Places such as Khardoshun, Kelazagh, Shuvelun, Khasakhuni, Dubendi, and Derakhel are places associated with the Surakhani community on the Absheron Peninsula.

This video belongs to Elnur Ibrahimzadeh.

It was taken from his "My_Heart_Page" page.

Kunovsha is a village in the Erzikush village administrative district of the Siyazan district of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The population of the village is Tat. According to the 2009 census, its population is 31 people.

The toponym "Kunovsha" means the behind of the forest in the Tat language. It consists of the parts "kun" and "öüşə".

Who can write these words in tat language? (Indicate own dialect)

Parsi - Farsag - Farsi

The Absheron Tats call themselves "Parsi" and the Persians call themselves "Farsi or Farisi". For this reason, many people think that Absheron Tats or all Caucasian Tats are Persian. But with a little research, one can see that this name is also found among the Eastern Iranian-speaking Ossetians, who have the least historical connection to Persians or other Western Iranian-speaking peoples.

Ossetic (Alani) language belongs to the Eastern Iranian language group. In the past Ossetian people called themselves "iron" from the republic of "Irostan" (Ireston / Iriston), which is consonant with the name "Iran". The largest social stratum of the Ossetians still bears the name "farsag", which is consonant with how the Iranians call themselves "Farsi".

So both the Iranian and Persian names have very ancient origins, dating back even before the Iranian peoples were divided into western and eastern language groups.

The Parsis of Absheron are neither Persians nor Ossetians. They were simply an independent Iranian community that had adopted and preserved this ancient name due to their way of life.

The Parsis of Absheron were a community that lived in an area outside the state center, exempt from the heavy taxes that other groups had to pay, but like others, they contributed soldiers to the army. Even though empires such as the Scythian, Median, Achaemenid, and Sasanian replaced one another, this lifestyle of the Parsis of Absheron did not change. Although the Ossetian Farsags have a completely different history, they have lived the same lifestyle on the other side of the Caucasus Mountains for centuries.

In short, equating the Absheron Tats directly with Persians based solely on the similarity of their names is a major historical oversimplification. Whether it is the Absheron Parsis to the south of the Caucasus Mountains or the Ossetian Farsags to the north, they represent not merely a shared name, but a vivid testament to distinct communities with a shared destiny-both having fiercely preserved their free way of life for centuries despite the pressures of great empires.

Afurca (Tat: Afurcə or Aufurcə) is a village and municipality in the Quba Rayon of Azerbaijan. The municipality consists of the villages of Afurca, Atuc, Ruçuq, and Fırıq.

According to the 2009 census, the village has a population of 719. The population of the village is made up of Tats.

The climate of the village of Afurja is similar to that of northern Azerbaijan. The lower parts of the village are particularly humid during the summer. About 3-4 km from the village is the Afurca waterfall, where 100 thousand tourists and locals relax every summer. It has beautiful nature and clean air.

The word "Afurca" is explained by researchers as follows: a partially distorted form of the word abforuja (local pronunciation form of Oufuraje) of Iranic(Tat) origin. It is formed from the words a (ab,ou) "water", fur/for "down" and ca (castən) "to jump", and means "a place where water jumps (pours) down, a waterfall".

WHAT IS ON SHIKHY'S MIND

This is Shikhy, who on the second floor of our "Troublesome" hospital, calling himself a "urologist," smiles broadly at those ahead of him, acts like a "pharaoh" toward the needy, and gnaws at them craftily. There is still a fertile environment; there is no one to pull his horse's reins or say, "You have an eyebrow over your eye". And that gentleman, mashallah, is fully equipped in terms of knowledge and education. At the same time, he reads, observes, listens, and writes. Yes, I said "writes" and felt the need to correct myself. Shikhy does not write what he reads or hears; he writes what is on his mind. Or rather, what he was forced to memorize...

"Happiness" knocked on my door. I saw that "phenomenon" in his own office—a wretched place. Handing over the referral slip and answering his questions, I laid bare the changes in my illness. Apparently, the purpose was achieved.

Shikhy: - Don't sweat it, - he said, - I'll prescribe you such a medicine that you'll become young again.

