what is Dagestani literature?
Dagestan, located in North Caucasus along the shore of the Caspian Sea, is considered the most ethnically diverse part of Russia, even if the population of the republic is hardly above 3 millions. Nonetheless, some 80 nationalities are attested; people speak North Caucasian and Turkic languages, as well as a local dialect of Russian. 131 endangered languages (as identified by UNESCO) are attested.
In early centuries AD, the country was a part of Caucasian Albania, vasal of the Parthian empire. Later on, the influence of Persia and Central Asian invasions alternated: the southern part of the country was ruled by the Sassanid Persians, who built the citadel of Derbent, also known as the Caspian Gates. Meanwhile, the northern part was overrun by Huns and Caspian Avars. The beginning of the Islamic era brought the presence of Arabs in Derbent; soon they clashed with the Khazars. Dagestan was once a Christian country, as the 10th-c. church of Datuna testifies, yet Christianity disappeared altogether by the 15th century.
Overall, the Middle Ages were for Dagestan a time of raids and invasions. The country was ruled by Seljuk Turks in the 11th c.; it suffered a Mongol raid in 1221-1222; then the rule of the Timurids. The period of relative stability came with the Safavid rule in the 16th to 18th century. Later on, a new competition for the region burst out with the Russo-Persian wars of the 18th and the 19th century. The consolidation of the Russian rule led to various uprisings of the highlanders, who proclaimed the Imamate of Dagestan. The war raged in the region till 1864.
Apparently, such a turbulent history, as well as extreme linguistic diversification, created poor conditions for the development of literature. Yet before the Soviet rule, Classical Arabic enjoyed the status of a literary lingua franca in the region. On the other hand, the Avars kept their historical memory in the form of epic songs celebrating the defeat of the armies of the Persian Nadir Shah; Avar culture developed significantly in the 20th century.
Nowadays, the most recognizable writer of the region is Russian-speaking Alisa Ganieva. She is the author of novels thematizing the Muslim Caucasus, such as The Mountain and the Wall (2012).
In early centuries AD, the country was a part of Caucasian Albania, vasal of the Parthian empire. Later on, the influence of Persia and Central Asian invasions alternated: the southern part of the country was ruled by the Sassanid Persians, who built the citadel of Derbent, also known as the Caspian Gates. Meanwhile, the northern part was overrun by Huns and Caspian Avars. The beginning of the Islamic era brought the presence of Arabs in Derbent; soon they clashed with the Khazars. Dagestan was once a Christian country, as the 10th-c. church of Datuna testifies, yet Christianity disappeared altogether by the 15th century.
Overall, the Middle Ages were for Dagestan a time of raids and invasions. The country was ruled by Seljuk Turks in the 11th c.; it suffered a Mongol raid in 1221-1222; then the rule of the Timurids. The period of relative stability came with the Safavid rule in the 16th to 18th century. Later on, a new competition for the region burst out with the Russo-Persian wars of the 18th and the 19th century. The consolidation of the Russian rule led to various uprisings of the highlanders, who proclaimed the Imamate of Dagestan. The war raged in the region till 1864.
Apparently, such a turbulent history, as well as extreme linguistic diversification, created poor conditions for the development of literature. Yet before the Soviet rule, Classical Arabic enjoyed the status of a literary lingua franca in the region. On the other hand, the Avars kept their historical memory in the form of epic songs celebrating the defeat of the armies of the Persian Nadir Shah; Avar culture developed significantly in the 20th century.
Nowadays, the most recognizable writer of the region is Russian-speaking Alisa Ganieva. She is the author of novels thematizing the Muslim Caucasus, such as The Mountain and the Wall (2012).
I have read... nothing ...
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How little do we know about the world. On several occasions, I used the term “ślepota świata”, world blindness, to describe a particular characteristic of Polish mentality, ignoring the world, or better to say, living in a simplified geography dominated by a handful of former and present empires: the United States, Germany, France, metropolitan Russia. But blind, so totally blind to all the diversity stretching eastwards, all those peoples and histories that run parallel to our own.
I do believe I spotted the name Dagestan for the first time when I was a university professor already. I suppose it is unthinkable not to have seen it before, but in any case, I never paid attention, never asked myself what Dagestan might be. Be that as it may, the first time of which I am aware was on a page of Ewa Thompson's Imperial Knowledge, recounting how the Dagestani narration (about the revolt of soldiers condemned to life-threatening service that implied perusal of nuclear materials) only reached the American readers transmitted and distorted by the Russian filter. I also remember the second time that I spotted the name Dagestan. It was in the novel Ali und Nino, published under the mysterious pseudonym Kurban Said. Dagestan was a place of exile where Ali was supposed to stay after he had killed someone. A non-place, an empty space in the middle of nothing, even if compared to relative extent and glamour of the Caucasian metropolises. Dagestan? Nonetheless, my Polish world blindness is not so very different from a world blindness anywhere else. Who cares about Dagestan? Who knows where it is? Probably I would never know if it were not for the project of this website, where I decided to collect all countries and territories of the world, all the places where I travelled, and those about which I merely read in books, places I merely saw on movies, heard in songs and music. And even more importantly, to make this collection complete with all those place from where, apparently, nothing came to me, places corresponding to no book, no image, no sound whatsoever. Until I deliberately searched for those things. |
