Magal

Magal (or mahal ) is a small administrative unit in the countries of the Muslim East , in the Middle Ages and the New Age .

Magal consisted of several villages and their districts, for political, historical, ethnographic or topographical reasons, having common interests, or given by the rulers as hereditary or flax ownership to small feudal lords. Magals themselves, depending on the region and countries, could also be divided into even smaller administrative units. The rulers of the Muggals were called Meliks or Beks . In the Safavid state, many Muggals were divided into Nahiyeh (a district of several villages), headed by the Beks; Nahiyeh themselves were divided into separate kendas (villages, headed by kendhuda - the village headman, whose main occupation was farming) and both (mainly nomads, allocated to nomadic tribes, headed by Naibs or Yuzbashi - centurions).

In South Dagestan in the 19th century and earlier, Magal corresponded to the Russian volost . Magal consisted of several villages, for historical, ethnographic or topographical reasons, which had common interests. One of the villages was considered the main one, and his superiors, naib, were asked to solve various public affairs. Parts of large villages, in particular, the city of Derbent , were also called Magal. In every mahal there was a mosque , and in this sense this word meant “coming” ^[1] .