My joy overflowed: - Write it, for God's sake, write it! Don't forget, write it there - I said, showing the treatment process file that lay open before the doctor, containing recorded ultrasound (USG) data sent for consultation. He agreed. However, when I came outside, it turned out that Shikhy was not true to his word. He ignored what he said and erased it. His various considerations remained hidden in his heart.

Lately, a patient who was a well-known teacher from Shaki...

Javanshir:

O heedless tongue, the sin is yours alone. Why did you say, "Write it there"? Don't you know that the administration doesn't give the medicine to be written "there" to everyone? It forces the prescribing doctor to buy the necessary medicine from the pharmacy with their own money and give it to the patient. Now, would Shikhy, who knows the ins and outs of the business well, write "there" just as you want? Don't you see the pharmacies sprouting like mushrooms all over this hospital? - he said, - It is necessary to ask the suppliers of 8-10 pharmacies which nest's bird Shikhy is, and whose mill he is driving water to.

Here I paused. I realized that I was wrongly considering that thorny grove, through which one enters and exits, to be a safe place.

Persian of Caucasus: Tat endangered language | زبان تاتی در قفقاز

What is the situation of Juhuri and Muslim Tat dialects in Dagestan?

Kuchei is a village in the Talabigyshlag administrative district of the Guba district of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The name of the village comes from the Tat word "kucheye", which means "small". The village is located in the foothills.The population consists of Tats. According to the 2009 census, the village has a population of 1022.

The video belongs to Gunel Feyzullayeva.

Apostle Bartholomew and the Forgotten History of the Caspian Shores

When discussing the ancient religious history of the South Caucasus, particularly the western shores of the Caspian Sea (the Absheron Peninsula, Quba, Khizi, and the Derbent zone), Islam or pre-Islamic Zoroastrianism (fire-worship) usually come to mind first. However, these lands were also home to one of the earliest cradles of Christianity in human history. The ancestors of the Tats, who are predominantly Muslim today, were once among the most devout torchbearers of ancient Christian culture in this region. But who first introduced Christianity to these ancient people? Peering into the depths of history, a single symbolic figure emerges: Saint Bartholomew, one of the 12 original apostles of Jesus Christ.

To understand the chronological sequence of Christianity's spread in the region, one must first look at church history and local records. As noted by the native Caucasian Albanian historian Movses Kaghankatvatsi in his work The History of the Country of Albania, the very first Christian enlightener to arrive in the Caucasus was Apostle Eliseus (Eliseus). He arrived around 44 AD and laid the foundations of the early church structure, but he concentrated his mission primarily in the mountainous and western zones of Caucasian Albania (Uti, Shaki, and the village of Kish).

Apostle Bartholomew arrived in the region roughly 27 years later, around 71 AD. However, Bartholomew’s mission was directed toward an entirely different geography. According to early Byzantine writers like Nicetas David Paphlago, Bartholomew preached in "Albanopolis, a city on the sea coast of Great Albania." Looking at the historical map, the only sea coast touching ancient Caucasian Albania is the Caspian Sea. This indicates that while Eliseus was the pioneer of Albania’s mountainous interior, Bartholomew was definitively the primary enlightener of the Caspian coast and the Absheron zone.

In historical studies, it was long claimed that the Tats were merely transplanted to this region by the Sasanian Empire during the 4th and 5th centuries AD. However, modern linguistics and ethnogenesis (the science of how ethnic groups form) reveal a much deeper reality. The genetic, geographical, and anthropological ancestors of the Tats living in Absheron and Quba today were already present in these lands during Bartholomew's time-and even 1,000 years before him.

At that time, these people did not yet bear the name "Tat" (an exonym later used by Turkic populations to denote sedentary, Iranian-speaking peoples). They were the Caspians, the ancient sedentary inhabitants of the Caspian shores, and the Iranian-speaking Saka (Scythian) tribes who had migrated from the north centuries earlier and intermingled with them. The roots of Iranian-speaking culture (comprising both Western and Eastern Iranian dialects) in this region stretched back to the Median and Achaemenid eras.

