Before we find out where live Tats, it is desirable to know who they are.From the outset, it is necessary to stipulate that the word "Tats" initially represented the ethnonym.That is not the name of the people, nation, tribe.Rather, it is a social concept.
social terms
Tatami Turks called settled tribes, denoting this term way of life and position in society.And not just settled tribes and conquered them.Therefore, the name was of pejorative.Later, the Turks, the term "Tat" means a person who is in the service.So, to say that there is a national Tats, it is necessary with a reservation.During times in different areas, this term had distinct values.Thus, in the early Middle Ages the entire population of Central Asia and the Middle East, saying the Iranian language called tatami.In Iran, the term is applied to the settled Iranian-speaking tribes.
now rather Nationality
Time passed, and the people turned into ethnic group.Nowadays, the phrase "nationality Tats" is found everywhere.Sometimes, with the proviso that there is no clear definition of what nationality.With this concept, or simplified, or deliberately distorted.Anyway, it is nationality or language group, the Caucasus or Iranian Persian ethnicity, of the names it is clear that where there Tats, there is heat.It is mainly the southern backgammon.Depending on the region of residence, at the Tats, there are many self-names - Parsi and lohidzhihon, dagly and thieves.Every nation has its own interesting history.The older people, the rich history.The first mention of tatah is, according to some historians, the time of the Khazar Khanate, ie VII-X centuries.Tata extraordinarily diverse.In its composition, they are both Christians (mainly monofistov), Jews and Muslims (Sunni and Shia).
no consensus
separate group here include Tata - Mountain Jews.Although other historians convincingly argue that absolutely can not combine these concepts, describing completely different peoples.Mountain Jews or givry - Jewish subethnos (the name identifies a group of people living compact and different from their ethnic group small but characteristic features due to the history of education).Tata - mostly Iranian nation or tribe Persians.A Mountain Jews - the people, leaving the roots in Judea.On the territory of Russia in the early XX century, the Mountain Jews, for fear of persecution on ethnic grounds, recorded the mat.Maybe it was because of the stay on some areas and a common language - and Tats and mountain Jews spoke the Tat language until the emergence of the Republic of Azerbaijan.It must be confessed, in Soviet Russia, there has always been a tacit oppression of Jews.Now, a century later, for the residents of Daghestan Tats, Mountain Jews - the concept of identical, synonymous.
Jews, when it is necessary to make aliyah
However, when, after perestroika, many Jews were pulled to their historic homeland, Tata Steel prove that they are the Mountain Jews.So confusing was even more confusing, and on any matter there is no consensus.At the end of the XIX century it was suggested that the Tats are descended from the Iranians, relocated to the Caspian Sea is still under Shapur II (309-381), shahin-shah of Persia.And the Jews who have migrated here from Iran in the V century AD, embraced the Tat language, but remained faithful to their religion.According to other sources, the Persians appeared in the Caucasus in the years 558-330 BC, when the Achaemenid dynasty, warlike kings of ancient Persia who successfully waged a predatory war, annexed the territory in the form of satrapies, or military-administrative districts.One way or another, but Tats - nation, leaving its roots in ancient Persia.
Not the greatest nation in the world
Now the number of these people is 350 thousand people around the world, there are areas inhabited by Tats, and it is possible, despite the lack of consensus, to make a more or less clear picture,who they are, why and where it is settled.In all parts of the world can find the representatives of this nation, but there are certain places where Tats live compactly.The largest number of representatives of this nationality is today in Azerbaijan.Next largest living Tats - Russia, where they are concentrated in the north of Dagestan.In addition, they live in Georgia, Turkey, and some researchers believe that Tajiks have tatami common roots.On the territory of this country, they also live.
largest number of Tats living in Azerbaijan
return to Azerbaijan, where there are sults in greater numbers than in other countries.As noted above, because of the policy pursued by the kings of the Sassanid dynasty (in particular, Shapur II), Tats on the territory of modern Azerbaijan came from Iran and settled in Shirvan, historical region of the Caucasus, which is located on the western shore of the Caspian Sea and extends from the deltaChickens in the southern part of its Derbent in the north.The vast majority of migrants to practice Judaism.But Tata in these areas readily assimilated with the locals.In the XIII was conducted Islamization of the peoples.In the 30s of the last century, after the introduction of the notion of an Azerbaijani, many considered themselves Tats them.
