Year: 2017

The Armenians of Krasnodar krai (the Kuban)

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The Google Map shows places of Armenian settlement in the Krasnodar krai, or region, of Russia, also known historically as the Kuban.

The history of Armenian settlement in this region of southern Russia is both old and complex, with multiple layers of immigration. These date from the Middle Ages (with the so-called Cherkesogai or Circassian Armenians), through to C19th Hemşin/Hemshin migrants from Anatolia (both Christian and Muslim converts), to 1915 Genocide survivors and late C20th refugees from Azerbaijan, Chechnya and Georgia and even from Central Asia. For over 500 hundred years, the Krasnodar or Kuban region has been a safe haven for Armenians.

Over 60 cities, towns and villages with a significant Armenian presence are plotted on the map. However, there are many small towns and villages with a modest or minority Armenian population not marked on this map; it does not purport to be fully comprehensive and complete.

Churches are shown (indicated by a cross) only when known to exist and positively identified. This does not mean to say that other settlements do not have places of worship. As mentioned above, a proportion of the Hemshin Armenians are adherents of Islam rather than Christians.

 

The Kists of Georgia

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This Google Map shows the heartland of the Kist people in the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia. The Kisti are ethnic Chechens and speak the Kistian dialect of Chechen (as well as, these days, Georgian).

They migrated to the Pankisi valley from Chechnya in the mid-C19th, probably to avoid pressure to convert to Islam. At that time, they professed their own Vainakh faith, which contained syncretic beliefs with pre-monotheistic roots and an admixture of Christianity. The location of a pre-Christian Anatori Jvari shrine sacred to the Kists is shown, with a blue pin, on the map.

Kist villages are shown with green pins on the map. A high proportion of the Kists of the village of Birkiani are Christian. At Jokolo, there is a church dedicated to St George and there was formerly a chapel in Omalo. Kists attend the annual Alaverdobi harvest festival at the Georgian Orthodox monastery of Alaverdi each September. Those Kists who have left the Pankisi valley and settled in Georgian towns such as Telavi tend to assimilate as Georgian Orthodox Christians.

For the most part, however, today the Kists are Sunni Muslim, albeit with an unorthodox colouring. The Kists’ main place of worship is the Sunni mosque in Duisi. There are three other modern mosques, constructed from 1996-2001 with outside finance. Duisi also has a shariat court. In these circumstances, it is likely that there will be tensions within the Kist community between those wanting to apply a strict interpretation of Islam and those with syncretic leanings or who are Christian.

 

The Hunzibs of Dagestan & Georgia

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This Google Map shows the distribution of Hunzib settlement in the Caucasus. The Hunzibs are ethnically Avar and Sunni Muslim highlanders. They have their own Hunzib language, although the number of speakers is under 5,000 and quite possibly under 2,500.

The heartland of the Hunzib people is in Dagestan, in the cluster of three villages, shown in blue, near Tlyadal: Garbutl, Gunzib and Nakhada. There were or are smaller settlements in this vicinity, either hamlets or neighbourhoods of the main villages (small as they themselves are) also occupied by Hunzibs: these are Gelo, Khelada, Novaya Nakhada, Novo Garbutl, Rodor, and Todor. It is possible that one or two of these are alternative names for one of the main villages, just as Gunzib, or parts of it, seems to have been known as Darbal or Darbali and/or Rodol at one time (or perhaps in a different tongue).

There is no letter “h” in Russian; it is replaced by “g”. Dagestan, as part of the Russian Federation, officially uses the Russian language and hence Hunzib (the ethnos) is identical with Gunzib (the village).

Hunzibs live additionally in two large villages in the Kizilyurt district of north-eastern Dagestan (marked with purple pins on the map). These places were not settled by Hunzibs until the C20th, possibly as a result of disruption and displacement during Soviet times.

The three villages in Georgia, marked with red pins, are home to numbers of Avars including Hunzibs – the village of Saruso is a majority Hunzib settlement. These places are shown on the map under their official Georgian names followed by their Avar/Hunzib names – for example, Saruso is the Georgian and Khaladukh the Hunzib name.

 

The Pshavi of Georgia

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The Google Map shows the location of the villages of Pshavi, the historic inhabitants of which were the Pshavs or Pshavi, a highland Georgian people with their own distinct dialect and customs.