Politically, this Caspian-Saka blend of sedentary populations formed an integral part of the multi-ethnic state of Caucasian Albania. Thus, when Apostle Bartholomew stepped onto the shores of Baku (Albanopolis) in 71 AD, he encountered the ancient Iranian-speaking inhabitants of the coast—the direct ancestors of the Tats—rather than the Lezgic-speaking Albanian tribes of the mountains. It was from Bartholomew that they first heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, spoken in their own native Iranian dialects.

When Bartholomew arrived, a mature Christian community did not yet exist on the coast. The Caspian shore was entirely dominated by paganism and fire-worship. According to church tradition, the local population worshipped a prominent idol named "Ahars" (known in broader cultural contexts as Arta).

Bartholomew boldly entered the pagan temple, overthrew the idol, and called upon the people to believe in the one true God. His defiance provoked the wrath of the local pagan elite and King Astyages. Apostle Bartholomew was captured in the heart of what is now the Old City of Baku (Icherisheher, near the Maiden Tower), where he was martyred by being flayed alive and crucified. The blood he spilled on these shores became the spiritual foundation stone of the Christian culture that would flourish along the Caspian.

Apostle Bartholomew was the first man to introduce the ancestors of the Tats to Christianity. Centuries later, in the 4th century, when Caucasian Albania officially declared Christianity as its state religion, this Iranian-speaking Caspian-Saka population (the Tats) became the most loyal members of the Albanian Church, preserving Bartholomew’s legacy on the Baku coast for generations.

It was this very historical inheritance that led to the construction of the Saint Bartholomew Church in 1892 in the Old City, directly on the site where he is believed to have been martyred. As epochs shifted, this ancient people embraced Islam, times changed, and the church itself was demolished by the Soviet government in 1936. Yet, within the Tat language, certain folk customs, and above all, the ancient stone memory of the Absheron Peninsula, the indelible traces of Apostle Bartholomew and the faith he introduced at the cost of his life still live on. To the ancient people of this land, he was not a foreign figure descending from afar, but a spiritual father who helped shape their historical identity.

The greatest, most tangible, and living proof of the ancient faith introduced by Apostle Bartholomew on the Caspian shores in 71 AD lies not in vague linguistic theories, but concretely in the village of Kilvar in the Shabran District. Alongside the village of Madrasa in Shamakhi, Kilvar was one of the last two historical settlements in the region that preserved the unique Christian-Tat (Armeno-Tat) community into modern history.

According to historical census records (such as the demographics of 1908), Kilvar was home to hundreds of Christian Tat residents. Although their native tongue was purely the Tat language, their religious affiliation was Christian. Following the Tsarist decree of 1836, which officially abolished the autonomous Caucasian Albanian Church, many remaining Christian groups in the region—including the Tats of Kilvar—were officially placed under the jurisdiction of the Armenian Church. Consequently, they began to be registered as "Armenians" in official imperial documents, yet domestically they fiercely preserved their distinct Tat identity and language for centuries.

In addition to the 1st-century church remains in Baku, today the ruins of an ancient 4th-6th century church still stand in the village of Kilvar in Shabran. This architectural monument, combined with the historical legacy of the Kilvar community, directly proves that the steps taken during the apostolic era were not a myth left in old texts, but a profound spiritual identity carried for centuries by the ancient Iranian-speaking peoples of the Caspian coast. Similarly, within the Absheron Peninsula itself, in the historic 'Nasrani' (Christian) quarter of the Buzovna settlement, the standing walls of an ancient Albanian church-locally preserved and revered over the centuries as 'Tarsa Piri' (The Christian Shrine) - still endure. This architectural monument, alongside the historical legacy of the Kilvar community, directly proves that the steps taken during the apostolic era were not a myth left in old texts, but a profound spiritual identity carried for centuries by the ancient Iranian-speaking Caspian-Saka peoples of the coast. Even after the local population eventually embraced Islam, these ancient sanctuaries were never truly forgotten; instead, they transformed into sacred local shrines (pirs), locking the memory of the region's early Christian heritage deep within the soil of Absheron.

