Avar People - History

History

The earliest mention of the Avars in European history is by Priscus, who declared in 463 AD that a mixed Saragur, Urog and Unogur embassy asked Byzantium for an alliance, having been dislodged by Sabirs in 461 due to the Avars' drive towards the west. Around 630, Theophylact Simocatta wrote that the Avars had been initially composed of two nations, the Uar and the Hunnoi tribes. He wrote that: "...the Barsilt, the Onogurs/Unogurs and the Sabirs were struck with horror... and honoured the newcomers with brilliant gifts..." when the Avars first arrived in the Caucasus in 555 AD. The Caucasian Avars migrated to their present location from Khurasan, which was originally populated by the Alarodian Hurrians from Subartu (to the south of Transcaucasian Iberia). The Y-Chromosomal J Haplogroups typical of Avar men are still common today in the area of ancient Subartu. The Avar invasion of the Caucasus resulted in the establishment of an Avar ruling dynasty in Sarir, a Christian state in the Dagestani Highlands, where the Caucasian Avars now live. It is not clear whether or in what way these Avars are related to the early "Pseudo-Avars" of the Dark Ages, but it is known that with the mediation of Sarosios in 567, the Göktürks requested Byzantium to distinguish the Avars of Pannonia as "Pseudo-Avars" as opposed to the true Avars of the east, who had come under Göktürk hegemony. The modern Arab Encyclopaedia states that the Magyars originated in this area.

During the Khazar wars against the Caliphate in the 7th century, the Avars sided with Khazaria. Surakat is mentioned as their Khagan around 729-30 AD, followed by Andunik-Nutsal at the time of Abu Muslima, then Dugry-Nutsal. Sarir suffered a partial eclipse after the Arabs gained the upper hand, but managed to reassert its influence in the region in the 9th century. It confronted the weakened Khazars and conducted a friendly policy towards the neighbouring Christian states of Georgia and Alania.

In the early 12th century, Sarir disintegrated, to be succeeded by the Avar Khanate, a predominantly Muslim polity. The only extant monument of Sarir architecture is a 10th-century church at the village of Datuna. The Mongol invasions seem not to have affected the Avar territory, and the alliance with the Golden Horde enabled the Avar khans to increase their prosperity.

In the 15th century the Horde declined, and the Shamkhalate of Kazi-Kumukh rose to power. The Avars could not compete with it until the 18th century, when they increased their prestige by routing the army of Nadir Shah at Andalal. In the wake of this triumph, Umma Khan of the Avars (who reigned 1774–1801) managed to exact tribute from most states of the Caucasus, including Shirvan and Georgia.

Two years after Umma Khan's death in 1801, the khanate voluntarily submitted to Russian authority. The Russian administration disappointed and embittered the freedom-loving highlanders. The Russians' institution of heavy taxation, coupled with the expropriation of estates and the construction of fortresses, electrified the Avar population into rising under the aegis of the Muslim Imamate of Dagestan, led by Ghazi Mohammed (1828–32), Gamzat-bek (1832–34) and Shamil (1834–59).

This Caucasian War raged until 1864, when the Avarian Khanate was abolished and the Avarian District was instituted instead. One portion of the Avars refused to collaborate with Russians and migrated to Turkey, where their descendants live to this day. Although the population was decimated through war and emigration, the Avars retained their position as the dominant ethnic group in Dagestan during the Soviet period. After World War II, many Avars left the barren highlands for the fertile plains closer to the shores of the Caspian Sea.