The villages in the traditional Pshavi heartland are indicated with blue pins, while the yellow pins plot villages in lower Pshavi.

While the larger villages can be placed with complete confidence, the location of some of the smallest settlements or hamlets is approximate only. Different sources and print and online maps show different sites for them and sometimes do not show them at all. In some cases, a hamlet is either very small or abandoned, perhaps comprising a few scattered ruins, and is not visible using satellite imagery such as Google’s, even at the highest available zoom.

 

 

The Georgian Jews

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This Google Map shows the Jewish communities, past and present, of Georgia, including two sites in breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The mapping does not purport to be complete and comprehensive, although all the main centres of population and synagogues should be shown. It is likely that there were smaller communities, or one or two Georgian Jewish families, elsewhere across the country, for instance as part of trading networks along the routes of the so-called Silk Road.

Where possible, the exact locations of synagogues and cemeteries have been pinpointed; elsewhere, a pin has simply been dropped onto the town or village as a general marker. Synagogues are shown with a Star of David.

These days, there are more Georgian Jews (or Gruzinim) in Israel than there are in the Republic of Georgia. The Georgian Jewish diaspora extends to America and Russia, of course, but also Belgium, Germany and elsewhere. As well as the Gruzinim, there was a growing population of Ashkenazi Jews in Georgia (and especially the capital Tbilisi or Tiflis) following its incorporation into the Russian Empire. Formerly, there were also Mountain Jews and Persian or Iranian Jews too in Georgia, and the latter had for a while their own synagogue in Tbilisi.

 

The Batsbi of Georgia

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The Google Map shows the Batsbi, or Tsova-Tushebi, a highland people who are thought to have moved into what is today Georgia from Ingushetia, possibly so as to avoid pressure to convert to Islam but equally possibly due to demographic pressures (population expansion and a need for grazing) or natural disaster.

Once in Georgia, initially they settled in the village of Chontio, which is situated within the Pirikiti community. Chontio is where the historic ancestral cemetery of the Batsbi was located.

From Chontio, they founded the Tsova community: the eight villages in the Tsova Gorge, shown with blue pins on the Google Map. From the early 1830s, following catastrophic flooding and an epidemic of disease (possibly plague), the Batsbi began abandoning their Tsova villages. Only four of the eight villages survived into the C20th: Etelta, Indurta (the largest), Sagirta and Tsaro. This movement followed the pattern of transhumance, initially with the the summer pasturing settlement at Tbatana, and then with the wintertime pasturing quarters in the (relative) lowland areas, increasingly being used as permanent places of abode. Ultimately, this culminated in the inhabitants of the four longest-surviving Tsova Gorge villages named above moving en masse to Zemo Alvani and settling in their own discrete neighbourhoods with their own places of worship. The Tsova Gorge settlements are all now in ruins.

 

 

For more information on the Batsbi and other peoples of the Caucasus, we recommend AJT Bainbridge’s excellent Batsav website.

 

Armenians in Israel & Palestine

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This Google Map shows the Armenian Quarter of the old walled city of Jerusalem and other sites of Armenian settlement and interest across Israel and Palestine.

The sites within and around Jerusalem, including Gethsemane and Mount of Olives, are of course well known, as is the Armenian Apostolic Church’s role in the custodianship of such holy sites as the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Less well known are the small Armenian communities, most dating back to the aftermath of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, when Armenians were marched and fled south to Palestine as well as Syria, leading to the establishment of settlements in, for example, Jordan and Lebanon. The Israeli State tends to regard and treat the Armenian minority as if they were Palestinian. This is witnessed by the unrelenting encroachment upon the Armenian Quarter in Jerusalem but also by the compulsory purchase of Armenian-owned land in Bethlehem, for instance (the Baron Der Orchard there was sacrificed to the Security Wall).

A little known Genocide survivor Armenian settlement was that at Sheik Brak, just inland near the town of Atlit, south of Haifa. This was effectively a refugee village without facilities which was never permitted to develop and eventually was abandoned. Today it is returning to nature, and there are a few remains of buildings and mid-C20th headstones amid the scrub and trees.

