Jews in the North Caucasus before Khazaria
Interview
"Jews were exemplary fighters"
21.10.2022
How Chechen oil saved thousands of Jews from death and why the Germans mistook Jews for highlanders, historian and author of books about Derbent, honored teacher of Russia Yagutil Mishiev told Jewish.ru in an exclusive interview.
Derbent is called the most ancient city in Russia and has five thousand years of history. And in religious circles, you can hear the legend that Derbent was founded by almost one of the children of the biblical Adam. To what extent is this so?
- When Peter I visited Derbent, the head of the city said: "A city built by one great man meets another great man." This greeting refers us to another legend - that Derbent was founded by Alexander the Great. By the way, Peter I lived in the fortress for some time - this was the beginning of his Persian campaign.
And Derbent is really more than five thousand years old. This is indicated by artifacts found during excavations. I worked a lot in the archives and relied mainly on numerous Arabic sources, because the Arab scholars and historians at that time were quite enlightened. And such an ancient history of the city was largely due to its good location. Here was the most convenient road along which the nomads could go south - along the narrow edge between the mountains and the Caspian Sea. The Derbent crossing turned out to be in fact the only place where it was possible to pass through the mountains, but in the 6th century the road was blocked.
Yagutil Mishiev
How did the Jews get there?
- After the capture of the Kingdom of Judah, many Jews were forcibly resettled to other Middle Eastern territories, and after the defeat of the Babylonian Kingdom, many Jews did not want to stay in those places where they had previously been slaves. They went through Persia to the shores of the Caspian Sea: some of them settled on the right bank, some on the left. Thus, the Jews came to the Caucasus and Central Asia. These are different tribes of the same people or different tribes, if you like.
Much later, scientists found inscriptions and gravestones of the 15th-16th centuries in cemeteries, which, among other things, allows us to draw up a general picture of the movement and history of the Jewish people. And in the Jerusalem Talmud, by the way, there is a mention that Derbent existed at least as early as the first century AD.
Usually, with the advent of the Jews, everything changes immediately. How did their appearance affect the region and neighboring peoples?
- You have to understand that the Jews did not move to Derbent all at once, but arrived in waves. Fleeing, for example, from the Sasanian and Byzantine oppressions. But in the large local state created in the 6th century - the Khazar Khaganate, in which the Khazars, Muslims, Jews, and pagans coexisted - the Jewish segment was still the most literate. This is probably why the Khazars adopted Judaism. And Derbent and Cuba gradually took shape as the largest Jewish religious centers. Jewish merchants, who also brought religious books from Egypt, on the basis of which, by the way, a large library was assembled, thus laid the foundation for correspondence with other religious centers of Judaism.
Jewish quarter of Derbent
Did the term "Mountain Jews" come into existence long ago?
- Only in the XIX century - after the annexation of Derbent to Russia. Then progressive sections of the population began to arrive in Derbent, who saw Jews who were completely different from those who lived in Europe. After all, Mountain Jews adopted some character traits of the local population - they were good horsemen and exemplary fighters and, if necessary, defended their settlements with weapons in their hands. In other words, they knew how to take care of themselves.
What did the Jews of Derbent do in their spare time from defending their settlements?
- Basically - madder growing, due to which there are a lot of wealthy people in Derbent. Madder was used to make a durable paint that was successfully sold in Russia until a cheaper artificial dye was developed. Then the Jews switched to tobacco growing, vegetable growing and petty trade.
The whole life of the Jews in Europe was accompanied by pogroms. How was the situation with anti-Semitism in the Caucasus?
- Approximately the same. There were a lot of raids, destroying entire Jewish settlements. The most terrible raid took place on the village of Aba-Sava - one of the cultural centers of the Jews of that time. There were many victims and victims at the hands of the local khan. Those who were able to survive that massacre arrived in Derbent. And those who fled from another massacre, from the settlement of Helkot, turned to the Quba Khan, he showed his hand and said: "Live there, on the contrary." But later, under Soviet rule, there was no anti-Semitism as such in the Caucasus, and the Ashkenazim who fled here were accepted here as relatives.
REFERENCE:
In 1799, the ruler of the Laks, Surkhay Khan, attacked Aba-Sava at night and after a fierce battle in which 160 defenders of the village were killed, he executed all the captured men, destroyed the village, and took the women and children into captivity.
Here is how contemporaries described this event:
“Husbands and sons were killed in front of defenseless women, and women and girls were raped in front of bleeding men. Even the children were not spared: the victor destroyed all the boys, and took the women away in full.
“All the houses were burned down, corpses lay in the yards. Women, children, old people were slaughtered with daggers like cattle, many were stabbed to death with sabers and lances, many had their heads cut off. Among the corpses lay living children. The soldiers of Surkhay Khan took about 150 people from Aba-Sava into captivity.
There is practically no Ashkenazi family that did not have those killed in the Holocaust. To what extent did the Holocaust affect the Caucasus and the Mountain Jews living there?
- When the Germans came to the Caucasus, they, accustomed to seeing bright Ashkenazim in front of them, mistook the local Jews for mountaineers. However, there was a traitor who explained to them what was happening, and handed over a whole state farm near Mozdok. The Germans painted over the windows of the houses of Caucasians with lime - so that they would not see what would happen on the street - and shot the entire Jewish community.
It was January outside. In a hurry, fearing a counteroffensive by the Red Army, the Germans threw the bodies into a deep ditch. But they didn't get to sleep. And in the cold above the moat, red steam rose into the sky. However, the Germans were no longer able to move further into the North Caucasus - because the Chechens deliberately burned Baku oil. So the flame, which reached the very Izberbash, saved the Mountain Jews.
What happens to the Mountain Jews now that they are moving to Israel? Are they absorbed like everyone else?
– Many customs, such as, for example, cuisine or respect for adults, are preserved, but the language - Juhuri - is gradually disappearing, because young people want to speak Hebrew. And only those who were taught this by their grandmothers speak the language.