love of language, zipped through the centuries
spite of assimilation, acceptance of the other language, Islamization, fear of persecution on ethnic grounds, Tats in Azerbaijan and now live in a narrow circle talking to "Tat".Moreover, Azerbaijan has adopted a national policy to preserve the language.Published primers and textbooks.Absheron, Khizi, Guba and Divichi - these are the areas where they live Tats, from whom came many famous people.For example, the world-famous composer Gara Garayev said that he considers his home to Apsheron, not Azerbaijan.I must say that in this country has remained a small but fairly closed community Tats Jews whose ancestors, in their beliefs, were one of the lost tribes of Israelites, led away captive by King Nebuchadnezzar before our era.Data on the number of Tats are very different.It can be concluded that the real number is not set, but the present number of Tats in this country - both Muslims and Jews - much higher declared.
Dagestan - the focus of Tats in the Russian
Tats live in Russia in Dagestan, which is a multi-ethnic republic.Small amounts are found in other republics of the Caucasus.Total in Russia they number 19.4 thousand people.In Russia, around this nation tense debate.Some argue that all speak the Tat language relating to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, which is a dialect of the New Persian, must be regarded as one ethnic group, with the other does not agree.There is a version that in the VI century after the suppression in Iran mazdakitskogo movement of thousands of settlers have been 15 sent to build Derbent fortifications and walls.Seven villages inhabited today by the mat - Dzhalgan, Mitagi and Kemah, Zidyan and Bilgadi, Gimeydi and located south of Rukel.
status of original people
Nowadays Tats Dagestan received official status as the identity of the people, speaking the same language.However, this language, referring to the Indo-European family, there has dialects - north and south, which is one of the literary languages of the country.Tata - nation (well-established community of people) hardworking, settled mainly engaged in agriculture.Of the total arable land of Dagestan most of them cultivated.Representatives of ethnic treated inaccessible mountain slopes, turning them into fertile land.In addition, where live Tats, they are always appreciated as the wine-growers, skilful handler of the skin and the great masters for the production of copper utensils.For a long time their way of life was patriarchal or polupatriarhalnym.The main role was played by old, who all obeyed.They had a kind of clothing and preserved to this day rich cuisine.Interesting Tat folklore includes tales, parables and fairy tales, preserved by national storytellers.In a large multinational family of the peoples of Dagestan, this ethnic group takes its rightful place, and the debate about who is the real tat, will continue for a very long time.
Where else live Tats
Ingushetia and Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, North Ossetia and Chechnya - this is the country, where they live Tats in Russia.However, very small groups of no more than 2-3 thousand.This is not the diaspora, which implies a stable cohesive ethnic group of the people outside of the country, living in accordance with customs and traditions of their homeland.It's just the representatives of other nationalities in the Caucasus are not uncommon.Another southern countries, where Tats - Georgia.Azerbaijan, Dagestan and Iran - birthplace Tats the Shiites, and Georgia and Armenia - the former republics of the union, which live mainly Tats Christians.But the majority of them consider themselves Armenians and Georgians, and wonder why so many of them speak Azeri.
If Christians - that monofisty
Indeed, to trace the formation of individual nations is difficult, even more difficult, if they are several times changed religion and place of residence.It refers to a nation as Tats.Their history is very complicated.Not all, especially non-experts, to understand how you can come out of the Iranian Jew to convert to Islam, speak the local language, preserving their culture, to assimilate with the indigenous population, and then another, and move to the neighbors, communicating at the same time in the Azerbaijani language.It is necessary to stipulate that Tats Christians were mostly monofistami.And this is not even the Christian doctrine and the doctrine of Eutychius, Archimandrite of Constantinople.It is rejected as heresy, Orthodox, Catholic and many Protestant churches.Maybe that's why, Tats Armenia and Georgia do not distinguish between them and the general population.It should also be noted that the concept of "mountain Tats" does not exist at all.There are villages in the mountainous part of Dagestan, where he lives, this nation, for example Rukel - a village situated on the slopes of the mountain called Dzhalgan.One article says that purely Tat village in Dagestan left.Residents of the mountain settlements down in the plains, and many immigrated from the country.
