What are the names of rural settlements located in the Caucasus, Afghanistan and Central Asia? What is the difference between an aul and a village? The answers to these questions and more can be found in the article presented here.
General information
What is a village and village? These two concepts can be combined into one common definition.
This is a traditional rural Muslim settlement, a community and a camp of Turkic and other Central Asian and Caucasian peoples, as well as a nomadic or settled gathering of dwellings (huts, huts, dugouts, huts or huts, tents, yurts, booths, nomadic kibitok) in Asian and many Caucasian regions.
Definition
What is a village? Initially, this was the name of the wintering place for nomads (translated from the Turkic kıs - "winter"). Kishlaks were usually surrounded by blank walls (deval or duval) made of clay. On each site with a house located in it, surrounded by a stone fence, there was a kariz - an underground well. So on the streetsvillage, it was rare to meet people with water. There was no sewerage in these settlements. Clay stoves were heated with dung. Women dressed in veils, men in robes and turbans, as well as donkeys laden with cargo, walked along the crooked streets. The image of the village was complemented by a plane tree.
In addition to residential buildings, the special elements in the village were a mosque, a bazaar and a cemetery. The main population of the former and current villages are peasants (dekhkans).
The antonym of the word "kishlak" is "yaylak", meaning summer pasture or dacha.
What is a village?
Kishlak and aul have some differences. The second name refers mainly to rural settlements in the Caucasus, and villages are called rural settlements in Central Asia and Afghanistan. In essence, the aul among the peoples of Asia is the same as a farm, village, kishlak, village, that is, any small rural settlement. Villages among the Bashkirs, Tatars, Kirghiz-Kaisaks, Kalmyks, and also among Caucasians are also called auls.
The Caucasus Mountains, especially on the territory of the Republic of Dagestan, are inhabited by auls - fortified settlements. The houses in them are usually built of stone, and they are located either near a steep mountain wall or on a mountain slope in order to protect against unexpected attacks. As a rule, two-story houses are built, located on ledges. They are turned to a greater extent by the facade in a southerly direction in order to receive more sunlight in winter and protect themselves from the northern cold winds. Auls are often located far from water sources and pastures.
In the North Caucasus, villages are traditionally called rural settlements with a population of non-Christian faith. This is the official name for settlements with Circassian (Adyghe), Nogai and Abaza populations in Adygea, as well as villages in Karachay-Cherkessia and in the Krasnodar Territory. In other republics of this mountainous region and in the Stavropol Territory, such settlements are officially called villages, but in publications and among the people they are also called auls.
Village of Central Asia
What is a village? Among the peoples of Central Asia, Kazakhstan, and also Bashkiria, this term originally meant a mobile settlement, periodically moving to a summer migration (zhailau) from the territories of winter grazing (kyshlau). The transformation of such settlements into permanent settlements is associated with the transition in the 19th-20th centuries of some peoples (Bashkirs, Kazakhs, Turkmens and Kirghiz) to a settled way of life. The place of residence of these peoples is a village, where houses made of raw or baked bricks (sometimes made of wood) are located in the form of a chaotic or quarterly building. Each site has pens for livestock, barns, barns, wells, orchards and orchards.
Kishlaks are more often located near lakes, rivers, springs or in places with a high groundwater level. Central Asian settlements are very similar to the village or village of the Finno-Ugric and Slavic peoples.
Types of villages
What was a village before the times of the USSR? Before the Revolution of 1917, it was a settledwinter quarters and settlements of the semi-nomadic population.
The following types are distinguished by the nature of settlement:
- nesting - several small villages fused or located at some distance, united under one name and constituting one community (each is endowed with a kinship group and its own mosque);
- large kishlachny - in the process of development of the first type, small villages expanded and turned into quarters of a common village;
- scattered - these are separate estates located at a great distance from each other, but united into one community, since their fields were irrigated with water from one canal.
What is a modern village? During the period of Soviet power and later on, villages were transformed and turned into modern state farms and collective farms, which in terms of amenities and planning do not differ from urban-type settlements.
In conclusion
In Asian regions, there are tourist routes, thanks to which those who wish can get to know the life of the rural population more closely. The most interesting in this regard are the mountain villages of Uzbekistan: Hayat, Asraf, Majurum, Ukhum, Sentyabsay. They are located on the slopes of the Nurata Range (southern part), near the district center Farish (Jizzakh region). Each of these villages is located in a gorge, and the distance from them to the highway of the Jizzakh-Nurata direction is from 5 to 8 km.
Tourists are interested in walking along the streets of villages and their beautiful picturesque surroundings. Such pedestrian transitions are made from one settlement to another along mountain paths. The inhabitants of these villages are hospitable and gladly invite them to their homes to treat guests with traditional Uzbek tea.
