Before finding out where the Tats live, it is desirable to find out who they are. From the very beginning it is necessary to stipulate that the word "Tats" was not originally an ethnonym. That is, it is not the name of a people, nation, tribe. Rather, it is a social concept.
Social term
Tatami Turks called sedentary tribes, denoting this term people's way of life and position in society. And not just settled tribes, but conquered by them. Therefore, the name was derogatory. Later, the Turks under the term "tat" meant a person in service. Therefore, it is necessary to say that the Tata nationality exists with a reservation. This term has had different meanings over time in different territories. So, in the period of the early Middle Ages, the entire population of Central Asia and the Middle East, speaking the Iranian language, was called tats. In Iran, this term was applied to settled Iranian-speaking tribes.
Hurry nowNationality
Time passed, and the tribes turned into a nationality. In our time, the phrase "nationality Tats" is found everywhere. Sometimes with the proviso that there is no clear definition of what nationality is. That this concept itself is either simplified or deliberately distorted. One way or another, it is a nationality or a language group, the Persians of Transcaucasia or the Iranian ethnos, from the names it is clear that where the Tats exist, it is warm there. These are mostly southern backgammon. Depending on the region of residence, Tats have many self-names - Parsi and Lohijihon, Daghly and Tati. Each nation has its own interesting history. The older the age of the people, the richer the history. The first mention of tats refers, according to some historians, to the time of the Khazar Khaganate, that is, to the 7th-10th centuries. Tatas are unusually diverse. They include both Christians (mostly monophists), Jews, and Muslims (Sunnis and Shiites).
No consensus
A separate group here includes Tats - Mountain Jews. Although other historians reasonably argue that it is categorically impossible to combine these concepts that characterize completely different nationalities. Mountain Jews, or givri, are a Jewish sub-ethnos (this name defines a group of people living compactly and differing from their ethnic group in small but characteristic features due to the history of education). Tats are a people of mostly Iranian tribe or Persians. And the Mountain Jews are a people whose roots go back to Judea. On the territory of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, Mountain Jews,fearing persecution on a national basis, they recorded tatami. Perhaps this was due to living in the same territories and a common language - both the Tats and the Mountain Jews spoke the Tat language until the emergence of the Republic of Azerbaijan. To be honest, in Soviet Russia there has always been an unspoken oppression of the Jews. Now, a century later, for the inhabitants of Dagestan, Tats, Mountain Jews are identical concepts, synonymous words.
Jews when to make aliyah
However, when after perestroika many Jews were drawn to their historical homeland, the Tats began to prove that they were mountain Jews. Thus, the confusing has become even more confusing, and there is no consensus on any issue. At the end of the 19th century, the opinion was expressed that the Tats descended from Iranians who were resettled to the Caspian Sea under Shapur II (309-381), Shahinshah of Persia. And the Jews who moved here from Iran in the 5th century AD adopted the Tat language, but remained faithful to their religion. According to other sources, the Persians appeared in Transcaucasia in 558-330 BC, when the Achaemenid dynasty, the warlike kings of Ancient Persia, who successfully waged aggressive wars, annexed these territories in the form of satrapies, or military administrative districts. One way or another, but the Tats are a people whose roots go back to Ancient Persia.
Not the biggest people in the world
Now the number of this people is 350 thousand people all over the world, there are territories where the Tats live, and it is possible, despite the lack of unity of opinion, to draw up a more or less clearan idea of who they are, why and where exactly they settled. Representatives of this nationality can be found in all parts of the world, but there are certain places where the Tats live compactly. The largest number of representatives of this nationality is currently in Azerbaijan. The next largest population of Tats is Russia, here they are concentrated in the north of Dagestan. In addition, they live in Georgia, Turkey, and some researchers believe that Tajiks have common roots with tatami. They also live on the territory of this country.
The largest number of Tats live in Azerbaijan
Let's go back to Azerbaijan, where the Tats live in greater numbers than in other countries. As noted above, due to the policy pursued by the kings of the Sassanid dynasty (in particular, Shapur II), the Tats arrived on the territory of modern Azerbaijan from Iran and settled in Shirvan, the historical region of Transcaucasia, which is located on the western coast of the Caspian Sea and extends from the delta Chickens in its southern part to Derbent in the north. The vast majority of the settlers professed Judaism. But the Tats in these territories willingly assimilated with the local population. In XIII, the Islamization of this nation was carried out. In the 30s of the last century, after the introduction of the concept of an Azerbaijani, many Tats began to consider themselves as Azerbaijanis.
