Karagashi

The origin of the Karagash is associated with the Little Nogai Horde (Kaziev ulus), which in the middle of the XVI century separated from the other Nogais of the Volga and the Urals and moved to the North Caucasus . According to the legends, the Karagashy wandered around the area of ​​modern Pyatigorsk (Beshtau). In the 1720-1740s. together with other Nogais of the Little Nogai Horde were subordinated to the Kalmyks and were resettled by Khan Donduk-Ombo in 1740 from Kuban to the lower reaches of the Volga ^[4] until the end of the XVIII century. roamed within the Kalmyk Khanate . In 1771, after the liquidation of the Kalmyk Khanate, they were left in the Krasnoyarsk district of the Astrakhan province, in official documents referred to as the Kundra Tatars . In 1788, two villages of Karagash were formed - Seitovka and Khodzhetaevka , in the 2nd floor. XIX century. - other settlements on the left bank of the Volga , in the beginning. XX century. - in the vicinity of Astrakhan.

They were divided into clans and 4 tribes (cube): Naiman , Al , Mangyt, and Tobetpes , who separated from Naimans. Each clan was governed by a council of elders (maslagat), had its own mosque and a place in the cemetery, tamga and battle cry. Separate clans in the Karagash composition formed the Mangyshlak Turkmen ( Turkpen ) and Kazan Tatars who roamed with the Karagash, at the end of the XVIII - beginning of the XIX centuries. served in the army, then left her, who lived in the Kazakh Bukeyev Horde and in the 2nd floor. XIX century. attributed to the Karagash society ( kalpak ). Some Karagash groups, closely connected with the Kazakhs of the Bukeev Horde, experienced the influence of the Kazakh language and culture, in the 2nd quarter - the middle of the XIXth century. moved to the khan rate in Urdu (in the modern Atyrau region in Kazakhstan ).

Within the framework of the policy of unification of small peoples, Karagashi was recorded in the censuses since 1926 as “Tatars” ^[5] , teaching in schools, as before the revolution, was taught in the Tatar language. Since 1964 - in Russian. Since the late 1980s, Karagash has been in the process of reviving self-awareness and Nogai culture, and close contacts have been established with the Nogai people of the North Caucasus. In the 1990s. Schools introduced the teaching of the Nogai language and literature. In 1991, the Birlik Nogai Culture Society was established in Astrakhan, and the Edige Youth Center of the Nogai Culture Nogai Culture was established in 2003. Annual inter-regional “Janibek readings”, Days of Nogai culture are held, song and dance groups are created.

At the same time, there is a close connection with the Tatar cultural area, especially in urban areas, that is, we can talk not about changing, but about expanding the cultural field of karagash. As one of the consequences of the connection with the Tatar world, the reverse influence of the Nogai language and culture on the language and culture of the Tatars of Astrakhan and the Astrakhan Region can be noted. Marriages between Karagash and Tatars are not perceived as mixed both within the Karagash community, and among the Tatars and surrounding peoples. At the same time, in some places (p. Small Aral), intensive mutual assimilation processes with the Kazakh population are observed.

One of the problems of modern Karagash was the development of a gas field in the area of ​​their compact residence, which created the need for their relocation from the sanitary protection zone and, as a consequence, accelerated assimilation.

Compactly reside in the Krasnoyarsk district , the village of Lapas in the Kharabalinsky district , the village of Rastopulovka in the Privolzhsky district, and the suburban settlements of Astrakhan — Kiri-Kili , Svobodny , Yango-Aul, and the md. Babaevsky.

The main traditional occupation is semi-nomadic cattle breeding . From the end. XIX century began to move to the vegetable, from the beginning. XX century. - to fishing. With collectivization con. 1920 - early. 1930s Karagashi are forcibly transferred to settled life, fishing becomes the main occupation. The art of making tuffs ( minders ) with a silk cover with appliqué ( hag teal ) is preserved. Until the 1970s They made woolen carpets ( kiyiz ). Kalmyk influence can be traced in the type of collapsible yurt ( karash uy ).

