Tabasarans

What is known about former beliefs. They are reconstructed from folklore, rituals and cult sites recorded considerably later. This is a scholarly reconstruction, not an unchanged description of a single ancient religion. Land, harvest and natural forces. Agrarian ritual included actions connected with the beginning of ploughing, rain, the sun and fertility. Practices differed between villages and changed with the economy. The sun and the spring festival. In materials about the Tabasarans, Ebeltsan, the festival of the beginning of spring, and ritual baked goods are recorded. The solar interpretation of individual forms of food is a scholarly interpretation. Christianity in regional history. The early medieval Eastern Caucasus knew Christian centres and local cults. This general context does not allow one to assert that all the ancestors of the Tabasarans professed one religion or changed it at the same time. The first stages of the spread of Islam. The Arab campaigns, control of the Derbent pass and subsequent ties with Muslim centres created conditions for the spread of the new faith. Military subjugation, the conversion of rulers and changes in everyday religious life occurred at different times. Why a single year cannot be named. R. I. Seferbekov cites A. R. Shikhsaidov's periodization: the beginning of the 8th to the middle of the 10th century as the initial stage; the middle of the 10th to the 14th century as the time when Islam became established while local cults persisted. This is a scholarly scheme, not a calendar of the conversion of each village. Abu Muslim and historical memory. In the copies of "Derbend-name", preaching and the organization of power are linked with the figure of Abu Muslim. The surviving texts were copied considerably later than the events they describe; their accounts must be compared with other evidence. The role of local society. The rooting of Islam continued through mosques, education and local religiovarious authorities. Folk traditions about missionaries and saints reflect the memory of communities, but do not always allow a biography and exact date to be established. Reinterpretation of sacred places. Seferbekov examines "festival stones" and open places of prayer. He considers them as an example of the transformation of former sanctuaries. The proposed functions and ancient datings of the monuments remain interpretations of researchers. Muslim tradition. Sunni Islam has historically been characteristic of the Tabasarans. A description of a people's tradition does not determine the beliefs of each individual person and does not imply complete uniformity of religious practice. Veneration of saints. Field materials from the Khiv and Tabasaran districts record visits to venerated graves and stories about their protectors. Attitudes toward such practices differ within the Muslim milieu; an ethnographic description does not replace a theological judgment. Preservation of old rites. A 2020 work describes an agricultural ritual that was preserved until the 1960s. The combination of local actions with Muslim prayers shows the complexity of religious life, rather than the existence of two completely isolated worlds. The Soviet era. Anti-religious policy restricted public institutions, yet some knowledge and customs were passed on within families. Evidence about a specific rite cannot automatically be extended to all inhabitants and the entire Soviet period. After 1991. The revival of open religious life in Dagestan was accompanied by the restoration of education, mosques and new disputes about authority and norm. Contemporary changes should be distinguished from the medieval process of the adoption of Islam.