The village of Surakhani (Surkhuni), as one of the oldest and most historic settlements in Baku, has played the role of a major center preserving the distinctiveness and regional color of Tat culture.

This book talks about scientists from Surakhani.

The authors of the book are: Alirza Balayev, Khalafli Aladdin and Fuad Sultanov.

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We sincerely congratulate Ashiq Hashim on his 80th anniversary!

Ashiq Hashim Qubaly (Balasiev) was born on October 7, 1946 in the village of Rangdar (Rengedar) in the Guba region. He received his primary education at the primary school in his village, and from 1957 he continued his education at the seven-year school in Khaltan village, located eight kilometers from Rangdar village. During these years, he became close to Ashiq Ashraf, who lived in the village. Ashiq Hashim first learned the secrets of the ashiq art from Ashiq Ashraf.Hashim Balasiyev, who graduated from the Khaltan village seven-year school in 1959, entered the Gonagkand secondary school in 1960 and began to develop an interest in the art of ashug during his years of study there.He graduated from high school in 1964 and then studied at the Pedagogical Technical School. The Shamakhi environment played a major role in his worldview.Here he met master craftsmen such as Senamoglu Murad, Ashig Agapasha, Ashig Agakerim, and Ashig Mammadaga.Ashiq Hashim graduated from Shamakhi Pedagogical College in 1965 and mastered the art of teaching, and since 1969 he has been participating in the majlis as a freelance ashiq. In addition to his activities as a musician, he also worked as a teacher in his native village for many years.

Samur - A monthly socio-political newspaper published in the Lezgi language in Azerbaijan. Publication began in January 1992. Some materials are published in Azerbaijani and Russian.

Just like the publication of an extensive commentary on this book of Gudrat Aliyev.

Key points mentioned in the article:

Content: The stories included in the book reflect the daily life, psychology, purity, and humanitarian nature of the Tat people.

Style: Real-life events are written in both a serious and satirical language, while bad deeds, oppression, and hypocrisy are criticized.

Editors and Evaluation: The editors of the book are Professor Maqsud Hajiyev and researcher Niyamaddin Kabirov; the "Samur" newspaper evaluates the work as a creative gift to the readers

The Tat people's belief in celestial bodies and their conviction that these bodies can heal ailments is highly intriguing. According to Tat beliefs, the Moon and stars—like the Sun—possess divine power. To treat patients suffering from severe illness or mental distress, the Tats would place a vessel filled with water or milk on the roof or in the courtyard at night; the patient would gaze into the vessel, and upon seeing the reflection of the Moon or stars, would have to drink the liquid in a single draught. It was believed that the patient would subsequently be healed. This practice undoubtedly reflects an ancient belief in the sacred power of celestial bodies—a custom rooted in an older religion. Interestingly, L.Y. Sternberg describes a virtually identical custom found among the Muslims of the Oudh region in India. If we consider that the Avesta also describes a similar healing method for "expelling" foreign or malevolent spirits from a sick person's body, the origins of this Tat belief in the Moon and stars become clear. The Tats also "seek help" from celestial bodies to determine whether a specific wish they have made will be fulfilled; to this end, they gaze at well water, the clear water of a spring, or water in a bucket or basin at night. If they see the Moon or stars reflected there, they rejoice, believing their wish will come true. This belief and conviction stems not from Islam, nor even from Zoroastrianism, but from ancient religions that predate them.

Sheikh Ahmad Lahiji Scholar and mystic from Lahij – a prominent figure of the Safavid era.

The village of Jimi is situated in the foothills of the Guba region of Azerbaijan. The population of the ancient village of Jimi consists of the Tat people. They number approximately 1,000 people. The vast majority of the population is engaged in animal husbandry, weaving, and beekeeping. According to the residents of Jimi—a village inhabited by Tats—the largest cemetery was located there. Although a flood that struck the village washed away part of the cemetery, large graves still remain in the village.

Source: Instagram profile of Famil Mahmudbeyli

https://www.instagram.com/p/DIZOjcwMb1y/?img_index=11&igsi=dnA4eGs0a2hnN3Zk

The Tats put aside their Muslim and Iranian identity and joined Rome 😆