Kumukh in Dagestan

Cities of Khazaria. Kromos Estatium
======================
     The khazar cities here include not only those cities that were built by the khazar architects, but also those that were built before the arrival of the khazars, were used by the khazars for their needs and tasks for a long time.
=======================

Kumukh in Dagestan **
     Also sometimes Gumic. Also Kafir-Kumuk among the arabs.
     According to legends, the city was located in the area of Tashly-bet, not far from the first settlement of Kumuk, near the current village of Kafir-Kumukh.
     Historians look for the naming of the city in both its variants Kumukh and Gumik in the turkic-savir tribal history, in which historians know the family name Kumyk-Atykuz. Although local researchers dispute this version, believing that this name was present in the name of the Kumyk plain long before the arrival of the turks, even in the time of the scythians in the 5th century before Christ. The truth, as always, is in the middle.
     This city is associated with the first settlement of Kumuk near the village of Kumukh, which is located much to the south of Makhachkala in mountainous Dagestan, part of the Kumyk plain. The city belonged to the historical area of Gental, known for its good cherry orchards.
     The city was built in the 4th century, when the Kingdom of the huns ruled here. The savirs who came here sought to control the ancient road through the Kumyk plain, where one of the branches of the Great Silk Road passed.
     In the 6th century, the savirs came under pressure from the Sassanid persian Empire and were forced to abandon their fortress, establishing a new settlement higher up in the mountains, inaccessible to the persians. They named their settlement, as well as the lower one, Kumukh, which became the center of their Kingdom Serir. And the former city, also with a fortress, was more often called Gumik in history, referring to the country or Principality of Gumik, as in Masudi.
     The city had a small military garrison that accompanied trade caravans moving from Central Asia towards the Don, then across the sea of Azov to the Black sea and the Dnieper.
     The city was surrounded by blooming gardens, its inhabitants did not know what to do with their happiness, there was so much of it. The history of the city passed from the era of the Kingdom of the huns to the era of the Khazar Khaganate and then during the Golden Horde, while often changing their names, but the old-timers always called it Kumukh.
     During the period of the Khazar Khaganate's rule in the North Caucasus, the Serir country and their military and political center Kumukh, were allied with the khazars, since the savirs remained a blood-related people with the khazars.
     With the beginning of the arab-khazar wars, the city refused to submit to the arabs and waged a guerrilla war against them, taking advantage of its distance from the military communications of the arabs. According to legend, the inhabitants of the city fiercely resisted the arab hordes, for which their city was nicknamed «Kafir-Kumukh». The arabs tried to put their rulers in the city, among whom history has preserved the name of Shah Bal.
     Despite the resistance to arab rule, the local population, who called themselves laks, gradually became islamized. Here, in the second half of the 8th century, one of the first mosques in the North Caucasus appeared, called the Kumykh Juma mosque.
     Masudi, an arabic author who wrote in the 10th century, called the city of Kumukh the capital of the Principality of Gumik.
     Al-Kufi, also a 10th-century arabic author, wrote that the city has an Amik fortress and attributed it to the Principality of Gumik, or to the city of Gumik.
     Ibn Ruste referred to this city as Alal Gumik.
     Derbent-Name refers to this city as Kumuk.
     In the 11th century, the city, according to local legends, was called the capital of the area under the name Gumik, as well as Kumuk. At the same time, these names were used to refer to a certain state.
     The city was fully islamized only by the end of the 11th century. Until this time, arabic sources called the inhabitants of Gumik infidels, which can be understood as their adherence to paganism or christianity.
     In the 14th century the city became a possession of the shamchals, their residence became a centre of muslims in southern Dagestan, having obtained the title of Gazi-Kumukh. The city was also one of the major slave trading centers.
     From the very beginning of its Foundation, there was an active trade in local products in Kumykh, annual fairs were held here, and there was a bazaar in the center of the fortress. Artisans of the city produced pottery, ceramics, various weapons, which used the technology of the ancient lords of this city, both persians and huns, khazars, hords, and so their own mountain technologies.
     In 1394, Tamerlane invaded the Kumyk plain and destroyed almost all the cities and fortresses along the Great Silk Road in order to deprive the Golden Horde, ruled by chingizid Tokhtamysh, of economic support.
     Since that time Kumyk ceases to appear in historical literature with the prefix «city». Now it was called an aul or village, with the prefix «ancient».
     From the city remained the foundations of the fortress walls, part of the defensive rampart, several foundations of dwellings made of ragged stone.
     At the beginning of the 19th century, the village of Kumykh, along with the surrounding area, came under the political control of the Russian Empire and received the name Kazi-Kumyk.
     Baron P. Uslar, one of the founders of the history of Dagestan named Kumukh according to local old-timers as Gumuk, where lived laks, the first of the peoples of the Kumyk plain converted to islam, why their main city Kumikh received the prefix Gaza, that is, fighting for the faith.
+++++++++++++++