Lezgistan is an ethnic homeland of the Lezgins, as well as the area of distribution of the Lezgin language. [1]
Historical toponym
While ancient Greek historians, including Herodotus, Strabo, and Pliny the Elder, referred to Legoi people who inhabited Caucasian Albania, Arab historians of 9-10th centuries mention the kingdom of Lakz in present-day southern Dagestan. [2] Al Masoudi referred to inhabitants of this area as Lakzams (Lezgins), [3] who defended Shirvan against invaders from the north. [4]
Prior to the Russian Revolution, "Lezgin" was a term applied to all ethnic groups inhabiting the present-day Russian Republic of Dagestan. [5]
The first notion of an autonomous Lezgin territory, that is, "Lezgistan", was voiced in 1936 during Joseph Stalin's reign. [6]
Independence projects
After the dissolution of USSR there was an irredentist project to create a unified Lezgistan on Lezgin-inhabited areas of Azerbaijan and Russian Republic of Dagestan. [7] In December 1991, various Lezgin groups held the All-National Congress of Lezgins. During it, they adopted a declaration calling for the creation of an independent Lezgistan, which would be a national entity uniting the Lezgins of Dagestan and Azerbaijan. [8]
See also
References
- ^ Haspelmath 1993, p. 18.
- ^ Haspelmath 1993, p. 17.
- ^ Yakut, IV, 364. According to al-Masoudi (Murudzh, II, 5)
- ^ VFMinorsky. History of Shirvan. M. 1963
- ^ Olson, James Stuart; Pappas, Nicholas Charles (1994). An Ethnohistorical dictionary of the Russian and Soviet empires. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 438. ISBN 0313274975.
- ^ Sayfutdinova, Leyla (2022). "Ethnic Boundaries and Territorial Borders: On the Place of Lezgin Irredentism in the Construction of National Identity in Azerbaijan". Nationalities Papers. 50 (4): 799. doi: 10.1017/nps.2021.3. hdl: 10023/23933. S2CID 236600082.
- ^ Markedonov, Sergey (2010). Radical Islam in the North Caucasus. Center for Strategic and International Studies. p. 2. ISBN 978-0892066148.
- ^ Minorities at Risk Project, Chronology for Lezgins in Russia, 2004 (accessed 21 September 2011)