and Dagestan, between 1829 and 1859 also called the Murid War, was the eastern component of the Caucasian War of 1817–1864. In the Murid War, the Russian Empire conquered the independent peoples of the eastern Ciscaucasus.
The Sultanate of Elisu, also known as Elisou or Ilisu, was a sultanate in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Mehtuli Khanate, or otherwise known as Dzhengutai Khanate was a Kumyk state in Dagestan that existed in the 17th–19th centuries.
Surkhay Khan Kun-Butta or erroneously Khanbutai, Khon-Butai, Khomutai was an 18th-century Dagestani military leader as well as last independent Gazikumukh Khan.
Daniyal Sultan or Daniyal Bek was an ethnic Tsakhur nobleman, general-major of the Imperial Russian Army and in Ottoman Army and the last ruler of Elisu Sultanate. He is best known to be one of the naibs (viceroy), relatives, as well as a member of the close circle of Imam Shamil.