 

The Mountain Jews of Dagestan

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This Google Map showing the Mountain Jews of the Republic of Dagestan, Russia is a companion to an earlier map showing the Mountain Jewish settlements in Azerbaijan. For the long 19th century and beyond, both Dagestan and Azerbaijan were part of Imperial Russia and then the Soviet Union (and of course, Dagestan still is a part of Russia), meaning that the border between them was of little significance.

Karchag is often described as a Mountain Jewish village in the vicinity of Quba in Azerbaijan but lies over the (modern) border in Dagestan.

Many of the Mountain Jewish (Juhurim) mountain villages or auls have now been abandoned, but most which were extant during the latter years of the C19th have been positively identified and marked on the map. A pin on the map does not imply an extant Jewish community.

The list below shows the Mountain Jewish villages of Dagestan recorded in the compendious Сборник сведений о кавказских горцах (or: Collection of Information on the Caucasus Highlanders) volume 3, published in Tbilisi (then Tiflis) in 1870. Chapter 3 within this volume is on the subject of the Mountain Jews and section V of this chapter is in the form of a statistical table giving the names of Mountain Jewish communities and their size (expressed as “smokes”, i.e. hearths – that is to say, households) plus the number of rabbis, synagogues and schools. To calculate the approximate population of a village, one might multiply the hearths by, say, 5, so therefore, for example, Tarki may have had a population of 250, Derbent of 1,000, and Magalis of 500 souls.

 

Russian name in 1870 Name on map hearths rabbis synagogues schools
Tarki Tarki 50 1 1 1
Buinaki   15 1 1 1
Karabudakhkent Karabudakhkent 18 1 1 1
Durgeli Dorgeli 25 1 1 1
Dzhengutay Dzhengutay 6 0 0 0
Temir-Khan-Shura Buynaksk 35 2 1 1
Chir-Yurt Kizilyurt 10 0 0 0
Derbent Derbent 200 1 2 7
Khoshmanzil Khoshmenzil 21 1 1 1
Aglabi Aglobi 6 0 0 0
Nyugdi-Myushkur Nyugdi 68 1 1 2
Rukel Rukel 30 0 1 0
Mugatir Mugarty 29 1 1 1
Maraga Maraga 16 1 1 1
Kheli-Penzhdi Kheli + Penzhdi 18 1 1 1
Gemeidi Gimeydi 22 1 1 1
Madzhalis Madzhalis (Majalis) 100 1 1 2
Yangikent Yangikent 116 2 2 2
Mamrach Sovetskoye 82 1 1 1
Khandzhal-Kala Novyy Usur 30 1 1 1
Arag Ashaga Yarak 87 1 1 2
Karchag Karchag 25 1 1 1
Imam-Kuli-Kent Imam-Kuli-Kent 11 0 0 0
Dzherakh Dzhara 20 1 1 1
Khasav-Yurt Khasavyurt 40 2 2 2
Andreevok Endirey 23 1 1 1
Kostek Kostek 37 1 1 1
Kazi-Yurt Kaziyurt 1 0 0 0
Aksay, or Tashkichu Aksay 81 2 1 2

 

The location of some known Mountain Jewish communities – such as Buinaki (which is not Buynaksk and was possibly a neighbourhood or outlying village of Makhachkala now swallowed up by the city) – has not yet been established.

The Mountain Jewish population of Dagestan, like that of Azerbaijan, is now much reduced, by emigration within Russia and beyond to Israel and North America.

 

The Mountain Jews of Azerbaijan

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This Google Map is entitled The Mountain Jews of Azerbaijan but shows the distribution of both the true Caucasian Mountain Jewish settlements and, additionally, those of other Jewish communities in the country – Ashkenazi in Baku and the Russian Orthodox to Jewish convert sects known as the Gerim and Subbotniki.

Formerly there were many Mountain Jewish (Juhurim) mountain villages or auls but most of these have now been abandoned. A few of these have been identified and are plotted on the map. Note that a pin does not necessarily imply an extant surviving Jewish community. Indeed, the approximate location of the long-abandoned historic settlement of Kulgat is shown (to the WSW of Quba, between the villages of Küpçal and Qaladüz). Kulgat has been included because some accounts on the internet either imply it still exists or assert that it is merely an earlier name for the apparently still entirely Jewish town of Qirmizi Qasaba (Krasnaya Sloboda) across the river from Quba. In fact, Kulgat was the precursor of the town, and Sloboda was founded and populated by Jews who had abandoned Kulgat in the mid-C18th; there is, or was, a neighbourhood named after it.