Clothing

Characterized by: men's headdress-papach-Kubanka, women's headdress mezbek and beaver cap. Girls until the 1930s wore an earring in the right nostril ( alka ). The bride wore a conical headdress ( saukele ) and a blanket ( battle tastar ) that hid the figure. Elements of Tatar clothing (for example, women's painted shoes or men's skullcaps ), Uzbek robes and fabrics for women's clothing were distributed.

Kitchen

Nogai dishes are preserved:

• finely chopped slices of boiled dough with meat ( turamsha );
• stewed entrails with potatoes ( tumblers );
• salted cheese ( pslak );
• salty cottage cheese, sun-dried ( kyrt );
• millet or rice porridge on milk ( kuzhe );
• pieces of boiled dough, dressed with sour milk ( salma );
• fried dough slices ( bavyrsak );
• cakes with curly edges ( Kyzdarmysh );
• bread baked between two pans in ash ( kalakai )
• sweet pie of semicircular shape and scalloped seam with jam , dried apricot or raisin ( May Burek ).

Drinks use tea with milk, tea brewed with milk (leg-shay, kara-shay) sour milk ( ak ), in the past - koumiss from mare and shuvat from camel milk.

Wedding customs

For the wedding ceremony (toy), the customs of dating the parents of the bride and groom ( (isyk) esik ashar ) are characteristic ; bringing gifts from the groom ( code-Tuser-that ); slaughtering cattle for a wedding ( that small soynar ); a feast on the side of the bride ( kyz yakinda that ) and the groom ( icons of that , that is, the big one ); competition ( jin ) of men performed by the epic and verse greetings; treating the bride and her relatives relatives and friends of the bridegroom tea ( Kelin Shai ), etc.

Musical culture

Epic and everyday songs ( jyr, yyr, ozin nogay jyr ) are performed by men (unaccompanied). Famous singers - Kurban-Gazi from Kermenchik and Mambet Kirkuyli (late XIX - early XX centuries), Abdulla Shamukov (1911-91) from p. La Paz . In the XX century. elements of Tatar song and dance folklore were borrowed.

Musical instruments - harmonica ( saz , formerly called kobyz ) and tambourine ( kabal ); to con 1990s The dombra tradition remained.

Faith in mythical creatures ( albasly , jalmauza, bir-tans, su-anasy, etc.) remained. The worship of the Sufi aulia (burial place) Seit Baba Khodzhetily at the cemetery near the village is spread. Small Aral Krasnoyarsk district. It is a pagan, non-Islamic practice based on pre-Islamic beliefs.

Prominent enlightenment and government leaders came out of Karagash:

• A.I. Umerov (Gumari) (1866-1933) - a religious leader, a preacher of the ideas of Jadidism in the Astrakhan Territory;
• OH. S. Dzhanibekov (1879-1955), who collected folklore and ethnography of the Nogai, who participated in the creation of modern Nogai writing;
• R. M. Dosmukhamedov (b. 1966) - Trade Representative of the Russian Federation in the United States of America, former Deputy Minister of Taxes and Duties of the Russian Federation

• Viktorin V.M. To the ethnic history of Karagash // Volga Region. Interuniversity scientific collection. Issues of socio-economic development and social movement in the province. Saratov, 1983. Vol. eight.
• Nebolsin P.I. Kundrovskie Tatars // Sketches of the Volga Lower reaches. Journal of the Ministry of the Interior. SPb., 1852.Ch.39. No. 7-9.
• Pyatnitsky V. Karagachi (based on the materials of the trip in 1927) // Geography. Geographical Journal. D.N. Anuchina. V. 32. Vol. 3-4. M., 1930.

• Problems of preservation of the national language in the conditions of modern society on the example of the Nogai Karagash of the Astrakhan region (article on the website "Turkological publications")
• "Peoples of Russia": Karagashi Nogais (transcript of the program Radio Russia)
• Who are karagashi? (Tatar forum topic)
• Nogai Karagashi (video of the TV channel Astrakhan24)