Love for language through the ages
Despite assimilation, adoption of another language, Islamization, fear of persecution on a national basis, Tats in Azerbaijan still live in a narrow circlecommunicate in "Tat". Moreover, Azerbaijan has adopted a national policy for the preservation of this language. A primer and textbooks have been published. Absheron, Khyzy, Divichi and Guba are the areas where the Tats live, from whose midst many famous people came out. For example, the world-famous composer Kara Karaev spoke about the fact that he considers Absheron, and not Azerbaijan, his homeland. It must be said that a small but rather closed community of Tats-Jews has survived in this country, whose distant ancestors, according to their beliefs, were one of the lost tribes of the Israeli people, taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar before our era. Data on the number of tats vary greatly. It can be concluded that the true number has not been established, and the real number of Tats in this country - both Muslims and Jews - is much higher than the declared one.
Dagestan is the center of Tats in Russia
Tats in Russia live on the territory of Dagestan, which is a multinational republic. In small quantities, they are also found in other republics of the Transcaucasus. In total, there are 19.4 thousand of them in the Russian Federation. And in Russia, disputes around this nationality do not subside. Some argue that all speakers of the Tat language, which belongs to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, which is a New Persian dialect, should be considered one ethnic group, others do not agree with this. There is a version that in the VI century, after the suppression of the Mazdakit movement in Iran, 15 thousand colonists were sent to build the Derbent fortifications andwalls. Seven settlements are still inhabited by tatami - Dzhalgan, Mitagi and Kemakh, Zidyan and Bilgadi, Gimeidi and Rukel, located to the south.
Status of an original people
In our time, the Tats of Dagestan have received state status as an original people speaking the same language. True, this language, belonging to the Indo-European family, has dialects here - southern and northern, which is one of the literary languages of the republic. Tats are a nation (a well-established community of people) hardworking, sedentary, mainly engaged in agriculture. Of the total arable land in Dagestan, most of it was cultivated by them. Representatives of the nationality cultivated hard-to-reach mountain slopes, turning them into fertile lands. In addition, where the Tats live, they have always been valued as winegrowers, skilled leather workers and great craftsmen in the production of copper utensils. For a long time their way of life was patriarchal or semi-patriarchal. The main role was played by the elder, to whom everyone unquestioningly obeyed. They had original clothes and a rich cuisine that has survived to this day. Interesting Tat folklore, which includes legends, parables and fairy tales, has been preserved thanks to folk storytellers. In the large multinational family of the Dagestan peoples, this ethnic group takes its rightful place, and the debate about who is the true tat will continue for a very long time.
Where else do the Tats live
Adygea and Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, North Ossetia and Chechnya are the republics where Tats live in Russia. Truth,very small groups, no more than 2-3 thousand. These are not diasporas, which mean a close-knit stable ethnic group, a part of the people outside their country, living according to the mores and customs of their homeland. They are simply representatives of a different nationality, which is not uncommon in the Caucasus. Another southern country where the Tats live is Georgia. Azerbaijan, Dagestan and Iran are the homeland of the Tats-Shiites, and Georgia and Armenia are the former republics of the union, where mostly Tats-Christians live. But most of them consider themselves Armenians and Georgians and wonder why so many of them speak Azeri.
If Christians are Monophists
Indeed, it is quite difficult to trace the formation of individual peoples, even more difficult if they changed their religion and place of residence several times. This applies to such a nationality as the Tats. Their history is very confused. Not everyone, especially non-specialists, understands how one can come from Iran as a Jew, convert to Islam, speak the local language while preserving their culture, assimilate with the indigenous population, and then also move to neighbors, while communicating in Azerbaijani. It is necessary to stipulate that the majority of Christian Tats were monophists. And this is not even a Christian doctrine, but the doctrine of Archimandrite Eutyches from Constantinople. It is rejected as heresy by the Orthodox, Catholic and many Protestant churches. Perhaps that is why the Tats of Armenia and Georgia do not distinguish between themselves and the main population. It must also be noted thatthe concept of "mountain tats" does not exist at all. There are villages in the mountainous part of Dagestan where this people lives, for example Rukel, a village located on the slope of a mountain called Dzhalgan. One article says that there are no purely Tat villages left in Dagestan. Mountain dwellers descend into the plains, and many immigrate from the country.