There are various references to Karchag as a Mountain Jewish village in the vicinity of Quba in Azerbaijan. In fact, Karchag is over the (modern) border in Dagestan, Russia.

The location of some known Mountain Jewish communities – such as Chipkent and Devit – has not yet been established.

The Mountain Jewish population of Azerbaijan is much reduced, mostly by emigration. As well as movement from the traditional mountain auls and towns to the cities of Baku and Quba, there has been an international migration to Israel, of course, but also to Canada and USA.

 

Armenians in Egypt

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The Google Map plots the main Armenian communities in Egypt. The two previous blog posts have looked at the cities of Alexandria and Cairo, giving extracts of Armenian names from a French-language directory of 1930.

For completeness, a list of Armenian businesses in Mansoura, Port Said, Suez and Zagazig – the other cities of Egypt included in the 1930 trade directory – is given below.

The list includes some of the big Armenian cigarette companies in Egypt. These firms were all family-run and Armenian-managed but employed mostly local Egyptian labour. They tended to differ from the international and Greek cigarette manufacturers by focusing, initially at least, on inexpensive non-luxury cigarettes and tobacco for the domestic market within Egypt and Sudan. In declining order of significance, the Armenian cigarette manufacturers in Egypt were as follows:

1. Matossian. Separate businesses were set up by brothers Hovhannes in Alexandria in 1882 and Garabed in Cairo in 1886. They went into partnership in 1896 and were incorporated in 1899. Later, factories were opened in Giza and Zagazig. Subsequently, the controlling brothers Jacques, Joseph and Victor Matossian merged the company with British American Tobacco in 1927 but continued to operate as before. 3,000 employees circa 1930.

2. Melkonian. This company started in retail but moved into wholesale and manufacturing. The Melkonian brothers’ earliest factories were in Zagazig (circa 1883/84) and Faiyum (1888); later, factories opened in Alexandria, Aswan and Cairo. Producer of the Maden brand.

3. Gamsaragan. This was another family firm set up by brothers, which continued to operate under its own name (as Yervant Gamsaragan & Co) despite acquisition by British American Tobacco. Producer of the Abu-Najma and Delta brands. 1,300 employees circa 1930.

4. Ipekian. The founder Kevork Ipekian’s business was acquired by Maspero Brothers in 1924 but continued to operate under its own name.

Armenian businesses in Mansoura, Port Said, Suez and Zagazig in 1930:

Avatis, M, rue Colmar, Suez, bookseller & stationer
Daggian, Joseph, Chantecler Cinema, rue Abbas, Suez, cinema
Dajian, Joseph, rue Abbas, Suez, hosiery
Dayan, Isaac Kh., PO Box 54, Mansoura, manufacturer
Djebedjian, brothers, rue Ismail, Mansoura, cigarette manufacturers
Djerahian, V, Suez, agent for A I Mantacheff & Co, petroleum
Djerahian, Vahe, rue Mohafz, Suez, sales representative
Gamsaragan, A, Suez, cigarette manufacturer
Gamsaragan, A, rue Abbas, Zagazig, cigarette manufacturer
Hagop, J, rue Colmar, Suez, dentist
Ipekian, Kevork, rue Memphis 3, Port Said, cigarette manufacturer
Isajjian, Joseph, rue Abbas, Suez, confection
Matossian, -, Société Anonyme des Tabacs & Cigarettes, rue Colmar, Suez, tobacco manufacturer
Matossian, -, Société Anonyme des Tabacs & Cigarettes, rue el-Montazah, Zagazig, tobacco manufacturer
Melkonian, K & G, rue Abbas, Zagazig, tobacco manufacturers
Mihranian, Hagop, Suez, dentist
Ourphalian, Rupin, rue de la Moudirieh 4, Zagazig, oculist
Papasian & Co., rue Eugenie, Port Said, gramophones, pianos & musical instruments
Partoghian, Minas, rue Mahkama Kadima, Zagazig, doctor, genito-urinary & venereal specialist
Paschayan, V G, rue Babel, Port Said, butter merchant
Sandalian, O, Zagazig, agent for A I Mantacheff & Co, mineral oils & petroleum
Sarkis, -, rue du Tribunal Mixte, Mansoura, printer