Avabi Muhammad Aktashi Al Andiravi

Avabi Muhammad Aktashi al-Andiravi , was born in the middle of the XVI century in the Kumyk village of Andirei . Kumyk scientist historian , chronicler , author of Derbend-name . He died in the middle of the XVII century . ^[1] .

The identity of Muhammad Avabi Aktashi is little known. Information about him is almost exhausted by what he himself reports in the preface to Derbend-name. Speaking about the identity of Muhammad Avabi Aktashi, V.F. Minorsky notes his sympathies, which make it possible to talk about his social affiliation.

Avabi al Andiravi continued and developed the traditions of the Kumyk (Turkic) annals ; at the suggestion of Chopan-Bek, one of the Shamkhal's offspring, Avabi, having studied and summarized all the medieval Muslim sources accessible to him, created an original historical work known as “Derbend-name”, known in oriental literature under the traditional name of the Rumyantsev list. ^[2] . The manuscript was written in the Azerbaijani language ^{[3] [4]} in the years 1815-1816 ^[5] and contains 22 pages. The greatest contribution to the study of the monument in Russian historiography is made by the works of A.K. Kazembek , V.V. Bartold , Dagestan researchers M.S. Saidov and A.R. Shikhsaidov, the latest discoveries of G.M. Orazayev .

The attribution problem of Derbend-name was of interest to almost all scholars of the composition since the beginning of the 18th century. Most of them are inclined to the idea that the “Derbend-name” came from the pen of Muhammad Avabi from Andyré, located on the river. Aktash. This was written back in 1727 by G.Z. Bayer in his treatise " On the Caucasus Wall " and G. Yu. Klaprot in 1829 . M. Alikhanov-Avarsky confirms the information of Bayer and Klaproth regarding the author of Derbend-name, based on another, independent source. In a letter he received from Derbent from General B.A. Arablinsky , it was stated that, according to the Derbent scholars of the mullahs, "Derbend-name" was composed by a resident of the village, Andyrah Muhammad Avabi.

The Rumyantsev list is especially valuable in that it contains the preface of the author-compiler, where his name and other data important for solving the problem of attribution to “Derbend-name” are communicated. VV Bartold highly appreciated this list. In the article "On the question of the origin of Derbend-name," he writes: “The Rumyantsev list finally established that the author’s name was Muhammad Avabi Aktashi .. and not Akrasi or Akrashi, as Kantemir (Bayer and Bayer and originally Klaprot wrote. Correct) the reading (Ak-thachi) is in the work of Klaproth, published in 1829 in the Journal asiatique ; Klaproth knew that Aktash was the name of the river on which the city of New Endery (in the Terek region), where Muhammad Awabi lived, was more important ... More important that the book was not composed for the conqueror Giray Khan (in D.Kantemira Gieraj Charms), which saw Khan of the Crimean and local khan Choban-Bey, the son of Shamkhal , a descendant of the deceased Giray Khan, too, belonged to the rulers of Dagestan. "

Thus, VV Bartold considers it “very probable” that the work of Muhammad Avabi Aktashi was written on behalf of the local Dagestan prince Chupan-bek in the 17th century. ^[6] .