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=                                                                         The Dagestani People = By Jonathan Hernandez, and Christopher Santos

The Republic of Dagestan, or simply Dagestan, is a federal subject (a republic) of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea coast. Its government was dissolved in a major corruption investigation on 5 February 2018, and the region is currently under the direct control of the Russian government.

With a population of 2,910,249, Dagestan is very ethnically diverse and Russia's most heterogeneous republic, with none of its several dozen ethnicities and subgroups forming a majority. Largest among these ethnicities are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgian, Laks, Azerbaijani, Tabasaran, and Chechen. Ethnic Russians comprise about 3.6% of Dagestan's total population. Russian is the primary official language

Dagestan has been a scene of Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, and ethnic tension since the 1990s. According to International Crisis Group, the militant Islamist organization Shariat Jamaat is responsible for much of the violence. Much of the tension is rooted in an internal Islamic conflict between traditional Sufi groups advocating secular government and more recently introduced Salafist teachers preaching the implementation of a certain form of Sharia in Dagestan.

The word Dagestan is of Turkish and Persian origin. Dağ means 'mountain' in Turkish and -stan is a Persian meaning 'land'.

The name Dagestan referred to Dagestan Oblast during 1860 to 1920, corresponding to the southeastern part of the present-day Republic. The current borders were created with the establishment of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1921, by the inclusion of the eastern part of Terek Oblast.

Official and biggest languages spoken

 * Russian
 * Avar
 * Dargin
 * Kumyk
 * Lezgian
 * Lak
 * Tabasaran
 * Rutul
 * Aghul
 * Tsakhur
 * Nogai
 * Chechen
 * Azerbaijani

Geography
Dagestan is in the North Caucasus mountains. It is bordered on its eastern side by the Caspian Sea. Dagestan has an of Area: 50300 km2''. Dagestan Borders three countries inside Russia Republic of Kalmyki to the north, Chechen Republic to the west, and Stavropol Krai to the north west. Dagestan also borders two more countries outside of Russia,'' Azerbaijan to the south, and Georgia to the southwest.

Islamic Influence
In 664, the Persians were succeeded by the rising Arabs from the Arab caliphate, who in the 8th century repeatedly clashed with the Khazars (Controlled Dagestan at the time). Although the local population rose against the Arabs in 905 and 913, Islam was eventually adopted in Dagestan. By the 15th century, Albanian Christianity had died away to rising Islam and Russian Orthodoxy.



Beginning of Russian Rule
In 1806 the khanate voluntarily submitted to Russian authority, but it was not until the aftermath of the Russo-Persian War (1804-1813) that Russian power over Dagestan was confirmed, and that Qajar Iran officially ceded the territory to Russia. In 1813, following Russia's victory in the war, Iran was forced to cede southern Dagestan with its principal city of Derbent, alongside other vast territories in the Caucasus to Russia, in the Treaty of Gulistan. The 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay indefinitely consolidated Russian control over Dagestan and removed Iran completely from Dagestan.

Soviet Era
On 21 December 1917 Ingushetia, Chechnya, and Dagestan declared independence from Russia and formed a single state called the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus which was recognized by major world powers. The capital of the new state was moved to Temir-Khan-Shura (Dagestan). In 1921, Russians attacked and occupied the country and forcefully joined it to the Soviet state. The Caucasian war for independence continued but the government went into exile. After the Bolshevik Revolution, Ottoman armies occupied Azerbaijan which had been split off from the rest of the Mountainous republic of the Northern Caucasus. After three years of fighting the White army and other nationalists groups, the Bolsheviks achieved victory and the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed on January 20, 1921. After Stalin became the leader of the Soviet Union his industrialization largely bypassed Dagestan and the economy was crippled, making it one of the most poorest regions in Russia.

Post-Soviet Era
In 1999, an Islamist group from Chechnya launched a military invasion of Dagestan, with the aim of creating an "independent Islamic State of Dagestan". The invaders were driven back by the Russian military. As a retaliation, Russian forces subsequently reinvaded Chechnya later that year. Violence in the Republic exploded from the beginning of 2010 to the end of 2012. This upsurge led many people to claim that Dagestan was about to enter into a situation of sectarian civil war. Dagestan became the epicenter of violence in the North Caucasus with Makhachkala, Kaspiisk, Derbent, Khasavyurt, Kizlyar, Sergokala, Untsukul, and Tsumada all becoming hotbeds of militant activities.

Demographics



 * Dagestan is unusually ethnically diverse, and still largely tribal.


 * It is Russia's most heterogeneous republic.


 * Dagestan has a rapidly growing population.

Ethnicities
The people of Dagestan include a large variety of ethnicities. According to the 2010 Census, Northeast Caucasians (including Avars, Dargins, Lezgins, Laks, Tabasarans, and Chechens) make up almost 75% of the population of Dagestan. Turkic peoples, Kumyks, Azerbaijanis, and Nogais make up 21%, and Russians 3.6%. Other ethnicities each account for less than 0.4% of the total population.

(The indigenous ethnicities of Dagestan are in bold)

There are also around 40 groups such as the Hinukh that are 439 of the total population of Dagestan, and the Akhvakhs, who are members of a complex family of indigenous Caucasians.

Languages
More than 30 local languages are commonly spoken, most belonging to the Northeast Caucasian language family group. Russian became the principal lingua franca in Dagestan during the 20th century; prior to that, beginning in the 18th century, it had been Classical Arabic. The northern Avar dialect of Khunzakh has also served as a lingua franca in central Dagestan. Over 20 of Russia's 131 endangered languages as identified by UNESCO can be found in Dagestan. Most of these endangered languages have Dagestani speakers in the mountainous region on the Dagestan-Georgia border.

Religion
According to a 2012 survey 83% of the population of Dagestan adheres to Islam, 2.4% to the Russian Orthodox Church, 2% to Caucasian folk religion and other native faiths, 1% are non-denominational Christians. In addition, 9% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", 2% is atheist and 0.6% follows other religions or did not answer the question.

Dagestanis are largely Sunni Muslims, of the Shafii rites, that has been in place for centuries. On the Caspian coast, particularly in and around the port city of Derbent, the population (primarily made up of Azerbaijanis) is Shia. There is also a Salafi population, which is often a target of official repression.

A relatively large number of native Tati speaking Jews, designated by the Soviet state censuses as the "Mountain Jews" were also present in this same coastal areas, but since 1991 and the collapse of the Soviet Union they have migrated to Israel and the United States. These were an extension of much larger Jewish community across the border in Azerbaijan (districts of Quba and Shamakhi).

The appearance of Sufi mysticism in Dagestan dates back to the 14th century. The two Sufi tariqas that spread in the North Caucasus were the Naqshbandiya and the Qadiriya. The mystic Tariqas preached tolerance and coexistence between the diverse people in the region. The Communist total intolerance for any religion after the Communist Revolution of 1917 also suppressed the Sufi movements. Shaykh Said Afandi al-Chirkawi was a prominent scholar, spiritual leader and murshid of Naqshbandi and Shadhili tariqahs in Dagestan until his death.

The number of Christians among the non-Slavic indigenous population is very low, with estimates between 2,000 and 2,500. Most of these are Pentecostal Christians from the Lak ethnicity. The largest congregation is Osanna Evangelical Christian Church (Pentecostal) in Makhachkala, with more than 1,000 members.