Shah-Senger

Cities of Khazaria. Kromos Estatium
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     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.
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Shah-Senger **
     It was a city that was founded on the site of cimmerian settlements characteristic of Transcaucasia in the 8th century BC. Archaeologists place the remains of the city on the site of a settlement they discovered three kilometers from the current village of Druzhba near Bashlykent in Dagestan.
     Here, on the Kumyk platform, which is characterized by a more even flat-foothill climate, the remains of the cimmerians penetrate in the 7th century BC, where they mix with the scythians, and then with the sarmatian-alanian tribes of aryan origin.
     The indo-iranian lexical basis of this mixture of tribes is reflected in toponymy, and in hydronymics, and in the designation of the most ancient cults of the cimmerians, scythians, sarmatians, alans, and numerous local branches of the mountain tribes of the caucasian type. Hence linguists derive the name of the city, which in russian translation can mean the Shah's tent, apparently in memory of the fact that the shahs stayed here, which is confirmed by local legends.
     Starting from the 2nd century to the New Faith, caravans of the Great Silk Road began to move along the territory of the Tersk-Sulak interfluve, which initiated the creation of many fortified points where traders could stop and rest. For the next 7 centuries, the safety of traffic along this ancient trade and military road was ensured by the persian shahs.
     Persians, byzantines and arabs authors of historical chronicles noted many fortresses and cities built by the persians along the entire route of caravans along the Kumyk plain. The most meticulous in arithmetic persian court writers counted up to 360 cities, which were founded here by Shahinshahs Anushirvan and Kavad.
     According to a persian legend, the Shahinshahs, while inspecting their possessions, stopped every day for a year in the city where there was a castle and fortress walls. Hence the number of cities.
     These cities were supposed to prevent the movement of northern nomadic non-aryan tribes of turkic origin towards Transcaucasia through the Chora Gate, which began in the 4th century after the birth of Christ, what violated the possibilities of control of the northern tribes over the Kumyk caravan route.
     The first buildings that could be attributed to the architectural culture of the urban type appear on the territory of Shah-senger in the 5th century of the New Faith. A fortress appears here with a small permanent military garrison of local highlanders and herders.
     Very quickly, a settlement of artisans appeared at the fortress, who were engaged in repairing weapons, making jewelry, clothing, and so on, which was necessary for the functioning of customs and to meet the needs of trade caravans and military convoys passing by the city.
     The fortress was small, no more than half a hectare in area, but the territory of the city's posad at different times ranged from 10 to 30 hectares.
     At the end of the 6th century, savirs and bulgars, tribes of the Kingdom of the huns, began to arrive here, which harmoniously fit into the socio-cultural landscape of the cities of the Kumyk platform. With their appearance, the local population has more opportunities to conduct trade, intermediary and military activities. A military garrison was in need of good weapons and hardy steeds. All this was supplied by the local population, already of mixed turkic-aryan origin, who jointly mastered the production of weapons and horse breeding.
     Beyond the trade and handicraft settlement, villages appear, the population of which is moving from cattle breeding to animal husbandry, and a wide variety of agricultural crops are developing here. Wheat, barley, millet, oats, and rice are grown here. Cotton and silk grew in some areas, the cultivation of which was undoubtedly borrowed from the merchants of the Silk Road caravans.
     At the end of the 7th century, with the arrival of the khazars, the local population was attracted to participate in military campaigns in the North Caucasus, the Don steppes and Transcaucasia. As a result, the bowels of the khazar multitribe by the 8th century formed the Kumyk tribal core on the basis of the autochthonous population of local highlanders with the alien hunno-savir substratum.
     Starting from the khazar era, the city consisted of a single system of fortresses and cities that provided security for the movement of caravans from Central Asia, as well as on the territory of Khazaria and on the Kumyk plain. For the Khazaria, these cities solved military-strategic tasks that allowed them to annually take part in the centuries-old hunnic-khazar expansion in the Transcaucasus, where the Kaganate acted together with Byzantium against Persia.
     Participation in military, commercial and diplomatic campaigns for several centuries developed in the kumyk-dargino-laks family environment a culture of squad host, which was passed down from generation to generation, when children participated in their fathers military training camps from childhood.
     At the same time, the kumyks brought many socio-cultural innovations of the northern slavs, Rus, and turan tribes to the mountain environment, which allowed them to stand out among the mountain peoples.
     New customs were introduced to agriculture, animal husbandry, housing construction technology, everyday life, heroic legends, and clothing, where traditional mountain clothing is supplemented with elements of Asian-European dress.
     Local folklore absorbs these innovations and for many centuries creates a special ethical and moral basis, which is distinguished by reasonableness, readiness for long campaigns, observation, strict concepts of honor, loyalty to the word, love for their land, willingness to help, philosophical mentality, ability to indulge in fun during folk festivals. It was the diversity of socio-cultural qualities that always caused the respect of the local mountain tribes for the customs of the kumyks..
     The city, apparently, successfully survived the Golden Hord age, having a rich experience of assimilation of alien peoples. However, the arrival of the Russian Imperium stopped its development, as the tracing of the Great Silk Road was interrupted. Gradually, people move to new cities, the city Shah-Senger is depopulated, and the local population has divided the fortress into local farmsteads. Only mounds and the skeleton of the Citadel remained of the fortress.
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